MattMan

Sounds like you don't handload, so pick a 170 grain load that shoots well in your gun. Shoot 'em in the boiler room and they'll die. Shoot 'em somewhere else and they're gonna run. If I were going old school, I'd load my own with a Lee Loader after slugging my barrel to find the proper bullet diameter and use a 173 grain cast flat nose from Bear Tooth.

That's one way of doing it, and a good video for someone who's never taken one apart. I've never started the skin cut at the head, and may try it in the future. I've never done the inside out thing on fronts. I saw no mention of contact contamination in his video. Nor did I ever see him change gloves or mention it after touching hair or glands and then touching meat. If'n I was hunting a state that required a pair of nuts to be attached, I'd take a sandwich bag and rubber band to keep the hair and those jewels off the meat in the game bag. If a cape isn't headed out of the field, no need to skin it on the ground. Gutless then skin hanging legs. Also looked like a fair amount of prime taco/machaca meat left on the neck bone toward the head when he was done. If possible, I usually start with the rear end to get it cooling faster, since it's the most massive...

Busted tires when I was a kid and changed my own since I was old enough to drive. A little dab of never sieze on the threads of each stud and lugs torqued to spec has never left me dissapointed, and sure never left me needing herculean strength to bust them loose. If you have open top lugs and live in snow country, be more generous with the never sieze, then double up on the lugs to cover the entire thread of the stud and it will keep them from rusting so bad. Go get a decent long handled ratchet or breaker bar and a socket that fits. Make sure everything works in the driveway at home. If it doesn't work there, it sure as heck won't when you need it. I can't fathom someone venturing off the highway not knowing, having what's needed, or being able to change a flat tire, though I've certainly helped more than one person that was in that situation. Even caught a guy down by Arivaca "Borrowing" the spare from my Toyota once, since he didn't have one. I politely let him know I had no intention of loaning out my spare, gave him a ride to town to get another wheel/tire, then took him back out and helped him change it out.

If you want the truth, talk to the fleet mechanics for some outfits running a decent number of the size truck you're looking for. Find the fleet manager or equipment manager if he'll talk to you. Most should be able to tell you exactly what repairs are common and what they cost, what the unit actually costs to own, operate, and maintain... down to the penny, and what it's expected residual value will be at end of service. When making a $60-100k purchase, this type of hard dollar information is far more valuable than some guy's opinion on an internet forum. I know for a fact our fleet guys can tell you which diesels puke injectors, injector pumps, and turbos on a regular basis. And I can tell you that EVERY unit acquired in the last two years lighter than 1 ton has been a gasser, based on the acquisition and operating cost information I'm telling you to look for.

When you take into account the way some "hunters" behave, we all get punished for their actions. A rancher friend of mine knew a hunt was going on (they hunt as well), so put up a 4'x4' plywood sign in front of their loading chute, asking hunters who camped in the area to PLEASE not block the chute during certain dates, as they would be loading cattle during those dates. They arrived to find the chute and pen not only completely blocked by a camp, but the sign was burning in the "hunter's" campfire along with the empty bottles from SEVERAL cases of Bud Light. At least one of the guys in camp (who I and the rancher happen to be acquainted with) had already been cited and convicted of littering while hunting from an incident prior to this. He obviously didn't learn a thing. This type of behavior only causes ranchers and property owners to say to heck with it... and I can't really say that I blame them.

Been doing it this way for years, and never cut them first. Small taps work better than one hard whack... lest you have to fish the ivory out of the elk's throat.

Life does in fact come at you fast when least expected... that'd be then end of a buddy's finger. I found it to be QUITE entertaining, since it weren't mine.

Most of the gloves are kevlar... the amazon link above will give you what you need.

One mistake some people make is touching hair, then touching meat. That's a good source of "gamy" tasting game meat. We use cheap nitrile gloves from harbor freight. They're light and you can stuff a BUNCH in a ziplock. Once a glove touches hair, it only touches hair... if you have to hold a skinned portion or bare meat again, get a new glove. Doing the gutless method alone on the ground this can be an issue. I also use a pair of lightweight cut proof gloves under the nitrile. I ordered them from Amazon.com. They make them for butchers, and can be had pretty cheaply. Typically I'm alone, and a slice to a hand or finger could be downright dangerous. My brother used my knife last year and right as I told him to be careful, and asked how come he didn't have the cut proof gloves on, he sliced his finger to the bone in an instant.

Just curious, if they originally had 800 to do, and they've only gotten through 300 in two weeks, how in the heck are they going to get through 500 in 2 days? You'd think the Department would have learned by now that when there is a vaccum of information, people feel the need to speculate, and rumor abounds. Tell people the truth... even with limited information, tell them what you know, when you know it. It's not difficult to spread or provide information in this day and age, and I'm sure they have more than a couple public information folks on staff. Sitting in a corner with the phones jammed and busy for days on end saying "you'll get the results by the 28th", or putting no information out there for people to chew on, is not a productive model, in a state where people have been accustomed to getting the results two or three weeks before that date. Full fee up front solves it all. Even full fee charged on the day after the deadline to apply or date to update payment info. Run the draw the next week and credit back unsuccessful applicants. One of the do gooder outdoor or hunting groups needs to petition the Department and lobby for legislation to make it happen if that's what it takes. SEVERAL of our neighboring states have FAILED trying to charge cards upon a successful draw. IT DOESN'T WORK. All of those states have gone to full fee upon application or full fee on deadline day. It's also not a tenable position to reject applicants based on a charge which may occur days or a week after the deadline to update payment info. Every single person advocating that would have a flipping temper tantrum hissy fit and be screaming for pro-bono lawyers to help them sue the Department if their card was cancelled and replaced by the card issuer for fraud or other reasons if they were sitting on quite a few points, or ESPECIALLY max points or close to it and were rejected. For example, you're sitting on 16 points for elk, and your card is cancelled by the card issuer the day after the deadline to update payment info. So you get rejected. You don't get a tag, you lose your loyalty point, and you don't get a point for that application year. REALLY? You're gonna suck it up and LOSE two points, entering the draw next year with 15 points instead of 17? The same guy that can't stand to wait a couple extra weeks to find out what tag he did actually draw, so the Department can attempt to get correct payment information for those that did draw, and he's gonna swallow THAT? Gimme a freakin' break.

There's literally NOWHERE you can go in the lower 48 states and be more than 20 miles from a road. Griz and inbred wolftards have no place in the southwest. The Mogollon/Gila is SMALL country. Read up on the Red Wolf reintroduction and it's hybridization with coyotes. Their own reports say the project should be abandoned, as it's economically unfeasible to sustain, yet USFWS still pumps $$ hand over fist into the program. Same has been expressed by SOME working the grey wolf program. These aren't dogs that will stay where they're told. At some point we as a society have to accept that by US being here, there's no longer room for the species that we quite effectively as a society extirpated from their orginal range. Maybe Californians writing checks to CBD should vacate the prime griz habitat, and start a program to reintroduce them there. That'd be roughly the Pacific coast, from Mexico to Oregon.

If I lost a dog out of my yard, in the woods, camping, etc., and was unable to find/catch him before dark or within a few hours or whatever, first thing I'd do is get the word out, in case someone found him and picked him up. Same if I found a dog and picked him up if he had no contact info or a collar. Prior to technology this happened at the local coffe joint, through word of mouth, local radio trading post, and putting up signs on every telephone pole a guy could find. Technology makes it VERY easy to get the word out... forums ARE technology and timely spread of lost dog info might make the difference between getting my dog back, or getting a dog back to his owner, as quickly as possible. Simple as that.

My son killed his first elk at 11 years old with a 290 Barnes, non EZ loading. Same projectile, different sabot... yellow instead of blue I think. They grouped well, and two 50 grain Pyrodex pellets pushed them right about 1850 if I remember correctly. Shot his elk broadside at 125 yards, total pass through and dumped the elk in it's tracks. Two thumbs fit pretty easily in the exit hole. It's the only muzzleloader bullet I've recommended for elk where sabots are allowed since.

To quote what one of the WMs you mentioned told me last year in a southern unit - "We can have a ridiculously low buck to doe ratio, like 100:1, and still get all the does bred. So what we're doing management wise is working."

If you don't have the money to apply, how are you going to afford gas to get there? And if you don't have the money to apply, how did you apply in the first place? I ask, since when I was in college, you couldn't apply for just a point. So I applied on paper with a money order for a first choice trophy bull hunt every year, praying that I wouldn't draw, knowing I couldn't afford the gas and food to go if I was drawn.

Agree. Full fee up front, and an email if you are successful as the draw is performed from G&F, like some other states. If it requires rewording what you are being charged for, or legislation to allow it, so be it. Reword the application fee structure such that you're being charged $150 to apply for elk, and all but a $13 processing fee is refunded if you are not drawn. It's not complicated to find a legal and simple solution, if someone is actually looking for one. New Mexico went to full fee up front for this EXACT reason. "It's not legal in AZ to do that" is a freakin' copout... from someone that doesn't want to do the leg work to change the structure. At least one other state even tells you exactly what day the draw is, and you know THAT DAY whether or not you were drawn. Paper apps are going away, and G&F needs to get on the ball. There's NO REASON we don't set the standard for western states as far as draw systems go. "It's done by low bid" is also a copout from someone who doesn't know how or doesn't want to do the work to write a performance based contract, and follow up with vendor deficiency avenues when those performance measures fail to be met.

Full fee up front. That's how.

Shame on G&F for trying to manage a basically urbanized area for mixed use. They could have just closed the whole area to eliminate any confusion... And not passed the law that areas can only be closed or managed specifically for hunting by G&F, effectively opening MANY acres of land to hunting which were previously closed by local or municipal ordinances.

A wait period is STRICTLY punitive, and does NOTHING to change draw odds. This has been covered before...

I'd be a lot more in favor of far fewer tags for the rut archery hunt, turning it back into the quality experience a rut archery elk hunt should be. The increasing trend of having 9 buddies show up with glass, radios, and calls to "assist" the one or two guys with tags doesn't help either. If there is a desire to increase archery opportunity, do it in late October/early November... there ARE already 2 archery options for elk in many units, it just to happens they have the tag numbers reversed from what they should be.

They're under the two big rocks in the middle of the pic. Plain as day...

Full fee up front solves it, along with all the other issues. It'll never happen unless hunters demand it. It could easily be added to the license simplification legislation already proposed.

The smell and taste of which you speak is often caused by surface contaimination of the meat. Touch a tarsal gland or any part of a rutty bull, then touch meat. Basically get the outsides on the inside. Field gloves and judicious use of a tie off or partner address this issue well. Game fat also sours in the freezer, due to enzymes which stay active at home freezer temps or some such thing. Bear fat is the worst. Hence the trimming and rendering of bear fat for other uses. Pie crust and boot dressing...

People actually eat those things? I tend to keep my tag in my wallet, help those who want actually WANT to shoot a pig, hope I don't actually get a shot, cook in camp, and enjoy expensive liquid bread after sundown. Praticing that theory, I've had MANY successful pig hunts and haven't had to actually shoot one yet...

Full fee up front. Pay the juice on what you float till results come out. If you can't afford the tags, you sure as heck can't afford the gas to go... BTDT.