Scooter

Yeah Quail is WAY out of season. Feb 9th was the closing day of General Season...

I know it's not an "Alaskan Salmon" trip- but the Great Lakes also offer some exciting action all spring and summer long on charter boats and then they run the tributaries every fall around mid-october... I grew up doing that and if you hit it right, you'll have tons of fresh Kings and some Coho along with Steelhead and big lake-run Browns.

I wish to God that my wife would go hunting with me... When I first met her she was a liberal hippie coffee-shop vegetarian. After 12 years I've managed to get her to go fishing, eating the fish we caught, get her a gun (yes, it's all hers), and during pregnancy a few years back she suddenly had a craving for poultry- so chicken and turkey were added to the menu. She even ate some of the quail I shot this past fall. She sometimes watches me clean the animals I harvest, and I kinda find that a little wierd- but it's time spent together. I'll admit, I've gone on many, many trips to do what she likes- antiques, long walks with no apparent purpose, dressage shows, malls, etc... but she has never gone hunting with me, after many, many times asked. It's a crying shame because she'd like it. She does, however, have a grudge against turkeys due to an incident when she was riding a horse through the western NY woods and a Turkey jumped out and spooked it and bucked her off pretty hard. She has agreed that someday she'll go turkey hunting. BUT, she still is very hesitant to try shooting a shotgun. I have two 20ga shotguns that she could use, but she's so afraid of the recoil that she gets psyched out and won't pull the trigger. I'll keep working on it- and it's funny because there are lots of women (including mine, sometimes) who get sore at their men for choosing to go hunting and not spending time with them, yet when asked to go along and hunt WITH their man- say "No way". Honestly, if I didn't want the hassle of her hunting with me- I wouldn't ask. I just think she would really get a kick out of the experience, it would mean the world to me, and I really believe that we would become closer as a married couple. I mean, the long drives to camp where you can just keep asking all kinds of annoying questions and talking about random crap while I just smile and nod at would seem like a perfect scenario!

Welcome!

I run the same tire. They were the best,and most affordable, in my price range. No issues with them yet. Running them on my H3 since December and they are doing pretty well. I replace the BFG Dueler AT's that were on there for about 45k miles and lots of nasty SoAZ terrain. I really am liking the Cooper's now- except that they don't have the sidewall lugs for that extra traction and protection.

I like public land... Arizona has lots of it.

It's fine, hunt with it. Deer and Elk are more attentive to motion and unnatural shapes more than they care about colors. As long as your silouhette is broken up and you can sit still, you are fine.

I personally like the Marlin 25MN in 22mag... I think it is called something different now- but that rifle can flat-out shoot!!! Put a nice piece of glass on top and let the micro-groove barrel do what it does. 7-shot magazine and it's around $250 for the rifle. The only other bolt-action rimfires I would even consider would be a few of the better Savage 93 series magnums.

That just ain't right!!!

1 1/2" on the tip of a crappie rod is kind of a big deal. Warranty that bad boy- lots of times if youo call them first they'll tell you the real story and not what's on their warranty card or website.

I'm guessing with the new grass growth down here in 35A as a result of the monument fire and which flourished during a "rainy" 2013... I'm thinking a big fire down south here along the border is gonna happen again very soon if we are not all careful.

I'm HAM huntin' this weekend... 35A. Got my 1858 Remington Cap and Ball .44 and my T/C Tree Hawk .50 sidelock carbine all dialed in at the range over the weekend and they're clean and ready to go. One poor unlucky Piggie gonna eat a chunka hot lead.

had me all excited that I'd see an arctic fox. Great job as always!!!

I have the same gun, and buffered loads of 00 buck are fine in there, won't hurt the barrel if you have your choke screwed in all the way and keep it tightened properly. You run the risk of deforming the large pellets though which can and will create "flyers" and ruin the pattern.. With only 9 (per 2.75" shell) or 15 (per 3" shell) .33 caliber pellets, that can translate to a missed or wounded animal pretty quick. Running an extra full choke you'll still get some pellet deformation and flyers with #4 buck, but you'd have more pellets (27 in a 2.75" shell and 41 in a 3" shell) of .24 caliber in the sweet spot of the pattern- so you're less likely to miss or wound an animal because of the superior pattern density. Ideally, if it were remotely affordable, I would run nothing but the Hevi-Shot Dead Coyote loads... Perfect matrix of pattern density and shot size, and patterns excellent and precisely to point of aim out of my 835 with a Carlson's Dead Coyote choke- but it's brutally expensive at $4-$5 per round and a hundred bucks plus shipping for the choke. at least the choke is useable for other loads.

Having hunted in Texas I can tell you that most of the work comes before the actual hunting season. Plus, if AZ was anything like TX as far as hunting leases go... let me just say the mantra of "pure" no-bait-no-fence hunting might change after a couple years of paying $4k-5K per year for a marginal lease in an antler-restricted county and getting skunked on bucks. Maybe not. But that's the game they play in Texas. I personally like and have employed both methods of chasing whitetails... one of them requiring more "chasing" than the other. I started my Hunting career in Western New York and I would have to be careful what gets labled "eastern hunting" and what gets labled as "Mid-Western" hunting. The Tecomate guys are not what I'd consider "Eastern".