Outdoor Writer

Thanks all. I'm quite pleased with the mount. In fact, I had two old Coues deer racks laying around and decided to have Chris do a similar set up with them. One of the bucks is the one pictured on the back of the book that has about 6 inches broken off one main beam. Chris will repair that. Right now he's working on a bobcat/snake combo for me, though. Ernesto, I don't "do" elevated blinds, feeders or bait piles. We hunted these TX deer just like I hunt Coues deer. Here's a few messages I had posted elsewhere back in Dec. and Jan. ******* From my first trip: Here's a photo of the oryx bull I shot last weekend in TX. I also killed a very nice, heavy-beamed 9-pt. buck. Unfortunately, I won't have a photo of the buck until I get the antlers sent to me, likely this week or next. I hit the buck too high just before dark on Sun., and he ran off into the thick cedars. We tracked him for a couple hours that night, then came back the next morning again. We eventually lost any blood trail and gave up since I had to leave for home and the ranch manager had to go to his other job. He went back to the area the next day and found the buck dead. He was lying about 20 feet from a water hole. So he recovered the antlers and will be shipping them to me. Now I'll have to get a cape somewhere. **** From my 2nd trip two weeks later: Here's the buck I tagged this past weekend north of Uvalde. It's a legit 10-pt. without the broken point on the crab claw of the left main beam and a little kicker point coming off the right brow tine. Inside spread is 16 inches. The other buck I shot two weeks ago is a good heavy 9-point with an 18" inside spread. I got another cape for him, too. I need to go drop the capes off at the taxidermist right now. I'll take a couple of photos with both sets of antlers together and post them later with a few other terrain photos. etc. ***** These are a few pix of the terrain. The first one -- taken at 3X from where I shot -- is where I killed the buck this weekend. We were glassing from a ridge about 600-800 yds. away, and I found him with my 12X binocs. He was bedded with three does where the left arrow is pointing. I stalked within 200 yards when one of the does nailed me. The buck popped up and trotted to the opening where the arrow on the right is pointing to him on the ground. He stopped, facing almost dead away and looking back at me. Because I thought my .264 was shooting too high, I had left it in camp and used my custom Robar .300 Win. mag (in the photo above). I nailed him low in the neck -- bang-flop, DRT. The 180-gr. TBBC blew through the neck, leaving about a 3" exit hole for the taxidermist to patch up. Other than the different types of vegetation, the terrain was very much like the areas where I hunt Coues deer. Since I refuse to hunt over feeders, it was an ideal situation. Doug, the ranch manager, looking over one of the valleys.

The amendment doesn't grant any more power to the Legislature than it ALREADY has! The Legislature has been making the laws in regards to the state's wildlife management for decades. And within the those laws, they may designate that management to the AZ G&FD, which then has the task of doing that management under the RULES it puts forth. When it comes to actual LAW changes, however, the game dept. MUST go through the Legislature, as it always has been in the past. In other words, the game dept. works as an agent of sorts for the Legislature.

Groan. Those are ibex on a dam in Europe -- Lake Camposecco in Italy to be exact. This one is cool too;

R12-4-319 Use of Aircraft to Take Wildlife A. For the purposes of this Section, the following definitions apply: 1. "Aircraft" means any contrivance used for flight in the air or any lighter-than-air contrivance. 2. "Locate" means any act or activity that does not take or harass wildlife and is directed at locating or finding wildlife in a hunt area. B. An individual shall not take or assist in taking wildlife from or with the aid of aircraft. C. Except in hunt units with Commission-ordered special seasons under R12-4-115 and R12-4-120 and hunt units with seasons only for mountain lion and no other concurrent big game season, an individual shall not locate or assist in locating wildlife from or with the aid of an aircraft in a hunt unit with an open big game season. This restriction begins 48 hours before the opening of a big game season in a hunt unit and extends until the close of the big game season for that hunt unit. D. An individual who possesses a special big game license tag for a special season under R12-4-115 or R12-4-120 or an individual who assists or will assist such a licensee shall not use an aircraft to locate wildlife beginning 48 hours before and during a Commission-ordered special season. E. This Section does not apply to any individual acting within the scope of official duties as an employee or authorized agent of the state or the United States to administer or protect or aid in the administration or protection of land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life, or crops. R12-4-320 Harassment of Wildlife A. In addition to the provisions of A.R.S. § 17-301, it is unlawful to harass, molest, chase, rally, concentrate, herd, intercept, torment, or drive wildlife with or from any aircraft as defined in R12-4-319, or with or from any motorized terrestrial or aquatic vehicle. B. This Section does not apply to individuals acting: 1. Under the provisions of A.R.S. § 17-239; or 2. Within the scope of official duties as an employee or authorized agent of the state or the United States to administer or protect or aid in the administration or protection of land, water, wildlife, livestock, domesticated animals, human life, or crops.

Way to go guys. Two fine "meeses."

Superb bull! Congrats to Jody.

Congrats on a super bull.

It does no such thing. In fact, it removes the threat of the "voters" doing anything. In effect, it does nothing to the way the wildlife is currently managed by the legislature in regards to the LAWS (Title 17) and by AZG&F in regards to the RULES, which is where the harvests, seasons, etc. come under. It has been this way for eons and nothing about that will change. What the amendment WILL DO is REMOVE the threat of the environmental and animal rights groups from putting initiatives on the ballots where the "voters" would decide how to manage wildlife, i.e. the ban on public land trapping, as an example.

Way to go, John. A unique "rack" for sure.

And...if all else fails, I would bet the dog has a microchip implanted that can be scanned by any vet. I think Petsmart will even do the scan. Generally, the owner's info is available once the number is known.

Way to get it done. Nice bull. Congrats.

Way to go. Congrats!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/16000-dia...ntary-ra,18061/

Great looking mount!

Good buck and good job. Congrats!

Set up a corn feeder and a trail cam about a week before you fish it!

Below is the "manifesto" of the crazy James Jay Lee that now has hostages at the Discovery Channel's building in MD. It appeared on his "Save The Planet" website. ************************************************************* The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY: 1. The Discovery Channel and it’s affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn’s “My Ishmael” pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other’s inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!! 2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it. 3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR! 4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn’t, then get heck off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they?? 5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!) 6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don’t build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet! 7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people’s brains until they get it!! 8. Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You’re the media, you can reach enough people. It’s your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!! 9. Develop shows that will correct and dismantle the dangerous US world economy. Find solutions for their disasterous Ponzi-Casino economy before they take the world to another nuclear war. 10. Stop all shows glorifying human birthing on all your channels and on TLC. Stop Future Weapons shows or replace the dialogue condemning the people behind these developments so that the shows become exposes rather than advertisements of Arms sales and development! 11. You’re also going to find solutions for unemployment and housing. All these unemployed people makes me think the US is headed toward more war. Humans are the most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around and are wrecking what’s left of the planet with their false morals and breeding culture. For every human born, ACRES of wildlife forests must be turned into farmland in order to feed that new addition over the course of 60 to 100 YEARS of that new human’s lifespan! THIS IS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOREST CREATURES!!!! All human procreation and farming must cease! It is the responsiblity of everyone to preserve the planet they live on by not breeding any more children who will continue their filthy practices. Children represent FUTURE catastrophic pollution whereas their parents are current pollution. NO MORE BABIES! Population growth is a real crisis. Even one child born in the US will use 30 to a thousand times more resources than a Third World child. It’s like a couple are having 30 babies even though it’s just one! If the US goes in this direction maybe other countries will too! Also, war must be halted. Not because it’s morally wrong, but because of the catastrophic environmental damage modern weapons cause to other creatures. FIND SOLUTIONS JUST LIKE THE BOOK SAYS! Humans are supposed to be inventive. INVENT, dang YOU!! The world needs TV shows that DEVELOP solutions to the problems that humans are causing, not stupify the people into destroying the world. Not encouraging them to breed more environmentally harmful humans. Saving the environment and the remaning species diversity of the planet is now your mindset. Nothing is more important than saving them. The Lions, Tigers, Giraffes, Elephants, Froggies, Turtles, Apes, Raccoons, Beetles, Ants, Sharks, Bears, and, of course, the Squirrels. The humans? The planet does not need humans. You MUST KNOW the human population is behind all the pollution and problems in the world, and YET you encourage the exact opposite instead of discouraging human growth and procreation. Surely you MUST ALREADY KNOW this! I want Discovery Communications to broadcast on their channels to the world their new program lineup and I want proof they are doing so. I want the new shows started by asking the public for inventive solution ideas to save the planet and the remaining wildlife on it.

Never let facts get in the way of a good argument.

Nice buck, and good job. Congrats.

Just to keep things factual (I know, I know, why bother when it makes for good conspiracy theories?), neither Obama or anyone in his administration had anything to do with requesting the lead ammo ban. In fact, it was his administration that DENIED the petition. ****** Administrator Lisa P. Jackson August 3, 2010 Environmental Protection Agency USEPA Headquarters Ariel Rios Building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W. Mail Code: 1101A Washington, DC 20460 Dear Administrator Jackson: As provided in the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Petitioners American Bird Conservancy, Association of Avian Veterinarians, Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile request that the EPA adopt regulations prohibiting the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of lead shot, lead bullets, lead fishing sinkers, and other lead‐containing fishing gear, pursuant to TSCA (15 U.S.C. § 2605(a)(2)(A)(i)). Such regulations are needed to protect vulnerable wildlife species from the ongoing threat of lead poisoning, as well as to safeguard human health. TSCA mandates that the EPA must regulate chemical substances where there is a "reasonable basis to conclude" that such substances "present an unreasonable risk of injury to health and or the environment" (15 U.S.C. § 2605(a)). TSCA authorizes the EPA to prohibit “the manufacturing, processing, or distribution in commerce” of a chemical substance for a particular use or uses (15 U.S.C. § 2605(a)(2)(A)(i)). The EPA has already declared that lead is a toxic substance, and has removed nearly all lead containing products from the market. We present in the attached petition nearly 500 peer reviewed scientific articles documenting the toxic effects of lead on wildlife species and conclude that the lead components of bullets, shotgun pellets, fishing weights and lures pose an unreasonable risk of injury to human and wildlife health and to the environment. Ammunition and tackle manufacturers now market a wide variety of non‐lead, non‐toxic bullets, shotgun pellets, and fishing tackle that can replace lead projectiles and weights. The EPA has long held that whenever a toxic substance customarily used in the manufacture of commercial products can be replaced by a nontoxic substitute, the precautionary principle dictates that articles made of the toxic substance should be removed from the market. All hunting and fishing gear containing lead could economically be replaced with non‐toxic alternatives, thus making a strong argument for EPA‐regulatory action. The petitioners understand that EPA is specifically prohibited from regulating ammunition or firearms under TSCA, but that toxic components of ammunition can be regulated if non‐toxic alternatives are commercially available. The petitioners have waited until non‐toxic alternatives have become available to submit this petition in an effort to clearly indicate that this petition is not an attempt to regulate ammunition or firearms. Sincerely, Michael Fry, PhD American Bird Conservancy Washington DC.

EPA Denies Petition Calling for Lead Ammunition Ban Release date: 08/27/2010 Contact Information: Brendan Gilfillan gilfillan.brendan@epa.gov WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today denied a petition calling for a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA sent a letter to the petitioners explaining the rejection – that letter can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/chemtest/pubs/sect21.html Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, issued the following statement on the agency’s decision: “EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – nor is the agency seeking such authority. “This petition, which was submitted to EPA at the beginning of this month, is one of hundreds of petitions submitted to EPA by outside groups each year. This petition was filed under TSCA, which requires the agency to review and respond within 90 days. “EPA is taking action on many fronts to address major sources of lead in our society, such as eliminating childhood exposures to lead; however, EPA was not and is not considering taking action on whether the lead content in hunting ammunition poses an undue threat to wildlife. “As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency's authority over fishing sinkers, EPA – as required by law – will continue formally reviewing a second part the petition related to lead fishing sinkers. “Those wishing to comment specifically on the fishing tackle issue can do so by visiting http://www.regulations.gov. EPA will consider comments that are submitted by September 15.”

EPA Considering Ban on Traditional Ammunition: ACT NOW! All Gun Owners, Hunters and Shooters: With the fall hunting season fast approaching, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Lisa Jackson, who was responsible for banning bear hunting in New Jersey, is now considering a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) - a leading anti-hunting organization - to ban all traditional ammunition under the Toxic Substance Control Act of 1976, a law in which Congress expressly exempted ammunition. If the EPA approves the petition, the result will be a total ban on all ammunition containing lead-core components, including hunting and target-shooting rounds. The EPA must decide to accept or reject this petition by November 1, 2010, the day before the midterm elections. Today, the EPA has opened to public comment the CBD petition. The comment period ends on October 31, 2010. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) -- the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry -- urges you to submit comment to the EPA opposing any ban on traditional ammunition. Remember, your right to choose the ammunition you hunt and shoot with is at stake. The EPA has published the petition and relevant supplemental information as Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OPPT-2010-0681. If you would like to read the original petition and see the contents of this docket folder, please click here. In order to go directly to the 'submit a comment' page for this docket number, please click here. NSSF urges you to stress the following in your opposition: There is no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations. Wildlife management is the proper jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the 50 state wildlife agencies. A 2008 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on blood lead levels of North Dakota hunters confirmed that consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition does not pose a human health risk. A ban on traditional ammunition would have a negative impact on wildlife conservation. The federal excise tax that manufacturers pay on the sale of the ammunition (11 percent) is a primary source of wildlife conservation funding. The bald eagle's recovery, considered to be a great conservation success story, was made possible and funded by hunters using traditional ammunition - the very ammunition organizations like the CBD are now demonizing. Recent statistics from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service show that from 1981 to 2006 the number of breeding pairs of bald eagles in the United States increased 724 percent. And much like the bald eagle, raptor populations throughout the United States are soaring. Steps to take: 1. Submit comment online to the EPA. 2.Contact Lisa Jackson directly to voice your opposition to the ban: Lisa P. Jackson Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20460 (202) 564-4700 Fax: (202) 501-1450 Email: jackson.lisa@epa.gov 3. Contact your congressman and senators and urge them to stop the EPA from banning ammunition. To view a sample letter, click here.

I believe the Mod. 12 has an aluminum alloy frame. If you open the cylinder, you should see the model # on the frame, as in Mod 10-X or Mod. 12-X, with X being a number indicating various changes over the years.

As I mentioned to Doug above, those are under the heading defining no-nos for DEVELOPED recreational sites, i.e. probably aimed more at the USFS campgrounds.

Doug, Those are under the heading defining no-nos for DEVELOPED recreational sites, i.e. probably aimed more at the USFS campgrounds.