Outdoor Writer

I ended my quest this morning with a very symetrical 3X3 with 17" back points and 23" spread. The John Deer Winchester came through again with another one-shot "harvest," and not one bit of meat affected by the shot that took out the heart and one lung. Pictures on the late night news at 11. Having the backstraps cut into steaks, tenderloins left whole and the rest, about 50 lbs. worth, into three types of summer sauage -- regular, hot n' spicy and jalapena/cheese. -TONY

Nah. That photo is really an anomaly of sorts because only a very small part of the 35,000-acre ranch is that type of country. Most of it is typical rolling foothills with some serious canyons and the main vegetation covering all the slopes is mountain mahogany. Then way low down near the main ranch house, there are probably 200 acres of alfalfa fields. So the place is actually like a candy store for deer. -TONY

I'm tired and about ready to crawl in the sack, but I thought I'd give a quick report of today's happenings. My hunting mate from Oregon, Roger, killed a nice 3x3 management buck today. It's very high and symetrical but lacks a lot of mass and spread. The one trophy hunter who was with a different guide shot a super heavy and wide 8x9 or so. It looks like a N. Kaibab buck and grossed 206!!! I did more shopping today than anything, mostly to give the guy hunting with me first crack. We saw no less than 100-125 deer, with many shooter bucks included. Some of them are off-limits for me, though, because they are legit trophy quality deer and not cull-type bucks. We did spot one monster 3x3 and another 4x6 that we will try to relocate again tomorrow. I'll post photos of Roger's 3x3 tomorrow after I "harvest" my buck. I didn't get any pix of the biggie, but the guide did and will have them on the outfitter's web site soon. -TONY

Dandy buck. Congrats to Ashley and a "good job" to dad. -TONY

Because mammals have different digestive systems than those of the avian creatures, it take much more lead to enter their blood streams, which is where it needs to get to be lethal. That's why people can go through life with a bullet or shotgun pellets embedded in their bodies. For the most part, the mammals eliminate most lead they might eat in their feces. Birds, however, ingest it and then it sits in their gizzards where acids break it down and send it directly into the blood stream. This is also why lead shot was killing millions of waterfowl; they ingest it like they would small pebbles to aid digestion. They weren't dying because a hunter hit them with a few stray pellets or two. Lastly, all the other critters do not have a hundred people constantly monitoring the movements, both visually and through radio telemetry. IOW, a sick condor is noted very quickly and caught for treatment. Some survive and others do not. I have no doubt lead poisoning kills other scavenger type birds and perhaps even a few mammals over time. The latter would be more affected by tiny particles that might be easily acted on by the stomach acids. It would take quite a bit to kill them, however. But there's an awful lot of country out there where they can curl up and die, and of course eventually disappear -- ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt, so to speak.

Congrats to your boy. That will be a hard one to beat as he gets older! -TONY

Just shooting my ol' tried and true .264 with Win. factory 140 PPs. And hopefully we have a few geese thrown in. This is the crew I'm hunting with. If you look at the deer pix in the TROPHY ROOM section, you'll see some of the management cull bucks they take each year. This is one from earlier this year. -TONY

Salt, corn and apple-flavored Pop Tarts. -TONY

I'm at the Comfort Inn in Wellington, Colo. as I type this. Left home yesterday about 6 a.m. and arrived here last night about 950 miles later at 8:30. Won't start hunting until tomorrow. -TONY

Box has an easy, casual style of writing, so it's not a burdensome read to keep up. He keeps his plots fairly simple too, but as you say, they are intriguing, especially when someone uses taxidermy skills on a human. -TONY

Good job, guys! -TONY

Good show. But have you enjoyed reading them???? -TONY

Here is a link to some of the stuff on the AGFD's site. -TONY Jaguar Management

I see one walking along the wall in my backyard quite often. There's also a tan & white one and one that has a little gray, orange, white and black. -TONY

Oh, okay, so on the Patagonia side then? I hunted that area a couple times too, but many years ago. There was a road that turned right off the highway just before hitting the main part of the "city." It went deep into the area and up a mountain, if I recall. I had my 53 Ford panel truck then and towed my Jeep -- thankfully. On the way in, the drive axle on the truck broke. So I managed to use the Jeep to push it off the road. Then we set up a spartan camp for my grandfather and son, who was about 8 at the time to stay in while I drove back to town and called my wife. My dad had a service station at the time, so I had her get him to chase down an axle in a junk yard. I told her I would wait on the corner of the turnoff for her. That was all done at about 10 a.m. or so. By the time they found one, it was already late afternoon, but she left anyway -- in our 1969 Camaro Super Sport. In the meantime it got really dark and a bit cold, so I gathered some wood and built a small fire on the corner of an empty lot. The local sheriff didn't like that much. He stopped and asked me what I was up to. When I explained, he said fine but I had to douse the fire. Fortunately El showed up about 15 mins. later. It was now near 10, and I didn't want her driving back to Phx. Thus, I had her follow me to camp with the Camaro. She spent the night in the tent with us and I made her wait while I I swapped out the axle just in case it was the wrong one. It fit perfect, though. I followed her out to the highway when she left for home . -TONY

Forgot: RE: scorpions We didn't find them until the next morening when we went to build a fire. By then it was took late to shake our boots; we had them on already! -TONY

Oh, okay, so on the Patagonia side then? I hunted that area a couple times too, but many years ago. There was a road that turned right off the highway just before hitting the main part of the "city." It went deep into the area and up a mountain, if I recall. I had my 53 Ford panel truck then and towed my Jeep -- thankfully. On the way in, the drive axle on the truck broke. So I managed to use the Jeep to push it off the road. Then we set up a spartan camp for my grandfather and son, who was about 8 at the time to stay in while I drove back to town and called my wife. My dad had a service station at the time, so I had her get him to chase down an axle in a junk yard. I told her I would wait on the corner of the turnoff for her. By the time they found one, it was already late afternoon, but she left anyway -- in our 1969 Camaro Super Sport. In the meantime it got really dark and a bit cold, so I gathered some wood and built a small fire on the corner of an empty lot. The local sheriff didn't like that much. He stopped and asked me what I was up to. When I explained, he said fine but I had to douse the fire. Fortunately El showed up about 15 mins. later. It was now near 10, and I didn't want her driving back to Phx. Thus, I had her follow me to camp with the Camaro. She spent the night in the tent with us and I made her wait while I I swapped out the axle just in case it was the wrong one. It fit perfect, though. I followed her out to the highway when she left for home . -TONY

Hey Doug, I think I recognize those ruins. Is that "building" off a little two-track that goes to the right off the main road to the observatory? If so, my son and I camped there one night several years ago. Then when we discovered a nest of a thousand or so scorpions the next day, we decided to find a another less "populated" spot for our camp. -TONY

Well, Marc Plunkett delivered the last of my African/NZ trophies Friday -- the wallaby below. Now I have to kill something else. -TONY

Superb buck, Mr. Epperson! -TONY

Great job and nice buck! -TONY

GO DEVILS PLUCK THE DUCKS!

Congrats on a successful hunt! -TONY

Way to go! Nice buck. -TONY

Geez, that ain't no buck to be ashamed of. Good Job! -TONY