bullwidgeon

I am far from a lawyer but a few important questions come to mind. First is the wildlife in our state the responsibility of the Federal Government or the State? Seems like everytime a coyote drags off a house cat in Marana the AZGFD gets sued and not the USFWS. Look at the recent Sabino Canyon lion debocle, I saw no mention of the USFWS at all!!! Using this logic I would say the wildlife and it's management fall upon the state. Second is there any federal right to hunt? Last I checked no, no constitutional amendment or anything of that sort, if there was we could all tell the Anti's to go piss up a rope and would have nothing to worry about ever. So if the State is charged with responsibility to manage wildlife in the state they should be able to do as they see fit. Discrimination should have nothing to do with it. Seems to me like Game and Fish, as the agency in charge of managing the state wildlife could tell the Feds to piss up a rope beacause it is not a right for anyone to come and hunt here, much less out of state outfitters. This interstate commerce crap in the lawsuit doesn't have a leg to stand on in most sane peoples minds, they are arguing that the hides and antlers of these elk and carp being sold after the kill is what makes them money. The d@mned outfitters never even own the cape or horns, the clients do, and I would like to see how many USO clients have sold horns or hide in the past for profit. I am sure 99% of their trophies are gathering dust in their offices, homes or garages. Anyways, there is no federal right to hunt here or anywhere else, there is no Federal agency in charge of OUR wildlife and I bet the Game and Fish by telling this 9th circus judge to basically piss up a rope would get a hearing in front of a very conservative supreme court who for the most part support States rights to govern. It would be nice to see this happen, but I doubt it ever will, as like Lark I am not sure the Commision would ever stand up to the Feds even though they have a legal right to and the past indicates the Feds have had absolutley nothing to do with Wildlife Management around here. heck, who knows, in all reality G&F might not give a damned who the tags go to so long as they get their paychecks every Friday. I know alot of State workers who fall into that category, I just always assumed the G&F was better than that. I do wish I had payed more attention to those Criminal Justice and Civil Studies classes I took back in college now, but it seems like their was alot of good looking gals who were Ali McBeal wannabes at the time in those classes, generally that will ruin my attention span. . I am done filibustering now, I am off to seek answers to my initial questions. It has be on the internet somewhere and I got a very boring 12 hour night shift with me shackled to a computer all night to get through. Bret M.

I don't know exactly whats going to happen but I will make a pretty solid prediction that come November, Lark will be in the Greenlee county jailhouse in Morenci on destruction of property, assault, battery and maybe even some worse charges because he ran into one of Taulmans camps. I will start up a bail collection fund at that point Free RLH!!! Bret M.

I see that he proudly lists Realtree, Swarovski, Primos, Knight Rifles, Crooked Horn packs, Polaris ATV's and Barnes Bullets as sponsors in his brochure. Personally, it makes me sick that I own a pair of Swaro's and all future purchases of optics will be Zeiss or Leica or something other than Swaro's. The same goes for all these other products, there are alternatives to all of them that offer equal if not better products for the money. I think each of these company's should know how Arizonan outdoorsmen and women feel about their support of this joker. Bret Mattausch

Sorry Ernesto, I guess that post was not too clear, I put in for a late whitetail unit in Southern AZ for coues this year and that is where I am told these big coues sheds I have seen are from, not 37A. I look for muley sheds in 37A every year quite a bit and even tried to kill that big buck 2 years ago with no success. Killing a desert muley in the flats where I can't glass was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Hope that clears it up a little and good luck to everyone in the draws... Bret M

I jumped 2 carp bucks yesterday in 37A and one was giant already. I have his sheds from 2 and 3 years ago. 2 Years ago he was 180 with a 26 inch spread credit and 3years ago he was a 150 type deer. He is alot bigger now, his back tines yesterday looked like giant clubs so he may have gone NT this year. He is already pushing 30+ inches. I hiked 5 or so miles looking for his last years and this years horns yesterday and only got a nasty old 14 and 1\8th inch hog skull to show for my effort. I am going to try to get my buddy to bring his mules in over the next week or two so we can cover a ton of ground and get the last 2 years of sheds off of him...Should be a killer year for horn growth. I have seen several sheds this summer off of coues deer that would have been 120 plus last year, they should be absolute gorillas this year, I just have not been lucky enough to find any myself. The biggest coues horn I have found this year is from about a 70 inch deer. All the big coues sheds I have seen this summer are from the same unit, I am glad I put in for there first choice.. Bret M.

Deer 33 late then 27/28 late. Rifle bull elk in unit 1, rifle antelope in the 2 a/c units and sheep in the Eagletails. All hunts with very low odds of drawing and I probably won't draw anything and just point gather. Oh well that way I will get to spend alot of time bear hunting. Bret M.

That thing is a TOAD! I didn't know they got that big in the Verde! I love to fish in the summer, my biggest is a 36 pounder out of the Salt, I am pretty sure that one could eat my 36 pounder whole !!!! Too bad you didn't go with them.. Bret M.

I have been through a bunch of handguns and like the esteemed gentlemen from above suggest, a .357 in a wheelgun frame is pretty hard to beat unless you are a cop or are going to war or something. The .38 special loads are almost a pleasure to shoot and I am almost 100% confident that a person can not break a single action revolver unless a tragic accident occurs or they are blatantly trying to break it. I have had a Ruger Blackhawk for years that has spent all of its time bouncing around under the seat in my truck (in a holster of course) or been crammed in my backpack being hauled up and down the countryside around here and it has even been submerged a few times on fishing/duckhunting trips on the Gila and Salt and it still shoots like the day I bought it. I really don't see how you can go wrong with one. Anyways, good luck with whatever you decide... Seacrest Out Bret M.

There are lots of deer in the Happy Valley and Italian Trap areas. Really any place with a road is going to have lots of hunters on the weekends especially in a unit where they give out 700 tags and hold carp hunts simultaneously. Generally a 1 hour hike into any one of the giant wilderness areas or roadless areas and you will stop running into 95% of people. After that the people you do see will more than likely be lost hippies or mountain bikers or rock climbers or the Pima County hikers club. There are a few crappy looking spots in that unit that hold good numbers of deer that people drive right by and hike right by and as a result they see very little hunting pressure. Good luck... Bret M.

They are very adapatable with people, dogs, neighborhoods and the like. I used to see them cruising around Saddlebrooke all the time eating all the old geezers flowers and hanging out on the golf courses. I know there are quite a few deer in unit 33 that seldom get more than 400 yards from the nearest houses. Bret M.

The way I look at is that Dan's deer is 184 and something gross. I am not sure what this thing grosses, but I can and do buy the idea that another 10-15 inches is possible for a coues to grow. I heard that Kenny Ball's buck from a few years back was only 3 or 4 years old when killed and grossed 150 something. Can you imagine what 4 more years and a few decent years of rain would have done to that thing ? This one looks "couesish" to me but I am far from an expert, I do like how it looks compared to the carp from NM though. The proof will be when they figure the DNA testing thing out, I just hope they kick that NM carp out . Josh, do you ever go to Bylas to buy horns? I have seen a few nice heads that came from the indians there, seems to be a NT gene or two floating around in that country. Bret M.

Check out the mass on this one. Very nice deer!!! The price seems a little steep though! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...ssPageName=WDVW Bret M.

I find most of the sheds in bedding areas. I would say about 70% of the sheds I have ever found were up under mesquite, oak or juniper trees in thickets where a deer dropped them while bedded. The others I have found were just laying out in the open like they fell off while a deer was eating or traveling. Saddles are a good place to look especially if they see heavy deer traffic, but I prefer to wander around in the thickets, it seems I find more in there. Bret M.

I finally found some brown ones a few days ago. 2 afternoons, 10 miles, lots of elevation change, almost eaten by a gila monster and sore legs for 4 brown extremely midget like antlers and one old chewed up chalky one I walked past last year and the year before and never managed to find. Who could ask for anything better ? Bret M.

Nope, Never did find the match to the three pointer. If his other side matched he might be a 60 incher. The picture is deceiving. We did find all three of those smaller sheds right on the bank of that dirt tank. It was wierd almost like someone put them there, but no one had been there in quite a while. Last year I made the same hike with my uncle and dad and we found more than 10 sheds.... I might have to go back in a week or two and hit some spots I didn't to see if I can find any more or matches to the ones that are there. Bret M.

I have seen coues deer in unit 1. I used to think that was pretty weird, they associate heavily with the creek bottom habitats around Greer alot. I wouldn't be suprised if they were also in a bunch of other places like that in similiar habitat. Bret M.

Last year my dad killed a deer in 33 that was in the flats. Nowhere near anything resembling an oak tree, or rugged mountain, just prickly pears and cholla with a little bit of catclaw and small finger ridges scattered around. We hunted that place for 5 or 6 days and saw 20-30 deer a day all whitetails and only like 4-5 mulies total. Some of the biggest coues deer I have ever seen in the 36 units were in the flats as well. Bret M.

Yeah I have spotlighted for bulls when scouting. My family has been fortunate enough to pull elk tags in the White Mountains a few times over the last 5 or 6 years (I gotta big family). We never have bows or guns with us and find that it disturbs elk very little. Sometimes it seems the only rut activity is during the night on good moons and spotlighting can reveal some monster bulls that we would have no idea that lived in that country other then from spotlighting and sheds. Generally we do it before season and usually the elk tend to rut in the same cienagas even after being spotlighted one night. I am not sure that it has ever done us any good as most of the good bulls you see at night are long gone by daylight buried and bedded in the thick stuff, but it is nice to see what is out there. Bret M.

If it doesnt kick like a mule and is not as loud as a Banshee then it is not a bonfide coues gun. Just ask the experts . All kidding aside, anything will work, alot of deer bigger than I will ever kill have been killed with rockchucking Winchester Model 94's in 30-30 caliber. Dam*ed near anything is a step up (balistically) from that . Bret M.

I hunted it last year with 2 buddies. We all spent alot of time scouting and saw some nice bucks, found some really good sheds and killed a decent one between the three of us. I missed a really good buck and so did the other guy who didn't tag out. From what I can tell the coues are scattered in pockets in the unit and seem to prefer steep slopes with heavy junipers. We never saw any in the pine trees and we looked. It is big country and you can literally spend 2 or 3 days glassing before you find a good deer pocket, once you do, hunt it hard because more than likely there is a good buck around, especially if you aren't seeing anyone else hunting it hard. We noticed alot of road hunters and people working the flats, I am pretty sure they were after muleys for the most part. The muleys seem to be in good shape over there and we saw several smaller bucks and large bands of does almost everywhere. Good luck Bret M.

Are you talking about just north of the highway right across the line from Eagarville? If so, then there are a ton of guides who operate out of the Round Valley. We have had pretty good luck on decent sized elk and OK sized carps out of that country. Bret M.

Well lets see, They allow you to enter bears that come in and stick their heads inside 55 gallon drums to gather up chocolate, molasses and donuts from back East and Canada(curiously, I have never seen a bear with his head in a drum gathering up donuts in Arizona yet). They also allow big Eastern whitetails that were shot over corn feeders from Tejas and other states in the book, so I am going to guess they allow "salt baiting", and if they don't, but they do observe the top two rules then they should be kicked square in the nuts . Bret M.

3 miles from the truck eh? Well if it is that far, then they both get to walk and then I look around and wonder how I got that far from the truck, just exactly which way it is and if I can make it back before dark. Bret M.

The worm turned and the hogs came out and about for the end of HAM season. There were still some deer around and this little guy busted me watching him feed first thing in the morning. He busted me as a I dug the camera out of my pack. I was glad he hung around for a picture or two. Later on my grandfather glassed up a big herd of pigs and we snuck right in on them. He got this one and scared the crud out of the others and I got none. Oh well, packing out one hog was enough for me this year . Yesterday I helped my buddy's girlfriend get her first hog on the rifle hunt. It is nice to see someone suceed in "big" game hunting on their first try. She was a trooper, we had to chase the hogs up over a mountain and through some shoots before she got the job done. I am sure glad with cliffs like where this one finally expired I was along as designated Hog glasser and Photographer. I enjoyed watching my buddy be the deisignated hog Gutter and Packer and yes the truck was parked way out there in those mesquite flats in the backround. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did this hog season. Bret M.

Anyone going to the Sheep Society banquet on 03/06/04? I know alot of Arizona hunters end up going and it is pretty neat. They give away alot of different guns, optics, hunting gear and even a few sheep hunts using raffles. They also have auctions, both silent and live for hunts/special tags for muleys, antelopes, ducks/geese, caribous, and almost everything else as well as other other contests like blitz raffles and balloon contests. Last year I ended up running the money machine booth, I am sure I will be working at that one or another booth this year. Now, if I can just figure out how I can get the job of running the bar for the night instead , and ditch the money machine operation!!! Bret M.