Becker

College may be over but life is just beggining. That is only two years worth of memories. Can't wait for the rest. Becker

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Man what a trip!!! Funny thing is that was only one day. Nothing better than spending quality time in the woods with the women and best friends. Aaaahhh the memories. Littlebear I must say it could not have happened in a better way....wait I guess we could have done with out the 100 mile an hour winds. Other than that....I have a feeling there are many more to come. Becker PS I must add a personal congrats from me to you on catching that lion with your dogs. Glad I could be there.

Went out with littlebear on Saturday to putz around. Ended up finding four sheds. Two decent ones from last year and two older smallies.......Man was it already HOT. We had plans to hike in a ways but ended up just lookin around next to the road

I finally got around to mounting my coues deer in between my classes and shed hunting. Thought you all might like to see it. Turned out pretty good for my first taxidermy job.

I haven't taken any classes or anything. My father does some work on the side, and I have been working at Chuck Meacham Taxidermy, learning secret info there. I put the mount tegether in a day. Then modeled the inside of the mouth one day in an hour or so. Then painted it another day for a couple hours. It was kind of a long process just because I was working on it inbetween school and work and hunting. I am looking foward to my next mount!!!

My GSP loves chewing on antlers.....In the field though he only pics them up if I show them to him. He will carry them for a long time for me after that. I think he runs too fast to see them and pic k them up himself...lol. too busy looking for birds (and who knows what else) I guess.

Yep, In my DREAMS.....

I once drew the youth hunt in the Kofa's. 11 days or something without seeing a deer. What a drag. finally my father and I finally found a buck, or at least we thought we did. We put a stalk on him and he somehow vanished out of this small cut. we are still scratching our heads all these years later. Anyway I am convinced that there aren't deer down there. You simply look through the binos so long that you start seeing mirages of them, or maybe my dad felt sorry for me and put a small sticker on the lenses of my binos.

Tryed to get littlebear to ditch class with me yesterday and go check the ol' cam. Had to take my dog Cazador instead. Man was littlebear bummed he didn't come!!! No pics of mister big, the lion is probably why. However I walked up one bench and found these two sheds and lion kill. That freaky two point thing with the large I-guard would probably have a 20 inch inside spread!!! Too bad it doesn't have anything for points. Needless to say it was a good day for me!!!

Me littlebear me.....

I tend to agree with littlebear....Any of you read Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac", the section "Thinking like a mountain" and past accounts of wolf populations. They thought killing all the wolves meant more deer etc. But the results were terrible. A few deer killed by a lion can be replaced in a few years, but letting the heards get out of control and run down the moutains, might not recover for lifetimes, if it does at all. I would rather have lions and chances at shooting them every now and then, find a couple racks, chase the deer that survive, rather than never have an opportunity to chase either. My .02

I would get a real dog, but he chases coatis just as good as your REAL dog. LOL

Well littlebear and I put in together with our women during the rifle hunt incase the women wanted to harvest pigs with the rifles. Littlebear's girl got one on friday and then my wife and I got ours on Saturday with the stick flingers. Had a great time hanging out with friends. Thanks to littlebear for all the help. Its sure is great to spend quality time in the woods with some of your closest friends and family.

At the U of A here in Tucson there was a study on such aspects at the saurita mine. Dr. Krausman, a professor here was the man in charge. In his wildlife management class that was his input (human interaction was bad for them) but in this study there were pics of bighorn sheep next to buildings etc. And I myself have seen them in Morenci staring at the truck as you drive by 10 ft away. They didn't seem to mind. Sooooo not sure what that means

uno mas

more pics

I heard the same rumors as you. To much human encroughment...

As littlebear mentioned I had my cam stolen about 3 weeks ago. It was camo, python locked to the tree and about 1.5 miles up a thick nasty canyon. still got taken, along with my two treestands. but as littlebear said I managed to get it back. Needless to say the cowboy was surprised to see me at his door asking for my stuff back. I don't think he thought anyone would be crazy enough to come all the way out there to ask him for it back. Boy was he wrong $300 + dollar camera and two tree stands on the line, look at what littlebear and I do for a little antler. Luckily with a Game and Fish officer present no confrontation arose. I would like to say thanks to Martin for putting in the time to help me retreive my property. I don't think I would have gotten my stuff back without him. Despite much of the comment I see there are really good people working for the Game and Fish with their heads in the right places helping us hunters out. I must add one comment though. It was relayed to me that the forest service counts cams and tree stands like that as abandoned. Despite that I had the cam locked up and stuff. Apparently they can site you for it or something to that effect. Anyone heard this before? Gave me the impression that it is a free for all out there. So keep an eye on your goods, your camp might be gone when you get back cause it was abandoned for 4 hours, don't look to the forest service for much help, and call your freindly Game and Fish officer, he will help. A happier Becker with his stuff back

Went out with littlebear to chase the lion dogs for awhile and set up the ol' cam. Ended up finding some sheds. our grand total at the end of the day, 2 sets and 2 singles (6 antlers) . Odd thing was the first set was about 3 inches apart from eachother and the second set was about 50 yards from the first set. Then the last single was about ten minutes later. 5 antlers in about 15-20 minutes wasn't bad. Can't wait till there are some fresh ones laying around to discover. Becker

In my opinion, I think hunting animals in their natural behavior is what should be done. Animals naturally come to water. Whether you are at the water, 20 yards off on a trail to the water, you are still doing the same thing. Ambushing the deer that are coming naturally to the water. Now when they are coming to the sound of a feeder or something thats when I loose interest, however in some places that might be the only way to see deer because of the terrain. Its not what I want to do but I don't condone it. As far as chasing things with dogs, one of the hardest things I have done. I have chased dogs with littlebear farther than I would ever imagine. The training, etc. involved with the dogs is something that I think most people don't understand unless they are out there two or more times a week trying to train dogs. Even my bird dog is hard work. Hunting is hunting and thats why I beleive there are certain laws in place to regulate it. Looking at the "bigger picture of all hunters working together" whether or not agree with my way over yours is what we should aim for. Keep in mind hunting might not always be here to enjoy. Especially if we can't all agree....

I must say I ran into some pretty unrespectful people this last weekend. Got to a tank on Saturday and was climbing in the pop-up when some guy comes cruising up and claims that his peices of camo cloth hanging from a tree had been there along with him all week. Apparently that reserves someones spot. Thing is I was there the day before and he wasn't. He proceeded to still climb into his make shift blind despite the fact that I was already there. I would have not set up there if I hadn't seen that cloth hanging at just about every water hole since august. Packed up gear and left. Sunday I made my way to a tank, at the end of a dead end road. I parked 500 yards from the end of the road and tank on the backside of a hill in plain sight of anyone else coming up the road. After I got set up I heard another quad on the road and assumed it was my hunting buddy littlebear who knew I was at the tank. About three hours later I hear footsteps so I peak out my blind and here is this guy sneaking towards the water hole with my blind in plain sight. I waved my hand at him to move off but he thought apparently, that it was an invitation to come all the way up to my blind and almost stick his head in the window to ask if I was with TERRY!!! (I took that as being 25-06) I said no and that I was trying to hunt this tank... He proceeds to say "I am going to go sit the other side OK" and of course I protested... He says "don't worry its cool dude, I already hiked all the way in here...." So then he went sneeking across the open with hes girlfriend following him....I packed up my gear and left. I get to the top of the hill and there are two red quads there about 60 yards farther down the road than mine in plain sight of everything in the whole basin. Fact is I hope it wasn't you Terry... I would think any right minded hunter would realize its archery season and people might be sitting or even hunting the area around the water, and not drive another 60 yards down the dead end road to get in front of them. Littlebear and I have had quite a few people ask if we know Terry. How many hunters do you have out there Terry? Anyway that was my whole weekend pretty much and as you might guess not many deer were seen at those spots....

Checked the ol' cam and figured you all might like this buck....Just as a waldo deer find, how many deer can you spot???

I see a lot of posts about Game and Fish looking for more $$$$. I just wanted to make one comment on that. I think a lot of the money they are looking for is to increase pay for employees. I am graduating college in May with a wildlife and fisheries degree and I must say that although hunting and fishing is my passion there are many more oppurtunities out there that pay a heck of a lot more than the Game and Fish can. I don't think the G and F is being able to attract and keep some of the better biologists, etc. any more. That is a major problem in my mind. I see a bunch of people really harping about small fee increases and I am not sure that they realize that money is paying for the people who are actually out there trying to manage the wildlife so we can enjoy it. If you aren't willing to pay a little I don't see how you can expect to have it much longer....Just a one of my concerns

To tell you the truth I sent the pic to my father in an email and called him to make sure he got it ok. He opened it and we were talking about the buck for a minute or so and he pointed it out that quick. I probably wouldn't have seen it either. I was too focused on the one up front...