matthewp45

Just sell the old 15's you have and buy the brand new edition of swarovski 15 x 56's. I am just kidding I know it is a lot of money but man is it worth it if you can scrape up the money. They are like $2,400 but a friend of mine never could use Swaro 15's because his eyes were to close together. He had to use the old monster Zeiss 15x60"s. The SLC's would not come any where near close enough to use. Him and I were number 1 and 2 on the list for the new 15X56 Swaro's that arrived a little over a month ago and not only do they close enough for him they can go even to close together for him. So making the eye pieces go closer together is a cool new feature but once you take them glassing you will wonder how in the heck did they make the glass so much better than the last 15x56 SLC's. They are absolutely crystal clear from the very edge to the very edge of your view. They have a little different shape and I believe are a little shorter. Will these covers come close to fitting them?

Thanks for making another mount exactly how I wanted it but could not explain it in words. I don't know how you do it every time but you do. Got it hanging in the dining room so u can see it when you walk in the door. I got the little ones believing it will scare off the easter bunny so no candy for them tomorrow. I better tell them it is a joke or it will end up missing a head or falling off the wall accidentally.

That is crazy that Troy is graduating. I take my kids on every hunt they want to go on. I never force them but I haven't ever had to. I have done this since they could walk the terrain and keep up. I want to experience every trip with them and teach them all that I can because I don't ever think I have talked to a parent that has said "you should just take your kids every now and then because they grow up slow and you will have plenty of time to spend with them". More like you blink and they are gone to college.Seems like last year when we were getting old Troy his Ram. I am sure he will be at a good college and doing really well this time next year.

My son got to watch me shoot my turkey with the amazing ability of Tom Gobbler and his calling ability and my turkey calling which sounds like a hen with laryngitis. Came in and my 7 year old son is hooked for life. Best turkey hunting experience ever. Until he gets his first bird. This was on the San Carlos. Tommy is always there to help make it happen, thanks again buddy. When we were leaving going down Barlow Pass there were 4 Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep 15 yards from us just watching us for 10 minutes. Got a picture of the closest ones. My son thought that was pretty cool. Looked like one ewe and 3 1 year olds. It was awesome. Just an all around super trip.

I like my dad spent a total of 11 days on 3 different trips. Some times you have the luck and sometimes you don't. The first 10 days were with a good friend of mine (after hunting with him for 10 days on horseback, to add he is a true cowboy in his daily life and trails don't mean to much to him, I think he really thinks there is no place a horse can't go, I got thrown from a new horse "he" was trying out. Luckily TomGobbler just stood there and let me use his body as a cushion from all the rock's, by the time the last trip and the 10th day came around I felt like I could finally show a horse I knew what I was doing and me being a farmer and have driven about every piece of machinery made, Every time he would do something cool and look at me I would say I bet you couldn't drive an 8400 series John Deere pulling an old school land plane, I would choose a different machine each time, I would tell him I am a farmer, I need a clutch and turning brakes and this thing doesn't have any give me a break) and we were chasing lions everyday. We just could not catch any of them. AZ Ground Pounders had mine treed the first morning I hunted on foot with them. Awesome thanks guys. I had Clay at Mogollon mount it and I told him I don,t want it to have the open mouth but I also didn't want the 3/4 asleep lion with a sway back and back leg and tail hanging way off the side of the tree limb or rock but I did want it to look like it was laying on a point with some wood and rocks and look aware like it just saw a deer or heard the first bawl from one of the dogs. he hit it out of the park like usual. Thanks again Clay. Congrats dad to a well deserved lion. On the wall where it will be for a long time. Thanks to my wife for letting me put it in the dining room. It is looking at you right as you walk into the house.

I think the the money should go into mountain lion control before they just release sheep back into an area that the sheep nuse to reside but were no longer because the lions got too numerous and ate every last sheep on the mountain. There is a very aggressive mountain lion control campaign going on in the Kofas right now. They have wiped a ton of lions out of the area. But why wait until they go from over a thousand to under 100 before action is taken. In the Kofas the Down turn started in around the year 2000. We had trail cams on tanks and one in particular in 2000 had some absolute Giant mule deer bucks a good number of sheep and other game. This water hole was 3 miles from any road and there wasnt one time we checked the camera on that hole that year where we weren't regularly seeing 10+ shooter muleys 170" or way better an giant rams in numbers about the same. In a two week period we would get a couple hundred big game pics even on the slowest times.One buck was probably 21"wide and would go 195"- 200" I have pics. So this waterhole was dancing with game. Next year comes along. Water hole area is nice and green as the year before and the tank is full. Not really any natural water pretty much the exact same conditions as the year before. First 2 checks on the camera not an animal on the third trek in I checked the camera to find we finally had just a couple of pictures but at least something had come by. 1st pic was a doe, ok well at least there were some deer still in the area (wrong) 2nd picture was 30 minutes later at 2:30 am and it was a big old Tom following probably the last deer in the vicinity yet to be killed. We went straight to US Fish and Wildlife showing them those pictures between the two years and other trail cams at other waters with cats on all of them and a momma with 2 cubs. So they went into action right away, they band all uses of any type of trail cameras on wildlife refuges and still denied the existence of any lions on the Kofa range. A man that I respect very highly and is a very humble man that knows as much about the Kofas as any other person I know Robert Dunn. Started taking me to the Kofas in late 1990's after college along with his son and nephew and would take us on weekend trips around the entire refuge just showing us the multitude of sheep in the country as well as deer. Going deer hunting out of Willbanks cabin and opening day everyone seeing mature bucks and tons of sheep and most tagged out on nice bucks and spent Saturday packing them out on the old home made bicycle tire stretchers they would make to make it easier to get deer and sheep out of that rocky country in one piece. Then as we began to get the lion pictures that quiet humble man spoke up as loud as he could but no one cared until a survey number that was unbelievable came back and from 2001 - 2009 that sheep heard that 20 years prior helpped 22 and 24B get to become the 2 desert sheep mecca units that they are today from transplants out of the kofas, to put both of these units as normally having the highest average scoring sheep that are harvested in the state today, there numbers were so high in the Kofas they could afford to easily take a good number of sheep out to help an area that was suffering in sheep numbers, to make a suitable place to transplant Kofa Sheep where they could have enough food and water to fully express the capability of the genes that the Kofa Sheep heard had the capability of expressing. In those 8 years that robust heard went from over 1,000 animals to around 100 maybe. They say it was partially drought and loss of feed. In time of a drought sheep only have to get water less than any other animal in our desert but when they have to get water they have to get a lot and this takes longer than the other animals to fill their "reserves" the lions don't have to travel to get food they sit at the few water sources and pick off those magnificent animals one at a time. A friend of mine has more dead head pick ups than probably anyone in the world of Big Horn sheep and everyone came from the Kofas and about 90% of all of thos pick ups were during that 8 year period and almost all of them were with in 500 yards of a waterhole and looked to be lion kills with most of the muzzles crushed and the heads and bones were most always drugg up into a bush or tree. I have become a sheep nut the last 5 years and I have watched a mountain range and its healthy population bloom in the last 5 years. Keeping cameras on every water hole in the range. I never have caught a mountain lion on a camera there annd I always figured because I have never had a deer on a camera in the range well during the middle of December I got my first cat on one tank and am in the process of getting a couple cameras that send you the pics by email as they are taken so I can call a friend who is a houndsman with two sets of great dogs that will take care of a problem before it gets started.

What a super ram. I know you put in your time for that guy and you deserve every inch and every battle wound of that gorgeous Ram,

My HD5 I believe is the 3x15x42 and it is as clear as anything out there and I have the Rapid Z 800 Reticle for the quicker shots or to use with the turrets if it is windy because of the tick marks for the cross wind at a specific distance for each line and each gun is different but once you get it dialed in you have no more guess work.Pretty cool and only 15 ounces I think instead of a 34 ounce Night Force which are super awesome but I wanted something as light as I could find and I think I found it. Thanks a lot.

I am selling a new Swarovski Z5 3.5x18x44 with the standard Duplex reticle. Scope is pretty much as good as it gets for Clarity and with the side focus it doesn't matter what distance you can focus it so it looks like you are looking through a spotting scope. I mounted it on one rifle for 5 shots and was planning on leaving it on the Gun but I read about the new Zeiss Conquest HD and since I already had a Swarovski Z5 on another rifle so I ordered the ZeissHD5 and I ended up with a $1,500 scope sitting on a shelf for 5 months and I need to get rid of it. No scratches or anything. In original box with all the paper work for the warranty and everything it came with. Still have $1499 price tag on the box but I want to get rid of it in a hurry so first one to give me $750 for it gets a great deal. Also selling a once used Outdoorsman Optic Pack with frame and everything. I took it hunting once and it was just to big I am changing to a day pack. There was a little mud on it so my wife took the pack and waist strap off and washed and it looks better than new. First person to give me $200 will get it.

The guy that posted first bought both with cash. I had someone offer me even more money and I was going to take it but that would go against my word and with out your word what are you left with. That dang greed always clouding your judgement.

Man you guys get it done like usual, but 45 minutes its too quick. Gotta at least have them sit for an hour . I am coming to get my archery coues here in January or next August. You are the only ones I trust to make sure I get a chance at a great buck. What an awesome shot and a great trophy, huge congrats to Jason, you can put all the deer in front of a person you want but if they don't know how to keep it together and make the shot count..

How can I refuse a drink from Tommy. He makes the best lemonade I have ever had even though sometimes it's darker yellow than normal and smells like sulfur it still taste good. To the guy that said my story was retarded it wasn't meant to be read by people that are up tight and think Larry the Cable guy is the only funny guy in the world. I was just trying to put old Tommy at ease because he gets real wound up about stuff like this and worries so much it will make him sick. If I am the only one who gets my humor then that's fine with me. Nobody ever said I was close to being normal. Tommy is one of my best friends and I like to make laugh. Besides he is like 4'3" and looks like an Umpa Lumpa little feller and has a heart of gold. He would give you that Childs Medium shirt off his back if you needed it. I know because I ran out of toilette paper once but thank god it only took a couple wipes. Now that is true friendship right there and I am retarded and can still recognize it.

Man I guess I should have got on here sooner. Talk about a joke gone wrong! Oops. Sorry Tommy just trying to have a little fun so I put your trail cam in a lock box to see if u were smart enough to notice.i will give u a key when I come for supper Friday night. I bet the menu for dinner Friday has changed from some nice Porter Houses to wild Donkey roast with a little bit of tire tread on the side. Then for desert those yummy marble sized chocolate balls. It's weird how your whole family is allergic to chocolate but you go out of your way to make them for me and my family. They smell terrible but taste pretty dang good. They are a lot better than those stinky prickly pear berry chocolate pecan logs you made that one time. Those seeds got stuck in my teeth and my breath smelled like crap for two weeks. See u Friday bud and I won't forget a key.

I was wondering if anyone knew the score of the Ram Pete Shepley killed with Dark Horn Outfitters. There is a picture of it if you enter in "dark horn outfitters" in your search engine. The best part of the website is Tiffany of the show Lee and Tiffany, is a picture of her sitting behind her beautiful ram she killed with them yes I meant the ram. I know some of you won't even see a ram in her pictures. It took me a while to find the ram but I did. I was just curious of Pete's Rams score because I have a bunch of pictures of a ram that looks like his twin. Thanks.

Of course I can't say anything with out mentioning the home town help that has spent many, many hours in the unit and will spend many more the next 4 months for Mr. Woodhouse. You couldn't have any better people than he is going to have on his hunt that I know personally. Of course there are sheep hunters and guides that I admire and look up too that have forgotten more about sheep than anyone of us will ever know ourselves. I am just looking forward to another entire sheep hunt with a bunch of good friends. Everyone who has ever been closely involved in a DIY sheep hunt and even some guided sheep hunts know the hunt really starts the day the tag holder finds out the good news and ends with the group picture with all who helped along the way with a beautiful ram as the center piece (and of course the night after the ram has been taken care of). Can't wait, God willing, this one is going to be a fun adventure.

Did you hear that Chef, Ernesto, TomGobbler(You better kill that old mans bull opening day because by Saturday evening you will be headed to The sheep camp),Clay(if you can slip away for a couple Days) and Eric Smith. Now that I think about it that is a terrible bunch of help but they are all great friends and can't wait to sheep hunt with you all again. Last hunt was a blast but this hunt will have a lot of scouting help. I think I am more excited than comm 1. I was kidding about the terrible part I meant to say slightly below average. JK you know you guys would be the ones right beside me if it was my hunt. Except for Chef he will have to leave a couple hours early during the evening hunts to be the best camp cook and probably one of the only camp cooks to go to that world famous culinary school, which I won't even try to spell the name of.

Congrats Tom I PM you but I wanted to tell you here too. Great unit and good luck. Can't wait to see those pics. I bet you a $100 he has red horns?

Hector I already have you reserved my brother. I have your bed made and I wont even make you cook. Just bring those eyes that can find anything anywhere and we are good. See you soon man.

That is a gorgeous 4.5-5 year old Ram. Gonna be a toad some day if he can keep away from those lions. Nice picture. Thats cool you can see sheep on your way home from work. Nice picture.

The good one. We don't need to mess around with simantics here David. One that has some dang nice big beautiful rams that Mr. Casa De Lena will (God willing) be able to choose from. Oh and If (God is willing) I will make sure of it. . Before the draw results I had about 4,000 pics from trail cams in this heavenly unit. But they were all small. I don't think I would have put in for 36C for desert sheep but he is one of my great friends and I will be there for him from begining to end. How does that sound Comm 1

I believe Lion or a giant bobcat that was plugged up. I was taught that the only droppings that turn white after being in the environment for a while is that of a cat.. I am not positive I was taught the exact truth but whenever I see white dropping in a good spot on private property and set a leg

We will meet someday soon and the feeling is mutual. Thanks

Anyways this is all about The AZ Ground Pounders. I talked to them yesterday and they had treed one nice Tom and two females the last 5 days and had to let the nice Tom go because of no clients. I am telling you now is the time to get that lion you have always wanted and these guys have the record and the dogs to get it done the right way and you will have one of the best hunting adventures you have ever experienced. What better way to spend your 2012 tax refund. These guys are great people and have great skills that they want to prove to anyone. I guarantee if you do a hunt with these guys you will never regret it. You will leave witha great trophy and a few new friends. Thanks AZGP for everything, I am still pumped up when I talk about it. Now I just need to figure out how to speed Clay up by 6 months to get the mount back

Last thing the outfitter didn't shoot the lion I did. It's my tag and thats the lion I wanted. If you are a good outfitter you advise people what you think they should do but you never tell them what they can and can't do with their own tag as long as it is legal.

It was in unit 24A (Rifleman) which I believe is one of the top two units in the state for desert sheep as far as the number of large rams killed each year and the number of sheep within the unit. Actually during my hunt we didn't know at the shot but in case it was a female I asked the question. I just want to tell a few little back stories, on subject of the amount of lions people see and that being correlated to the population number. For lions, lion sighings is not even considered in the estimation of the number of lions in a unit. The experience I have with this is in trapping. It is not lions but Bobcats. I have seen fewer Bobcats in the wild than I have seen mountain lions to this day (that doesn't include seeing them in a trap). In an area about a 1,000 square feet on private ground next to the Gila River TomGobbler (forum handle) and I trapped 24 Bobcats in a month in 5 leg hold traps in a 1,000 square foot area in one months time.If you don't believe me he has pictures. I drive by the area at all times during the day about 5 times a week and have never seen a Bobcat in that area. So sightings have no bearing as far as population goes. The second story is over a 10 year period. When I got out of college and came back to Yuma 14 years ago, I met a great family at church that were desert sheep nuts. I would go out with them in 2001, 2002 to the Kofas every chance I got. We would see sheep everywhere. We made camp in the bottom of Burro Canyon one trip and at last light as I was starting a fire I had multiple monster rams come skyline themselves to look and see what I was doing. They taught me about all of these sheep and showed me tons of them, on average seeing 50+ sheep on average in a 1 1/2 day trip. They also hunted monster muleys in the Kofas with some 180" bucks on there walls and scouting with them there were tons of quality bucks in the Kofas.. In 2003 I hiked 2 miles one way to a tank to set a trail camera. We waited 3 weeks and I hiked back to see what we had on it. To my surprise we had a buck that I sent the picture to Dwayne Adams and he said it was a 200" buck. We hunted him and the 10 other good bucks that lived around the tank during rifle season and Bow season, killing one nice high 170's buck. The next season we were so pumped to see how big our big buck had gotten. I hiked in again the next year. The area was very green and the same water hole had the same amount of water with it being 105-110 the deer in the past would visit that tank usually once every day or two. Well when I went to retrieve the camera 3 weeks later, this being 2004 I believe, the next year expecting to see the huge selection of big bucks, all that had come in for that previous 3 weeks was a single doe and 30 minutes behind her was a mature nice sized lion. Well the next 8 years of battling with the feds trying to tell them the lions were taking a huge toll on the deer and sheep we finally got them to agree when they looked at the 2001 estimated population of sheep that was way over a 1,000 animals and they had been transplanting sheep to unit 22 and 24A years prior to 2001. Then they looked at the 2009 estimates which were under 200 animals and 2010 I believe their survey in one of the units they did not see one sheep. Which concerned them greatly so they caught and collard lions to see if in fact they were the cause. Every lion caught became an offending lion after it killed 10 sheep.or deer. Most of the collard lions would reach the offending point within 2 months and would be removed when they went off the refuge. Since then they have taken a ton of lions out of the three units and the population of deer and sheep has come back up to around 400 sheep this last survey despite the low amount of precipitation. My point is If you went out today into a new area and saw tons of monster sheep and deer every where you looked and hunted deer there and new you had a chance everyday of killing a monster passing up 160" bucks all the time and seeing sheep every where you went and 10 years from now you went to hunt deer in your favorite spots and you hunted for 6 days and saw one doe and did not see a single sheep during the trip it would make you angry to find out the reason for this was almost all because of lions even though you never saw one in the unit. It would leave a bad taste in your mouth for lions. When you pull a stripped spinal cord connected to a 180" magnificent Desert Kofa Ram out of a Palo Verde that had been covered by a lion and had lion tracks all around it is not a moment that will make you love them lions trust me. That is the problem we are having is we are not seeing lions so we think they are not there or are in low numbers until populations of other game animals start taking a huge nose dive and by the time the research is done to figure out lions are the cause it is to late. I was 22 once and thought I knew a lot but the last 12 years since I was 22 has taught me that back then when I thought I knew it all I didn't and I will freely admit I know only a little more since then and know nothing compared to older hunters that have a ton of time under their belt being out in the desert or forest that will tell you something that you have not seen with your own eyes but disagree with them because one of your friends read something or talked to the Game Wardens brother or it is the new thing to do, you may want to take a step back and put your ego aside and listen to them because theey are telling you from first hand experience. I know now that I really don't know that much despite spending thousands of hours hunting and scouting the different units in this state. The only way to know truthfully that something is right or wrong in this situation is to see it for yourself or talk to people that are experts in that certain field that have seen it all and to take information and form your own opinion.I have no bad feelings at all but this is exactly why I didn't post the story myself. I see lots of things on here that I disagree with but unless it is someone asking for your opinion just keep your fingers off of the key board when you have negative thoughts about a thread that is just congratulating an individual for something he has done that he or a friend wants to share with other friends on here. I know you will have a HaHa retort but if you have any respect you would just say congrats man thats a pretty lion and leave it at that..