WHT_MTNMAN

Update. The road is open. I drove in a mile or so tonight. The gate that was closed last week is now open

I drive by there 2 or 3 times a week, and the road off 260 is open to the trailhead, but as of late last week the road about 300 yards from 260 was closed.

Nice job ROB, link doesn't work, check out his link in signature page

This year the money was taken out upfront, in years past only applications fees were charged unless you were drawn.

WOW.. That is way awesome.. Sounds like a real busy fall Bob, It wasn't Jessica that got the tag was it? Huge congrats.

Tommy depends on which side of the debate your on? lol Taylor has its identity.... it's TRAPPERS

Wow, If your headed to Trappers, I will take a German Chocolate cream pie, thanks,

Congrats, I need to make it down and find out a bit about a trailer I inherited, and update a few things.

+100 this is the only thing that is happening. So how many of you are going to go to the EXPO? I know for a fact if I had expectations of going and the results did not come out I would not go because I would be tooo pissed to go. Now if I had expectations to go and they came out man that would be the place to be because I would be pleased with AZGFD. Oh well what the heck is going to happen one person says the lady says before 5:00 pm today and others said they will not be out till April 1st and others have said on sunday? What the heck really believe AZGFD is going to come in on their day off and load them get real. Others have said monday. Well at this point I am now as stressed as I can get. AZGFD sure can piss people off sometimes. After 4:00 i get out of work and start thinking about the weekend and will at that point maybe have a stress relief. Good luck if they come out today and if not good luck to everyone when AZGFD gets off there A$$ and decides to do something for once. Game and fish never said it was going to happen today, others that supposedly had inside sources or called and talked to "someone" said they said that it would happen sometime. It will come out, when it comes out. I'm as anxious as anyone, but man come on.

Looks great. I like that pose.

Yeah I've fished it this early and you won't catch any bass and water is dangerous to cross, but if you can find a good pool you can still catch some cold water cat fish, ummmm.

Nice I love hats...they look awesome, the shirts look great also, I got to get some ordered.

Congrats Oak, nicely done, what a beautiful goat.

Jeremy, my thoughts and prayers are with you, and your family.

Well me and my wife will be there at a table with Haywire and his wife and another couple of friends, see some of you tomorrow.

Well after a few invitations and everything not coming together quite right, I finally felt ok about finances , time off etc.. and accepted an invitation to hunt Old Mexico to hunt Coues Whitetail with Clay Goldman. About 8 of us from Payson headed down Fri. morning early and crossed border with no problems around 8:30-10 am. We got to the Ranch around 1-2 pm set up camp and headed out for an evening of glassing. We figured out where everyone was hunting, I was directed to the borders of our ranch and off we went. The next 5 days were similar. Up early, great breakfast (thanks Bob) hour quad ride to hunting spot, glass a few good bucks and lots in the 85-95 range but I was holding out for a smoker buck, back to ranch after dark with another great meal prepared. We had three tags on one ranch and three on the other. During the first three days, the other ranch produced a 110ish buck with a six inch drop and a heavy palamated buck in the 105-110" range, and a 100" buck with some cool character. ( If I get permission I'll post some pics) I passed a couple of really good bucks that I figured would go 105 but was reluctant to shoot one too early in the hunt. I found a really big 2 point frame that would probably score 100-105 on Tues, decided to pass and then was talked into shooting at (which when I put the scope on him I was glad to do) Long story short I missed a long shot that should have been relativly easy but I made a dumb mistake in my excitement. I watched him climb a saddle about a mile away at a run. The weather was starting to turn, with rain and fog setting in so I decided to go to an area that I had seen a really good buck around 105". We glassed for about 30 minutes, found a decent buck and then found the buck I was decided I was going to shoot. It wasn't the same buck I had found earlier but he looked to have decent mass and long G2's. With fog gathering around us and rain pouring off in the distance I decided after almost six days this would be the buck I would take home. We moved into just under 300 yards and I made a good shot. We then got packed up and headed back to the ranch house with the next day and a half spent in strong rainstorm as we cut the trip a day short and traveled home. I had a great trip, with some great people and can't wait to make it back. Thanks Clay for the invite and for making everything flow perfectly. My buck is just under 100" I just put a rough estimate together. There is a bunch more to the story, but as usually I don't have time to write it all up, I hope you enjoy. Here are a few pictures Lion kill buck for that had been seen last couple of years so I looked hard for him, I guess there was a reason he never turned up.

Jay and Ron I've been looking forward to this post since I got a few pictures on my phone, nicely done and what a cool story and picture essay. Some of my favorite hunting memories are when I am with one fo my sons. Awesome, to bad it wasn't caught on film but thats ok you got some great pictures.

What a stud buck, I love the extras and the inline. Lots of great character and a huge frame to boot, nicely done.

Great looking bucks Cade, great pictures on everything.

Josh I shoot them out of my .300. Very accurate in my rifle and can make a huge hole in coues sized animals but stops everything quick. BTW I'm shooting 210 gr at 3100fps, I got better groups when I backed it down a bit.

There was a huge lion killed up in White Mountains last week that should have a record book skull that was estimated to be close to 200 lbs, everyone was surprised a bit when it only weighed 150lbs. My point being like Lark said, most lions are about half of what you think, even those that know lions usually guess a weight and subtract 50 lbs to be close. IMO

129 4/8

As always Gino, what a tremendous start to the year and huge congrats to all of the gang.

Thanks guys it was a great trip. The reason he doesn't score real well is because of his lack of eye guards, when I first saw him I figured him at over 100" but when I saw he didn't have much in the way of g1's I still decided to shoot, at that point I didn't care too much. Bob- I didn't get too many pictures in the field, I had your knife on me, but didn't take any pictures. We got rained upon pretty good headed back to the ranch. When I score him a little more close I'll let you know, but he should be right around 97" according to my quick calculation.

Ian- huge congrats on a great looking buck. Sorry you had to spend time around Gino.