stanley

Went with the good old trusty 30-06. Mark actually made a complimentary comment when he saw the caliber. He said that in the day and age of 6.5's and 300WSM's , you don't see many guys buying 06's, but the ballistics are almost on par with 6.5/7MM...... Old school. For me, it's a move mostly made out of practicality: a) We already own 3 rifles of that caliber. b) The ammo is much cheaper than the fancier calibers. LOL

Happened to notice this as I was paging down through the regulations (page 26). The light color is the supposed distribution of whitetail in the state. Something tells me they need to update their map!

I picked-up a new rifle so my boys and I could get on the 'suppressor' wagon. (Ranch buddy let one of my sons use his silenced rifle on our NM pronghorn hunt last year, and we're sold on them! lol) Anyway, against my better judgement, I stopped by Bass Pro on a whim late last week and rushed into buying a low-end Vortex scope. VERY limited hours for scope mounting services, so I went to Healy Arms yesterday to have them mount it. After talking to Mark's staff there, I ended-up buying a scope from them that is perfect for us! (Gonna go return the other one to BP.) Mark was super cool, as always, and he had the scope mounted and ready to go in short order. Knowledgeable and helpful! Good guys! Side note: I've always used scopes with the 'hash marks' built-in for holdover. We aren't super long-range shooters, so never went with the fancy and relatively complicated turret systems. In talking to Mark's guys, they said they didn't have any rifle scopes with hash marks, but they showed me Leupold scope with the 'CDS' system. It's awesome. It's basically turret management for dummies like me! No more holdovers for 300/400/500 yard shots. GO SHOP HEALY ARMS!!

You gotta know Trophy. Witty sarcastic humor is sort of his paint brush around here. Keeps it colorful....

The first new vehicle I ever purchased was a 1984 Toyota 4x4. I didn't spring for the SR5. Just the lowest stock model they had. No radio, no A/C, no nothing! Just the standard little 4 cylinder and 5 speed manual. Brand new for $8600. LOL Put 260K miles on that little truck and it never let me down once. This post makes me remember and miss that thing! Good luck on selling!!!! 👊

Mine is a pretty simple Tabasco copy. Just three ingredients: peppers, salt, vinegar. Ferment the peppers, then grind, cook/simmer, strain and test pH carefully for shelf life. I am VERY interested in what Hector has going on with the smoked habanero sauce/salsa!! I want that!!!

Born and raised in Kearny. I didn't even know I was white until I moved to Salt Lake City for school and saw all the white people walking around!

Bumper crop of peppers and tomatoes this year for me, starting in January. WTF do you do with a HUGE bowl of Habaneros, when just one is hotter than any normal person would eat?? LOL Ended-up making Tabasco style hot sauce with the Habaneros and Serranos. Also made some pretty darn good Habanero-honey sauce that went great on wings.

Not really any unusual wildlife, unless you count 'hardcore through-hiking hippies'. Saw several of those along the way. LOL Saw some of the usual wildlife, but honestly not too much. Mainly because we were either yapping out loud, plus I had my Vizsla with a bell around her neck for lots of the trail. Wildlife generally heard us coming!

Interesting question, @CatfishKev. Had to think about that..... If memory serves me, I think we saw a total of just three. I recall two Diamondbacks and one cool looking Black Tail. Saw a few Garter snakes, as well.

Welp, 800 miles - FINALLY DONE! Due to super busy schedules across 4 hikers PLUS mother nature (The fires up on the north Kiabab torpedoed our planned finish last summer....), it took us much longer than anticipated, but last weekend my partners and I finally finished the AZT. Like many of you, I'm a native and love AZ. Doing this hike gave me an opportunity to see (and walk through) parts of the state that I had never seen. Many of them I am sure I will never see again! The real ball busters were Miller Peak, Superstition Wilderness (We did Roger's Trough to Roosevelt in one day. Ugh!), Rincons - Mica Mountain, the Mazatals, and of course the Rim to Rim. Many of the other sections were hard, but those 5 stood out. We of course hiked lots of easy stuff, too. Mexico Utah

Those are AWESOME!! @deserttacoma84, there are your cots!

I've got this shotgun's grandson (A500G circa 1990....), and love it. This one is a beauty!!

Someone got a great deal on a good tent! I've had this same set-up for 15+ years and have gotten LOTS of use out of it over the years. A great tent!

No bird died, but I had a freaking awesome weekend with a first-time turkey hunter buddy of mine. Good vocal gobbling action and plenty of birds. Didn't close the deal, mainly because I'm mostly a wanna be turkey calling hack but it was a blast.