Rembrant

I'll just go to Denny's and get one of thier "slam" breakfasts. I can afford that. Mike

I can't get over what a fine buck that is! That's the kind of deer I imagine when when I dream about hunting unit 45. I think it typifies the potential of that unit. Good job you guys! What a beauty! Mike

Smokin'!!!!!!!!

25-06, Thanks for the self disclosure. You're the man. Mike

Amanda, So... What do I win? Mike

Got another one. This is gonna sound just like a badger story I told on another string. and it is just like it - only different. Both true stories. I was with my older brother Matt on his trap line (again). At this time Matt was fairly new with the trapping program and learning quickly. He had placed a cat set in the rock quary at Winona and we were there to check it. Just like the badger story, the set was spent and there was no trap to be found. Matt explained to me that the leg hold trap had a 6 or 7 foot drag chain with a rebar hook to snag up on the nearest small tree. Only problem was there were no trees for at least 150 yds. in any direction, and the ground was too hard to detect any drag marks. So we're walking around studying the ground trying to find this trap when we hear the jingling of a chain. We locate the source of the sound in the quarry, within some big rocks that are all piled up together - and the hook end of the chain! Matt's got the 22 rifle, it's his trap line, and he's the big brother so, of course, he orders me to grab the chain and pull on it. I don't argue with this guy too much, 'cause through the course of my young life, whenever I did, I would receive conditioning to the response - usually in the form of knuckles. So I pick up the chain and pull and the growling that comes from the hole makes us agree that what I've got at the end of this 7 foot chain must be a lion! My brother Matt is one tough son-of-a-gun. He's a hard worker, a trucker, a biker (back before yuppies bought harleys) a heck of a hunter, and he had a tendency to get in a lot of fights, none of which he ever lost and most of which resulted in broken facial bones for the other guy. So Matt says, "Pull on that chain, and get him out far eonugh so I can put a bullet in his head." Naturally, I ask him if he thinks he should do the pullin' 'cause he's stronger than I am. The answer to that was, "Shut up and just pull that cat out so I can shoot him!" So I start pulling, and pulling, and the cat sounds like my worst nightmare! After a bit I gain enough ground on the cat to identify the front foot of a bobcat. Only a slight relief at the moment, as tension and fear is surging rampant through every fiber of my being. Then the cat charges!!!!!! I hang on to the chain with total trust in my brothers abilities only to watch him scream and run off like a little girl!!!! (?) AHHHHHHGH!! I drop the chain and run too! "HEY! YOU CAN'T RUN!! YOU GOT THE GUN!!!" The cat returned to the hole. I inquired again about a role reversal. Again over ruled. The cat eventually lost. Mike

Another Warden story: I once worked with an attractive middle aged woman who told me this story. Her husband introduced her to a game warden friend of his who, when he met her said," Oh yeah, you have an attractive shower cap." She knew instantly what he was talking about. She and her husband lived in the country where one day, home alone, she was showering when her dogs engaged in an all out brawl just outside the house. Not wanting damaged dogs and a vet bill, and since the house was not near any others, she left the shower, and the house to break up the dog fight with nothing but a shower cap on. The Game Officer was parked a ways away from the house, doing his job, surveying numbers of prairie dogs with quality optics. Bet them game guys have a lot of stories!! Mike

Hey I've got one that doesn't involve poop or barf. Maybe y'all won't think it's funny. I wasn't hunting either, I was fishin at night, by myself, on Roosevelt. Had a lantern going on the floor of the boat so I could see what I was doing in the boat. Tossed a small jig out and was giving it time to sink to the bottom when I noticed the end of my rod twitchin. Grabbed and jerked in it, but got no resistance. But my rod tip is still twitchin... and what I could see of my line was goin up in the air! What??!! So I start reeling it in. My mind was freaking as it struggled to understand why my line was going near verticle out of the end of my pole! Before I could get it reeled all the way in, it relaxes and falls to the surface. Only then did I hear the familiar squeeking of a bat as it continued its search for more 'bugs'. The little rascal had apparently echoed up my monofiliment line and mistook it for a bug. Sat there and had a good laugh , by myself, after I calmed down. Mike

My prayers are with you and your family. Keep standing; Ephesians chapter 6: 10-14. Read James chapter 1 concerning trials. Job was richly blessed. Thank you for the request. It is my privelage. Mike

Ever since I first saw this pic I thought it was of Horse Mountain at the North end of the Galueros, unit 32. Mike

I could have this all wrong, but what I think happened was USO was headed to pull the same krap in Nevada that they pulled in Arizona, and Senator Reid saw them coming and headed them off at the pass. Reid and a few other senators fought the unconstitutionality of a 10% big game limit (deemed so by the 9th circus court in San Francisco) with a "states rights" bill that protects individual states' game departments - so they can call their own shots. This will apply to every state in the Union. Thank goodness that someone with power and fortitude stood up to keep the jerks from USO and the clowns in San Francisco from running our state game departments into the ground. As a reminder: game departments are state agencies and are subject to follow state and federal laws and regulations. It is not their job to be politically active. The 10% fiasco was a result of USO being extremely greedy and having enough smarts to take the issue to the 9th district court, where those liberal Frisco judges, who wouldn't know an elk from a mule, and who, like other high courts in this nation, love to overstep there job as interpreters of the constitution, and legislate laws instead. The legislating of laws is ment to be done by the legislators - like senator Reid. Looks like Reid got 'er figured and got 'er done. Liberal judges could be the downfall of this nation. USO should be hung from their gonads for what they pulled. Mike

Uh, wait a minute. I think unit 22 is pretty sucky too! The whole dang unit burned didn't it? Ain't nothin left! 45. That's the unit. Yeah, Unit 45. Mike

The biggest difference, as was mentioned earlier, is getting your draw with a bow as opposed to not having to get your draw with a crossbow. That is huge! Giagantic!! Good point Lark. It seems the further we get into the future, the more people get polarized. Harleys vs. crotch rockets; gays vs. straights; tree huggers vs. lumber people; republicans vs. democrats, and on and on and on. Can't we all just get along?! Mike

Unit 23 really sucks. Don't waste your time in there. Used to be a good population of jack-a-lopes in there, bit even they have been wiped out by out of work miners, fires and drought. It amazes me that the game dept can still sell tags for that unit and sleep at night! Unit 45 sounds like your best bet for whitetails, Bowhunterforlife knows what he's talking about. Mike

Laws is laws. And we gotta obey them. When you see someone taking an unfair advantage by not obeying the law, report them. If you think there should be a crossbow season, then do what you can to get one started. meanwhile if you see a guy with a crossbow during a bow season - report him to the authorities. If he is handicapped and entitled to hunt with a crossbow then the Wildife Manager can sort it out. If you see a guy hunting with a broken whiskey bottle, get as far away from him as you can. It's probably Lark. He may have drunk all that whiskey and he is known for doing strange back-woods things and getting real mean when he drinks. Mike

Same thing has been happening at Roosevelt from the Three Fire and the Edge Complex Fife in the Mazatzal Mtns. Guess all those brand new fish that got hatched in the new cover will have a lake full of nutrients to grow on. Mike

One of my older brothers used to make a living trapping. One day I was with him out in the cinder hills N. of Flagtown. We came to check a trap that had been set off. There were no drag marks leading away in the loose cinders, just a tore up set and a missing trap. As we stood there and pondered the mystery, my bro says, "Listen!" We froze and gave a good hard ear to locate a scratching/digging noise in the ground a pace or two away from our feet. Matt says, "It's a badger!" as he sprints away to the truck to get a shovel. He dug directly over the noise and found nothing! The badger had moved! Again we listened, dug, and missed. And again. Finally got smart and dug ahead of the animal only to catch up to the drag chain - a near miss. We grabbed a hold of the chain and were pulling on it when the hind foot of a badger appeared. Ever had a badger at the end of a 4 foot chain?! The tug-o-war was on and then the trap popped of, as it was only holding a toe. The mad race began between a man with a shovel and a wild badger in a sea of cinder. My brother won. Mike

You probably have the answer already. It would be kinda hard to live in a hole that's full of water! Mike

Who owns Southern Arizona? Drug dealers and undocumented alians, or the state residants? We, the people of the great state of Arizona have ownership! Be cautious, wear a gun, go in groups - do all of that, but don't stop going. We are Americans and WE own this realestate. Yeah, we're watching out for them, so they better be watching out for us!! You see something illegal? Report it. Be willing to testify. Follow up. Be a citizen. Be a man. It'll be a sad, sad day when we're too scared to go out in the woods. Mike

I was just searching for the answer in what I have available - a 2003-2004 reg book. This is a pretty good question, as in R12-4-302, I am not seeing anything about when the tag is no longer required. This could be interpreted that it is always required to identify a legal kill, though I don't think anyone would get cited for having some mounts or skulls lying around. I do know that you gotta have your tag on the animal while transporting it to its final destination. Taxidermists and meat cutters will need to see the tag so they can include the information on their report to the Dept. I think one of the main legal concerns is that the tag is properly used so that it cannot be used again. anybody else? Mike

I work for W.L.Gore and Associates - the Goretex people, except here in Flagstaff we make implantable medical products; vascular grafts, hernia patches, and lots of different stents that keep the tubes open in the human body from gall bladder ducts to aortas. I am an incoming raw material inspector. In my spare time I am an artist. My favorite medium is pastel, then pen and ink and pencils. My passion is Arizona big game in their natural environments, though I also do portraits of people and animals, patent drawings, and medical drawings. I also do custom framing. I love to incorporate barnwood and/or Arizona hardwoods with my renderings. I have a patent pending for the process, and the use of, prickly pear cactus skeleton in my matting schemes and inlayed in wood frames. My framing kicks butt (if I don't say so myself), and is beautifully different with an originality that other framers can't achive from commercial mouldings. Mike

Wow! What replies. There you have it Ernesto, your the man! Because you're a friend of The Son of Man. And if all those replies were negative, you would still be the man. I agree with Allen, no need to apologize. Jesus does not need to be defended or apologized for, yet thank you for being considerate of other people's feelings. I may have been a part of the misunderstanding. I called Jesus a "dangerous life changing dude". That's what I believe, because I've seen what He does in people. I am one of the people that has been radically changed by Him. There was a Mike that would abuse all kinds of drugs and alcohol, and yet call himself a parent. This guy thought only of himself and blamed all his problems on someone else. It was only after decades of abuse, when he thought he was gonna die, that he realized he had screwed up his own life and desperately needed a power far beyond himself. He called on Jesus and was touched by Him. Cold turkey was easy because I wasn't doing it on my own power. That old Mike is dead, and this new Mike hasn't had anything stronger than coffee in over nine years! My life has been salvaged. Renewed. Blessed. Jesus is not Barny Milktoast. He is not an idea, or a religion. He is the power that all of creation is held together by. Jesus is God. - Yet He cares about boneheads like me? Go figure. You're a great inspiration, Ernesto. You're the guy that blesses people on a hunting forum. No telling how God uses you with the rest of your life. I have always appreciated your posts. Apparently no one has been offended. If there is someone reading this string and is offended by these printed words, maybe you should carve out some time to work your mind and heart around just exactly why the thought of an all powerful, all knowing and loving God bothers you. Peace, Mike

Amanda, You are the best common sense, web site owning/moderating, biologist, hunting lady that I know. You've got it going on! Thanks, Mike

Arizon Guide, Why don't you just tell us what's bugging you? CHD chimes in and gives us all the na na, na na na about getting the out of state deer tag, and then weakly disguizes a bad w@rd. But that was nothing compared to what was f!red back him! Mr Gaines is guessing that maybe Ernesto is offending you with his Jesus talk. Can't blame you there (if that's what's bugging you). Jesus is one dangerous life changing dude! I also think that Amanda does a wonderful job of not over censoring this site. I can guarantee you don't want me doing it. Mike

The trophy books have their regs and rules like that for radios, and I believe the Pope and Young Club just changed the let-off rules for compound bows - because everybody was breaking that rule and lying about it. It is not illegal to use radios to hunt in Arizona. My, my, how quick some of us are to jump down the throats of our Game Dept.! The people that lash out at law inforcement are the people that are breaking the laws; or at least reserving the right to do so if the laws don't agree with their personal ethics (or lack thereof). Read the rules! You might find out that you are a law abiding citizen, and you don't have to be looking over your shoulder. It feels great to be a "good guy". Mike