kidso

+1. I've drawn 3 cow tags in 5 years, and had never even put in for a premium bull tag knowing that my odds of being draw for one were slim. However, I did put in for a high success draw rate late archery hunt that actually gave me BETTER draw odds than my usual cow rifle hunt, so I applied for that bull hunt as my first choice just to get into the field with a tag and got it! Yes, it will be a tough hunt and yes, there may not be monster bulls around, but hey...I'm after meat and I am hunting and that makes me happy.

Placed a few cameras today and stayed up high, around 6600 feet. No bear sign, no lion sign, just a lot of deep, dry, dusty ruts in the road...and tons of guys on quads out hunting for antlers. It was still fun.

I feel like Ace Ventura in "Dumb and Dumber"....so your saying there is a chance.... Time to put out the cameras on Good Friday. Hopefully, it will be Good!

I'm NOT turkey hunting, so I'll let you know if I find any turkey sign. When is the turkey hunt? Does it oerlap with the archery spring tag bear hunt?

Details brother, details. A picture is worth 1,000 words, but 1,000 words with a great picture is priceless!!! More information on the harvest details if you please.

Sweet job! How about more details on your stand? All of us callers want more information on how harvesting your first lion played out. Hand call or electronic call? How long into your stand did the lion show up? How long from the time you first spotted it until you shot it? How far was the shot? What weapon were you using? What time of day was it? What number stand of the day were you on when you tagged it? Just fill in the gaps for the calling junkies, please!

Very sweet James. I think I never caught a cat since all my live trap cages are "low profile" and only half the height of the one you have pictured. Too bad a bear won't fit into them!

And, what did you use for bait? I used to use live traps in Unit 33 while attending the U of A a few years ago and trapped about 50 skunks, 5 fox, but no bobcats (which is what I always hoped for). I always used 9-Lives cat food for bait and was sprayed only once by a spotted skunk that I decided to keep since it was so cool looking.

Short story....back in the late 1980's a hiker friend of mine came across a fresh bighorn sheep lion kill along the Salt River near Stewart Mountain and informed me about it, being that he knew I was a hunter and saved animal skulls for Boy Scout presentations and science class lessons. He brought the skull back in a sack and marked the kill location on a topo map and also informed the Game and Fish of his find and requested to keep the skull so he could transfer it to a friend (me)as a gift. Well, the Game and Fish BEAT me to his home which was a 30 minute drive for me after receiving his phone call. He told me the two agents were very rude and impounded the skull as eveidence and the topo map to investigate the kill site, which clearly was a lion kill, according to my "naturalist/knowledgable" friend. He took me to the kill spot the very next day so I could check it out too, and the remaining carcass was gone. We called the Game and Fish for answers and to check on his request to keep the skull. Game and Fish responded that no bighorn sheep carcass had been reported, nor had any skull been impounded for investigation, etc. We were both floored at the dishonesty of the whole ordeal and figured that the agents were in on a profit splitting deal with a "private buyer" to improve their own economic situation. I have a heard a few stories like this throughout my lifetime and figured that they were mostly urban legends told by hunters around campfires until it happened to my own small circle.

Heard a deer whiff me early in the morning and had it turn and move directly at me from the brush. It caught me totally off guard as I have never deer hunted nor shot at a deer, but I had a tag in my backpack. I was staring at its antlers and counting points...it was a 4x4 whitetail. I drew back and fired early...I guess...as my arrow zipped directly in front of it. I figured that I was too excited and did not anchor the bow string in the corner of my mouth and I may have even forgot to use my peep sight! It was a 15 yard shot. An hour or two later, I did the same thing on a javelina at 10 yards...becasue I missed again. I was into small herds of 6-8 javelina twice thereafter, but at around 4:30 pm I walked into another herd. This time, I was patient. I stood atop a boulder and actually used the rangefinder around my neck. It said 38.4 yards. I put my 40 yard pin right on the front center of the pig, drew my bow all the way back, anchored it, looked through the peep sight, and fired. Whack! The javelina took off. I gave it 20-30 minutes then trailed it with waning daylight. I lost the blood trail when I heard it moving down a ridge and charged after it, but never found it. I felt like giving up, but went all the way back up the ridge and trailed its blood step by step and found the javelina about 30 minutes later. BBQ pig ribs tonight!

Great job. We all know those last "five minutes" of shooting light. Lots of things can happen then in a hurry!

We live at 4904 W. Boston Street in Chandler just south of the Rural Road and Chandler Boulevard intersection. We do the "redneck" firepit on the weekends too, and typically have a crockpot of hot cocoa brewing and marshmellows ready to roast over the open fire while chatting with whomever stops by to view the display. But with with 1-year old twin girls on the loose,our hosting capabilities are quite unpredictable...just like bear hunting in Arizona!

Elk looks huge to me. Did you run into any bear up in 9?

No more water barrel pictures. The local cattle population found it and drank it dry. Too much work to refill just to meet the needs of the beef industry. Looking for a new spot for the trail cam. This is my first real cub.

I might be a little off, but I thought that I once read that some wildlife survey had suggested that we have 4,000-6,000 non-reservation bears in Arizona.

I like the fat bear. He would be fun to watch moving around.

Sweet color! Can't wait to hear and see the rest!

Nice! First bear is a bruiser for sure.

Spend time going into canyon bottoms and oak ridges looking for bear scat in small clearings or on the side of game trails. Check large diameter tree for claw marks and scratching sign, and of course look for prints near water sources if mud or soft sand is amenable to leaving prints behind. If all else fails, leave behind a few trail cameras on water holes, ridgeline saddles or game trails to see if bears are using the area. Its simple: find the sign, find the bears!...well not that simple!

Wait until you find a scat the diameter of a coke can, then you are talking large bear, or constipated bear! Scat looks average to me.

I like the video opening scenes showing different Arizona wildlife...pretty neat...and the most comfortable ground blind I've seen yet!

+1 on the hand calls, Lance is right. Electronic calls do work, but I sometimes give the bears more brains than they might have and think that a smart bear may notice that a particular electronic track is self-repeating every 15-30 seconds, which doesn't usually happen naturally when an animal is being distressed or torn apart. Pitch, volume, tone, and EMOTION change-ups are key elements to calling bear in my experience. The particular call is less important than the emotion and feeling a caller puts into their efforts. I've about equally called in bears using both open- and closed-mouth reed calls. I've also found it easier to call in bears earlier in the season, August-September, when they are moving around more to their food sources, especially when switching from spring/summer grasses to manzanita berries and acorns. I personally have squalled at a bear I spotted munching on acorns across a canyon for over an hour and he could have cared care less about traveling over to me with so much ample food around him that required much less energy to harvest than my dying mammal. Good luck. Be patient and have faith. Calling is much like fishing. You can throw the lure in the water and the fish may be there, but for whatever reason, they just don't bite. Don't give up after your first canyon or your first one-hour stand. But, be sure you are in an area that has fresh bear sign and keep at it.

...or stick him over water? Nice job.

I guess the back legs missed the paint can! Neat, I've seen all four limbs a darker color, but never just the front two.