Coach

I used to fish Lee's Ferry a lot. I had the best luck with 3" rebels that look like baby brown trout. Sometimes, you need a weight 2-3 feet up above a swivel to get 'em down to 6-8' feet. If you went more than 3 casts without a fish, your depth was wrong. Good luck and tell us what works.

Nice job! That's a great looking buck - I'd bet my bottom dollar there's a good story to go along with it - eh?

Didn't read it - want to elaborate?

Alright, now we need a picture, because he one in my head is just plain scary.

Holy sweet mother! Nice bucks indeed! My next AZ rifle tag will be 12A W or 13B. I'm not even going to bother putting in for anything else. Building points, and one day I'll hunt those monsters hard-horned. Thanks for the awesome pictures. If that doesn't get your blood pumping I don't know what will.

Nice bear! Congrats.

What size of pack? A day hauler or are you packing in and carrying everything you'll need for several days? I've got an Eberlestock J105 that I use mostly for hauling a a Matrix ground blind around or bags of salt - not a bad pack but I don't use it for hunting. If you're looking for a large, serious pack, I'd recommend the Lowe Alpine Saracen. This pack is used by the Dutch Special Forces and is similar to the Kifaru or Kuiu. It's military grade, which means it's heavy (9 lbs) but extremely durable. This pack will hold a rifle very well and carry anything you can pack in our out.

Great looking bucks there Brian! I can't wait to see the "hero" pics later.

A lot of it has to do with how steeply they increased resident big game tag fees, while at the same time doubled, even tripled the number of tags allotted in most units. Effectively, they started charging way more money for far less desireable hunts. Not that long ago, I could draw 24A December coues every couple of years for something like $27 (I don't remember all the actual tag prices) with around 350 tags total for that hunt. It was a quality hunt, for very little money. There were no October, November or early December tags for coues, if I remember correctly. Now a December tag in 24A is almost impossible to draw (only 45 tags), but for twice the price, I can hunt the same area in October or November with either 500 or 550 other hunters. 1095 tags, nearly triple the number of hunters, same chunk of land, same quantity of deer, just at times when they are harder to find, competition is exacerbated, and I'm supposed to pay twice as much. That's just one example, from one unit, for one species. I'm sure we could walk through them all - all units, all species, being managed by accountants and investors who have no understanding of the product or "commodity" they are attempting to manage - the way they see it through their eyes. At this point, I'm thinking AZGFD doesn't have too many economics majors sitting in on their top-level meetings - or hunters, for that matter. It's ironic that several years back when they started this whole strategy to "increase opportunity" - read literally as "lower value product for a higher price", a whole bunch of us economically illiterate hunters told them it was a monumentally stupid idea - a "lose-lose" proposition. They snubbed their noses at us and pointed to bogus surveys, totally dismissing any input we provided - which of course, they had asked for, but had no intention of acknowledging in any serious way. So now, applications are down which means revenues are down, and they're scratching their collective heads, wondering why. The irony is that this very situation was predicted, and communicated to AZGFD, years ago by the very sportsmen and women that they claim to be representing. They asked for our input, they got it, they ignored it - and now they wonder why support has dropped off.

Personally, I like the Jim White tripod adapter better than any other I've tried. It's light, simple and you can still wear your binocs with it attached (most people don't wear 15s around). Having one adapter that is always attached makes for easy transitions between scanning and slow glassing without having to mess with things. I've got 4 pairs of bino's with this adapter - my Swaro 10x42 SLC, Swaro 15x56, my two sons' Vortex 10x40's and we can all interchange our tripods when need be, or I can go to the big Bogen for any of our glass - it just makes things easy. What is it you're not liking about the JW adapter?

I like the Glen Del bucks the best. Way bigger than a coues, but a very good 3D target. I'm thinking broadheads will eat up just about any 3D target really fast.

Good pix - still doesn't look like they are as far along as they normally are this time of year.

+1 for Diamond Razor Edge. It's extremely adjustable for young archers.

LOL - this thread just keeps getting better by the day! Real hunters dress in loin cloths, and club deer into submission. Any fancy projectiles, and you are a WIMP!

I've heard really good things about the Z7, may as well shoot the Bowtech Destroyer and Hoyt CRX 32/35 too. So many great bows out there - I'm sure you'll find one that just feels right to you.

Lots of takers for a give-away price on a great bow. Not to hijack or anything - but wow - what kind of tile is that. Its' like 40" tile with 2" grout lines, unless you've been shrunk to the size of a GI Joe. I'd love to see what that room looks like. I bet it's absolutely gorgeous!

Here's another home-brew secuity box. This time for a Moultrie M-80. The goal for this box is to have it pivot up and down. The M-80 is a very thick camera so that was the first thing I had to work around. The actual pivoting came from a piece of steel I saved, but have no idea where it came from - but it's perfect for this kind of application. But first, we have to build the box. So I used a chunk of 4x6 tube I had left over from a truck bumper application. This is some thick steel, as I wanted to make a bumper for a truck that could be used as an air tank - never happened - different story. Cut out the front for the camera and 2 big holes in back to provide access to the lag bolts on the main piviting mount: Of course it needs a hinge on one side, and a some way to lock it on the other side... The hinge is 3/8" black steel pipe with some 7/16 grade 8 bolts. But the lock area is exposed to bolt cutters, so we need to cover that up with some heavy angle iron. So now the box is built...

Thanks DCS. I'm a software engineer but I really enjoy welding projects.

Wow, great photos.

So, if the Forest Service parks a water tanker or dozer in the forest for over 24 hours, I can claim it? Interesting...

Thanks for the replies. This weekend I'll design some type of wheeled cart to haul it in and out of the woods.

There's no doubt we'll see ugly scarring from this fire for years. We'll also see deer and elk herds taking advantage of the new growth. It's a strange paradox - what forest looks best to us, is not always the best for its inhabitants, and what looks like a catastrophe to us, might be the perfect opportunity for resilient life to thrive. Sometimes, it's just a matter of swapping out the lenses we look at life through, to see another perspective. All good things come with a price, and all bad things carry with them an opportunity. It's up to us to find both.

Thanks, bone. I may finally be able to sleep!

Wow, that's rough. I still don't get how anyone with any sort of self-worth would take something that belongs to someone else. How messed up do you have to be to convince yourself that it's OK to steal another person's property? Apparently, there are a few low-life, (deleted) people perpetuating this. Here's what gets me. I know that each community of hunters has an inherent kind of competitive nature, but still kind of gel in a strange way with unspoken rules and codes of conduct. I consider it "chivalry" in hunting. We compete among ourselves, but we we conduct ourselves with integrity. We can mess with someone, play a prank or two... But where does the break-down occur, that you're walking around, find someone else's salt lick and camera, and just say, "sweet, I'm taking this"? I think it takes a kind of broken mentality to do what is wrong, knowing that your are crossing that line. You can no longer claim honesty or integrity as core traits - to anyone. Not to your friends, your brother or sister, your mother and father. Even if you are never caught, you know that you gave away some of the best things about yourself, for what, a $100 camera you didn't even earn? It's a lose-lose situation, but unfortunately one we'll all have to endure until the average American can find his/her integrity.

Alright, 86 views and not one response. I know it ain't pretty, but it's quite functional...why do I need validation here?