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whodang, that article in the dependent don't make this thing look any better. dang, it was right in them folks' yard. ohhheeee, this is gonna be ugly. we already pay a $7.50 surcharge just to apply. how much did that raise last year? a lot more than this auction tag. a lot of folks are trying to rationalize this situation. if he woulda waited until it got into the forest, which sounds like it wouldn't have been too hard to do, we'd all be envious of a big rack. instead, it looks like this guy, and his guides, are in a lot of trouble and we're all in a boil over it. one side o' the fence or the other. seems to be pretty much polaraized. whatever the case, like i said earlier, if i had the cash, i'd be at the auciton. but then i'd be off in a canyon somewhere hunting, not in folks' yards. heck, there are elk a lot bigger than this available to shoot behind high fences, for a lot less money. and they hafta be at least as "ethical". there were a lot of ways to do this thing okay. how it happened wasn't one of em. i'm one of the guys that figures if it's legal it's ethical, because we never want anyone to try and legislate ethics. if this ends up being legal, then it's ethical. if it don't, it ain't. from what i see, it ain't gonna end up good for the guys involved. no matter what happens. Lark.

i'm pretty sure that's bullwidgeon. Lark.

we're really getting off topic, but i really want to know how things really break down. i see some numbers for the raffle for '07, but don't see anything for the auction. they're 2 different things. did i miss it? i can't get the excel file to magnify enough to read it. i want to compare '07 auction $ to what was raised just by the non-refundable application fee that comes from every application. i want to show how much average joes, us, donate, just by that process, compared to what these guys with heavy wallets pony up? how often do you get an elk or pronghorn or bighorn permit now? by my poor math, about 5% of the total bighorn permits go to auction and raffle tags. that's a fair number. and by all accounts, the desert sheep are having a real rough time right now. the auction total has a fair amount of digits in it, but it is still pretty small compared to the azgfd overall budget and again, if money fixed things we'd be run over by game and would have to shoot deer outta the yard on a daily basis. what i'm trying to get folks to think about is what is being done with the money and is it doing any good? about the only thing that seems to be doing very well in Az. right now looks to be coues deer and predators. muleys, desert bighorns, turkeys, pronghorn, are all having a rough time and it ain't all because of the drought. there has been some real crummy management involved in a lot of it. the elk cow/bull ratio looks to me to be real wierd right now. and from what i've seen, the elk herd in general doesn't seem to be real shiny. nothing like it was even 5 years ago. and the big explosion in the elk herd had a direct effect on the deer herd, mainly muleys, in the area where there are a lot of elk. so now they both seem to be struggling. i know that auction money isn't just dumped into the azgfd'd general or capital fund for the year, but i do know that the auction money frees up funds for other things that may or not be tied to conservation. like i said, i'm about 50/50 on whether or not gauranteed rich guys tags, which is what the auction tags are, do as much as some folks would have us believe. and i'm sorta thinking that this particular auction tag we're talking about is going to cause us all a lot of problems because a few folks maybe didn't do a real good job. how much is it going to cost the azgfd to litigate this? if they push it very far it will be substantial. i bought a powerball ticket today. if i win it, i will be at the auction and i will come away with some tags. and i wouldn't do it because i think the money is going to do a bunch of good. i'd do it because i could and i like to hunt. there's a lot to think about here other than $'s. the biggest problem we have is a top heavy game department that looks more at the bottom line than they do at herd health. does more money help that? it sure doesn't appear to me to help much. but i ain't totally convinced that auciton tags are all bad. but i'm having a harder time, all the time, even staying balanced on the fence. maybe i just think too deep for some folks. Lark.

while we're on the subject, just how much money was raised, this year, by auction tags? not the raffle tags either. just the auction. and for the record, i'm all for the raffle. but i hover around 50/50 on the auction stuff. if all it took was money to fix things, our desert bighorn numbers wouldn't be tanking like they are. and they are dropping at a scarey rate. money does nothing with poor direction. and i think we can all pretty much agree that the azgfd seems to be like the lost tribe o' the f*&^arewees when it comes to having some direction. there ain't enough room or time to list all the stupidity that has happened there even in just the past year or so. and like i said before, if it comes down to a tapemeasure to decide if these guys were legal, then they shoulda went somewhere else. guys can say that the folks that lived there shouldn't be there and they shouldn't be upset over it, but they do live there and apparantly more than one of em are real yanked. heck, i'd be yanked if i lived there. for pete's sake, go hunt someplace besides in folks' yards, no matter what. dang, have a little sense about things. was the "hunter" the same old buzzard who shot the monster with these guys a couple years ago? i know he's bought a bunch of the auction tags. anybody know? if it is, i see why they were there, he can't go anywhere else. i'll make this surmise, i would be real surprised if all the auction tags each year brought in even half of what the application fees paid by all the other regular joes pay collectively each year. somebody should be able to find the number out pretty easy. seems like there are over 200,000 applications each year. this year it was $7.50 to apply. ain't that like $1.5g? (g means giga which is latin for a million). i ain't for sure, but i don't think the auction tags bring in that much a year. and even if they do, it ain't a lot compared to the annual budget. it may be a percent or 2, but no more. and like i said, what are they doing with it and when are we gonna see some results? i've never heard anything really bad, at least that can be substantiated, about the guides. but in this case, they may not be guilty of breaking any laws, but they are guilty as heck of some real bad judgement and have done the regular joe's, in Az. in particular, and everywhere in generel, a real diservice. i wasn't there, ain't for sure what happened, but it's pretty easy to see that there was a error in judgement. Lark.

sounds like a lot of hairsplittin' goin' on here. anytime it comes down to a tape measure to decide if you were being legal or not, a guy might shoulda been somewhere else. don't know anyone involved. don't even care, but huntin' in a subdivision fulla folks just doesn't seem like huntin' to me. there's big bulls in other places that are a lot more like real huntin'. as far as the auction tags, i don't much care for em. they raise some money, but how much good does it do? in the big scheme of things, the money they get from the auction tags isn't a real big piece o' the whole pie. it's gonna be interesting to see how it finally burns out. anytime lawyers hafta get involved, it ain't good for anything. Lark.

he's probably the same jerk that couldn't catch all them guys climbing out of the van on the video that was on here awhile back. while he was hasslin' a born in the USA resident there probably about 19 illegals snuck in behind him. too dang bad when a tax payer gets hassled worse than criminals. Lark.

ya'll's er all igernut. Lark.

i wonder if some sonofabeast who sent in a personall check got my sheep tag?!?!? now that'll tick me off. Lark.

i got a deer tag. in a crummy unit. no sheep, again. &@^%#$*(*&in' azgfd. Lark.

just looked at the azgfd site the results are up. Lark.

did you cut a hole in the wall fer bullwidgeon to stick his head through or did ya kill a hog? Lark.

i am plummed P-O'd over it. i hate that junk on 153. the huntin' over corn and talkin' threw yer nose with bad teeth channel. 218 had some halfway decent shows. guess it's back to beanie and cecil and the hog auctions. Lark.

my bad guys. it was the spring javelina and turkey results that are up. guess i got em mixed up with the fall draw. puttin' that pig hunt in the fall really threw me for a loop. dang, i gotta start payin' better attention. must be gettin' oldtimers deezeez. i still didn't get an elk or goat tag either. maybe this will be the year for a sheep tag. after 33 years the oughta just give a guy one. i was impressed with how many guys fell for it, i mean checked to see if i was right. Lark.

bear baiting was outlawed probably about 15 years. maybe even longer than that. i don't recall it ever being legal in the spring, just the fall. for years and years, there wasn't even a spring hunt, but i don't ever recall it being legal in the spring. as far back as i can remember you couldn't even use dogs on the spring hunt. for years bear baiting wasn't hardly even regulated. just needed a bear tag. find a place, bait it up. had to be biodegradable, that was about it as far as rules. then they made a bear baiting season. every year there would be more rules. you couldn't start baiting until so many days before the season. then you had to get a permit and get all registered up with the azgfd and had to mark your bait somehow or another and you couldn't bait within so many feet of another bait. you had to use some kind of removable recepticle for the bait, like a barrel, and it could only be so big. a lot of people had gotten completely stupid in there practices(i won't say unethical, because it was legal) and i do recall the bunny sherrifs being concerned with litigation in other states about bear baiting and bear hunting in general but from what i recall, there was so much competition and fighting over bait stands and stuff, the azgfd was literally afraid someone was gonna get shot over it. i know of several knock down drag out fistfights and knifed tires and stuff over guys setting up bait 50 feet from an established sight, guys dumping cayenne pepper all over someones active bait in order to entice the bear to their bait, etc. it got to be a real zoo. i'm glad i can say i never baited in a bear. there ain't nothin' sadder to me than these jokers in a tree stand shootin' some poor old fat gargage addicted bear. but i digress, if some feller beat ya there, go some place else. the neatest thing about Az. is that it has millions of acres of public land that anyone can hunt. if some hillbilly has done staked out an acre, leave him alone and go find another place a mile or so away. Lark.

allright, my 2 favorite subjects, bait and ethics. and i'm kinda thinkin' it is ok in Az. to put out salt. i know it dang sure is legal for cowboys to do it. why not hunters? i'm thinking the rules concerning treestands are in the forest circus and burro of land mismanagement's jurisdiction. seen' as how they govern the tree rules. i did read awhile back that there was some discussion about outlawing salt again, but have never heard that it was reinstituted. used to be agin the law to put out anything to attract game. but i'm pretty sure it is legal to put out salt now. somebody correct me if i'm wrong. and i think there isn't a written rule about it. it's one of those things that doesn't have a specific rule against it, therefore it is ok. as far as this case, if you came up on a camp on public land and nobody happened to be there at the time, would you just move into their tent? or maybe set your tent up a foot away from the one already there? i mean it is public land and all. what about if you hiked into a fishin' hole and there was already a guy with his line in the water where you wanted to fish? you gonna toss yours in the same hole? or maybe walk around the other side and give the guy some space? as for me, i could never be comfortable sittin' somebody else's bait. as far as that goes, i wouldn't be too comfortable on my own bait. don't prefer to hunt that way. but if some guy has spent the time for a matter of several years, he sorta has some rights, it seems to me. even if there is no law that is specified here. this kinda stuff is exactly why bear baiting was outlawed. it was just a matter of time before someone got shot over a bear bait arguement. if the guy that originally set this place up feels infringed upon enough, what's gonna happen if you have a cnofrontation? a couple gallons of pool chlorine on the salt will pretty much ruin the place and a well placed rock will pretty much take care of a camera. then nobody can use it and you can go do the work to make your own lick and always know there is guy out there that really, really don't like ya. and he might be some banjo pickin' hillbilly (no offense casey) that don't have any "ethics" when it comes to folks or farm animals. to me, i'd never feel good about using something that someone else did all the work to establish and if i did kill something over it, it would never feel right and i'd always know that somebody else did all the work and i got the credit. and i'd be afraid of the guy comin' along while i was there and whoppin' a knot on my head that a calf could suck and burnin' my truck and takin' my shoes away and makin' me walk about bare foot and stuff. so to sum up my "opinion", do the right thing and pack up and go someplace else and leave the place alone that this other fellow hunter has spent all the time and work and money to establish and instead of makin' an enemy you might make a friend. and there ain't much worth more than a friend. Lark.

It did. i bought a new saddle. Lark.

too bad. remember a few years ago when they guy shot the bighorn ram inside of the Arizona/sonora desert museum? when they finally caught the guy a friend of mine reminded me that we met this joker once. talk about a serial poacher. he was good pals with another joker i knew. i'm thinkin' he might have some romantic interests in sheep too. too bad. my kids put in for that unit. Lark.

i just looked at my credit card stuff online and it just got hit for a bunch. Lark.

if all you impatient jokers want, i can post another 1-900 number like i did a couple years ago. might pass some time, but it won't let ya know if ya got drood. Lark.

is anyone else as sick of the sportsmens outhouse as i am? in my estimation they've never been more than marginal. but now i am ticked off. i bought 2 gun safes there awhile back. 2 of em. spent money with lotsa zeros on it. took one home that day and went back the next for the other one. the stupid female i was dealing with (not the same guy i bought them from the day before) actually accused me of trying to steal a gunsafe. used the word steal and everything. so i tactfully went off like an A-bomb over hiroshima and this guy with her fixed it up and i took the other one home. i was getting really sick of them never having any bullets i needed and they were always out of popular powder. always seemed to have a lot of stuff that nobody uses. and i was really getting tired of the retards that work there. guys in optics that didn't know anything about glass or tripods or grips or anything. guys selling guns that you could tell didn't know much about things. just junk like this. just a bunch real dumb folks it seemed. they broke this camel's back today. my kids bought me a smoker for fahter's day. bought a bunch of salmon last nght to smoke for my dad's birthday. got it all soakin' in the marinade. opened up the smoker and the thermostat was busted. boxed it up and butned a buncha $3 a gallon gas and took it back. no refund. they didn't have one in stock. and wouldn't give me anything back because they said i didn't buy it. said i could drive to goodyear and exchange it there. again $3 a gallon gas. i drove to cabela's and bought the same one. when my daughter gets back she can get her money back. and me and my bunch won't be spending anymore of the probably 10k a year or so we have been wasting with these jokers. i mean it, we spent a lot of money there. no more. my youngest son just spent over $2300 on a senders, rings and bases and a zeiss scope. i hope somebody on this site works for this classless outfit so they can at least know how i feel about them. i couldn't see the manager because he was on vacation and i couldn't see whoever was in charge because "it wouldn't do any good". i guess these idiots don't realize that cabela's and bass pro just opened up here and their prices are better and they have a slightly better inventory. anyway, as for me, i'll set foot in a sportsmen warehouse again. sincerely, Lark.

i saw a guy at the I10-baseline overpass sellin' used trailcameras. said they had photos of britney spears on em. he might have yours. Lark.

i've always really supported the guy because i felt he honored the office and did what he really felt was right. i can't abide by this. it is just wrong to take criminals and make em citizens. and every one of em were criminals the instant they crossed the border. they say they can't round em all up and send em home. they don't have to. inforce the laws that make it illegal to give em a job and prosecute the guys hiring em and when the work dries up, they'll go home. the whole thing is like a vacuum cleaner with a dead fish in it. it sucks and it stinks. Lark.

me and my cabin mate went last night. i had to push her stinkin' wheelchair all over that place. like to killed me gettin' her to the 2nd floor and then some jackass told me there was an elevator. crap, why can't they put up a sign? next time she breaks her leg she's gonna hafta push her own chair. that or i'm gonna shoot her. it was an impressive place, even if their so called fish restaurant didn't have crawdads or froglegs on the menu. i'll say this much, they have about dozen very, very impressive bull elk mounted in there. there were 3 or 4 that are as heavy as anything i've ever seen. i've been to several BP's in other parts o' the country and they were all little dumpy. real heavy on fishin' stuff and not much for hunters and just not real well organized. great places, don't get me wrong, but were not very shiny. this place is somethin' else. i guess competition does make ya better, if it don't break ya. the competition between then and cabelas is real apparent. all in all, i give it an A. Lark.

i like how they said that if they kill 2 sheep, then they're a threat. sorta like sayin' a drunk can kill 2 folks in a wreck before he's a threat. dang guys, lions are always a threat. that's what they do. do the rabbit pigs think if they put up some signs tellin' the lions to not kill 2 sheep that the lions can read em? i guess they can hire some smelly hugger to "teach em" like they do the wolves. tha game and fish is almost comical. when an animal acts like it's supposed to, like a lion killin' something and eatin' it, they kill it. they're own data has told em for years that they need to reduce predator populations, but they don't want the rank and file hunters to do it, they want some gov't "hunter" to do it because it is more palatable to the huggers. the kofas have to be a tough place to try and catch lions, especially in the summer, for sure. i still maintain that outlawing trapping did more for lions than anything. trappers caught enough of them incidently to help keep the numbers down. oh well, 2 more years. Lark.

was that scottyboy? Lark.