DCMHunter

We did a pack trip this year for our December hunt. Hear is my mule loaded with a pack to last us ten days Hear is a picture of him when we got back to the truck. He has two of the heads tied on back of the pack and the packs are know filled with over 100lbs of meet. Hear is a picture of all three deer we got on that trip Hear is one of the heads tied to the back of one sadle Hear is some of the country we were in Hear is my sons deer tied over the saddle from his youth hunt this last year I love to hunt from a horse back, it allows you to get away from the roads and it to area's that evan a four wheeler can not go. DCM

I am going to try and make this short because every time I try to tell a story I get kicked out and loose every thing I was working on. This year three of us, my brother-in-law, causin-in-law and myself did a horse pack trip into an area for the December hunt. Going in on Thursday we lost a camera and had a horse pull a ham string so we had to cut our trip short and camp in a differant area than we had planned to. But it all worked out alright. On Friday we glassed up some does and a small buck that we decided not to go after. The wind was blowing and it was trying to snow on us. On Saturday we tried a differant area and we found a nice 3X3 a couple of ridges over. While we were looking at him we spotted a small spike/forky on the closer ridge and my causin-in-law decided to shot it. Me and my brother-in-law tried to find the 3X3 after that and could not find him again. That afternoon we spotted another nice 3X3 but did not have time to work into him, so we decided to try and find him in the morning. The next day Sunday day break found us sitting on top of a ridge over looking the canyon that we spotted the last buck in and found that we were serounded by does. We could hear what we thought was two bucks sparring up a draw above us but all we could find was does in that direction. After about an hour we spotted the big buck working down into the canyon into the thick stuff and I decided to take about a 400yard shot and missed. I failed to compensate for the angle. I went down and looked for any sign of him being hit but couldn't find any. I decided to work the canyon in hopes of pushing him out to my brother-in-law but he would not leave the thick stuff. About noon my B-I-L started coming down to get with me for lunch when he jumped him in a small side draw at about 100 yards and he got him with one shot. He scored 83 1/8 After getting his deer down to camp I went down were we saw the buck the morning before and set up for glassing and to be in position for a possible drive later when my B-I-L and C-I-L came down to help me glass. At about 4:30 they called and said they had just jumped a nice buck and he was headed my way. About a minute later the buck topped the ridge about 250 yards above me and when he stopped he gave me time to set up on my try-pod and make a one shot harvest. Mine scored 95 4/8 We ended up with three deer filling all three of our tags and 100 pounds of meet 20lbs the dink, 30 lbs my B-I-L and 50 lbs out of mine. This has been a good year for my family starting with my sons 3X3 muley from the first youth hunt and then him getting a turkey the next weekend and me getiing a bobcat. Then my daughter got her first deer a doe on the youth hunt up on the Kaibab. And then finishing it off with us getting three whitetail in Decdember. I would like to thank everyone that gave me advice this year starting with Scott Adams. Amanda Moors and Matty

I hope this link works. Me and my brotheer-in-law put together a picture video of our hunt and posted it on you tube I hope this link works and you enjoy the video

Is every one ready for thier December hunts? We only have one week left before we can start shooting. I would like to thank everyone who has given me some advise and helped me out this year. I will be doing some final backing this week end and getting the panyards loaded and ready to go. I pulled the pack saddle out the other day and found where the rats had chewed on the britchen so I have been doing some repairs to it. I hope this is the only bad thing that happens this year. I will be going to my trail head on Wednesday and packing into camp on Thursday. I will be coming back out on the 21st or 22nd for Christmas with the family and then back in for the end of the year finally if need be. That is if I doent get a nice one early. I can't waite any more, this is going to be a super hunt. Congratulations to everyone that has been successful sofar and good Luck to everyone still going out. When I get back in January i expect to see lots of pictures. And hopefully be able to post several myself. DCM

Congratulations on a super back and a great story. I will be in unit 27 this December and am planning a horse pack trip in to some country that looks simmilar. I hope that I can have an experiance such as yours although I don't think I will be able to tell the story as good as you can. CONGRATULATIONS SUPER BUCK DCM

November 9th my daughter has a youth deer tag for the Kaibab. I have been up acouple of times scouting so far, but can not make it up this weekend. Are any of you coming off the Kaibab from the early hunt and can share with me where the deer were when you left. I am looking around the burnt corral area, but if the deer are moving down that may not be to good. We will be traveling up on Thursday evening and will not have a chance to scout the day before the hunt. Has anyone been down in the lower area's like slide canyon or white pockets area? Are the deer down there yet? Any help would be appreciated and thanks in advance. DCM

Well we had fun! I will try to post pictures when I get the film developed. My daughter got her first deer and was thrilled. We stayed up kind of high just off the 22 rd, where I had been scouting. The deer seemed to be scattered out with some moving down and others staying high waiting for the snow. Any way Friday morning we worked an area that I had seen lots of deer in earlier and all we saw was a big 4X4 that I had chased around during the archery season. He was in the same area he was in back then, and only about 100 yards from where I last saw him. After working that area we moved over and started working a small draw and found some deer bedded about half way up the side of the draw. My daughter was not sure how to shoot a deer laying down, but when I was trying to tell her where to aim the deer got up, so she took a shot. The deer jumped slitely and walked up the hill to another deer up higher. We were trying to move to get another clear shot when the deer saw us and walked/trotted over the ridge. We were un sure of a hit so we climbed up to were the deer was standing to look for blood and could not find any. We followed them up over the ridge and never saw them again. We started back and found a few drops of blood up where she stopped by the other deer. and then found one more drop about 20 yards higher. We spent the rest of the day Friday working that area and then rode the horses threw the area on Saturday and never found her or saw any sign that she was hurt to bad. We finally decided to try another area on Sunday and about 8:00 AM we had a doe and fawn come into about 40 yards from us and My daughter had a clean shot, harvesting her first deer. It was a good weekend out in the woods with my daughter. We would like to congradulate all the kids who got their deer this last weekend and let those who did not harvest a deer know not to give up. Your turn will come so stick with it. DCM P.S. Thanks to the ADA for putting on the youth camp. We ate there a couple of times and had fun talking with others at the camp.

Thanks for the help. A friend called and talked to Rich and he said that is where the camp will be evan though the medow is half burnt from the controlled burns. They should be setting up Thursday evening. I called the forest service and they said all the fires were pretty much out and there was just a small amount of smoke in some of the low area's. This is shaping up to be a good hunt for the kids with nice weather and all. Good luck to every one going up and if you see a gray ford with a Logan coach horse trailer stop and say hi. DCM

Thanks to all for the information. With the reports of the deer still being high I think we will be sticking to plan A and hunt the area we scouted. About midway but still in the pines and some oaks. Does anyone know if they are serving dinner at the youth camp on Thursday night and where they will have the camp at? I will be getting in kind of late and it would be nice not to have to cook. Thanks again DCM

My Son got his first mule deer buck Sunday morning. It is a nice 20 inch 3X3 still in velvet (sort of). We were working a bench between two roads and had him stand up about 150 yards away and my son made a one shot harvest. The buck did not go 100yards and was down for the count. My son is doing a skull cap moint with the antlers and we are wondering is there anything we can spray the antlers to preserve the loose velvet and the color of the antlers were the velvet has come off? I will post pictures when I get my 35mm film developed. DCM

Thanks for all the information. I will try and find some velvet Tan to spray them with. I will attempt to post some pics. If this works you can see how the velvet is just hanging from the tips on the right antler. This is what my son would like to save. As you can see I need practice with taking photo's and getting out of the shadows. Matty thanks for your help. We made it down into that area on Saturday but didn't see anything. My son shot this one right on the rim as you start down into that area, about a mile from the road. DCM

Lion Season is closed except for multiple bag limit area's in certian units. The hole unit may not be open. In unit 27 it is only around Bear canyon and Pipestem. Be sure you know where these special boundries are, because they follow more trails than roads. It should open back up state wide on September 1st. DCM

Thanks for the replies. I will be up in Flagstaff on business this weekend and will pick up a couple of maps. Does any one know where I can get topo maps or a map of the water catchments up there? Would this be a good hunt to take horses on? I was able to go for a hike yesterday and found a prospect for my sons hunt. When I get the film developed I will ask for a CD so I can post a picture if they turn out. DCM

This has been an extremely good year for my family in getting deer tags. My son drew an 27 youth tag, my daughter drew a 12a youth tag and I drew a 27 Dec. whitetail tag. I live in the whitemountains and can do lots of scouting in 27 in the evenings and weekends on horseback, this is not a problem. Where I need some help is in unit 12a for my daughters hunt. With the gas prices I will only be able to make 1 or 2 trips up there to scout. Can anyone give me some good areas to start looking in. Generals like a canyon or ridge would help a bunch. This hunt is down in the winter range and not up in the pines. Any help will be appreciated. Thaks for the information DCM

Unit 27 is not going to a draw yet!! But all the over the counter hunters from unit one will be in there next year (2008) so they will drop the January hunt and go to September only (2009) and then the next year go to the draw (2010). Three years is the worst that we can expect before it to goes to a draw. When a unit has 20% of the harvest taken by bow hunters they will take away some of the hunts for that unit starting with the December hunt, then the January hunt and finally the September Hunt. As Unit are put into the draw system every one that has an over the counter tag will move to a hunt that is still open to OTC and increase the harvest % in that unit. If the % HARVEST does not reach 20% they will lower the % requirement until they can make it a draw. We where told that unit 27 has about a 15% harvest at this time. And that the % is based on a running average. Hope this helps. DCM

Like I said I have no problem with youth hunters or recruitment and retention, I just feel that opening up the hunt like that could be a little dangerous for the turkey population. But then we where told at the Pinetop meeting that after the eggs are layed you could kill 100% of the toms without any problems or inpact to the flock. If you want to issue youth as manny tags as you can lets give them some of the bull tags. My son has killed a cow elk two out of three years that he has been elligable to hunt and know he wants to hunt bulls. Or lets give them some December Whitetail hunts. If you apply 365 days of pressure to the buffs every time they step off the park they will quiet coming off the park. besides that you had better hope to kill one near the road during the summer or you will lose all your meet and it will be a waiste. DCM

Has anyone looked at the turkey and Javelina hunts? Don't get me wrong I am all for youth hunts, I have three youth hunters at home fighting for who gets to put in for what. But does any one feel that opening the Spring and Fall turkey seasons up to over the counter for youth is alittle extreme? (Look at page 12 under Management guidelines D,i and D,ii) And they are moving 15% of the javelina tags currently during the fall to a single fall juniors only season. Also making the metro units over the counter nonpermit hunts. With the javelina they want to reduce the herd size down to 6 to 7 Adult or 7 to 10 total. Does anyone have any concerns about making the House Rock Buffalo hunt a 365 day hunt? There are some major problems with these guideline recommendations! Everyone should attend a meeting and send in some written comments. If you enjoy hunting than you had better do something other than whine on a website.

I attended the meeting in Pinetop on Tuesday and there was only about a dozen hunters there. Some of the issues that bothered me was the decrease in buck to doe and bull to cow ratio in the standard hunt units. With this reeduction they are also reducing the success percentage for the hunter. They are creating these alternative management hunt units with decent ratios and this is good, but don't decrease your current standards in the other area's. This will eventually reduce the herds to an un huntable population. It was mentioned that they will be shifting hunts from perferred periods to less desired periods, such as reducing the December whitetail hunts to 5% reather than 10%. Also shifting some of the early elk tags to later dates. Was there much discussion in Tucson about the archery recommendations? When they create the permit tag for units with greater than 20% harvest it will put additional pressure on the units with over the counter tags. Those units will then have an increase in archery harvest and with in 3 to 4 years there will no longer be over the counter deer tags. They said these recommendations where from the hunters and said that there information came from the servey that they put out. In Pinetop they where asked why they did not use hard data reather then suggestive data. If they look at the first choice on the hunt applications they would have hard proof that hunters want quaility reather than oppertunity. Thier quality should be in number of animals, size and age of animals and ability to get away from the other weekend hunters. Thanks for reading my complaints and if you are not active, get active DCM

They are accepting public comment until the 15th on the commissioner applications. Who are you supporting? From what I have read my first choice is Don Martin From Kingman, AZ. I feel he would support the hunting and fishing in Arizona. My next two choices would be Phillip Townsend, from Yuma and Robert Woodhouse, from Roll (Yuma area). The commissioner that is leaving this year is from the colorado river area and I feel we should replace him with someone from the same area. Please contact the governors staff and let them know who you are supporting. Following is the information on contacting the Governors staff STATE OF ARIZONA _ CvEnuTIVE OFFICE NEWS RELEASE N ON JANET NAPOLITANO CONTACT: GOVERNOR PRESS OFFICE (602) 542-1342 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, Januaiy 18, 2007 APPLICANTS SOUGHT FOR ARIZONA GAME AND FISH COMMISSION Applications Accepted Throughout January PHOENIX — The Governor’s office is cu,-renfly accepting applications for the 2007 appoin.u’ent to the Arizona Game and Fish Commission. The 2007 appointment will fill the vacancy created by Chairman Joe Melton of Yuma Members must be well mfoi,i,ed on the subject of wildlife and the requirements for its conservation. To maintain the political balance of the Commission, applicants for this vacancy may not be members of the Democratic Party. No two members may be from the same county. Since the Commission currently has members from Coconino, Maricopa, Pima and Pinal Counties, residents of those counties may not apply for this opening Residents of Apache, Cochise, Gila, Graham, Greenc, La Paz, Mohave, Navajo, Santa Cruz, Yavapai and Yuma are eligible to apply Applications are accepted online at http://www.azgovernor.gov/bc/application_onlineiasp and are currently being accepted through Wednesday. January 31, 2007- Public comment will be accepted February 1 - February 15,2007, preferably via E-mail to dvasquez@az.gov. For further infomiation contact the Governors Office of Boards and Commissions at (602) 542- 2449 or toll free at 1-800-253-0881 -30- TOTAL P.82 DCM

Here are the resume's for Robert Woodhouse and Phillip Townsend Robert R. Woodhouse 3786 S. Ave. 41 Roll, AZ. 85347 (928) 785-4008 PROFESSIONAL: Casa de Lena Farms 1974- Present Owner Woodhouse & Son Inc. Trucking Company 1971- Present, President and Manager EDUCATION: Arizona Western College Associate Degree 1971 PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District Board Member Finance Committee Equipment Committee Real Estate Committee Arizona Cotton Growers Western Growers Association Yuma County Farm Bureau Past Board Member Growers Mohawk Gin Board President Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association Arizona Crop Improvement Association COMMUNITY: Mohawk Valley School Governing Board 1980-1996 Six Terms President Antelope Union High School Governing Board 1997- Present Two Terms President Wellton-Mohawk School District Unification Committee President Two Years Mohawk Valley Summer Baseball Association President Four Years Youth Coach Six Years Yuma County Fair Junior Livestock Committee 1997-2002 President 2000-2002 Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church Eucharistic Minister Lector Mohawk Valley 4-H Club Swine Leader Six Years Antelope Union High School FFA Advisory Committee Five Years Antelope Booster Club ORGANIZATIONS: Yuma Valley Rod & Gun Club National Rifle Association Life Member 1971-Present Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Sponsor Member 1994-Present Arizona Deer Association Mule Deer Association Safari Club International AWARDS: Arizona School Board Association 2005 All Arizona School Board Antelope FFA Honorary Chapter Farmer PERSONAL: Born February 12, 1951 Yuma, Arizona Resident Roll, Arizona 55 Years Third Generation Farmer Married to Blanca for 30 Years Children Weston Woodhouse Kellen Woodhouse Private Pilot 1971-Present Bilingual English and Spanish Rapport Leadership Institute Leadership Breakthrough I Leadership Breakthrough II Power Communications Master Graduate PHILLIP D. TOWNSEND 4620 LAGUNA DAM ROAD YUMA, AZ 85365 (928) 726-0166 WORK EXPERIENCE: 1981 – Present Owner of Sunlund Chemical Co., Inc. A service oriented, independent agricultural chemical dealership. Pest Control Advisor, President and Manager EDUCATION: 1977 Bachelor of Science in Agronomy, University of Arizona PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Arizona Crop Protection Association, currently President Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association CAPCA Yuma County Farm Bureau Western Growers Association NFIB COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES: Yuma Union High School District Governing Board Southwest Futures Forum, Participant Past-Chairman, Yuma County Republican Party Arizona Help America Vote Act Committee 4-H Community Club Leader 4-H Beef Project Leader Hospice of Yuma Community Advisory Board Yuma County Redistricting Board Arizona Republican Party Executive Committee Past Board Member Hospice of Yuma, President 1999, 2000 Past Trustee of Arizona 4-H Youth Foundation Past Trustee YRMC Foundation CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS: Yuma Valley Rod & Gun Club Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Mule Deer Foundation NRA – Life Member HONORS & AWARDS: 2004 AZ Republican Party Paul Fannin Award 2002 Yuma Community Foundation, Heart of Yuma Recipient for Leadership 2002 AZ Republican Party Barry Goldwater Award 1996 Arizona State FFA Alumni 1996 Yuma County Friend of 4-H PERSONAL INFORMATION: Fourth generation Yuma, AZ native Parents-Ted (deceased) and Velma Townsend Married to Debbie since 1989 Children (step) Matthew (Dee Dee) Phillips Paige (Ben) Brooks Grandchildren: AnnaBelle Grace Phillips, Steven Phillips and Ryan Michelle Brooks

I am looking for some help. My son (12) and Daughter (10) have drawn for javelina in unit 28 general hunt. I would like to find some good areas to take them hunting in. I have been down acouple of times and have not found any fresh sign in the areas listed on the G&F site. If you can help me I would appritiate it a hole lot. This is my sons second hunt and my daughters first. I know the area by Duncan a little bit and can hunt either the flats or foothills. We have horses for traveling and packing. So any help whould be nice. DCM

Thanks everyone for the help. From what it sounds like is that they are more down in the flats and not as much in the foot hills. Daniel, I will be sending you a PM thanks DCM

Last year it cost me $570.00 to put myself, wife, son and daughter in for deer, elk and javelina, and myself and son in for antelope. To do the same with the perposed increases it will cost me $940.00! Plus $200.00 if we wished to put in for one of the class A deer hunts and $400.00 to put in for the Class A elk hunts. That is a $370.00 to $970.00 increase for me. That is over $1.00 a day in my book. I do like the class K license (which is not included in the above costs). For a family who hunts together this really hurts. And I am getting bitten hard for my 13 bonus points for elk. I have not even started on the NR costs which puts my brother-in-law out (who is a native Arizonan and use to injoy coming home to hunt and visit family) I am not a rich &@%#%&$&@ and these increases will hurt me and my family in doing something we love to do. As I said earlier I do beleave that an increase is needed but this steep of an increase realy hurts DCM

There have been lots of good discussion on this topic. I agree with some and disagree with some. After reviewing the perposed rates all I can say is that I will not be able to afford to put in for all the hunts that my family has in the past. The rate increase runs from about 20% to over 450% of the current cost. Deer would be increased about 75% for the class B tag and over 370% for the class A tag. With this amount of increase I can not in the forseeable future see my self applying for any of the Kiabab or "prime Whitetail" hunts. My 13 bonus points for elk will have to be used for a general hunt, unless I elect not to but my kids in for any hunts. These increases are about to make it where I will be better off hunting out of the state. I love hunting and am a serious hunter. I too have been out hunting while injured and/or sick but can not afford the increases that are being perposed. As you can see I am against the class A tag. I am against the outragiuos increases that are perposed. The Game and Fish are saying that the cap has not been raised since 1998, but when was the last time the tag fees where raise to meet the old cap? I agree that the Game and Fish need to keep up with inflasion. I receive a 3% cost of living raise a year. If the Game and Fish have not raised the cost since 1998 then let them have a 21% increase that most others are getting. this would bring them up for the 7 years that they have not raised their fees. 75% is too much! I have a 4 person house hold and am beeing priced out. I will be at the meeting in Pinetop and Springerville and will voice my issues. I hope everyone on this site attends at least one meeting. DCM

Its a little bulky but I use 5" pieces of 2X4 and parachute cord. Drill a hole cross ways about 1" from the top and tie a 5 foot piece of cord through the hole. Rap the cord around the tree and daly it around the block, pulling it down behind the block to the string. If your cord is long enough you can go back around the tree and tie it to the block again. You need about 6 or 8 blocks depending on how hi you set your stand, maybe more. The blocks can be removed easy and limit axcess to your stand. Carry them in a small bag and they can be stashed near your stand when your not using them. DCM Good luck on your hunts.