Two strikes...

[firstcoueswas80]

Friday morning, my buddy Tom, his buddy Michael and myself headed north to try and fill one of the over the counter elk tags.. We got to Holbrook with out a glitch (minus 5 hours of driving with out AC). First thing we did was check into the hotel, crank the ac up and look over the map at where we wanted to go.. When the time came, we got in our camos and off we went.

 

When we arrived in the area we wanted to be, we would get any elevation we could and glass into the PJ.. at our about second spot, we spotted a REAL nice goat... He was way out there, but with the spotter on 60x we could tell he was a good one... about 16.5", with real good mass and awesome cutters.... If I had the tag, we would have gotten a closer look! About an hour later, we come to a gate crossing with a fellow hunter sitting there waiting for his buddy. After a few minuts of converation, I look over the gate and do not see any "No trespassing" or the like signs so off we go. We find a really good spot to glass, and mark it on the GPS.

 

Its dang near dark now, so off we go. We are following a road that the map says will connect back to the main road... About 2 miles down, this dark blue Ford comes hauling butt directly at us! We are at a complete stop, and my buddy tries to take the truck off the road to the right... The guy in the Ford stops about a foot and a half from our bumper and starts yelling at us that we are on his property. We try to ask him where his boundary is, and tell him we never saw any signs. Down the road, he admits that he hasnt " had time " to hang the signs, and that the hunt was "sprung" on him. We get out of the truck and go to his window to talk with him, and he says that hes gonna call the Sheriff on us for trespassing.. I inform him that we have not broken any laws as of yet (wasnt properly marked, he asked us to leave and we are etc..). He informs me that he will lie to the Sheriff and tell him that we have been harassing him and have been asked to leave several times... Again, I inform him that he committed agrvated assault agains us ( we were all holding on to the Oh Chit bars because we thought he was going to hit us) and that filing a false police report is also a crime... One he figured out that we had an idea of how the law works he started to calm down... Well, the guy was "nice enough" to give us directions on how to get out of the area and back to the main road... I don't know if he lied to us, or it we took a wrong turn somewhere, but we were lost for 3.5 friggin hours! Everytime we would get on a road that the map said would go to a certain road, it lied to us! Finally, around midnight we got back to our hotel.

 

Well Saturday, we again looked at the map and decided where to go. We were on I-40 headed to our spot, all of us about 1/2 asleep... Wouldnt you know it, the rear left tire looses 3/4 of its tread and sends the truck doing some slight fishtailing... Well, my buddy gets the truck under control and pulled to the side of the road. After we examine the tire, we get the spare on and off we go to the Big' O Tire in Winslow. Of course, upon arrival that Big' O has been bought out and the new tire shop does not honor warrantys... Great. While in there, Tom and I decide that we have two striks against us and that it is a sign to load up and get the heck out of Dodge!

 

Payson has plenty of tires, but closes at 3. Its a race. The entire time, I am in contact with Brian and he says no worries man. We will be here. We arrive at the shop around 3:20 and Brian and one of his workers are there waiting for us. In about 15 minutes, we havd a brand new tire, and a claim filed for the body damage. The rest of the trip went off with out a glitch.

 

I would like to thank Brian from Big' O Tires. He was extremly plesant and went out of his way to help us. I would encourage all of you Payson boys to pay him a visit.

 

Now, a few pictures:

 

 

 

[cramerhunts]

Dang Casey that sounds like one tough trip. Good to hear that you and the crew made it back in one piece. Too bad about the sorry land owner...if indeed he was the land owner. If he was you can bet there are signs posted now. Better luck next time.

 

Phil

[GameHauler]

Sounds like a great trip Casey

Brian is a great guy.

I don't think anyone in town could walk into

Big O and Brian doesn't know them by name

[GRAYLIGHT]

Maybe it was the land owner.... OR... a guide or another hunter that was trying to scare you off of his pre scouted monster and didn't want you to find him! Either way... Sounds like he riled you boy's up a bit! Good luck.

[Kilimanjaro]

Sounds like everything that coulda gone wrong did!! Sorry boys!! Tough break with everything that went wrong.

[firstcoueswas80]

Maybe it was the land owner.... OR... a guide or another hunter that was trying to scare you off of his pre scouted monster and didn't want you to find him! Either way... Sounds like he riled you boy's up a bit! Good luck.

 

 

I do believe it was the land owner, as he came THROUGH signs that said no hunting/trespassing. That is why we were pulled over.. We had just seen the signs for the first time and we were about to look at the map.

[DesertBull]

Where's the elk?

[SilentButDeadly]

go to this website:

 

http://sco.az.gov/website/parcels/viewer.htm

 

look up the button on the right side that says Land Ownership, figure out where you were.

[Hunterdan]

WOW! Tough Luck there Casey. Sorry to hear that.

[ronaldo]

Welcome to Northern Az and the Idiot Ranchers who think they own the whole dang world!!!!

Call Game And Fish and complain and see if that gets you anywhere...

Ron

[uofahughes2]

Welcome to Northern Az and the Idiot Ranchers who think they own the whole dang world!!!!

Call Game And Fish and complain and see if that gets you anywhere...

Ron

 

 

That's a pretty broad generalization.

[firstcoueswas80]

Hes spot on talking about this guy... He was talking about how he "owned" all the water up there and could cut all the residents off at any time. Believe me, this guy was the creme of the crop!

[Snapshot]

Alot of the southern unit ranchers are the same way, except they have the added pleasure of dealing with illegals, smugglers and trash.

I respect the ranching way of life and what they have to go through, but some of those guy's are pretty extreme and try and keep people off of land they do not even own. Grazing rights is not ownership, and water rights only pertains to ground water, stock ponds and reservoirs on their property, as creeks and rivers can not be cut off from people down stream if they just flow through the property in question.

[kcw]

It is trips like this one that makes you appreciate the good ones that much more.

[TAM]

There sure is a lot of land in Arizona that is not properly posted. Every hunter should become familiar with the proper posting procedures on pages 96 & 97 of the 2008-09 AZGF Deer regulations. It's not complex, but in Arizona it is the responsibility of the land owner to properly post there land if they don't want the public to have access to it.

 

It's never any fun getting run off by a cowboy that didn't follow proper posting procetures, but in Arizona it's there own fault and they have no right to threaten you if you are cooperative.