standman

Woo Hoo, I drew the once in a lifetime, with the use of bait or salt only, unit 27 grizzley bear tag.

Well looks like my streak for the year continues. I'm 0 for 2008 so far Only one application for the year left, Arizona Sheep. Thank goodness it is a sure thing.

UA still looking for that Rose Bowl nut

No coyotes, he said that coyotes have been by them but have not attempted to go in. No foxes either but he isn't setting his traps in fox country. High country only. He believes his traps are not quite big enough for coyotes which may be the reason for not catching any. My brother owns a metal fabrication company and we have been tinkering with the idea of building some but like you said people stealing them is a worry.

AzTrapper, I have a good friend that used to trap with my dad back in the good ole days, that traps with live traps. He caught 13 cats this past year with them. He only uses them for cats. I have been going to try some of them but the good ones are so darn expensive.

Sittling at home, on the computer, waiting for the first great stories to be posted and wishing January 1st would hurry up.

After a long wait and a lot of preseason scouting, Sam's opening morning finally came. We arrived at our predetermined location at 4:30 am with the toms alreading gobbling. There we six toms in total sounding off. We quietly easing into our calling location and set up the decoys (which it was hard to do when you can't see a thing). After setting up, my brother, Sam and I settled in and let things calm down a little. As daylight approached I started calling. With every yelp and cluck the six toms would gobble. As the calling continued and just before fly out the dreaded sounds of hens were heard. There were hens calling everywhere. I was doing my best to compete with the hens when all the gobblers flew down. Five of them headed up the creek away from us towards the hens, while one stayed on the point where he roosted. As I continued my impression of a love sick hen, the tom started coming our direction. Finally I could see him about 80 yards out, back and to the right of us. My brother trying to keep Sam as calm and still as he could, still couldn't see the bird. As the tom approached he finally was straight to the right of Sam at 40 yards. At that point the gobbler could see the decoys and he puffed up and came running hard right at them. As he passed behind a big tree Sam raised his gun into position. The gobbler ran right up to the jake decoy that was on top of the hen decoy and began to spur and beat it to pieces. Sam being as calm as he could be (I could see his knees shaking from 10 yards behind him) tightened down on his gun, I clucked one time to raise the toms head, and at 20 yards Sam layed the hammer down on him. Immediately Sam was hooting and hollering. What an experience. It was all over by 5:30. Sam did everything right and was rewarded with a great gobbler. This is an experience we will never forget. Here are a couple pics of the proud boy. Oops, put this in the wrong forum. Should of put it in the youth hunters forum. My bad. Brian

Sam wants me to thank everyone for the kind comments. For only an hour long hunt, this was one of the best experiences we have ever had. Sam really works hard at learning and absorbing any information he can find to help him out in the field. He has turned into quite a hunter, especially when his family is a non hunting family. Thanks again everyone. Brian

Here are five of my archery trophies.

We've been hitting San Carlos hard for the past three weeks, 3-4 days a week. Fishing has been awesome. Crappies have been in the shallows for three weeks now. Where we've been hitting them nobody else has been fishing. Most everyone is still in the flotillas. We have been averaging over 100 crappies a day, keeping just the biggest ones for our limits. Bass fishing is also excellent with a lot of 1-2 pound fish with a few 3+ fish.

Here are some pics off my cameras I picked up today. Hope you enjoy them.

I had a good spring season this year. Thought I would share the pictures. First is my archery javalina that I killed on the second day of my HAM hunt. Here is my spring gobbler that I called in on the second evening of my hunt to 15 yards.

azpackhorse, The turkey is from unit 1 and the pig unit 23.

Casey, Check out this thread on another forum. http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.p...ght=spray+wraps This is what I use and I will never go back to wraps. It is easy simple and cheap. I use it on on my Gold Tip shafts fletched with Blazers using Bohning Platnium Glue. I can't even peel a vane off with pliers afterwards. It will tear before it comes off. If I wasnt out of town working I would get you a pic of my arrows. Maybe I will post a pic of the arrows when I bag my gobbler with one this weekend . Brian

3A/3C archery bull for me!!!!

Mine is no longer pending but actually a posted charge for $114!!!

My card was also hit for $114!!!! Brian

Here are a few that got away this past January.

Congrats on a tremendous deer!!

elmergoo, the time the pics were taken is in the bottom right corner of the pics, and there hasn't been any sign of any rutting in this area yet.

Here are a few pics I got on a couple cameras recently. Hope you enjoy. Brian

For me, being an archery hunter, I prefer the higher thicker elevations. Pines, spruce trees, douglas fir trees with a few junipers mixed in is what works best for me. Most places I hunt I can't see past 40-50 yards max. I figure if in the thick stuff if I find one he is in range. I don't see as many deer this way as I do glassing open ridges and mountains. However, those open ridges make it extremely difficult to get into archery range of a buck. We have done it before, but it takes too many failures before a success. That is why I choose the higher, thicker areas. Much more success compared to the failures. As for the question of "What do you look for in that area to hold bucks? I don't have to see bucks in an area to know that they are in an area. The sign will tell me that. Rubs, scrapes (new and old), trails etc, etc. When looking for an area to hunt during the rut the number one thing I look for in an area is does. If does are there, the bucks will be there. The areas I hunt, the deer are there whether it is summer or winter, so if I find any area with lots of does, then that will be the number one spot I look at come the rut. I also depend alot on water. Not necessarily to hunt over, but to be in the area of the water. I will study topo maps of the elevations I like to hunt and find the water in that area, then go check that water to see if I want to elimimate that spot or to continue looking in the area. Now to the question of how I will hunt this terrain or area? I will stalk or still hunt the higher ridges, which I think will have the most deer crossing over from bedding to feeding areas and vice verca, being careful to move extremely slow and always have the wind in my favor. I have found in my experience in hunting these thicker areas deer seem to hold very close without running as if they think they are hid and that you will just pass them by. While hunting like this if I find a good saddle or trail that looks like it is getting well used then I may proceed to set up a ground blind on that spot. That worked for me with my Aug. 2005 buck. This is getting long winded so I will stop. I hope some of this is related to the subject at hand and not to far off topic. These are some of the things we use to be successful. Still learning though, there is always a curveball somewhere. Brian

Unit 1 Turkey and 23 HAM for me Brian

Here is a pic of a buck I just got off my camera. He has great mass and a droptine. Hopefully we can get a couple more pics of him in the next few weeks. Brian

What a great year of hunting so far. Congrats.