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ran into some guys from utah archery elk hunting in 15 in new mex. we were muzzleloader deer hunting. they said they came down a couple weeks before the season and scouted things out. found a waterhole back in the timber it looked good. they came back and packed in a tree stand and on the way out a uso outfitter told them they had to leave the area. public land and all, but that's the way uso tried to do stuff. they told him take a hike and the next morning one of em hiked in to get in the stand and their tree had been cut down and the uso guide and hunter were in treestands. he had some words and walked to his truck and got a chainsaw and went back and started cutting the tree down while the uso guide was still in it. guy came down outta the tree in a hurry and promptly got his butt kicked. then he finished cutting down the tree. guess it caused a big ol' stink cloud and they ended up moving their camp and looking for different places to hunt. we had heard some bulls that morning and told em about it and saw them the next day with a slugger of a bull. anyway, i thought that was a great way to handle the situation. Lark.

here's my take, and everbody knows i'm always right. if you were real serious about recovering what was apparantly a bull that wasn't hit real good, you shoulda went back with lanterns and flashlights and stayed on it until you found it. i also wouldn't have waited an hour an a half to track it. nothing aggravates me more than for folks to "back out and come back in the morning" like they always do on the hunting shows. anyway, that's what i woulda done. the guys doing the hollering and stuff are jerks and oughta be shot numerous times with a pellet gun. if you don't want folks driving down the road by a waterhole, find a waterhole that doesn't have a road next to it. just because you're sitting there doesn't mean other folks hafta change their plans. Lark.

they got to keep the heads. none were real big. i'd love to get one of the banana horned ones to make some knife handle with. ain't a lotta bighorn knife handles out there. she texted me a photo of some of them. the ones i saw were fairly heavy 3/4 curl or so and one with nanner horns. that's just one instance that is known of sheep mortality in the fire. wonder how many others croaked that won't be found? be a lot of deer and elk too. but deer and elk are a lot smarter than rockies from what i've seen. maybe they all ran off. Lark.

if you use "any" electronic device any animal you shoot is disqualified from the p&y book. you can't even use lighted nocks on your arrows. radios do the same thing. i don't think radios should be against the law but they dang sure disqualify an animal from the book. and i would say that just every one of the governor tag animals we see had electronics involved in taking them. i don't know about gps's. but electric calls, radios, nocks, electric sights, all kinds of things, will technically disqualify an animal. Lark.

i hope you never watch the south park episode where an elephant breeds cartman's pig. Lark.

fine job dude. how did it work out? did he come to a call? great bull. Lark.

maybe fred had some friends. Lark. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/wounded-grizzly-kills-hunter-remote-montana-14541945

this kinda stuff happens every year on just about every hunt. especially elk. rich guys with huge posses move into an area, their toadys try hard to ingratiate themselves with the famous guy and somebody ends up doing something stupid. maybe not illegal, but stupid. they don't always make the news like this one has, but they still happen. look at the fiasco of the big bull in utah they named spider. a guy i know was there just trying to see it and somebody knifed his tires. no season was going on or anything but a buncha guys were keeping tabs on it. i was driving down the road by pool knoll in u1 and a guy drove out in front of me and made me stop and said that uso had a big camp of hunters there and nobody was supposed to be in there. on a dang usfs maintained road. i was cuttin' wood for h e l l s sake. with no private land anywhere. when i got done with him he had a different attitude. ended up it was that sorry sob griz montoya that filed the lawsuit for taulman. if you yell real loud at him he sorta cowers like a punk. if you are a hunter, i mean a guy that knows what he is doing and is really interested in the hunt and don't care about the magazine articles or tv shows that ya might be in, you don't need a whole dang batallion to run around with you. i don't know anymore than i read here, but from past experience i can sorta get a feel for what happened. i think anyway. craig coulda helped himself with a little better marksmanship probably. but if these guys woulda left him alone he probably coulda made a quick recovery of the bull. if that's the way it went down. sounds like he's quite adamant. i've come up on guys several times that were tracking an animal and if they wanted me to i would always take time from my hunt to help. and i've had guys do the same for me. used to be that most hunters got along pretty well. doesn't seem like it is as tight a bunch as it used to be. and i ain't never read any rule or law about givin' a buy 2 days. do they have that authority? that one is really funny. anyway, good luck craig. hunt hard and keep after it. hope it all works out. wish i was out there with a tag. Lark.

poor kid, you look just like your ol' man. Lark.

whenever i hunt in griz country i just get on a peak and holler real loud "HEY ALL YOU STINKIN' GRIZZLE BEARS, I'M GONNA BE HUNTIN' HERE FOR AWHILE. YOU MIGHT OUGHTA GO SOMEPLACE ELSE TILL I'M DONE. YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID TO YOUR BUDDY FRED LAST TIME". it's worked so far. Lark.

lets hope it's a wolf. Lark.

lines73, if your dad's name ain't steve i'll eat my hat. good bull. Lark.

i just love these kinda things. when it's all done and over somebody always ends up bein' millyvanilly and hasta go underground. c'mon other guys. i wanna hear the re-butt-all. Lark.

ain't pursuing big game with a vehicle sorta against the law? and why does this guy need a team o' folks to corral this bull for him? can't he get it done himself? ain't it a 14 day season? i'm so confused. i'm interested in seein' what kinda crow gets ate. and who gets to eat it. i'm thinkin' that even if this guy kills the new world record, he ain't gonna get a lotta positive press bout it after this incident gets chunked into the mix. good luck craig. you still have over a week and that ain't the only big bull up there. and the later in the season the better it gets. shrug this off and go get one. and i wouldn't let the azgfd drop the ball on this one. like they like to do. needs to be some real lookin' into this one. Lark.

i don't know him, but i can't wat to find out who it is. who was the outfitter? same guy? sad story to hear a big bull like that getting away and then hearing that lowlifes had a lot to do with it. 2 years ago i woulda called bs on the lung shot deal and it getting away. my son shot a 370+ 7x7. it went a couple hunnerd yards and laid down in a meadow. rolled around, swinging it's head. then it got up and went another hunnerd yards or so and laid down. same thing. and it did it a couple more times. we figgerd liver shot. if finally made it several hunnerd yards and into the trees and he snuck up and stuck him again. said it sounded like you pulled the plug on a air mattress. big whoosh and the air came outta it's lungs and it died. first shot was a picture perfect, behind the leg double lung shot. you might could say it was maybe 2 inches higher than perfect, because it didn't hit the heart. but i had never seen a lungshot bull go more than maybe 150 yards and die. but not this time. never could figger out what the deal was, but it happened to us. hope you have better luck the rest of the season and hope these other fellers butts grow shut. Lark.

i meant to post this when i did it. went to new mex and shot a "texas dall" with my .44mag few weeks ago. knew i was gonna be out o' commission for awhile and wanted to shoot something. in fact i bought the one i used from a guy on here. i tried a buncha ammo and ended up using hornady leverevolution 235 grain. they kick pretty hard and are designed for a rifle, but shot fine in this model 629. i ordered some bullets and plan on reloading a bunch and shoot them exclusively. so if you're gonna take a pistol on a hunt, you might give em a good look. i think they make em in .357 too. shot that little ram at 75 yards and he went down pretty quick. anyway, thought i would add a little field report. Lark.

"i heard i was dead so many times i started thinkin' i was dead too. then i figgerd out i was just in nebraska". little bill, unforgiven. welcome home. Lark.

if i could crawl around i'd do it. this new knee is still really sore. whenever i build a trailer i always put the wires in a conduit. most of the time with trailer lights, it's a grounding problem. good luck. Lark.

great buck, greater story. good on ya for the shot follow up. congratulations. he might not be the 4x4, but he will still fit in a fryin' pan. Lark.

Rusty always does a really good job. he's a good dude too. and he makes some really great salami and sausage and stuff if you like it. but what you do with if before you get it to the locker has more to do with the meat quality than what the butcher does after he gets it. skin em quick. if you can hang em, get out the ol' stihl and split em right then too. if you can't split it, cut the legs off and peel out the backstraps and split the neck down to the bone so that the heat can get out of it. and don't ever wrap one in plastic. even a big ol' rank bull is good eatin' if you do your part. Lark.

i saw an article this morning that said that mexican army folks crossed the border at el paso and fired automatic weapons at some texas hunters. i couldn't make my computer copy the link. didn't say, but it sounded like dove hunters. anyway, the mexicans shot at the hunters with machine guns and ran em off and then stoled their chairs and went back. it ain't long before there is a full scale shoot out on our side of the border between either mexican cops, soldiers or dope runners and when it happens i hope the Americans are real good shots. this kinda stuff really pisses me off. where the h e l l is our gov't? ridiculous. Lark.

helluva buck for sure. Lark.

you guys like all that foofoo stuff on your goat? i like 3 things, salt, black pepper and flop it in flour and fry it well done in a little oil. and make some gravy with the leavin's. and either grated crunchy fried taters or biscuits. or both. and i like to slice it about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. pronghorn has some real flavor to it and it don't like to cover it with a buncha other stuff. same with deer and elk. and i never want garlic in the same room with it. garlic makes game taste rank to me. try it. save all that marinade for beef, chicken and javelina. Lark.

"courage"? ok, i saw a white cow by hannagan meadow a month ago. i even have photos. is that courageous enough? Lark.

amanda, you don't use a c clamp to hold your range finder? Lark.