Coach

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.

You truly are amazing with a camera, Doug. As my wife and I were sharing breakfast this morning I was perusing your many photo journals. We love the slots in Southern Utah, but we've yet to do Antelope Canyon or the waves. Two summers ago we did "Peek-a-boo" in Coytote Gulch and another connecting slot, "Spooky". They were a blast, but given it was over July 4th weekend, it was hot as all getup in the gulch. This year we are determined to hike "The Wave" and whatever other slots we can hit between Page and Kanab. If you know of any other really cool hikes that are off the beaten path in that area, I would love to hear about them. We normally try to hike and camp our way up to Panguitch Lake, and last year were bound and determined to get up to Fish Lake, but found ourselves heading back to Lake Powell for the final days of our annual vacation. Here's a picture of the "elusive" tiger trout from Panguitch Lake, 2010. The guy we've rented boats from for the past 2 years has yet to hook one. And here are a couple of Kanarra Creek, just outside of Cedar City. If you haven't done this hike, it is a MUST. Just bring old shoes. You will get wet from head-to-toe. Sure didn't mean to hijack your thread...Guys if you haven't seen Doug's photo gallery at you have to check it out. The photos are fantastic, and as always, Doug brings some of our most treasured landscapes out in a way that only he can.

I love the Giants Salt and Pepper. I'll have to try the Spitz cracked pepper.

The .300 WSM is a very good platform, IMO. The .308 bullet is good at bucking the wind, etc. Lots of bullet options, lots of reloading information and it's a non-belted cartridge which is a good fit for someone just getting started with reloading. There are a lot of good powders out there for that offering too. You just have to find the right combination for your rifle. I think you're on the right track, as long as you have time to practice hard are willing to experiment a lot with bullets, cases, primers and powder.

+1, and +1 for Gino's comment. Archery hunters using salt/corn/alfalfa aren't the problem. Over-allocating tags is the problem.

FFD, I agree, but that's not how it's playing out. Pure and simple, a handful of tags will go to residents that may have previously been allocated to out of state hunters, but not many. The out-of-state, non-guided hunters will be totally cut out of the mix. I have no problem with any state trying to allocate more tags to residents. For many of us, hunting is a big factor on where and how we choose to live. I really get how NM hunters see this as a good thing. As a guy living right across the border, who loves NM, was born in NM, and appreciates the opportunity to hunt in NM, the way this is worderd means, either I hire a guide or buy a land-owner permit, or "kiss off" and stay out of NM. It's really that simple. I'm not about to hire a guide to hunt NM, and would rather eat a week old dead rat than buy a land-owner tag. So, now I'm in the 2% who might just be lucky enough to draw a tag? Not to mention that the Catron Boys have just about wiped out anything worth crossing the border for by poaching everthing they see for the last 20 years. Sad to say it, but, you guys can have it. If your G&F dept was more interested in preserving what you have than catoring to the guides and ranchers that literally own your resources, NM would be a world-class hunting destination, as it should be. Unfortunately, too many are too short-sighted to see that.

If NM says the only way I can hunt there is via landowner tags or hiring a guide, I guess that just means I won't ever get to hunt there again. Thanks.

What an amazing deer. The videos you have put together are the very best of what hunting Arizona is all about, just gets to the very heart of why I love Arizona so much. Huge mule deer, family javelina hunts, big coues in Mexico. Shane, thank you for putting so much effort into your passion. I've been taking my family out on similar hunts, trying to get good video, and I really get just how hard it is - just making the hunt to work out is hard, but capturing it all to share is infinitely harder, IMO, and you have done an outstanding job. Thank you so much for all the videos and pictures of some truly outstanding hunts. The work you guys put into making the hunts fun for your family, and somehow still able to capture it all on film to share with us is really an amazing accomplishment.

Went today but had nothing but boat/trailer problems. Got to fish for a bit and caught a couple. It seemed a little slow compared to what I heard they were doing just yesterday, but spent the majority of the day fighting a motor that wouldn't run, flat tires, axle problems...all the stuff that happens when you finally get that one day to go fishing... The water was 56 degrees, lots of fish suspended around the flotilla in 19' of water. The fish were everywhere from 7 - 17 feet but not biting agressively. The ones we caught were nice and the females were packed with eggs. BBC roadrunners tipped with minnows were working as well as anything. The wind picked up around noon and slowed things down. I think they'll be heading toward the shore soon, but we've got another cold front moving in early next week, so playing it by ear. I'll most likely have to wait until they hit the banks as my boat is out of commission for a while.

Those might be the heaviest bases I've ever seen on a coues buck. What a great find! I can only imagine seeing him live.

.308 Nut, can you expand a little on the "button" rifling? The reason I ask is, Savage barrels are advertised as button-rifled barrels. While I never really knew what that meant, I've found Savage barrels to be very accurate, and attributed that to the button rifling without really knowing how or why it is different from standard rifling.

Very cool Tony. I read Louis and Clark's journals and the referred many times to their "air rifle" they would bring out to demonstrate to the communities they encountered. I wondered what it was, and now I know! Thanks for sharing this.

I'm not a long range hunter, but I like the .300 WSM for just about anything. I played around with the .300 Wby, and found it harder to reload, shoot consistently etc. There is definately a Weatherby camp. Some guys shoot their Weatherby rifles extremely well. I know there are lots of RUM fans out there, and one thing the RUM's get you over the Weatherby is a beltless cartridge. The RUM's are sort-of-wildcats based on the .404 Jeffery round with greater powder capacity than even some of the better known belted cartridges. The concept behind the highly successful "Ultra Mag" is more powder in a beltless case. It's interesting to note that Lazzeroni, the RUM and the WSM are based on the same case - the .404 Jeffery. All of them took on the idea of stuffing a lot of gunpowder behind a .30 caliber bullet and making it do great things, and, in their own rights, all have succeeded. They've also adopted the same casing to put the same amount of powder behind smaller and smaller bullets. The downside is burning that much powder eats barrels faster than standard cartridges. I know a local gunsmith that has taken the .300 Ultra Mag and necked it down to .25 caliber and thinks it's the bomb. On the other hand, we have a history of buffalo hunters that shot huge .45/70 at long ranges with stunning accuracy. All chamberings considered, I'd put the .300 WSM against pretty much anything short of a .338 Lapua.

Just wallowing in self-pity...LOL. That area is VERY decieving. We knew they had to be there, but following those hard-to-break habits, we just had to walk more country than we glassed trying to figure out the layout of the land, like any die-hard hunter looking to understand a new area would. I think we both burned ourselves out the first day with a very early start, setting up camp and then trying to take in so much territory at once. We both set out on the first day with a quick trip in mind, not packing nearly enough food or water, assuming we would be back in camp in an hour or two. Somehow, we both endend up walking as much country as we could see (which turned out to be HUGE) just trying to figure out how the open areas tied into the the lower wash areas, looking for sign, etc. I know by the time I got back to camp the first day, I was cramping, tired, beat-up and discouraged. Bry was the same. It's really funny. The areas there that have pigs just don't show the kind of sign I'm used to seeing. Everyting looked old - no new tracks, no new scat, no fresh rooting, and I was totally convinced that the herds had moved further into the foothills because of the pressure during the archery season, and that anything left were broken, small groups looking to find the larger herds. Then you guys go out there and find them exactly where you said they would be. If there's a lesson to be learned, it's that once you know where they are, sit tight and keep glassing. Sooner or later they'll show up. Big-Bry and I just couldn't wait to walk every square inch of every wash tyring to figure out where they were holding up. Turns out, they were right under our noses the whole time. However, I do take some solice in the fact that we did eventually find the "phantom herd". That was part of our continuing joke that we were looking for "ghost pigs". We sure had a good time and truly appreciate your hospitality and guidance. Congrats to the hunters that were able to score on the "ghost pigs" and are now hooked on hunting. Great job getting them out there and giving them some guidance. Take Care, Jason

I know I can never show my face around there again! LOL. Me: Hey, anybody need help glassing? Everyone: Uh, no thanks, we've got it covered.

Wow, great job Scott & Johnny. Great pictures too!

Looks fantastic!

My two oldest sons were fortunate to take a couple javi's opening morning of the youth hunt. Tonight I cooked up the backstraps from both using one of my favorite techniques for elk and deer backstraps just to see how they compared. I have to say, they were amazing. The process is simple. Clean as much fat and sinew as you can from the backstraps then slice them at an angle to about 3/8" (deer and elk straps are large enough to cut straight). Lay the pieces on a plate and give them a little salt, pepper and Cavenders on both sides. More pepper or some cajun spice if you like them spicy. On the stove get a large skillet pretty hot with some olive oil, dab each piece of meat in flour, both sides, and toss them in the hot skillet. When one side gets a little crispy, flip 'em over and let the other side crisp up. Remove them from the skillet onto a plate with a couple paper towels to pull out any extra oil from cooking and eat 'em up like fish fillets. They were crazy delicious. I had to steal a couple pieces from each batch because the boys were eating them just as fast as I could get them to the table. Next time you have a piggie and think it's not good for anything but sausage or chorizo, give this recipe a try!

Appreciate it 308, but maybe a case of a mis-read post. Not me or my boys. Gabe and Ward's did it up right, and they deserve to be recognized. Passing the praise along to the ones that did it.

I've only shot one elk with a rifle, and it was a .270 my dad built way back when he was a teenager. Kinda funny, he bought all the components from Herter's way back in the day and built the rifle from scratch, and did all his own reloading. I think it's a Mauser action or BSA, beautiful gun - looks like a Weatherby. For him, going out and shooting blackbirds off of cattails on an Oklahoma dirt farm cow tank from rediculous ranges was just a hobby. He had no intentions to shoot game at long range because most deer where he grew up were shot inside 100 yards. Somehow he built a true sub MOA rifle for around 150 bucks (1950 dollars) including the scope. I shot my first coues with that rifle, and while it doesn't look like a long range set-up, that is the most accurate gun I've ever seen, even with its outdated optics. My boys shot elk this year with .270 WSM and .300 WSM, shooting barnes bullets and both looked like you had stuck a hand grendade in their vitals and pulled the pin. Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration, but when an elk drops flat in it's tracks like it was struck by lightening, you get the picture. There was no tracking job, no looking for a blood trail, they both collapsed like rag dolls. I'm a huge fan of the WSM in either 270 or 300. Great unbelted "Magnum" cartridges that knock the living bejeezus out of whatever they hit with a good bullet, like a barnes XT, or Nosler Accubond.