matthewp45

Why do you think everyone who reply's to this is on here and not out chasing that big one or scouting. Does anyone know the phrase "I would love to but my wife will kill me". I would love to be out helping my buddies with their muzzy desert muley tags and have my kids with me but we signed up for this better or worse thing so just try and make the most of it. Go by a hunting video game for your computer or go out and organize your hunting gear. Remember if momma ain't happy ain't no one going to be happy. Have a Merry Christmas and good luck on the pheasant hunt, your going to need it.

Cliff, I had the great pleasure of meeting you in Brians sheep camp last year and at the banquet. I was the first guy that showed you the picture of the ram you ended up killing on the east side. Troy's ram was south of Mohawk #2 tank in the middle of the range. We were on some other great rams in the Coppers opening weekend and we just didn't have luck on our side. We were on the 2 rams I had been watching for Troy for a couple months and got some good stalks in and a shot, but just didn't have that little bit of luck we needed. The second weekend they had moved in the Coppers and they only had two days to hunt that weekend so Brian and Craig had seen this ram and said he was really wide. In fact I am sure he is Chiphorns Brother. So when we found him that width and blonde color was so beautiful Troy was ready to put him down and that he did. Congrats again Troy. Here is the picture of the first ram I called Chocolate Ram. I watched him for a couple months along with some others which include the ram in the non-coues deer trail camera pics in the top 5. This ram was playing in the elephant bush alot this year. He is real pretty too but Troy's ram was gorgeous as well. Troy did such a great job and made such a good shot, maintaining his composure like he had killed a 100 rams before. While I was hyperventalating watching him in my 15's repeating relax squeeze the trigger, which he didn't need any coaching because when he turned broad side he squeezed that trigger just fine. Congrats Troy and thanks again for letting me be a part of such a great hunt. As Ernesto would say "You are the Man Troy". The smile says it all!

Thanks for trusting me to help you out. We hunted very hard for your ram and you deserve it. That was a perfect shot at 415 yards and you kept your cool waiting for him to turn. The one I had to keep calm was your dad . He wanted you to kill that ram so bad and boy you did just that. From the beginning you wanted a beautiful unique ram and I just wanted him to be at be at least 7 and he met the age goal and exceeded the unique and beautiful goal. You showed a lot of heart and I was very impressed with you Troy. From the beginning you said you didn't really care about score and niether did your dad, you just wanted a unique ram and you stuck to it. Score wise he isn't the biggest one on the mountain but he is no slouch. On the other hand he is probably the widest ram on the mountain with battle scares on his nose and beautiful blonde horns. You made a great choice when you took him even though I almost passed out holding my own breath waiting for you to shoot. You were squeezing that trigger perfect and put that bullet in the exact spot you needed to put it. Your smile in those pictures made all the hours and days of scouting worth it by far. Congrats on a trophy you will proud of for the rest of your life buddy.

The reason you practice every day is to get your musclee memory built up. Just like the blue angels. They are an extreme example but those guys totally submerge themselves in a routine for almost a year and the result from doing the same routine everyday is your brain will do exactly what you have practice no matter the situation you are under. To think about the shot and make everything perfect is impossible with a bow unless you have a animal that is suicidal in front of you. You get excited and your nuscle memory and same routine that you have burned into your mind takes over and the shot will be true. To achieve this it is really hard work, But if you really want increase your odds of a fatal shot you have got to practice everyday and no matter how many arrows you shoot, the most important thing is to do the exact same thing before during and after the shot while practicing every shot.

The reason you practice every day is to get your musclee memory built up. Just like the blue angels. They are an extreme example but those guys totally submerge themselves in a routine for almost a year and the result from doing the same routine everyday is your brain will do exactly what you have practice no matter the situation you are under. To think about the shot and make everything perfect is impossible with a bow unless you have a animal that is suicidal in front of you. You get excited and your nuscle memory and same routine that you have burned into your mind takes over and the shot will be true. To achieve this it is really hard work, But if you really want increase your odds of a fatal shot you have got to practice everyday and no matter how many arrows you shoot, the most important thing is to do the exact same thing before during and after the shot while practicing every shot.

I hate to even think about how many more bulls are hit fatally and never found than the ones that are fatally hit and found to put the tag on it. I guarantee that if there was a way to estimate it or come up with a real number they would either shut it down for good or make people pass a proficiency archery exam, making hunters run a 100 yards stop shoot at a 50 yard target, shoot moving targets and be able to hit a 6" circle when given only 3 arrows and making all 3 inside that circle. Also watch a video where opportunities are shown to them and they have to take the shot or pass and if they get any wrong they fail and only get one try for the whole course (shooting and video/written portion) It sounds crazy hard and a lot of people are going to say I am crazy but if an archer could shoot that perfect and answer all the questions correctly under pressure of three officers watching him he is probably good to go for making a good shot. It doesn't make 100% recovery of every elk shot but it would sure increase that percentage. If a regular guy that never or has never shot a bow knew he had to take this test he would probably not put in for the archery tag in the first place. It would weed out the guys that put in for bugle elk hunts because thats what their friends said to do and they have never shot a bow in their life. They get drawn and buy a used bow and a cheap range finder. Then practice once a week a month prior to the hunt. Then the hunt comes along and they get this new call that is so cool called a hoochie momma. You don't even have to blow on it. Then they go out and have an elk scream in their face, crap in their pants and shoot it in the a%# as the crap runs down their leg.

Congrats Nick that is a great looking set of mounts. Congrats on a great year and some great animals.

I have used it in 19A a ton of times. The one hunt I used it on they were rutting out of control and the call would either have them look your way to notice the decoy in front of you or not even pay one bit of attention to it when the big bucks had their big harem. The one time I had it kind of work was when I ran into a buck with his nose to the ground walking out about 300 yards from me. I blew the call twice and he came straight at me.walked in to 50 yards and I had hardly any cover. As he walked behind a clump of bear grass I drew and he saw me and hauled buns. I would bring it along and try it out for sure. Good Luck.

With all the experience from all of the guys involved. All the hundreds of hours glassing and the hundreds and hundreds of pictures being taken. We are going to give your son a chance at the beautiful ram that he likes the most. Obviously we will give him an estimate score and I know he doesn't want to shoot a dink. The most important thing is that your son shoots the ram that he likes best. Who cares if he is 170" or 155" as long as he is a mature ram thee most important thing is that he shot the exact ram he wanted. It is gonna be fun, fun, fun. You will be addicted after this hunt. Also it always helps when you have the retired WM for the unit in camp too. Looking forward to the adventure. Troy your tthe man.

My neighbor up here in Springerville is one of the commissioners and he said from there initial counts and estimates they have only seen one hen with 2 little ones with her. All the rest of the hens were with out any offspring. I have gone every where you can go up here and looked at as much damage as possible and it is crazy how it burned one area to nothing and the next ridge is green trees and looks untouched. We have been getting rains everyday for the last week and we needed it. Today I went through Sipe and all the burned grass areas already have green grass and broad leaves coming up. The elk are still here they are just in huge herds and in weird places. They are going to have plenty of great feed to finish off the growth. I got to fish Christmas Tree Lake on Thursday and on my way back o Springerville I saw a hen and 4 little ones with her, but that was on the rezervation and none of that area has been disturbed by the fire. I did a lot pq \

I have the EU3000 and I love it. You put it on the back side of trailer and you can hardly hear it. My dad has the EU6500 and it is a beast. It comes with handles on one side and wheels on the other. Even though it is huge it is still really quiet. You can take three camping ridgs out and just plug them all into that EU6500 and it will run everything in all of them.All of the EU's are very quiet. Compared to regular generators, well there is no comparison. They are really quiet and they have a idle mode (like Lark Said) that only revs up the motor when your trailer needs more power when you are not using it, it will idle and not use hardly any gas. I once left it on all day while hunting on accident. When I got back to camp I just left it on and it ran a full 26 hours before it ran out of fuel. Highly recommended!

My god I have missed a ton of times with my bow. Almost every time was because I think oh crap that thing is going to run if I range him. He has to be about 50 yards. 40 yards it is, after I range where he was standing and I just watched the arrow sail right over his back. I always shoot over them if I miss. I always think they are farther than they really are. My new rule is even if they run off and I don't get a shot I am going to range them. Most all of my archery hunting is spot and stalk and I don't usually have time to range everything around me. I have missed 2 coues deer that were very big, an antelope and 1 mule deer that I knew the exact yardage and just flat missed from being excited and not making a good executed shot. The mule deer was 24 yards and I used the wrong pin. How stupid is that.

I will let you know because he is such a great and humble man he would never talk himself up. In my opinion you are talking to one of the best elk hunters in the world (Coosefan). My uncle drew his first bugle bull tag and he mentioned getting a guide and Jim and his boys were the first and last he called. After one phone conversation my uncle was already set on Jim taking him on his once in a lifetime tag. Anyways whatever Jim tells you to do I would probably follow it to a T. A really close family friend won the AZ Super Raffle Elk Tag. He hired Jim and said it was by far the best hunt he had ever been on. This is the Bull my good friend Robert Killed hunting with Jim (somewhere up there in a unit near yours). These caliber bulls live in your unit. This bull scored a little over 400".

Got my elk and antelope checks back. My wifes elk tag came in the mail the day after my checks arrived.

Try shooting the 248? grain powerbelts 50 cal. of course with 150 grains of Pyrex triple 7 pellets. Those Power Belts perform unbelievable. When I killed my deer this year it amazed me at how well those bullets held up and the absolute perfect distruction to the liver and heart. I use the Nikon Omega scope and it shoots sub 1" groups at 100 yards and sub 3" goups at 250 yards no problem. That combo turned my TC Triumph into a bad a$% muzzle loader. I can easily hit a 5" circle every shot at 300 yards.

Here are the pictures I finally got back. I think the real good pictures of the multiple beards is on Tommy's camera. Enjoy

134 6/8".

Two beards! Wait until we get the pictures back of Tomgobblers beast. Lets just say he has more than 4 beards. Coolest turkey I have ever seen. Tommy can tell the story when my brother in law gets me the pictures tomorrow. It was a great hunt and we had a blast. There are so many freakin turkeys up there. If you were a roadhunter you could kill one within an hour of being there. Congrats on a beautiful bird Amanda. What a hunt.

I use my biggest, most powerful rifle I own. 7MM RUM with a 160 Grain Accubond and Retumbo powder. Shoots 3,350 fps and is a tack driver. It started as a remington XCR. I had the trigger worked on a new Bell & Carlson medallist stock. I sent it off and had the whole thing cerakoted. I got leupold bases and rings (medium). I topped it off with a Leupold mark 4 (4.5X14X40mm with AO)and a 24" barrel. It is all black and I think it looks great.

Some of those kitties look familiar. Almost looks like one had to be shot because the catch pole was somewhere else and looks like someone got in a fire fight with the thing and put some fist size holes in it and a gut shot . Not saying it did it just kind of looks like thats what happened. Maybe it was way up in the thick nasty brush and the guy couldn't see him well and between maybe a .40 cal and a 45-70 someone got him killed. Wierd! Next year shoot for 60 cats. Congrats man and nice hat you got on there.

I am going to buy a 29" hard tail. I need a bike that i can ride around with my 7 and 4 year old and I really want to try out the new Cannondale hardtail. This bike is just to much for what i want in a bike. This Bike is a fully suspended get out on the trail and tear it up bike and I am going to get a cruiser. Who ever gets this bike will love it. I just had it tuned and the shifter and derailer are so in tune you can barely tell when it shifts. It is a real nice bike.

I bought the bike brand new and as usual rode it a lot for a month and now I haven't ridden it in a year and a half. Has less than a 100 miles. The bike is fully suspended front and rear. Has hydraulic disc brakes front and rear. All of the cranks shifters gears etc. are Shimano Deore. Has a Sigma Sport Computer for your odometer, speedometer, roundtrip odometer, average speed per trip and a bunch more stuff. It has Brand new Continental Verticle Tires 26X2,3. The Bike is red in color. It comes with clip in pedals and size 11 shoes and a XL Helmet. Very nice bike deserves to be ridden instead of haging in the garage.Email me for pictures and phone number. Also has climbing bars as well. I paid $2,200 for the bike 4 years ago so I am askimg $950 with Helmet and clip in shoes. Bike just got a perfect tune up and is ready to go.

All right here is the best I could do if you need some more just ask specific questions. Not in any order: Forks are duke Rock Shox powered by sram. Onyx Hubs DT Swiss. Julie Magura hydraulic disc brakes front and back. Frame is Heat treated 6061 Aluminum Butted Series. Cranks Shimano Deore LXD Hollow Tech. Seat Post-Syncros Aluminum 6061-T8. Seat-Satellite SDG. A Headset by TH Industries for Cane Creek. Ritchey Pro Handle Bars Added Ritchey climbing handles. Shimano clip in pedals with size 11 shoes if they fit. I just wrote down everything I could find. Anything else let me know. I will answe it to the best of my ability. The bike is really pretty cherry. The only real scratches are on the outside edge of both pedals and thats about it. Almost forgot the rear shock it is DT Swiss SSD 225 part number is DTP138567 @ www.dtswiss.com. I think thats all but not sure like I said let me know with any more questions. I will send another picture of the I Drive and the cranks gears and all the guts.

TomGobbler and I are headed to the rez next Thursday to kill a couple of beard draggers. Starting to get pretty excited about it. I try not to think about it to much or I won't sleep at night.

Ernesto promised me it will be today by 1:00pm. He said he can just feel it in his bones. I told him he better be right.