GodIsGood

given my hispanic heritage I can only surmise that to be one of my hermanos who has made himself a LIVE fiesta pinata! wish the video went longer - to show the kiddies beating the buck with their sticks!

Having horses or access to horses must ROCK! Seeing what some fellas do to wilderness with their quads and Rhinos - I can understand why the forest service is gonna close off much/most of the state. anyone wanna trade a polaris sportsman 500 4x4 for good horse and trailer??? Congrats on your hunt and thanks for a good story!

Sometimes it takes a serious hunter's willingness to mentor a rookie - to see the futility and waste of time, money and effort by doing the wrong things [aka noise, smells, sounds...] If you and this guy are REALLY friends, then you should be able to have a conversation about YOUR approach to hunting and how you INVEST effort, research and money to ensure you have a shot at a positive outcome. as the conversation goes along he may recognize that the hunt doesnt mean that much to him - and gracefully accept the fact that you're on different levels at this time. He may very well need to "get out in the woods with firearms and license" a few dozen times before he realizes there's a LOT more to hunting than that - IF you want to see/harvest decent critters. As to the kids - that's whole nuther gig. That's a bold frontier I call "unselfish land", where we have to put aside our killer instinct and strap on some serious patience... I know my boy is not ready for 12-14 hrs in a tree stand... so hunting opportunities have to be crafted especially for them - with a lower expectation of how far they can hike or how long they can sit. If his boy is packing an empty mag upstairs - than you'd have to either go into ULTRA unselfish mode and keep him close at all times - or DEFINITELY chose to not hunt together. I thought my boy was disciplined 'nuff to handle a firearm - I learned I was wrong when he ventilated my buddy's truck with a .22. Thank the Lord - LITERALLY - that was a much damage as occurred. My advice is straight talk - not deception. If you BS him with separate tags or secretly select a different unit - even if it doesnt become obvious or the source of a confrontation - I bet you'll notice things get weird betweenst ya because he'll likely catch on... unless he's truly a moron - in which case hunting and firearm handling arent sports you want to engage morons. my .02 HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL PS I HUNTED UNSUCCESSFULLY MANY MANY YEARS UNTIL BOWSNIPER MARK MENTORED ME

I drove out to G&F the second day of the offering and the guy at the counter, who was also a hunter, was pretty reserved about the quality of the hunt. He said it was really to provide an opportunity for thems who just cannot get drawn. I was not motivated to make another non-tax deductible donation to G&F what's a PIO?

I have a few different boots given the temperature and terrain... danner pronghorn for multi-purpose cool-cold, some desert combat boots with good wicking socks for warm-hot hiking, a pair of 600g gortex rockies for shallow snow hiking, and a pair of calf-high 2000g gortex deep snow boots... still a rookie, but a 44yrs and 230lbs, bad vision and High-smellin' after a few miles - I reserve my hard-hiking for scouting and FINDING a place to plunk a ground blind or tree stand. At my age and stealthiness [lack there of] I cannot even snoop & poop a carp - let alone an ultra-paranoid coues deer . Merry Christmas and good hunting in the new year to all!

every bit as cool as ESPN Hunt Sunday - without the commercials!

FATFOOTDOC I FEEL YOUR PAIN IN SPADES!!! "I was hunting in NM for elk and in a unit I had hunted 3 years in a row and was hunting one elk in particular with a very distinctive bugle and rack..." 2 years ago I was hunting in NM 16e, was joined by another CWT Tommy Maldanado who had scouted the area we were hunting. The elk must have E-mail [get it, ELK-MAIL?] because they had moved by the hundreds onto huge tracks of private land. Remember how wet in was 2yrs ago in NM? Well I was extra bummed out becuz THERE WERE no sign or tracks in the rolling hills - it was hot so I figured they were in the mtns above us... I switched from stalking to hard charging hiking. Had heard this moaning sounding like a cow giving birth, and there were ranches all around so I didnt think much about it. Came around a juniper and stopped to catch my breath and saw this brama bull laying down between two junipers - was glad I didnt disturb him becuz he was HUGE... and those horns!!! Wait, why would a brama bull have 4 horns??? Glassed him for fun and recognized the eye guards and G1's & he turned his head slightly to show the HUGE rack hidden up in the juniper branches!!! First, I soiled myself, then I unslung my bow... couldnt believe what I was seeing! Recalled saying to myself "is he just gonna lay there and let me take an arrow out too??? Is he gonna just lay there and let me nock my arrow???? He's gonna do it!!! He's gonna let me take a shot [42yrds - laying down broadside]... he let me raise my bow and the MILLISECOND I started to pull the arrow back he bolted from his bed to well protected path. Never saw him again, although I did encounter some outfitters who had been hunting him for years. We nick named him Elvis because he definitely left the building! Without question he was the biggest elk I have ever seen - including print and video - well over 400. it was exciting and a great memory, but NO WAY had I earned that trophy - so I was thankful just to draw on him. Tommy M is a great guy and guide - if you ever have a chance hunt with him or purchase a DYI scouting package - you'll be glad you did. He is also a great mouse hunter inside his own RV, but that's another thread all by itself Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good HUNT!!!!

Good Lord blessed me with a clean kill in August and champing at the bit for January... I also accompanied some other CWT / DCA friends for their rifle hunts and brought a hypodermic needle and seringe I got from a veternarian friend of mine. I drained the bladder of the buck killed by my friend's son shot and froze the urine to dispense from an atomizer bottle during my hunt in January. I kinda doubt the eastern whitetail piss we buy is very convincing for local coues - just remember to label the container in your freezer very well and expect some flack from your spouse! Good hunting and Merry Christmas to all! Kurt

WOW! Great shooting KBS! I'll hire you to teach Grant! gh

If you have been monitoring this toad for 3mos now Mike, how involved has your son been during those 3mos, and most importantly, what have you told/promised him? You cannot renegotiate your commitment now that the camera has revealed Coues-zilla... if you try, he'll turn into another Kent State shooter... screaming to the scattering masses below, "my dad promised I could shoot that huge buck - then he punked me!" Has he been willing and eager to sacrifice - or have you had to drag him to check cameras and refresh batteries etc? Are video games and hang-time with friends more important? I know kids are kids, but at his age will he appreciate the monumental blessing that harvesting an animal THAT beautiful is? Perhaps he should be given a chance to harvest an animal that is equal to age, his effort, his investment... and with time [at your side], you can pass another "shot of a lifetime" to a slightly less young man who will recognize how much that shot means. Another consideration is you're not getting any younger, and this might actually be the great-great grandfather of that newborn you shot last January! My 2 centavos! Kurt I'm confident you'll make a good decision - despite what all of us think/say

In a sad way dont ya feel something for how crummy and desperate their lives must be on the south side of the border? I dont mean to empathize with thems who come here and do crimes or sponge on our healthcare and welfare system... but thems who only want a job to go to and to bring home enough money to keep their kids fed and a roof over their head. we dont have an option to just boot them out... in their own illegal way they are a vital part of the infrastructure of our economy. Set aside the notion of "what would Jesus do with the illegals" and imagine if 6M people who consume products, products that are manufactured and processed by millions of other people's jobs, and sales taxes paid on their billions of dollars of purchases, and hundreds of thousands of homes that erected, sold or rented to house them, and then there's the gazillions of jobs that no WASP will do - or if they did they think their efforts should pay mid-level management for washing cars... I know the problem is horribly complicated - but we need them, and the vast majority of them are decent God-fearing folks. I employ a few of them and in my years of auto repair and services I have found x10 the Hispanic folk who are willing to humble themselves and bust-butt to prove themselves worthy of their piece of the American dream. I agree their filth and disregard for the beauty of southern AZ is sickening... but if you ever travel into Mexico... they treat their own city streets and countryside as a public dumping ground... why would they suddenly sprout a measure of respect for our countryside as they sneak into the land of milk and honey. I dont have the answers, but i wish they'd build a barrier equal to that of Isreal - instead of fiddle-farting around with sensors wires... All crossing should be finger-printed and for the sphincters who come here illegally, part of their punishment should be forced labor on the wall to prevent them from returning... and thems who commit violent crimes should be imprisoned in Git-mo with the other enemy combatants.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/spo/426014925.html or http://phoenix.craigslist.org/spo/424840479.html

Seems to me, and maybe I'm just spit-balling here... but G&F is gonna do whatever they please - especially whatever they feel is fiscally beneficial to pay for their new multi-million dollar facility out at Ben Avery. Are there any states where game management is not coues-a-nostra?

Been working 17 HARD, good sign but none fresh and no deer yet. Wondering if others working same general area are finding unusual behavior due to extreme lack of water?