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anybody who thinks there isn't as much "sport" in running a bear with houds, has never done it. the hardest work i've done is trying to put a big mean bear up a tree. you can putt around with dogs on a box and try to wind youngsters from the road, and might occassionally cross a big bear track, but probably wont' catch it. you can do the same after a fresh snow for lions and be quite successfull. if you wanna see how tough you are, get on a horse, or on foot is you're really tough, in rough country and try to tree a big bear. they can cover more rough country faster than you can imagine. and a mean one will just lay up and rest and wait for the dogs to catch up so he can whip the heck out of em and run some more. don't ever cut houndin' a bear short. sometimes you can tree one quite easy, but seldom. most of the time you're in for a race like you've never seen, and plan on doctoring dogs. Lark.

a real good taxiedermist i know of says to put em in the freezer for a year. just in the freezer. don't wrap em in anything. he said worked better than any of the tanning processes. Lark.

nobody cuts game right. deer, elk and pronghorn need to be thin for my liking. so we cut our own. i worked as butcher as a kid and know how. we have a really big grinder and a tenderizer. with these new plastic tubes for hamburger, it ain't much trouble. you can take big ol' tough round steaks of an ole buck or bull and run em throught the tenderiser and make a heck of a good steak out of em. Rusty's in springerville does a good job and takes a lot of care with it. i've taken em to southwest out in QC and they do real good too. but nobody takes the time to cot the steaks thin enough. anymore we do the vaccuum pack foodsaver deal instead of paper to wrap it too. stacks up nice and keeps real well. it doesn't take long to make up the price of the grinder either. ain't elk 60 cents a pound now? i know i wouldn't cut them dirty shot up things for less. Lark.

read in the paper today that Doc Hamman died. he was a chiropractor in safford for years. for many years he had the world record typical archery coues buck. musta killed it in the 50's or early 60's. the rack hung in the old western auto store forever. when i was a kid i used to always go in there just to look at it. it was a big 4x4 + eyegurads. seems like it was 110-ish. a guy named Kouts had the world record typical b&c coues for many years in safford too. used to always find an excuse to go in his cabinet shop to look at it. anyway, another ol' whitetail hunter is down. Lark.

somehow you were holding it different. something was touching the barrel or it could have been just from unsecured recoil. or you may flinch a little different in the different positions. when you have one on a bench in a rest, it is usually quite secure, especially if it is strapped into the rest. the weight of the rest can affect the recoil pattern, which will affect where it hits. best thing is to get the gun deadnut zero'd on a solid rest on a bench and learn how to get the same results from different positions. unless there is pressure on the barrel, a different rest will not affect the zero of the rifle. it might affect how you shoot it and where you hit with it, but it won't have any affect on the correlation between the scope and the barrel and how it is sighted in. i can tell by reading your stuff that you shoot a lot and know what you're doing. but it sounds like it's just the difference in how the different rests affect you. Lark.

i'm still afraid that sometime in pig season i'll be drivin' down the road and there will be poor bullwidgeon hangin' in somebodies camp..........i like how when folks shoot a little bear they always have a big story about how it almost got em. "it was him or me"!!! poor bears. Lark.

hey i know that little troublemaker. that's shame rotten.......Lark.

there's a lot more to it than putting powder and bullets in a case. the advantage of reloading is getting a load that really works well in your rifle. we've used different variations of 4831 with real good success in the .264. my current preference is h4831sc hodgdon. i like 100 gr bullets, my son likes 125's. just having someone reload some ammo for you may or may not be advatagious. you really need the rifle there in order to get the overall length just right. all reloading manuals have enough info to help a guy get started. but again, to me, the most critical part is getting the overal length correct. there is big disparity in the throat length from gun to gun and especially from gun manufacturers. Lark.

what i'm gettin' at is these guys did everything right. got their kids through the hunter's safety course, which is a real chore and takes a lotta time. got em put in and they got a tag. apparantly did enough time at the range that they hit the deer. bought em a rifle. took em huntin' and set up a nice camp and they got a deer and all was right with the world. so why not take another half an hour or so to take good care of the deer? compared to the hundreds of hours and the pile o' money they spent, skinnin' a deer ain't much to ask. i've taken care of probably 200 deer in Az. alone. never had even one of em go bad. it ain't real hard. even this time of year, a guy can fix one up just fine with no ice or anything. skin it out. maybe use a little water on it. it really takes the heat out, if you're by a garden hose you can cool one right down. hang it out at night when it's cool. take it down and put it in the coolest place you have available and cover it up with some blankets or sleeping bags or whatever you have, and repeat the process until you cut it up. and never, ever, use any plastic. clear or otherwise. plastic makes heat. doesn't matter if it's a blue tarp, garbage bags, or clear plastic. it makes heat. don't use it. if you're gonna spend all the time it takes to have a successfull hunt, then spend the few more minutes it takes to take care of your animal. Lark.

it's a proven fact that there are just as many deer during a full moon as there are at other times of the moon cycle. just hunt. deer feed when they're hungry and drink when they're thirsty. moon phases have little effect on things, folks just like to use it as an excuse. i prefer to hunt during a full moon. they seem to feed later in the morning and get up earlier in the evening. and they're still there, you just have to find em. Lark.

it's a waist of time and money. wear dark clothes and keep the wind in your favor. Lark.

dark clothes, use the shadows, keep the wind in your face. camo, any kind, is extremely overated. it doesn't matter what you wear, if a deer sees you, or smells you, you're busted. the trick is to see them before they see or smell you. nothing makes you invisible or un-smelly. Lark.

i seen a talkin' javelina once.........Lark.

hey Jimmy, thanks for givin' Bridger that goat meat. we already had 2 neck chili and some steaks. tell big Jim howdy for me. how'd you like that sendero? you coudn't o' done without my special bluestreak handloads. Lark.

my position is that the usfw and other outfits that administer the endangered species act have been caught in so many lies, coverups, distortions, half truths, evidence tampering, evidence planting, evidence removal, etc., that i don't believe ANYTHING they say. and when an animal does recover, they cry like heck trying to keep it on the list. look at alligators. they hunt a few of em but they are a literal pain in the butt now. it's a good thing too, because they were really in sad shape at one time. but they need to be managed more, but can't because of the federal crap. same with the wolves in montana, wyoming and idaho. they've done better than they ever hoped for but don't ask to manage em. hands off. bald eagles too. they've recovered remarkably the usfw fought like heck to keep em from being delisted. it takes money out of their budgets. they can't hire as many realitives to work on their little projects. the whole thing stinks. not just the condor deal. i don't see anyway that so many of these dumpster divers get away from easy feed often enough to find a gutpile that still has a bullet in it and eat it, get the bullet or bullet fragments lodged in their gizzard or wherever else, and end up with lead poisoning. why doesn't every eagle, vulture, raven, hawk, owl, coyote, etc., have lead poisoning? this whole thing is too vague and the chances of it happening time and time again are too minimal. it wouldn not surprise me one bit if it is some sort of endangered species munchhausen's syndrome crap where they are doing in order to further their cause. all it is is a long range ploy to outlaw hunting. the last thing endangered species folks want is for and endangered species to become unedangered because saving the endangered species is not the primary focus of what they do. the primary focus is to drive us off the land and to outlaw hunting. and fishing. and guns. and anything else that they find "unethical". folks can drink the koolaid if they want. not me. this should be californias problem, not ours. any time bueraucrats are involved, something stinks. Lark.

a guy sent me some photos of shame rotten's big Az. archery bull. any o' you guys seen it? my oh my whatta thug. supposed to be 430ish and i believe it. if somebody has photos they oughta ax em if it's ok to stick some on here. for trashy little hooligans, them boys have turnt into right good hunters. Lark.

apparantly, but i know a lotta guys who have lead in them, and none of them have lead poisoning. we're talking two vastly different animals, although in my case some might argue contrary. but i don't see how an animal can have a bullet in it for a few hours and get poisoned and another animal can pack one around for decades and not. and add that it is stuffed directly into the bloodstream. i think they are getting it somewhere else and want to blame it on hunter's bullets. it's too easy. it takes very little lead to cause lead poisoning. an amount much smaller than a .22 bullet spread out in a body can kill. adn from what i've read, it's lead microbes that are dangerous, not lead chunks. lead fine enough to be airborn. i don't see how i can pack around a big chunk, in my blood, and not get it, and a buzzard have a piece bounce through his intestine for a day or so, can. the whole endangered species program is bogus. there have been many successes. bald eagles, perigrin falcons, montana grizzlies, the canadien wolves in the northwestern states, the trumpeter swans to some extent. heck, the eastern whitetail deer is probably one of the most successfull stories and it was never even listed. folks saw the problem and fixed it. but when there is a success, like with the grizzlies and canadien wolves, when they are fixed up, they won't let go and let them be managed. because managed means hunted. they don't want to let go of that control. and it isn't the control of a particular species they're worried about. they don't want to lose control of the land, public and private. they don't want to lose control of the people. that's the gov't way. there have been so many lies perpetrated buy endangered species fanatics that i have no trust in them. the mexican wolf is extinct. has been for decades. and we never had very many here anyway. they were considered transients. the mexicans wiped em out and now we're trying to introduce some wolf/dog cross in country they hardly ever lived in to start with. the mexican spotted owl (does the origin country here start to ring a bell?) in the u.s. has always been considered to be transient by true scientists. but when some huggers found out there weren't very many, or were none in some places, the destroyed a lot of lives over them. even tho there never were enough of em to be more than a novelty anyway. they seem to be doing ok in mexico. but not on the kaibab. which is a little way from mexico. there isn't enough attention paid to experience and too much attention paid to theories supplied by folks with no experience for the endangered species programs to be credible. look at the guys who faked the linx studies. took hair from a mounted linx in a museum and planted it in an area with no linx, in order to further their cause. they got caught. and what happened to em? they actually got promotions and bonuses. until their is real data on this condor deal, i don't buy it. it's too easy to fake. and i suspect that may be what's going on here. Lark.

this is the first couple of paragraphs in an article in the repubic today. it has a photo of him an' everthing. i can't for life o' me see where i thougt he was a javelina. musta been the clothes. or that junky truck. Lark. AJ court throws out appeal to get chimpanzee declared a person Associated Press Sept. 27, 2007 12:41 PM Apache Junction - He's now got a human name - Brett "Bullwidgeon" Mattausch - but he's having trouble getting his day in court. Animal rights activists campaigning to get Bullwidgeon, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person vowed Thursday to take their challenge to AJ's Supreme Court after a lower court threw out their latest appeal. (how can AJ have a lower court?)

hey bullwidgeon, that ain't no miniature griz. if it was a griz, it'd be a big one. also, Frazier said it had next to no fat on it. imagine what he would look like with about 100 lbs o' bear grease on him. it's the dangdedest bear i ever seen. Lark.

might not be the best example, but i've had a piece of lead in my shoulder for about 35 years. i don't have lead poisoning. why is that? i know a lot of guys with a lot more lead in them than that. why can't a big buzzard with the digestive to handle about anything nasty, not be able to handle a little lead in it for a day or so? it ain't like the bullet stays in em. they pass it. good night, buzzards pass stuff through em so fast it ain't funny. there is no way that they are finding that many gutpiles that still have a bullet in them. how many gutshot deer have you seen that bullet didn't pass through? now, how may of these bullet contaminated gut piles are there that the condors are finding? especially when by the condor folks own words, one of the biggest problems they have is getting them to leave civlization and live wild. if it is lead poisoning, they're getting it someplace else. that's what needs to be addressed. it all sounds bogus to me. i remember reading about lead poisoning in the condors years ago. then it seemed like they blamed it on feeding them poached animals. i don't recall anything about gut piles. the whole story seems to vague and the conditions too happenstance to me. i've read several articles about them getting sick on the garbage at the south rim, where they like to hang out. never even heard of anyone seeing one on the north rim other than at the campgrounds. there's a lotta guys on here who hunt kaibab. norht and south. how many of you have ever seen one? they aren't going to leave where they're getting fed. whatever the deal is, there a lot more important things to worry about than these things. only reason they are in Az. is because the azgfd wanted the money to administer the program and they say there are prehistoric condor bones in caves in the grand canyon. they don't know if they are california condors or not, but they're supposed to be some kinda condor. oh yeah, i forgot, and because some guy said he saw one by williams, in the '30's. there's some real factual data for ya. the only way a wild animal can survive is to be wild. you can pamper and pet one all you want and unless it is in the cards for them to survive, they won't. they used to thrive in california, but they polluted the state to the point that eggshells wouldn't hold up. now they're someone else's problem. this is how california handles everything. if they need power, they get another state to build a powerplant and let them use their water and take care of the emmissions. if they need water, they steal it from another state. if they need someone to babysit buzzards, they contract it out. the reason they basically gave up on california is because even a buzzard can't survive in that cesspool. and watch, they're gonna ruin hunting on the kaibab over it. between them and the ferets. it's a shame for any animal to dissappear. but if you're gonna save one you have to start while there are still enough of em that they have a chance and you don't end up with an inbred population that isn't wild. these high dollar endagered species recovery programs are not to help the species recover, they're to use as a tool to pry the public off of the land. sorta like the "wolves". Lark.

ya sorry buncha skunks are all just jelluss. Frazier shot it. he puts stuff on here occassionally, when he can stand the smell. it's a 8 footer and weighed over 500 lbs. this is a true story too. the canyon this thing lived in was so bad and cliffbound, they had to rappel into. only other was to get in it was about 20 miles away where a road crossed. any o' you sissies tough enough fer that? i know that cubshooter bullwidgeon (widgeon is latin for feces) couldn't do it. even with a note from his mama. Lark.

the key word is "california". take em home and we won't have to worry about it. i really don't believe it. most of the condors hang around the south rim and live off of trash cans and stuff they are fed by the usfw. to say that folks shooting deer on kaibab is killing the condors is bs. if the huggers in california wouldn't have let their state get so stinkin' polluted then these big buzzards would still be ok there. too bad too, because they are a pretty neat bird. but this program is like most other usfw programs, stifled by paperwork and bs. for some reason biologists think that rules and regulations will save things. acting before things get bad saves things. not after. the condor population is so stressed, pampered and domesticated from all the handling by folks that they are never going to be more than a novelty, at best. Lark.

i can't think of a do it all knife for elk. i carry a yellow handled camillus called a yellowjacket that has 2 wide, locking 4" blades. on is a spey point, one is between a clip and drop point. also carry a case sharpfinger, a wyoming knife to unzip em with, a wyoming saw and a small flat steel. i think it is a case. had it for years. this is in my pack. back in camp i have an ammo can full of knives that are all sharp, before the hunt. there are several carbon steel blades cases, my favorite because they are easy to sharpen and stay sharp. several bucks in different shapes. an old navy kabar with a 6 inch blade. (a little shorter than the marine and army version) a green river skinner. they cost about 8 bucks, are easy to sharpen and peel hide like crazy. a couple knives i made out of railroad spikes. one made from a saw blade that you can get so sharp that it is almost useless. cuts through everything. i can't believe how sharp and hard that blade is. a file will just skip across it. have to sharpen it with a belt sander. main thing is to never cut on the hair of an elk. they are so dirty they destroy the edge in short order. i really like the sharpfingers for a lot of stuff, especially around the antlers. Lark.

i was wrong about the safeway deal. found out from a good source it was basha's calm down chase, i was just hackin' on ya. i know zakly where you shot it and your secret is safe with me. it's too stinkin' rough in there anyway. dang, that's a big bull. Lark.

why'd they think you poached an elk? like i've said before, in most buuny sherrif's eyes, we're all criminals, we just ain't been caught yet. did they ever talk to you? as far as the elk moving, that's elk. you hafta go where they are. i don't get the correllation between the azgfd and the elk moving? doesn't the season last another week? Lark. p.s. i never seen a 360 bull that i wouldn't poke an arrow in. even if there was a 400 bull around. if i were your brother, i'd be back at em hot and heavy the last part of the season. that's usually the best anyway.