Rembrant

Would this be a bad time to admit my all-time favorite movie is "Barbraella"? Mike

I think Chris is one of those guys that just needs attention, even if its bad. We are actually making him very happy right now. Mike

Lark, When you go to the zoo, are you the guy that rattles a stick across the gorillas cage? Mike

I have a good skinning knife, a 35 mm camera, and a range finder that were all found in the woods after having been there for a long time. These were found in different areas. Identify them and tell me where I found them and I'll give em back!! Now if I can get down to San Carlos Lake to look for that ring! Mike

Lark, you remind me of one of my older brothers - and I love that man. CHD, I am praying for you. Mike

I haven't taken the time to review the regs lately, but I am sure that you gotta STEP OFF the RIGHT-AWAY before shooting at any game. The guys that get busted shooting at decoys are not stepping off the right-away and worse yet, even getting out of their vehicles. Stepping off the right-away can be as simple as taking a step off of the beaten track of a two track road, but I think to get off of the right-away of a paved road or other maintained road you would have to go all the way over and cross the fence if one exists. This past spring I was hunting turkeys with a Az G&F Wildlife Manager. We were busting our butts hiking in way before light and also after dark trying to scam on goggling toms. We were driving back to camp down a dirt road for lunch when two gobblers crossed the road in front of us. My friend stopped the truck, grabbed his shotgun and stepped off the right-away on the left side of the road - where the toms were. I caught up to him shortly, walked further to the left about 10 feet, leveled off on one of the toms and waited for him to shoot. He says, "Dang! I unloaded my gun!! Shoot one of them birds!" I did. He ran back to the truck, grabbed a couple of shells, rammed them into his gun, and was returning back to where I was. All this time the other tom was totally spazzing out, staying put, But as the hunter was returning, the turkey starts to cross the road again the other way. My buddy smartly dashed across the road to the right so's he could blast the bird as soon as the bird stepped off the road. But instead of crossing the road, the bird ran directly up the road for at least 100 yds and got away!!! We had a good laugh about that as we picked up the gobbler that I shot. We weren't pursuing game with the use of the vehicle. We were enjoying life and hunting hard. There is nothing wrong with seeing game from your truck and getting out, clearing the right-away and killing the animal. Never has been. The people that hunt exclusively from a vehicle are missing out. It's easy to write in to a hunting forum and say you wouldn't shoot an animal if you saw it from the road. I bet that over half the hunters that may find themselves in a similar situation with a tom turkey in the middle of a dirt road during turkey season - with nobody around - shoot the bird. Mike

LOL!!!!!!! Mike

There have been many times while Elk hunting, archery and rifle, where I, or sometimes my wife and I are out and about before light, hanging tight with some bugling bulls in an effort to be in the right spot come first light - and then the quads start putting into the area. Guess what happens? Yep, the bulls shut up and move off. Elk hate quads more than we do! Do you know what a quad is most effective at this time of day? Early warning system for big game. I guess if you never get off of your quad you won't know this. This seems really strange to me. Seems like a guy spends thousands for his quad and then feels obligated to ride it all the time, even though it will actually keep him from killing anything. I don't own one either, and if I did, it wouldn't change the way I hunt. Mike

I know the secret!! Josh spends a lot of time in the woods. Does this guy have some knowledge that would help him find sheds? Well, Yeah, his dad has been a professional hunting guide all of Josh's life. Josh probably knows a thing or two about where Mr. Cousi lives. But Josh will tell you that finding sheds requires a ton of time WALKING all over everywhere. Go back and read his posts. He always says to walk slowly and look carefully. How can a guy aquire knowledge about where Mr. Cousi lives? Spend a ton of time WALKING all over everywhere: walk slowly and look carefully! Here's one of my tricks: While walking all over everywhere, slowly and looking carefully, I often turn around and look at where I just came from. Couse deer like thick country, just looking at one side of a bush isn't good enough. Have fun! Mike

CHD, Are you an educated scientist like you were a rich guy a few months ago? Mike

Redbeard, Welcome to the site! I always thought that the late rut had to do with the latitude/solar exposure, (not saying I know). Interesting point about the timing of the fawning and monsoons. The natural design is incredible. Mike

This is a fantastic picture. Amazing that this predetor can be so close to a mule deer without being noticed. All a mule deer is, is a life support system for danger detecting radar! And this cat is what, 2.5 feet away??! Might be a good idea, like Treestandman was saying, to flash that light behind you now and then when walking through the woods in the dark. I would have never thought that a lion would sneak up that close before attacking. I suppose a pitch black night has everything to do with it. Ever heard the saying, "a cat is a cat"? Ever see a house cat leap a 7 foot fence? What can a cougar do??! What an animal! Incredible!! Mike

Griz, Way cool! A coues buck with a bow is an awesome feat. Looks handsome enough for me. Mike

Good job treestandman!!!!!!!!!! You da man!

That's good Allen. Once in unit 32 my brother and I had just made a mid-day move to a new vantage point. As we settled in, my first inclination was to start glassing out yonder to where it 'looked good'. Then I caught myself and forced myself to start glassing close first. This was one of those magical times when as soon as you put your glasses up - there's a deer in 'em! Actually 2 bucks, bedded in some oaks 200 yds directly downhill from us. We took the larger buck. Mike

Take that puppy down to the dept and have someone fix and initial that date!!! Mike

I understand all that is being written here and my closest friends would agree with you 100% Lark. I will dissagree with one point though: The crap isn't caused by the record book. The crap is generated by our inherent and flawed nature as human beings and the greed, lust and strife that comes with it. I like the idea of a book with no names in it - just the kills. Because the best part of the book is the information, history and posterity it offers. Imagine our sport without the book. We would be forced to wonder what magnificant animals were taken through history and we would have no way to find out. I'm glad we have it. I just wish we could grow up enough to handle it. Mike

The whole problem with the 10% non-resident cap is that it is unconstitutional to for any state to not share the wealth within that state. It must be open for trade with all the other states. There were two options on the survey: Offer a limited number of commercial tags OR illiminate all commercial tags. Either way, the idea is to limit the ability to sell animal parts to EVERYONE, residents and non-residents alike. I think it would be best to illiminate them all together for everyone. Then we wouldn't be discriminating against non-residents, because NOBODY would be able to sell animal body parts. I am not convinced this would work because the Taulman types would argue that, body parts aside, the money to be made is in the hunt itself, outfitting, guiding etc. Maybe the "commerce" is considered to be a saleable item (body parts), and not the service (guiding). I like the creative effort from the Dept, and I think it's worth a try. Mike

Maybe I'm just blowin smoke. I called the Flag G&F office to get the skinny and they referred me to the Kingman office. I called the Kingman office and they said they didn't know anything about it and gave me the # to the Navajo Nation. called the Nation and they bounced me around until a lady tod me that the guy that would know is on the road till next Tuesday. Nobody seems to know or to be very excited about it. I hate to think that the early hunt tag holders will get an unpleasant surprise when they get out there. I hope this was bad information and it will all go away. Mike

Annual rainfall is what a coues herd needs. And lions are a giant factor on the "fringe populations". It's hard to get started if you keep getting eaten. But why are there so many wt deer at Klondyke (units 31 and 32) when its the lion capital of the world? Lions are a factor but not the main factor. These deer need consistant rain. The Bradshaws get some gully washers but not consistant rain like the southeastern part of the state gets. Mike

Wish it was that simple. Yeah, tons of public land, state and BLM, all checkerboarded with private. The problem with what these ranchers are doing (and it beats the snot out of me how they can legally pull this off) is that they don't own all the land they are denying access to. They close off a public road where it goes through a piece of private land. This happens a lot in unit 32. There are ranches where the private land may only be a half mile deep. They lock and sign the gate at the front of their property. Behind this small piece of locked up private property the same road continues through at least 40 sq miles of Forest Service land which is backed up by wilderness. There is no back way in. This F.S. land may be leased by the ranch but not owned by them - yet they deny access! The same kind of thing is happening now up north. The ranchers are locking up their leases where the public road goes through private land. The Boquillas has massive amounts of connected private land, but even this ranch has state trust land checkered within it. The National Forest in unit 10 isn't even a tenth of the total area. There are more Archery tags than ever - 150 bull and 100 cow, and then the non-resident bonus tags on top of that. I hope everybody can find a place to hunt. I don't know the extent of the closures, but even if just the big Boquillas is closed, it'll adversley change the hunt. Mike

I know a guy that has an early rifle bull tag in unit 10. He just told me that the group of ranchers that were threatening to close access to and through their ranches/leases just did that Friday. Just in time for the archery antelope hunt, with archery deer and elk close behind. These ranchers blame the department for mismanaging wildlife (what we sportsmen would call fabulous elk management), and for damage done to their equipment by hunters (WHO I CALL NON-SERIOUS HUNTERS WHO OUGHT TO BE WEEDED OUT OF THE DRAW!). Gee, what do you suppose they will demand for the release of the inocent sportsman they are holding hostage? Time will tell. But I bet you they will screw all the guys that have these quality tags this year, just to show everybody their muscle. What leverage! Bet you this: in time they will demand allotted tags for their ranches that they can turn around and sell to the highest bidder. Classic bait and switch: complain about "mismanaging wildlife" and then make a handsome profit from it. Yeah, I'm jumpin ahead a bit - I don't know what they want. What do you think they want? The Boquillas is one of them. There are more closures in 10 as well. I didn't re-read this string to remind myself of how many ranches are in cahoots here. I'm thinking 17? Over several units. I can hardly wait to see how some of you guys creativly bash and blame the game dept for this one. What are they guilty of here? Too many elk? Or, they should have squashed this one already in court, after getting the letter 2 months ago? This is a despicable act by these greedy ranchers, and even though there is some truth in their complaint, their only justification is self-justification. Mike

Muskrat, I appreciate the apology, though none was required. Your post looked like you were twisting things around for fun - got my goat and I am the one that owes you an apology. What the heck, you can write anything you want. The readers will sort it out. My bad. I'm sorry. Mike

Muskrat, You ain't from around here are you? 'Cause the folks that have been around awhile remember a time when we could get a tag or two. That's the gripe and the #1 problem. The 10% thing is an addition to the same problem. This doesn't seem to be bothering you. I am against raising tag prices. I'm not the rich guy. Read through this string again. Sometimes I need to read things twice before I comprehend the concept too. The idea is not separating the rich from the poor, it is separating the serious from the non-serious. That point was made very clearly. This string was started to inform people about the events taking place right now with the Dept., and then to encourage all who read it to get involved with the process. Your selective comprehension identifies you as a person that only wants to argue. I'm done with it. Have a good day. Mike

Yeah, what bcoover said. Mike