SilentButDeadly

I'd be down for some goat hunting, I'd bet that La Reserve didn't do much to help the sheep either - not to mention the new development being put in on East Pusch Ridge Wilderness Dr (they have the audacity to name it that). IMO, sheep are gone, sheep are not coming back - unless they are the canadensis variety

Its just an idea, I'm sure the sheep would be an issue.. IMO they are gone ... Unless somebody has heard different...

Buffel grass is bad news, Quagga are possibly worse. The $$ they are talking about spending on these invasives is nothing compared to the damage they can do: Buffel grass is going to burn down some houses (those big fancy ones in the foothills!) in Tucson this summer if it gets dry enough. If you burn down 100 McMansions thats a pretty fat tax payer bill, instead of spending 5-10 McMansions in prevention. Oh, and you can kiss the Sonoran desert goodbye - welcome to Africa! Quagga muscles are friends with a little bug called Botulism - how fun! And they have a pesky habit of clogging things up. The good news: One option for getting rid of buffel grass - introduce feral goats into the Catalinas, ha, I can imagine how well that is going to work! Fish like small mouth bass and perch apparently eat quagga muscles after living together for 10 years or so.

My 4 door Tacoma gets 17 in town, 19 on the highway... still not great - maybe they'll come out with a diesel soon... (like in Australia) http://www.toyota.com.au/landcruiser-70-series

This has got everything- http://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/predictive/weather/weather.htm This is fun to look at in the summer when the monsoons roll through http://www.mesawx.com/southwes1.htm

132 and change? That thing's a mule deer, I'm done looking at this thread... Impossible... can't be true... nobody...

I'm still young and crazy, I use light hikers or trail runners for all of my hunting - mostly because I try never to have a pack that is over 30 pounds. That said, I haven't found a light hiker or trail shoe that can stand up to more than 6 months of shed hunting - I've destroyed 4 pairs of Merrell Chameleons, and one pair each of New Balance, Saloman, and Brooks Trail Runners. If you live in the desert get shoes that breath but can turn a cactus spine or grass seed head; if you live somewhere wet get GoreTex or treated leather. Imagine getting on a herd of elk and having them flank you by a few hundred yards, are you going to run in a pair of heavy boots?

I have a solution - we (hunters) all have to become Ninjas! Basically, ninjas are undetectable/unaccountable for any of their actions/murders - since hunting is going to be outlawed, only outlaws will be hunters, and since ninjas are outlaws, we might as well be both! However, we will all have to swear on the Ninja Code of Ethical Hunting. The worst thing that can happen is that hunting is outlawed completely (after years and years of legal battles) on public land. Private reserves will then start popping up everywhere you can possibly raise game - how much more money could you make on a deer herd for desperate blood-thirsty wealthy men than on some scabby cattle in AZ? Imagine what it is like to live in Texas or Mexico - where there is NO PUBLIC LAND, and you will probably get a good picture... My bet is that any struggling Land Owner with some sense will instantly see the $$ associated with illegal public hunting: Welcome to Rancho Costa Plente! If you are going to return the land to a natural state you are going to have to get rid of all those pesky 'introduced rocky mountain elk' in AZ -- without any introduced elk, you are not going to be able to feed those introduced wolves - good luck catching enough white tail, mule deer, and javelina to survive my wolfy friends; oopsy the population densities of those species are not high enough for you to survive? Our bad! What, no dollars to keep artificial water sources full for the introduced elk? How did we pay for those in the first place, I forget? Reality bites, if you put this into a court room, the scientists will win - game management will continue with licensed hunting - the greenies will go back to complaining as they stroll their managed trails in sandals, and the hunters will continue to watch them from their windy perches on the peaks of the wild frontier! Ninja power!

+1

Holy Mass Moley!!!

Along the line of LO tags - I was in 6C last year for archery elk. 6C is probably one of the worst units in the state (and is under applied for by ALL applications). So I put 6C as my 3rd choice and got drawn for it (even though my first 2 choices had a 90% out-of-state draw odds - also crappy units). Anyway, I ran into two guys from Ohio that had bought LO tags AND paid a FEE to hunt 6C. These guys paid 1400.00 a piece for a tag that I paid 600.00 - to hunt the same public land as me! In my mind that LO is making a buck off of the STATE! The days of pitying the poor land owner are OVER! Give him a tag or two for his land if the elk (or antelope) are REALLY eating his crops and hurting his family income (ha! like that happens - there are more cows in 6C than elk). Better yet, hire a ranger to run the elk off his land and keep his cows out of the trout streams. prime example: http://cgi.ebay.com/BULL-ELK-HUNT-NEW-MEXI...0QQcmdZViewItem

My father-in-law is batting around the idea of buying a couple of mules for us to hunt off of. I think it would be great to go on long back country pack trips with a mule string - but there is always the modern version - Quads and UTVs! If you had the choice between going mechanized or riding cavalry style, what would you choose? Thanks for your time!

Thats just an old wives tale... I think that only works on 'mule deer' - not Coue's!

I've been eying one of those buggers for a while. I've used a small pop-trailer on my AZ elk hunt two years ago - it was great - perfect for an Arizona September above 6000ft. The big thing I consider (since I do my away from home hunting only in the early Fall) would be a generator and an Air Conditioner! Can you get one of those things cooled down on those hot September nights down in the desert country?

The Sportsman Channel - it might repeat tonight if you set your DVR for it.

I was watching television just now, a bow hunting show called "Relentless Pursuit", and I saw something really disturbing. The host was hunting Coue's deer from a stand when a nice little buck came in. He shoots it from 70 yards, but he clearly hits the deer high and in the spine. The deer goes down and is thrashing about when he sits up, facing the camera and begins his 'Boy am I excited," speech. The shot ends with him turning back toward the deer (after talking to the camera for over a minute) and possibly making a move to pull another arrow out. As the camera pans away a voice comes on saying to contact Dan Bishop with Cola Blanca outfitters. I don't think the hosts actions are the responsibility of Cola Blanca, but it really ticks me off that this guy didn't bother to make a follow up shot on that deer. In my mind that deer was on the ground thrashing about half paralyzed while he talks about how great it is to hunt. It really pissed me off, and then to hear the name of one of this sites sponsors come up made me sick. Also, immediately before the Coue's hunt, another hunter 'texas heart shot' a buck. Not exactly what I would expect from "the best bow hunting show on television," as Relentless Pursuit claims. Tyson Swetnam

Alright you straight shooting, ethically unchallenged CouesWhitetailer's, here is a test of wills, hurry up and post some answers so I don't feel ashamed putting mine on here! answer as many as you feel comfortable - but remember THIS IS ANONYMOUS - you can put down whatever you feel and than badmouth yourselves to cover your tails!

Here is a guy we saw on our mountain that we climbed up during the 6a muzzleloader season. No trails or roads, this guy went straight up the hill that we took 30 minutes to climb. It was actually kind of humorous. He drove all the way up to the top of the mountain, then got off his quad and climbed one of those Junipers (like the ones you can see), looked around with his binos for 2 minutes, then climbed back on his quad and started back down the hill - after radioing to his buddies that there weren't any elk to be found. We walked right by him, he never knew we were there. I got this video of him as he went puttering back down the mountain. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/i1oXoOPMDCdRWMUOsRoSVg

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=...videoid=8942618 I only share this because I live 300 miles away from this spot - and this was 2 years ago!

eye guards? who needs eye guards with a frame like that??

Okay, here is the possible future time-line: May 2008 - Passage of ESA bill through AZ state legislature June 2008 - Desert Bighorn Sheep declared Endangered in AZ; Managed hunting is still allowed. June 2009 - Construction stopped of all McMansions adjacent to Pusch Ridge Wilderness (PRW), east of State Highway 77, north of Magee Rd; all current McMansions, Resorts, Golf Courses are to be torn to the ground and replaced by natural vegetation. Land owners given fair market value for their residences/properties during first 90 days, those who refuse to sell will have their properties seized as 'eminent domain' June 2010 - 100 Desert Bighorn sheep are reintroduced into the PRW, replacing the extinct native population of bighorns. December 2012 - First managed hunt of mature rams from Pusch Ridge Desert Bighorn herd Cost of property conversion to natural habitat: ~$4,000,000,000.00 (2008 dollars) Cost of moving sheep: 2,000,000.00 Cost of hiring 2 full time rangers, 1 ecologist, 4 seasonal employees: 600,000.00 (annual) So, for the price of only 4.26 billion dollars I will have a 1:500,000 chance of getting drawn to hunt a sheep in my backyard!!! Where do I sign??!!!

Bonito! Gigante!

Imagine living in a hyper flammable African grassland - that is what Southern Arizona is going to look like in a couple hundred years if this stuff is left unchecked - you can already see the impact it has had in Sonora MX. here is a good article published last year: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=17167 "Buffelgrass is like taking a kiddie pool, filling it with gas, and putting it in your front yard," says Kevin Kincaid, a fire inspector for Rural/Metro, a private emergency services provider. "These fires can go from four-foot flames to 30-foot flames in 20 seconds."

Have any hunters ever been killed/kidnapped by drug runners in the past? I'd guess that if not, and one was killed/kidnapped that there SHOULD be a huge outcry from outdoors groups - unfortunately, I believe, that is the only way for the politicos to have their heads turned to this particular issue.

Bird #5 looks like an Inca dove, or at least a juvenile of some dove spp...