Sneaker

You guys are brutal. Cut the man some slack. Innocent until proven guilty. Not all guides are cheats just because they are guides or because they are successful. Unless someone has some first hand knowledge, let the man deal with his own personal business and the results will be made public if there are serious items. I have only heard and seen good things from him, but nobody is perfect.

Also, if they are over a year wait, in normal times, it means they are behind. Because of the hunting cycle, if they only took in what they could complete in the annual cycle, things would never get much past a year theoretically, if it gets past a year, that means they haven't finished all the Elk for instance from the prior year, and are taking on more elk now, and it can cascade very fast from a 12 months wait to a 3 year wait. I can appreciate a taxidermist that only take repeat customers work and have high prices because they are managing their work flow to keep times down and customer service high with what they know they can handle.

Sure hope so! My personal opinion: the most critical time for moisture for antler growth for elk is March-May, an anything after the first week in July is probably too late to do anything. But for health of the herd, we will take it any day and time!

Those antlers being that color with those darker stain purple spots means that he died still in the velvet = archery hunter did not find his buck.

Wowzers

Did anyone go on Saturday? It was my first time and wow, some guys really like to throw down some coin haha. Actual purchases are tax deductible after all! The statewide Elk Tag went for $255k to... Dan Adler?? Or a client of his maybe that had him set up the bidding on his behalf perhaps? Couldn't really tell, was really strange actually at the end of the bidding on that one because it was kind of a secret until they were finished and then said the winner is Dan, and I couldn't tell what was going on exactly. Maybe those hunting shows pay better than I thought. Dan was the emcee of the whole thing so it made it even more confusing and my conflict-of-interest hairs stand up lol. I'm sure it was all fine, highest bidder wins so not all that complicated of a process but our whole table was confused. Some of you will notice the "not Dan" in his Linkedin profile photo...

You have to use a Rez guide, it is only 16 days long, have to find one on the limited land the Rez has in that window. Statewide is just has so much more opportunity and forgiving and a year long hunt obviously and you can have your guides taking info from everyone they know and “searching” the whole state.

Sorry it was a rambling post. The working-on-being-famous Dan Adler both was the emcee of the banquet and the purchaser of the auction tag at the same time. It confused us all. Then I went on a tangent about bonecollector777 being in Dan's Linkedin profile picture, the "not Dan". Or maybe its his brother and I'll be eating crow and get banned for the profiling.

I am pretty sure for quotas they are going with starting the count in August, which makes sense based on the "regulations year" but doesn't make sense for the hunters OTC tag which starts in Jan obv. Going to be very few Jan hunts available if they don't increase the 20% cap (which by definition means taking away a few rifle tags, which the department apparently recoils at).

I have argued this for a year. They have used the same 20% archery number for at least 30 years since I was a kid, but archery demand is much higher now that it was then, so they need to shift tags from rifle to archery and bump up the percent archers are allowed to kill. I sent the department some spreadsheets and historical graphs about it with rifle applicants Vs otc tag purchases but they just replied and said “we disagree” lol.

So Jan 2023 will fall under the regs that will be coming out soon then, and therefore likely still have a lot of the old archery opportunities closed?

I recently bought some property in Golden Valley near Kingman. There is a long broke-beyond-repair cement style game water catchement on it. Its must be 60+ years old. Game and Fish looked into it and were told to tell me that the higher ups said its my issue to remove, they won't help remove it. The area is now surrounded by houses and roads and there is no big game for many miles. I wonder how it got to this point. Maybe it was public land back when installed? I have a bunch of different properties in the mountains that I would LOVE to randomly have an old catchement on hahaha. Doesn't look like there was ever any type of easement or dedication done related to it. Anyone come across anything similar in AZ?

Us too, Wells Fargo Alert: Purchase of $405.00 at AZ GAME & FISH DEPT exceeds preset amount for credit card ending 0740. Questions? Call number on card.

Most of the 15’s are very brutal

If they are very vocal, there is no need for you to do anything else but sneak in on them. If you call, you just alert them and risk them not liking your sound or them not being receptive to whichever type of call you chose and at least half the time the walk or run the other direction. If you are having trouble closing the distance, some soft cow calls can sometimes help draw the bull in once you are close. So pray for a good rut, that you can find the elk and that they are calling and you will have a blast just trying to keep the wind right and sneaking in on them and working the angles to avoid the eyeballs and get a shot. Location bugling can be good when they aren't really fired up and you can't find any elk, sometimes that will help you at least find the direction of a bull since often they can't resist responding to another bull that is far away. If they are NOT calling and it is very hot and has NOT rained in a month, then sitting water can be your best bet. Hiking and Glassing are always a good fallback if the terrain is conducive to it. Trail cameras are now illegal to use for hunting so you can't use those to help you decide what water you may want to sit.

Walmart Cal Ranch and big five in Kingman all do not have them therefore there’s nowhere to buy a tag on the weekends… not a happy camper

Their enforcement response makes sense I guess. Any knowledge gained is unfair now, so even the absense of animals or animals you didn't kill qualifies. I used cams several years ago for a Jan 1 OTC archery opener, the cameras that I ran that did not show bucks on, I did not sit those waters because of that knowledge

Since they approved the rule, I will be following it and not using cams for hunting, and I hope they actually enforce it some magic way(seems pretty hard to see how they would ) since I don't like the idea of hunters still using them having an unfair advantage above everyone else. Maybe they set up a sting on a water hole with a few cameras during a premo hunt, and wait for the first guy wearing camo to role up and check his camera? Or follow a "civilian" back to a hunting camp? Or maybe the vigilanties will take care of all you sudden new "bird watchers" cameras and no tax funded camera enforcement will be needed. Although the irony of someone wanting to follow the law so bad that they don't put up cams and then breaking the law by breaking other people's cameras to self enforce the law is pretty stark.

2022 regs are posted and they did not decrease tags in 10 and note 49 says they have an access agreement.

You have been good to me. But our time is almost up. You have helped me when others wouldn’t. You did your job through rain and shine, hot and cold. Your hunting wisdom and wildlife knowledge was far beyond your years. You gave me motivation to keep going when I wanted to give up. You gave me suggestions when I had no other spots. In a true example of charity, you even willingly sacrificed yourself, (all too often in my opinion, but I fully understand why you did it you helpless brick), to the sad depths of the backpacks of the hunters that thought they needed you more than I. You ate my batteries and wasted my gas money and Saturdays with reckless abandon, but I loved you all the more for it. Christmas in August, Christmas in September, Christmas in December, you were the source of so much hope and joy. But no more. It wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, but they say we can’t “hang” out any more. No more late nights. No more long drives and long hikes. No more elk eyes so bright. No more kids helping me look for your next hiding spot. But thank you, it was a good run, but this is the end. 😅

“The new prohibition does not apply to other uses of a trail camera such as research, general photography and security. However, any photograph or data captured by a trail camera after Jan. 1, 2022 and used for the take or aiding in the take of wildlife will be unlawful, even if that was not the initial intended use of the trail camera.”

Yavapai Ranch and the Navajos were considering a purchase agreement. The Yavapai Ranch has been wanting to sell for a long time and end of last year or earlier this year they were trying to get their development agreements renewed with the county to move their sudivision plans forward again. I think it is only a matter of time until the access is gone. https://arizonabrief.com/navajo-nation-may-buy-yavapai-ranch-for-60m-possible-deal-would-sell-only-17500-acres/

Yeah a bit awkward to listen to those brothers go after each other, and coming from myself that has six brothers that’s saying something. I think Matt is largely being ignorant about how much he needs to keep total hunter numbers and hunter acceptance up if he wants to be able to keep doing llama hunts for the rest of his life. All he seemed do was whine about wanting less people at his trail head, and blamed media and phones for it. He needs voters that will not just vote against hunting when things come to the ballot. I really do think the meat eater guys do a good job in that department and present it in a way that non hunters can understand where we are coming from.

Everyone I know with either Kiabab or strip hunts this year said all the hunts were super tough and big bucks were much harder to come by than a normal year.

Based on the rule effective for 2022 and it’s intent, I can’t use them for hunting anymore, so for most of us, they are gone for now. Really don’t know what happens when it is pretty obvious that someone is cheating on a favorite water hole. Report to gandf? They would just laugh and say, well, maybe it’s just a bird watcher/rancher/not being used for hunting… what a rule.