DesertBull

It's not the G&F that is cutting their budget. It's the Legislature that won't cut spending that wants to raid the G&F coffers. Even that is not the worst of it. If $1 of the G&F money from license sales goes to the general fund, the G&F loses $18M in matching Federal funds. That's moeny that you and I paid in the form of taxes on sporting goods. A tax that we, as sportmen and women ASKED for in order to improve habitat, build shooting facilities, etc. It's robbery and in some sense, taxation without representation.

I agree. I think the tag fee for premium hunts should be about $4000. That will REALLY weed out the ones that aren't serious... LOL!, can apply on your app?

If they take $1 from the G&F budget, they lose $18M in federal matching funds. How much brain power does it take to know that is a bad decision? On a side note, who can see the irony in the G&F asking for our help when it comes to them losing a boat load of money, but didn't want to hear from us when we told them we prefer them not to issue more deer tags? They even asked Amanda to post it on her website, but they didn't want anything to do with the survey that she and the ADA put together on deer herd managment.

We have to go through this crap because the majority of our state's populace are condo-dwellers in Scottsdale who don't give a rat's butt about hunting, or even going outside for that matter (unless it's to a golf course). If you follow the links in the article, it's very easy to track down a phone number and e-mail address for your district's legislator. We don't mind listening to you vent, but it'll be more productive if you direct it to them. Rebecca Rios of district 23 just got a page and a half long letter from me. I sent my responses to the appropriate people BEFORE posting that rant.

Why do we have to go through this friggin crap every friggin year? If it's not the G&F budget, it's the Heritage Fund. How about stop paying for criminal tresspassers health care, education, and ESL classes?

I think we all know how these survey companies work. When you hire them they ask you what you want the results to convey.

AMEN! The Department works for us (in theory). We can change things if we can get organized. To just sit there and say, "well, we can't do anything about it" is defeatist.

IMO, they need to go to a system with waiting periods after drawing a tag and limit the number of applications each hunter can submit. That way you can still keep some quality hunts, but shuffle more people though. They would just have to decide what they REALLY want to hunt. Also, it's time to move rifle Antelope to the once in a life time status. Odds of drawing a tag are getting into the sheep level now. Example: Apply for only one from each group - Rifle Antelope, Sheep, Buffalo (once in a lifetime) Kaibab/Strip deer, December Coues Deer, Bull Elk (3 year waiting period) All other deer, late bull elk, cow elk (one year waiting period) Again, this is just a a quick example, not something that was thought out.

ya I know what you mean. those questions were kinda chicken sh!t and that was the outcome. ask for an inch take a mile. We can hunt elk every year if we want. If it is just a hunting experience someone wants, they can draw a cow tag almost every time and it's a fun hunt and they are held at a great time of year to be in the high country with your family. If you want to hunt deer, you can draw an oct/nov tag almost every year, as it is now. IMO, higher tag fees is more detrimental to hunter retention than not being drawn for a year or two. When a cow tag is $120 and you have 2-3 kids that want to hunt, that gets hard on the average family. Anyway, the only way to change the direction the department is heading is to elect a new Gov and get rid of the greenies / bean counters on the commision.

Here come the November archery elk tags, watch and see.

Sweet! Don't they give you a lion tag with your deer tag?

I wish for the fleas from Saddam's camel to infest your private areas.

Has anyone tried to apply for NM yet? I tried this morning. Antelope app went fine. However, when applying for deer hunts, some of the hunts I wanted to apply for were not included on the drop down list of hunt #'s Unit 2C mule deer, hunt # DER-1-110 Unit 17 Elk ML'er, hunt # ELK-3-277 Unit 16E Elk ML'er, hunt # ELK-3-268 Anyone else have trouble?

30 yards from a 180 Muley? You failed the test, my friend. God was giving you a gift.

Did you see that the Mexican Gov't is now considering giving GPS locators to would be border crossers? http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...ps.2010e07.html

That's cool! What was attracting the bears to this spot? Water, acorns?,

How confident are you that you get the same meat back from the processor as what you brought in? The steaks, roasts, chops, etc are probably your own meat, but what things like burger and sausages? Do you think the processors "batch" process those items and just give you back a mixture of several different animals? Ther reason I ask is, I recently took a wild hog in for processing and ordered 10 lbs of sausage. The cuts I got back were legit wild hog. You can tell the difference from regular pork just by looking at it. The sausage however looks just like regular pork sausage. The meat in the sausage is very lite colored like commercial pork, where as wild hog meat is very red, almost like beef. I was just curious as to what others opinions on this is. I have a call into the processor, but they have not returned it yet.

Why do you call it "whiskey buck"? Did you need a couple of shots of Jack to calm your nerves after finding these ?

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/archery_hunt..._hunters_17.htm

2 problems with that. 1) I gave them WILD meat, they gave me back farm raised. 2) You have no idea the condition of the meat that is being mixed in with yours. This processor is in Queen Creek. There is no "problem" with the meat, per se, it's just not mine.

1. If you put it on a water hole that is even slightly accessible, expect it to be gone when you go back to retrieve it. 2. Point it down the trail, not perpendicular. 3. Use good batteries, not the cheap ones.

Congrats, that's awesome. We glassed up a bunch of em yesterday, but just could get it to work out. Was at full draw for a full minute or more but little piggie didn't want to show me his ribs. I love bowhunting Javelina.

The title of this thread is hilarious.

I was in a northern unit last weekend and found some carp bucks herding up does. Was in Unit 33 yesterday and found many many carp does, but no bucks. Funny, because I was in unit 9 in mid November and saw a nice buck chasing does.

HAHA!!! That's awesome!