arizonian

Don't have a decent pic, but in the middle of summer in the middle of the morning 25-06 and I saw a bear cross a creek in the lower desert by the Santa Ritas. Couldn't really tell how big he/she was. I can tell you it was hot that day.

All I've ever found in the way of rock is leverite... As in leave'er right there, ain't worth messin' with...

1) Hello. My name is Francis and I would hunt for a living if I could make it pay. 2) Hello. My name is Francis and I sell internet guide tips for a living. 3) Hello. My name is Francis and I pilot commercial aircraft when I am not out scouting for the next set of bones. 4) Hello. My name is Francis and I am a flooring contractor when I am not hunting. 5) Hello. My name is Francis. DILLIGAF. Will the real Francis please stand up? Sorry, Francis. Your name just has that ring to it.

Close, but not quite. Human error, starting at the top, yes. I have to add this... It's been reported that 100,000 ships traverse the Straits of Malacca every year, carrying 25% of the worlds cargo. 100,000 ships / (24 hrs x 365 days/year) = 11.4 ships/hour passing a given point. If the average speed is 18 knots (20.7 mph, 36,423 yds/hr), there should be enough room for 18.21 ships/hour at 2000 yds separation between ships. Since the traffic is both directions, and the Strait at it's narrowest point is 1.5 nautical miles wide (3,040 yds), there could be a separation of 6400 yds along the direction travelled and still enough room port/port for the ship going the opposite direction. More than enough room if the crew was well trained. Bill

Not a sailor but,... Heads will roll. The captain of the USS Fitzgerald has had his butt handed back to him, along with a few others. We can thank NoBamma for gutting the Navy and making it a PC place to work rather than earning your position by showing you have what it takes, and if you don't have what it takes, you don't get promoted. That said, the problem is systemic. The older hands have retired, and nobody is training the new hands. The older hands retired because of politics within the navy, and decided to get out while they were still alive. The USS McCain is an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, but it handles almost like a corvette (the type of ship, not car). There is no excuse for this to happen. From another forum, this is what is said about the new Navy, ................................................................................................. In the Navy I served in, you had to matriculate to command. A very demanding qualification process. Demonstrate control and ability, spend many hours under instruction, with supervision, literally thousands of hours on lesser watch stations, without a screw up, just to be allowed to screen for a command billet. You really didn't know your job until you had taught a subordinate to do it well. People who qualified for a command were well versed in life at sea, knew how to train others in this chosen profession. knew well the job, demands and responsibilities placed on every man under their command. Then came the "new Navy". We don't have enough smart sailors, "let's lower the requirements, so we can get more sailors qualified" became the order of the day. By the time this logic was firmly entrenched, I was pretty senior and being chastised for being "demanding" and known as a "career blocker" (if you can't do the job, you can't have it) Fast forward 25 years and you have the equivalent of handing whisky and car keys to teen agers. Today's Captains are not capable of leaving a berth, making a 3500 mile journey, finding a specific port and safely docking the ship. They routinely injure and kill sailors, under their command, for lack of knowledge and training. They seem to have lots of excuses, but very little skill. Because they never learned ship handling skills, they run into other ships, run aground, sail blindly into heavy weather better avoided, and qualify subordinate officers and enlisted's without the training or experience required to do the job at hand, safely. Our elected leader (O'Bummer) dumbed down / gutted the senior officer corps, destroyed the department of the Navy and placed our children in harms way, for no good reason. There is now no one to train the young sailors. Even the CPO community is now bereft of training and experience. (I remember when Chief's ran the Navy and officers signed off on the job) My most difficult job was to build useful officers from Ensigns. I'm sorry I got off on such a rant, but it does help explain why our ships persist in running into ships that they should be 2000 yards from. Merchantmen are known to be running on autopilot, in the dark, with no lookouts posted or proper lights displayed. A competent Officer of the deck knows to keep well clear of radar contacts and wake the Captain if a contact is acting erratically. I'm told, by young sailors, that many Captains no longer write standing night orders. They get the blissful sleep of the ignorant. I sure do wish they would quit pissing away my tax money. ........................................................................................ Bill

Sorry to hear about your situation. Prayers sent. Sorry, I don't know of any lawyers that fit what you are looking for. Best of luck to you and yours.

Catclaw? What's that? We don't need no stinkin' catclaw.

You go, girl. Keep after it until you master it. Xena has to fix her snowmobile by herself. It's what her Dad taught her. http://www.history.com/shows/ice-road-truckers/videos/xena-and-her-skidoo Bill Merry Christmas!

For My Friend, Leroy, on the right. To every season There is a time, and a Time for every season under the heavens A time to give birth And a time to die A time to plant And a time to uproot that which is planted We gather here today, a place you know and love so well, to spread your ashes to the wind, so that God may carry you to the four Corners of the globe. We trust in God that you are at peace For there is no one else to turn to. We trust in God that spreading your ashes will bring us peace, For there is no one else to turn to. Rest In Peace, Leroy, Rest In Peace. Redington is your home now. Bill

Congrats, Charlie. Well Done! Bill

Great write up. Thanks for sharing your story. Congrats to you and your family on the harvest. Bill On edit, love all the pics. It took me a minute, but I found the buck in the glass.

Some days I wake up grumpy... Other days I let her sleep... This is a small story about my wife's hunt. No names are given or implied (including Grumpy). Chronology is purely WAG. Woke up on Thursday morning (10/23) to set up camp and hunt in Unit 34B. After spending the week getting ready, we were rarin' to go. Not much of a story, there were people already scouting the area we hunt. Found our camp site and set up. Next morning as we were getting ready to leave camp, a ute went up the road past our camp. Went to Plan B: Hunt the opposite direction. Found more people in that direction, but the die was cast. Glassed Friday morning, nothing. Friday afternoon, nothing. Saturday morning, ...yada, yada yada. One thing for sure, the grass was high and thick. Great cover for any animal that likes to sleep during the daylight hours. I did glass a doe and never saw more than the top of her back and her head and neck. We met a real cool guy from Benson on Tuesday afternoon on a road we were starting to go down. He had broken camp that morning and I thought he was gone, but he came back alone. My wife says we should exchange phone numbers in case either one of us got into trouble. He and his party had already had two rattlesnake encounters. Heard shots about 5:30'ish, glassed over, and couldn't see anything. Got a call about 6'ish, the guy says he made a 400 yd shot and thought he had a hit, but it was getting too dark and he would be back in the morning with his compadres to look for blood. Wednesday morning, we set up on a knoll overlooking a windmill. I could glass him and his two buddies up on the big hill, 800~1000 yds. About 8:15, it sounded like WWII, seven shots real quick, and the guy and friends dropped off the hill and out of sight. At 8:45, heard another two shots from the same direction. Got a call from him about 10:00, he and his two buddies were on a ridgeline one ravine over that was running parallel to our little hill and was looking for directions as to the best way to get to the road we were on. I hiked across the ravine to help him and his friends carry over a nice 3X3 and offered to drive him over to his ute. Guy says after hitting it he chased that buck down into the bottoms and across a couple of ravines One of his buddies was closer and in position and it took the two extra shots to put the deer down for good. His buddy put his tag on it. They were done for the day, we can have the hill to ourselves if we want. We (I) had decided to change positions and glass the north face of the big hill. Zip, zilch, nada. After sitting in the sun from 1:00 to 2:30, wifey said she had had enough sun. Good call on her part. We backtracked and went to an eastern ridge and sat behind a big mesquite that we could look through and glassed the east facing bowls and hillside of the big hill. As soon as the sun went behind the ridgeline, we moved forward and sat directly under the mesquite and glassed hard. Twenty minutes later a 3X3, a 2X2 and a spike came off the top feeding towards us. Ranged them at 295 yds. Wifey could see the one in the middle best and took a shot. I have never seen this before, but that 2X2 buck fell over, rolled and slid, rolled and slid, rolled and slid about 35 yds downslope. Wifey grabbed her pack and started up the hill. Guess who forgot the rifle? Turns out the 2X2 was really a 3X2. The third point on the left was pretty small and didn’t stand out much. There was plenty of daylight still left, but by the time I went back to retrieve the rifle and made it up the hill, we could see we weren’t field dressing on the side of that mountain. Grabbed an antler and started down. Didn’t take much effort, just kinda steered the deer. Got to the flatter part of the ridge and gave the guy a courtesy call to tell him wifey had killed a nice buck. Guy replies back that he and one friend came back and are one mile west of us and if we need help, they’ll come over and lend a hand. That was two bucks in one day!! Broke the blade of my Uncle Henry breaking the pelvic bone. dang! Finished the field dressing with my backup knife. Three of us carried the buck off the mountain and to the vehicles, wifey carried the rifle. After breaking camp and heading out the next morning, we glassed the hills looking for our new found friends. Saw where the ute was parked, but we couldn’t find them. Got a call from the guy Thursday night. They were in position to glass before sunup that morning. Didn’t see anything on the hill, but about 9 they spotted a nice 3X3 across the basin some 700-800 yds away. They watched it go into a mesquite thicket and not come out. The guy halved the distance and sat under a mesquite for six hours. About 4’ish, he spotted movement in the mesquite and got ready. When the buck stepped out and turned broadside, he shot it through the heart. He ranged it at 350 yds. Good times were had by all. I learned this a few years ago and thought I’d pass it on to you. A week camping and hunting with your buddies makes you appreciate camping and hunting with your wife. A week camping and hunting with your wife makes you appreciate camping and hunting with your buddies. Bill

Thanks. The wife is very proud of the buck. Picked it up at a resale shop, did not know anything about the clothing line. I guess some rapper made his mark in the clothing industry... Do I have to throw it away now?

Congrats, TJ. Your pa knows how to scout and find the honeyholes. Now, if your pa could get one for himself... and leave your beer at home.

Got this in an email today... I found this this morning: Ted Nugent, rock star and avid bow hunter from Michigan, was being interviewed by a French journalist, an animal rights activist. The discussion came around to deer hunting. The journalist asked, 'What do you think is the last thought in the head of a deer before you shoot him? Is it, 'Are you my friend?' or isit 'Are you the one who killed my brother?' Nugent replied, 'Deer aren't capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, what am I going to eat next, who am I going to screw next, and can I run fast enough to get away. They are very much like the French.' The interview ended. Bill

Good luck! While you're lookin' for ruffcountry's knife, keep an eye out for my CRK! It's sittin' on a hill in 36A, west of the McGee Ranch. Bill in sunny Tucson

"Rosemont is one of my favorite places to hunt, trail ride with my wife and quad with the kids...." Let's see, quads are made of metal... Metal doesn't grow on trees... Where does metal come from?... !!It must be mined!! Bill in sunny Tucson

Special thanks goes to Tristan McGee. A new found freind and the son of an old aquaintance, Tristan opened his heart to a couple of old codgers. Tristan should have been in one of these pics, but his wife called and he bowed out before the camera came out. Shot right after noon on Friday morning, the hike to the rim with just the rifle took 45 minutes. We came back from the bottom of the canyon and cut him loose from the tree where he was field dressed. I'm the guy on the left. Leroy, on the right, shot and missed from 350 yds around 10:00, then gave me the opportunity (and his rifle) when Tristan spotted just the horns of this Coues moving in the grass. About the curse: After following in my father's footsteps (God rest his soul) for more years than I care to count, I finally connected. I wish Dad would have lived long enough to see this. Bill

Good Job, Terry. That's a great buck. Bill

The best remedy for dental pain is aspirin. A quarter of a tablet twice a day against the tooth that hurts will deaden the pain. It kept me going for a full week before I had a chance to get in and get it fixed. Bill in sunny Tucson

Terry, you on line? Bill

I drew the early Nov leftover tag for 36A... Tried to get Grumpy interested, but no luck... I'll camp out and avoid the drive... There'll be four of us in camp, including the youngster (14)... Haven't decided whether to hunt the Black Hills or the Sierritas... Scouting every weekend and have only seen a couple of spikes and a fork... Most mornings I sneeze like crazy. Must be something in the air that close to the mines... or not... 25-06, how's your scouting going? Bill

Some days I wake up grumpy... Other days I let her sleep... Today I woke up Grumpy so we could scout Reddington. Got a late start, didn't leave the house till 7:00, and knew it was going to rain. No matter, the buggy don't care about the weather, we had raingear in the pack, a bit of food and drink, and the whole day ahead of us. An open buggy is not ideal for wet weather, but it's all I have. We got our share of rain today. It came and went, and then came back. Only once did it really pour, but that was over in five minutes. Ponchos kept us and the seats almost dry. For lack of a better term, the honeybowl was dry. Didn't see a darned thing until about 2:00. We had stopped at a corral and were poking around a bit and I saw legs through the log fence. Because of the construction of the corral, there was no way to get a look at what those legs belonged to. We looked over the fence once we got to it, but the critter was long gone, down into the bottom never to be heard from again. Or so I thought. On our way out, I had to take one last look at the honey bowl. I found a deer that was just starting to bed down. It was under a juniper tree about five hundred yards away. I don't know if it was a doe or buck because the head was turned away until it finally settled in, and then it was too deep under the tree. As overcast as today was, there wasn't any excess light to reflect off any horns, but my mind keeps telling me there were horns on that thing. Something was between the ears, so it might have been a spike. Now comes the question: When do Coues whitetail shed their antlers? I know the antlers are fully developed before the Oct hunt and the rut is in Dec/Jan. When are they in velvet? Bill

Thanks for the info. I'll be keeping my eyes open for sheds. Terry, If work slows just a little, I'm thinking Saturday again. Bill

I heard the report on NPR and was wondering if they had an eyewitness available or not. The school in the report is Steele Elementary, I think it's on the corner of Sarnoff and Kenyon, near Pantano and 22nd. Bill