Outdoor Writer

And a good discussion -- as long as everyone can be civil and discuss. -TONY

KG, I find little to disagree with in your comments. I don't support the illegals either, but then that has nothing to do with the main gist of this thread -- visiting Mexico and worrying about being kidnapped or worse, does it? I have no doubts that drug dealers shoot at BP agents, etc. But then drug dealers who aren't illegals also shoot at the regular cops all over this country. That's what criminals do. But only a small portion of the illegals crossing the border are drug dealers and most of the illegals -- nearly half -- arrested and put in jail here were charged with entering the country illegally and nothing more. Stands to reason that an illegal alien entered illegally. Crime here is a MAJOR problem, regardless of the illegal immigration. And in some parts of Mexico, such as Mexico City, it is also a MAJOR problem. Same around the Laredo area. It's the nature of the beast in big cities no matter where one lives. My only point here was that it no less safe for Americans in Mexico than it is here in the U.S. Shake and bake it anyway you wish. -TONY

>>Infact they are brought to our border and told they cross or go to jail.<< Hmmm, that's a pretty loose comment to offer with no way to prove it as fact, especially in light of many of the illegals are women and kids. There were scads of criminals preying on innocent people here LONG before the illegal immigrant problem cropped up. And even more recently, crimes by other races other than Mexicans has been rampant. Back to my original cite, neither of the two PHX serial shooters was an illegal immigrant nor was either even Mexican. In LA, Detriot, Chicago and NYC, the crime problems are far from being limited to the Mexicans -- legal or illegal. -TONY

>>OK banditos in this country sure< but probably less in there country as ours. (well I wonder why).<< AZ Guide, I'm sure you were trying to make a point in the above. I just have no idea what it was. Care to try again? -TONY

Guys, Don't make a major issue about one isolated incident that happened to get major publicity. I've been a frequent visitor to Mexico for nearly 30 years now, and normally DRIVE my own vehicle there. I even spent two weeks alone a few years back with a major trip to Copper Canyon, including the drive down to the bottom. And from there I headed south as far as Puerto Vallarta, mostly driving the back-country roads. Over the years, I've driven there to hunt Coues deer with Duwane Adams, turkey, doves and waterfowl -- all without incident. Also, we own two time shares in Mazatlan, and we use them either once or twice every year. My wife feels safer walking the streets there at night alone than she does walking in our own Glendale neighborhood during the daylight hours. In fact, I often leave her alone there for a day or two so I can go fish at Lake El Salto, which is about 1.5 hrs. north of Mazatlan. She manages just fine and often walks to one of the several nearby restaurant to have dinner on her own. As Bob said, for the most part the Mexican people AWAY from the border are gracious hosts, We have made many, many friends among them and always look forward to seeing them each year. Banditos in Mexico? Sure, but probably fewer than we have in this country. The Phx serial shooters probably killed more innocent people than those innocent people killed in the entire state of Sonora over the past two years. Most of the killings there involve rival drug gangs, similar to what happens EVERY day in EVERY major U.S. city. -TONY

Good job, Casey! -TONY

Scott, Congrats to Austin. As usual, great pix. I'm gonna see if maybe I can line up an article, perhaps titled "Austin's Trifecta." -TONY

Great bull! Congrats. -TONY

His name was Samuari, and he lived somewhere in Canada. He was supposedly also a sperm donor for other elk farms -- for a price, of course. So if you will, imagine a "man on the street" interview with the guy in charge of the collection: And what do you do for a living, sir? I'm a professional elk semen gatherer, eh. Wow, that must be a tough job. No, it's actually very easy, eh. My business partner and I just dress like a cow elk and take turns bending over, eh. -TONY

These should dispel any rumors of this bull's origin. -TONY

Doug, I posted this on MM but will duplicate it here to make sure you see it. -TONY Doug, I won't be hunting this year since I got shut out in the AZ draw. BUT...put me down to donate a limited edition hard-cover copy of HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER. It is one autographed by both Duwane Adams and me. Just let me know who wins it and I can ship it direct from here. -TONY

Great moose, Jim! Congrats. -TONY

Someone is pretty skillful with Photoshop. -TONY

New wildlife-feeding law goes into effect PHOENIX - Our recent drought has prompted many wild animals to move into our cities, looking for food. Unfortunately, when people intentionally feed wildlife, they can encourage these animals to stick around, become aggressive and even dangerous to humans. A new law that goes into effect tomorrow in Maricopa and Pima counties is aimed at preventing those problems. "Many people think feeding wildlife is a helpful thing to do, and they enjoy seeing rabbits or deer spending time around their homes," says Elissa Ostergaard, urban wildlife specialist in the Arizona Game and Fish Department's Tucson office. "What also happens is that those animals attract larger, predatory animals to the neighborhoods. That's when you have coyotes, javelina and other animals that can become a danger to people and harm their pets." State Sen. Toni Hellon of Tucson sponsored the bill that evolved into the wildlife-feeding law for Maricopa and Pima counties. The law does not affect people just feeding birds and tree squirrels or anyone carrying out normal livestock or agricultural operations. It is a public safety measure that will only stop those who are intentionally, knowingly or recklessly feeding wildlife. "We do not intend to use this law unless someone is obviously creating a problem in a neighborhood that could affect other people, and he or she has already been warned," says Mike Senn, head of the Arizona Game and Fish Department's field operations division. "We prefer to educate people first, and this is a last resort option." Problems associated with wildlife feeding include coyote attacks on eight child victims in areas of Maricopa County, two recent Phoenix-area incidents where javelina bit humans who were hand-feeding them, and several human-mountain lion encounters in 2004 in Sabino Canyon and near an elementary school in the Tucson area.

Doug, Posted the message below for you in your thread on MM. -TONY *** Nice recap and pix! Here's a link below that might explain at least one of the stone structures along 89. It's to an essay by Theodore Roosevelt about his North Rim cougar hunt. Teddy's Lion Hunt Also, if I recall there's still the remains of a building on the north side of 89 right near where the Houserock road heads south. Another road heading north goes right next to the building, which was a gas station/store that was still operating when I first started hunting the N. Kaibab in the early 1960s. But...the Big Saddle Camp, complete with its glass-bowled gas pump, stone lodge building, cabins and screened-in meat house were still there then, as well. We spent many nights homesteading there over several years before the camp became nothing more than history when Lady Bird Johnson went on her "beautify America" kick.

Stan, Do you have a rough estimate of how many folks will be in the 36A camp at any one time? -TONY

The story, as told by King, is included in the "How to Hunt Coues Deer" book I wrote with Duwane Adams. Here are the photos from that article. -TONY

And I'm going in just the opposite direction -- getting too skinny! Maybe we can compromise some. Anyway, I'm outta here early in the a.m. for a drive to Springfield. MO to attend the Professional Outdoor Media Assoc. conference. Once I get there Tues., I'll be back online until I leave next weekend. Later. -TONY

I wasn't only part of it, I started it and organized the whole thing each year! It took me a month to get everything ready to go. We used two big pickup bed trailers with caps on them and other vehicles to haul all the camp gear. Over the years. we hosted guys from as far away as FL, CT, RI and NYC. Several of the guys attended every one of the SPHs. And to think, it all started in an internet forum similar to this one. They tried to talk me in to doing one last one last year, but I was too snowed under with projects. One year, we had the crew from Northwest Hunter in camp to film the hunt for the TV show. They made two 1/2 hr. segments out of it. And it's ironic it comes up here now because just yesterday I finished up a javelina article for Rocky MT. G&F magazine where I mentioned the SPH. And the article itself was about hunting on the two reservations. We always had a lot of fun and some great poker games, too. Normally, we ran about 75% on tagging hogs, but there were a couple years where we had 100% success. Here's one of our sample menus for the last SPH in 2000: Menu for Y2K SPH Feb. 15 - Tues. Veggie and shrimp appetizers, grilled NY steaks, baked potatoes, salad, veggies, wine (my house) Weds. Breakfast - on the road in Globe Lunch - Sandwiches &..... Dinner - BBQ Spectacular- sliced beef, pulled pork and baby back ribs, corn-on-the-cob, potato salad, cole slaw, bisquits, dessert. Thurs. Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with green chiles/cheese, breakfast steaks, hash browns, BB muffins Lunch - Beef Barley Soup/sandwiches Dinner - Salad, Ravioli, sauage and meatballs with eggplant parmigiana, Ital. bread, dessert. Fri. Breakfast - Pancakes & Canadian bacon, muffins Lunch - Chicken w/rice soup, hotdogs Dinner ? Stuffed potato skins, salad, roast beef/gravy, wide egg noodles, string beans/asparagus, bisquits, dessert. Sat. Breakfast - French toast, sliced sauage/bacon Lunch - Turkey noodle soup, sandwiches Dinner - Turkey breast/gravy, mashed sweet potatoes baked with marshmallows, reg. mashed potatoes, corn, craneberry sauce, bisquits Sun. Breakfast - Scrambled eggs w/ham & cheese, sliced ham, home fries, muffins Lunch - Ham, Bean & Potato soup, sandwiches Dinner - Mexican Fiesta -- Fish Vera Cruz, encliladas, tamales, burritos, refried beans, rice chips & salsa and flan. (my house) *** All evening dinners will include the usual array of appetizers, such as my home-grown smoked salmon; pickled Mazatlan shrimp; deep-fried, breaded elk; hot chicken wings;chips/salsa; black/green olives; cheese/crackers; celery, carrots, summer sauage, chicken fingers, pepper poppers (breaded, whole green chilies stuffed with cheese), etc. etc. Orange, grapefruit, apple and V8 juice for breakfasts, and an assortment of beer, red wine and the usual jug of Country Time lemonade in addition to the pop. Desserts will include cakes, pies and pudding. There also will be plenty of chocolate chip cookies, candy bars and crackers for daytime snacks in the field.

I have no idea how old you are , but I was a member of the 'bowhunting community' way back in the 1960s with a recurve. Then I quit in 1975 or so before getting back into it with a compound in the early 1980s. i just recently sold my three bows and all my other archery gear to help finance my trip to Africa. Think I killed my first hog with a bow in 1964 or so. Also killed them with handguns and a crossbow. Been there, done that. That said, while I did enjoy bowhunting, I prefer the gun now at my age. But as far as javelina go, I quit hunting them quite a few years ago after killing maybe two dozen or more over the years. In fact, I ran a neat little javelina hunt for about 10 years for out-of-state friends on either the San Carlo or WM reservations (1st come permits and cost no different than the state for NRs) and I never bought a permit for myself. Instead, I either helped glass or just stayed in camp doing the chores and cooking meals. Generally anywhere from 10 to 14 guys in camp at any one time. We called it the Steenkin' Peeg Hunt and even had shirts and hats with each year on them. Corky Richardson, his dad George and the late Norm Pike helped me out each year with the guiding chores. We quit about four years ago, but a bunch of the same guys hunted the SC last year and "camped" at the casino. Here are some old pix of our camp kitchen:

Field dressing a javelina in Sept isn't any worse than field dressing a deer, and most of the permits are in the same units where the deer seasons are taking place on those same dates. Guts are guts, no matter how you slice them. And it takes about three seconds to cut out the scent gland on the back if that's what one is prone to do. I prefer to just let it come off with the hide. Of course, even the gland smells no worse in Sept. than it does in Feb. or March. Plus, keeping the javelina meat cold is a heck of a lot easier since the entire carcass, even without cutting it up, easily fits into a fairly decent size cooler. -TONY

And why do you see it as "hilarious?" -TONY

Dave, And why do you see that as a problem? -TONY

Dave, After going 0 for 5 the last three years in a row, I'll take any tag I can get about now. Maybe everyone who doesn't trust the dept. any more should just quit applying. But yes, I welcome more opportunities regardless when they occur as long as whatever they do equates to BIOLOGICALLY sound management. And I have enough respect for the AGFD where I would think that would be its aim and not involve some ludricrous recommendation such as an Aug. javelina season. I'd also suggest that those who obtained permits for the fall javelina season, which a certain segment of hunters also were against, are very happy with the opportunity to hunt pigs, especially if they also possess a deer permit for the same hunt. -TONY

Dave, One doesn't have to be an ADA member to be able to read and understand survey questions. Maybe giving people more credit for their intelligence is in order. And just maybe their answers DO reflect what they really want rather than being the results of their "stupidity" of the dynamics. The game department has two responsibilies; managing BOTH wildlife and hunters. The former obviously requires sound biological considerations, while the latter requires the social aspects of shuttling people around and keeping most of them happy. For the most part, that should involve catering to the MAJORITY rather than special interest groups. Over the last few years, I've been sensing that several organizations feel because they contribute money, etc., it empowers them to steer -- or perhaps even dictate -- how the game department should be run. I wouldn't want to see that any more than I would want to see PETA dictating policy. Now, that doesn't mean organizations shouldn't have input; they should. But everything needs to be considered in the grand scheme of things based on ALL input, including that of the department biologists and the game commission. And yes, finances MUST play a part. Without money, there is no AGFD. Of course, some might applaud that. -TONY