Coach

Hey Chef, That's a sweet looking bumper! Is that an aftermarket or custom job?

Great Pix Dan!

Great job Scott! Proves hard work does pay off big time - I'll have to razz Chris about his boots. He better get a good pair before the SC hunt 'cause we're gonna work him hard.

Let us know how it went. I saw a nice cinnamon bear in SC over the weekend.

I think what venadoslayer is referring to is the fact that the current commission is only giving minimal lip service to the hunting community. They hold these public input meetings only to provide the false impression that they actually care what we think. The truth is, they pretty much have their mind made up and will do whatever they please, whether it's in the best interest of AZ hunters and habitat or not. If we had a governor who really cared about hunting in this state, it is pretty reasonable to assume that we might have a commission in place that also cared about hunting and hunters - after all, the commission is appointed by the governor - or at least the people who are recommended for the commssion vote are appointed. I happen to agree with Venadoslayer that the commission needs a major overhaul. After reading the 6 year plan by AZGF, I think there are a lot of heads in the wrong place. J

IMO, 24A Dec was and still is one of the best hunts available in AZ. I'm curious to see how the November hunt goes, but with all those tags mixed in with mulie and quail hunters, I'm guessing it's going to be a hard, frustrating hunt. I'm glad you found some good ones while out and about - especially since it sounds like they may be in an area that will get less pressure. Keep us informed as you continue to scout, and good luck on your hunt!

My buddy who spends less time on his computer than me was in 24A this past weekend doing a little scouting and saw a white chevy with a huge CWT sticker on it pulling a small ATV trailer near Haystack Ranch. Just wanted to drop you a "howdy" - maybe compare notes some time. Jason

Awesome job Austin! Congrats!!

I didn't see anything there I was against - looks like someone's doing their job. I really like the minimum fine of $8000 for the 1st offense of illegally taking "trophy" big game animals, then doubling and tripling it for 2nd and 3rd. And how about that Felony for taking wildlife when you have had your hunting priveledges permanently suspended? - WOW.

A buddy of mine uses he Mad Dog ones with his Leica Geovids and really likes them. I'm going to give them a try also.

Good choice. I like the 115 Gr. CT Ballistic Silver Tips pushed by IMR 4350 (50.0 gr). Excellent accuracy.

A little perspective when compared against the other end of the popular coues-round spectrum. In the blue corner: Weighing in at 55 grains With a Ballistic Coefficient of .202 Powered by approximately 25 grains of powder Sporting 1282 Foot Pounds of Energy (Muzzle) and 456 Ft. Lbs @ 300 Yards.... The .223 Remington! In the red corner: Weighing in at 180 grains (CT Ballistic Silver Tip) With a Ballistic Coefficient of .474 Powered by 86 grains of IMR 7828 Sporting 4195 Foot Pounds of Energy (Muzzle) and 2772 Ft. lbs @ 300 Yards The .300 Weatherby Magnum!!!

How could you leave off the trusty old 25-06? Maybe the best coues gun around, unless you're an artillery guy like me shooting the big 3's.

On the flip-side, a buddy of mine shot a coues quartering away with a Nosler Partition. The bullet entered behind the ribs and exited the opposite shoulder - niether wound was obious until we skinned the deer. He only went about 30 yards after the hit, but didn't bleed a drop before he fell. From what I can tell, the bullet didn't expand at all. He and I have both been using ballistic tips for coues ever since.

Great Job! Thanks for sharing the story with us.

I agree with the others here - they are fantastic bullets for deer-sized game, but not strong enough for elk. I shoot CT ballistic tips in both my .300 Wby and 25-06.

Looks like he was in the middle of a round of golf when this critter refused to leave the 9th green - had to send for the clubhouse for a bow and a couple arrows.

I've used the Swaro 80mm (non HD) some, and the Leica 77 a lot. I prefer the Leica personally. It just feels more comfortable to me. The optics in both are superb, of course.

For those interested, here's the link to the article about the Greer fish kill in case I exaggerated in my assessment. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=...06184&rfi=6

I got it and it is clearly designed to support their pre-drawn conclusions - that we all want more tags even if it means poor quality. Also on their website is their 6-year "strategic plan" called "Wildlife 2012". If you dig far enough through all the hoopla, the #1 recreation objective (the page labeled as page 12, but actually found on page 16 ofthe PDF document) is: "Increase opportunities for use and enjoyment of wildlife". Yup, and you can probably guess the first two items listed under the strategies to accomplish this goal, but here they are anyway. #1: Identify, assess, develop and promote recreational uses of wildlife in Arizona. #2: Implement efforts to increase hunter and angler recruitment and retention. For those untrained in deciphering G&F lingo, this translates roughly to: "Sell more permits, even if we have to create bogus opportunity". G&F is planning to get public input on their long-range goal. Here's what I suggest we all do. Take a good look at the page labeled Page 2 of the document (page 6 of the PDF file). This is the page that outlines the deparment's Mission, Vision and Principals. Next, take some time to clearly explain how in your own opinion, G&F is failing miserably to live up to their stated mission, vision and principals and how the proposals listed in Wildlife 2012 continue to diverge even further from the ideals set fourth there. Here are a few examples, IMO. The recent change to eliminate 90% of the Dec. coues hunts and replace them with larger numbers of tags coinciding with the November mule deer hunts clearly was made in spite of strong public opposition. (There goes the "responsiveness to customers" principal. It also could be easily argued that packing larger numbers of hunters into a very limited space at the same time directly counters their Mission: "To conserve, enhance, and restore Arizona's diverse wildlife resources and habitats agressive management programs...". Then there's the glaring omission of any strategic plan to improve wildlife habitat to counter the effects of the drought (dig some deeper catchments, etc.) or to make any effort whatsoever to improve the badly diminished mule deer and antelope herds in this state. Hmmm, there's a concept, rather than just issuing more tags to increase opportunity, let's maybe take a shot at increasing our herd strength to numbers similar to those seen in neighboring states. How about the recent effort to kill all non-native trout - yes - intentionally kill all rainbows, browns and brookies from AZ waterways to make room for the Apache trout - that got out of control recently and ended up killing just about every fish from Greer to the Little Colorado? How's that for protecting habitat and wildlife diversity? Or the botched wolf program that drains tons of $$, the rumored Grizzly reintroduction that will undoubtedly cause potenially permanent closures in certain wilderness areas, it just goes on and on. This is definately the time to be heard. I hear almost daily from responsible, ethical, law-abiding hunters how G&F is losing the respect of life-long supporters. It seems the dept has lost its way and really needs to hear that everything's NOT alright in the minds of Arizona's sportsmen and women. Unless you want another 6 years of what we've seen in the past 12 months. If that's the case, sit back and relax.

I had the non-ED version and it was pretty good. Definately not in the Swarovski/Leica class, but I've heard the ED glass makes a big difference.

If you have any questions setting it up, shoot me a PM.

If you're not concerned about resharpening, G5 Montec all the way. They fly great and cut well - just very hard to resharpen to shaving sharp, IMO. This will be my first year shooting Slick Trick but after about 2 years of nothing but praise on the BowSite I figure they are worth trying out. Also, take a look at the ReadHead "BlackOut". It's just a G5 Striker with 1" cutting diameter but you won't believe the sharpness out of the package. (BTY, the G5 Striker is a Wac'Em knock-off but a little better, IMO.) Good luck! J

I made one exactly like those described here - D360-L camera, RSS-232 board, pelican 1060 case. It's a great trail camera. I would not suggest paying extra for the "camo dipped" cases pixcontroller sells. The clear ones make it really easy to get your holes in exactly the right spot, then a little camo spray paint and you're in business. If you don't want the paint smell on it for this year, just get some camo tape (not the shiny camo duct tape, but the good cloth kind). J

Uh, yeah... I accidentally kicked my tackle box over while at full speed... those sure do look familiar... you want my address? JK, great find! I am surprised the lake is going down though. As much rain as we've had up here in Lakeside I would have thought it would be filling up.