knothead

My 05 Ranger 500 has been great and very dependable. Never felt like it was under powered.

I have been on the late hunt 6 or 7 times and about that many times on the early hunt. IMO it is not always the snow the pushes the deer down. 4 years ago I had the hunt and it was brutally cold but only small little snow patches here and there in the shade. There was zero fresh deer sign up top or the mid level. Down low is where the deer were. Every place up high had water but it was frozen solid and we could not break it with big rocks. I have seen this two different times and both times the deer move down low where they can water. Biggest deer I have ever seen has been on the early hunt up high. Down low is much better for glassing but there are hunters on every point. Fun hunts for sure if you like to see lots of animals. It was surprising for me to see so many people who shoot small/young bucks on the both the early and late hunt.

My son was the only one in the family to draw a deer tag this year. He drew a 12a west early rifle hunt. This will be his first time ever up there and his first hunt in 7 years due to HS sports and college.

Most manufacturers seem to be making better cams over the last few years. The ones I had stolen were not all that great but now I mostly have $80 moultrie cameras and I am satisfied. Reliable, long battery life and picture quality is pretty good. I just need to do a better job of finding places with more animals.

azkiller, I'm pretty sure you got the muzzy tag if you had 8 points. 7 points was 100% draw last year and some of the 6 point holders even fell in the 20% pass. Congratulations.

+1 ^^^^. Not worth going to jail for but I sure would post pictures if I had someone on camera do shady stuff. I have had my share stolen and most were taken around water. Once I moved them away from water then I only had them taken during shed hunting season. Now I wait to put them out and just put mine out this past Thursday and pull them before the archery seasons start. I am kinda surprised that we rarely ever see a picture of a camera thief considering all the cameras out there.

As another side note: My wife gets picked all the time to serve on juries. She was selected to be on the jury of that hells angel vs mongol killing in Laughlin a while back. She was unable to serve because her mother was in final stages of cancer. They warned all the potential jurors about the dangers of serving by the way. My wife never reads the news, listens to the news, watches the news and could care less about what is going on in the world around her. She sucks at trivia games and I would hate for Watters from Watters world to ever ask her questions about things ALL Americans should know because it will be real ugly. I think I have been requested for jury duty 3 times over my 54 years of living but they never select me.

Is the East Fork of the black river open? I thought I read some place where they were closing it. Thinking about heading up for a few days.

I hope whoever is on the committee goes into it with an open mind and willing to listen to ALL suggestions. Listen to all options, ask questions, weigh pros vs cons and ignore their own prejudices. Then hopefully, when final decision is made it is made with the best of intentions and what is best for Arizona, Arizona wildlife and our hunting heritage.

I took my class in middle of March and got permit at end of April.

Congratulations on the sale. My neighbor just listed his house for sale and had 3 offers the first day. All offers were over his asking price.

The only thing G&F has to sale that has any value is hunt tags, hunting/fishing licenses and bonus points. All other forms of income must come in the way of licenses, tags, donations or user fees such as habitat stamps or application fees. Would you pay $10 to be entered into a drawing to win 5 or 10 bonus points for 1 species of your choice? How about $10 for a chance to win a lifetime hunting or fishing license? Raffle off 100 five bonus points packs and 100 lifetime licenses. Would not raise all the money needed but it is a start. Bonus points don't cost G&F a penny and they could give give them away like cheap candy. Just thinking out of the box a little. By the way, it would take about $7.10 to raise 2,000,000 if every elk hunt applicant had to pay for a habitat stamp. $11.20 for every deer hunter to raise the same amount. $2,000,000 is the number that has been mentioned that we hunters would need every year to fight off the anti-hunters by educating the public. Good luck to all those that applied for the draw.

Pete has been involved with AZ wildlife and supporting hunting and conservation for longer than many on this board have been alive. It's crazy how some people go after people and their reputations just because they disagree on something. Pete has his beliefs and they might not align with yours but don't besmirch the guy.

I think my irrigation panel just bit the dust and needs to be replaced along with a few valves. Can anyone recommend to good service in North Peoria?

Don't know this guy from Adam but Geeze. We went from getting popcorn to having a guy hamstrung, tried and found guilty all on this one posting. I hate effing gossip. If it's true, then let him have his day in court and let the chips fall where they may. I sure hope none of you get accused of anything because you will be hung out to dry around here. Sometimes it's like a sewing circle around here.

If they are not going to allow them within 1/4 mile of a man made water source the only reasonable suggestion I have heard is banning them around water from middle August (2 days before archery deer season opens) all the way through end of January. Having a camera season similar Montana is a fair compromise in my mind. You can still run cameras 24/7/365 but not around water during this time period. I suggest everyone write the commission and let them know your feelings on the matter. Nothing will get settled here.

Seems like the story of this season is the wind.

I had one. It got so bad I couldn't even sleep peacefully due to all the bad crap going through my head. I finally moved away and I sleep so much better now. Notags was also my neighbor and he knows who I am talking about. By the way, I built a block wall between by old neighbor and I. On his side of the wall, I made sure the block layers did not scrape the mortar off. My side looked great and his side looked like shiite.

Never understood the prognosticators. When it is a dry winter they say the summer fires are likely and extreme. When we have a wet winter and spring they same the same thing. Can we just agree that every year Arizona forests are dry until monsoons arrive and fire is always a threat? We actually had a very unlikely May storm system that brought snow/rain or that tinder fire would be much worse.

Just curious but did dad ever come around or is he doing the same ol' thing. I can tell you from my experience, the older I get the less important the kill is. At this point in my life, I look for experiences rather than kills. Just being out there during the hunt is pretty good stuff to me.

Been away for a while but I wanted to thank everyone for all the comments and information. I am getting a real education. Initially I wanted to keep this a secret from him but the more I learning the more I think he should be involved as it is going to be his gun. Still not 100% sure If I'm going to go the build route but I have some time to learn more. Thanks

I'm coming late to this whole thing and trying to catch up so If I say something that has already been discussed, sorry. I thought Pete's whole argument for auction tags offered by a separate entity was the whole idea so they could support G&F? I have read where people want to raise tag fees or create a habitat stamp. If they do that then G&F collects the money and they, by law, are not allowed to get involved in ballot initiatives or politics. Thus, all we did is give them more money to buy trucks or hire biologist, who many of which are against hunting, to study woolly mammoth grasshoppers. G&F must remain neutral. The money raised needs to be done by a separate group not directly affiliated with G&F. Once they raise the money then they have more flexibility in where the money is spent. At this point I am open minded and willing to listen to any and all groups or people that are willing to come up with a legit plan to fund and pay for the battles that are surely coming. Mostly I hear guys say they are against it but they offer no real solutions and who is going to organize it and manage it. It's easy to say I'm against or for something but who is actually going to put the time and effort into it? So far the only group I hear that is willing to put in all the time and effort is Pete's. Something that also needs to be considered is the more of the these auction/raffle tags available the less monetary value they have. The reason why they sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars is because there is only one auction tag and one raffle tag. If we try to action 20 high quality elk/deer/sheep tags the sales price will certainly be much lower. Basic economics of supply. When supply is kept very low but demand is high the price will be high.

I just bought my 2019 hunt a couple weeks ago.

PM sent

Just curious. I noticed all the pics were from Aug-Sept. Did you consistently have bucks Oct-April? Did they disappear for a while? When? Did you ever get any hunters during the time period it was out?