1uofacat

you'll fit right in...

Congrats on giving yourself (Vowell) bad karma in New Mexico opening up another tag for the rest of us! 😁

Honestly, the last thing I want while hunting is to have a guide screw up my hunt because he's trying to find/get his client a trophy. The guides & their minions I've personally had the displeasure of running into while hunting couldn't give a dang about screwing up other's hunts, but rather were only focused on pleasing their client/employer (& this came from talking with them afterwards). Know those of us who eventually will become tagholders (again) have often waited a decade or more for our hunts & have therefore earned our tags! I wonder how many guides would be out there if it were illegal to charge for guiding? I've "guided" family and friends too, but it wasn't to get paid, it was to share their life experience with them as family & close friends, & not for money. I don't personally know any of you here on CWT, certainly not any of the guides here, so to be fair I don't know if "you" are akin to those I've run into in the past described herein, I certainly hope not! All I can say is there have been numerous times I've been in a position where I was there first in on a large bull & a guide with his client screwed it up knowing full well I was getting close, perhaps just to prevent me from taking those magnificent animals (it certainly seemed that way). On the flip side, I've also had other (solo) hunters in the field back off when I was there first just as I have conversely done for others. That said, & in all fairness while it's probably happened, I have never experienced a guide/client back off when I was there first. It seemed their intent was to either have their client make the kill or nobody. If this is not you, then Thank You! Otherwise, leveraging wildlife to earn the almighty dollar can ruin this for all of us in the end, & that's my two cents, like it or not. BTW, I too use cameras & love checking them, so personally was against the overall ban fwiw. Again, I sincerely hope the guides here on CWT have honorable morals recognizing and respecting other tagholder's rights to pursue wildlife just as I know guides have the right to charge for guiding.

I think they me doing just that... anyone get a credit card hit for an elk tag that should have happened almost 3 weeks ago yet? 😯

we had about 6" or more of snow from Flag to Williams out of this past storm. It's supposed to get to 60° later this week though.

"Better job"? Specifically regarding the G&F, how do you know where any of your donated dollars are spent or who made those decisions? So you just trust that the money you donate goes where you intended it to go?... ok... While I personally have a lot of "faith", I have very little in how this state agency is now run including decisions on what programs any dollars are spent. We should be able to dictate where we want donation dollars (at a minimum) spent, but that's not an option, much less even the ability to give feedback on which programs we "prefer" our donations $s go. IMO, this is a state agency that appears to have very little accountability, or even the desire to appear to have any (publicly). Therefore we'll just have to "agree to disagree" on the blind faith we have in how our G&F Department spends $s. Without knowing which other organizations you said you support it's not possible to accurately comment on, although like you (& many others) I too support wildlife through water hauling & general habitat improvements.

They wait until the draw is complete... Crap, that means maybe by mid-April they'll start! 😁

thought you live there...?

My longest pack out was in the Valle Vidal of New Mexico back in '92, their version of a Sept rifle tag (but once in a lifetime hunt). Pack out was about 5 miles one way & I had help (2 others), so only lost a little bit. I was both younger & dumber then too! Best thing is it was relatively flat. That said, get help if possible... these are NOT coues!

correction... AZ did not vote in 2 democratic senators as well as biden. The rest of your statement was true imo though!

We had up to about a foot total in some areas, but varies widely by only a few miles. At my house in Flag we got about 8" -9". In Williams, there was realistically about 5" or 6" total. Some areas however it was more like 4". Another 3" inches of snow expected tonight in Williams though, & every little bit helps!

I wouldn't have used the word "comical"...

In the mid 80s my brothers & I decided to try/go back to traditional for elk so we ordered 80# Damon Howatt recurves. They built/sold us several, but we all broke them, most of which limbs snapped at full draw when releasing. (& don't think that didn't make you wonder if the limb was going to smack you after releasing either!) After several calls we finally got through to the tech building them. He told us he warned the salesman not to agree to build/sell them because the limbs/materials weren't engineered for the poundage we were asking for. We were holding about 96# at full draw with our draw lengths using the largest XX75 shafts made at the time. Later we gave it up & went back to compounds, although one of my brothers did kill a decent 6x with his old Wing recurve. ... or should I have said, "harvested"? 🤣

they realized the priced it at what it used to sell for after hours Saturday! A week ago in Flag, Sunday morning, there was a lot of ammo put out Saturday night. At opening there were were only 8 people in the store, but within 15 min there were 300 as someone posted it on Facebook...

This can be a lot of fun, hunted traditional style for years. I started hunting deer with an Indian Bow in the early 70s. Brothers shot Wing & Bear Bows. I won a Javalina contest in the early 80s after hearing all the bragging crap from some of the guys who were shooting incredibly fast arrows & far at pigs, so for the last week in January (season back then was for the month of January, all archery tags were OTC), put down my Jennings & killed a huge pig w/cedar shafts (my own from blanks), turkey feathers, & Black Diamonds out of a 50# Bear Grizzley. It was awesome & a lot of fun! It put those bragging jerks in their place too being beat by a traditional archer (14-5/8" skull). As stated earlier, start slow (poundage-wise), but know it's very different & you'll likely need to change your whole outlook & approach to be "successful" (whatever that means). I also suggest reading the book, Hunting with the Bow and Arrow by Saxton Pope. Original was printed in 1923, reprint in 1947, & in 2011. (Name of the author sound familiar?) Pope & Young also taught Fred Bear as Ishi passed before Fred came into the picture as I recall. If this book doesn't get your heart pumping for traditional style hunting, don't put down your compound bow.

the chances they hold this draw (anytime soon) are not as good as drawing a sheep tag...🤣

Lunes

Regardless of the cards being hit today or later, this year is unlike any other year. Here we are two weeks after the original "CC update deadline" & tens of thousands of us are still honestly hopeful our cards may get hit, and for many they will! That's both sad & enigmatic!

it was a joke 'lines...

Decades ago in Tucson, my brothers & I were returning from an archery javalina hunt when a motorcyclist with a javalina "piglet" strapped to the back of his bike passed us in town. It was the funniest yet saddest thing I saw for years...

wow, you must be pissed! (because you wrote a book! haha, sorry bad joke, was referring to another comment in another thread 🤣) IMHO, this topic has a lot to do with P&Y/B&C) score. As far as being 52... I'm well beyond that but this hardly concerns me regarding applying for Sept bull tags! Everyone has a chance every year to draw tags, but one can be clever about their 1st & 2nd choices too. & I wish you all good luck in the draw too, especially if I draw one of those coveted tags! 😁

I'm hardly "imploding with anger" 🤣, just calling BS when I see it & backing it up. Just because someone "backs up" what they post hardly proves they're angry... passionate perhaps, but not necessarily angry. I did find it interesting however that you latet noted, "I never said I didn't like the post..." 👍 😁

I'm calling BS on this as the g&f said publicly they were, "Continuing to validate more than 150,000 applications." Sounds to me like you you're just stirring crap up! 🤔 I should have guessed... with a screen name like yours! 🤣

Here in Williams today, it's supposed to snow up to 10 inches between now and Saturday. While it'll likely be less than that, every little bit helps. I was out in unit 8 over the past weekend and while the tanks are very low, there is at least some water in many of them now. Also, the ground is quite saturated below the pine needles, so at least it's not "dry" yet. That said, it's still not a lot of moisture this year for great antler growth. So if you're of the mindset that you need a great bull, you may want to cancel your CCs tonight to save your bonus points as well as not wasting the $150 on the tag you're probably turning back in anyway (assuming you bought the insurance)! 😁

use a detergent that doesn't have UV brightener in it... Use a black light on them before& after you use a "hunting/sports" wash & you'll be amazed at the difference. Been using "hunting detergent" since the early 80s & it makes a difference! I don't use fabric softeners on hunting clothes...