1uglydude

Lower success rates = more tags to sell = more revenue Per the hunt guidelines, if hunt success rates go down, then tag numbers also go down. When success is high, they raise the tag numbers because it is an indication of abundance. Empirically that may be true when you don't change the hunting conditions (rules), and you compare apples to apples. But now, when you change the rules you can't make a valid comparison. I think most guys would agree that their cameras help improve success. Now, when you eliminate cameras, less success would lead to an increase in population, which would require more harvests to keep the population in balance. To increase the harvest without using cameras any more, would require an increase in tags, which produces more revenue. They have done it before: a few years back, G&F reduced the bull rut archery tags, but then increased the November archery bull tags, 3 more tags for each rut tag that was eliminated. The November success rate is much lower, so they increased the tags AND the revenue. I just don't see the rule amendment changing hunt success all that much. The guys who work hard with their cameras are still going to harvest--because they have the drive and the know-how to get it done. They also know how to place a camera more than 440 yards from a water and still get photos of the animals. On the other hand, the jackwads who put cameras on waters next to the road, don't know how to use the information they gather, and never go more than 100 yards from their truck or quad are not really benefiting from the cameras anyways.

Lower success rates = more tags to sell = more revenue Per the hunt guidelines, if hunt success rates go down, then tag numbers also go down. When success is high, they raise the tag numbers because it is an indication of abundance.

The "take" of wildlife includes "pursuing" wildlife under ARS 17-101. "Take" does not always mean "hunting."

In your opinion, what is it that makes them better? I'm a long time Barnes user myself, but I've thought about branching out. I like a few things: bit better BC, better wound channels especially at moderate impact velocities (1900-2300), critters seem to simply bleed better (wound channel mentioned) but the biggest thing is that critters seem to not go far after the shot... I've had pig and deer rodeos with lung shot critters and TTSX and no blood sign to follow. Found them all but gets you thinking. Most notably a pig at 100 yards with an 80 TTSX from a .243 at 3400+. Bullets are weird, I've got good buds who swear by TTSX but I run from them. I gotta caveat this with IMO so folks don't get mad...grin... It's the moderate velocity cartridges that have me thinking about steering away from the TTSX. I feel good using it in 257 wby and 300WM, but when it comes to my 7mm08 I have been using the 145gr LRX, just to give me a little breathing room on expansion velocity. I still like them in 223 for pigs, but I have had good success using the 64gr Bonded Performance too...and now that Speer is going to make the .224 God Dot available to reloaders in several weight classes and Nosler is going to offer a 70gr Accubond, I'm tempted to come off of my lead free kick.

I feel the same, it was a lot tougher to find them this year but when I did the herd sizes were the same. They just flat were not hanging out where I usually find them. +2....weather plus the fact that the lack of rain meant that the feed was not as plentiful on the open slopes. They had to be down in the washes or out on the flats, so they were harder to see. We killed a couple of pigs that were way under-weight for their size. Some herds were probably travelling a lot farther than normal to find the calories they need.

In your opinion, what is it that makes them better? I'm a long time Barnes user myself, but I've thought about branching out.

They only allow up to two tags because so many tags were going unused. Tag numbers are set based on biological standards. The total number of pigs that can be harvested in any given year does not change because the total number of tags that can be issued under the standards has not changed.

Man that sure contrasts your above post. Why the change do you think? Over hunting maybe? I know it has been dry but the prickly pear pads were normal and not withered, same for the saguaros. I have noticed that the cattle have been tearing up the lower branches on the palo verdes. You and I are hunting out of the same herds, and I'm pretty sure hardly anyone else chases them...especially the herd way back to the south. It could be cyclical, or it could be disease. In the unit across the highway there has been a HUGE die off in that particular part of that unit. I talked to the WM at one of the youth javelina camps and she said they suspect distemper/parvo, but have not documented it with a necropsy yet. It wouldn't be unheard of for it to spread. Granted, I haven't hunted that area yet this year (I'll be there Friday/Saturday), but I suspect at least one of the herds went farther south to the permanent water in the big canyon. Have you checked out the Department drinker to the east? I wonder if it could possibly have malfunctioned?

I filled both HAM tags this past weekend--one on Friday morning and the second on Saturday afternoon. Good fun, but it was tiring. Probably the last time I will pull two tags for the same season. I need to spread it out some more.

Coming down the mountain with two elk....one of which we skinned whole, so I need to get it in a wall in cooler asap. Neither of the East Valley processors i trust can take me in today. Anyone have someone they like? My buddy had a horrible experience with Miller's SW, so I'm hoping I don't have to go that route.

I guess they could have got him on the part where it says he can't claim residency elsewhere if he was back in AZ claiming a resident license. But other than that seemed like he fulfilled all of Utahs wishes of living in their state for 6 months. Guess only the jury knows all the details.The Utah code doesn't say "live" in the state for 6 months. Title 23 of the Utah Code says you have to have been "domiciled" in the state for six months. It futher goes on to define "domicile," as follows: "Domicile" means the place: (i) where an individual has a fixed permanent home and principal establishment; (ii) to which the individual if absent, intends to return; and (iii) in which the individual, and the individual's family voluntarily reside, not for a special or temporary purpose, but with the intention of making a permanent home. (b ) To create a new domicile an individual shall: (i) abandon the old domicile; and (ii) be able to prove that a new domicile has been established." You keep saying he did everything he needed to do to become a resident, but apparently he did not. Just living there is not enough. You need to dig deeper into each parts of the statute. Apparently he stopped at "resident" and didn't bother to look up the meaning of "domicile." My guess is that they had significant evidence that he did NOT establish ties to make his Kanab home his "permanent" and "principal" domicile, and that he clearly never "abandon[ed]" his Arizona domicile. Leaving the state as soon as you draw the tag would be Exhibit 1.

Exactly, he was a non-resident. Case closed. You summed it up nicely.

The point is he did NOT do everything to become a bona fide resident. The evidence showed he moved there only for the tag. The news reports didn't go into detail, but they probably showed that he maintained significant contacts with Arizona. Most of the case law on bona fide residency is in the context of welfare fraud, but it's the same concept--someone takes superficial action to make it appear as if they intend to change their residency, but their true motivation is to take advantage of benefits available in another state that are better from where they are actually living.

i looked up some other articles, he rented the house in kanab short term and moved right back to az as soon as he killed the sheep. i would guess heres 100's of out of staters with second homes here that put in as resident. Actually, he moved back as soon as he drew the tag. He didn't hunt the sheep until many months later. The same thing would happen in a non-resident tried this in Arizona. You have to show that you are a bona fide resident for all legal purposes. That requires more than a rental contract and a drivers license. They can and will subpoena your financial and tax records, employment history, utility billing and use, vehicle registrations, etc.

Very cool. I love the Rem. 600 in the pic of Matt's first. For whatever reason the wife and I were only blessed with two kids. We both wanted five or more when we started out. She says we are done trying now. The oldest is 10 and we go on her first pig hunt this weekend. Blew my mind when I realized the other day that she's only seven years away from graduating high school.

30-30 contender loaded with the 110gr Barnes Tac-tx blackout bullet.

My 10 year old daughter and one of her best friends each have two tags...20C and 17B/19AB/20A. We will be going to the YOU camp in 20C. Everyone is very excited.

Quick update. I zoned out of all internet hunting-related sites and pages for a while. Gabi went home from the hospital just before Christmas, and we had a good holiday break together. Then, just after the new year she got really sick again. One of her surgical wounds opened up and started putting out what can only be described as ooze...a LOT of it. We rushed her back to the hospital to learn that she had a serious staph infection throughout her entire abdomen--a gift from her surgery. She spent another 10 days in the hospital fighting the infection and they performed another surgery to get at the most serious pus pockets (put a hole through the middle of her liver to insert a drain). She's home now and insisted on going to school last week. She did wonderfully. She feels better than she has in months. She's still frail and severely underweight, but she's happy. Now it's a matter of putting weight back on her and then performing scans every few months for a few years to see if any cancer returns. She and one of her best friends have a couple of youth javelina tags for this weekend (4 tags total). We'll be going to the 20C/17B/18B camp. She's pretty excited, but I think I'm even more excited. She's going to have to take it easy, but at least we will be able to get out and get her some sunshine.

Holliday is who I prefer to use, and he was able to squeeze me in after all. Very pleased with the final product, and at a very fair price.

Thanks. One of my original options was able to move things around and fit me in after all. This is probably the first and last time I will leave one whole...too much headache.

So sorry about your little guy. They have narrowed Gabi's diagnosis down to two cancers, one of which is a pancreatic blastoma, though they think it is the least likely of the two.

Is that burrs 2-7x32 a pistol scope? If so, I will take it.

It's because Barnes is now owned by the same parent company as Remington. So, no more loads under the Federal name.

My girl is 10 years old. Although she has said that she wants to go hunting, I have long suspected that she was wanting to hunt because she knows that I want her to go. Not wanting to force anything on her, I have given her every opportunity to change her mind, but each time she insisted that she at least wanted to try it. She does, however, have a very tender heart, so I have worried about what would happen when she actually did take a life. She and I spent pretty much the entire month of May debating which youth hunt she should try. She made the decision that her first choice would be the early 12AW doe hunt because she wanted the best possible chance at filling a tag--she said antlers were not important to her the first time out. As it turns out, her tag number was one of the first offered outside of the bonus pass, so she probably could have drawn any youth hunt she wanted. She's been shooting her 22 for several years and is very very good with it. I figured we'd move up to centerfire a few months before the hunt and try a compact AR15, but when the time came she absolutely hated it. The movement and gas made her nervous. So, I switched her over to a 223 bolt gun, and she shot one inch groups time and time again with 50gr bullets loaded near minimum. But, when I tried a full power load with 69gr bullets she balked again. I went back to the lighter bullets and she calmed down and got her accuracy back, but I had tell her that for her hunt we would use some of the easier recoiling rounds (wink wink). A few nights before the hunt I had her help me load some of her hunting rounds. The rifle she was going to use is rated for 5.56 pressures, and it really sings with the 62gr TTSX loaded over a stiff charge of TAC. She enjoyed going through the process and selected her lucky round. We headed out for the Kaibab on Thursday at 4am, and took our time heading up. We had camp all set by 1pm and then spent the evening driving through some of my old go-to doe spots, looking at turkeys, and letting her little brother try his hand at squirrel hunting. Friday morning we woke up before dawn, got the kids dressed, fed, and in the warm truck. We tried a new to me area with limited success---too thick and the does kept bunching up--so by about 8am we were on our way to one of my go-to spots hoping that we still had enough prime time left to find the deer out in the open. At about 830 we spooked a single doe off of a tank and she stopped to check us out about 90 yards away. We had spent quite a bit of time discussing shot placement and I had told her that her first choice would be the lungs, but if I told her to shoot the high shoulder shot then that meant I wanted the deer to go down right away. I didn't tell her this, but my biggest worry about the high shoulder was not loss of meat, but the fact that even though they go down hard you often have to finish them in one way or another--and I didn't want her to have to do that. Anyway, she's set and ready for the shot and she says "Dad, there is a bush covering her lungs, but I can see her shoulder. Do you want me to shoot the shoulder?" I told her that was fine and about a second later the gun went off and he deer went down hard. My relief at seeing the doe go down was eclipsed only by the relief of seeing her jump up and down for joy. Up to that point, I wasn't sure how she would handle it. Her little brother had been hanging back about 50 yards with my wife's cousin and he ran up to her yelling "you did it! you did it!" and they hugged each other and spun around. I wish I had a camera rolling. She then said "Dad, this feels amazing!" When we came up on the doe she wasn't quite gone, but her shot had caught enough lung that she only lasted another 30 seconds or so. She seemed okay with that, and her only question was how she could feel "so excited, so happy, and so sad" all at the same time. I told her that it was because she is human, and that it's normal, and that I'm happy that she feels at least a little bit sad. The 62gr Barnes broke both shoulders and exited. I won't post the damage photo on here, but just know that it was extensive. As expected, she didn't notice the recoil one bit when she was firing at something other than paper. We weren't even half way back to camp when she was talking about going again. But now she's not so sure she wants to go for a buck because "the Kaibab is just so much fun."

I'll pass. I'd want to inspect or before committing, and I have no plans to drive that way.