Coach

Nice job, Clay. I bet that thing is a shooter.

Lots of them in Tucson. Look out you window.

More than likely it is guys who use app service, and just have no clue where their money is being spent. Yep, it's that.

Yeah either a raccoon or coati. If it's on the southern part of the state I'd say 50/50 coon/coati. If on the northern 2/3rds, I'd say raccoon. In either case I don't think the scat came from the same critter as the tracks.

Without something to compare the size to, the tracks look like a large raccoon. You can see the longer back foot and shorter forefoot, both with long toes. The scat looks more dog-like, probably coyote. I'd guess the scat in the top picture probably has hair in it. Common of coyote scat that ate meat, which turns black at first, then white. The seeds and grass are probably what was eaten next. Seems if dogs take in too much protein or fat all at once they start eating grass - I guess it's to settle down an "upset stomach". That's my best guess. Cool pix.

I had the two guys flanking a moving vehicle in 24A years back on a nasty mining road - a kid and his dad while grandpa drove the truck. As they approached where I was glassing I put an orange vest up in a bush above me to let them know I was there. The kid proceeded to glass me up through his rifle scope. The last thing I saw before hitting the deck was dad swatting the gun down. I'm sure the kid got a stern lesson on that one. On the road-hunter front, my boys and I were coming back from a pig hunt at the end of Jan this year along the Coronado trail, and the kids were cracking up at all the guys in trucks on the highway - bumper to bumper in full camo. One guy had a ghillie suit on. They got a good chuckle out of that. Always thought it would be fun to put out a 3D buck target and watch it turn into a pin cushion.

On that note when I lived in Cave Creek, I was shooting my bow out in the desert hundreds of yards from the nearest homes and two knot-heads ride up on horses and give me heck for shooting too close to populated areas. Tried to tell me it was illegal for me to even be out there - perfectly OK for them though. LOL. You can't fix stupid.

The militarization of police in this country is huge cause for concern. Not long ago, only a few prestigious police forces had S.W.A.T. teams. Now every small town has it's own S.W.A.T. team equipped with MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles, M4's, ma-duece (Browning .50 cal machinegun) and we're told it's just for serving warrants in "high risk areas". I posted on this earlier but why does the USDA, the SSA buying .40 cal submachineguns and stockpiles of ammo not scare the heck out of anyone? This is the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Social Security Administration, both policy branches with little to no law enforcement prescription, arming to the teeth - if that isn't foreshadowing, I don't know what is.

Wow, I've always wanted to do a heli hog hunt - looks like a ton of fun but $2k per hour is way out of my budget. Especially with 3 sons so you have to quadruple the cost of everything. Cool vid, and those guys are some excellent marksmen!

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

And scorpions - fishing at night with any artificial light will bring them in like the Salmon of Capistrano (sorry, couldn't resist a DnD quote).

Pretty impressive "first cut". Given your knack, I'm guessing we'll see this get continually lighter and stronger. Nice job.

Saw that on CNN - up to 1000 per hour. Love nature's firework shows. The best are those totally unexpected times super early, still pitch black out, hiking to a spot and take a second to catch your breath and a giant streak across the sky and you just happen to catch it all the way from start to splintering off, to nothing. Happens only a couple times in a lifetime, and then, only if you are there to see it.

Yeah, last spring it was. Great advice on the access off A-cross. A couple weekends or so I'm planning on really fishing the lower Salt for the first time. Weekend or two after, gonna revisit the upper salt - God I love that place. Too much work, too little fishing - lol. Gotta fix that.

That's an absolute dream setup right there. I'm not in the market right now, but if I were, I'd be all over this. When I first started reloading and comparing ballistics of popular, wildcat and emerging options in western hunting, the 7mm STW stood out to me as one of the very best all-around cartridges out there - and in a Sendero with a muzzle break, .5 MOA. I might have to rethink this.

If you notice a lump in the back of your Avalanche this fall, just ignore it Very cool vids.

Congrats, hoghntr - and what a cool gesture.

Thanks guys - much appreciated!

Happy Birthday!

Man, that bug looks familiar. Last time I hunted the San Carlos I met an older gentleman out driving and camping around Coffee Pot Well out a bug that looked a lot like that going from memory. I think he was a contract trapper for the rez. Same bug?

The National Weather Service, the Social Security Administration, United States forest Service, and the US Department of Agriculture - all policy making branches, not law enforcement branches, are buying .40 caliber ammo and full auto MP 40s. One word, one question, "why"?

Well then I was at the head of Apache lake. It was the first access below the dam. Spent the first half of the day picking up trash - it was really bad.

Caught a 12 lb Channel just below Roosevelt a while back. For flats, I'd head upstream of Rosie.

I'm planning a trip back there too, probably next summer. I really love the Russian. Last time I was there it was in between runs of the reds, but there were still plenty to be caught. And the rainbows in that river are amazing. It's fun to fish 'bows on light rigs, then go after the reds. The limit then was 5 reds per day and there was definitely a technique to catching them. Once you figured it out, it was pretty easy, but it took some time to master. Same with the rainbows - 4-5 pounders on a 3 wt fly rod makes for some really fun fishing. The downside of the Russian is that it can become shoulder-to-shoulder "combat fishing" if you happen to be there in the middle of a run, and the locals tend to get pretty ticked off if you try and play your fish at all. They just want you to land it as quick a possible so you aren't in the way. Halibut fishing out of Seward is a ton of fun too. My uncle ran a halibut and silver boat out of Seward for years but now he's retired. He took us out and we caught lots of halibut in the 30-40 pound range and one that went 119 pounds and his boat has landed some over 400 pounds. We caught a few ling cod too - ugly but good eating.

I thought it was an ibex.