kpinaz

Drew 34A WT, 2nd week of Nov. It was my 4th choice

BofA is a bunch of theives. They stole about $600 from me back in the late 90's.

nope, southern end of the sierritas.

Found a dead forky on Wednesday in 36A. Looks like he had only been dead since Monday or Tuesday. I wouldn't want to eat him, but if you want to recover that awesome rack (LOL), PM me with the area and I can tell you where he is. kp

since it is not a shed, can't you get into trouble for picking it up?

Just do what I do, and choke them down out of a warped sense of responsibility. I dont like them, but I eat them because I feel like I owe it to them since I blasted them in the face with a shotgun.

Why are the (early) hunts here in AZ limited to a week long? It seems like it would make more sense to have a tag valid for a month, or longer. When you put 500-750 hunters in a unit and give them only a week to tag out, you have hunters tripping over each other, and you create some pretty intense pressure on the deer. What if hunts were a month long? Or if tags were valid for an entire season (3 months or so)? Hunters would be much more spread out, people would allow lesser animals to walk early in the season, instead of just shooting to fill their tag. It seems like the 7 day hunts create a lot more stress on both hunter and quarry.

Don't you already have that situation? I mean, if getting "first crack" is most important, then under the current system you can apply for an early tag. A lot of people do, and you have hunters on every hill in some units on opening day. You could still do so if the season was longer, but as the season went along, you'd have fewer hunters in the field, because many will have tagged out, or burned up their vacay, or whatever. There are very few people who would actually be able to devote an entire month to a hunt, much less an entire 3 month season, and you wouldn't have to deal with all of the hunters in the field at once. If you can't take time off during the week, you've got 3-4 weekends. If you don't like the crowds, or are retired, or just have alot of vacation time, you could go during the week. If you knew you'd be able to get out again later in the month, you might let that forky walk during the first week. AZGFD could charge according to the "quality" of the hunt. X for an October tag, X.5 for a Nov, and 2X for a December, or something like that, which would keep revenue up. Success rate would undoubtedly go up, so that may be a problem depending on whteher or not an area can sustain it, but you could mete out tags accordingly. If the success rate were higher, there would be more incentive for some to apply, again, generating revenue. I guess it would make the "quality" of the hunt better for us hunters, but I'll admit I have no clue if it would work from a game management standpoint.

The star has an article about the sandhill crane hunt this year. http://azstarnet.com/news/local/article_1c6306a0-db11-5f9c-a89c-c4a446e39eca.html?mode=story The article itself is fine I suppose, but the comments are decidedly anti-hunting, which, is not surprising considering the venue. The star is very openly anti-gun, and unabashedly left-leaning(understatement). I'd encourage responsible, well-thought out comments on this and other articles about hunting and gun ownership in general, as a way to show that hunters (and by default gun-owners), are not murdering, hate-filled, hill-billys.

Actually, the 36's are all pretty close to me, and I am very familiar with all of them, so that may be the way I go. I guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope there is something good left

Ok, Either my son or myself made a mistake on our deer app, and it was rejected for INVALID/INCORRECT BIRTHDATE. So now we want to pick up some of the leftover tags that are available, but I could really use the $ that we used for the original draw. I know the regs say that refunds are mailed NLT mid-August, but I'd rather not wait that long so I can still get a decent tag. If I go down to AZGFD, can they look up my old app, and transfer those funds over to the leftover tag app? (they've already cashed the check afterall) Or is it more likely that "the check is in the mail" and I'm going to have to pony up the coin again for the LO tag, and wait for the refund from the first draw to come in the mail? Anyone BTDT?

The have been known to be omnivores for years. There was a bird study once where nets were strung across a field, and during the night the birds would come and eat the birds out of the nets. There was another that involved placing cameras on the nests of some ground bird for study, and they caught deer coming in and raiding the nests and eating the eggs and hatchlings. I guess you could call them "opportunistic" feeders

It is, but it's all anecdotal right now. I listened to the meeting, (most of it), and they said that no actual studies have been done. The info was based on a few observances, and speculation about the effects due to the timing. BUT, I found it interesting that they said that they did not have an accurate picture of the turkey population PRIOR to the fire. Which is odd, considering that is probably the most crucial piece of info required for managing any species.

I didn't get to hear all of it, but it sounds like they are going to reduce the number of tags in unit 1 from 675 to 200, and in unit 27 from 900 to 300? Is that correct? I was trying to listen and work at the same time.....

I definitely went too far with the sarcasm, and I'm sorry about that. I just get the impression from many people that use cameras, that once they strap that thing to a tree, they "own" that area. But you know that 30 years ago, before trailcams, that guy was still walking his dogs thru "your" spot. You just didnt know about it. And he has every right to. Is it a bummer? yeah. Is he scaring the deer? Maybe, I'm not convinced that it's a huge deal. But seriously ask yourself, what are you going to do? Stake out the area to "talk" to him? About what? Are you going to plead to his sense of courtesy to not walk his dogs there? That's great, IF he places the same value on hunting that we do. But what if he doesn't? What if he just wants to get out and walk his dogs, eat granola, and get away from his overbearing wife, on public land. What if he tells you to go jump in a lake? Then what? I see alot of posts about how "people" need to have some common courtesy, but that goes both ways. We as hunters need to show just as much courtesy to each other, AND non-hunters alike. Probably more so, since there are plenty of folks that would paint us all as zealous, bambi-murdering, nut jobs. Your camera gives you information about what happens in an area, but it doesn't give you ANY say on how other people LEGALLY use that area, even if it is detrimental to your goal. I'm not against cams. They are an awesome tool. But let the dude use the area. Heck, maybe his presence will acclimate the deer to a human presence, and make them more complacent.

well, buying a cam does entitle you to be the only person that is allowed to set foot in that area (possibly even the entire unit, but it will depend on how expensive your cam is...) I say stake out the area waiting for the transgressors to pass, then strike down upon them with great vengence and furious anger. I mean, who does the guy think he is, walking his dogs wherever he dang well pleases? Doesn't he know that you bought a camera, and now he's basically trespassing? He's obviously just doing it to ruin your hunting season. You have every right to confront this jerk during his "dog walking" (allegedly...), and find out why he has chosen to ruin your life!! And when you do it, make sure he doesn't try to get away with any of that "Oh, I didn't know there was a camera" or "but its camo'd so how was i supposed to see it..", and especially not, "I thought this was public land..?" Oldest excuses in the books.

I grew up in S. AZ, and spent my whole life hunting/fishing here, and I had my very first opossum encounter last year. We live in Three Points, west of tucson, and one morning our dogs were barking at something under our house. My son went under to investigate, and yells out that it was a possum. I assumed it was a skunk, and told him so, and he said, "no dad, its a possum..." I told him that it must be a raccoon then(which would still be odd, but not completely unheard of), and he said, "NO DAD, it's a freaking possum, I am looking right at it." I told him that there are no possums in AZ, so get out of there because it must be a skunk. He convinced me to pull the skirting off the house nearer to where it was, and I'll be damned if it wasn't a freaking possum!!!! It was curled up in a little ball, completely ignoring the dogs. So now what? I went to get the .22 to dispatch it, because I didn't want the dogs messing with it, and the wife and daughters vetoed that plan. So I made a catch pole out of some nylon rope run twice thru a piece of PVC pipe, and slipped it around the little guys neck. WOW! He was awake after that, and let me tell you that he didn't like that one bit. Those things are UGLY when they are pissed off. And they have some pretty nasty teeth. We deftly dropped him in the cat carrier, and took him for a ride about 2 miles out into the desert. I thought it was an odd encounter, since I've never seen a possum before in my life, so I wrote an Email to the AZ Sonoran Desert Museum. They replied back that it was indeed VERY odd, but not impossible. They let me know that there are opossums in N. Mexico, and that this guy was either a migrant(40 miles N of the border?), or just living at the northern edge of the range. Pretty strange, but cool too!