Outdoor Writer

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

Welcome. Glad to hear you enjoyed the book. -TONY

Dang! If I hadn't already committed to a lab from the local rescue group, I would have jumped at that GSP. -TONY P.S. - This coming to you from in sunny Matzatlan, Mex. as I sit here by the pool ogling all the teeny bikinis.

That's about what suits hazmat folks wear weigh. -TONY

Here's an interesting tidbit that basically mirrors what I've thought ever since this product was introduced. -TONY Suit says clothes don't pass smell test Four Minnesotans claim that a company that makes scent-disguising clothing has duped hunters out of millions of dollars by selling them a product that doesn't work. By Doug Smith, Star Tribune September 23, 2007 Deer hunters know that if a whitetail's sensitive snout gets wind of human scent, it'll flee in alarm -- and the hunt is over. That's why hunters, including 500,000 in Minnesota, spend millions of dollars each year buying special hunting clothing with activated carbon that promises to eliminate human odors. Now that clothing, which has been on the market for about a dozen years and is sold by virtually every major outdoor retailer in the nation, is under fire. A lawsuit filed Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis alleges the clothing doesn't work and that hunters have been -- and continue to be -- defrauded. The suit was filed against ALS Enterprises Inc. of Muskegon, Mich., which produces and licenses "Scent-Lok" clothing sold under that name and others, including ScentBlocker. The suit says the company is the largest maker of such clothing and licenses it to at least 22 others, including Gander Mountain Co., Cabela's Inc., Bass Pro Shops Inc. and Browning Arms Co. Those four firms also are named as defendants. The suit alleges the five firms conspired to deceive consumers and suppressed and concealed the truth. "Consumers have been duped into spending significant amounts of money on a product that does not work as represented," the suit says. A spokesman for Gander Mountain, the only Minnesota-based firm being sued, declined to comment. Mike Andrews, vice president of marketing for ALS, said the suit is without merit. "We've done years of research ... we have hundreds of testimonials from consumers over the years," he said last week. "We know it works. And we're excited about the opportunity to prove to the world once and for all how effective our product is." Added Andrews: "We have a written guarantee that says you'll experience unalarmed wild animals downwind. You don't build this kind of business on something that's not true." The company says testing done for it by Intertek Testing Services in Cortland, N.Y., has shown its fabric performs as claimed. It also cites supportive studies by S. Holger Eichhorn of the University of Windsor in Ontario and Donald B. Thompson of North Carolina State University. ALS is a privately held company, and Andrews wouldn't reveal sales figures, but some have estimated the activated carbon hunting clothing business may be worth $100 million annually. Four men who bought the clothing -- Mike Buetow of Shakopee, Theodore Carlson of Edina, Gary Richardson Jr. of St. Paul and Joe Rohrbach of Shakopee -- are named as plaintiffs in the suit. But attorneys are seeking class-action status, meaning it would be argued on behalf of all those who bought the clothing. The suit says "tens of thousands" of Minnesota hunters have been deceived into buying millions of dollars of odor-eliminating clothing. Buetow, a bow hunter, said he and the others can't comment on the case on the advice of attorneys. He said he bought $1,000 worth of Scent-Lok gear -- including pants, coats, face masks, hats and gloves -- in 2003. The lawsuit is just the latest salvo fired at ALS and its sellers. The question of whether the company's clothing works as claimed has been the topic of Internet chat rooms for about the past year. And a Minnesotan -- T.R. Michels, 57, of Burnsville, an outdoor writer, author, hunting guide and frequent hunting seminar speaker who has his own website (www.trmichels.com) -- acknowledges he is responsible for raising much of the stink. "Hunters have been screwed," he said. "They have been misled. And they [companies] are making tons of money off the stuff." He said he has no ax to grind and began looking at the clothing because his job as a writer and outdoor expert is to "look into myths and dispell them." Said Michels: "I was lied to, and that really ticked me off." He is not involved in the lawsuit, and won't be because, while he has used Scent-Lok clothing, he's never purchased it, he said. However, Michels has questioned the performance of the clothing with the U.S. Patent Office and has posted numerous exchanges he's had with the company on his website and others. He said outdoor magazines won't write about the issue for fear of losing lucrative advertising dollars for the hunting clothing, and that he has lost freelance work because of his stance. Everyone claims science is on their side. ALS has created a new section on the company's website (www.scentlok.com) to explain how the activated carbon adsorbs human odors. (Adsorption is the adhesion of the gas or liquid molecules to the surfaces of solids.) Andrews said independent experts have verified the company's findings. "It does work as described," Andrews said. "Unfortunately some people refuse to look at the data we've provided." No one disputes that activated carbon adsorbs odors. But even ALS acknowledges the carbon can become saturated with odors. Andrews says the company's clothing can be "regenerated" or "reactivated" many times by putting it in a regular household dryer for 45 minutes. Then it's ready to adsorb more odors. "We know that even after several years of use, it still has enough adsorption capacity to overcome big game animals' [scenting ability]," Andrews said. But the lawsuit and Michels dispute that. The suit says that dryer temperatures never exceed 150 degrees, but temperatures in excess of 800 degrees are needed to reactivate the carbon, and even then it wouldn't be restored to full adsorptive capacity. The suit doesn't cite any independent testing done on the clothing that shows it doesn't work. "Defendants knew or should have known that their odor-eliminating clothing cannot, as a matter of science, eliminate all human odors ... or render a human body scent-invisible to a deer or other game animals," the suit states. The suit says that had hunters known that the clothing doesn't eliminate all human odors and cannot be regenerated in household dryers, they wouldn't have bought it. The suit also claims the defendants violated the Minnesota Consumer Fraud Act, the Minnesota Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Minnesota Unlawful Trade Practices Act and involved civil conspiracy. Andrews said ALS will vigorously fight the suit. ****** The actual 42-pg lawsuit filed in MN. ****** The above photograph is blowup of a piece of Scent Lok fabric, about 6.25 x 6.25 inches square. The tiny black dots on the fabric are the carbon particles. You can clearly see that the powdered activated carbon particles (PAC) are not much wider than one of the threads of the fabric, and there doesn't appear to be more than 30% of the fabric covered with powdered activated carbon. Odors must come into physical contact with the activated carbon before they are "bound" or "adsorbed" to the activated carbon by "electrostatic" or other forces. All odors, including human perspiration odors, will take the "path of least resistance" if they can, meaning they will go around the activated carbon and exit the suit through the large spaces between the small flecks of activated carbon if they can - and they can! This means that many of the scents and/or odors on the inside of a suit made of this material can exit the suit without coming into contact with any activated carbon - they just go around the carbon. And deer, elk, bear and other animals will smell those odors! Scent Lok Patent - Rejected by the Patent Office (9/14/07 1:50 PM) On 9/13/07 the United States Patent Office posted a "Final Rejection Mailed" notice on their web site for Patent # 90007331, which WAS the "double patented" application of Scent Lok for activated carbon clothing for use while hunting. It is illegal to patent something that has already been patented. What does this "Patent rejection" mean for those companies who have been paying royalties to Scent Lok, or for those companies who have an agreement with Scent Lok, or for those companies who have been bankrupted by Scent Lok for infringing on the now rejected patent application of Scent Lok? It may mean that Scent Lok's demand for royalties for the past 16 years was never enforceable. The consequences now - who knows? Maybe new technology, with lower clothing prices, for you hunters. You can find this Patent rejection at: http://www.uspto.gov/ebc/index.html and click on View "Public PAIR". On the next page check the "Application Number" circle, and then type 90007331 in the "*Enter Number" box. You can then click the "Image File Wrapper" and "Transaction History" tabs at the top of the page to view more information.

Geez, I didn't miss by much with my guess, huh? -TONY

Excellent advice. Too many guys assume animals see camo as humans do. They don't. So what looks so nice to our eyes looks somewhat different to critters. You could use red and grey or blaze orange and yellow in a large pattern and still have effective camo. -TONY

Well I got to the tree after about 4 hours of riding and trailing and of course my camera battery was dead, so I rode back to the truck and took the camera out of a trail cam set up Andy Knowlton had built for me, rode back to the tree and took my usual bad pictures. It was just too dark and too many trees to get a clear view, plus the lion was unusually high up in the tree. My mule was not real enthusiastic about the whole thing, but I gave her a snickers candy bar and she perked right up. The lion was a real dark colored lion and will make a fine mount. I had to get out of there as all the multi unit elk hunters were starting to show up along with the usual amount of quaddies etc. It was a fun day. Hey, maybe you should hire Josh to take pix for you. -TONY

Aha, OK. The only reason I thought it was one in the same was because the lake and all the cottonwood trees looked like those on Henry's place. So it sounds like the EZ Ranch is somewhere in the area of the ? in the below map but farther south toward Cordes Junction, huh? -TONY

Clinical signs of CWD alone are not conclusive, and there is currently no practical live animal test. Currently, the only conclusive diagnosis involves an examination of the brain, tonsils or lymph nodes performed after death. Research is being conducted to develop live-animal diagnostic tests for CWD. Early results indicate that a new live-test utilizing tissues from an animal's tonsils may be viable in deer, but so far has been ineffective in elk. I rest my case. -TONY

When I was in NZ a couple years ago, I got to see quite a few farms where they literally raise red deer like livestock because the venison is in high demand around the world. These farms were prevalent on the south island, and it was rare to drive more than two miles and not see one. If you see venison on a restaurant menu in the U.S., it's a good bet you'd be ordering NZ red deer. And it is indeed excellent eating. I thought the same thing about the buffalo meat until I did some math. At $2 per pound for a buff on the hoof, that would be anywhere from $3,500 to more than $4,000. There are big ranches in NM and TX where you can kill a buff for much less. -TONY

Yeah, the Colorado DOW has been testing this technique on live deer in a captive environment. They actually take tissue samples rather than remove the tonsils, but it requires anesthetizing every animal to do the tests. Plus, the results are somewhat spotty because they don't yet know at what STAGE the CWD prions show up in the tonsils. That's why I used "no reliable test." Maybe some day they will be able to do a simple blood test. -TONY