MT_Sourdough

That stock looks great. I have an XL7 30-06 that I dropped in a boyds. They are great rifles for that price.

Oh' I am just so dang excited to hunt elk with antlers this year. First time since I left Montana several years ago. With my excitement, I was hoping for some rain to continue vegetative growth and therefor antler growth. It seems, to me, this weekend's rain was quite timely to maintain healthy antler production through these dry months. Am I wrong and what are your opinions about the status of antler production at this point?

Word on the street is, the elk calves born this year are gonna score at least 250 by September.

Before I start, I need to qualify what I am going to say, that I have lived in Chino Valley for only 3 years and I am no expert on Antelope horn production. With that said, I see antelope around here on a daily basis and I swear that the goats horns appear much larger, on average, this year than they have in my previous summers here in CV. I took this pick this morning with a point and shoot from my truck, so I appologize for the poor photos and the antelope was not too co-operative either.

Ha. ha, ha... I love it. Here we go. (spit) Dog gone AZG&F!!! Not that they did anything wrong, it's just fun to say. I have a couple cams out locally just to learn more about these critters during the off season.

It looks like we have a good chance of seeing some rain next weekend. Some more rain right now and into the monsoon and we're golden. Most of you all have a lot more experience in Arizona than I do, but everything I am seeing is looking much better than my previous few years in the State.

https://youtu.be/rfAvQp-Uk5I Help me. I self identify as a billionaire, but I am trapped in the body of a poor ol red neck..

I run 3 Stealth cams. All three are NG42 model. They are my best "middle of the road" sensitivity among my cams. My Bushnell Trophy Cams are way more sensitive than my Stealths. Those bushnells will pick up a field mouse at 40 feet in the night. They will also take a pic anytime the wind hits the grass or brush in it's view. I had to switch cameras at two locations because my Bushnell would have a combination of 4500 pics and 2200 films after just a couple of windy days. I had a herd of elk come through and hung out in front of the cam, but I didn't gets pics because batteries were dead. I went through a fresh set of 8 lithium batteries in just two weeks with that Bushnell camera.. I put my Stealth NG42 where that Bushnell was and vice versa. Problem solved. The overly sensitive Bushnell camera is now in a tight ravine away from most of the wind. Number of pics went from thousands down to a more manageable few hundred a week. I wish the Bushnells pic quality at night was as good as my Stealth cams. Where that Bushnell is at now, is getting lots of night time photos and that is good, but I wish the quality was better. My Cuddeback's triggers are not sensitive enough and miss a lot of passer by's. My Cuddebacks are great for over salt licks and picture quality is great. My Moultrie 1100i is horrible at night and is a problem I am still trying to resolve with Moultrie.

It is an effort to, on it's surface, to make it difficult to allow terrorist organizations from being able to distribute technical data via the internet. i,e. bomb making information. It's like. a group of people bomb and kill a bunch of folk and it is discovered that the terrorists learned how to effectively make the bomb from instructions posted on the internet. Other folk respond with, "Why is it legal to teach terrorists how to make a bomb on the internet?" There is some connectivity between bombs and bullets and I suspect in writing the proposed regulation on distribution of technical data over the internet, those authors took a liberal approach that broadened the regulation to include technical data about guns. The whole scheme was revealed and immediately shut down largely on behalf of First Amendment grounds.

Back in Montana, the critters move around quite a lot and are rarely in the same place during the general hunting season as where they were through the summer. That is why I like to pay close attention to the smart pellets when I am out hiking around, I can guesstimate the age of deer and elk pellets so I look for droppings that are from the early winter time. Seeing 6-7 month old pellets in June tells you where you need to be 5 months into the future. I do not know enough about these AZ critters to say that is very beneficial here. I have resorted to trail cams for a big part of my scouting here in AZ, Not at water holes but finding their most commonly used trails in an area and stick a cam on it.

I've glass bed mine, but others claim great results without bedding or any extra inletting.

I think Weston and Str8shot got it right. Walking through canyon country at night is extremely dangerous, Depth perception is about gone in the dark. I carry in water in advance of the hunt. Stash it in some thick bushes or bury it. You do not want to de-hydrate on a solo hunt. Nobody to help you if your hurting. Plus, gathering/filtering water can be time consuming and an unnecessary expenditure of energy when you want to be hunting. I like a base camp and spike out. I will always have some sort of shelter because these central AZ mountains can and will form micro-climates that will not appear on any weather forcast. It's happened to me almost every year I have hunted here in AZ, so I use a tent big enough to ride out a big storm and keep important things like my rifle dry so it isn't a rust bucket by next morning. I don't bring in cooking stuff for spiking out. I am so tired by the time I stumble into camp, all I want is to stuff some food in my face before my eyes go shut. Cooking and cleaning is fun when you are camping. This aint camping. I'll take a whole loaf of bread and turn it all into pb&j sandwiches. I'll compliment the sandwiches with some snacks and lots of Cliff bars. I also carry 5 hour energys to substitute for no coffee in the morning. Tylenol or ibuprofen. My head and eyeballs are aching after humping through the hills all day in the heat.

Couple of corrections for you all. Bruce Jenner may have transitioned to a "?", but s/he is STILL A REPUBLICAN. Just like Hastert. Maybe Hastert will get an award from ESPN too. I mean he was a wrestling coach right? That Married with Children prophecy, now that is funny.

Dont be fooled amigos. This expensive PR campaign is part of a bigger agenda. It's already started and there are plenty of examples lining up. What's happening is the AZG&F is being propped up as an the alternative to the Feds. More specifically Federal land ownership and it's managing agencies, National Forest, BLM and National Parks. Here is a quote I've taken from Outdoor Life and they took from National GOP platform "Republican Party’s platform on public land: “Experience has shown that, in caring for the land and water, private ownership has been our best guarantee of conscientious stewardship, while the worst instances of environmental degradation have occurred under government control. By the same token, the most economically advanced countries – those that respect and protect private property rights – also have the strongest environmental protections, because their economic progress makes possible the conservation of natural resources. In this context, Congress should reconsider whether parts of the federal government’s enormous landholdings and control of water in the West could be better used for ranching, mining, or forestry through private ownership. Timber is a renewable natural resource, which provides jobs to thousands of Americans. All efforts should be made to make federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service available for harvesting. The enduring truth is that people best protect what they own.” As this is happening, http://www.sltrib.com/news/2451901-155/bishop-stewart-launch-action-group-for They are going to give us their best used car salesman pitch about local control and easier access, but they have already stated that is not their ultimate agenda. They want to eliminate Federal Lands (government ownership) so that the lands and resources can go to the "Stake holders". Stake holders would be land developers, mining interests, logging interests. and anybody with enough resources to purchase vast tracks of land. This State removed the democratic (not Democratic) oversight over AZG&F policy a couple of years ago. Prior, AZ legislators had to vote on major changes with AZG&F, but they "streamlined the process". Now, the only democratic oversight is the Governor gives approval to the commission once a year or something like that. So the AZG&F is propped up as a popular alternative to those land agencies with the pitch that will bring the control local. Don't believe it. These people do not believe in public land or "people's game" for that matter. I believe that these usurpers feel that the extreme partisanship in this country will leave an opening to slip this past Sportsman. They will use the idea that AZG&F has such a good reputation that they use it as political capital in a PR campaign. They'll say that they will listen to your concerns, but your vote as a citizen is no longer relevant. When the land is lost, it's gone forever. Makes me feel a little bit like Crazy Horse

The deer drawing hasn't happened yet, so I recommend you buy a general hunting licence. Best to purchase your licence on line because it works better with AZG&F portal for tracking your tag info. The 2015/16 hunt regs will be out any day now. About a week after they release the regs, they will open up the on-line tag application for the states drawing for fall hunts. The AZ drawing is a point system, meaning the more points you have, the better chance you have. You start out with a total of 0 (Zero) points. The Primo hunts have low draw odds. With zero points, your chance of success for drawing one of those tags would be extremely low. There are deer hunts in the Prescott area with good drawing odds. I have zero points this year as well, so I am putting in for some hunts that are easier to draw, but have low hunt success rates. I live in Chino Valley and I am heading out into 17a, 17b and 18b tomorrow. I drew a limited opportunity "any elk" tag for a huge multi unit area above and below Prescott. So I am going to do some scouting, exploring and working trail cams. If you get a deer tag for an area with elk in it, you'll learn a lot about the elk while you scout/hunt for your deer.

Holy Poop!!!!

You can probably do some glassing from one of the bars in Gerome. If you want to drink on the streets, you'll need to pour your hooch into a cup that looks like a soda fountain pop or something. If you decide to drive up the road after you get a good buzz on, make sure you shoot some holes in any signs along the way.

Sounds like a great opportunity to set a booby trap

I have three of the g42ng, not the model your asking about, but my general opinion (for what it's worth) about stealth cameras are easy to use and effective.

Limited opportunity "any elk" with zero points. I already have some bulls picked out. Come on rain!!!

Your numbers on past and current elk population in Yellowstone and the nations numbers of the past are way off. Do more reading and less bitchin.

I think some people look at herd size numbers as if they are exclusive of other interests. If herd size has been reduced, then it wasn't an accident. The managers work with ranchers to come to a number that limits the number of cattle that ranchers range on public lands and limits elk herd size in a mutual compromise. Most ranchers don't feed their cattle much in this state, but that means they share limited food supply with the elk. I've seen AZ cattle get mighty thin through the winter. It's all a balance and most states in the west operate this way.

The elk in this state are being blessed with fresh food. In most states the elk herds are still dealing with snow this time of year (typically) While elk in other states still struggle to survive the winter, they are already fattening back up here. The early spring greening in AZ coincides with the start of new antler production. It's like AZ elk get over a month of extra antler growth. In the mountains of western Montana, where I come from, the slopes do not start to green until sometime in May. The upper reaches don't clear until middle of June. There is not much exceptional that this state does as opposed to others. Caring capacity = a, Agriculture interests = b, herd size = c; a-b=c. It's not the too unusual.

giving the honor to game and fish for having big animals? Hahaha that's the funniest thing I've heard all year. We have big animals because of genetics. AZ G&F do not deserve credit for the size and quality of game in AZ, besides offering water in some areas. That part is correct. Where I disagree is claiming superior genetics. Almost all Rocky Mt elk in this country come from a gene pool in Yellowstone park that, itself, had their population reduced as low as 557 animals before the turn of the century. So almost all the elk in this country, minus the Roosevelts, come from a very small gene pool. The Yellowstone elk were released in this state in the late 20's. Less than 90 years is not a long time to deviate much from original genetic source. The reason why elk get so dang big here is the same reason why there are so many retirees here. Mild winters.

First new headbone of the year. This guy already has more mass than the spindly busted-up head bone it lost two weeks ago. So far so good. By the way, this guy has put on about 50 lbs or so over the last three weeks as well. Lots of food. t