dogman68

Here is a nice heavy shed my wife found yesterday. She has several sheds from the same area, same genetics. All heavy fat 2 points, trying to be a 3 point.

A few years ago a bear kept coming at my son and I during an archery elk hunt. I finally hit it with the water bottle I pulled out of my pack and it took off.

once he comes out, chain him up.

They went back to year around season. Guess something changed and they "uncaved" to the Defenders. I'm a lousy lion hunter for sure. Never saw but two lion tracks on the strip. Getting old is really a bum deal.

one was a tom, the other a female.

First trail of the season. The first day we hit the track late and it was real hot, so waited until daylight the next morning to try and catch them. Fortunately they were only a couple of miles away, laid up.

With an archery deer hunt and an archery pig hunt going on in the same unit I would have found it difficult to gather all that information out of a truck track in a road. If a truck was on the track or dog tracks on the track I think Andy would have kept going. Well I know he would have. Also, the track hunter thought the track was going one way and Andy thought it was going the other, so the agreement was made that he would go the way he thought it went and if he was wrong, he would load up the dogs and go home and these dogs that were "on the way" could have a go at it. Sounds fair to me?????? There were 5 people who were there and listened to the agreement. This is what I was told by all involved although I was not anywhere around. Stuff like that happens on occasion I guess but the name calling is unnecessary. Maybe the best thing is to take your dogs when you go lion hunting. Just some food for thought.

Way to go Clayton! Doesn't get any better than that!

He was actually headed for the park and we caught him just a hair before he made it. Same story on both of them, so it does seem like they like the parkies. I said the same year, but come to think of it, I think it was earlier in the winter.

I don't know what he weighed. I'm guessing 125 lbs. A man from Tucson harvested this lion with a bow. If I remember right, he was like 7 or 8 years old. Wildlife callers is right, your stars gotta be just right as generally they are on the park or close to it. Why I do not know. During the dry season they hit all the watercatchments since there is little or no water on the park or reservations, either side of 9 but generally during the later fall and winter they move back off the public land. Maybe due to pressure and human activity during hunting seasons, I really don't know. Here is another "park" lion, only this one was actually bigger. Same year. I can't remember, but one of them had a number 5 tag in one ear and the other one, well I just can't remember now.

Here is what he looked like in the spring of 2009. He had just "dropped" his collar, which the biologist called it after he intentionally retrieved the collar to retrieve the data since part of the collar was malfunctioning. It is a park service study that has been ongoing for several years now. And yes he did spend most of his time inside the park as the study is showing, most of them do for one reason or another.

with a trail cam(or 5) on every spring, tank and salt lick in arizona, its pretty difficult to "claim" an area of public land just because you put salt there three years ago. If you had a cam on it and someone put theirs on it too, I would say they are wrong and unethical in their attitude towards you as a hunter, but in this case, where do you draw the line? Its basic "tree stand mentality" where someone puts up a tree stand and then expects a deed to the land to come in the mail by virtue of that stand. Its a tough deal, but like someone already said, welcome to public land. Good luck.

That is an awesome lion pic. Really healthy looking tom. Invite me down to chase him.

The lion had a collar. There are quite a few collared lions left over from the urban lion study. While they are legal to take I felt it is good to show some co-operation with the folks that do that sort of thing. And also the fact there was no reason to kill him. If you spend some time hunting them you quickly learn that most of the "lions kill a deer a week etc etc etc" is just old wives tales. I doubt there are enough deer in arizona for a lion to even kill a deer a week. If you think about it, they estimate 2500 lions in arizona------a deer a week would be upwards of 130,000 deer a year that lions take in arizona---------its probably mathematically impossible. My experience has been they supplement their diet with mostly small animals--------skunks, coyotes, etc etc. Most studies have shown that a lion kills on average, 12-14 big game animals a year. I know there are exceptions of course. Here is a large male lion that has a badger killed. It is under the pile of dirt.

Sure wish I had me an elk tag for one of the 17 elk hunts that will happen this year in 6a. As anybody who hunts that unit knows, the elk quantity and quality continues to decline. The departments answer to that is to help it along even more so. Is it possible the new thinking that, "we have too many bulls and bucks" was originated by the same people who thought up photo radar? Just curious what some of you guys think that hunt the unit.