rclouse79

After botching my AZ elk app I have been looking at other states. CO seems fairly reasonable and I have a couple friends who live there who hunt. I looked at the regulations online a little bit and my head started to hurt. I was hoping for some advice from anybody who has hunted there out of state. My goal would be to hunt cow elk during the first rifle season in October. I am wondering if there are over the counter tags, or if I will need to put in for a draw. I saw the deadline is in April, so I still have some time.

A big thanks to huntjunkie for sending some advice my way. After screwing up my Arizona app I was almost shaking before I hit the submit button on a non-refundable $600 charge to hunt elk this October in Colorado. It is to bad about their governor, but this hunt worked out to perfectly to pass up. It is during my week off of work, and my old hunting buddy from Arizona now lives there and he is going to hunt with me.

I was reading over new posts and my stomach just sank. Last Thursday I called because my credit card had been canceled for some stupid security breach reason. Yup you guessed it, same card I put in for the elk draw. I want to break something right now so bad. I went on the site to update my info, but I know it is too late. Time to go sell something and buy and out of state tag.

From now on I will be hand delivering a money order to the Game and Fish Department.

Great video. My favorite part is after he realizes what happened and says "woah, can we do it again?"

This year I boned out my javalina and kept the meat in a cooler with ice, water, apple cider vinegar, and salt for three days. I think it made the meat more tender and it tasted great. My wife even gave the green chili javalina stew two thumbs up.

I tried something new I read on the internet. I skinned the javalina, took of all four quarters, backstraps and tenderlions in the field. I came home and cut all the meat off and threw it in a cooler. I added just enought water to cover the meat and added salt, apple cider vinegar, ice, and stirred it up. Morning and evening I drained the cooler and added more ice, salt and vinegar. After three days I used kitchen scissors to cut up everything except the backstraps and tenderloins into stew meat. I am going to let it hard freeze for a week before I give it a try. If it turns out any good I will post. From what I reasearched on line it is suppose to make the meat more tender and get rid of any game taste.

Old Crow Medicine Show is pretty much the only station I listen to on Pandora. My favorite songs are "Big Time in the Jungle", "Wagon Wheel", and "Down Home Girl". I am not big on concerts, but I would have gone to that one if I didn't have a track meet that day. Good stuff.

My neighbor wants to go elk hunting with me this year so I took him javalina hunting for a warm up. I had been to the spot I wanted to camp and hunt years before in my Nissan Frontier. I found out on the way to camp that my Suburban will not go everywhere the light little pickup used to go. We started skidding out on a steep section of road, so I backed up a bit and we felt drop. I tried to go back forward with no luck. My stomach dropped when I got out to see the rear passenger tire had gone over a rock that was now in contact with the floorboards. The first attempt to free the truck was jacking it up enough to put rocks under the tire to give it some traction. . . . fail. We jacked it up one more time and found that the big rock would wiggle a bit. Jacking up a suburban in the dirt on an incline was not exactly what I would call safe, and definitely had some pucker factor to it. We decided we had better not push our luck with the jack, and set our goal of getting that rock out of the ground. At this point I was thinking there was a good chance we were going to be screwed. Chris said I started digging at the ground with my bare hands like a honey badger. After tearing up my hands pretty good we found out a tire iron worked a little better. After digging a substantial amount of dirt away we were able to dislodge the rock. We filled the hole back in with smaller rocks so the tire would not fall in and drove right out. Once we were out we opened the back of the suburban and our cooler slid out spilling its contents all over the road. We spend the next few minutes picking up dirty ice so we would have something to cool down the javalina if we were successful. My buddy backed me down the hill a couple hundred yards till we could find a place to pull off and camp. I have never been so relieved or thankful to crawl into my sleeping bag on level ground. We really should have been screwed. The jack was completely broken after the second attempt. After our hunt we walked back up to get some pictures of that beast of a rock. It was one of our three trophies for the trip. The next morning we got to our glassing spot just before sunup. By 8:30 I had spotted three pigs working their way up a ridge. I tried to get a spot to set my gun up with the bipod, but there was too much vegetation. I had never used my triclawps before, but decided to give it a shot. I set the tripod up low for a sitting shot, but Chris could not get a picture in scope so I raised the tripod up for a standing shot. He could not find the javalina for what seemed like an eternity. Finally he found them and I was watching through my binoculars. I told him to shoot when he was ready. After a while I looked up at him to see what was going on and he said he couldn’t shoot right now because he was shaking. That was the best part of the trip for me. He collected himself for a minute or two and took a shot at the javalina 220 yards away. I adjusted the tripod and got behind the gun to find another javalina standing broadside. I took a shot and saw the javalina started running straight towards us until I lost view of him behind a bush. I was not super confident about either shot because I had never shot off a tripod before and we didn’t see either pig go down. We decided to go check it out and found both pigs in short order. I used to think I was a good shot, but now I think it is just my rifle. We both hit just behind the shoulder. It was a great trip and was definitely not short on excitement.

I would consider a Vortex Viper or Zeiss Conquest with a bdc recticle plus or minus some cash depending on the model and condition of the scope. Also maybe a .243 depending on the condition, how many rounds it has down the tube and how it groups.

My dad bought this gun when he was in college and he only shot it a few times. I have shot it a couple times, but it has sat in my closet for the last 6 or 7 years. I still have the original box and tools that came with the gun. Included is a black leather holster, and a plastic carrying case. I am looking to get $550 based on what I saw them selling for online. Call Rob at 520six09two924 with any questions.

Final attempt to sell . . . . $495. The new price is firm.

It sounds like the gunsmiths mentioned are good and have a proven track record. I decided to go with Craig's Custom Rifles partially for convenience. The other gunsmiths mentioned are in central Tucson and it would take me an hour to an hour and a half, round trip, to drop my gun off and then again to pick it up. From my house (close to Mt. View H.S.) it was less than ten minutes to Craig's. My father in law passed down one of his Winchester model 70s to my son. It is a great gun but the first time I went to shoot it I came up after getting set because I though the safety was on. It turns out it just had a 7 lb pull and I am use to shooting my tikka, which has a trigger that I love. I was thinking about trying to do the trigger job myself, but triggers are kind of like brakes on your car- if you don't know what you are doing it is better to pay someone who does. Kyle got my gun back to me two days after I dropped it off, and I am very pleased with it. He had to replace the spring and hone the mechanism, and did it for a price I was happy with. It pulls right around 2.5 lbs and feels just as good as my tikka. I would not hesitate to bring another of my firearms back to him.

On my cow hunt this year I saw 10 plus bulls and only one cow. It made me consider putting in for bull next year. Every year I have put in for cow first choice I have been drawn. I remember reading something about the draw being broken up into your first two choices, and then again with your last three. My question is: If I put in for bull with my first choice and cow with my second choice, will I have the same odds of drawing my cow tag, assuming I am unsuccessful in drawing the bull tag, as if I had put the cow hunt as my first choice?

You could buy a lot of hunting stuff for 7g. Good luck.

ttt

I wonder if those who have expressed offense by this video are also offended by shooting coyotes or prairie dogs by the 100s, and leaving them to rot. It seems to me that most of the comments left for people who post coyote kills are positive, due to a belief that it will improve game populations. If pigs are left to run wild and destroy the environment, will that also not have a negative impact on game? To be honest the video does not offend me, and to be more honest it looks like a kick in the pants. I don't see it as hunting, but as using an effective tool to improve the environment for native species. Posting it online is probably not wise, as many hunters and almost all non-hunters will take offense.

I am toying around with getting a rifle that would be fun and inexpensive to shoot. Last night I was researching 17 hmr and 22 wmr on a different forum. One post said it would be cheaper to shoot something like a 22-250 if you reloaded your own bullets. I don’t know how accurate that statement is, but it made me start considering other small calibers. I know 22lr is the cheapest ammo, but I have already been there and done that. What is your favorite small caliber rifle? Do you agree that reloading a small centerfire caliber would be comparable in price to buying 17 hmr ammo? Thanks for the opinions.

I stumbled across the 204 ruger while poking around online last night. Right now that has made its way to the top of my list.

I asked my wife how much better my life is because of all the treasures I have found on coueswhitetail. She responded by asking how much more quality time she would have gotten if I had never found the site. The Mexican instant coffee is muy bueno. I have been drinking a cup at the house in the morning as an appetizer before breaking into my thermos of real coffee at work. I can only imagine how good it will taste on a hunting trip.

I had not seen any pigs in my normal spot all day Saturday or Sunday. I was only hunting a half day Sunday so I decided to walk fast down one of my favorite washes to see if I could spook something up. Was walking pretty quick and spotted a javi frozen at 70 yards. Had a 5 minute staring match. I think he could smell me because I was wrinking is nose up and sniffing. He finally ran off with the other three. I started blowing on my j-13 with no luck. I probably gave it about 20 seconds. I have had the primos one work in the past, and the j-13 once, but it seems like maybe 1 out of 4 calls work. For all i know I am not calling corectly or long enough. How long do you guys call after spooking a herd before giving up.

My hunting buddy moved to CO, so I am preparing to do the cow elk hunt staring Dec. 7th by myself. We did the gutless method last year on the elk and it worked really well. I found this video on youtube ([media=] [/media]) and this guy seems to have it down. The thing I like is that on the rear quarter he started from the inside and leans on the leg until it came off on the hide. I looked like he did the whole rear quarter by himself. I am also planning to bring half of a heavy duty painting tarp to slide under the elk to help protect the meat from dirt. All three of the elk we have harvested have been within 200 yards on where we could drive. Knowing my luck I will shoot one out in sticks this year since I am by myself. In the past we always set up a huge tent and made a nice little camp. It was nice, but I don't feel like trying to set that tent up by myself. I am planning to turn my 1994 suburban into a mobile hunting unit. I am going to have my bed already set up in the back, clothes hanging on a rod I put in, and eveything organized into plastic tubs that sit beside my bed. I already tested it out on my deer hunt and it was pretty sweet. It will be nice to be able to park where i plan to hunt the next day, fire up the Mr. Buddy heater in the morning while I get ready, and then go hunt. I think the trip is way better if you have a good friend to share it with, but there are some things I am looking forward to this year. I think it is a good idea to get a SPOT unit, an emergency space blanket, and a gps if you are hunting by yourself. Good luck on your hunt.

A similar thing happened to me and my buddy opening morning of cow season last year. We spotted a herd about a mile away right at first light. We cut the distance down to 400 yards and were discussing how we wanted to get closer. I knew I could have hit my mark from that range, but wanted to get closer with my .270. We dropped down into a wash when world war 3 started up. Out of all the shots fired by the other hunters, none hit their mark. We actually talked to them and they were shooting off hand at 400 yards. We are convinced they started shooting because they saw us and knew they wouldn't get a shot if they didn't shoot then. We were bummed, but we came to the conclusion that both parties are going to feel the other is in the wrong when their hunt gets screwed up. All you can do is remind yourself that it is better than being at work, and go try again.

A few years back I sold by ruger .243, ruger 7mm, and 2 bushnell elite scopes to buy one tikka t3 .270, a zeiss conquest, and reloading gear. My goal was to get one rifle and one bullet that I could shoot really well, and use it for all of my hunts. I shoot a 130 grain barness ttx bullet. So far I have taken 2 coues and 1 elk with no problems. I am more confident of making a clean shot with my new setup, and it is a heck of a lot more fun to shoot than the 7mm mag.

I know this is old news because I actually bought this knife after reading some posts on this site. I just wanted to second what many have already said - this knife is awesome. I thought my old knife was doing pretty well on my first elk at the start of the job. By the time I was finished I felt like I was sawing away with a butter knife. After that hunt I did a buch of research to buy a sharpening system that works. After some practice I was able to get my knives very sharp, but it was a pain in the butt. I still don't think they were as sharp as the havalon blades. The other thing to consider is your knife might need to be touched up part way through an elk. The sharpening system I bought is pretty big to bring into the field, and I haven't gotten as good of results with a small portible sharpener. With the price of the sharpening system I bought, I could have bought 48 replacement blades, which is pretty dang close to a lifetime supply. The havalon blade seemed to be just as sharp at the end of this years deer as it was at the beginning. It is nice to know that if your blade starts to get dull while processing an elk you can pop on another blade in seconds and be right back to razor sharp. The havalon knives are not necessarily pretty, but it is hard to imagine a knife being more functional or effective. Do be carefull though! I knicked my thumb and it bled like a stuck pig.