tomgobbler

the very best way is to get someone to show you...., hands on is hard to beat..... but yes a fleashing beam ( can be made out of a 2x ) and a some kind of a scraper, coyote are really thin and they scrape pretty well, doing it right away ( both skinning and stretching ) and it is a little easier. yes there are some decent videos out there, i'll have to look for some specific ones. you say "put up the hide" well what do you mean??? skin, fleash, wash, stretch, dry out, fluff, and get ready for the fur buyer, or auction, OR salt and dry out and get ready to send to the tannery for a soft pelt? OR put up and get ready to be mounted.... and for what kind of pose, life size, or rug... all require different things.... but once again HANDS ON, getting someone to show you i think is the very best.... Anyone want make the drive and bring a few coyote's up to the house on a saturday and i'de be glad to show anyone how to skin a dog & put one up. ( for any of the above situations) i live in taylor. good luck tommy

the corners are 108degrees, so your cut's on each piece would be 54 degrees, so that when put together it would be the 108.... were are you getting the 72? on the diagram apove, you can not cut 1 piece 72, and the other one 36 to get your 108, yes they would fit together BUT the lenght on the angle would be different for each piece....and so not fit together very well. good luck tommy

i had one of my best calling/trapping seasons ever, it was fabulous, i took 43 cats, and 78 coyotes, along with several dozen fox's, badgers, and coons.... anyway i did some fur work and i got 30 of my 43 bobcats dried and ready to sale thought i'de run up to the game and fish to get them tagged, and they only had 25 tags..... dont ya think a game and fish office could carry enough tags to cover any and what ever comes in.... i'm not the only one that has to get cats tagged... it seems like every time you deal with them it is something like that..... they madate you do something, then dont even have enough stuff to let you do it. Now i have to make another trip ( and day off of work) to get the rest tagged..... sorry had to vent, am just frustrated with them..... hope ya like the pictures anyway..... about half were trapped and about half were called in, 6 still in the freezer, and several at the tannery for some life size mounts i'm working on. good hunting tommy

Recieved a call last night and my cousin said that he was stuck down in the valley working today, and that his 12 year old had a cow elk tag and asked if i would take him out for the day, so he didnt have to miss opening day. So i said sure no prob, so i get up @4:00 this morning and make the hour drive ( 30 min each way) to pick up my cousins son so we can go get him an elk. we then drive out to a spot that i know that traditionally has elk, ( keep in mind i didnt get to scout much as i knew the night before that i was going) anyway i'm on a big cedar covered ridge 20 mintues before it even startes to crack daylight, with a BIG yellow grassy flat below me with a few cedars scatered in it, about a mile wide and a mile long, cedar hills all around it.... well when it finaly startes to turn grey i glass up 6 elk on the FAR side of the flat..... now how to get to them... about the only way is hunkered down as far as you can and still walk, and try and keep the few scattered cedars between us. so off we went... i make it about half way and glass them again , yes they are still there, looks like one good bull and 5 cows ( or so i thought ) so we keep on a trucking as it gets plently light by now we close to about 500 when i kneel up by a cedar tree to look them over and DANG they are ALL BULLS!!! not a cow around anywere..... the big bull, then a 5x5 and then 4 small, 2 bys, spikes ect.... ALL BULLS.... i could'nt believe it after all that work getting over there ( and now having to go all the way back to the truck) and no cows.... so anyway to make a long story a little shorter.... see 3 more bulls an hour latter, and then about 10:00 had 5 cows RUN across the road in front of us..... and that was it unit this evening. i knew of another little bowl that always has elk, that people drive right by.... so about 4:30 this afternoon i told the kids ( my cousins boy with the tag, and 2 of my boys) lets go kill an elk, so off we went, parked the trucked walked about 600 yards to the top of another big ridge, and tell them ok quite now, just over the other side we'll find some shade and wait up here were we have a vantage point and wait unitl they come out or it gets dark.... so i poke my head over and start glassing, and there is already 4-5 cows feeding 220 yards below us. So i get him all set up with a blown down log as a rest and tell him ok the one standing broad side make sure your ready.... well after a few shots we had her down. his first elk, his dad took him out for a week last year never to get a shot, and i took him the first day and we got it done, he was one excited boy!, about 20 minutes before dark.... so yea you can guess what a fun evening i have had getting the elk out in the dark with 3 kids.... but got it done, no field pictures, as it was dark fast and no camera, but got one here at the house . do ya think this counts as good KARMA for me and my sons deer hunt next week ? the hunter on the left and my two boys on the right, this is about 10:00 when we got back to the house. good luck to the rest of the kids tommy

congrats, very nice bear

my brother passed on a really pretty 330 class 6x6 this morning....

i got home from work and my wife said that my father in law said that it looked like there was something wrong with my favorite horse. the one i had raised from a colt and had for the last 15 years, took me more miles then i could ever count, and saw some of the prettiest country that God has created from the back of him. anyway as i went to look at him i could tell right away he wasnt doing good, the close i got the worse it looked, soem time during the night i guess he shattered his upper leg, half way between the knee and the shoulder, dont have a clue as to what happened. but either way the result was the same and i had to go put a bullet in his head, and then barry him... one of the hardest things like that i have had to do in a long time..... i'll sure miss that horse!

season is about here for you lucky ones with archery elk tags, they are starting to buggle ( at least around here ) so thought i'de throw out a reminder if you get one down and need horse help getting it out, i can help ya give me a shout. good luck to yawl tommy

thanks guys i appreciate it, the hard part was that the vet coulnt come until noon the next day ( he would of just given him a shot and he would of went to sleep) but i couldnt let him suffer over night until noon the following day, so i had to put the bullet in his head my self. so that was kind of tuff to do, i really didnt think it was going to be to bad until i actaulyl did it..... but that horse took me a million miles, we road into reves ranch in the superstitions at least a dozen times, into the matazatzals a few times, into fossil creek, mount baldy, a hundred trails down on the blue river, and so may other trails i cant remember right now, i rode him into pack out 3 eld and a deer last year alone, and on many scouting trips, i had just ridden him to pack in salt and a tree stand for my brother upcoming elk hunt just last week.... he could outwalk and out travel about any horse i rode with.... i'll find some pictures. but thanks again tommy

the location is just out of payson, up the highway to winslow HWY 87, you take hwy 260 to camp verde and they are up about a mile or so on the left hand side, between mile post 250 and 251 fs rd 9366a, it is real easy to find.

The south west fur harvesters are having there 4th annual fall trappping rendezvous sept 9th -10th 11th, the main schedule of events will be saturday the 10th, with trapper ed on sunday the 11th. they will have several trapping, both foot hold and cage trapping speakers, as well as several calling speakers, and steve craig will be there to do his lion calling demo. they will have door prizes and raffles along with silent auctions.... if you want more info drop me aline and i can get it to you. tommy

now that all the draw's are finished, and everyone knows what they have, i thought i'de post this again, this not only apply's to game, but can haul camps in and out as well.... thought i would throw this out early this year incase you wanted to change your hunting/scouting techniques accordingly. I'm offering to haul your camps in/out, and big game packing services with horses. hunt farther from the road, and get away from the croud and find the bigger game with out worring about what you are going to do once its on the ground me and my horses will haul it out for you. I hauled out 1 mule deer, 2 bulls, and 1 cow elk last year. what YOU DO, is harvest the animal and give me a call ASAP, so i can start gathering horses and gear and headed your direction.... while i am doing that YOU dis-embowel the animal, and then quarter it up, then remove any other meat you want, backstraps/lions/neck/rib meat etc.... and bag and pile that in even piles, the four quarters should allready be pretty evenly weighted. Then if you are saving cape or hide, begin to skin that off how you want it ( if you dont know how to field cape the head i can do that for you, but you need to do as much as you can while waiting for me to get there.) I need GOOD directions to you, which may mean you climbing to a nearby hill to see me coming, or meet me up a trail, so we can go back and find your animal. Last year i had a guy that said he was 5-6 miles down a dirt rd south of flag, and a had a little bull down 2 miles form the truck. well it ended up being 23 miles south on a wet/muddy/snowy/nasty rd, pulling a 4 horse trailer..... come on now you can get a little closer then that.... so i do need good directions to you. Then you and i load your animal, and my horses pack it out for you. Price depands on several things of course, location ( how far) and time. 3b/3c and 1 are close to me, the 4's and 27 not to bad.... then the units start getting farther from there.... keep in mind there are some places i can not get to, that you 4 wheeled into with your jeep, pulling a 4 horse trailer is a lot different.... especially in bad snowy weather.... also keep in mind that there are places that you got to while hunting that i can not get to on horse, very steep and rocky is tuff, also very thick stuff that you crawled through.... but generally i can get pretty close with my horses... if you have questions then give me shout. good luck to tag holders. tommy

july 19th 10:05am

thought i would throw this out early this year in case you wanted to change your hunting/scouting techniques accordingly. I'm offering to haul your camps in/out, and big game packing services with horses. hunt farther from the road, and get away from the croud and find the bigger game with out worring about what you are going to do once its on the ground me and my horses will haul it out for you. I hauled out 1 mule deer, 2 bulls, and 1 cow elk last year. what YOU DO, is harvest the animal and give me a call ASAP, so i can start gathering horses and gear and headed your direction.... while i am doing that YOU dis-embowel the animal, and then quarter it up, then remove any other meat you want, backstraps/lions/neck/rib meat etc.... and bag and pile that in even piles, the four quarters should allready be pretty evenly weighted. Then if you are saving cape or hide, begin to skin that off how you want it ( if you dont know how to field cape the head i can do that for you, but you need to do as much as you can while waiting for me to get there.) I need GOOD directions to you, which may mean you climbing to a nearby hill to see me coming, or meet me up a trail, so we can go back and find your animal. Last year i had a guy that said he was 5-6 miles down a dirt rd south of flag, and a had a little bull down 2 miles form the truck. well it ended up being 23 miles south on a wet/muddy/snowy/nasty rd, pulling a 4 horse trailer..... come on now you can get a little closer then that.... so i do need good directions to you. Then you and i load your animal, and my horses pack it out for you. Price depands on several things of course, location ( how far) and time. 3b/3c and 1 are close to me, the 4's and 27 not to bad.... then the units start getting farther from there.... keep in mind there are some places i can not get to, that you 4 wheeled into with your jeep, pulling a 4 horse trailer is a lot different.... especially in bad snowy weather.... also keep in mind that there are places that you got to while hunting that i can not get to on horse, very steep and rocky is tuff, also very thick stuff that you crawled through.... but generally i can get pretty close with my horses... if you have questions then give me shout. good luck to tag holders. tommy

i've got a steer or two that i was just getting ready to bring in and grain for a month and then butcher, was checking to see if any of you fellow CWT, members would like some good beef, these steers are all natural, no growth hormones or any kinds of shots, have been organic grass feed, and will be grained for about a month to pollish off and then butchered... if you have baught hamburger or steak lately it is exoensive, so here is a good way to get some good beef.... you pay for what ever you wanted, plus processing... 1/4 of an animal, 1/2 an animal or what ever... i can have it processed anyway you like all hambuger or what ever.... this burger is better then store baught as i have a lot fo the "good" cuts put into the burger, so you are gettign the better meat in the burger.... anyway these sale out fast so thought i'de offer it to anyone interested....price would of course depend on how much you wanted.... but i've got several steers i can bring in to finish off, or just do the one for me, makes me no difference, just thought some of you might be interested in some better beef. thanks tommy

124 2/8

Well after helping 4 other people get turkeys from the san carlos, to the youth, and then the first hunt, MY tag was finally here.... BUT a really good friend of mine and his dad had tags in a unit that wasnt the same as mine, so i opted to go with them instead, my friend couldnt make it but his dad came up, so him and i headed out. It was one TERRIBLE day, 55 mile an hour gusts, you couldnt of heard a turkey if he were standing in the bed of your truck..... ( not that they are cooperating much anyway) Anyway having a really good knowledge of the area and were the turkeys like to go, him and i put our heads together to figure out were they might be on a day like this were we had seen them in the past. about 10:00 we were able to get him with in range of 6-8 turkeys feeding turkeys. and he sealed the deal. ( hopefully he will e-mial me the picturtes off of his camera so i can add a few of them) So this morning with the wind a lot less, i headed to my unit to try and see if i could outsmart these dang things.... this has been one of the most frustrating springs i have ever had turkey hunting.... i have seen over 35 gobblers ( in the 3 weeks i 've been hunting them) and 95% of them were by themselves, with little to no gobbling... i have seen that many single hens by them selves as well, i can not figure out what is going on this spring.... i have called in 4 gobblers, and been involved with 7 being taken this year so far ( well now 8 !! ) Anwyay back to my story i figured i would really have to get my game plan together if i wanted to harvest a nice mature bird.... so i started out on my favorite road ( has never failed to produce a turkey) and heard one gobbler, gobble 3 times on the roost and then NOTHING... typical for this year, they have been kicking my butt..... SO i said to myself ( after 2 hours of trying to get another bird fired up) if they are not going to play your game then you will have to play theirs... SO i know of a little tank, that has green grass all around it that they like to come strutt in, and eat dandylions ( yes if you did not know turkleys LOVE dandylions) anyway so i headed for that tank hopeing to find them already there , or i was going to set up in some brush and wait them out.... well as luck would have it they were already there as i slipped down the little 2 track to peak around the corner to take a look.... 1 gobbler, and 4-5 hens feeding on the back side of the tank in the grass.... ok now how to get with in shotgun range with out them seeing or hearing you... going around behind them was out of the question as it was pretty thick, BUT very NOISY as it is terribly dry.... so a frontal approach.... well lets see, if i go from this tree to that bush, then get on my belly and belly crawl for about 85 yards i should be able to keep the tank bank ( about 2feet high, so not much of a cover) inbetween us, as long as they stay in the back, and dont work around the sides.... So off i went on my belly, i could see the white fan of the strutting tom from time to time over the top of the bank, and was afraid of getting busted..... but after what seemed like eternity on my belly, ( with my heart beating so hard it was kicking dust up into my face) i finally made it to the base of the tank, so i slid my gun up through the grass and ever so carefully and slow up over the edge were the muzzle would clear everything i raised up just enough to get my eyes over the top and there he was strutting 68 yards away.... DANG TOM that is a long ways, BUT i have killed predators that far with this gun and these shells so why not give it a try, your not getting any close, your out of cover, and they are going to feed out the back edge into the trees... ( or so i thought) .... So with my mossberg loaded with 3 1/2 #4's and a high viz sight i centered that gobbler as best i could with a great rest and i let-r-fly.......!!!! well the grass exploded with turkeys that instantly took flight mine included, wow did i miss, i watched as he only got about 1/4 as high as the other turkeys and only went about 30 yards, then crashed to the ground flopping for a minute, and was done. i jumped up, had to cross a fence and get over to inspect my trophy.... a NICE gobbler 10" beard, 1" spurres and beautiful fan...... did i call him in... not this time, but when you can belly crawl and sneak up on 6 turkeys i think you have accomplished about as much..... and was kind of fun too.... good luck to yawl!!! I was by myself as everyone else had to work or were busy today, so i went alone, so had to get pictures when i got home, my daughter tried to take them, they came out ok.... tommy

i ended up with a remington 700 30-06, with a 3x9 redfiled scope, with the raised rings were you can see through them and use the sights. nice shape, has a few scratches on the stock, but very clean gun, action and everything great shape. $600.00 i also have a mossberg pump 12 gauge, great shape as well, EXCEPT at some point someone broke the stock, as seen in the picture and glued it back together, and when you run your finger over it you can feel it, and see it, but is shoots great. shoots 3 1/2 shells. a new stock runs about $40 if you want to replace it. but it functions fine. and you can use it as is with no problems.... $300 neither gun has had very many shells through them, both older but just been sitting in the guys safe, great condition on both. thanks tommy

MatthewP and his brother in law, and i found ourselfs on thursday morning as the sun was starting to break the day, sitting under a couple of pine trees, listening to a couple of San Carlos turkeys sound off, unfurtantly the weather was terrible, windy, rainy, nasty.... and those two birds would not coporate for anything, they just didnt sound to interested, and didnt gobble much.... BUT through the day we were able to put 3 NICE gobblers on the ground, with matts brother in law having the longest beard at around 10 3/4".... and he got his about 8:00 that morning, at about one, after lots of miles traveled, and hearing a lot of wind in the trees that was about it, but finally as matthew and i got out of the truck about 1:00 to try again even with the wind blowing we made a few hen yelps, not really expecting to hear anything, like the last 50 times we had gotten out of the truck, as we made a few calles a gobbler answered just over the top of ridge in some cedars, and before we could even set up and get ready, 3 hens and 3 gobblers came over the top working towards us, we both grabbed our guns and with a quick, you take the left, and i'll take the right at about 55 yards, the 3 1/2" winchester #4's did there job, and we had 2 gobbelrs on the ground! as we get up to the first bird the one matthew had taken we looked at it and it had 2 BEARDS! i was totally jealous, out of all the birds i have taken i had always wanted to take a multiple bearded gobbler, but was thinking this is so awesome, and could'nt of happened a nicer guy, as matthew is one heck of a friend! it had a 10 1/4" thick main beard, and 7 1/2" second beard for a total of 17 3/4" of beard NICE.... well we get up to the second bird the one i had shot and take a look at it, and low and be hold it has 5 BEARDS!!! yep you read that right 5 BEARDS!!!! i couldnt believe it, i really didnt know what to say.... out of the couple dozen gobblers i have taken, and the 50 or so i have been a part of, i had only called in one other turkey with multiple beards, i had called one for my buddy a few year ago in NM that had 3 beards....and now to have 2 on the ground at the same time with multiple beards was trully amazing! after getting home and looking on the NWTF websight and doing a ruff score on my bird, he will be somewhere around the top 55 or so of all time merriams gobblers!!!! what a once in a life time bird! and to have shot him at exactly the same time as my buddy took his bird just added to the greatness of the moment. i cant thank matthew enough for letting me tag along on this turkey trip, i'm doing a coupe of lifesize mounts on these birds to capture the moment forever. but those few seconds will be relived for a long time to come, as i will probably never beat 26 5/8" of beard on one bird ever again. thanks matthew for everything!!!!! here are a few pictures of the beards i tried to take when i got home, matt will have to post the pictures of in the field off of his digital camera in the next day or so! i put a piece of paper behind the beards to try and get them to stand out better. i hope you like them good luck tommy

here is a picture of ben, then phil, matthew, and then me on the far right. opening day about 2:00, or should i say opening day for us

138 1/8

i have a son that i really need to get the saturday field day part, that is all he lacks, anyone in the whitemountains areas help. thanks tommy

yea i'm having a hard time, as well brent, getting the same thing they dont respect the on line... well if they ever offered it in our area maybe we would get the real version, and if the game and fish is goig to offer an on line version then THEY should ALSO offer the field day. it pretty crappy to have to drive to phoenix to get it doen when there are some many kids here in the whitemountians needing it. i have looked and watched for classes in this area for awhile with nothing.... IF the GAME AND FISH mandate you have something then they should really offer opurtunities to get it, in a resonable time and distance.... but what ever, i need to get him through the field day some where some how, so now we have two, and i know of a few others, anyone williing to do this before turkey season ?

ernesto i agree with that! not nearly enough tags well trapping season is nov 1st through the end of feb... although i started calling a little in october.... but manely this was from nov 1st through about the 25th or so of feb. so about 4 months fo work....

tastes like chicken! you should try it! not a chance, have you ever skinned/smelled one of those nasty things....