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Congrats on an awesome looking bear! Great write up too.

Interesting thread for sure. I'm glad we got to hear both sides of the story. On the other hand, why is it that every big bull or buck has to end up in a controversy? We should be happy for our fellow hunters when they achieve what we all spend so much time, money and effort trying to accomplish. Leave the petty jealousy aside for long enough to give credit where it is due. Ive been hunting AZ long enough to know that successful hunts are usually the result of hard work, hard scouting and most importantly, a team effort. I choose to hunt strictly self-guided, but that doesnt mean I dont count on information from friends, somebody with me to help call, or help glass, or just hang out and share the experience. Very few people I know or have known can say that from year-to-year theyve harvested trophy quality animals on their own. Having someone else to help out doesnt diminish the hunt in any way, as far as Im concerned it actually enriches the hunt. Part of the hunt is recognizing and giving credit to the friends and family members who helped make it possible. Another key part is the bonding between people that happens along the way. A guy who consistently has success, completely on his own, is to be admired, but probably also feels very alone at times. A truly successful hunt, in my opinion, is one that is shared with sons, friends, dads, sisters, etc. Its a great opportunity to bond with the people close to you. Lets just try to support each other, without jealousy, without personal agendas, to go into the field with friends and family and create positive experiences that only hunting can generate.

Sorry to hijack with a psuedo-classified ad. If you are looking for a new sight, take a good look at the Axcel Armortech HD 7 pin too. Great sight.

I've got a Hogg-It Hunter sight on my Bowtech Allegiance with the 7 deadly pins housing - great sight. I've got over $300 in that sight and I'm hoping to sell the bow/sight together, but I might be willing to sell the sight separately. I'm posting the bow with sight on Ebay when I get back in town from some traveling. If I don't get what I need from the combo, I might let the sight go separately.

Great pictures Scott. Looks like a great family outing! Thanks for sharing. I've got 3 boys too, a little older - your post brings back a lot of memories of that age. Great job getting them out there building lifelong memories.

Posted this on the "Saddest Trip Ever" thread, but I'll put it here as well. I live in Lakeside, if any of you guys evacuating the fire need a place to store a boat or trailer, I'd be happy to let you park whatever you need at my house. I don't have much storage for "loose" things, but I'll do whatever I can to help. Shoot me a PM. If I don't get back to you right away, I'm going to be on the road starting Sunday to attend a funeral in Oklahoma, but you can call me at 928-242-9350. I've got enough space here to park a couple of trailers filled with belongings, etc.

This is truly a sad situation. I live in Lakeside, if any of you guys evacuating the fire need a place to store a boat or trailer, I'd be happy to let you park whatever you need at my house. I don't have much storage for "loose" things, but I'll do whatever I can to help. Shoot me a PM. If I don't get back to you right away, I'm going to be on the road starting Sunday to attend a funeral in Oklahoma, but you can call me at 928-242-9350. I've got enough space here to park a couple of trailers filled with belongings, etc.

We've got evacuees from Alpine staying at Blue Ridge High school now. I feel so bad for all the people who have to leave their homes with no idea what they’ll find when they return. My complaint with this fire is exactly the same complaint I have year-after-year. These things generally start out small, and are quickly *mostly* contained. The response is usually a small crew fighting a small-to-medium fire. Next thing you know, it gets totally out of hand, and USFS is scrambling to bring in larger teams to fight it. We’ve seen it up here time and time again. Why not put massive resources into getting it fully contained while it is still manageable? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that with dry conditions and high winds, it doesn’t take much at all for any fire to get completely out of control – as this one clearly has. It’s almost like the powers that be want it to become a massive catastrophe so they’ll get more funding, bigger budgets, and line their pockets in the process when they could have done more, early on, to keep it from becoming such a disaster. I should have some pix tomorrow of the smoke plumes. I sure hope homes and businesses are spared, and maybe, in the long run, the forest will be healthier.

Nice! Maybe the 27 animals are fleeing the fire and heading West.

Heading to my youngest son's baseball game this afternoon, I could see HUGE smoke plumes - like an inverted thunder head - this is in Lakeside. I assumed it was another Whiteriver fire. That thing has to be enormous. And with the winds we're seeing, I don't know how they can ever contain it until it runs out of fuel.

Can't wait to see the pictures, Scott.

The fly shop at Hon Dah has a really good selection of flies. I'm sure you could get a variety of woolly worms and wooly buggers there on your way to the lake.

Thanks everyone - it was a blast. We had a little fish fry with all the ones that couldn't be released cleanly, and it was awesome. I noticed that the fish weren't filled with those little seed-looking worms this time. Maybe the river is cleaning itself up.

NICE!

Hey guys, I'm looking to buy a family fishing/ski boat and almost pulled the trigger today. Luckily, the boat had a major failure in the steering linkage within minutes of starting our test-drive (the owner was driving, thank goodness). I'm a research fanatic, so I have a pretty good idea of the type/brand of boat I think would be a good fit for our family. I've been looking at the Nitro 188/288, Ranger Realta (out of my price range), Procraft 181, Triton 188, etc. So today I was close to buying 1996 Skeeter 200 SL, and met the seller at Roosevelt for a test drive. My first impressions were: The bad: Obviously, the entire steering system disintegrated. The cables that turn the motor were gummed up and frozen, so the steering box (adjustable tilt) had to take the pressure and basically turned to metal dust. An honest mechanic on Roosevelt has this fix at right around $1K for a non-tilt replacement. A new, fixed steering column and new cables at 16' to the motor. This adds a thousand dollars right off the bat, plus around $800 for a good, new trolling motor. It's been sitting in the sun some, gelcoat is faded, carpet on the decks has been recently restored. The seller, nice honest guy, has not really been proactive with maintenance. For sure, the impeller/water pump needs replacing, just a a 2-4 year upkeep (around $150). I haven't yet had the chance to do a compression test on the 6 plugs. This is a *massive* motor. and even something as simple as a new control unit is $1500. just for the part. The carpet in the lower areas is pulling away badly and probably needs replacing and the fiber-glass floor is showing signs of cracking. The cosmetic areas where hand-holds attach to the body show cracking in the white fiberglass. The good: It's 20' long and for a 15 year old boat doesn't show signs of abuse or neglect. It's got a Mercury 200 EFI motor that seems to run really strong (65+mph). He's got 2 stainless props - one, 4 blade and one 5 blade for skiing ang getting out of the hole. The hull is in good shape, but has some smaller dings. Nothing major. Cosmetically, it's OK, needs some work. Mechanichally, I'm not sure about the motor. If the motor is sound, the motor and trailer are worth more than the boat. If the motor has *any* issues, immediately we're looking at another 3+ grand. So the good doesn't look that good, the bad is mostly cosmetic, but a comparable boat, a 1996 procraft Merc 200 EFi in Houston is listed at $10K. This one is around half that. I want to get a nice boat to fish and play with my family, but I don't want to be dumping cash every year into a boat in it's last years. Anyone out there with a good perspective on this?

A while back I was researching the barrel break in process, and it seemed then that nobody could really articulate what it *actually* did. Some were of the opinion that it was a gimmick by barrel manufacturers that actually led to faster erosion, others swore by it but couldn't really give a good explanation of exactly how the break-in process improved the steel. I would love to hear from the guys on here who really know the truth about barrel break-in, and why/if it really is important.

Thanks Gino. Friday turned out to be a cluster...well, let's just say it didn't work out that well. I was trying to buy a boat, met the guy at Roosevelt and within 2 minutes on the water the steering system disintegrated. Off to the mechanic, guy still wanting me to "make an offer"... I really appreciate your willingness to hang on to stuff that you are trying to clean out. I'll give you a call this week.

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to let this one pass. It's a good looking boat, great motor, but as you guys have pointed out, it has not been maintained well, and already shows signs of a boat that will take more money to keep on the water than I would like.

Everybody had zipper issues with the Primos Vision. You can see the same comments all over if you search the web. Aside from that, they're a great blind for the money.

Hey Gino, were you able to set aside a couple racoon traps? I will be passing through Payson mid-day tomorrow. I'll give you a call.

That is a REALLY nice looking mount. Very life-like. Great looking mount for a great deer.

They sure love F250s. Mine was stolen twice. The first time right from the parking lot at Sea World. It turned up in Tijuana in surprisingly good shape. The second time sheriff’s deputies chased the thief through some nasty country somewhere down around Saguaro Lake. Once my truck was beaten to crap, the guy got out and ran. Thankfully, they totaled it.

I saw one near Pinedale last year for the first time. Very cool looking doe.

Didn't make it out, but planning to try out a new spot this day after tomorrow. A lot of hiking, but maybe we'll get away from the crowds.