DesertBull

Sold. Thanks Dan

I have a Bogen 3001 tripod and fluid head with two quick disconnect plates. This tripod is rock steady in the wind. I have packed it around the mountains of AZ for 3 years. When I first got it, I modified it be taking the whole thing apart and cutting 2 inches off of each leg section. It lightend up by 1/2 pound and shrunk the folded length down by about 3". Fits nicely in my pack now and is lighter. The head is a bogen also. It is a 3 way pan and tilt fluid video head. I paid $175 for the whole set up. I'll take $80 for it now. I can ship it for an extra $10 or we can arrange pick up. I lve in Gilbert/Queen Creek.

ARRRGHHH! 22S and 24B now closed too. Going to be a crappy weekend!

I can only go by what others have told me and that is that the Sequoia line of scopes is not up to the normal quality of the Leupold products. I have been reseaching scopes too, in that price range, and have concluded that the Nikon Fieldscope is the superior scope.

Does anyone think they will still be in the pears / junipers when the season re-opens on October 6th? There are not many pears where I have been seeing bears, but the ones that are there are still green/light red. They should be juicy ripe in another few weeks. Have not seen many juniper berries at all, but some of the scrub oaks do have have acorns.

Do you have a tag?

Dave, I have the same problem you do. Sometimes I get so frustrated I just want to seel the bow and stick to the rifle/muzzleloader. What release did you buy?

I have been kicking myself for not looking lower for some bears. Looks like they are down in the mequites!

Any successful bear hunters this weekend?

Yep, but this was a bigger bear than the black one we saw last week. Not a belly dragger, but bigger. Ya know what's funny? There is a two track road that goes right to the top of that first hill we glassed from. LOL! We didn't need to bust brush for 30 minutes. That camp we saw was parked right on the trail.

Well, another day of bear hunting, but no bears. Saw one. That makes 3 bears spotted in 2.5 days of hunting. I glassed a bear this from this vantage point. If you look to the right hand side of this picture, where the last ridge coming off the mountain swoops down. That is where the bear was. The problem was, the last canyon between me and the bear has 100 foot cliffs straight down to the bottom. There was no way to get to him. This is the type of country I have been seeing bears in. There are a lot of prickly pear here, but very few if any have fruit and the ones that do are not ripe yet. I am hoping that the season will stay open one more week. If not, there is another season starting on October 6th. Think they will still be in the low country in October?

For spotting scopes, what does everyone prefer, straight or angled? I've never used a spotter before, but am thinking of getting one.

Get yourself a good log book, database , or speadsheet to document your loads. Make sure you document both the good and the bad ones. There is a software called Point Blank (free) that will make it easy for you to catalog your loads and results and will also show you what to expect as far as ballistics for each load.

I think we have a good mix of opportunity and quality hunts right now. It was better before they messed with the 20's units Coues hunts, but that's ok. What they really want to do, I am afraid, is to cut WAYYY back on the archery elk hunts in Sept and move them to November. Now, I'll bet most people who aspire to archery hunt elk would glady wait 5-8 years or more for a chance to do it in September than to hunt every year in November. Plus, it just looks bad when they come out with an agenda of issuing more and more tags when the the deer numbers are down and they just came out with a large fee increase. It makes it seem like a money grab, even if it is not.

More likely, if they find out you are a member of a hunting group, they will throw your survey right in the freaking DUMPSTER!

Thanks for clearing that up. Why would a group like the ADA want to go to the trouble and expense of holding the auction if they get no benefit? Is to draw more people to the banquet?

If I roll the window down about half way and turn off the ignition, it's pretty steady.

I thought that the groups that auctioned the tags get the money. Example, the ADA auctioned off two Coues tags and a Muley tag last spring. Doesn't that money go to the ADA for habitat projects, and not back to the G&F? The groups have to apply for those tags and they are awarded by the G&F. Sometime the AES get sthe elk tags and sometime the RMEF gets them. The Mule Deer Foundation got one muley tag and the ADA got one this year, I believe.

Unit 1 harvest objective was met. Closes on Wed.

premere reticles no longer modifies Leupold Scopes. You have to order your custom reticle directly from Leupold now.

Not sure. The G&F telephone message says all permits have been issued. 602-789-3702

AMEN! Why should I have to buy a hunting license until I know I will be able to hunt? Some will say, "yeah, but you can hunt doves, and quail, and rabbits, etc." I don't want to hunt that stuff, I want to hunt deer. If I get lucky and get a deer tag I will gladly buy a hunting license. If I want to archery deer hunting, I will buy a license and tag for that too, but it's called a HUNTING LICENSE, not a license to APPLY for a hunt.

last week

Me and Muskrat went out yesterday. Saw two bears, but nothing worthy of shooting. One small/medium (5') black bear and one medium (5-1/2') cinnimon phased. I am pretty sure they were both sows. Long legs and big Mickey Mouse ears. They were in the pears, but the pears were still green. The first bear I saw was going from pear to pear, tasting a fruit them moving on. I found a batch of pears that were starting to turn purple. I hope the season stays open antyoher week, I think they will be in there in the next few days. It was a good hunt. There was one camp along the road, but back in the Wilderness Area there was no one. Can't beat having 100,000 acres to yourself! Muskrat had to leave in the evening, but I backpacked in about 1-1/2 miles and stayed over night. Didn't get much sleep due the fact of there was bear sign EVERYWHEREand the heat sucked. Ran out of water and had to drink some nasty spring water. Not good. I really need to get a water filter. Those water treatment pills don't cut it when the water is green and there are little 8 legged swimmers in it. I agree with the above poster, please don't shoot the sows, lets's keep the season open for another week or so.

The mapping software does not show G&F water tanks. Only natural springs and cattle tanks. But for $40 you can get a book that shows where most all of the trick tanks are located. The maps in the book are crude though and some of the tanks can be hard to find as they do not give coordinates.