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gene autry, roy rogers, patsy montana, michael martin murphy, red steagall, steppenwolf, etc. pass me down my shootin' iron, i think i'll go a huntin. pass me down my trusty fourty five. see the fire in my eye, watch my smoke when i ride by, pass me down my good ol' fourty five............ Lark.

i ain't for sure how the rules on those ranch assigments work exactly but from what i've experienced, the whole place has to be opened up and i don't think the rancher can limit you to just one part of the place. but you best talk to the game and fish and get the rules in writing. and it won't hurt anything to let the rancher limit you a little until his paying hunters fill. even if he legally can't do that. after their paying customers leave, which will be after the first day or so, they will most likely let you have your run of the place. a good friend got assigned to a place in new mex once that was just one section. one square mile. and there wernt a goat on it. he got on the highest point on it and about 8 in the morning some guys hunting around it ran a nice buck onto it and he shot it. from i-25 you can glass any number of record class bucks from wagon mound to raton. the closer you get to springer, the more you see. and that is from the highway. my boys went nuts looking at the big bucks along there when we drove up to colorado last year to hunt goats. they wanted to hunt there. you have an incredible opportunity here. make the most of it. you are also going to be suprised how small 30,000 acres in the prarie can end up being. so get real familiar with the boundaries. most of those ranches are real irregular in shape. if you think a rancher will get pissed if you shoot a buck on his place he didn't want you to, wait till you shoot one on the wrong place. same as poaching. those folks make a good bit of cash from landowner permits evey year and they can get sorta non-understanding if ya break the rules. do you know how many hunters the rancher will have there? but again, seriously, do some homework. maybe make a trip up there before the season and see if they'll let ya poke around a little. from my experience there, you have a real golden opportunity. Lark.

i've been to tucson. drove through there tuesday. i was impressed i could hold my breath that long. they have who of a and they want to secede from the state. it's a real garden spot. i know all about raul grijalva and his ways and where his district is. if you wanna live there, have at it. anything south of i-10 is lost anyway. at least until we get a president that is willing to take it back. if ya can't take a little teasin' i don't know what to tell ya. guess maybe they need some more dermatologists there, to help folks thicken up their skin a little. Lark.

i think we should declare war on mexico and if we win, they hafta take back the gadsen purchase. or at least tucson. Lark.

what else could they do? this fire had to devastate the turkey herd. well, that and the fact that they will need them for wolf food now that the deer and elk herd took a hit too. Lark.

there are big goats stacked up in that country. i drive i-25 going to colorado going goat hunting there every year and wish i was hunting there instead. don't know exactly what ranch you are on, but hold out for a big one. Lark.

my cousin sent me the most current map of the wallow fire. showed all the places that are still burning and all the places that did burn. one thing really jumped out at me, the fire basically just stopped at the rez line on both the san carlos and fort apache. it burned over on them a mile or so in a couple places, but it just stopped right at the line for almost the whole distance of the fire. do the apaches have asbestos trees or something or does the fact that they still actively log and run cattle, 2 things that thin the undergrowth just by allowing them, have something to do with it? i guess the main denominator, or lack of tho is they don't have the forest circus or the usfw and all the treehuggers to deal with. anyway, it was interesting to me. Lark.

a half million torched acres ain't enough for some folks i guess, http://www.wmicentral.com/news/latest_news/fireworks-show-in-springerville-eagar-sparks-brush-fires/article_d2914b68-a65f-11e0-a7e7-001cc4c002e0.html

i finally bought me a cheap stainless .357. put 3 snake loads in it and 3 hollowpoints. i never had to get to the hollowpoints. they hate snakeloads in the butt. sometimes down there you spend more time fighting with bears than you do fishing. the bears are accustomed to woofing and bouncing around on their front feet a little and folks drop all their fish and run off. this one i encountered got real cornfused when it didn't work with me. i don't think he had any intention of hurting me or even knowing how. he'd made an easy living on the river and never had to do anything violent. but the bears you have to worry about are the tame ones that hang around people. i've been around literally hundreds of bears. except for a few tame ones, the rest only wanted to get away. they hate people. bears are a neat animal. really cool to watch them. remind me a lot of dumb fat kid. always in trouble. but they can also take down a bull elk if they want to. hope this lady pulls through ok. personally, i'd love to have a big ol' bear claw scar on my face. what a conversation piece. women ain't that way. i wonder if the dog had anything to do with the attack? wonder if it barked at the bear or bit it or anything? Lark.

some years ago i got into a tussle with a bear below military crossing on the black. he was probably less than 200 lbs. not a baby by any means but not a big ol' boar either. he was a male. he had harrassed me for a coulpe hours and i thought i finally ran him off and forgot about him. anyway the sob snuck up behind me and grabbed my stringer and pulled me over backwards. i thought i just tripped or something. as i started to roll over to stand up here is this stinkin' fish thief sittin' there with one o' my hard earned bass in his mouth. i got up on my knees and slugged him in the mouth and the dropped the fish and then started looking for it. i then proceeded to pound him mercilessly with rocks and ended up hitting him in the mouth with one that knocked off a buncha his teeth. i got a sprained ankle outta the deal and he lost some teeth but i got all my fish back. i limped on down the creek another mile or so and came across a really big, really fresh track. i had a pistol in my pocket but didn't want to shoot a bear on the rez so i said heck with it and limped back to the truck. at the time i thought it was kinda funny. i've never been much afraid o' black bears. the only thing they seem to want to do with people is get away. that is the wild ones. these welfare bears like the one that mauled this lady and the one i got in the fight with are the dangerous ones. this poor lady was just in the wrong place. she was probably out walking her pup so he wouldn't take a dump n their room and came across this welfare bear. molly butlers always has welfare bears in their dumpster. they get pretty smart and get used to easy food. i sure hope she recovers completely. had to be real traumatic. Lark.

i read a few years ago that they had gotten sort of established down around nogales. wonder how long it will take em to put a limit on em? i hope they never have a season. i just don't think it'd be right to put in for possum. i'll bet i'm the only guy here who has eaten possum. it's pretty good, but dang it's greasy. i always make waitresses mad in kentucky when i ask if they have possum on the menu. Lark.

casey, i thought the main thing you asked her was "is you sister comin' to the family reunion this year"? man, i'm sorry. i am an absolutely horrible person. but i couldn't help myself. Lark.

i'm the last guy to go with the globabl warming crap, but it doesn't rain as much now as it did a few years ago. that is a big part of the problem. that combined with the other factors has made things tough. you guys that work for the usfs need to really read what folks say. they ain't yellin' at you. but they are upset with the company you work for. and the company you work for has made some really stupid, glaring, idiotic decisions lately. don't even consider the wallow fire. how many controlled burns got away from the usfs just in the white mt's last year? what about that little controlled burn that got away and burned los alamos a few years ago? when every major deciding factor was violated by the management there. a guy can't even go camping anymore without some weirdo from the usfs coming to your camp and basically threatening you with prison time if you let your fire get away. some john denver looking weirdo with gloves on came in our camp twice last summer to tell us we were going to go to prison if our fire got away and we didn't have a fire either time he was there. folks are having more and more negative contact with the usfs and seldom have a positive contact. it is harder to enjoy the woods. more and more regulation. less and less freedom. even if you're doing things right. here's another good one. what about that scar the usfs cut from atchison res. to big lake? supposed to be a quad trail and stuff but now it is just for hiking. in a place where nobody hikes. i would bet it has never been used. the usfs cut a gash across some really neat prarie for no reason other than to spend a few bucks. there are probably hundreds of other examples that others can add to the list too that i don't know about. add all this up and then toss this fire on top of it and folks get a little riled up. it's real apparant that things could have been handled differently. some really good communication would have helped. i haven't seen one thing where they usfs ha s refuted any rumors. that would help. it makes a guy wonder why they haven't. it's a dang shame that the idiots that started this fire did. but it's also a shame the things the led up to the situation that added to it and helped it get outta control. it's a big problem and joe forest ranger is in hard place. but that's the nature of the beast. if you're gonna ride for the brand you have to be able to take the negative stuff too. i worked for the power company for 31 years. i can't even start to tell you how many times i got yelled at by customers because of things i had no control over. it's hard to not take it personall. but ya can't. good luck. Lark.

looks like fryin' bacon on the sidewalk is gonna be possible. we're stayin' in town. if it would rain, i'd like to get outta town. but not this weekend. Lark.

most of the time it pisses me off when they kill problem bears. like the one last summer over by safford that was just passing through. but this one needed shot. if they woulda just moved him or whatever, he woulda done it again. Lark.

last time i got in a fight with a bear the stinkin' jerks tested me for rabies to see if i gave it to the bear! he bit me first! i hope this lady gets well. i see they finished their tests on the bear, but don't have any conclusions yet. it's wierd he came back 3 times. most of the time a black bear will get outta dodge if you just holler and clap your hands. where did it say she was walking at midnight? i didn't see that part. Lark

first off, what kind of a gun is it? sometimes you can rechamber a barrel, if there is enough diameter left. they usually get skinnier the farther down the barrel you go. target shooter do it a lot. they burn out the chamber and first bit of rifles and move the chamber in deeper and rethread it. but you are usually only talking about maybe a half inch. i'd say look for a new barrel. help to know what kinda gun it is. what the h e l l happened to it anyway? looks like somebody wanted a flute. Lark.

where did it rain up there amanda? run any water? this rain needs to quit teasing and just get to it. Lark.

i was tryin' to do a documentary on wart hogs. Lark.

casey, quit usin' them earplugs dummy. if you don't use em long enough you can't hear nothin'. trust me, it works. first pistol i ever bought was a model 19 smith combat magnum. immediately went out and shot a whole box o' ammo through it. after about 20 i noticed my ears really hurt. i actually tore some o' the stuffing outta the seat on my ol' pickup where it was pokin' out of a hole in the cover and stuffed it in my ears. i never did hear good after that. i think if would have had some muffs or ear plugs that day my hearing would be much better than it is now. protect your ears while you can still hear. we had been trying to tree a lion once for several days. he would tree, but would always jump before we got there. finally put him up a pretty big ponderosa. as i rode up he started to jump the tree so i shot him with my .44 mag while still in the saddle. all i really remember is all the sudden my ears started ringing and my mule went to bucking all over the country side. killed the cat, but dang it hurt my ears. Lark.

don't do like amanda says and put em in strange places. i did that and got arrested. i never figgerd anybody would notice one in the girl's room at the love's truck stop. next time i ain't puttin' my name and address on it either. Lark.

i like them model 70's. but i hate to tell ya, ain't no way you can shoot good with that non-fat barrel. or at least that's what i've been told by all the experts on here. how do you like that boyd stock? did it fit well? how much work did it take to fit the barrel and get the action in tight? i've looked at em on the net, but never bought one. is the thumbhole big enough for a buy with big thumbs? nice rifle, Lark.

i would say about 90% of the rank and file usfs guys that i know are good folks. i've met real orifices, but my opinion of joe forest ranger is quite positive. when you get into the management is where the problems are. same as any big company. everyone builds little empires within the empire. and if you wanna rise above the middle, you hafta buy in to whatever the politics dictate. all big companies are the same way. the upper management decides on what course to take the company and if you want to be more than a grunt, you have to change your stripes to match theirs. you have to learn to like the chosen flavor of koolaid. even if at first you might not really believe in it. but the forest circus has deeeeeeeeeeeeeep problems. anytime you let burrocrats get rooted in, it's a bad thing. the forest circus is just another symptom of a big disease called gov't. and gov't is controlled by money and politics. and money and politics is what decides what happens to "OUR" forests. don't know where a guy would even start when it comes to fixing a 50 headed dragon like this. the guys out fighting the fires right now are just like guys in any big corporation, they hafta go fix the crap that the "smart" guys dream up. then make it work. no matter how poorly concieved or planned it was to start with. i can't really say what i think oughta happen because i'm sure the fbi would visit me tomorrow. but i don't see a viable answer to fix what is wrong here. i see some folks talking here with real experience and conviction. don't agree with all of it, but if i can take the parts i do agree with, i could come up with pretty much how i feel about it. i know one thing, it looks like it's gonna be a long hot summer. and some places that are very dear and intimate to me have either burned, are burning or will burn this summer. and a big reason it's happening is pisspoor management by folks with no accountability. these fires started a long time ago. on a buncha burrocrats desks. or under em. it just flamed up now. Lark.

good night, what a couple o' idiots. you seldom see anybody get prison time over poaching. glad these morons did. i've heard they treat child molesters bad in the joint, wonder how they are on poachers? well, glad they caught em. too bad it went on as long as it did. Lark.

i hate gittin' bear bit. worse thing about it is ya hafta bite em back and they taste like h e l l and ya git a big mouth fulla fur. hopefully she recovers and ain't all tore up and hopefully he wasn't rabid. the photo looked like a fair sized bear too. Lark.