gotcoues

I'd be jumping up and down too! Sweet score

I almost got hosed by my cc company this yr, I use the same card every time and even pre-ok charges. The system of numbers was hacked and my number was one of the ones that were compromised. I received no notification that my card was being shut down and the placed it on a temporary hold status. I was declined at Wally-Mart and simply used another card and thought nothing of it. A couple days later I was declined again and called my company. I was informed there is nothing they can do and the G&F charges if any, might be declined if the issue is not resolved. It was the last day to update cards, I ended up simply hanging up on him and calling the PHX office. They walked me through the process and she emailed all the family app receipts to me. One day later, I would have been screwed, NO FAULT OF MY OWN. I think if you paid the app fee and at some point you were rejected, they should have a simple after the fact system to buy a BP and reinstate loyalty regardless of insufficient funds or card error.

I can't imagine card rejections run rampant. I don't believe you should automatically get BP because you didn't pay for it. However, with that being said, I do think G&F should allow to go in and buy the BP and keep loyalty point after the draw if you paid $7.50 and were rejected Due to card or check issues. I believe no one would object To this?

ttt

I say square your current number of bonus points so ungrateful lucky peeps like yourself can give some of your bull tags to the people who have been waiting longer than you.

All packs SPF If only interested in Ranger w/o trailer $4500 Trolling motor is still available

Wearing mine right now! Thank you for the speedy delivery Amanda. By far the coolest shirt you have, I'd like one in long sleeve too please

Ttt

I very rarely like mountain lion mounts, always look either a tad goofy or just plain bad. This by far, is my favorite lion mount I've seen in quite some time. AMAZING

Good luck, I hope you guys are able to land a few!

I have had many experiences with Jim and Matt Mullins. These are guys that put their early rifle/muzzy clients on monster bulls and 9 is there bread and butter year after year. Their record on early 9 hunts speaks for it self, it is not why I chimed in. I put my vote in for Jim and Matt because I know first hand how they treat average hunters while out in the field. They have the utmost respect for others in the the field and still manage to take jaw dropping bulls. I know this, because I was the other guy not once but twice hunting similar areas as them and they were considerate and even went out of there way to me each time I saw them. What a great tag, good luck to you guys and don't let the stress of that many BPs take the fun out of your hunt!

Alright Zack, way to go!

Very neat, I love the pics that go along with your story. Nicely done and congrats on your sheep.

That's a much better deal, I agree with the way it is currently written. Thank you for clarifying that and I apologize I made assumptions about the rule with out doing my own research. Now I need to find out if I was ever correct for my own satisfaction. I hate being a dumbass, I normally try and avoid it. Oh and just for clarification, I have participated in assisting a child on the "Hunt of a lifetime" program and also have volunteered and paid for %100 of a young mans hunt for coues last year, someone I had never even met. Including taking him to the range twice, providing all gear and food and hauling my trailer down for 3 days. I may have been incorrect about the current wording of the law, but don't make me out to be some kind of anti-kid nazi. You don't even know me.

FlatLander, Again, I don't have specifics of this situation, but it's not relevant that this boy might wait his whole life to draw the tag. What about the guys that have waited their whole life? Also, I'm almost positive you are incorrect about Mom having to be a certain distance in the field. When the law originally came out, it was only your parents and they had to be within 300 yards of the shooter I believe. However, it is my understanding that know even grandparents can pass tags down and there is no restrictions on original tag holder even being there. I could be wrong, and I'm positive that G&F has done some tweeking to the wording of this law. So lets play out a scenario.... Dad applies wife and both sets of grandparents to attempt to draw little Ricky a early bull tag, goat tag or sheep tag. None of these people hunt, they are just assisting Little Ricky's Father in attempting to get a tag or multiple quality tags for his son. Another guy has 19 BPs and is holding out for a Unit 9 early rifle or has 20 BPs for Antelope, maybe he has max points for sheep and has applied since before the bonus point rule was enacted. So you honestly think it's a good idea to have this system in place so G&F can rake in some extra revenue and has not a care in the world how many BPs it takes to draw these quality hunts? I get what your saying Mom's odds are slim to draw the sheep tag, but people are putting in for everything in hopes of drawing any quality tag. I do like the idea of original tag holder having to be on the hunt, but I don't think that rule is in place any longer. Also I like the idea of passing "non-trophy hunts" to minors. A kid doesn't care if it's a deer hunt or sheep hunt. Being in the outdoors with family is what it's all about RIGHT?

I'll probably get blasted for this, but I don't really think it's necessarily a good thing this lucky young man got to harvest a sheep. I think it's a shame that loyal hunters have applied for this tag longer than the bonus point system has been around and might be unable to physically go on this hunt or even die before they can draw this tag. I have applied my three children for a sheep tag since the year each of them turned ten, knowing it might take their whole life to possibly draw this tag. I wished I would have had the money and better understanding of the system, I may have bought bonus points for them long before they were ten for some of the hard to draw hunts. I personally have no knowledge of this situation, but it appalls me to think, that grandparents and mom's alike are being put in for bonus points, not because they hunt, but with the intention of handing a "hunt of a lifetime" down to a person who really doesn't have a clue what he/she has been given. I cannot say I disagree totally with the handing down of tags to youngsters, but I think for sheep, antelope and early elk hunts it's not a great idea. I'm happy for the young lad, he has a great looking ram there. But I find it hard to swallow that my best friend is not a spring chicken anymore, has applied for this hunt since he was a teenager and year after year it is just another "not drawn" notice waiting for him. This young man has his entire life to draw this tag, others have waited a lifetime and are still without the opportunity. Just my two cents......

I have taken a few videos through my new digiscoping set-up and I need to edit them. The videos were taken at around 2000 yards and there are only small bits and pieces that turned out. My camera is taking them as MPeg-4 movies and I can view them with Quicktime player no problem. I have only edited videos using Windows Live Movie Maker and it will not recognize these files. Any suggestions?

Thanks Amanda Downloaded format factory and converting first video to AVI now, there are tons of choices in case that doesn't work in movie maker either.

Too cool, how many hours on the water? Were was the third man?

I would have to assume lions get kicked by deer from time to time while in pursuit. That would be my guess.

Wait, you said shouldn't share a glassing hill with bowfishyAZ and your sharing a "bum camp". I'm so confused

Kathi, My apologies on the check delay. Colleen and I would very much like to attend, even if we have to sit with TJhunt2 and bonecollector. Can I pay with credit card over the phone?

Wow! That's a story that is hard to believe. Dirt bag poser!

My wife Colleen is more than happy to cook anything the kids and I can bring home. She has always said absolutely not, no way, no how will she ever go hunting. She could never bring herself to harm one of God's creatures. I have always tried to get her to go hunting, but with no luck. Well, this year proved to be much different. I finally convinced her she should give it try, time for her to step up and bring home some bacon like the rest of the crew. The whole family got drawn for Javelina, I put Colleen and my daughter Ashley in for the HAM hunt. A good friend loaned us his Thompson Encore in .233 with a scope to use for the hunt. Colleen had high hopes of getting it done with her conceal carry gun, a Ruger .380 LCP. We went out shooting several times to practice and she proved herself to be quite deadly at 10-15 yards which was my target goal to sneak into too. I had her shoot the .223 each time we went out in case I could convince her to use it instead. My daughter got in a round of practice and we were set to go. Opening day, I set the ladies up with tripods and glass even though my wife had not enjoyed trying to glass in the past. I was optimistic and very encouraging. After a short hike we were in position and glassed for an hour or so. We only found deer and decided to move to the next glassing hill. Stop number two warranted our first hunt pictures. Within about 15 minutes, Colleen told Ashley and I she had found pigs and started to count them as they came over the a ridge towards us. I was shocked she scored pigs on her very first time out, so was Ashley. Impressive, very impressive I assured her of that. We watched the pigs for a while to get a feel for what they were going to do. While we were waiting, I gave my first attempt at digiscoping even though I hadn't found an adapter yet. After watching and snapping some pics of the javis, we packed up and headed down off the hillside. We crossed a wash and topped over a mound of boulders to see if we could pick them up again. As luck would have it, they moved in a good direction and were about 75 yards underneath us. With the wind blowing steadily in our faces, the stalk was on! We got into about 35 yards and ran out of obstacles to hide behind. We decided rather than Ashley take a shot with the scoped pistol, that Colleen needed to get first crack with her .380 so we waited. The pigs slowly but surely came right at us. Finally, they were less than 20 yards. I coached Colleen and she was very hesitant, even gave a sad sigh and told me she didn't know if she could do it. One stopped broadside at about 10-15 yards and her first shot missed the mark. The pigs spooked and if it wasn't for a couple small boulders they would have ran us down. My daughter jumped on a boulder, pointed the gun what seemed like straight down and fired. I immediately responded, and asked if she got one. She said no I missed, I was in almost in shock. She told me she forgot to look through the scope. I told her to reload the single shot bad boy and luckily, one of the last two pigs to head out stopped at about 20 yards broadside. This one wasn't so lucky, the shot rang out and the pig dropped so fast and hard, I thought I had just seen a magic trick. The other just stood there looking back so I told Colleen to fire again. Through the chaos, her composure was out the window and her second miss ensued. After looking around and following the trail they all exited on, I was confident they were indeed misses with no wounded animals. Now for the celebration. Colleen was very excited about the first leg of the hunt. Although she was disappointed she didn't get one, she definitely thought it was awesome they were both shooting at the same herd. This was Ashley's second Javelina, first with a pistol Between full time classes at Pima and a part time job at Sportsmans, Ash didn't have much time to hunt this time around. We were all very pleased she got it done quickly. Saturday we hit a new location, this time it was my wife and I, and my hunting buddy Nelson (bowfishAZ). We were treated to a cold, windy and nasty morning with hills covered in snow. We didn't turn up any pigs all day, but it was a day to remember for sure. I glassed up a lion, second one so far this year. The man cannon was in tow just for this reason. Andrew and I got the radios and rifle ready so I could bail and dang it if that thing didn't bail in a hurry. Colleen was watching it through her binos and yelled for us. We didn't know what happened, but while we were at the truck I realized I was losing air. We did a quick change out of the tire and headed of on foot to pursue the lion. With all the snow on the ground, I knew we could at least give it a fools try. We ended up following track for over a mile, maybe almost two before the snow started to burn off. Weapons drawn the whole time just in case. The one that got away The weather never improved and we threw in the towel about 3:30 and headed home. It was a tough day to say the least. Colleen was already making plans for the following weekend to go out and try again. Saturday finally arrived and the three of us headed out to try again. We split up Saturday morning to improve our odds of spotting pigs. Nelson was about 3/4 of mile on another knoll. Although the morning went without pigs, I had a decent buck walk right to me, and he blew out of there like a freight train when he finally saw me at about 20 yards. Colleen and I headed back to the truck, I could definitely tell she was bummed. We met Nelson back at the truck and had something to eat. We made a plan for the afternoon hunt and then parted ways for a few hours. We had an engagement we couldn't miss. We met up again at around 1:30 and rode out to a new spot. It was a little after two and we were glassing away when Nelson called out pigs. He was pumped, I was pumped and Colleen was a bit surprised. She has just said "maybe it's not meant to be" about five minutes prior due to all that had transpired up until then. We packed up gear and circle around the front of the herd to get the wind right. As we crept into position, Colleen was now packing the .223 and was eager to get it done! It took us a while to find the herd, we moved careful towards their last location. Nelson was the first to catch movement and they were about 30 yards away. We switched positions and put Colleen out front. The wind was a crosswind at best with a few swirls here and there. I thought this was going end any second getting winded and the pigs blowing out of there. Luck was on our side, and they milled around till one was head on at 20 yards. As one turned I told Colleen to let him have it. She hesitated for just a moment and he disappeared behind a bush. As we waited for another opportunity, Nelson was nailed down and pigs fast approaching at 10 yards. Somehow we were able to fool their noses long enough and the one behind the bush finally stepped out. Boom, another pig down in it's tracks. I quickly turned Colleen's attention to the pigs busting out, all the while praying for a quick expiration. A round of high fives, congratulations and smiles, we walked over to Colleen's Javelina. She was a little sad for the fallen javi, but very proud of herself for accomplishing her goal, as was I. Colleen and her first game animal

That's pretty neat. I'm curious as to how would they be able to tell you yes or no on the meat being safe? If all the meat was "safe", why would you need to call in the first place? No date on the tag? Congrats to you guys on the stinkers.