kidso

OK. My buddy dropped off a couple dozen doves that he harvested last week and I remember reading about this recipie. In particular, I drooled over the thought of bacon-wrapped dove nuggets! So, I tried it out tonight! First, I de-boned the breast meat into two nuggets, per bird. Next, I soaked them in cold water for a mere five minutes to help draw out any remianing blood from the breat meat. After that, I placed them in a Zip-Lock bag with 0.5 cups white flour, 0.5 Tbsp salt, and 0.5 Tbsp black pepper and twirled the bag for about 3 minutes to ensure a nice coating of flour and spices on all sides of the breast meat. Then, I took each coated nugget and wrapped half a slice of smoked uncooked bacon around each one and placed them in a 9 x 13 glass cooking dish lined with tin foil. Finally, I baked them in the oven at 350 degrees for 35 minutes with tin foil wrapped over the top of the dish to keep in the moisture. However, after pulling them out of the oven, I decided to place some sharp cheddar cheese slices ontop of most of them and threw them back in the oven for about 2 minutes to melt the cheese. These babies came out like miniature dove-cordon-blues, or something like that...but they are truly DELICIOUS!! I'll definitely cook another round this weekend.

Sweet pics! That bear looks kind of strange, almost sheepish? Do you have more photos of that bear? I think the light is distorting what I am seeing.

Love the bear at 4:30 pm on 9/2, very cool colors! One of those bears swiped your feeder, you can see it wobbling in the photo. What do you have in it?

This is the Story of My Second Lion. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!!!! My portable alarm clock shouted louder and louder into my dreaming ears. It was 4:30 am. I rolled out of my sleeping bag and felt the chill of the cold mountain air run across my body. It was still dark all around me, except for the faint glow of light provided by the stars and fading moon hanging in the night sky. I was extremely excited because I was out hunting black bear in the rugged mountains of central Arizona with my good friend Brian. The area around us was full of deep canyons and rolling hills covered with prickly pear cactus. We hoped that some monster-sized bears would come down from higher mountainous elevations and venture forth into these lower rolling foothills to feast upon the ripening purple colored fruit of this succulent cactus. I quietly dressed in my camouflage hunting clothing that I had previously washed in a special detergent to remove human scent and ultraviolet colors that otherwise could scare away wild animals and alert them to my presence in the area. If I knew anything at all about bear hunting, I knew that they had very sensitive noses that could practically smell a human from a mile away. Thus, I had to be certain not to take any chances with my scent if I hoped to meet up with a bear today. So I then proceeded to spray myself with a bottle of scent killer to further eliminate any suspicious odors that I might be producing. My hunting partner then joined me and we quietly hiked away from our campsite along a four wheel drive road we had driven on the night before. It took us up a long mountain slope that worked its way along the ridge of a steep canyon. As we neared the canyon's edge, we peeked over to take a quick look below us and spotted a small brownish furry creature scurrying away into a thicket about 20 yards beneath us. We were not sure what is was, but it left us with a feeling of excitement, perhaps foreshadowing the thrill of what hopefully was to come. We walked just a bit further before sitting down on the ridge top. We both lifted our binoculars to our eyes and began scanning the canyon below us and sides of the steep mountain just across from us, which just happened to be loaded with prickly pear cactus just begging to be devoured by black bears. After glassing these areas for about 20 minutes with no success, I decided to use my predator call to see if I could entice any predators in the area to come around for breakfast. I proceeded to blow on my call for nearly 40 minutes with no apparent luck, so Brian and I decided to hike further up the canyon and try our luck again. After hiking about another quarter-mile along the canyon's edge, we eased ourselves quietly over its edge and seated ourselves on a hillside that had been cleared of trees and brush. It was risky to call from such an unprotected located that lacked good vegetative cover, but we decided to try it anyways because it gave us a nice view of the canyon beneath us. I commenced calling and within three to four minutes, I could hear Brian whispering something to me from his position about 10 yards off to my left. Because I couldn't understand what he was saying, I turned my head to face him. I still couldn't audibly connect with him, but I saw Brian's mouth forming the words "mountain lion." My heart skipped a beat and nearly stopped dead in my chest. Mountain lion, I repeated to myself. Where? I frantically scanned the topography that lay in front of me, but I could see no sign of the prowling feline. I searched again. Nothing. Nothing but rocks and brush. Inwardly, I started to panic. Where was the big cat? Another minute passed, and then Brian again whispered, "Mountain lion." Only this time, he added the dreaded words, "Should I take the shot?" My heart sank into darkness and despair. I badly wanted to shoot the cougar, but I had no idea where it was and I could not locate it for the life of me! I sadly and slowly forced out my hesitant reply, "Sure Brian. Go ahead and take the cat." I steadied my heartbeat and faced the terrain before me to watch for any sign of impact from Brian's shot, wherever it might strike, when ---BOOM!!! His rifle roared out like thunder clashing during an intense desert monsoon storm. Almost simultaneously with the loud noise, I observed a puff of dirt erupting 200 to 300 yards away from me in front of a large cedar tree on a down-sloping ridge. I immediately raised my binoculars to my face and glassed that exact spot while the dust was settling. Nothing. I saw no dead lion on the ground, nor any wounded cat limping or crawling away. I raised my binoculars ever so slightly higher and a twitching movement caught my eye. There, sitting on its haunches under an overhanging branch of the cedar tree was beautiful brown mountain lion, which was looking straight at me and wriggling its ears! Brian's shot had been about ten feet short of its sighted mark. I quickly told Brian with an excited voice, "You were short by ten feet. Raise your rifle slightly and shoot again!" BOOM!!! Once again his shot echoed like thunder in the canyon. And once again, I saw dirt spew up into the air as his bullet fell short of its intended target by merely two feet. "Short again, I whispered to Brain. Raise your rifle up a bit more." At this point, I opened my mouth in awe due to the fact that the devil cat had not fled the scene after having two bullets strike the earth directly in front of its position. As fate would have it, however, I dropped my jaw too soon, for the predatory feline began to walk out from underneath the cedar tree and began strolling along broadside in front of it. I immediately rushed out a pitiful shriek from the varmint call which stopped the cat in its tracks, if only for a brief moment. And in that instant, time seemed to stand still, although volumes of events unfolded before me. As I stared off towards the beautiful beast, I realized that it was currently beyond my comfort range for striking its kill zone with a well-placed bullet. But at that instant, I heard my wife inside my head repeating her proverbial phrase of, "You're going to miss all of the shots you never take." Almost immediately, my conscious whispered that if Brian could take shots at that range, then I certainly could at least make an attempt at it as well. My mind raced backwards in time to our drive up the four-wheel drive mountain road the previous night when our conversation actually centered on the physics of how bullets drop in elevation as distance away from the rifle barrel increases. I knew that the 220 grain bullet in my 30.-06 would fall before it hit the cat, but I had no idea just how far it would actually drop. I quickly raised my rifle, peered through the scope, placed its crosshairs about a foot above the lion's front shoulder, held my breath, and squeezed the trigger. Boom! My rifle bellowed my rifle like a Civil War cannon. I looked up just in time to see the great cat crash to the ground beneath him. Immediately, I excitedly began to shout, "I got him! I freaking got him! I shot the lion!" "Yeah you got him alright," said Brian. "Great shot." Just then, the mountain lion popped up from off the ground and began dragging its body downhill through some brush. As it was moving through the vegetation, I could clearly see that its back legs were dangling behind its body like dead weight and were in no way functioning to help propel the cat thorough the canyon. At that moment, I thought my bullet had struck its hip bones and shattered them, however, I would later find out that my initial shot had severed its spinal cord which actually paralyzed the rear half of the lion. There was no way this feline was going to from me, so I carefully watched it disappear into the tall brush about 30 yards away from where I first dropped it and patiently waited for it to reappear on the opposite side in the shorter vegetation. After scrutinizing that area for 20 minutes with my binoculars for any movement, I decided that the great cat had finally expired and was down for good. I began hiking across the canyon towards that thicket, while Brian stayed put on the hillside to guide me to the right location using our walkie-talkies. Nearly 20 minutes later, I arrived at the base of the cedar tree where I had previously struck the cat when it began walking away. I examined the ground while moving in the direction that the feline took on its flight out of the area and picked up its blood trail on the rocky ground. I immediately contacted Brian on the walkies to let him know I had a positive trail to follow, whereupon he begged me to sit on the site and wait for him to join me before proceeding further. Waiting the 10 minutes for Brian to join me on the pursuit seemed to be the longest time span I ever had to wait for anything in my life! Eventually, though, he made it over to me and we began to follow the blood trail over the rocks and through the brush. Following the lion was easy because it left large swaths of blood painted on the vegetation every five to ten feet and its dragging hind legs were overturning rocks and breaking branches along its exit route. I tracked the cat by following its exact trail through the brush, under limbs, and into thickets. It probably wasn't the wisest thing to do in retrospect, but I wanted that cat and I was not about to lose its sign anywhere. Brian, however, stood in a clearing with his rifle and provided what little cover he could to protect me from any wounded charging beast. Needless to say, when I was slithering on my belly like a rattlesnake under an overhanging cedar limb, Brian shouted out, "I see the cat!" My heart raced with adrenaline and fear and I began to panic, for I could not even raise my own rifle to defend myself if the situation required it. I quickly screamed out, "Where! Where's the lion?" Brian replied, "About 20 yards in front of you near the base of another cedar tree!" I scrambled out of the thicket as quickly as possible and saw pointing towards a cedar tree a bit lower on the ridge I was following down into the bottom of the canyon. It was then that I spotted the great cat. There it was 50 or so feet away from me lying on its back with one massive arm reaching up and clawing its nails into an overhanging branch as it struggled to pull itself up on all fours. Without a moment of hesitation, I raised my rifle and sent another bullet whizzing through the air to find its mark just behind the raised shoulder of the feline. The lion’s body whirled over from the impact and the cat took off running again through the brush. I could hear it crashing through the vegetation for a period of about eight seconds, which was followed by a one to two second soundless period, which immediately was followed by a tremendously loud splash. I raced down the hill without thinking of my safety and discovered that the wildcat had scurried through the brush to end of a rock outcropping that jutted about 15 feet above a small intermittently flowing creek beneath it, before falling off the edge and plunging into a deep pool below. The sight beneath me was almost surreal. There on the edge of a pool of green-blue water lay the enormous yellow-brown cat, with half of its body in the water, and half of it lying on the adjacent black basalt rocks. Already, blood was leaking through its wounds and tainting the opalescent water around it a dark scarlet color. I practically slid down the rocks and approached my cat. She was absolutely beautiful. I grabbed her by the front paws and heaved her from out from pool. Brian helped me carry her a few yards away to a fallen tree where we photographed our hard-earned prize. She was indeed an amazing beast, and I was filled with unspeakable exhilaration. As a hunter who predator calls exclusively for bear and lion, I can only hope for the opportunity to repeat this adventure again...but next time, I hope it will be with a monster-sized bear!

Great job on the lion! I also love Jim Hartsock's work at his studio. He has done one lion and one bear for me and is working on another bear. I love how he wrinkles the face! Here is the lion he completed.

That is a cool feeder that the bears are hitting. Is it something you manufactured or bought somewhere? It must be soild enough as the bears didn't rip it off the tree.

Did you see any bears at all during your hunt? Was their much left of the fox hide after smacking it with your .270? I shot a bobcat that came in with my .300 while calling bear and it blew his back out. I sewed it up and home tanned it and use it in my classroom for science lessons, but it sure blew out a large exit wound!

After 45 minutes, if I have not seen or heard any response, I move on. I start calling at just about shooting light in case something comes in quick and will keep calling 45 minute stands until about 11:00 on a clear day. On a cloudy day, I will call longer, and may not stop at all. I then begin recalling around 3:30 and keep going until dusk. So on a hardcore hiking bear hunt, I may call 6-8 stands, depending upon how far I hike between them. Like Reed said in his seminar..."stick to what works for you." I have called in bear with both the Tally-Ho and the T-Rex hand predator calls. I have tried several others, but they never produced bear or lion for me, personally. The Tally-Ho is open-reed so you can produce a wide range of vocables, which I do. The T-Rex is closed reed and I wail on that call like something being ripped into pieces! I once had a chocolate bear coming into a stand in the morning, when it winded us and turned uphill and out of decent rifle range. We watched it move up into a high thick part in a canyon and bed down. We moved into position around 3:00 pm and waited for it to come back down for an evening watering or snack. It started coming down about half an hour before dusk. We were laid up on a bench across a narrow part of the canyon he had entered and had scoped out several nice shooting lanes around 200 yards. When the bear was at about 700 yards, the canyon opened up with rifle fire as someone else started shooting at the bear from several hundred yards behind us and above us. They missed four times and bear disappeared. The only reason I share this is that the bear did come down the same basic drainage it used to work its way up the canyon in the morning. They can be creatures of habit.

If you have them visiting your spot that often, you must have your cam in a hot spot within their home range. I'd bust out on the predator call and try to tag one.

Yep, I saw you come in with the tire pressure gauge stuffed in your shirt! I think I felt more out of place in my wing-tip shoes, slacks, long-sleeve-shirt, and tie! I just got off work from my 5th grade teacher position. I did record the seminar and am considering transcribing some of his stories and posting them if anyone is interested. I just need to finish my progress reports first.

Just returned... It was good to hear Reed after 20 years (I think). His seminar was not delivered in a prepared speech format, but rather in question answer format, which which was completely dependent upon audience participation and querry. He did discuss some bear hunting/calling basics, such as food sources, elevations, water access, and stand selection, but it was more interesting to hear about some of his own calling experiences that were interesting and unique. He is indeed the bear guru and is a grandfather of predator calling in our state...especially for bears. I believe he said he was directly responsible for the calling in and tagging of 63 bears and 3 lions. A fun and informational evening!

Nice color! How far was the shot, and what time of day did you tag him? Did you get his on the east or west side of the main highway? I know a lot of guys head on the east side and hit the Pinal Mountains. My buddy went on the west side and saw one towards Haystack Butte two weeks ago.

For those of you who have had game cameras stolen, how far away from a road were they located? I'm curious to know if most are stolen within a short hike hike from a road or a long hike from a road? I think this could provide us with some interesting data. Please post your data in average minutes it would take to hike to your stolen camera. I wonder if placing cameras further from roads provide greater safety or not from thieves?

Very amazing pictures. Can you educate me more on what a "scratch" is and how it might be used? Those lions sure seem to spend time on it!

Finally went out to check my three cams that I've had up in 23 N since the last week in July. Wish I had an elk tag! All cams were still there, but I think someone deleted all the pics off of my second cam. I had a bucket of water there and it was dumped over and was pulled out of a rock cairn that I made to protect it. The first elk pic is a nice tease! One bear bit a hole in the side of my water bucket making it useless.

I'm not a bird man at all, but in July while bear hunting I came across four groups of about 5-10 birds near Horton Creek and three groups near Dick Williams Creek. Almost all of them had little ones with them too.

That cam is only about 5 feet off the ground and is on the primary trunk of a large pine. There is a set of three or four claw marks from a large scratch beneath the photo eye on the camera. I'm pretty sure a bear swiped it. There was also mud and dirt on it as well.

Not unless water is bear bait! The bucket was ten feet to the left in that pile of logs. Something knocked over the log pile and moved the bucket to the spot in the photo. When I got to the spot, the bucket was another 15 feet further away on its side with bear tooth puncters in it. I think they went to it out of curiosity.

Nice pictures, very clear!

Took a neighborhood 14 year old boy out with me yesterday. We left at 1:00 pm and got back at 9:00 pm. We had enough time to make it into 23 north and check the three cams we set up back in July. We made one stand at dusk, but no responses to the predator call. Trail cam one had only 37 pictures centered on a nice pool in a creek bottom that was still flowing. All we had was triggers from moving shadows and branches. On cam number two, we had a mineral salt lick and a 5-gallon bucket filled with water. There was a large bobcat or small lion scat, all white and full of fur right next to the bucket. Sadly, the bucket had been knocked over and there were no photos on the SD card. I think someone came and deleted them. I left the scat there and reset the system with fresh batteries to see if the scat bait works for us. At our last cam, we had another mineral lick and 5-gallon water bucket. We had 637 photos. About half were triggered by shadows or vegetation, but we had tons of elk, some deer (only does), one bobcat, and two bear. I'll post a few pics on the Trail Cam Subsection of the forum. We still had a blast and the boy wants to go out agin in October, but on an overnight camp/hunt. Probably the opening weekend of rifle bear in 23 north.

I'm running out for half a day Saturday afternoon to check my trail cameras. Hopefully they will still be there and I'll be able to post some pictures on the Trail Camera sub-topic of any critters that were snapped!. I'm also looking to salvage any lion scat to prep a camera with it to see how that pans out for attracting lions. That will be interesting! I'm taking out a little buddy of mine, so I'll call a late afternoon stand or two as well to see what comes for dinner.

Well, not the biggest by any means, but a beautifully-colored sow, which is also my first ever archery bear! Unit 23 north, two weeks ago.

If that is the guy, I would hope that he would think twice before interfering with someones camera and stockpile after seeing his picture on a wanted poster! I would be afraid to go back into that same area knowing that an upset hunter could be stalking me with a paintball gun or something! I've had three cameras out in 23N for about 5 weeks now and need to retrieve them. I hope that they are still there!

Ditto on Crittergetter. However, I do lots of blind calling, especially if I have fresh sign in an area and know that bears are present. Although the mornings and evenings are the best, I have called a few bears around 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, but those were on cloudy and overcast days. I would continue to work the area especialy if food, cover, and water is available nearby. Even though they can stick out like a sore thumb, they can also be nearly invisible in the thick stuff and you can go days without ever seeing them as they move around in oak and manzanita thickets just feeding away. If I were hunting that spot and had no luck glassing and calling, I'd ramble over to an adjacent canyon and do the same things there, just in case he moved over.