kwp

Great story, that last picture is priceless!!

I remember one of my dad's hunting buddies jokingly telling me, "there's a reason there aint no roads there, cause it aint worth going there." I do love to get back in a ways to get away from other people, like Amanda said, that's part of the fun.

Hopefully they learn from Leica's mistake and put the button in reasonable location. Swarovski has always sold their designs as "ergonomic" so I bet they thought that out.

There's a recall of Pearce going on, how many signatures will it take to recall Grijalva?

Looks like Escudillo with Profanity ridge in the near background and Terry Flat in the far background. With the wind direction and that steep slope it isn't hard to imagine the fire just racing right up it. Hopefully the rest of the fire was more spotty.

I took my 2009 buck to Devin (Becker) at Arizona Wildlife Designs and he did a great job on an absolutely beautiful mount. My kill shot on the buck exited through his lower neck and ruined the cape. Devin was able to get his hands on a good looking cape last December that he used for my buck. Here are some photos of the great work that Devin does. Thanks for the beautiful mount Devin! Here's the link to the story of the hunt: http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=16756&st=0

This series wasn't really a true test of the two teams. UA's ace was out with a concussion and they had to pitch a few girls that had never pitched in college and one who hadn't pitched since her freshman year in High School. Congrats to ASU on beating up on a team hit with the injury bug. If all goes well for both teams they'll be able to match up in the College Softball World Series when it really matters.

There are two components of the sunflower seed that need to be considered, the quality of the seed, and the flavor. When it comes to flavor, I still prefer the old fashioned salted with David and Frito Lay having the best. As for seed quality, the seed needs to crack well without splintering or falling apart. David's uses terrible seeds with the shell usually splintering. Frito Lay and Spitz use good quality seeds. Based on my two component method, Frito Lay original gets my vote.

WOW 143 1/8"

I have the J105 (the one they don't make anymore). I love the pack. It is built well, carry's a load well. I use the scabbard to carry my tripod with binos attached more than I use it to carry a rifle. If I didn't have the J105 I would probably get the gunslinger. As Youngbuck said, it is large enough for most hunts, but still a good size for those shorter day or half day hunts. The scabbard is a little larger which gives it more functionality. Regardless of which pack you get I'm sure it will be a great one.

This is nothing new. I remember being frustrated over the grid of quad tracks back in the mid-late 90's. 15 years later and little to nothing has been done and it's only getting worse.

Go cats! Sweet 16 Now let's go whoop the hated Blue Devils

the world is right again, ua basketball back in the top 25 in both polls, all alone at the top of the pac-10 standings with that other az school (if you could call it that) taking up their traditional spot in the cellar. Did anyone else notice that when ua basketball slumped, the economy crashed. I'm sure that the economy will recover now that ua basketball has. In the world of football, looks like ua clearly won the recruiting battle this year, further seperating the two programs. (good thing asu has hockey to fall back on - are they even ncaa teams?)

I agree with super jumbo, that's a nice buck but it has a really small frame. I'm guessing 100". Give him a couple years and let his frame grow into it's potential and then he'll be a monster.

I think you made the right decision to not shoot, especially since they knew you were there. Did BP show up in the area and do you know if they caught them?

I've seen quite a few groups of illegal aliens and drug runners in my days in 36b as well as the other border units and in almost all cases I've glassed them up and they never knew I was there. There was one instance where I spotted a group of drug runners right about the time they spotted me and they were trying to hide from me as quickly as I was trying to get out of there. Like others have said, hunt in a group, carry a side arm and be extra aware of your surroundings. Much of 36b has towers throughout it that use some technology to search for illegals. Many of these towers are manned by security guards. I've camped close to one of these towers before which gave me a little more sense of security both while sleeping and when leaving supplies at camp. My uncle had an interesting story this last weekend in 34a. He and a buddy were hunting together when they were approached by 2 heavily armed BP agents. Apparently someone had called in seeing 5 drug runners with 2 armed escorts in the area. My uncle and his buddy decided to just sit tight where they were. Over the next half-hour, several more BP agents as well as the helicopter came into the area. A short time later the helicopter was doing low, tight circles in an area a few hundred yards south of them. A little later a group of BP agents came about 70 yards from them, in the wash bottom, with two men in handcuffs and 5 more carrying drugs. Cell phone signal is spotty in southern arizona but make sure you have the appropriate numbers to report any suspicioius activity.

unfortunately I saw this a day too late. How'd the meeting go? I'd love to see an archery park in NW Tucson.

congrats Andy! Add another species to the list of great animals that you've taken with a bow.

I remember some discussion a few years back about AZ possibly changing the spotlighting law so that it is illegal to spotlight during or within a certain number of days of a season. I couldn't find anything in the regs other than not to spotlight with a weapon in your vehicle. Can anybody confirm the laws? I'll be doing some elk scouting this weekend and was just wondering if the opening of archery deer will make spotlighting illegal. Thanks in advance.

Here's another source of maps to try: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/1/ The "Arizona Topo" maps are 1:24K topo maps with the majority of the roads, trails, creeks, springs, tanks, etc. They load onto my Garmin Etrex Vista so I would think that they would work on your GPS as well. They're free too.

looks great Scott! congrats again on the kitty cat.

Way to go Knowlton!

I went today and bought a few things. The shelves weren't fully stocked but they are open. Seems like it will be a great store. If you're looking for the store it is on the west side of Craycroft at 26th street (just south of 22nd).

My brother Brian and I were fortunate enough to draw late coues deer tags in a southern unit. We had not spent a lot of time in the unit but had always seen good bucks in the time that we had spent. We both had 8-9 days to hunt and decided that we weren't going to shoot a buck that we didn't think would go 105". We were each able to spend a hand full of days scouting but neither of us found a buck that we wanted to harvest so we opted to hunt an area where we had seen the type of bucks we were looking for in the past even though we didn't find them scouting. Opening day finally rolled around and we were so excited we could hardly stand it. The weather was perfect, cold and clear. We hiked about a mile up to a ridge that over-looked some nice stock tanks and some "perfect" coues country. Our excitement quickly diminished when not five minutes into glassing I found six illegals coming through a saddle towards us. We watched them lay up under some oak trees. Then I quickly found another illegal in a different spot that was taking a poop. Then I got a text from my wife saying that some of our irrigation pipes broke at home and the back yard is flooding. This all happened in about the first 15 minutes and we hadn't seen any deer yet. Needless to say we weren't excited about how the hunt had started. The rest of the day went pretty good though. We moved around the illegals and repositioned near another stock tank. Here is a picture of a doe that came in to the tank during the middle of the day. Throughout the rest of the day we managed to glass about 40 deer including 7 small bucks. Brian also got a quick glimpse of a nice cat but couldn't ever get it in the cross-hairs. Here are some pics of a few of the small bucks and the sunset hiking back to camp that evening. That night my buddy Mike (Steward224) joined us to help glassing. The next morning we went into a different area and started seeing deer immediately. I found a group of does that had a small 3 pt chasing them around when my brother says that he has a group of 4 bucks and one, maybe two of them look big. I repositioned to find the bucks that were about a mile away. I was only able to watch them for a few quick moments before they moved down the ridge and out of view but I could tell that we needed to get a better look at two of them. We made a plan and went on a mad dash to get in front of them and got into position just in time to watch them go through a saddle and once again out of view. This time we saw them at 550 yards and were able to tell that the smaller of the mature bucks was a 3 pt that we guessed would go 95". We could see that the bigger buck was a 3 pt with big eyeguards and a kicker coming off his left side. We guessed that he would go around 105". We then moved to a peak that overlooks the basin that they went into. It was getting later in the morning so we knew that the bucks would be bedding soon. We spent the rest of the day on the peak looking for the bucks and found lots of does and javelinas but never found the bucks. Brian had to go home that night so on our long hike back to camp we discussed a plan for Mike and I for the next morning. The morning of Day 3 Mike and I were once again on the same peak overlooking the basin where we thought that the bucks would be. It was another clear, cold morning but was a little windy. We were seeing some deer and javelina but still no bucks. Finally after a couple of hours I saw the other 3 bucks coming out of the canyon bottom but the big one wasn't with them. The other bucks continued to move up the ridge and the big buck never came out. After looking for what seemed like an eternity Mike says, "I've got a bedded buck and I think he might be your buck." The buck was bedded down the hill and behind the other bucks but he was in the shade and we couldn't tell much about him. He eventually moved his head and we could see not one but two kickers coming off of his left side. We immediately knew it was the same buck and a shooter. I got positioned for the steep downhill, 270 yard shot and squeezed one off. I heard the 'whop' and saw the buck flinch and start kicking. I then put another one in him to make sure that he never got out of his bed. Here are a few photos, thank to Mike and Brian for all the help! The rest of the story is told in my brother's words. Friday Dec. 18 was my next opportunity to hunt. After my brother, Kevin, killed his great buck I wanted to kill a big buck so bad I could taste it. My brother and my buddy Dave and I hiked into an area near where my brother had killed his buck. That morning we glassed about 25 deer including several small to decent bucks. In the middle of the day we decided to move about a mile into an area where we had glassed several deer that morning and where we had seen some good bucks in the past. Right as we got into the area we started kicking deer off their beds right and left so we decided to sit down and start glassing even though we hadn't reached the point we planned to glass from. Not too long after we sat down some air-force jets started flying right over, I mean right over our heads. We could see the pilots. They must have been only 100 feet off the ground or so. All the commotion got the deer stirred up and we started to see more deer getting off their beds and moving around. My brother said, "I see about four deer running over a ridge about 300 yards away, they look like all does, oh wait, BIG BUCK!" I never even got a look at him before he went over the ridge but my brother said, "He had a huge frame. He was wide and had like 10" G2s." Dave said, "I didn't get a good look at him but he looked like a mule deer buck going over the ridge." Now I was excited. We moved to glass into the canyon they ran into sure that we would find them again. We spent five hours that evening looking and never found him. Dave had to go home that evening. Kevin and I figured out the best vantage point to glass the country we had last seen the buck in and that is where we set up the next morning. Here is a picture as we waited for the sun to come up. It was still pretty dark and we hadn't found any deer yet when my brother says, "There is a deer standing in the same place we saw that buck yesterday and I think it is a big buck." We were looking through ocotillos in the dark at 1000 yards and could tell this was probably the buck we had seen the day before. He quickly fed down into the canyon out of view. We moved to where we could see into the canyon he was in and within about 10 minutes we were set up and sure that we would find him this time. We glassed for about 30 minutes to no avail when my brother says, "I see a different buck bedded on the next ridge over." We could tell he was a decent buck but the sun was still just starting to come up and the buck was still as a statue and we couldn't tell much about him. We continued to look for the first buck and keep an eye on the second buck. Once the sun hit the second buck he got up and started to feed and we could see he was pretty solid, we guessed him around 100". We continued to look for the first buck and watch the second buck. The more I watched the second buck the more I started to think he was bigger than we thought but I new there was a giant somewhere right in front of me that we couldn't find. We looked for the first buck for 2.5 hours and never found him. The second buck moved out of view. We decided to move to the next canyon to get a better look at the second buck. We got set up and my brother says, "There is the buck chasing some does and they are about to go over the ridge." I took a quick look at him and saw his mass and realized he was better than we had guessed. I told by brother, "That buck looks good, I am going to hammer him." He stopped for a second and I double lunged him at about 250 yards. When we walked up to him I knew he would meet my goal of 105" or better. Part of the reason we had under judged him was his body was absolutely huge! What a fantastic hunt! A December tag that was all we dreamed about. The weather was great, we glassed lots of deer and other critters, we had no trouble with illegals, and killed two great bucks. Thanks to my brother especially for all his help. I glassed his deer the first time but he returned the favor and glassed mine. Maybe someday I will learn to hold out for a giant. Our bucks both scored just under 110"

The Freak is a great bat. I have the Freak and Freak Plus. I play in Tucson at Sports Park which used to be USSSA and allow the Freaks, they recently switched to ASA and they are illegal. Anybody who plays USSSA would be getting a great bat if they bought this one from daryl_s