Coach

Not familiar with that one, but I have a Knight Long Range Hunter that I am happy with. The Green Mountain barrels on Knight are very good, and everyone I know how shoots Knight likes the accuracy. The ignition system on mine is more standard bolt/inline with the disk system you put the #209 primer in. Of course, one downside to Knight is they are no longer in business, so if you need parts, they may be hard to find. Good luck!

Officer Hartzell, I appereciate you adding your perspective of the situation. I think we're in almost complete agreement about the facts that day. I was in 27 because I had forgotten that the season dates were different from unit 1 - something I have admitted from that day. BTW, I think there is a misunderstanding about the elk scouting - I had mentioned that I was camped on the unit 1 side of Buffalo Crossing because I had been deer hunting and elk scouting there (my elk hunt was in unit 1) - but I don't know how that would affect any part of this discussion - just wanted to clarify that. You stated in your response "Had I felt that he was trying to be in the correct place no citation would have been issued". I think it was really obvious that I had forgotten about the season dates changing, so I guess I don't see a big distinction between unintentionally being in the wrong unit and intentionally being there while honestly thinking it is still open. In either case, I felt then, and still maintain, that we both knew I had blundered, but but also both knew it was unintentional. Since I had been honest from the beginning, clearly stated where I had been, where I was on my way to hunt, and that I honestly thought the area was still open and hadn't actually gotten out of the car to "persue" deer, that the "Take" violation was excessive. I also felt upset that the report that was filed on the incident was carefully worded to sound as absolutely bad as possible, leaving out many key the elements that painted the "whole picture". One point I want to make about this whole situation it is this: I truly respect our G&F officers and appreciate the difficult job they do. More importantly, it is critical for hunters and G&F to have a postive, trusting relationship. We need to feel like we're on the "same team". This requires that sometimes we as hunters need to cut a little slack to the officers and to G&F as a whole. And while I despise poachers and intentional breaking of game laws, I think a little descression can go a long way toward preserving and maintaining that trust-based relationship, which benefits us all.

I'm not spoiling for a fight with Bill, and I sure can't say much about the "real" old days, but there was a time in the lat 80's when I had no idea what kind of coues potential certain areas held, but there were monster coues all over the middle part of the state with few guys hunting them. I've got pictures on my hard drive right now with a 107" buck next to a 117" buck taken from an area that I learned years later was full of deer of that caliber - and you could get a tag for coues back then over the counter. Some buddies of mine used to hunt Cherry Creek from the Roosevelt side and would consistently take 100+ bucks with rifles, bows and optics far inferior to what we're using these days, and talk about the really HUGE bucks they saw but didn't get to take. The same guys hunting the same country with better equipment now have a hard time just finding a buck these days. I have no doubt, knowing what I've learned in 20-some years of hunting in AZ, if I knew back in the late 80's what I know now, I could have been on huge deer every year. The game changes - it challenges you every year. The hunters are getting better, the big bucks are getting smarter, things that work great one year don't work at all the next. That's what keeps us hooked. If it were easy, it wouldn't be so addictive. As far as baiting, well, using salt or corn will work for a while. Then that too will become harder as the deer will adapt. Can AZGFD actually enforce a baiting rule? Probably not IMO. They're already spread too thin. If there is a baiting law passed, it will be a "self-enforcement" law. Which is pretty much what we've grown accustomed to.

Nice to see the cats back on track. Good coaching, recruiting, and some hard played ball. Kudos.

Hey Chef, looks phenomenal! What a great way to enjoy a supurb cut of fresh coues venison. Thanks for sharing! I can almost taste it!

My son took some great video of gobblers in 27 a few weeks back going nuts. With the lack of snowfall this year, we should have some great turkey hunting this Spring. Good luck, and take a camera with you!

I've got the days off, the trailer is packed up and we're headed to San Carlos Lake for some Spring Break fishing. I've been down twice this year and have yet to get into a good bite. This last cold front won't do us any favors, but the crappie should be heading to the shore to spawn. When the bite is slow, we'll chum carp or do some bow-fishing. I'll hopefully be posting some pictures of the boys catching or shooting whatever we can find down there over the next few days. Wish us luck!

Man, now you have me second-guessing. We're headed down Wednesday for 5 days on the lake, but have been torn between Roosevelt and San Carlos. I really want the boys to get on a good crappie bite, and when it's hot on San Carlos, it's really hot, and this weekend should be the time they hit the banks. Water is getting into the mid-to-high 60s. But with a bass-bite like that, maybe Roosevelt is the place to be. Any way you slice it, we're gonna have pictures of some crappie, bass, cats, and some arrowed carp just to keep it fun. Thanks for the late update!

Absolutely love the video, but one thing I would have liked, would be less "accelerated" footage, especially in the beginning. That is some great footage, so why double the speed? Great bulls on camera, there's no reason to rush it. Far from bashing, but I would rather see all those great bulls in "real time". Just my opinion. Great job, but slow it down.

Nice video, Jed. I think I know those genetics!

If that were California, Washington or Oregon, I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised, but Utah??? I would have thought Utah was a lot more politically conservative than that.

That's Kilmers Yup, my bad. Hey, despite what the timestamp on that post says, it was made around 4 something AM this morning, and I hadn't had my coffee. The fishing was way slower today than it has been. Most poeople I talked to were catching single digits. We bailed about noon and started shooting carp to salvage the day. Might try again Sunday before the next front rolls in.

Yes, that's what I've heard too about the minnows, which is really good news because the only other place I know that sells them is Kippler's (sp?) between Globe and Roosevelt.

Nice - can't wait to get down there! Thanks for the report. DesertBull, as far as I know, there are no boat rentals there. The marina at Soda Canyon was closed last year, but from what I hear, they're open this year, but it's not a very sophisticated operation.

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Wow that looks and sounds amazing!

That is super cool! Thanks for posting the pix.

Wow - that is really cool footage. I just can't get enough of those piggies.

Yes, Optic Nerd, I was typing another response when you added this, but that's basically what the prosecutor said. Not the road hunting part - there was never any mention of road-hunting or hunting from a vehicle at all by the officer or the prosecutor.

Joey, I can certainly understand your skepticism. I couldn't believe it either, nor could any of the people I hunt with. All I can tell you that it is absolutely true. The warden who wrote the ticket used to frequent this site, maybe still does. I would invite him to chime in as well. I fully expected that when I gave my statement to the prosecutor, and she verified that it and warden's version of the events matched, she would toss it out complelely. I even printed out the definition of "Take" from the G&F rules, and pointed out that with the broadest interpretation of that definition, which includes the word "persuit" I didn't see how they say that I was actively persuing game, let alone "taking" game. Her response was, (parphrasing) the general rule, is that you are hunting, just by being out there with the intention to hunt. Her reasoning was that if you happened to see an animal you could/would persue it. You could tell she really didn't want to persue the case after knowing the full story, but my sense was she felt obligated to. I might have been able to fight it in court and win, but the stakes would have been a lot higher, i.e. losing hunting rights for 5 years, big fines. And if I couldn't convince her that I wasn't in violation, how could I be sure I could convince a jury? One last thing - I still have the incident report, and the way it is written leaves out key components. Here is an example (this is verbatim except for the officer's name) from the last paragraph: "Officer XXXX observed Jones in the field with his compount bow, arrows and broadheads. Field photographs were taken of Jones holding his archery equipment." What this doesn't say is that I was in my vehicle - driving when he "observed" me, or that after our conversation he asked me to get out of the vehicle and hold my bow so he could take a picture of it, which I did, in an effort to be as compliant as possible. When asked about it by the prosecuter he verified that I was in fact driving at the time, just didn't put that in the report.

Sick to say the least. If I ever draw a sheep tag, there aren't many people I would trust enough. My first call would be Gino. I'd also trust the Koury brothers.

Thanks for the update Brian.

That is just awesome. Showing restraint with a bull like that just outside of her comfortable range epitomizes putting ethics above legality. Great video BTW.

I'll probably be camped out at Cholla on Roosevelt the week starting the 21st for my kids' Spring Break. If any other CWT'ers are gonna be on the lake that week for bass or crappie, let's hook up.

Yeah, the vid from San Carlos that Chef talked about was a similar hit. At first you're just thinking, wow, that's way far forward, but that bull, a HUGE bull, literally walks to the edge of the clearing with blood spewing out like a faucet, and dies. I had no idea there was such a huge aterty on the front side of the shoulder, but clearly, there is. Not my first choice shot, but these guys did well with it. I agree, great vid, awesome bow-kill.