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Thank you for starting this tread. As the wildlife manager/ Field Supervisor in Unit 3C for 26 yrs. I saw the end of the horse capturing that the Heber Ranger (Black Mesa) Dist was doing, and the results. It saddens, and angers me to see what these horses have done to the habitat in not only that unit, but also Unit 1. Specifically, the Kettel Holes area. that area has been decimated and all those meadows have been converted from grass land community to noxious weeds. Any business in the white mountains that supports the horses should defiantly be boycotted, especially by hunters, or anyone interested in sound forest management. There is no place on public land for even one feral horse. Besides the habitat issues, thats a lot of high-quality protein on the hoof, that could feed a lot of people!

The Aspen Lodge in Alpine AZ has been purchased by a California couple about 2 years ago. They have become the epicenter of support for leaving the feral horses that have invaded the Apache forest alone. We, as hunters recognize the destruction that the horses have caused all across the state, but this business has refused to acknowledge the damage the horses have created and have welcomed the Salt River Wild Horse Management group to their facility. They are actively supporting leaving the horses alone and letting them continue to breed and multiply. There are other businesses where we as sportsmen can spend our dollars. It is my hope that word of their ignorant support of feral horses becomes a business detriment to them. If you are planning summer trips, a lodge to spend your evenings in during hunts.......Locate another business. This has been verified and documented by a number of people so I am not stretching the truth in any way. Please spread the word! AZSGWC - AZSFWC Humane Removal of Unauthorized Livestock on Apache National Forest Booklet (EMAIL).pdf

After years of waiting. I finally drew the tag. Opening day my wife and i called and got a response. He gobbled good but was moving away as he already was henned up. We moved in on him and saw he was missing a single tail feather. We played with him a bit and got some good footage of him strutting. I decided to pass him. If he had that feather he was a shooter for me. Wife and i continued on and found some fresh tracks and strut marks. So started call8ng and got an imediate response. H3 2as coming quick. I handed call to my wife and told her to keep calling. She could see him coming in. I drew back and he came ot facing me at about 15 yards. I settled pin on his beard and let it fly. Arrow sailed through him and he kept strutting. I missed all body and went through nohing but feathers. He followed his hens down the mountain. Found the arrow and nothing but a little wad of down feather on the broadhead. We ended up with our 2 year old grandson that night do tounfortunate events. So we decided to take him with us on day 2. We went anotber area that we have seen birds in the past. Not a single response anywhere in the area. So wife said lets go back where we were the day before. So we made it back to the ranger and hauled butt. It was late in the morning and getting hot. Went back to the first area from the day before and found the same tom i had passed in the exact same spot as the day before. This time i had the wife call and move up behind me with our grandson. The tom and his hens were moving out. She stayed put and kept calling to keep him talking. I moved up the ridge and around and in on him. They could hear me and moved away slowly. Good thing these guys are so uneducated. Hewas strutting and about 40 yards out. Knew it was tbe same tom but this time since my grandson was with us i decided i 2as gonna take him. So i did with 12 gauge and put him down. I took him to taxidermist and he weighed 22lbs. Taxi also told me that he was deffinately old and mature. Turns out he has a genettic deffect and never had that tail feather. He also looked at me like i was crazy and was like ahh this is not a passable bird. My grandson being there with my wife and i was the best. This was his first experience outdoors.

Here is my wife 2021 Goulds from unit 29. Fun hunt plenty of birds. Hopefully I can draw in the next few yrs.

We went early and did ok.

great question recce and the answer is yes ill even throw in 24/7 Technical support even yeti cant offer this kind of a deal

Those crazy Californians say they have to get out of California because of what it’s become then move to another state only to do the same stupid %@#$ they were doing in CA. Why not just stay in California where no one cares what you do ? Worst thing I see in the mountain town I live in is a vehicle driving through with California tags……please just be passing through, we don’t care how it’s done in California !

Badlands Super day pack. In good shape, no holes or stains. One zipper on the medium sized pocket doesn’t work well but each pocket has two zippers so if you just use the other one it works fine. One prong on the belt clip is missing but it still clips shut. I’m sure badlands would send you a new one. Free to a youth hunter but must either pick up in Buckeye or pay for shipping to you.

Browning A bolt .223 wssm vortex diamondback tactical 4-16x44 Boyd’s thumb hole stock rcbs dies 18 factory rounds over a hundred once fired brass Rifle rest not included. located in Globe. May be willing to meet part way within reason. PM or text (602)570-4101 $800 / $700 if you don’t want the empty brass and dies.

FYI. DAN

I decided a while back to try canning meat. We were fortunate enough put elk in the freezer and have plenty cubed and ready to go. I bought a Presto Pressure Canner (a must to safely can meat and low acid food). Using tried and true recipes as my base, we rolled up our sleeves and got busy. We started with pinto beans and also raw pack elk cubes yesterday. Came out great. Plain it's a little salty but in a dish it should be great. The meat pressure cooks in the jar so it comes out fall apart tender. We are working on elk stew right now. This is a little different as the meat is browned 1st and broth covers everything from the get go. It is intimidating at first due to all the fear mongering online. But at the end of the day we felt comfortable. Be careful, follow directions, and only use university, cooperative extension, or other lab tested recipes. I will add pictures when the jars come out of the canner.

Yes he was very happy to join. When you had stopped by to drop off calls i had not told him he was going yet and i wanted to surprise him so thats why i told him no at the time. But he was always going! Little man had a blast and become more of a man during it as well! Definitely came out of his shoes and showed me more of himself for sure

I will take it!

Does the purchase of the cooler include a lifetime of reloading advice and support? Asking for a friend

I will take 3 pounds if there are any left, will be in Tucson next Tuesday eve or Wed morning. You can text me at 928-243-1517

Quality of hunt was down but I don't think the quality of deer was. I knew of and know of a couple real good bucks alive that never showed up. Or at least I never heard of anyone finding them. So who knows??

Good to know. Thanks.

The 243 sold the the person who messaged me 1st I have 243 projectiles and brass for sale

We have those same people moving to Overgaard. I had a place in Alpine over 20 years ago. Hate to see those people moving there.

Good looking out

if you buy both ill throw in a pound of retumbo. now thats a deal guyz

So turkey jerky from a youth Merriams bird.

Headed to our first ever turkey hunt, with the youth camp in unit 1. Hope we have some success but either way it should be lots of fun. 🤞🦃 Update: Saturday morning my son tagged out. We had the best mentor from the youth camp in unit 1. All around great guy and hunter. He had roosted some turkeys the night before. We hiked in before sunrise, we heard 3 different gobblers around us. We got in as close as we could. My oldest son and I sat under a tree and my other son and the mentor sat about 10 yards to our left. We were right on the edge of a canyon. The sun started to come up and they were gobbling close. One flew out of the tree right above us down the canyon (side note, I had no idea they flew or they sat in trees). Our mentor started calling, we saw a hen to our right, then about 45 yards in front of us came a tom over the hill puffing his feathers. My son asked me if he could shoot it, I told he let's make sure he had a beard first, as soon as I saw it I told him to shoot. Great shot about 40 yards away, another Tom came right up and started fighting with the bird my son just shot. I was trying to signal to my other son , but it happened so fast. The mentor thought it was the same bird so he was trying to tell us to shoot it again. I found out later they didn't have as good of view as we did. Such a proud moment for me and even the mentor 😂. We tried the rest of the weekend but couldn't make it happen for my other son. It was a great weekend, the boys learned so much but so did my husband and I. My 6 yr old can't wait to hunt! Thank you to the youth camps, volunteers, and mentors. (Don't mind my son's hair 🙄)

Like others it started in July w a 2100 $ hit and goof up from AZGFD, but I got the refund later. Who cares I was going sheep hunting. Scouting started right away and I spent over 30 days scouting in the summer heat and leading up to the hunt. Several target rams we’re seen but as sheep hunting goes they move off in September making it hard to relocate them. Opening day came quick and I spent 8 hard grinding days trying to locate target rams with my close friends. Day 8 we spotted a group of 7 rams and this old desert warrior was a new ram I have not seen before. We’re did he come from ? A quick stalk and some videoing is the rams before the shot my lifetime tag was filled. This ram will probably be the biggest taken in that unit. Rough score 179.5 net 177.5. On cloud 9. I can’t thank my buddies enough for grinding it out with me.

Holy cow was this an adventure!!!!!!! First, I started off by spending $2300.00 on a sheep tag. Then I didn't know if my wife had the tag or if it was mine. Luck ended up in my favor and I got a rebate for the additional money spent on the tag. In all I made 5 scouting trips and one trip down for the hunt. As it turned out I had 14 days of scouting (buddies had probably more days than me towards scouting). After scouting ended, we had only seen sheep 1 out of the last 8 days of scouting. I can't begin to tell you how difficult it is to sit there and glass for days on end and not see sheep. We had a 3 day and then a 4 day stretch with seeing no wildlife. We didn't even see a deer, rabbit, nothing. As opening morning rolled around the feeling in camp was different than any other hunt I have been on. Normally everyone is super excited and ready to go but everyone knew this could be day 5 with seeing no sheep. We also knew this would likely be a hunt that lasted more than 10 days to get the job done. Either way we knew that heading out before first light would need to happen. We developed a plan and sent everyone to their spots to find the elusive ram. After a solid hour of glassing, I decided to grab some grub out of my daily bag of food. That went so well that I decided that grabbing something else would be even better......little did I know that would be the last food I had before dinner. I kept on glassing and finally found a few white butts moving in the distance. I told my buddy to get eyes on them and then grabbed my BTX's after he obtained them in his glass. He started off by saying he could see 3 sheep and one was a ram. Then he said that there were 4 sheep and all of them were rams. Then his voice changed a bit and he said that one of the rams was really, really good. Once I got my glass on the rams I could see one that was well above average. We were sitting about 2.5 miles from the sheep. We knew he was big enough to look at but we really couldn't judge him from that far away. Luckily, we didn't have heat waves yet so we could tell that I needed to go in for a closer look. I grabbed my pack, glass and rifle and off I went. My buddy was going to stay and keep an eye on the rams. My other buddies were off in the general direction of the rams so hopefully we could all meet up if this came together. After a 2 mile walk (seemed like the longest walk of my life) I would see the rams up the mountain and decided to take a look at the bigger ram with my spotter. He was with 3 other rams. One of the rams was probably in the 150 class and he just looked tiny compared to this guy. I was fairly confident that this was going to be my ram. He had great mass all the way through. He looked like he was turning up at the tips and seemed to have good length. I'm far from a sheep expert but he looked good to me. Well after looking at this ram at 1000 yards I decided to make my approach. Off I went through a wash moving slowly (mostly because it was hot and I was tired) and gaining ground on the rams. They were starting to look like they were going to bed. I continued my stalk. The rams decided to bed down in a spot where I could take a shot if I could get into position. After a good chunk of time, I finally got as close as I could to the group of rams. The bigger ram was at 462 yards and bedded down in a position where I couldn't have a good shot at him. I knew that I would have to wait until he stood up before I could shoot. I'm not a very patient guy so this was going to be a challenge. I found a good resting spot and laid my rifle down on my pack. At the time I could see the ram in my scope but I couldn't see his body. It was now right at noon and the sun was just beating down on me. This was not typical hunting weather in my book. After about half an hour two of the smaller rams got up. Now I'm on high alert because I'm sure the bigger ram is going to get up any second. At many points I was shaking like crazy.....not because of nerves but I was just tired of laying behind my gun waiting for my ram to stand up. Every so often I would put my head down and get off the gun just so I could take a few breaths and relax. Then all of a sudden I look through the scope and the bigger ram stood up. two seconds later there was a light click and then a big boom. Big ram down!!!!!!!! I was super excited but knew the work was just to begin. My buddies joined me for a photo session and then we did a life size cape job on my ram. After breaking the ram down into pieces, we went down the mountain and made the journey back to the glassing spot which was 2.5 miles away. Luckily, we barely made it back before dark. I was plenty thirsty. It was 6pm and I was looking forward to getting some water in me and hopefully a good meal. A few guys were heading to camp to help for the second day but their help would be needed to pack up camp. We might have celebrated a bit and had ribeye's for dinner. Life was good. I was spent. The reward was worth the effort and I feel very fortunate for all the help I received from many people. Many of the people I only talked to on the phone and have never met in person. I even had one buddy Greg that went down twice on his own to scout and found multiple good rams. It's hard to believe so many people were rooting for me to find a big ram.......but that is sheep hunting.