480 stu-ffer

Sorry .. that's a packgoat in a low shaft.

Tried a couple of Walmarts a couple of times before the year turned .. clurks weren't able to come with any tags either time .. lucky for me I have a lifetime hunting fishing with trout .. so I stoped by Az G & F on my way up to the Bagdad area to try and find the grand kids .. but that didn't turn out all that well as my pack goats started complaining and drawing a crowd in the parking lot while I stood in that long line and I ended up leaving without a lion tag ... I was able to stay legal though as the lions up there desided to avoid us but I'm still on the hunt for tag.

Have several used Packgoat saddles aluminum,wood and converted (dog packs for training youngin's) (15,$40 & $5).. also several panniers of different size's $5 to $12 .. a couple of tents --(4 person Black Diamond ,center pole with stove jack and with a brass alcohol aprox 5" stove and a 7x10x12 wood burner with chimily set ups for both the alcohol has a aluminum extendable piping ($60) also a one man Cabelas tent($10) ... a emergency tent (the expensive one & it's never been outa the bag)($5) .. a 243 Lone Eagle with Redfied 2-6 ,5 1/2lb's w scope($450) .. A Springfield M6 22hornet over 410 ,4 1/2lb's ($175) .. Delome Inreach (Android & IPhone) ($65) .. Spot Messanger ($25) and more ... most everything has been Millerized and serviceable. I'm down to two goats but have accumulated enough for 20. If anyone is interested in any of the above I'll try to set up a meeting place to show it all as I'm at the very end of the road and a long way from anywhere. I'm not very adapt to finding my way around in this forum and probably let the M6 get out of hand and committed out of line. Sorry for any inconvience the Lone Eagle and the M6 are committed. contact sat.till.2@gmail.com

Spent a little over a week down on the boarder sleeping out and around on the ground with lots of flashing lights over head and on the ground with a couple of pack animals .. no bodys and little sign .. but BP seemed to think they where there. I'd have to consider it a more friendly environment than Alaska though as I never once got the critters up there to wave back.

Some times it just pays to keep your head down when your foolin with goats....

The guy in this tree is often there on many days and he didn't pay big bucks for a camo suit. Can you find him ?

It is a grey fox.

close but not raccoon

Two opposite sides .. this guy knows what he is doing as several people have tried to get a decent picture at less than 15' to no avail. I got his eyes to shine in the flash to day with the over cast. Sorry Bonecollector I really was two keys off as usual.

Been learkin here a bit not wantin to highjack the thread but feelin the urge to inject another pet P into the mix. I'm a old goat in my mid 70's and carrying a little less testosterone and macho muscle mass than I usta so have for the past 15 or better yr's been using the help of a couple of Friends (dogs I call them .. but they pack more, don't require the food carrying or the looking for water "or gates" of real dog's ) and after we've packed into the quiet spots and I'm leaned back against one of my Friends who's laying there chewing his cud, I start hearing the rat-tat-tat of a scooter or the roar of a grinder coming our way that makes the hair on my stiffing neck start to stand up , that's when I usually recall what and old Indian friend use to say (he was 20yr's my senior , raised on the reservation and had gone through 3 or 4 different denominational schools and learned several different bible versions front to rear , he also was able to compare several different lifestyles by the end of college and he often joked ,with some humility, about the rituals he preformed before the hunt . I finally notice that he needed a short spell of quiet to himself after he had taken an animal - which he explained was a kind of requirement, a little like having to go to church on Sunday morn ) then he added one time " I'm dam ed glad I was able to run these hills before all the competition arrived and started trying to lay claim their little christian domains" It's about this time I lay back thinking to myself, those poor folks (the rat-tat-tat-grinders) probably don't have a place to keep a pack goat .. but that doesn't mean they don't have any less need than me and it really makes me glad I'm not the one having to make the rules & reg's as it sure points out the problems of a democracy trying to include everyone. Civilization really needs a pack goat and a good Indian friend.

Coach .. I thought Rex might do .. Conecollector has him located.

Gota add my two dog's .. UGG & LEE they're silent on the trail but sight is excellent.

Close .. the grand kids call him Rex and he's not feline.

You can make out his ears in lower left.

I too noticed the lack of evidence when going back into the wilderness unit in 22 after Marks sheep hunt, I was cleaning up a spike camp -food -water we had stashed while scouting. I was feeling a little naked, as I wasn't able to take my goats in there where the sheep where .. a little like not taking your dog while bird hunting, and reminiscing back to the 60's when I was back there in my 66 bronco with the cut out fender wells, stout helper springs & 12 ply a/c tires, before the advanced suspension sys's,lift kits & radial o/road tires, you carried two bias ply spares in those days. W was still running cattle and tending the water supply and those canyons where teeming with deer tracks. Found very few back there this year even though there seemed to be more burrow sign, I guess maybe I was more aware of the burrow sign because I was recalling the time I was calling predators in there and one of those big black devils "snuck> from behind and nearly toppled me over the rock I was sitting behind. We spent several days in there while scouting and I can only recall us seeing a few burrows, one rabbit, one gnd squirrel and a solo old boar codi beside the many sheep. Mark tried to get to the codi, said the darned thing ran looking like a monkey and almost 3ft tall, but those cathedral peaks where to much for him and he was carrying a 300 short, he had seem what happened to the two his bro Mike and the kid he was taking deer hunting shot with 300 shorts last year. Anyway the lack of water and sign was noticeable. Not necessarily a bad thing I guess as the sheep and burrows seem to be thriving. I was also reminiscing about the changes to hunting .. back then size wasn't necessarily gauged by points ,mostly by pounds .. and it was more adventuresome & opportunistic than targeted and scientific .. you could buy over the counter tags for several species and could hunt state wide with longer seasons so you spent more time just seeing what was over the next hill rather than getting up well before day light trying to get it done before the other guy , more folks , more competition, tighter situations, less freedom, less water the old timers say they haven't seen it this dry since the 30's, times are changing.

How lucky can Arizona's hunter's be with this choice of not just good but great taxidermists. You may have missed one in your tally though not that I suppose it would cause him much concern.

Congratulations on your dads great ram .. what memory's

+1 for HH .. we had a friend of Marks, one of the HH related gang helping us out on our hunt .... I was impressed .. because he went well beyond his knowledge and skill.

Guess I'd just have to say that any Az taxidermist named Mark has gota be good but then you'd know I'm partial.

I have a good friend that has some farms in southern Il. and he claims to have seen the blk phase cougar at least twice on one of his places and I've never known him to exaggerate. He claimed to have watched one of those for over 20 min's as it lay in the sun so I'm inclined to believe there may be one or have been one in southern Il. around 2008.

Good to see a great trophy out of the controversy the competition and the big money.

Justin if space and versatility might be a consideration there are some great posies to be had with 1/2 mt. pedestal and wall mounts... the one leg up and a sligt turn ... but the slight turn can limit relocating at times.

Love those dogs. When I was a young lad handled dads hounds at the field trials ... seems like I ran two or three braces about one weekend a month. Most animals will get into it if they are drug along often enough ... had a mule I shot quail off of ....and when he got antsy with his tail going around in circles you could look between his ears and find whatever it was ... I'd turn him sideways and as soon as I shot he'd be all over whatever it was ... making for some wild followup shots.

I don't believe I'd shoot much more than three hundred yards these days ... a few months after I got out of service I managed my first antelope at 746 paces (my paces measured real close to a yard in those days .. 50yr's ago) with peep sights . I spent most of the first and part of my second year while in service on the rifle range as a coach and butt NCO and I could call my shots back then, now days I can't even see 700yd's.

Great Ram , great memories.