Flatlander

Anybody been on these hunts the last few years? I am wondering how crowded this hunt gets and if it is wife/girlfriend friendly. My wife and I would like to find a hunt we can take our boys (5,4) on and find a few elk while staying out of the line of fire from others.

Looks like a ton of fun. Always wanted to hunt with horses.

That intact side is HUGE! I have the same problem, you are in good company.

Super Bowl bound! Its been a long drought.

Joe - You and I have agreed on many points in the past and I would hesitate to call you out but what you just stated is a gross generalization that is incredibly off base and insensitive. I am surprised that you would make such a statement when Coach clearly just stated that this is a problem his family struggles with. Mental illness is real, and its a HUGE problem. There is a definable difference between a kid who is active, energetic, hyper, etc and a person (of any age) who is diagnosed with a mental illness. I agree that some doctors likely over-diagnose and that the medications can have powerful side-effects but that doesn't disprove the problem it compounds it.

I'd call that buck a stud. As for the extra tine I would probably refer to it as a cheater or hook. I usually say drop tine when it comes off the main beam at an angle less than 0.

Dang, I think for my tenth birthday I got a Ric Flair action figure. I still have it, but I'd rather have a sheep.

Amazing. Big congrats.

Amazing. Congratulations and a tip of the hat for a job well done.

Well now that hunter's trailhead has gone "Member Only" I think I may have to pony up and buy a membership to a draw odds information provider. I really liked HT because of the ease of use, and their methodology was pretty straightforward. They covered all the states I apply in, so they were pretty much meeting my needs. Their subscription is $25 / year. The others I am aware of are Huntin Fool and Eastmans. I like those cause you get a magazine with your membership, and they provide extra scouting/unit reports for states that I haven't ever lived in but my primary need is just the draw odds. I have had Eastman's memberships in the past and really enjoyed it. With all that said before I decide I figured I would get everybody elses suggestions or opinions on the ones I have not mentioned.

I have never hunted unit 10 a day in my life, but this is a true disappointment to me. Arizona has long been a shining example in the West of private landowners and sportsmen working together. Game and Fish has done a great job of maintaining good relationships with private land owners and not giving in to those seeking landowner tags. Slowly it looks like we are watching these opportunities erode. Thanks Don for taking this head on and getting people informed. I have admired your efforts in many arenas for a lot of years, the work you do for AZ sportsmen is commendable.

You would hope out of all those tags you would end up with something. Hopefully not multiple units during the same time frame.

Uhoh, now the left is going to label anything with a scope a sniper rifle and take it away. Seriously though, this technology is amazing.

Is the Liberal Tucson media trying to sabotage the rally by publishing the wrong date? http://tucsoncitizen.com/in-the-aggregate/2013/01/17/arizona-2nd-amendment-rally-saturday-february-16th/

Or at least it probably wished it would have been this morning when it was 22 degrees. We started out this morning back in our usual spot looking for pigs and deer. We found some about 8:30 and the stalk was on. Well everything that could go wrong did, wind swirled all over the place, a cow spooked and ran right through the herd, a coyote chased a jack rabbit all over the hill they were on. Needless to say when we got to where they were, they were no longer. We setup the tripods and got started looking for them. We glassed up the pigs and a buck about the same time and there was a decision to be made. Well the buck slipped into a wash so we decided the pigs were a better better bet, but by this time another hunter had closed in on them. After watching for a few minutes we realized he had no idea where they had moved to so Mike took off to see if he could cut them off while I kept track of them from our hill top. As Mike headed out I settled in to watch the show. Before long I could see the pigs scatter and I realized the other hunter had stumbled into them and flung an arrow. Fortunately the pigs ran right into Mike's lap and after a couple of tries a pig stayed in front of one of his arrows long enough to get stuck. The hit was low and the blood trail was long. While working the blood trail we met up with the other hunters who turned out to be some acquaintances Mike has met down there hunting before. They were kind enough to help us out and after a couple hours we were able to find the wounded pig holed up in some mesquites. Mike got another arrow in her and she only went another 50 yards or so. All told it took us about 3 hours to recover the Javi after the first hit. This was a great day and ended a couple year drought for Mike.

Did you ever see those letters or emails? I never did. Did they ever read them? We have no idea because there is no accountability. Any time that we can get a small portion of our tax dollars back from the black hole (feds) then that is a good thing. Above all guys lets remember that we are all hunters here. If we don't support each other then we can kiss all of our opportunities goodbye. Guns, tags, forests there are people out there who want to take all of it. We have got to find a way not to kick the chair out from under each other all the time.

Thom - Don't be coy, we all recognize that UA is a better team. I also recognize that they are OVER-RATED. I will bet you they finish outside the top 5.

The problem Game and Fish would never know if hunters supported it or not, because they didn't bother to ask outside of a formality required by their legislation. No survey, no request for input, no research. Just a handful of guys limited to 3 minutes each while the commission ate its lunch prior to passing their pre-determined unanimous vote. ID allows baiting for some species. I used to live there and have a life time license. Any time that we can get a small portion of our tax dollars back from the black hole (feds) then that is a good thing. Be careful, those Fed $ come with some major strings attached ie Mexican Wolf Recovery Program Above all guys lets remember that we are all hunters here. If we don't support each other then we can kiss all of our opportunities goodbye. Guns, tags, forests there are people out there who want to take all of it. We have got to find a way not to kick the chair out from under each other all the time.

It seems to me at the root of problems like this is a lack of accountability by the commission. There are no consequences for dancing all over the rights of hunters in this state. I have been outspoken in my support of G&F as I think they have a difficult job and sportsman have nearly impossible expectations. That said, there is absolutely no excuse for the disrespect they showed to sportsman on this topic. Ridiculous.

+1 on having someone else man the glass while you make your stalk. This drives the probabiility of success WAY up and will help save you from stalking deer that have moved on while you are putting the sneak on. Good luck.

Congrats.

Great job Felicia and crew.

Awesome deer be it Coues, Carmen, Carolinan or Cambodian. That is a cool buck.

3 games into PAC-12 play and the Wildrats should be 1-2.

My buddy glassed one up last weekend. I have never been so excited to go looking for stink pigs as I am for this weekend.