bowsniper

How can you tresspass on "leased" public land? That's the problem, ranchers think that they own the public land that they lease for pennies. Mark

How could that be????!!!!!

Me, my wife and kids will be there. We planned to be in Flag that weekend for another event, but we'll be by for the BBQ. Looking forward to it! Mark

Me, my wife and kids will be there. We planned to be in Flag that weekend for another event, but we'll be by for the BBQ. Looking forward to it! Mark

Aside from the fish police rules, the UV rays will degrade any nylon straps or parts on your stand and possibly make it unsafe. Leaving it up during the year to weather is a bad idea. Mark

Garth, What are you doing home? Did you get your bird and how big is he? Mark

WOW! That is beautiful!! Who did the work? Mark

Here's a strutting turkey I got off my game cam last week. Mark

Not that I like McCain, but I really hope that R. Gullianni doesn't get the republican nomination. He is a democrat in an elephant suit. He is pro abortion, pro homosexual, and anti gun. What would you expect from someone from New York? The same state the carpet bagging hillary is from. Mark

I have learned a lot from Marvin Robbins, one of the top turkey hunters in the country. Marvin says that #6 is the best for turkey. As far a turkey loads go, they do seem to pattern better on my shotgun. The best thing to do is to experiment with different brands and find what works best in your shotgun. Mark

I want to thank Mike (TreeStandman) for helping us to find a great spot to hunt turkeys. Thanks Mike! Mark

I have had very good results with sweets 7.62. Mark

Sounds great! I'm all for it! Let's do it! Maybe we could train them to eat the cows in the National Forests! OK, now you guys can start trashing me. I'll be gone for the next three days anyway to unit 22, helping my 11 year old on his first turkey hunt. Mark (the bowhunting treehugger)

I also asked Brian about this at the DCA meeting Tuesday night. His response was that they asked for 500 does tags last year but only got 100. So this they are increasing the request to make up for the tags that they couldn't get last year. Mark

By the way, what is ethical? Some say baiting with feed or salt is unethical. What about sitting the only water for 5 miles around? I don't know about deer, but my body can last a lot longer without food than it can water. So is sitting water more unethical that sitting bait? What about treeing a lion or bear with dogs and then shooting them down with a 20 foot shot? Is that fair chase or ethical? What about using scent or a call to bring in some sex crazed animal who just trying to reproduce? Is that ethical? What about shooting an animal with a broadhead and then waiting for him to bleed out. What about dropping some coues at 600 yards? Is that ethical? You can see where I'm going with this. So when Leonard says that he or some people question the "ethic" of baiting, where does it stop? It doesn't, because his ethic argument, along with "disease transmission" is just an excuse to promote his agenda. I once had much respect for the department, but with the current leadership and direction, that is gone. So Mike, for now I will continue to refer to the department as the "fish police". I hope that Jim and the other hard working and sane people in the department don't take that personally, and realize that it is directed their managers and not them. The sane people in the department are probably as distraught as we are. Mark

How did lenord's sales pitch go at the ADA meeting last night? Brian, who works for lenord, gave a pitch at the Desert Christian Archers meeting last night. Nice guy, but he did a lot of dancing. He said outright that despite much criticism, their recommendations to the commission will not be modified, they are sticking with them, including the archery deer/elk overlap. So my question is "if G&F is so inflexible as to not even consider to change their recommendations to the commission, why has lenord made himself so available to hunters to "discuss" the issues?" Basically, he's just giving hunters lip service so he can go ahead and do what he wants to do. The BLM and Forest service do the same thing all the time with their "public input meetings”. Mark

Sorry to be so pessimistic, but I can’t help but think that the AZ Fish Police have already made their decision about the bait issue. The “public comment” they are giving us the “opportunity” to provide is just a motion that they go through before they go ahead and do what they want to do. Our only chance is to make such a fuss that the comissioners listen to us. Mark

Christian, what is your teachers name?? Just kidding!

And what's next? Maybe they will ban hunting within 1/4 mile of water holes? No dogs for bear or lion? No esterus deer or elk scents? How about no "Fall blend" cover scent? You're right, despite different hunting tactics, we need to stick together as hunters. The fish police seem totally out of control and out of touch. We have to band together, and stop them on this one, or they will slowly boil the frog. I am really bummed about the way things are going. Mark

Sorry to sound so negative about G&F. I guess I don't completely understand the whole process. I have had a lot of bad experiences with the BLM and Forest Service that seem to completely ignore public input. Also, I had a pretty negative impression of Leonard from a public input meeting in Mesa in January of 2006. He seemed to me to be arrogant, defensive, and condescending. Maybe it was because he was new, or he was having a bad night, and of course I was comparing him to Tice. Mark

I hate to be a pessimist, but I think with the democratic congress, and a good chance of a new democrat president, and this sad event that the anti's will use as leverage, new gun legislation will be rammed down our throat. I'm going to be placing an order for a new AR15 in the next few days, as I think an "assault weapon ban", worse than the one in 1993, will be the first thing they do. I already have two AR15s, but I have two boys and I want to pass one on to each of them, and keep one for myself. Of course this won't help if they pass a total ban and collect them like Australia did. I heard that the Australians were saying that this wouldn’t have happened if the United States had a total ban like Australia did. What they failed to mention is that the crime rate went up in Australia after they collected all the guns from the honest people. Mark

I could make the 8th or 9th! Mark

We all know that CHD is a looney tune. All you have to do is read a few lines of what he writes to see that he deals with all his personal issues by lashing out at good people. I think that we should all say a prayer for him. Amanda, thanks for starting and running this forum, and thanks especially for all your un-selfish and hard work for the Arizona Deer, conservation, and hunting communities. Your friend, Mark

I've been meaning to take my 7 year old out for some of this fun, but I've been too occupied with my 11 year old's hunts (Doe, pig and now turkey) In fact, the only small game hunting I've ever done is to whack the bunnies with blunts in my yard. The 7 year old has been incredibly patient, and I'm feeling really guilty. Does anyone have some suggestions where would be some decent small game hunting this Summer North of Phoenix for a 7 year old?? Thanks, Mark

Yes, by all means call Leonard Ordway and waste your time. He's very good at listening and then instantly blowing you off. He dosen't even try to act like he cares about listening to you. He just wants you to shut up so he can forget about you sooner! Mark