GotBowAz

We still have Archery in December unless you have tagged out on the August hunt. Sure wish they would open 22 and 23 back up during that time but there is pleanty of places to hunt. GBA

Big congrats to the young lady, what a great first buck! She will be hooked for life now. GBA

sjvcon,im in the Gilbert Chandler hieghts area and have been up sense 1am as well. Unfortunately I just irrigated on Friday but it was a horrible irrigation pump so I wasn’t able to fill my acre. I was kind of bummed about the bad water service at the time, no need for me to worry about that now! My yards are completely full. Water is running out the overflow holes in the block walls. GBA

Edge, unless I’m high lining or a dog is on the trail coming at us I don’t use leads too much. I do keep them handy though. The leads I use are nylon and generally the goats are too busy picking at things along the trail or at camp to be much interested in the leads attached to them. I use the leads most to get them in and out of the trailer and to get the saddles and panniers on. I tie them separately to a bush and their content picking away at it. Once I have them all seddled up I remove the leads and they quickly get in their pecking order and follow me whereever I go. GBA

My 2 males can pack 50 pounds apiece, they are over 200lbs each I could probably go a little more for short hikes but I don’t recommend it. With that being said I try to spread the weight out so they are never over burdened. If I had to pack an elk out of a nasty hole they are going to get a workout. Speaking of which, they are just like us, they need to be taken out with light weights and worked up to heavier weights to get into shape for a huge haul. My goats have had a nice long cushy summer break and are out of shape...well I guess round is a shape! LOL anyway I will be starting them out with just their saddles and a couple water bottles in a month or so and start them on their way getting back into shape. One more thing to note: it is said their backs are not fully developed until they reach 3 years old. Up until that time you should pack them very light specially during training. Edge is right, but instead of a bucket I take a little grain (dry Cob) and put it in a small Folgers can half full. When I want them to follow me to put them in another yard or get them in the trailer I can get the while herd coming to me with a little shake of the can. They will run you down to get to it. Then I will treat each one a hand full of grain once i have them where I want them. BTW Edge, we used fainting goats in the sheep herds back in Michigan. They get spooked they go paralyzed and get killed before the sheep do. They were cheap when i was a kid. You could buy a fainter for 10 bucks. I still know a lady that raises them, she has close to 150. Once in the field having goats following you is not an issue, you are the Alfa in their herd so they will go where you go. They will not let you leave them if they aren’t high lined. Also, if one gets hung up or behind another will let you know it. They are generally quiet on the trail but are very vocal when something isn’t right. GBA

AZlance, Dude, I feel your pain with the weeds! I got to find the time to do weed control but it will havwe to wait until after my hunt. we got so much rain out in the Chandler hieghts area I can hear the weeds growing form inside the house. GBA

Thanks for the compilments Flatlander. I have 4 pack goats and 4 pigmys I keep all togehter. I got the 4 packgoats from Southernexpress here on CWT a couple years ago. As someone mentioned above they are a lot like dogs, maybe even better. They go out of their way to work for you. They will stay where ever you are but you really need to train more than one. Should have 2 or more as they are a herd animal. Yes they do get into some mischief and there are a few things aorund their invirement to move or get rid of to keep them out of trouble. Just like the pictures from 5guyshunting they love to climb on things! Great looking goat you got there. Word of caution, I had one hang himself by the collar from a tree limb. He jumped into an orange tree to eat the leaves and must have fell out catching his collar and hanging himself. I still feel horrible about that and I removed all collars from my goats. I put them back on when we pack. One more note, do not play with their heads or horns. it might bwe cute to butt when their little but they will do it when their big and be mean as heck. I discourage any head or horns charges. Train with a squirt bottle, they hate water in thier face. I cant say enough about them as companions in the field but I would never leave them behind at camp or hunt with them. They are strictly to take my camp in and out or to haul water/provisions. Better than horses IMO as I dont have to bring feed for them. They also go into a camel like state if there isnt any water around. They will rest at your feet when you rest, get up and go when you go. They will also jump up on your tent when you go in it just to be with you so you need to high line them if your doing over night stays. The biggest labor with goats is trimming hoofs, Once you get the technique down it isnt so bad but it needs to be done once a month unless they are on hard rocky gornad to keep the trimed. Mine are in pasture areas full of burmuda grass. At this time of the year I dont feed them, they eat the grass and i give them a mineral lick. Winter time I hay them. very low maintnece IMO. Dogs are worse. FYI, dogs are goats number one killer. They do not mix well unless raised around them and goats will attcak a dog. with that said I plan to raise a smooth Jack Russle around them within the next year or so. we will see how that works out. Good luck, if you have any question feel free to PM me. GBA

I sit tree stands for many years, sometimes 12 to 13 hours a day. I do read a good book but I have conditioned myself to look up and around after every paragragh. IMO it actually makes me more alert to the area and take a harder look at everything you can see and listen a little more intently rather than getting complacent with the invorment your sitting in. As mentioned nature is a great channel...for so long, but after watching the same 2 squirls chase each other for 2 or 3 hours it's time to put on another program and watch between the two. GBA

Nice dead head find, great looking bucks too. Love the wrestling sticker next to the deer sticker as well!

Me too! BTW shouldnt you be out huntin while were here at work instead of posting and getting us all exctied for you all over again! LOL Thats a killer mount dude! thanks for shareing.

Happy birthday to you Todd! GBA

Just giving everyone a heads up before the archery deer opener that is thinking about buying a OTC general bear tag and plans to hunt unit 23S. 23N is still open. Call the hot line bear info 1-800-970-2327 for all the details. Good luck this weekend folks!! GBA

I did some digging thanks to a PM by Maverick351, thanks Maverick! The unit is open tomorrow when the General season starts on the 22nd. the annual harvest limit is 12 sows per year which has not been met. I mistook it as 2 sows per year. The unit is currently closed because the sow limit during the general and archery season last week has been met. Sorry for the confusion. GBA

Congrats to your new addition!

I used to put it in a basket on the couter, not anymore. only took one time not to find it there and scared the heck outta me the night before the hunt. Turns out my wife put it somewhere safe for me. She even told me where at the time she did it. Boy it sucks gettig old! Now mine goes stright into a zipper pouch in my day pack after I signed it. Then just before the hunt I pull it out and put it in my wallet. No matter what pack I take or what kind of huting I end up doing I always have my wallet so there is no fear I left it in a pack I dont have with me. lots of great ideas here. GBA

Thats a very generous offer oneshot! Very cool of you. If there any of you folks out there that have never hunted eastern whitetails you should really considered taking oneshot up on his offer. Nothing more fun and exciting then seeing deer from a stand all day and specially during the rut. I hunt Michigan and if I didnt have my brothers place to hunt I would probably take oneshot up on this. GBA

GreyGhost, forgive my ignorance or maybe even the clerks, but she told me that her towers that work her credit card excepting gadget or what ever you call it was on four peaks and because of the fire it kept going down so she could not make credit card transactions. Is this not true? just trying to learn something here. Oh and good, I can tell my buddy who lives right there in Sunflower who's fault it is when the Verizon tower goes down, ha ha ha LOL. Just kidding dude!

Im glad to hear Cole is ok Jeff, tell him I said hi, hope we get a chance to cross paths this year during the wrestling season.season. Im glad for Cole sense it had to happen that it was now and not during his high school season. And that bill is just nuts!

My wife and I camped at Roosevelt last weekend and did some fishing. Saturday evening the fire on four peaks (Roosevelt side) was burning pretty good. Then around 9pm a rain storm ripped through and when I woke a few times during the night it was still raining. Rain quit around 5:30am. and when things cleared up enough to see the smoke was gone. it appeared to me the fire was out. Has anyone been by it in the last couple days? I was also told by a local it was a lightening strike. They were having issues with credit cards, I guess the towers were up on Four peaks and the fire was giving them issues. I thought all towers for cell phones and internet connection were on Mt. Ord. learn something new everyday. GBA

Hi Jeff, good to see you back bud! I wondered where you ran off too, sounds like a great vacation. Nice pack too. looks like your going to put it to good use. be sure to chime in on those adventures and gives us a report back on how the pack worked out for you.

That is on the light side for a 100 grain Rage but he still should have gotten more penetration. I doubt he would have got a pass through but that shot still should have been lethal. I've been playing the video over and over on my big monitor, it still looks like a great shot, but just from hearing the hit it sounds to me like the head stopped abruptly like a metal slap. I have a hunch one blade rotated instead of sliding in the cam slot. I cant see any other explanation for it.

camoremi, thats funny! GBA

I have killed elk at a broadside shot with the huge 125 grain vortex 2 and 3/4 wide blades and have achieved a pssthrough. I did not hit heavy bone and it was with a 420 grain total weight arrow out of a 70 pound bow. Years ago we shot bows that didn't have the energy of today's bows and we NEED that energy for mechanical heads.This is yet IMO another reason Mechanical heads failed and got such a bad rap. Putting that aside and checking out the video this is my take. It was a great shot, light arrow or not it should have given a little more penetration. My theory is just before impact the broad head (just one blade) opened in flight, see the drawing below, its a little crude but it's what I think may have happened and has happened to others with the same lack of penetration. The blade turned, the blades are independent of each other rather than sliding in the cam slot on impact it hit sideways literally stopping penetration. Again its just speculation but I think its possible in this case.

I see your point, it's still not how I mean to come across. FYI, I shoot the same Mechanical head for practice and then hunt with it. I simply resharpen the blades. It does comes with a practice head but like you said it's not the same as shooting the one your going to use. Rhine hart BH blocks are the bomb for shooting real heads. Not trying to convince anyone of anything, just stating it like it is. And yes, I will defend certain mechanical s when I hear statements such as why would you take the chance of something bad going to happen. Things have improved and come a long way. But if you noticed I will bash mechanical as much as I stand up for them. GBA

I will preface this by saying in no way am I trying to get someone to change what they are confident in hunting with. This is just my opinion from the testing I have done and why I shoot what I do. I do not mean any offence to anyone, these are my real life observations only. IMO mechanicals got a bad rap mostly because just like anything that comes out new it has issues. Just as the compound bow did and look at them now. The failure most speak of are self induced because they cant comprehend how an mechanical works and this includes poor penetration do to wide cutting blades with light fast arrows and weak spine. I cant stress enough that if you use a mechanical head you should be shooting minimum of 550 grain arrow or better when hunting an animal as large as elk. However you got the I gotta have speed guys put on a mechanical and wonder why they get poor penetration. Epek failure occurs and then the heads get a bad rap all because the shooter didn’t know what he was doing with his equipment. Then there are the guys who understand mechanicals even less and shove that BH into their foam quiver and wonder why it came open. They cant figure out that’s the way it works? I just shake my head. You never hear of the guys who’s fixed head came unscrewed and the blades fell out in their quiver because their too embarrassed by their mistake. But don’t kid yourself, it still happens. Then you have inferior design issues such as Rage that wont stay closed in flight due to a crappy design with the head. However that can be overcome by taking a dermal and notching the outside leading edge of the blades and using a dental rubber band or a strand of copper wire and wrapping it around the notches so it can’t open until impact. These ideas work and work well combined with a very heavy arrow. But who wants to doctor up heads? However, if your mechanically inclined you can figure out pretty quick why these and other heads fail and if your inclined to do so, what you can do to keep them from failing. I see no excuse for shooting a Mechanical because they can’t tune a fixed blade. I have Slick Tricks and VPA’s tuned with my field points thus my mechanical’s are as well. I shoot a mechanical for the forgiveness in cross winds but mostly because of the huge swath in a large animal such as elk. I get complete pass through with my set up. The disadvantage, loss of speed and flat trajectory. I will take that and keep my huge holes and bigger blood loss. For the nay sayers out there mechanical heads have come a long way. I steer clear of any mechanical that has jack knifing forward deploying blades. Old school heads. They can and do have kick out issues specially on quartering away shots so I don’t have confidence in them. The Schwacker would be the exception to the rule but only because it opens inside the animal on impact. Exit holes are huge, but not always made. IMO Technology/design with rear deploying blades have paved the way for a superior mechanicals. Bottom line is most that bash mechanical’s either didn’t know what they were doing with them, how they functioned, what weights of arrows and spine to use, or haven’t even ever shot them. I have done extensive testing with mechanical’s of all kinds. Some are junk, some fixed blades are too. Bottom line, shoot what your confident in. if your not confident in mechanical’s then don’t use them. On the other hand, if you don’t know anything about them, never shot them, and don’t know their function then maybe you should try testing a few as I did to understand their function and how they work. Then you can have a much better opinion on why you shouldn’t use them. If anyone is interested in the testing I’ve done or why I go with the head I am using now PM me. Id be happy to pass it on. GBA