.270

every ridge above about 8500 ft in the white mountains has blue grouse along the north side. they're real dependent on water and drought hammers the herd bad. a couple good wet years and there are grouse every where. a couple dry years and they almost disappear. just about like quail. they're sorta hard to hunt because they don't make a lot of noise or anything. best way to get em is to stay on the north side and walk around until you see em. a .410 is the best gun. use real light shot. no bigger than 8. a 12 guage is ok, but you hafta be carefull to keep from splatterin' em. they're real tame and it's easy to get too close and mess em up pretty bad. i've had to actually back up before shooting em before, because they won't run off to a good range. a .22 would be best, but it ain't legal. a .22 is legal in colorado. shoot em in the head. i've shot bunches of em over the years. they are as good to eat as anything there is. just about like a quail but a lot bigger. i've shot some that were as big as chickens but they were as tough as an ol' firestone. you need to get a stamp before hunting them too. but they are great to hunt and fry up. grouse, biscuits and gravy. good stuff........Lark.

my boys, my ol' man and my brother. for deer and elk anyway. i'll hunt bears, lions, pigs, quail, skunks, bigfeet, etc. with about anybody. with most o' the folks listed i don't see much huntin' gettin' done. if i had to pick a celebrity it'd be larry the cable guy. Lark.

never hunted coues with a muzzleloader. have shot a buncha deer, elk, pigs, etc with one and always used a .50 or .54. most of the timed choked down either a .44 or .45 via sabots. i'm sure a .40 would work, but never had any experience with em. Lark.

i don't dis it. i just think it's pud of a cartridge. and it ain't a .270. Lark.

i keep tellin' you fellers that the only thing that works is to learn how to work the wind. scentlock stuff is crap. put it in the same box as "field dressing kits". "cough silencers" and 7mm/08's and chunk em in the dumpster. ain't no way it's gonna do anything but give you false confidence. designer camo is pretty much a joke too. dark clothes and stay in the shadows. when i bow hunted i liked either all black clothes or regular ol' woodland cammo. o' course they didn't have all this designer camo with leaves and stuff flappin' on it either back then. if a deer, or any other animals sees you, it's over. he's not gonna say "hmmmm, that bush is sneakin' up on me". he's gonna say, "look at that idiot dressed like a bush". same with smell. humans need something like 50,000 ppm to smell something, or some deal. i know it's a bunch. animals, like deer and elk and such, only need a few hundred ppm. all the scent lock, coverup, skunk scent or deodorant in the world ain't gonna help. if they wind ya, and are in the right mood, they're gonna split. sometimes they don't. don't know why, either, they just don't. but about 90% o' the time, they're gone. what galliuro mt man does is ok, but all the deer is gonna say is "hoooeeee, that boy smells like he done rolled in dirt n' cow crap". best thing is to have clean clothes and take a bath regular and work the wind. or get used to likin' to see little white tails boucin' up the draw. Lark.

why is this incest deal still on here? this is just sick. Lark.

owl surveys? are they any good to eat? Lark.

that was at the houston airport and i was there when it happened. we were staying at the marriot and heard about it during a break in the conference i was in. there is a subway that goes to all the terminals and we boogied over to see the deal. we couldn't right up to it, but could get close enough that we could see the dead guy layin' on the floor. the dad was standing at a pay phone acting like he was on it when they led him by. he reached out with a .45 and put one in his head. seems like he walked with next to nothing for jail time. it was all over every channel that night because there was news teams there filming the pervert coming home. what a great deal. it's gonna be real funny when one o' landowners up stream from tapia puts up a gate and locks her in. looks like that is about to happen too. Lark.

i think allen is right about shroufe. he ain't gonna do a thing from now until he retires. he might sign off on things that others lay on his desk, but he's not gonna initiate or follow through with anything. if you put any faith in him or his sprayed on tan or in the commission, you're real misguided. these guys are politicians pure and simple. they're walking the tightrope between the guys that pay the bills (us) and the guys with the most votes (everybody else). i know these positions are all appointed, but they are still subject to politcal pressure. you have to agree to all kindsa stuff before you are appointed to be a commissioner, and very little of it has to do with conservation. azgfd has proven, ever since shroufe was hired, that they have no desire to do anything controversial, especially about predators. they won't stand up to anyone who hollers loudly. look at what happened to the conservation bonus point. a few guys yelled and they dropped it. while i wasn't a big supporter of it, the vast majority of hunters were, and the majority should rule. but a few well connected sheep dudes complained and the commission ran away yelpin' with their tails between their legs. best thing a guy can do on his own is to buy a lion tag and use it. and shoot every coyote you see too. running or standing still, make their life as miserable as you can. don't matter if you just wound em. and vote napalitano out. she's the root of the evil here. give her another term and you can forget about it. she tried real hard to put a died in the wool anti on the commission and backed off and gave us an ex-game warden. that's like having a crook guard crooks in my book. the commission needs to stand alone and be objective. these guys are so involved in the politics and public perception that it's pathetic. they need to be the watchers. they ain't. if napalitano gets another term, it's gonna be bad. i have a feeling that all the gains that were made after the uso suit, like money up front and nonresidents having to buy a license and stuff, are gonna go out the window too. i get sick when i think of the possibilities. Lark.

i see where claude dallas got out this weekend. anybody have any opinions on this? when he was a fugitive and on trial and all that i made up a bumper sticker that said "FREE CLAUDE DALLAS". just to make one particular game warden mad. personally, i think justice was served. he shouldn't o' did what he did, but the wardens shouldn't o' put him in the position to do it, either. oh well, it's interesting to see how folks feel about it. Lark.

i was 7 years old. my brother was 3 1/2. went bow hunting with my ol' man. he used an old bear grizzly, 56# recurve and cedar arrows he made himself. no camo. no blinds. no salt. just him and a bow and the ability to sneak like a bug. parked the truck, headed up a canyon. he pointed to two piles o' rocks in the saddle. told me to take my brother and wait on the one on the right. we seen a snake so i picked him up and carried him and ran like heck. he's 6'8" now, so it's a good thing he was only 3 1/2. he was only like 5'6" then. we got to the rockpile and waited. had no idear where the ol' man was. then i seen him sneakin' and lookin'. maybe 100 yards away. hard to say, this was a long time ago and things seem big when you're little. anyway, he climbed up onto the other rockpile and was looking around. then he drew his bow and shot directly below him into some brush. a coeus buck came running out with only the fletches sticking out of it's back. took us awhile to find it. i remember i found the arrow laying on the ground and from there i could see the buck dead. we were real happy. seems like it was a 2x3. gutted it and pop put it on his shoulders and off we went to the truck. i carried the bow. just before we got to the truck a bobcat jumped up on a rock a little ways away. i handed pop his bow and he drilled the bobcat with the same arrow he killed the deer with. i thought my ol' man was Dan'l Boone reincarnated. dang that was a good day. Lark.

it's a real nice bull, but he's just about growed for this year. he might add another 12 inches or so. his tines are getting real pointy. it's been my experience that when they shed the velvet they lose a lot of spread too. antlers tend draw in when they dry out. he's a neat bull and has a lot o' character. never seen one with a turd on it's horn like that thing. one thing tho, he's a young bull. if he makes it a couple more years he could get real interesting looking. for a bull to gross 380, they have to have real long main beams, real long points and be real heavy. this one has good length and is fairly heavy, but he isn't quite there yet. in a few more years he could be. i'd guess him to be a 5 year old. maybe 6. they usually have a year in that range that they actually have smaller antlers than the year before. usually around 6 or 7. at 8 is when they start getting some real trees on their head. this is a real good bull, just not a 380 bull. especially when you go to figuring deductions. he's a first day bull for sure. Lark.

read all about it. this woman needs to be institutionalized. http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2005/06/...news/news03.txt

i don't think he's a 380 bull, and i ain't tryin' to dis him either. that wierd turd lookin' deal on the left antler is an odd lookin' mess for sure. he has a real short 3rd on that side as result of it. it's a great bull. has a lot o' character. the forked 4th on the left horn is cool. i'm guessing he's a 330-340 bull, before deductions. sure are some good photos.

bret, i thought you told me you told me you got your huntin' pards offa the prison penpals website. i hunt with my boys, my ol' man, my brother and a couple select friends who have short term memory loss and can't remember where we went or the tricks i pulled on em in camp. last time i went with one pal he had a brand new tent and a buncha new campin' equipment. the memory loss deal was handy because he didn't 'member that i burned all his other stuff in a fart lightin' accident. Lark.

glad she's gettin' hassled. http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2005/06/...news/news02.txt

had the occasion to go to Ray Nienhaus' taxidermy yesterday. friend o' mine took the big 7x7 bull he shot last year to be mounted. this guy has one of the most incredible collections of mounted animals i've ever seen. probably has 100 b&c muleys and easterns. lotsa life sized bears, including a polar that is next to a lifesized bison, and guess which one is bigger? yeah, the white one. buncha african stuff. some truly huge pronghorns and probably one o' the best north American sheep collections i've ever seen. he also has the best bunch o' coues heads i've ever seen. must have 25 record heads mounted. i guess he don't let just anybody see his big collection, but just the ones he has in his little showroom are pretty incredible. if you're ever in the area of his place it would be worth it to see if he'd let ya in. Lark.

i spend most o' my time bein' the worlds greatest authority on whatever we're talkin' about at the time. that and i pick up cans. Lark.

it's just you cartman. did them aliens probe ya again? last time was a real fireball of an experience. it did rain a little last night out in creen queek, about 5 miles west o' my place. went for a dip in the cement pond about 830 or so and there was quite a bit o' lightin' n' thunder around to the northeast. i talked to my ol' man a couple days ago and he's predictin' a wet summer. he says this is the first year in a long time that the clouds have been moving in from the sierra madre down in ol' mexico, like they're supposed to. past few years what summer rain we got was all from the north. hope he's right. whatever, we need rain soon, or the whole state is gonna burn. Lark.

he's up in north phx. just west of the 51. he's in the phone book. and yeah, he could stock a new cabelas with all they needed. and it's all just in a house! i've never seen a private collection even 10% as big. most of the stuff he has bought or traded for, but he has a buncha stuff he shot too. like a giraffe!?!? what the heck would ya wanna shoot a giraffe for? practice neck shots? he has some repro racks mounted too, that are pretty neat because you get a sense of how big they really are. has a repro of the "buck of justice". incredibly heavy muley from utah. i've seen a lot o' photos of that rack, but dang, it's bigger than i thought. he has really wild stuff, especially stuff from the southwest. huge muleys, coues, easterns, pronghorns, bears, lions, elk, etc. it was a very interesting tour fer sure. Lark.

the worst thing about proctology is the view. i just kinda bum around for now, but when i grow up i'm gonna be cowboy. Lark.

naturally occuring fire is just like weather. it has a purpose and the long term effects are always good. it's sure sad to see folks lose property, like homes and buildings, tho. sure spooky to watch a fire march toward you, too. we finally get a real good winter for rain and now the country is burnin' down because of all the dry winter foliage. i feel for the folks that are displaced and who have and will lose property, but in the long run, fire is a good thing. Lark.

bret, did you make a hatband? Lark.

the best coues hunter i ever knew was my ol' man. and all his best coues hunting was done in the days of no 4x4's, no binoculars, no scopes, no range finders and most folks used a .30/30 or some rebuilt military rifle like a .303 british or a .30/40 krag, so no long range tackdrivers either. one gun he used a lot was a model 71 winchester. a modification of the 1886 buffalo gun that was only chambered in .348. definitely not a long range cartridge. anyway, what i'm saying is that it was in the days when it was you and the deer. not you, a buncha technology, and the deer. you had to hunt em up and jump shoot em most o' the time. one of his favorite tricks was when he was in country that he knew held deer (because of experience or that "feeling" you get, not because you actually saw them), he would hunt through it, and do a fairly thorough job of it, just to make the deer bush up and hold tight, and then go over the ridge out of sight and sneak back. more times than not there would be one or more bucks leisurely going out the way he came in the first time. him and my uncles shot a lot of deer this way. coues hold as tight or tighter than any other animal, but there are ways to trick em. Lark.

for some reason widge, i sorta figgerd you fished like gollum. don't know why fer sure. maybe it's them suction cup fingers. i ain't fished point o' pines for years. in fact, a couple weeks ago i went that away to get to my cousin's place on the upper eagle. first time i'd been through there in probably about 20 years. last time i was in that country was when we were killin' huge rainbows at dry lake. until bob hirsh and his tv show ruined it. anyway, back then point o' pines was always good, but never had the big fish like dry lake and some of the other stock tanks. now all the stock tanks are fulla bass and cats. it was sure good to see that country again. we seen pigs, muleys, a buncha coues, elk turkeys and pronghorns all over the place. neat trip. looks like you fellers had fun too. Lark.