PRDATR

Breast them out. Take a paring knife and following the bone and remove the meat from each side. Rinse off the blood clots if there are any and remove any pellets. Put them in a bowl of ice water and salt for a couple of hours to remove some of the blood. Drain and slice each piece lengthwise into four pieces. In a small bowl mix chili powder, granulated garlic, ground cumin and pepper (no salt). Mix this with the dove and let sit for a few hours to overnight. Chop up some fresh garlic, serrano or jalapeno and put in a skillet with oil. I use a hot cast iron skillet and then add olive oil and put in the dove and veggies and add some oregano. If you want salt you can add it after the dove begins to turn brown on one side (about 2 minutes. With a spatula turn the dove over an dlet it cook for another couple of minutes as the peppers cook and the garlic begins to carmelize. Don't overcook. You want the dove to be tender to the touch. You want to flip them while there is still a tiny bit of pink and juice on the top but they are browned on the botton. Most people don't like dove because the first time they ate it the cook over did them giving it that "dry liver taste". I serve it with either flour or fresh corn tortillas with sides of chopped green onion tops, cilantro and diced plum tomato. I have never met anyone who didn't come back for seconds. Of course if you don't like mex then your SOL. I have also chopped up some bacon for added flavor once or twice. I'll serve this with Mango Salsa and some rice and maybe some black beans. I like Mahatma Yellow rice and add some tomato sauce and chili power and some serrano pepper a bit of corn sliced off the cobb. Mango Salsa is made using the yellow mango's (not the green/red ones, more serrano (seeds optional)diced red onion, cilantro and some poblano pepper. You can get by with about 5 mangos and it serves about 5 people. Add a bit of salt 1/2tsp and let it sit overnight or 24hrs for best taste.

Hello and Welcome. This will give you a place to start for hunting unit info. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_units.shtml With that said, there is no better teacher than spending time out in the woods and observing wildlife. This will also give you a starting place. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hf_resources.shtml There is almost always something to hunt in AZ including rabbits and predators whuch can be done inexpensively with a single shot shotgun. G&F also has a few books for sale and one I believe has pictures of animal tracks. One way to observe tracks is to walk a stream bed and look along the bank for tracks. Sandy washes are another place and if you walk them during the first half hour after sunrise while the sun is low the light will cast a shadow across the track making them a bit easier to detect. Tracking an animal which has been shot and bleeding requires locating the initial blood trail and marking the spots with something like tissue paper so you can get a general direction of where it is going as well as being able to backtrack to the last know blood spot if the trail disappears. Call G&F or go into the local office and see what info they have or see if you can do a ride along with one of their field people. Taking a Hunter Ed course will also get you a bunch of knowledge and you'll meet others with a like interest. Just remember, you are going to see something cool and learn something new everytime you venture into the field. If you didn't then you weren't paying attention. LOL. WHen you are in the forest don't just look ahead or down. Look up too. Thats where you'll see porcupines and owls sitting up on the branches of Ponderosa Pines. Flip over rocks and roll logs too, theres plenty to see there too. Tell us about your hunt. Good Luck.

Did you contact the range? Did it have your name and Phone Number on it?

I have a Garmin 12XL I bought new maybe 15 years ago but wanted something I could load topo maps on so I upgraded last month to the 60csx when REI had them on clearence. I am looking forward to using it this year.

Oh yeah, way too many cameras. I'd like to see the National Forest make it mandatory that in order to even be able to set out a camera the owner must first have a valid tag (Not OTC) and the camera has to be removed 30 days before the season opener and an engraved ID Tag with the owners info on the camera.

Go to Wide World of Maps and get a topo or BLM Maps. Look for water and get high and glass and do a lot of walking.

30-50#'s

It took me about 15 seconds to figure out what was going on (so I not the sharpest broadhead in the quiver)but though it was very hunter oriented.

I never considered it, or heard of doing so. The way I look at it is, the price is set for a service and a quality job is expected. If it is not performed then we talk about why and whether some of the money is returned. This of course goes without saying that I give the taxidermist an animal that was prepped correctly and taken care of. I always give 50% of the money upfront and pay the rest usually before the mount is done. I don't expect museum quality mounts from the average taxidermist but if that is what I want then I research the taxidermists out there and choose accordingly. Going this route you can expect to pay more and have a longer wait.

Great pictures, thanks for posting them they bring back a lot of memories of when I hunted 29 back in th elate 80's and early 90's. We always camped in Mexican Camp and always found deer up high.

No but there is a place on the westside of town that rents optics that I rented a Leica Rangefinder from a few years ago. I think they are on Van Buren. Someone will chime in with the name.

If I go that route I will buy shade screen from HD.

I have been looking all over with no luck and don't have accesss to a sewing machine to have one made. I have two framepacks, one is a Kelty probably 10 years old and the other is so old I can't remember where I got it, maybe SW. The ones on my packs are getting worn through. Any help would be appreciated

Amanda, I have really enjoyed the website and am tickled I was able to give something useful back.

It is my favorite unit next to 29 but I stopped putting in for the late hunts. In my experience WT find an area they like and stay put year after year. I have found bucks in August and they were still there in November. Bucks I have found in February while pig hunting were back in the same area the following year. Just my experience hunting the east side of Mt Lemmon. Get as far away from the roads as you can and glass all day. Two years ago while glassing a saw a troup of about 40-50 Coaties which was pretty cool in itself. I agree with SunDevil, way too many tags. Good Luck

Between the Heavy Metal and computerized effects it gets old pretty fast. Many don't realize how good we have it here, even with the draw system. States like Texas, Pennsylvania and Alabama have very little public land to hunt on. Add in the dense forests east of the Mississippi and tree stand hunting, boring as it is, is unfortunately the only alternative for some when the area available to hunt is measured in acres. A lot of Texas is flat and full of scrub which makes our style of spot and stalk ineffective. Actually one or two shows a year about AZ Hunting is all I want to see, sssssshhhhhh. I'd rather not see an influx of out of state hunters. As for Barta, well he has a lot of moxey and I pray he makes a full recovery. Other shows I enjoy are Jim Shockey and Larry Csonka. No craziness and high fives every time someone farts.

Like Kaibabhunter said, they are there throughout most of the unit from the Ponderosa by Morman Lake all the way down to Clearcreek and practically into Camp Verde. Pick an area that best suits the type of vehicle you drive and go camping for the weekend. Drive the roads at sunrise and sunset and you will see them.

That is a great bull. Congrats to the hunter, I wonder how many times he went afield looking for this bull before me finally pulled the trigger? My guess is that the bull probably had some broken tines last year so he waited for them to regrow. Either way he sure looks like a happy camper to me and my hats off to him.

I spoke to a hunter near the lake in 07 or 08 and he told me that he and his wife saw that cat walking down the road a few miles south of there. No pics though.

Very respectable buck. My son and I have that tag this year and will be doing our best to scout and learn the area before the hunt. Good buck and Good Luck!!! Good, have them send the dinks (8x8's 6x6, 4x4's) our way. LOL Two of my buddies finally drew it...after 12 or 13 years of waiting... They are SOOOO Stoked! There will be an all-star cast of hunters in their camp and it will be "Big or Nothing"... Hope I get to go up for the first few days to help out...and I hope it is Colder than a Well Digger's Arse!!! I can't imagine waiting that long for a tag. I have been vey fortunate and have been drawn for the Kaibab 3 out of the 4 times I put in over the last 30 years. I agree, the colder the better and two feet of snow on the plateau the week before would be sweet but we all know that isn't going to happen. JUst wish I put down 12A for 1st choice instead of 12BW. What the heck was I thinking? LOL

Definately insure them (and take a picture)and send them off to Bushnell. Turn around time is usually just a couple of weeks. If they can't fix them they wil probably give you a chance to upgrade them at little to no cost. Techincally we still in the "off season" so don't wait too much longer or turn around time might increase.

In 6A about 1990 a buddy and I were archery deer hunting and scouting for an up comming Elk hunt when we wandered into a bedded Elk herd. They spooked but only ran off 30 yards or so. I sat up against a tree and soon a calf bedded back down and the rest came back. A raghorn started heading my way and came so close he was toe to toe with me. This lasted for a few minutes before I movd a foot enough to spook him. Last year in 6A my son spotted movement which turned out to be a 5X that was broken off on one side. He had a few cows with him so my son waited for an open shot but missed his opportunity and they disappeared into the junipers below us about a hundred yards away. So off he goes in pursuit and after about 10 minutes I hear movement and assume it is junior headed back. Wrong, it was the heard and there headed directly to me. I was standing on a boulder so I turn to face away from them and they make their way feeding right up to me, within 5 feet, taking their time because I had the wind to my back they knew something was up but meanderd off. My son was besides himself when I told him what happened. I can't remember how many times I was almost nailed by hawks comming into a predator call. Last time was in Unit 29 while I was calling for spring bear. We were up on the side of a mountain about 10am calling into a canyon when movement caught my eye as I looked straight ahead. It was a Red Tailed Hawk about 10ft away coming in for the kill with wings outstreched and talons in front of him. When it realized I wasn't lunch he veared off at the last second and landed about 30ft away in a snag. I don't know who was more suprised. A few years before that I was back in camp, again in 29, after slipping in the snow and hitting my scope on a boulder which let the charge out when a clump of snow fron a Pinyon branch landed in the bell at the same time making the scope unusable. I made a sandwich before grabing my spare rifle and was sitting in a chair when I heard what sounded like a dog fight coming from the mountain across from camp a few hundred yards away. As I looked up here comes a black wolf in full stride hauling butt for the canyon. I never did see him again on that hunt which was back in the late 80's. The year before my buddy and I were back in 29 and hike up and over a mountain a mile or so from camp and ended up in the clouds for the last hundred yards or so. When we crested the top we gazed down into a huge bowl shaped canyon and started to class. After a fwe minutes my buddy says, what the heck is that a Corsican Ram? I glass it up and it turns out to be an all white Coues buck that looked to be a heavy 3 or 4 by. Wasn't much we could do as he was close to 800 yards away.

Very respectable buck. My son and I have that tag this year and will be doing our best to scout and learn the area before the hunt.

I've loaded lots of 7-08 with IMR 4064 using that powder measure and never had a problem with clogging even once. Just get into a rythm and move the handle firmly on the up and down strokes.

I have 234K on my Y2K F250 which weighs almost 4 Tons; 1. 235/85-16 E Goodyear, came on truck got about 35K, quiet street tire. 2. 285/70 -16 D Dunlop Rover, barely made 25K, quiet, center tread wore too quickly (Discount) 3. 285/70-16 D Discount Tire house brand BFG AT clones traded up to BFG AT when I got a failure and it took 5 days to get another. Reason was they were phasing them out and could not find a replacement. 4. 285/70-16 D BFG AT got about 45K per tire but had flat spots after sitting overnight for the last 5K, good tire and had a few replaced under warranty due to cuts and such driving offroad. Handled well except in snow. 5. 285/70-16 D Brigstone Dueler 45K plus could probably go to 55K, Held up well against rocks, quiet but too much sidewall flex at highway speeds on turns (high pucker factor the first time). (Tire Pro) 6. 305/55-20 E Nitto TG. Best of the bunch so far, no sidewall flex, soft compound, quiet. I have been running these for almost three years and had one last upwards of 55K. (BIG O) I like the look of the Hankook Dynapros, not too soft and a good pattern. My son was looking at them for his Colorado. IIRC Walmart also has them. Discount Tire by far had the best customer service and warranty support. BIG O was a not as good and not all of the stores could get the Nitto when I tried to have one replaced under warranty as some are independently owned. The BIG O stores were more of a challenge to get a tire replaced even with the road hazard warranty and nit picked too much.