rossislider

I've been working on my elk calling over the past several seasons and have gotten pretty proficient with external calls. I practice a lot at home, but primarily while commuting to and from work (I get funny looks sometimes at stop lights). I've also taken the opportunity to head up to elk country in early October (after early bull hunts are over so as not to mess up anyone's hunts) in past seasons to get some field experience and practice. I have been successful at calling in a fair amount of bulls. Next up, I would really like to learn and get good with diaphragm calls. Unfortunately, I have yet to have any success making a sound with a diaphragm call (elk or turkey) that resembles anything recognizable. I was hoping that some of you might be able to share some of your experiences or ideas for the best way to learn. Any good Youtube videos, DVDs, or physical classes that you might recommend to a diaphragm newbie who needs instructions, even the basic 101 instructions (like proper mouth placement, right/wrong way to blow, etc)? I did attend a turkey calling class last spring that had some basic diaphragm instructions, but my level of sucking could not be solved in this brief class. Thanks

What are you shooting out of that rifle Chris?

My buddy got one free with his LEM as part of a rebate/promo LEM did last year. He let me borrow it. I now plan to buy one prior to this season.

I run the 3/4 HP LEM. I bought it at Bass Pro on discount for about $400. Since I bought it a few years ago I have dumped another $200-$300 in upgrades (sausage accessories, jumbo cutting boards, meat bins, etc.) It has been a great grinder and fantastic investment. I've done 5 elk, as many deer, a couple of antelope, and at least 150 pounds in domestic meat. If you do the math, it has already paid for itself in butcher fees at least five times over, and my meat tastes exponentially better. The grinder is still going as strong as the day I got it. The only time I have had an issue with it was the result of operator error, I put it together with a plastic washer in the wrong place. It didn't damage anything, but it didn't grind correctly until I discovered my error and moved the washer. Here is an old post and review of mine about it. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/56953-sausage-fest-and-meat-grinder-review/?hl=%2Bsausage+%2Bfest If it broke today, I would buy a LEM again without hesitation. The only difference is, I would probably spend about $100 more and upgrade to the 1 HP (on sale now on the LEM site). It isn't so much a power issue, the 3/4 HP is a beast and has as much power as I need. Speed wise, it chews through meat faster than I can feed it. Rather it is the meat feeding hopper/throat opening. When you jump up to the 1 HP you get a big jump up in the hopper/throat size from the #12 to the #22 to stuff the meat into. A bigger opening would allow me to dump a lot of meat in quicker, especially on the secondary fine grinds where the meat tends to stick to the sides of the throat, and more than gravity (you use the stomper) is needed to get it through to the auger . http://www.lemproducts.com/product/big-bite-grinder-22/butcher-meat-grinders One other suggestion, a heavy duty fillet knife may be the second best tool (next to the grinder) that I purchased for processing my own game at home in my kitchen. I'm not referring to the cheap $10-$20 dollar ones, I use the Knives of Alaska (KOA) Coho Fillet knife for about $70. When I process game I usually do it with my wife or a hunting buddy. After using my KOA Coho compared to their kitchen knives, hunting knives, or cheap fillet knives, it always turns into a fight for the KOA. I can break down a quarter CLEANLY in big chunks at twice the speed using this knife as opposed to any other knife I own, and yes I have and have used Havalon, Outdoor Edge, etc. Those others are fantastic for in the field, but don't even compare in the kitchen. The KOA is long, very sturdy and holds an edge like no other "kitchen" knife I own. I got so tired of fighting over the KOA with my wife and buddies, that I went and bought a second this summer, http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/sportsmans/Knives-of-Alaska-Coho-Fillet-Knife/productDetail/Fillet-Knives-and-Processing/prod9999000095/cat101133

Get in touch with Tom from the Arizona Elk Society's Hunts for Heros program. He will walk you through the whole thing. Here is a post of his about the program from a few days ago. On here he goes by Lv2hnt. If you do decide to transfer and can't get a hold of him let me know. http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/74700-disabled-arizona-vet-hunts/?fromsearch=1

Looks better in your home for sure! I see all those kids toys in the room, and it brings to mind my biggest fears regarding my mounts. I have nightmares of my kids throwing lassos, using them as target practice for Nerf guns, etc. Good luck and many prayers/blessings for long-term safety on that beautiful bull.

We bought from Monterey Tile and were very happy. Wish I had know about the Imperial CWT hookup. We did ours early this year and opted for a wood pattern tile and upgraded the baseboards as well. It was a nightmare for a while, but glad we did it now. If you need baseboards, check out Discount Door and Trim in Mesa. The same baseboards were about half the price of Home Depot or Lowes.

Thanks Tom. I appreciate you keeping us posted on these opportunities to give back to these great individuals. I hope to get out and help as much as possible. Please keep me in the loop.

Thanks

Hey Ernesto- Thanks for answering my question yesterday on Facebook. I have another for you or anyone else. How far in advance do you need to start send permit stuff in (rifle, truck, etc.) Thanks

Have bolt cutters will travel.😄😄 You must have me confused with a different member. 😬😬😬

Up on the strip or where abouts are you at? Before I get jumped on, no I'm not asking for or about coordinates, honey holes, etc. Up north, down south, Coues country, elk hangout, etc? Curious how far it is spreading.

Beams are the size of his cavles. Awesome bull for sure!

Agreed! Well said, I've known Jed for a while and he has personally offered his help if asked. In fact he helped a buddy a few years back on a youth hunt. Can't say enough about this good guy. Agreed 100%. Jed is a great guy. He helped me on a recent deer hunt. He and some buddies walked up on us just as we found my deer in the binos. I think they were coming after they same deer, but we were already there and found the deer first. As such, he was a first class sportsman about it, unlike a bunch of other guys I have heard about in similar situations. Rather then try to beat us into position on the deer, he offered to stay there and keep an eye on the deer while we moved in on him. I didn't know it at the time, but he recorded the whole thing for me. Thanks to him I not only have a great video of my kill shot and walking up on my deer, but he had also been watching my deer for a while. He made sure to get me a bunch of video of my deer and his buddies over the months leading up to the hunt. Total class act!

Had one not show up a couple of years ago. AZGFD issued me a new one. I wouldn't worry about it.

After a hiatus for the past few years, the Arizona Elk Society once again held their annual Wapiti Weekend for youth. This year they moved it a little closer to the valley in what will likely be the new home for their annual Wapiti Weekend and many of their hunt camps, at St Joseph's Youth Camp up at Mormon Lake near Flagstaff. This was the first time my wife and I were able to take out kids but it hopefully won't be the last, the kids were begging to go again next year as soon as we pulled out of camp. The location was great, the kids loved the MANY planned activities, made a plethora of new "best friends", AES cooked and provided more great food than we could eat, and all the kids took home lots of goodies (fishing poles for every child from Cabelas, multi tools, lunch boxes, hats, hunting and fishing licenses, etc). We basically just showed up and let the kids have a blast! Huge thanks to Ken Turer, Steve Clark, Greg Godbehere, and the many volunteers from AES who made it such a great experience. I highly recommend you keep an eye out for the event next year as it will likely fill very fast. There were to many highlight and pictures to share them all, but here are a few:

Hey guys and gals, big thanks to all of you for the support of my son's skull cleaning business since he started it a few months ago. You guys have kept him and his free slave labor, me, (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?) busy with about as much work as he can handle. He has probably done 100+ skulls in the past 4-5 months and has really learned a lot and has greatly improved his techniques. While we were working on some skulls this past weekend we got to talking about a few things we have noticed that hunters can to to greatly improve the final product of their euro and wanted to pass some of it along. 1.Don't keep them in the freezer too long. Skulls will freeze dry over time and start to darken. I don't mean weeks or even a few months, but this will usually happen after a year or more. When this happens the final product will often take on an orange tint during the whitening process. This doesn't ruin your skull, but it is near impossible to get that bone white look. We have gone through the whitening process on some skulls as many as four times, but ultimately there is only so much that can be done. The sooner you do your euro or get it to a taxidermist the better. Even dried up deadheads come out better and cleaner than freezer damaged skulls. Example-The following two skulls were whitened simultaneously in the same pot with the same batch of peroxide. The only difference in the process was that my son has attempted to rewhiten the darker (second) one two additional times with minimal success. 2. If you are going to put it in the freezer for an extended period, DON'T remove the hide. The hide will protect the bone from freezer burn. We had a skull brought to us that had been in a freezer for over 5 years with the hide left on. The hide was badly freeze dried and nearly fused to the bone. After soaking in a bucket of water for several days to rehydrate, we were able to remove the hide and the skull came out very white and clean. 3. Try to keep it in an air tight bag while in the freezer. Easier said than done on a horned/antlered animal. But if possible it will serve as and additional buffer against freeze drying and burn. 4. Don't overboil. We have had several skulls brought to us to finish/salvage where the hunter had tried to clean the skull himself. They showed many cracks and weakened bone from over boiling. Don't let the water get to a hard boil. Keep the water at a low simmer. It may take longer, but the extra time spent will show in the final result. 5. Don't use bleach! People say bleach all the time as an expression rather than an actual step in the process. Bleach is harsh and terrible on the bone. Use peroxide. Again, Draysen has had a handful of bleach skulls brought to him. But at that point, not much can be done. 6. Don't rush the degreasing. Ungulates (deer, elk, etc.) really don't require any additional degreaing beyond the normal whitening process. However, pigs, javelina, bears, etc. have a lot of grease packed into those skulls. The normal process that you would use on an ungulate will have them looking fantastic at first. But after a week or two the grease will start to leach back out and will leave the bone looking greasy. This won't harm anything and it is purely a cosmetic thing, but just doesn't look as good. Eliminating 100% of the grease may be impossible. Believe me, we have tried and have consulted many other taxidermists. But you can eliminate most of it. These skull need to be left soaking in a mild degreasing agent for a week or more to slowly draw it out of the bone. There is no substitute for time in the degreasing process. I'll post more tips as we remember them and will post some pictures soon to show examples. Thanks again

That's a good deal for someone. The rifle off the shelf would run close to $1300. Another $350-$450 for the trigger and brake, plus a lot saved in load development. I'd be all over it if I didn't already have a 300 RUM.

When he asked the guys what he likes about archery, the correct response would have been, it is a lot like golf, but for men.

I think this was last year's tag. If I am not mistaken, the auction and raffle tags run each year from August 15th through August 14th of the following year.

Just posted: https://www.facebook.com/search/str/a3%2Btrophy%2Bhunts/keywords_blended_featured_posts?esd=eyJlc2lkIjoiUzpfSTY2NTM5NDI4MzUwMzczNTpWSzoxNTAwNDQ5NzkzMzMxNTA5IiwicHNpZCI6eyI2NjUzOTQyODM1MDM3MzU6MTUwMDQ0OTc5MzMzMTUwOSI6IlV6cGZTVFkyTlRNNU5ESTRNelV3TXpjek5UcFdTem94TlRBd05EUTVOemt6TXpNeE5UQTUifSwiY3JjdCI6InRleHQiLCJjc2lkIjoiMTAzMDMzNjU3OGQ5MzEwMjQ1NGFhYmFhMDA5ZGU2YzkifQ%3D%3D

Got to watch and take lots of pictures and video of this guy last week until the rain really picked up and sent him to the trees. Pictures taken from just under 1000 yards. https://www.facebook.com/sean.hatch.9/videos/vb.100000437830743/1610811498943429/?type=2&theater

Sent you a PM. Check out the following post for a lot more information: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/73281-12-year-olds-skull-cleaning-business-new-pics-61917/

My 12 year old son is looking to start his own business cleaning animal skulls. He is a smart hard working kid, and thinks that this would be a great way to earn his own money through his teenage years. I want to encourage his entrepreneurial spirit, but told him he needs lots of practice before others trust him with their hard earned trophies and money. To that end, we are looking for any skulls we can get our hands on for him to practice with. I will be assisting him through the entire process until he gets it down really good. We have done a couple of coyote skulls already, but we both need a lot more experience and practice. If you have any unwanted skulls that would be good for a practice cleaning from just about any animal (coyotes, javelina, deer, elk, etc) antlered or antlerless that you wouldn't mind donating, or even for a free cleaning (with the understanding that it is a beginner who is learning that will be doing the cleaning), please let me know. We are in Queen Creek, but I could meet in much of the east or central valley. I also get up north on occasion if you are able to freeze and save the head for him. Please, nothing that has been left out and is nasty, smelly, and rotten. Thanks

Saw this on the news this morning. I don't claim to know all the facts, but on the surface this lawsuit sounds like a bunch of ridiculous BS.