Outdoor Writer

Hmmm, sounds like a different scenario than what I recall. G&F did all it could to protect us and even WON it's case in the U.S District court. On appeal, the 9th Circuit court overturned that ruling, finding that the cap was unconstitutional because of the Commerce clause. That would have happened even if it was a statute, and it would still be that way were it not for the new federal legislation passed last year, which gives all authority to manage wildlfe to each state. So, it appears passing a separate statute in AZ was unnecessary. That said, I would guess the main opposition to passing a law had to do with the fact that any changes to it, unlike a G&F rule, would then require action by the state legislature. So if G&F wanted to reduce the cap to 5% at some future time, they would have to get the legislature to do that. As it is now -- and should be -- the game department can do as it pleases in regards to the cap. -TONY

I had the same experience with Dunlop tires on my then new 1974 3/4-ton 4x4 Chevy truck. Constant blow-outs, even with the free replacements. And these were the original factory tires. That's when I switched to the BFG ATs, which I ran on that Chevy, three Nissan 4x4 trucks and the Dodge I now own. I've NEVER had one AT blow and I think I've had like all of three flats in that time -- all caused by either nails or screws and never any due to tire failure or cuts. One other reason I like the ATs is the noise factor. Although the thread is somewhat aggressive, they run quiet compared to some of the other brand's aggressive threads. As for Big O or Discount, they will get you about any tire you want and will even compete over the prices! In fact, I usually buy my ATs from a Big O that's only two blocks away from me. I called both Big O and Discount yesterday to price four tires and both not only beat Walmart's ONLINE price, but matched each other for total that included mounting, stems, lifetime balance, taxes and warranty. -TONY

I'll let Daryl answer in regards to the hotel, but I can answer the other questions since I've driven down to Mexico once or twice a year for a few decades now. As of now, you do not need a passport if you DRIVE across the border, but you might if you fly. This has nothing to do with Mexico, per se, but getting back into the U.S. You will need some sort of proof, though, such as a passport or birth certificate and a PHOTO ID to obtain your visa in Mexico, which you will get about 15 miles south of Nogales on the main highway. It is well signed, so you can't miss it. Visa cost, payable at the border or any other bank, is $20. I don't believe you will need a vehicle permit if you do not go farther south than Sonora, but you can ask at the place where you obtain the visa. If a vehicle permit -- about $25 -- is needed, you get it there, as well. Hassles are non-existent unless you cause them. And yes, you do need a separate insurance policy, which is issued by a Mexican company. There are several places either before you cross the border or right near the border to buy a policy. I get mine well beforehand from a company in Scottsdale. It generally runs about $15 per day for a vehicle that's valued at about $15-20K. The highway between Nogales & San Carlos is mostly 4-lane, and it's also a toll road with toll booths scattered as you go. I'm guessing the total for that trip is about $25-30 each way. Unlike the old days, there are plenty of Pemex stations to get fuel. But if you fill up just before you cross the border at Nogales, you can make San Carlos on one tank. The most difficult part of the trip will be negotiating the by-pass around Hermosillo if you don't pay attention to the signs! And be sure to REALLY slow down when you see a sign that warns you about topes ahead. Those are speed bumps that will jar your teeth if you hit them at speed. They are quite common in the populated areas. You will also find, unlike the U.S., that drivers on the highway actually obey the rules and stay to the right. This is especially true of the truckers and buses. They also wait until you pass rather than pulling out to pass someone directly in front of you. Ask if you have other questions. -TONY

How can I have any experience with it since it's supposedly new and I never draw permits?? Actually, I rarely field dress deer any longer. I just skin and either quarter or bone them out on the spot. Which one I choose depends on how far from camp or the vehicle I happen to be. That said, I always used the tried and true method of cutting around the anus and tying it off with a small piece of twine. -TONY

Yup. I thought you had mentioned that about Bob. It might have been here or on one of the other chats boards where our paths crossed a while back. It's Don that I remember. I don't recall Dave at all. I think the guy you're thinking of was Ed Belinzki. He's on the right in the photo with the fish from Canyon Lake. The other guy on my Jeep with the bucks was Roger Beagle. He hunted with Pop and I a lot, especially on the Kaibab. I haven't talked to either of them in decades. I can't recall if Ed was on that Kaibab hunt, though. Now I remember about chasing that big 4x4 on the Strip. I had tracked him a long ways right around Poverty Mt. somewhere, if I recall. I had only one other glimspe of him after I first jumped him. -TONY

Aha, I forgot we went to the Strip together. If I recall, the deer pitched a shutout on that hunt, no? Didn't you tell me a while back that Bob had died -- cancer maybe?? I don't recall his son's name; what's he up to? -TONY

Man, I would jump at this super deal in a heartbeat, but we're already scheduled to be at our timeshares in Mazatlan from Oct. 8 to Oct. 22. -TONY

I had a good friend in Utah, Lynn Maxfield, who made knives. Sometime in the 1980s, I designed a 4" drop-point that he made for me. It's 440-C steel with a 59 Rockwell rating and has a balbinga wood handle with a brass guard, buttplate and decorative inserts. -TONY

Rick, Yep. That was a fun hunt. You were just a snot-nosed little brat at the time. Pop was standing under the tent canopy in the very first photo. If I recall, you're in some of the photos I haven't been able to find yet. Isn't that your uncle's truck next to mine in the one with the deer hanging? -TONY

This is one of the items I'll be donating to the auction at the party. It's a limited edition knife made by Buck for Whitetails Unlimited and is no longer available, i.e. it's a collector's item. The deer silhouette is cut clear thru the blade, and it comes with a walnut presentation case. I'll also be donating a hard-cover copy of How To Hunt Coues Deer that will be signed by Duwane and me. -TONY

Yeah, I have been wondering about you lately. -TONY

Neat photo. That trail is quite like the one where the horse with the tent went over the side -- nowhere to go either left or right. I had several of those variable WA Redfield scopes in the '60s & '70s, and when we lived in Colo. my wife worked in the Redfield assembly plant in Durango for two years. At the time, all the products were U.S. made. The company eventually went down the tubes sometime in the 1990s, but another company bought it. I think they had stopped making the scopes but continued to make the rings and bases, which were quite good. I heard that another company is now making Redfield scopes again, but like most of today's optics, they're made off-shore. -TONY

Hey, no one on this site would ever think of lying. I bet they all fill out their hunter survey cards with nothing but truthful answers. I have a stack of old hunting photos somewhere, but I'll be danged if I can remember where I put them so I could find them again. Most of the ones I've posted so far are outtakes that my wife had stored in a shoe box. -TONY

I've been running the BFG ATs on all my trucks for years. I'm on my 2nd set on my '98 4x4 Dodge 1/2-ton Quadcab, which has 76K miles on it. Although the tires still have a few thousand miles of tread wear remaining, I need to replace them soon because of dry rot! -TONY

That's because it was MEANT to be ridiculous, just as saying "if it's legal, it's ethical" is ridiculous. Breaking laws is a legal issue, NOT an ethical issue. How one behaves OUTSIDE of the laws is what determines ethics. -TONY

This is gonna be the last batch of pix I post. Some of you other guys need to post some! The first bunch is from two successive pig hunts in the Pinto Creek area. The second bunch was taken on my very FIRST big-game hunt in AZ in 1962 -- deer near Waggoner. The Chevy "woodie" wagon was my first hunting vehicle, and the buck hanging in the tree was mine -- the only one killed on that hunt. I used a Marlin 336 .30/30 with a 4X Weaver scope. -TONY This was the next year after I had painted the Jeep.

My favorite legal thing to do is to shoot a deer in the gut first, and then I like to shoot it in a leg at a time until it can't walk any longer without a whole lot of effort. Once it stops for good, I'll shoot it in the head to put it out of its misery, which is the ethical thing to do. I wouldn't want to be inhumane. -TONY

Actually, I think there will be two photos of you and that monster. The first will be in the Dec. issue of Rocky Mt. Game & Fish with a short recap in my In The Field column. The other will be in a feature article I'm doing on Lake Pleasant for the Feb issue. Are you coming to the party at my place on Sept. 29? If so see the YES RSVP ONLY FOR TONY'S PARTY ON SEPT. 29, 2007 thread. TONY

The .264 is indeed still holding its own, though it has been refurbished a bit. If you look at the OW's 2003 Africa Hunt & OW's 2004 New Zealand Hunt threads, you'll see how it stills perform its tasks quite well. After it got too beat up from carrying it in a saddle scabbard, I had Robar Inc. put a satin silver NP3 coating and McMillan stock on it. The red/white GMC truck was mine. It replaced the 1953 Ford panel truck that's in the photo of me and Duffy. I had pulled the 6-cyl. motor in that and replaced it with a 292 CI V-8. Also changed the 6-volt system to 12. I have a few other photos to upload where the panel was still all white rather than white and orange. The name painted on the front fenders was 'Miss Carriage.' I also pulled the motor out of the '46 Jeep and completely rebuilt it with all new pistons, cam, crankshaft, etc. It was in the first stages of bodywork in the photos on the Kaibab. I towed it behind the bigger trucks. -TONY

A few miscellaneous pix from the past, all circa 1960s. . -TONY The first two are from Big Lake with my trusty springer spaniel Duffy. This one is a mess of white bass from Lake Pleasant. My fishing partner is Ric Clark. My two companions with some trout and walleyes from Canyon Lake.

Some oldies from a circa 1968-69 hunt on the Kaibab's east side. We were camped right alongside the Eastside Game Trail about six miles up from the Houserock Ranch. This was at a time when any deer was legal with a Kaibab permit. The smaller buck in my '46 Willy's Jeep was killed by my grandfather while just sitting on a ridge. He was about 75 then. The big one is the buck on my wall. -TONY

Hey Marshall, I like your camo, too. -TONY

Noel, Geez, what a very small world. That photo on the beach was taken sometime in the late 1960s over New Year's weekend, and that trip was mostly responsible for getting me into outdoor writing because I met Jim Tallon there that weekend. Both of us knew Valentine quite well. We had gone down there with a guy by the name of Ed Bellows who owned a sporting goods store at 27th Ave. and Camelback. And yes, we also used to camp and surf fish for corvina and triggerfish on the beach at Libertad, as well! That's where I hooked and landed my first seagull. -TONY

The photo below is my oldest son, Keith, (right) with the first big-game animal he killed when he was 11. He's now 45. The tale: We had drawn permits for Unit 19, so I went up a couple times to scout beforehand and found a lot of bucks on one of the ranches. One day, I drove into Paulden and asked who owned the ranch. The person told me the owner's name was Bob Keikeffer (sp?). So when I got home I called him and asked permission for us to hunt it, which he gave me. It was myself, my son, a friend (in the pix with Keith) and my grandfather, who was already in his 70s. On the very first day, my son and I were just about to cross one of the fences when I saw a guy on a horse approaching. He rode over to us and asked, "Are you Tony?" When I said I was, he reached down, stuck out his hand and said, "Glad to have you here." Then he proceeded to tell us where he had seen several decent bucks. So that afternoon, we headed to one area where there was a windmill. I stopped to glass and spotted the buck in the photo. He was a good 1/2- mile away. I told Keith I didn't want to shoot it but he could if he wanted. Naturally he was quite anxious to do his part. To that end, I had bought him a used Savage 99 in .300 Sav. that had the stock already shortened. So off we went. We used a deep ravine to cut the distance, but when that petered out, we were still a good 275 yards from the buck with not a bit of cover available other than a couple sage and creosote bushes. The terrain was completely flat. I knew Keith would have a difficult time hitting the 'lope with the Savage at that distance, so I told him the only way he would be able to shoot was if he used my Mod. 70, .264 mag. He had never shot it before and was quite apprehensive about the recoil. He finally said he would use it, however. So I put my pack down in front of him for a rest, and he got into a prone position. At that point, the buck was facing away from us, so I told Keith to wait until the buck turned broadside before shooting. I continued to watch the buck through my binoculars for a couple minutes and saw him start to turn. Just as I said, "Get ready to..." the .264 boomed in my ear. I heard the bullet whack him and watched as he dropped like someone had cut off all four of his legs. I turned to Keith to say something, but he beat me to the punch with, "That didn't kick as hard as I thought it would." The bullet had destroyed the 'lope's heart. Later that fall, he killed his first deer -- a doe on the N. Kaibab. It's the one I have hanging next to my Kaibab buck. Be sure to take note of the effective camo!! -TONY

Two of us, each leading five pack animals, were heading into the Weminuche to set up a camp a week before the actual hunting season opened. My buddy was in front. About two miles from the trailhead on the Vallecito, the trail narrows and climbs above Vallecito Creek on what is basically a 6'-7' wide ledge in the side of the solid rock cliff. The drop down to the creek is about 150'-200'. We had packed a 16'x24' tent on the last horse in my string, and about halfway along the ledge, the tent slipped to one side -- the side nearest the drop-off. The lead rope in my hand nearly jerked my arm out of the socket as the horse went over the side. The lead rope tied to the next horse didn't come lose, so that horse had its butt right at the edge and was about to follow. Fortunately, there was a VERY narrow ledge about 6-8' down with a dead tree sticking out over the drop from there. The horse, with tent still attached, landed on its belly on that ledge and tree and merely stayed put that way. I quickly dismounted and used my knife to cut the other rope. There was but one lone 6"- diameter tree along the ledge, so tying up all the horses there was out of the question. We had to go about 1/4 mile to get to some trees. When we walked back, the horse on the ledge hadn't moved an inch. He just laid there with his legs tucked under him. All we had to do was figure out how the heck we would get him back on the trail since he would have to get up about 6' of sheer rock wall. We knew the first thing we would have to do is get the tent off, though. Soooo....we tied a rope around my partner's waist and he slid his way down to the ledge. The other end was looped around the tree with all 150 lbs. of me hanging on. Once he cut the tent loose, I used the lash rope to drag it up to the trail. The horse still hadn't moved a muscle; he was probably too scared at that point. I tossed the end of the lash rope back down, and he tied it around the horse's neck. I then pulled it as taut as possible and wrapped my end around the base of the lone tree. I tried to pull and maybe get the horse to stand; he wouldn't budge since he felt comfortable and safe the way he was. After some head scratching we decided to have my buddy try to dislodge the dead tree, thus removing some of the comfort. It worked like a charm. As he kicked the tree loose, my buddy slapped the horse in the butt. He bolted up that rocky drop like he was shot out of a cannon and knocked me arse over teakettle. Then he just stood there. We checked him out to make sure he hadn't been injured, then repacked the tent. He stood motionless the whole time. -TONY