6AYoteHunter

Have a friend that did research on them. They only eat every 2 weeks. Too low of volume. Owls do an awesome job though according to her they ate 12 mice per night on average. Need to find a way to keep them around more.

The benefit of trail cameras

Yep lots of spikes do get nailed each year. I have seen a spike bull once that was extremely old. Guess if they live long enough they get low T and don't grow much. Wouldn't mine passing a bull that old though lol. Probably would be more helpful if we had more water sources. Seems like we have enough feed. Just lack the water in many areas. Maybe this would be a better opportunity for G&F. Rather than ban cameras. Start a camera tag and registration program. All 3 of my cameras have serial numbers. Assume all do??? Then take 100% of that revenue for water sources. Normally don't like a "new tax" but this would be better for the wildlife long term.

I kill at least 10 a week at my place for the last 4 years. It is a never ending battle. Worse yet they are attracted to the smell of other ones. Get yourself a bunch of HAVAHART® X-SMALL 2-DOOR TRAP and BB gun them. No need for bait in these traps. Just put them along edges where the mice walk. They like tunnels and shiny things. They walk right in. Once there is some blood in one they really go crazy for a particular trap.

I am very surprised you didn't encountered the "water campers" on the strip. We encountered them numerous times. Ask anyone who tries to do wildlife counts. It is difficult with limited funding to properly assess how units are doing. Scientific community uses trail cameras for lots of research. Example is the mtn lion survey program in the Kofa to help with bighorn issues down there. Anyways just in the last 4 years I have been asked by G&F employees in 12A, 23, 9, 6A, 6B and 19A if I had cameras or had spent lots of time glassing. I find it more enjoyable to spend more time in the woods glassing personally. They said they wanted to know if I had an idea of animal counts. They recorded in length details of what I reported. Cameras can have their benefits in these counts. Especially with random species like coatimundi and ringtail cat population growth in 6A over the last 5 years. 2 G&F employees told me that they had no idea that either species existed in unit despite themselves running cameras. I do think less cameras will allow random animals to slip threw the cracks in units with only man made water sources. It is extremely annoying when 5 or 6 guides and 10 other random groups are all targeting one bull or buck. They may need to drop tag numbers due to poachers, cell phones, radios, rangefinders, spotting scopes, binos, scopes, rifles, bows, calls, camo, trucks, trailers, atvs, boots, backpacks, water bottles, etc. So no perfect balance can really be achieved.

I have a few cameras that I use to monitor for people activity on my property. Have used them a few times to look at wildlife in hunting areas since it is cool to get pictures of random critters. I have seen them used for good and bad in the field. The biggest pro imho is it keeps scum from sitting water sources at night. Maybe guys don't recall the days on the strip when people stayed at water sources for days. Then backed off and then they shot the bucks coming in after they were depleted. There will also be a huge increase in spot lightning. It is bad enough already along Allen Springs Road in 19A. That is the view in my front yard and I get called in or return from work late at night. Every night someone is running spotlights anymore. What bothers me most is the commission didn't care to get the public opinion or scientific opinion on this matter. They will continue with the same behavior now on many more issues. For the guys that say oh you should voice your opinion at meetings...what a joke if you actually work for a living. They don't let us know the agenda items a year out. No way will I use all my pto to go to every meeting that the government thinks up. IMHO the current commission makes up its mind before meetings and are using this method to paint a false picture of public opinion.

Have shot coyotes with the 17 gr vmax and 20 gr xtp. Both work. Furthest kill was a headshot at 240 yards with the xtp. Have a 24" barrel though so get a little extra velocity. Not an ideal caliber for coyotes. Think they are great for foxes or longer distance headshots on rabbits.

Saw a 18" diamondback 2 days ago at 4000 ft in central AZ at 10 am. Guy in the other lane got it. Have seen them a few times during late rifle bull hunts in 6A on the black lava rock around 3 in the afternoon.

That's a great mule deer unit. Have seen nice non-typical bucks all over that unit. I cannot recall a single predator hunting trip where I didn't see bucks. Have a friend who's wife got a 4x7 out of that unit. Hiked in about 2 miles. 8 bucks at first light. Her buck was second largest in herd. Quick hunt. He almost got trampled by a 5x5 elk on the packout. Scouting is key. Tons and tons of private land, but that pumps out tons of old bucks like crazy into the public land. Way more big mule deer in that unit vs 23. Just lots of access issues though.

I am very impressed with my GhostBed Luxe. Was having terrible shoulder pain for over a year and thought I had torn my rotator cuff. Got the new bed and within a few weeks shoulder was fine.

12B late has some crazy wide bucks. Will be a great hunt.

Basically if you draw a line from Maxwell park to Stoneman lake. Tried locating at all the spots I find birds along those areas. Normally it's super easy to locate something to chase in the AM. My Dad tried locating all over the south end of unit without any luck. Common for me to find 3 or 4 roost spots in an hour. Tricky part for me is getting them that last 20 yards for a shot or another bird getting in the way. Only heard 2 owls last night. Normally hear tons of them. Opening day I honestly thought it was going to be in the top 3 general seasons (was like how the opener is for youth season on good years). Birds extremely vocal in AM. Had 7 different toms within 100 yards over an hour long setup. Got one to come in close but hen was like right there, so no clear shot. Tried locating where that flock went to roost and surprisingly couldn't. Saw them a few times midday without luck. They never saw me, glassed them up. From Friday AM to this AM was literally like exact opposite hunts. Texted a few buddies and they are saying the same thing. Something strange since Saturday. Hopefully it picks back up soon.

Opening day called in a large group all henned up in 6A. Saturday found some hens being chased by a very thin coyote. Yesterday found a tom. It was having difficulty gobbling which was odd. Sounded sick. Wouldn't come into call. Later found some hens looking for place to lay eggs. Friend sent me a picture of a hen just laying on Fossil Creek road. Took awhile for it to move. Spent 4 hours last night and an hour this AM trying to locate birds. Noticed almost no owls and had zero gobbles. In the last 20 years hunting 6A turkeys never have went more than 30 minutes at night without locating. Something strange is going on. Have noticed way fewer song birds this year also. Heard there was some dead song birds down by Fossil Creek. 2 weeks ago had a fox die at my place and tried to convince game and fish to come test it. Neighbors found a dead one 5 weeks ago. Also finding lots of dead chipmunks and mice. Maybe this is the year of pandemics for a lot of species.

I know COVID samples order via test code ZW282 were discarded when University of Washington could no longer accept samples from other regions. That combined with many patients having symptoms only in upper respiratory never meeting criteria for testing could be 80%. Also the patients who never go in for anything and just tough it out. #'s are way off.

Actually numbers are significantly higher. The question is how much.

Almost any unit has really good pockets of deer. Was running 12 cameras last year. 2 had hundreds of deer pictures per day, others had a couple pictures per week. Some of the desert units (lower than 3000 ft in elevation) produce some epic deer once it starts cooling off. Too hot during early archery and less predators so the age class gets up there. Sometimes the opposite side of those southern rivers are worth looking at.

The elk always talk on the way to their beds that time of year. Timing is perfect for new hunters. Brush is the only negative in 22. Shots off tripods are definitely the way to practice.

Based on the number of out of state plates during archery elk and strip hunts; convinced lots of people lie about residency. AZ plates are actually uncommon in some areas now. Would prefer if all OTC was a draw for non residents regardless.

In 6A a couple weeks ago saw this wolf. Big male hanging out near some cattle near Camp Verde.

Looks like a Lo Drag, great predator hunting pack.

Saw lots of nice mule deer bucks last Oct bear hunting. They have to be hanging out somewhere. Was seeing 6-7 bucks per day, half were mule deer. Just need to focus on spots with good mule deer feed away from major roads.

Tired of Wells Fargo putting a hold on the credit card every time we apply for hunts in AZ this year (even tried calling ahead today), and once with CO . Has happened on my card, my Dad's card, and one of our hunting buddies card. Fraud department just gives you the run around saying it is abnormal buying activity. Today they are like "well you have multiple charges that are all the same". Starting to wonder if we need to used a separate card for each application to avoid this problem. We all have zero balances and sizable limits. All of us do extensive online shopping from a large number retailers without issues. So question is which credit cards is the "best" for applications? (ie who lets the charges actually go through, who lets you check when cards get hit immediately, who has decent rewards, etc)

Just discussed this issue with my cousin who is a branch manager at Chase (he left BofA when the Mcmillian Group was criticized for making firearms) and he suggests a separate card for each transaction to avoid the duplicate charge filters. Other option is prepaid cards. Said this issue is fairly common now. He said Wells Fargo is one of the better companies to deal with. So sticking with them for at least one card.

1st issue was during the elk pronghorn apps this year for AZ. Wells Fargo said they have more fraud monitoring for their credit cards now. Never had a problem with Wells Fargo credit cards before. Been using them to apply in AZ since the 1st online draw was offered, then stopped and then restarted again. So used during every online draw offered.

Not sure why guys were not hearing them during archery. 6B and 6A was ripping well before and throughout the archery hunt.