Alpinebullwinkle

I heard "Burma Shave" is the secret!

Those elk look like they would be easy pickens for our wolf dogs in Arizona and New Mexico !

Interesting details you have shared about the sheds of this bull. A few years back I found one side of a 400 class bull and then spent over 20 trips the next two years looking for the match......unsuccessfully. Had an antler buyer tell me that even the 400 class bulls will shed a mile or so apart some times which really surprised me. What has been the experience of some of you with respect to finding the bigger sheds.....either close together or far apart?

Awesome bull. Thanks for the share.

Gosar and Sylvia Allen have been very good to respond to my memos. Democrats unfortunately have been AWOL for some unknown reason.

Yes as much as I hate to admit it the socialists would not be currently controlling and destroying our country if the Republicans had come up with a better candidate than McCain in 2008.

It struck me funny also when I read the "scratch" comment. Maybe it was just one of the many spike bulls from up north that are more customary in the area.

Aaron with all due respect I "definitely" agree with all your food comments that affected our elk behaviors in Alpine historically. What you may not be aware of is the "town bull herd" always used to feed in town daily but traveled twice daily back and forth to their dense bedding grounds above our residences. Coincidental to the wolves showing up these daily elk movements changed where they simply remained in town 24/7 and never returned to the forest until rutting season. I know this as a fact because the elk used to cross my property daily as mentioned but stopped doing so coincidentally when we began seeing and photographing wolves in our yards! Having said that I will also share that I have not seen a wolf in my yard for a couple of years now and also rarely see the bulls. This testimonial is "definitely" factual by the way.

........stated a different way the USFS "Smokey the Bear" policies of the last 50 years (putting fires out) or so have had a greater negative impact on the aspen growth than a growing elk herd, that does depend on aspen grazing for some of their subsistence

Interesting Tony. I don't recall our resident town bulls showing up in Alpine until after the wolf reintroduction program. On a different note we visited Estes Park this last summer and all we viewed was one bull elk. More importantly we noticed the shape of the forest was terrible with bark beetle invested trees everywhere. Estes Park looks like Arizona unit #27 pre-Wallow Fire. I predict it will be the next big national forest to burn severely...........and when it does they won't have to worry about elk over grazing the aspen trees. When it burns aspen will propagate everywhere and there won't be enough elk to make a concern for the aspen..........just like what recently happened in units #27 and #1 due to the Wallow Fire

It used to be that if you wanted to hunt something more than spike meat (larger horns) you had to at least get into the more remote areas at the rim and below. Even though the last few years post fire things have changed a bit where a greater percentage of elk are higher (maybe both weather and feed related) you generally need to get remote to hunt the better quality bulls. This means more effort but still can be rewarding. I only heard of one bull +380 being harvested this November/December late gun hunt. What did others hear?

Good point Tony. I was going to expand on my earlier comment based on my trip to Yellowstone a couple of years ago. Drove all thru Yellowstone park without even seeing an elk and only saw two moose. Really disappointing to observe almost no animals in a non-hunting preserve!! But guess what.....when we got to the town of Mammoth there were 6 bulls laying in the park mid day with all the tourists taking pictures from less than 50 feet. Same scenario as we have had in Alpine.......thanks to those lovely wolves no doubt! I also hear what 654321 is suggesting but there is no other logical reason elk would prefer to co-inhabit so close to humans when they have equal feed in the woods other than...........yes the fear of predators. My personal surveys also suggest the numbers of mountain lions and coyotes is also up significantly since the ill-advised ban on trapping was passed.

For the last 10 years in Alpine up until the Wallow Fire changed things we had a herd of 23-35 bulls each year reside 24/7 within town limits. Why? Because the bulls felt safer around humans than out in the forest where they should be.........because of the wolf reintroduction program! There is no other explanation why they would prefer to be so close to humans. Even today we have a cow and calf that reside 24/7 within 300 yards of the Bear Wallow Cafe. Sure wish our AGFD would quit wasting $$$ on the wolf reintroduction program.

Yes these are scary times. I still haven't figured out what country our "dividor in chief" is working for but he is being pretty efficient causing our self destruction!!

The more I think about it the Republicans really messed up when they let the "demoncrats" blame everything on George Bush. There was plenty of blame to go around for both parties but Republicans chose to let George become the pissing post and are still taking the beating for not standing up and defending him in some cases when he didn't deserve all the blame. Unfortunately Hilliary showed more "balls" today defending herself than our Republican pals have showed the last 6 years!

Conservatives are being "out articulated" by our "dividor in chief" that is simply inverting all the meek messages from the right. Conservatives need to become more outspoken and share proof of where they are coming from!

I like our Arizona system unquestionably better than other states. Having said that, the bonus point piece of the system is not as effective as it could be with slight changes. In the past I have suggested to AGFD to square the bonus points to tighten the bell curve up and make bonus points more effective in the selection process. I have even had a black belt data person verify the proposal would add value. For some reason I have not heard a reasonable response from AGFD why they are not in favor of enhancing the system in that way.

"being organized has given us a right to sit and discuss what type of equipment I wear on my back and what type of equipment I carry on my truck vs. letting my city manager and city council make the decisions for me". Evan the "non-union" mining company environment I worked many years in offered the same privilege that you cherish, plus many more desirable privileges In other words you don't need a union to set the table for optimum success. In fact based on my work experience a union environment did more to set the table for roadblocks and inefficiencies. My comments are from working in a union environment for 13 years for Phelps Dodge Mining Company and then in a non-union environment for the same company the next 20 years after the union was decertified. In the 1980's this was the primary reason that many mining companies (that were highly unionized) went out of business totally or were shut down because they no longer could make a profit due to the inefficiencies resulting from unionized activities. It was very predictable based on the mining company experiences that the US auto industry would meet the same fate if they didn't learn from the mining companies. Unfortunately history repeated itself with the auto industries around 2007 and many innocent auto workers lost their jobs due to union officials greed. Bottom line it takes more effort by leadership in non-union companies to keep employees happy and remain non-union. I am the first to admit that the unions of the 1950-1960's served a very useful purpose and many of the benefits that both salaried and non-salaried workers enjoy today are the positive results from those earlier unionized efforts. Many people complain about Wall Street greed now days but from what I learned from my union and non-union work experiences union leadership in today's world is every bit as greedy as Wall Street. Unions possibly have caused more loss of jobs than the more publicized blame that Wall Street has endured. Frankly unions IMHO have outlived their usefulness in today's different world, and unfortunately subtract more value than they add .......or at one time added.

Thanks for all your added comments on this confusing new change Brian.

The left wing liberal based media is trying to make a big issue out of this by asking the question should our kids be thrown in the middle of this debate? Well guess what.......it has already become a big emotional political issue because 1) our kids are already part of this terrible issue due to them being victimized by former terrorists and 2) President Obama chose himself to utilize kids and other victimized parents to optimize his political leverage based on peoples emotions. Yesterday our so called president even used a poor choice of words saying "Republicans are putting a gun to the head of the American public" with respect to his debt ceiling struggles. Apparently the only way to fight back against this "divider in chief" is to utilize the same low class tactics he has been unfortunately so successful using to progress his own lame ambitions. Republicans and the NRA need to become more articulate and direct in response to Obama's bs. This video is a great start to our public creating a backbone and reversing all the alarming issues that are arising under the current administration!

Good comments Bill on what unfavorable changes could possibly be next. That's the way I took your response that we need to be more concerned about the current "baiting change" since it was poorly communicated and justified. So if we swallow this one without further dialog we should not be surprised to see further unfavorable changes for hunters and fishermen?

Recently I have been complimentary of AGFD for their improved communications to us stakeholders the last few years. A significant improvement from years past. For some reason this "baiting issue" snuck up on me and I wasn't aware it was up for a vote until just a few days ago. How did such a controversial issue go so quietly without more communications/debate ? Did I just personally miss this one coming up for some reason? This decision seems so out of character to me since it seems to be a "proactive" decision in advance of any CWD cases being discovered in Arizona. I don't recall any government actions being taken in the proactive mode ever before. Also seems to be discriminatory to allow ranchers to use salt (which our wildlife will share) and not allow hunters to have the same privilege? I'm hoping to hear more input from AGFD why this action has been taken ........other than just fear of CWD

Taking away the legal priviledge of putting salt out for animals will not only hurt our wildlife but will also make many honest outdoorsmen criminals.....in addition to causing lots of controversy that our AGFD can obviously do without!

No quality issues for Arizona unlike Colorado has for many reasons. Actually we used to have a horn limitation on the early gun bull hunts in September back in the 1970's. Don't see any reason to justify the proposed change for Arizona

The two people that were responsible for causing all the lack of trust with AZSFW quit when we challenged them and now the club is just like most of the other outdoor wildlife organizations.......doing all they can for sportsman and our wildlife resources in a collarborative effort with all other wildlife clubs.