Hyperwrx

Great Pictures.

Not true. I contest hunt enough to know that nobody shoots a contest with a light load. Time is of an essence in a contest and you don't want to waste time chasing a coyote down. In typical contest hunts you don't get your coyotes anyhow so why care if the pelt is picture perfect. heck.. who cares fi you have to drag it back in 2 pieces. When I've hunted the Worlds, guys are shooting to drop them in their tracks. .223 is the minimum you'll see an accomplished contest hunter use. Generally they'll go bigger. I hunted with Les Johnson a ways back and he pulled out a .22-250 and got the job done... at a distance the .223 guys wish they could. I just picked up an AR in .17 Remington from Carey Custom Rifles. Curious to see how it does on recreational coyote shooting.

It depends on a few things. Are you wanting to keep the fur? Are you hunting in a contest? Do you respect the animal you shoot so it receives a quick clean kill? I have shot many coyotes with my .17 fireball. That's a 20g bullet going 4000 fps and sometimes it does not get the job done in an ethical manner. Here is a 40 yard head shot (right between the eyes if you slow the video down) and it does not drop him. Minutes later he is still moving around and I have to shot him again. I now use my .17FB only for foxes and bobcats. http://youtu.be/HEOsq7zNyAQ The standard in the industry for coyotes is a .223. Using a .22 is irresponsible. It hasn't the kinetic energy at 100 yards to get the job done consistently. Consistently is the key here. I'm sure if you search hard enough you can find someone who has killed a coyote with a kitchen spoon- that doesn't mean it's the right weapon for the job.

Give that man a prize. Best ladder stand on the planet.

Acorns yields run in cycles I am told. we had a heavy yield last year and this year they are not dropped at the same rate. Bear rooting around are finding leftovers from last year. If acrons were the primary food staple last year, you might not find them in the same area. I have a few trail cameras in the area I found bears last year (acorn beds) and am not seeing them in the same numbers as last year. When acrons are not thier primary food source I understand they go for the prickerly pear fuit. Somehow the bear know what source is in abundance.

I spent a few days in unit 27. Lots of turkeys gobbling pack at us but I couldn't get one to come in. They seemed to run away when we made any noise. We even found a great roost and sat 40 yards from it come sun up yelping and the toms flew in the other direction. I don't get it? Any tips?

No pictures of that unfortunately. Biggest cage so it was structurally the weakest. Pulled the entire door off the tracks and inside the cage, then maneuvered it flat on the bottom and crawled out over it. Ruined the cage. Couldn't have been a large lion. Chris M. from CO caught a nice sized lion in a cage. The lion broke all its K9s biting the cage and frayed its claws. The lion was let go, as per G&F regulations and made for much controversy even amongst hunters and trappers because of the bad PR it generated. Another

I caught a lion in a cage trap in the Bulldog Canyon area 3 years ago. There are a number of lions that call that area home.

I know of only 1 individual in AZ who makes a living trapping for personal gain + AZG&F work and I suspect he lives a pretty meager living by most people's standards. As a single retired guy I could see it, but I don't forsee my wife being happy holed up in some shed of a house while I run across the state trapping. I wish.

Dont remember exact date it was shot. Beginning of open bear and it coincided with a youth hunt. Skull is out being done right now and pelt shipped off a few months ago. Colorado bear is next stop.

For 6K a month I could try my damnedest to put down as much fur as they require. I bet 3-4 coyotes a day would keep you in the money.

Probably didn't post it here. On Youth elk hunt. Saw bear, took boy's .270, hand called it to 70 yards , and shot it.

Many years G&F will accept bids for trappers or hunters to go into an area and clean out the coyotes. I know a trapper who won a bid at 6k/month to take coyotes out of antelope country. After a month he was not getting enough and they let him go. I was contacted 2 years ago by A&G to put in a bid for hunting coyotes down in Southern AZ in antelope country. The requirements on paper are not very flexible. Check in every day or 2 with proof of kills. I wanted to go down on just the weekends and do it with a few other guys filling in weekdays. In the end, we couldn't get schedules right and I had to bow out. There is good money to be made if you don't have a job and can prove you can put fur on the ground. The putting a lot of fur on the ground is the part more recreational predator callers can't do.

Boarder patrol agents several times. Once down by San Simon had a boarder patrol helicopter come and hover over me 40' up while they surveyed the situation. Concerning the lion killed w/o a tag. If you self-report, most times you will walk away with no citation. I had a new hunter who had not only never hunted but this was his first time shooting a firearm. 1st stand, 30 seconds in and in comes a lion and he shoots it at 15 yards with a shotgun. This was before shotguns shooting shot were allowed. We called G&F and an agent and he came and took out story and issued no tickets but he did confiscate the lion. Small price to pay for a major mistake.

I got one last year. Based on high acorn yield, I mapped out where the Oak trees where plus looked for the thickest groupings of trees and shot one on the first day. This year I was along for a youth turkey hunt and found a few other areas that fit last years criteria. No bear this year but it was super dry and any acorns around were left from last year.

Bob Small, the person who put on the sale posted this on another forum. It's straight from his mouth (fingers). also he added this

485 bobcats registered 228 No saled bobcats High Bobcat $1325 Only 2 buyers showed and fur prices were not that great. I imagine all those no saled cats are heading up to NAFA as quickly as possible. Not sure on cut-off date for that sale. I sold some fur and took what I could get.

I was on a coues deer hunt East of Patagonia in the hills 4 years ago and called in a small bear while working on grey fox. Came to within about 30 yards and the wind changed and he caught a whiff of me and took off running. 15 minutes later while driving down with my brother, we were stopped by a few guys who were warning us about a bear that can barreling down the canyon full tilt. I might have smelled bad, but I wasn't that ripe.

There were multiple buyers who said they were going to show up and never walked through the door.

Several years ago an Ocelot was hit by a passing car in Superior. AZG&F came out and ID'd it as an ocelot. Pretty far migration north if you ask me. There was also a few pictures roaming around of an ocelot that was chased up a Saguaro in Tucson a few years. Those pictures didn't look like a sleek bodied ocelot but more like a fat bobcat but it also was ID'd as an ocelot by AZG&F. I know a few prominent dog guys who tree endangered lions often down South. Back in the old days it was legal to kill jaguars in AZ. Lots of cool pictures are around if you search. These days the Feds would rather close off Southern AZ to allow the migrating jaguars room to roam then just keep them out of AZ. We have a tough time keeping anything or anyone OUT of Arizona.

Ya got me. What's funny is I'm a math teacher! Linear equations, sin and cosine graphs, theorems, and postulates I am versed in, grammar not so much.

I have no problem calling in several coyotes in a days time. I just can't get a good enough shot to kill many. Give me foxes and bobcats any day. Same predator minus about 50% of the brains. No bobcat is going to stay 200 yards out in the brush and swing downwind of the caller and me. Foxes? Stupider than a bag of rocks.

NEVADA TRAPPERS ASSOCIATION FALLON FUR SALE RESULTS February 21, 22, 23, 2014 Species/ Quantity Sold/ Average Price/ Percent Sold/ High Lot Badger 38 $14.08 86.4% $26.00 Bear 7 $191.29 100% $355.00 Beaver 181 $16.46 74% $31.50 Bobcat 1802 $420.35 92.8% $1059.00 Coyote 746 $32.50 97.6% $92.57 Gray Fox 1252 $26.33 100% $35.43 Kit Fox 314 $15.12 100% $18.25 Red Fox 5 $47.43 100% $51.57 Mink 14 $12.68 100% $17.88 Mountain Lion 16 $284.56 94.1% $561.00 Mtn. Lion Skull 9 $40.78 100% $61.00 Muskrat 899 $8.03 99.6% $9.84 Otter 1 $81.88 100% $81.88 Ringtail 9 $18.89 100% $21.10 Spotted Skunk 3 $12.70 100% $21.10 Striped Skunk 37 $6.41 100% $8.07 Castor (lbs.) 15 $31.22 100% $35.50

The whole fur market this year is all about taking chances, which is too bad. Many people put in too much time and effort trapping to play a guessing game at the end for the payout. It angers me but I realize the fur market is a risk from year to year and it requires the time/money/effort to be put out up front and the reward at the very end. I trapped just about all season and had a good number of pelts to show for it but not near the money I anticipated. It is what it is. Nothing is a sure bet.