300RUM

The quality and high demand designation is based completely on how many people put in for a hunt. Lots of people put in for the really good hunts so those are the ones designated as Q/HD I would expect the ratio of applications to available tags would be the basis for a High Demand designation. I expect there is a different basis to assign the Quality designation to a given hunt, what are the guidelines used to determine if a hunt is a Quality hunt?

There is a very simple 3 step repair process for the Pro Mark-X trigger 1 Remove Pro Mark-X trigger from rifle 2 Place Pro Mark-x trigger on a solid surface and beat the crap out of it with a large hammer. 3 Install your choice of quality aftermarket trigger into rifle.

When you look at the NM regs. there is a column titled "fee type". S is standard, Q is qualtiy and HD is high demand. You may also see Q/HD combined. It is some indication of what hunts are considered more desirable. An S tag will run you $548 while a Q, HD or Q/HD tag is $773. Maybe a NM resident could give some input on how accurate the Q or HD is for assessing hunt quality. I have done a couple of deer hunts in 23 and only saw a few elk.

It is a reasonably accurate assessment. I used to spend a week in 1 & 27 each year for archery deer & turkey before the Wallow fire. However, please don't drive there with your eyes closed so you can open them when you get there. Be safe and let someone else drive. One thing you are going to need to pay attention to is where the badly burnt areas are. If you have never had to move through a maze of dead trees that have fallen criscrossing each other I can assure you it is tough going. I may still have a copy of a map that indicates how severe different areas were burnt. I will look for it if you are interested in a copy.

Looks like you have to get that shoulder back in shape to go hunting

It is full amount up front. I think it is a great system. No worries about having a credit card screw up during the draw and loosing a tag over it like you can in AZ. You either get a tag or you just gave NMDGF a short term loan that is repaid reasonably quickly.

The SWAT vehicle in the picture belongs to DPS. Whatever the issue was it was big enough to involve state police.

I have come across 1 in the Sierra Anchas, in unit 23, and 1 in 37B, North of the Gila.

I am just impersonating one, in reality I am just a dumb truck driver.

Yes, so could an officer from any county or city in the state. While they may be employed by a county or a city they are certified by the state and their authority to enforce the law is recognized statewide with some exceptions for indian reservations or military bases.

That is why I use to have a waterproof log on mine that tells people it is not abandoned and who it belonged to visible from the outside. I would also point out the locked chain meant I was coming back for it. So a "reasonable person" would know it was not abandoned. Keeping my fourth amendment right in place. I don't have to worry about it now as I can leave my camera out and you will not know it is there unless you have something to pick up radio frequencies. The log clearly indicates returns and an intent to return, however intent to return does not prevent an item from being declared legally abandoned. "The court agreed it was reasonable for an officer to conclude that property left by defendant "out in the open, in a public area" had been abandoned, regardless of whether the defendant subjectively intended to return and retrieve the property later." The chain. Imagine the vehicle scenario again. This time pull the vehicle off the highway and off the shoulder and onto the dirt so there is no safety issue. Lock the vehicle to a tree and leave it. I can't imagine the chain from legally stopping police from having the vehicle towed and impounded. Once they have legally towed and impounded a vehicle they have a right to search it. 'Reasonable person" I do have to concede there is leeway in that one. A judge considering a motion to bar evidence or a grand jury reviewing a case whether to recommend prosecution can review the officers actions with great scrutiny to see if his actions were reasonable. Lots of evidence has been ruled inadmissible over very minor errors. I'm ready to turn this one over to the jury. As I have been acting more like prosecution and you defense the last argument should be yours. It could have been interesting to actually argue this in front of a judge. I expect all we would rate would be Judge Judy.

Regarding above discussion of expectations of 4th amendment protections to game cameras. Keep in mind that G & F field personnel are sworn state law enforcement officers. Patrol personnel for BLM & USFS are federal law enforcement. Abandoned property may be a vehicle, personal property such as a purse or wallet, or a hotel room. By abandoning property, a person gives up his or her rights in the property, leaving law enforcement free to search it without obtaining a warrant. In order to determine if property has been abandon, the Court uses the “reasonable person” and “totality of circumstances” tests. What this means, is that if a reasonable person would conclude, based on the totality of the circumstances, or all of the evidence, that the property had been abandoned, than it is considered to be abandoned and the police may search it without obtaining a warrant. In State v. Stafford, the court agreed it was reasonable for an officer to conclude that property left by defendant "out in the open, in a public area" had been abandoned, regardless of whether the defendant subjectively intended to return and retrieve the property later. When you hang that camera on public land and walk away you surrender any protection under the 4th amendment.

AZGFD does not get funding from state taxes. They get it from the sale of licences and tags along with some money from the lottery. I have to remind myself of that every time the price of a tag increases. I agree that over regulation is a big problem. Consider the lack of regulation. In the late 1800's you would have been hard pressed to find a bison left to hunt due a lack of regulation. How do we achieve a happy medium between the two? The MVUM does annoy me. A perfectly good road is there. We will use it ourselves, but don't you use it or we will fine you.

440 being close or far can be a matter of perspective. If I am looking through the scope on my rifle to make a shot it is not that far. If I am stalking forward for an archery shot and run out of cover at 440 it can feel like the distance to the moon.

Abandonment Leave your vehicle on the side of the highway for a week and come back for it. It will be gone, towed as an abandoned vehicle. Leave it in the impound lot long enough and the towing company will have filed for abandoned title and now own the vehicle. The fact that you do not feel you abandoned it does not mean it has not been legally abandoned. Illegal Search Leaving the camera in the woods is kind of like leaving your backpack in the airport and going home. It is not on your property, in your vehicle, or other personal space, it is not on your person or in your possession. It has been left unattended in a public area and is likely subject to search without a warrant. Trash I ran into a bird watcher on my last elk hunt at a tank. At least 8 cameras, 2 pop up blinds and a tree stand were there. He asked me what was up with all the trash. In the setting of an undeveloped, natural, unoccupied habitat any item left behind by recent human activity could be considered trash. With a quick change of policy, not law, any given land management agency could choose to not allow cameras. They would then have the right to remove any they located as trash. You think that won't happen? While I am not a huge fan of cameras I do own a few and use them occasionally. When I place one on public land I do so knowing it has about the same legal rights as a squatter. If you are aware of an actual federal law that clearly specifies your rights to place a surveillance camera on public lands and prohibits it's removal or search of it's contents please post it. Thief? No, I don't remove other peoples cameras but I can understand that you may have come to that conclusion based on how I worded my previous post

I'm not looking for any cameras. I am simply pointing out that when you place a camera on public property there is no way it is protected by the 4th amendment.

You have no right under the 4th amendment to place your possessions on public property, abandon them there, and expect that government agent, or anyone else, not remove them. No warrant is required, no search is being conducted and nothing is being seized. Legally, all that is happening is that litter is being removed from public property.

Senior? At 48 I don't think I am there quite yet. My weight hasn't changed in 20 years. The problem is that it has redistributed itself. I have gone form a 34" waist to a 38" waist and weigh the same. I blew up an ankle pretty bad 6 years ago on a hunt. I'm lucky not to have had parts removed, the joint fused and a shoe with an extra 3 inch thick sole. I have taken to packing my lunch for work. Meat, cheese, yogurt, nuts, healthy granola bars and water. At home much less beer and no junk food. Most of what I drink is either water or tea. Making your own tea offers a variety of interesting flavors without calories.

As info. Smokeless powder is regulated as a flammable solid by DOT until the weight of the shipment hits 100 pounds. After that DOT regulations require it be shipped as an explosive. Now it becomes much harder to find a carrier who will transport it. If you are looking to get the most out of your shipping and HAZ MAT fee dollar you will probably achieve it by buying close to 100 pounds of powder without going over.

Always nice to see a lady out bagging some game.

Julieta, a Venezuelan immigrant, is one of the best neighbors I could ever hope for. This thanksgiving her family invited my wife and I along with my parents for dinner. A few other of their friends were also invited. Julieta’s parents had come to visit and her husband’s mother had come from the east coast as well. Julieta was the only fluently bi-lingual person present. Her parents do not speak English very well. After the table had been cleared I found myself there alone with Elsie, Julieta’s mother. Even though it may be difficult she is always willing to try and converse. Now, I don’t even speak Spanglesh, English with a little Spanish seasoning is as good as I get. We talked about her visiting her other children, before she arrived here, in a broken mix of English, Spanish and gestures. Elsie knows I am a hunter and began asking me about hunting. One question was “are you afraid ………….oso?” I replied “not afraid of donkey”. Elsie busted up laughing, she clearly understood donkey and I had apparently totally blown oso. She figured out the word she wanted in English and tried to spell it verbaly. “B E E R” is what I heard. Now I was puzzled “cerveza”? Yes, it has kicked my butt a few times but I’m not scared of it. Elsie was laughing even harder. Next, she spelled out the word on the table with her finger B E A R. I looked at her and, while rubbing my stomach, said “delicious”. Her eyes got big and she made the motion of shooting a rifle, “eat bear”? I shook my head no and replied “arquero”. She switched to the motion of an archer and I nodded and said “yes”. Elsie then excitedly asked a question that we were not able to work out. All I could tell is it was something about the oso. That would be bear, not donkey. We had to call Julieta to interpret. “She is asking if you still have it, she wants to see your bear skin”. We went next door. There I stood in my living room with a woman older my mother, from a foreign country, and who I had difficulty communicating with. She wanted me to share my success as a hunter with her. It was a pretty cool moment.

The 7.62 x 39 suffers for 2 reasons. The majority of the ammunition produced is intended to be inexpensive, not accurate. The majority of guns chambered for it were never intended to be highly accurate. Take a look at its offspring. The .220 Russian has a respectable reputation. The .22 PPC & 6mm PPC have won plenty of matches. The 6.5 Grendel is performing well in AR rifles. With a decent quality gun and handloading it can produce impressive results. I had a friend who shot the round in a Contender. NOTE if handloading for the 7.62 x 39 the standard bullet diameter is 0.311 not 0.308 like 7.62 NATO.

Interesting combination of old school and high tech. looks like a fun pair of toys.

Your comment about moving from the desert to the humidity reminds me of a range officer at the RSSC range in Mesa AZ. He moved from Louisiana to Mesa. His opinion is that he moved from a dishwasher to an oven.

At one time I made the same decision in compact form, .260 AI or 7mm-08 AI. In the end I went with the 7mm because I was building a rifle for deer to elk and felt the 7 had the advantage here with the ability to use heavier bullets. I also felt that the 7mm would not be likely to loose as much performance as the .260 in the short 20" barrel I intended to use.