Tines

What a piece of work.........

Evan, We could easily work in the same profession. I see the same thing everyday and the only way to "cope" is to have the ability to seperate yourself from the situation or work when the uniform comes off. But I just want you to consider a couple of things. This is similar to an assault weapons or salt ban. I don't own an assault weapon and could care less if my neighbor does. I also don't hunt over salt. So it shouldn't bother me that my neighbor does that either. Right? So I should care less if an assault weapons ban or salt ban takes place too if I don't participate, right? Wrong. I think you see where I'm going with this.... The unintended consequences of such laws and bans when passed could VERY WELL affect you, regardless of your personal beliefs. I'd venture to say that I'm trying to raise my kids the same way you are. My wife and I were discussing all of this last night, actually. I think we underestimate the impact our teachers have on our children. And my children go to a traditional charter school to boot! In a perfect world we could entrust our children to the acedemic teachings of our schools and the moral teachings of our home. But I don't think you're that naive either. And if you think it was Fox news that taught me this, think again. And like DesertBull mentioned too. I'm far from a bigot. I can be proactive or reactive based on my impressions of how things may or may not unfold. I choose to be proactive.

Like a few others have said, don't expect much for $300. I know a few outfitters that stopped doing scouting packages for several different reasons. Here are a few: -hunters are too green and even an "x marks the spot" with specific animal patterns, bedding areas, pics, video and so forth isn't good enough. It still takes some basic instincts and knowledge to seal the deal. So in the end, the Outiftter looks like the bad guy when no animals are found or killed. A few yrs ago I did a scouting package for a guy with a dec rifle tag. He hunted exactly the way I told him and in the right spots. He saw 12 does in 2 days. I knew something wasn't right. So on the third day I told him I'd meet him and hunt with him that morning. We got on the same hill he'd been glassing from the prior two days. By 10am I glassed up 8 bucks, the last one he ended up shooting. He was doing everything right. He was even in the right spot. He just had little to no experience glassing for Coues deer. If I hadn't of showed up, be could easily have been one pissed off client. But he was a good dude and it all worked out. -some hunters won't even hunt or follow the scouting package info or suggestions on how to hunt particular animals anyway. So an outfitter spends a few days of his own time getting everything together and the hunter ends up doing his own thing In the end. Once again, outfitter looks bad. It's all about risk vs reward from a business perspective. -here's the worst one. Hunter is successful and ultimately takes all of the credit AND all of his buddies in there the next yr! BIG pet peave of mine. When I did packages in the past, I scouted it the way I would my own tags. And sometimes these were prime spots. So ultimately you're putting someone you've never met in "your spot" on opening day for a few hundred bucks. Many of these spots might produce high quality animals on a regular basis so it's almost bad business when you see the risk of showing someone a honey hole. The info you share is never as confidential as you'd hope. In the end, you risk a lot (mainly reputation and hunting spots) to gain very little. But once in a great while it works out and everyone's happy and benefits. That's not the usual, though. Another thing to consider is what type of elk hunt do you have. Rut? Late rifle? Bull or cow? Rifle or archery. Those are things to consider. Depending on what you've got, especially with elk, you might find that techniques and strategies are just as important as where to hunt. Sorry, that was WAY long..... Haha. Good luck to you and your dad! Hopefully he gets his first.

The basketball has been great, for sure. And who in their right mind had Gonzaga going anywhere but home after the second round?? Talk about overrated. But what I don't get is why everyone is so irritated with BC777. Because he's new? Because his view and research isn't popular? What if Randy Epperson said the same thing? Most of you wouldn't question it because he's a respected member and experienced lion hunter. What it might do is encourage us to expand our research beyond a WT forum and what our grandpas taught us. You'd be amazed at what you'd learn after spending a day or so with a reputable lion hunter. Despite what most of you think, most lion hunters share some of the exact views that BC777 shared (and most of you despise). Most DON'T kill females and most laugh at the "lions kill a deer a week" statement. Let's face it, lions are crawling all over our Coues deer habitat. And for the most part our Coues deer are doing just fine. If anything is going to hurt the Coues deer population it's the 5 billion permits issued every year. And yes, it's 5 billion. I googled it. But seriously, lets all agree on one thing. The Buckeyes are gonna have their hands full with the way AZ is playing and ASU is probably where they belong. ; )

Too bad nothing else is getting "managed" over there

I could be way off but one would think the draw is complete and successful applicants' CCs are now getting hit in no special order. But I'm wrong often, just ask the wife.

Wow. That second archery buck is AWESOME!! ; )

I don't believe it reads that the transferring tagholder must accompany the minor child, just the "grandparent, parent or child's legal guardian.." must be within 50yds. I could be wrong but i think any legal guardian can accompany the child, not only the original tagholder.

I've seen far worse from actual shops! And that's not knocking your work, either. Great job!

What a killer buck!

I agree with your first two points. Sad. There was a time when I thought hunting lions over dogs was "cheating". My views have changed a little over the years. Not only because I've been fortunate enough to actually experience a lion hunt with dogs and seen what goes into it but also because of the conservation aspect of it all. As I say this, I'm NOT condoning the "hunt" of cubby... Not every species can be hunted the same. Not every state can be hunted the same. I'll give these fish and wildlife agencies the benefit of the doubt when it comes to legal methods of take before I jump to conclusions. It might not be my cup of tea but how else do you manage a herd that you can't glass in a forest that's super dense with vegetation? How about hogs and hunting them over bait with a spotlight? I don't have a desire to do it but how else do you manage a herd like that? Just my .02

We're cousins. Tell your mom and dad Jake says hi!

Tell your pops to put the fishing pole down and take you to his old stomping grounds. He knows where to go. ; )

Here's a little video I threw together for Scott Callaway. Some of you might recognize Scott (the hunter) in this video. A few of us have been fortunate enough to hunt with him and to say he's a top notch guy is an understatement. We got Scott hooked up with Rimrock Outfitters on his first lion hunt and it couldn't have gone any better. Scott took a BIG tom as you'll see. Thanks again to Rimrock for doing such a great job..... Make sure you watch in HD if you can, great footage. Enjoy!

Thanks. I'm not sure of the unit, though.

Here's a little video I threw together for Scott Callaway. Some of you might recognize Scott (the hunter) in this video. A few of us have been fortunate enough to hunt with him and to say he's a top notch guy is an understatement. We got Scott hooked up with Rimrock Outfitters on his first lion hunt and it couldn't have gone any better. Scott took a BIG tom as you'll see. Thanks again to Rimrock for doing such a great job..... Make sure you watch in HD if you can, great footage. Enjoy!

PM sent

I'm sure the boys

Congrats to the young boy! If I'm understanding everything correctly, they went down to the G and F, his mother signed the tag over to him and then he went out and shot a ram on the SAME DAY??? That's impressive!

Incredible. All of it. Sure hope you find him!

Can't go wrong with any of the Tucson sponsors. I've been really happy with Wellers. Here's my 2012 archery buck http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/36499-thank-you-bud-and-gavin/

So some 50lb bag of mineral salt purchased at the feed store is fine then......even for attracting wildlife, according to this??

I got this buck on camera back in September. Just a cool looking buck! I didn't have much time to look for him during the early hunts but I was excited when my good friend Ben Blosser of Outer Limit Archery flew out from Indiana for his late rifle Coues tag. Like many other hunters, he's waited several years for this tag. I picked Ben up at the Tucson airport Christmas night at 11:37pm and after a brief "nap" at my place we were sitting on a point the next morning in the country this buck seemed to live in. The action was great! We saw quite a few bucks. Ben was holding out for a 100" buck and I thought we could do that. In the afternoon, I glassed up this buck right below us. What a beautiful representation of a 3x3 buck. It was pretty windy that afternoon and although I knew he'd touch the 100" mark, I wasn't sure how much (if any) he would go beyond that due to my binos a little shaky. It was hard but we decided to let him go. I did manage to get some decent footage of him so when I got home I threw it on the big screen. I'll admit that I was a little discouraged after seeing him again as I thought the buck would go about 102-103". But it was the first day and we felt we'd see him again. Not to mention, the cool, narrow 3x4 was always in the back of my mind. Day 2 came and started out just as the first- plenty of action and bucks seen. About 900am we glassed up the 3x3 again as he was walking away at about 700yds. Not much we could do at that point. We continued to glass for another 30 minutes or so until we heard some rocks tumble below us. We glanced down with our eyes and a buck was about 150 yds away chasing a doe RIGHT BELOW US! I threw the binos on him and it was him- the 3x4 from my camera! It was so cool to see him hard-horned finally. We tried to set up as quickly as possible for a shot but it didn't take long for the buck to chase the doe completely out of sight from us. We gathered our things up shortly after and circled around to try and find the buck mid-day. The only thing we found were some small bucks and ourselves in a snow storm about 4pm! So we had to bail off the mountain and turn in a little earlier than we wanted. Day 3 was VERY uneventful! We couldn't figure it out after the first two days of some great action, then nothing. But it is what it is. Day 4 came and I wasn't able to go out in the morning. I needed some family time. My wife was able to go do her thing (spend some money) and I hung out with the kids. It was much needed. My wife got home and I headed out to meet Ben who was already on the mountain. We contemplated on going to a different area for some new scenery that afternoon but a really good buddy saw a good buck as he was in the same area that morning. So we gave it another shot. I drove (safely) and climbed as fast as I could to meet Ben. I got to him at 2pm. I caught my breath, we talked for 10min about what he'd seen that morning then I started getting my glasses out. I put them on the tripod and no joke, within 10 seconds I had the narrow 3x4 in my view at 400yds. I almost couldn't believe it. What are the odds??!! Ben probably thought I was joking but sure enough, there he was, cruising the bottom! Ben managed to get on a steady rest pretty fast. The buck stopped behind a tree that was a few yards in front of us so Ben had to re-position himself. With Ben's movement the buck had us pegged. I could hear Ben slowing his breathing down and finally.......click. MISFIRE! Ben jacked another one in and settled in. He shoots......and barely misses to the right. We're pretty sure the wind blew the bullet just to the right of his chest as he was 360 yds. The buck flinched and started to nervously walk off. Ben chambered another round and made a quick follow-up shot. He connected this time but quite a bit back. I couldn't quite tell where he hit as the follow-up shot was a little quicker than I expected. The buck's hind end dropped but he regained his footing and hobbled off, favoring his right leg, then disappeared. He acted like he was hit hard even though I was nervous about what appeared to be the location of the hit. We could only hope that it was enough to put him down. Over the next 45 minutes, we picked everything apart and he never came out. I moved to a different vantage point and nothing. I decided to walk down through the bottom while Ben set up high in case the buck managed to get up and go. I hate the feeling of not knowing whether he's down for good or ready to bolt at any sight of a human. I made it down to the bottom and walked up to the location he was standing. No blood there but I found a small drop about 20 yds away. More and more blood started appearing as I followed his tracks until there was enough to make the adrenaline start pumping through my body. And this wasn't even my buck! Haha! And then it stopped...... Luckily I knew better and looked downhill on the steep slope. There he was, all piled up against a tree. My celebratory yell made it to Ben and his didn't take long to echo back. He made it down to me and I had him follow the blood to the buck. It was a gratifying ending to such a cool buck. I'm grateful that such a good guy wrapped his tag around this bucks antlers. Thanks for letting me tag along, Ben. And those that read, thanks for reading!

You're too nice, TJ. Thank you. I try to take time in telling a story. Sometimes we take for granted the things we get to experience in the field. We see some of the most amazing things that most might only get to see on TV. So taking the time to write it down, fumble with a video camera to document or whatever, it helps me to remember and cherish those experiences. Hopefully I'll have some more stuff to post soon!

Ben lives down in Evansville, I believe. The opposite side of your old place. He's originally from Michigan and I met him here in Tucson when he came out to work for a few years back in 2003.