Ringer

When you kick the bucket can you have them take that piece of skin off and tan it so we can auction it off on the site? That would make a cool wrap for a rifle stock.

Pete-I remember when you were hired by Don to start AZSFW and at that time some of us knew that we would eventually get to the tag grab. Well, whether you were involved or not it is obvious we got there and it was a crude and dark attempt. If these tags were such a great thing for the Arizona family hunters then why would they have not had an open discussion on this forum? You know that Arizona was scarred from the USO suit and we will never allow any organization to take control of our G&F or force their will through the politicians. I agree there is plenty of work to do for wildlife and hunting but I don't see it happening through 350 tags to sell and raffle. You think it was a good idea to override our game laws and allow multiple kills on the same species in a year? That bill was a joke and you can bet the majority of hunters here are never going to support any form of it in the future. Good luck in your future endeavors.

My old man must have missed the regret part. He died hard but never really complained about missing much. I drowned in Alaska in 1982 and I mean I was seeing lights. It felt awesome right at the last part. Haven't worried much about dying since then. I work my rear of to help my kids and stay close to my friends. Going up to Alaska for my 27th trip to fish this summer so I have done a lot of things I wanted to. Hope to make it a few more years to see my grandson become a man and then I can check out at any time. I spent a few days and nights in the hospice with my dad and that was just crazy. Heard my old man talking to a dead uncle just like he was in the room and same with the 89 year old lady across the hall talking to her father. Hope I go quick.

Smack-is that you Don?

AZSFW is dead they just haven't realized it yet. They corrupted our system to achieve a goal that was bad for Arizona hunters. If we need a lobbyist then the name cannot be Gilstrap. That dog won't hunt. Any organization that uses her will not get support from most of us. If we need a lobbyist then collect the strongest groups and approach G&F for a dedicated habitat stamp for $5 for every big game tag. If they can legally do that and focus the funds to an outside group that represents real Arizona hunters it could work. If not then find a credible lobbyist and get the amount needed and work with the Commission for a couple of raffle tags dedicated to a legal defense fund. There has to be a better way to get the needed job done without whoring out our state to SFW.

I wrote Brewer on this mess and asked her to become aware of SFW and the recent bill as well as the infiltration of the commission by SFW. Keep writing to expose the political influence and their agenda. Gilstraps are bad for Arizona and so is SFW.

How do you htink interest groups buy politicians? They find weak ones and figure out what they need and provide that. Could be contributions, could be premium hunts in Alaska could be a job for their kid to make a living off the backs of regular folks. The game is well defined and we better understand that until SFW, Weiers and the Gilstraps are out of the hunting community we will have trouble.

The only thing that will stop SFW is to organize a campaign to vote Weiers out and send a message. Also how about all the groups that were tything 10% to SFW to pay for them to screw the family hunters in Arizona? Might want to put some pressure on them to get out of the tag grab plot.

SFW in AZ hasn't pulled any of the Utah tricks? Are you kidding? This tag grab was the dirtiest trick they could ever pull on family hunters in this state. Weiers sends out the same letter another co-conspirator sent out and we are supposed to think Gilstrap didn't write the spin? I am talking to as many people in his district that I can and so far every one said they voted for him but would vote against him in the next election. I will write to everyone I can and remind them next election. Once you compromise your office and ethics you can never be trusted.

John-you may be the greatest guy in the world but it is amazing that the AZ mess goes down with the exact same model Peay rammed to Utah and he posts that you guys are totally independent of him. Now the founder of the Alaska SFW gets nailed for poaching and cheating and you never even knew they had a branch there. I have been there 26 times and have good friends there and they don't like SFW. They are even tougher than the people here so I am sure Don will issue a statement that he has nothing to do with Alaska.

Because he committed the cardinal sin on this one and tried to help you guys pass the exact same deal USO was wanting to get done. Because I don't trust politicians and figure if he would sponsor this he is dirty. Because it is my money and I can work against the man because he pissed me off. Now what are your thoughts on the good work of SFW in Alaska?

BPJ-any comments on Alaska SFW? Like the founding member Corey Rossi was appointed by the governor as Director of Wildlife Conservation with Peay writing that SFW finally had a solid political connection to Alaska's game division? Like the same Corey Rossi gave 4 of their 10 governor's tags to SFW to auction in Utah? Like the same Corey Rossi that just got busted for poaching brown bear on a hunt with people from Utah? You guy's wouldn't try to load our Commission here would ya?

BPJ-nice try but some of us will make getting rid of SFW our main endeavor. Once you know for a fact that there is a predator after your family it is best to get rid of it for good. Just like Taulman we are not ever going to take our eyes off of you and the boys. As for Weiers I am 62 and had both my shoulders rebuilt so no sympathy from me. I am going to wait until his next primary and donate $500 to whoever his GOP opponent is.

Are you serious? You first take credit for generating $3.5 million from the sale of our animals before you even do that then you try the scary tree hugger garbage to justify your existence. You have proven without a doubt that you cannot be trusted with our resources. Thank the Lord that I don't know what a good lobbyist costs.

I hope our good organizations will learn from this and stop contributing to SFW. They have now exposed their real face and need to be as dead as this bogus bill.

I would like to thank CMC whoever you are. We all owe you a lot on this one. I think you are the first person to sound the alarm and just in the nick of time. It is painfully obvious that we need to fight SFW and the Gilstraps at every opportunity. SFW found an advocate in Weiers and timed this to ram it through before any of us knew about it. It was self serving and designed to steal a lot of big game tags to launch the Utah model here in Arizona. We knew Peay was for the USO suit and here we are again. Need a few thousand bumper stickers but replace USO with SFW. I am hoping all of the good organizations will pull back the 10% tything to SFW if that was true. We need to cut this group out like the cancer it is.

I am not a board member of the AZSFW, but I will be requesting that information at next Tuesday's meeting. The financial records would probably surprise even you Lance...That group has never taken a dime from sportsmen for all the work they have done in 5 years. they are NOT paid, they were required to pay enormous sums of money to get the AZSFW off the ground. I know that other than Capitol Consulting (our lobbyist)no one else takes any money. The board member names will be addressed shortly, but most were correct, except for Nick. Sorry, gotta run to my dance lessons... Wonder why anyone would pay ENORMOUS sums of money to get the organization launched here? Anyone who has run a business and worked with the political side understands SFW is in it for one thing and that is to break the back of our AZ tag rules. So we need to support some lobbyist who is getting to politicians like Weiers so you can get the job done? Unbelievable and I will donate to whoever runs against Weiers in the primary.

That is exactly what we need to do. If he is that involved in hunting he must know how the majority of hunters feel about opening our big game management to political influence. We said no landowner tags and no tags for SFW so he deserves what he gets. He is exactly the type of politician Peay and the SFW would target for help.

Find out when Weiers is up for re-election and we will make sure there is a great voter turnout from sportsmen. He may have done some good but we need to send a message to the politicians. You sleep with dogs you get fleas.

Wasn't Pete Cemirillo the original director here? I seem to remember that he was getting paid a good salary to start the group. I may be wrong and am losing memory by the day but that is stuck in my mind. Anyway this may be the best thing to happen for family hunters here in Arizona. It has alerted all of us as well as dozens of politicians and we will keep working to stop future moves by SFW. I will be shocked if they have many regular hunters as members and hope they lose what they have.

Thanks for understanding that Don Peay is in it for Don Peay. He was supporting Taulman until the heat went up. SFW is bad for Arizona hunters. They will do what they have to to brag about how great they are but they are in it for the wealthy sponsors and founders. I think they will learn the Taulman lesson after this self serving attempt. We all need to keep the heat on all of the legislature in both parties and push for a bill outlawing the whoring of our big game system. If we don't make that law Peay will keep trying to buy off political favors until he gets his way.

I seem to remember that the guy in charge here was cutting six figures but we will never know because Peay refuses to disclose the financials.

I don't care what the SFW brags about doing to save Arizona wildlife. I volunteer and help when I can and the last time I checked SFW was not very popular with the average hunter in Utah. I remember when Peay came out for the USO suit then claimed he was against it when the heat started. Passing this bill will do more harm than good and I will do what I can to make sure SFW never gets expo or raffle tags in this state. Peay is messing with G&F in Utah and IMO the very things you people brag about are just setting the stage for SFW to get more control of our G&F management.

Anything will help. If it wasn't for this site I bet it would have been rammed through committee. They will hear from another few thousand hunters now that the word is being spread. I will fight Don Peay to my last breath. I still remember when he was supporting USO then said he wasn't. He said years ago that his greatest asset was his ability to work with politicians.

I went to Roosey to crappie fish last weekend and caught two 2 pound slabs and missed 4-5 bites. I did catch 5 bass in a half hour on a T-rig so some are still hanging in the shallows. Crappie should get better now that things are cooling off. Plenty of brush exposed on the Salt end with the low water.