Coach

I'm so glad you were finally able to get a beautiful mount. Looks great!

Nice job Brian! Huge congrats. Great pictures and story too!

I'm going to try out Ward's inverters tomorrow if I can get a dumb chicken to come in close enough. Ward's was kind enough to send a few out to get some input. I haven't gotten a chance to shoot them at anything live, but I like the how they fly, and the design looks good. For the T3, haven't shot them but met some nice guys from Montanna last year on the Unit 1 archery bull hunt. I believe both of them were shooting this head, and both killed nice 350's bulls with easy recovery.

It's fun to see Terry Crews make spaghetti out of some bad guys in The Expendables. Awsome weapon for sure. I would love to see more of the explosive rounds. Little "grenades with wings" that blow stuff up.

Just noticed, yours is a timber rattler. Haven't seen on like that in a long time. 4000 Feet? Was it desert?

Here's one I killed near Tucson back when I liked hunting snakes. It's around 67" long, without the head. These days, I just go on past them.

Wow, great frame on that bull. Great footage, Jed!

Very cool, Scott! Great photos! As if some great catch and release pix of big bass weren't enough, throw in some Gila footage. NICE!

Bump - great bow. I'd rather sell it locally, but it's going on Ebay tomorrow. If we can meet up, you save shipping costs.

LOL, Clay, when you sold your Ally, I had no idea you were saving up for a Destroyer. Great bow. My buddy brought his over a couple days ago. He knew i had a new Hoyt and, well being competitive, wanted to see how it stacked up against his Destroyer. Both were great bows. He shot tight groups with mine, I shot tight groups with his...overall, I found the Destroyer faster, but he thought my CRX35 was quieter, and I agree. The draw cycle was pretty much identical. We both went away with a good respect for both bows. The destroyer is faster, for sure. The Hoyt is much more quiet. I like the handle on the CRX 35 better, but that's personal choice. Glad you've got another bow lined up to slay even more game with than your '07 ally. I hope it produces lots of game for you.

I saw one episode where the guys were being dropped from a crane wearing a harness at 125 feet, shooting at targets on the ground with a Glock 17. Humbling to say the least. One guy *only* hit 3 of ten targets, a couple others hit 4 and one dude, I think a USMC sniper, hit 6 of ten targets. Those guys are pretty amazing. Great show.

Yesterday I took my oldest son Matt out for the Jr. opener. We had a good opportunity at first light as I called a young gobbler in to our decoys. He came in on a string but kind of held up at around 40 yards. I messed up and told Matt he should shoot a little too early, but I've seen him kill a turkey at that range before. Unfortunately, it was miss, and one more young tom has gotten an education. Today was Nick's turn. We got up at 3, ate some breakfast and headed to a spot a buddy of mine had gotten into some birds and left his blind set up. Not knowing for sure if we'd find his blind, or even make it that far before we heard something I packed in my blind as well. After a long hike we finally found his blind and got set up before light. It was a really quiet morning with no wind - perfect for calling. We called, waited and listened for about 1/2 hour and heard no gobbling or even hens. Nick was getting really cold despite lots of layers. I'm guessing he got a little sweaty on the hike in, so we decided to work our way back to the truck and look for a new spot. On the way out, we stopped and called. About half-way back to the truck, hit the slate call and immediately got multiple gobbles. They were close, so we had to set up really fast. Nick put out the decoys while I set up the blind - turkeys gobbling the whole time. We got in the blind and started some light calling. The gobbling had stopped for a short time, but the next response was even closer - we knew they were on their way in. Within a few minutes we could see two toms working their way toward the decoys. Sure enough they kept moving closer. I picked a tree I knew was within shooting distance and told Nick once they got past that point, pick an opportunity and let 'em have it. The bigger of the two was in front and got to that tree and started moving a little off to our right, still approaching the decoys. Nick waited for him to clear a deadfall and BOOOOM! I didn't see the impact because I was trying to cover my ears, but Nick says - "He's dead!". It was a great shot with multiple hits in the neck and head. This was Nick's second turkey. Now it's time to get Matt back out there for another whack at them.

Awesome job, Brian. Thanks for the report.

Wow - that looks amazing!

Awsome job! Congrats Cole! And great job dad, for getting him out there and sticking with it! Gotta love those youth hunts!

The seem to be a little more isolated this year, for lack of a better word. Areas I've always found good sign in had none this year, but go over a ridge or two and there is a lot - but in just a small area. Not sure why - same feed, same water, everthing. I've also not seen large groups this year. A couple jakes or young toms, etc kinda doing the solo/bachelor thing. I think the older birds have the hens and are keeping quiet about it. I'll be back out there with Matt tomorrow. I sure hope we can get his tag filled. This 3 AM thing is for the birds

I took my oldest son out yesterday to check out a couple of spots that have always been good in the past and the sign was scarce to non-existent. We started out from McNary down to Los Burros, checking past "hot spots" along the way, took the 96 across and checked out Pancho Springs, right on down to the low country. Turkey sign was old to non-existent in all the places that usually have great populations in early Spring. I've heard good things about 3C, but that's no longer in the youth OTC hunt. Anybody else finding sign in the higher elevations? Not looking for specific spots, but are they higher/lower maybe more along the black? Wasssup with the birds?

Not trying to start a fight or anything, but those VPA heads look amazingly close to several broadheads already on the market. I've got some of my dad's Howard Hill cedar shafts with heads that look exactly like the green 160 grain in the picture. And the 100 grain heads look almost identical to a G5 Montec SS. Is there something about this company that has taken some good designs and made them better? Or are they just re-marketing some proven designs? Just asking.

When I bought my wife a handgun, I knew it had to be something she was comfortable with. She didn't like the revolvers, and most semi-autos were hard for her to load. I ended up going with a Beretta Tomcat in .32 ACP. Not the most lethal round out there, but it's easy to carry and easy to operate. The thing that makes this gun so attractive is that you don't have to work the slide to chamber the first round round. You push a lever and the back part of the barrel pops up. You drop in a bullet, push the barrel back down until it clicks and you're ready with single or double action.

+1 - Nice post!

It was a double bull Matrix. When things go right, they set up in a minute or two.

+1 on the Zen Ray. Definately worth looking through before you buy something. I looked through a friend's last fall an I was really shocked by the clarity. I'm a little surprised there isn't more buzz about them.

Unit 27 is made for that type of hunting. A local guy here recently passed away, but spent a lot of time in that unit packing in far from roads and he killed some amazing bucks, year-after-year. He found huge bulls and huge sheds, but always had something bigger staked out for next year. The areas he hunted, and his techniques aren't really a secret - he was just willing to work way harder and endure much more cold and isolation than most hunters want to deal with. I don't know of a more "roadless" area in AZ than 27. The Blue River Wilderness Area probably has more game than any other areas in the state. Huge trophy potential, but as mentioned before, the wolves are taking a toll. There are good reasons this area has been considered as a possible site for re-introducing grizzly bears in AZ. Most of it is more-or-less inaccessible to humans except by horseback or pack trails, and let's face it. Aside from the boy scout troop here and there sticking to known trails, and a few die hards, most people don't venture that deep. It's true wilderness, and if you get hurt, you are a long way from anything. For what it's worth, if you want to pack in there with mules and want someone to tag along, shoot me a PM. I've never hunted off horseback or mules but I've always wanted to.

Nice job! I think you were way faster at finding your load than most ML hunters. I had mine all dialed in, and then Hornady changed the plastic they use in their sabots to make them easier to load. I never would have imagined how much that affected my groups. In a panic (had a ML bull tag and a gun shooting all over) I bought everything I could locally and still didn't get my groups back where I had seen them. Ended up killing my bull @ 257 yards, but the bullet performance was terrible to say the least. I'm going to look at the Barnes now, since Hornady's won't shoot well in this gun, and the TC bullets from wally world are total junk. Even if they hit where you aim, they poke little holes, disintegrate and leave all the clean-up work for follow-up shots. Glad you found a winning combination. I'm assuming you are using loose Buckhorn 209 to get 115 grains, but what do you mean 81 "weighed" grains? I'm confused about the 34 grain difference. Where does the 115 number come from? Just curious, because I've got to get my ML shooting again, and this is a gun I've seen shoot 3" groups at 300 yards and now I can't get 3" at 100 yards. I'd like to use your system to get back on track, but I need to understand it first.

Knowing nothing about the trapping laws in AZ, I remember my cousin in Oklahoma used to catch bobcats by digging a hole, putting a dead bird down the hole and placing the trap over the hole (mostly buried in sand in a wash bottom). Smart cats would dig around the trap, but you could put some flat rocks around it. He caught a lot of them.