Sneaker

I pulled my last cam of the year. This was in my backup area for my elk hunt, and they have been hitting it hard since about the middle of Oct. Counted 11 different bulls in the last 3 months, none very large though.

Timberland has killed several elk this year on OTC tags: https://m.facebook.com/253200751127/photos/pcb.10152336736416128/10152336735971128/?type=1&source=49&refid=17

This is the first I've ever heard about buying one. Just seems a little silly upon first read that its harder to buy a SILENCER than it is to buy the actual FIREARM.

Thank you Becker

He got my cape on 9/12, it got back from tannery on 11/13. Doesn't seem all that unreasonable to me, just a result of being First in the door for the season.

Guys, the turnaround is not the question here. It's Mount N View in Flag, not some no name Joe. They know what they are doing.

I can only imagine having two bulls to get out if you only had the two guys, must have been sore after those hikes! Congrats

I was going to ask what was the story with only 28 miles, then I realized 28XX miles. Seems like a great setup. On my 5 year wishlist.

I've hunted in the rain quite a bit the last few years. Doesn't seem to be a big deal. Just need to dry it off when it stops raining, and give it a little oil in spots that could need it. I use used not-top-of-the-line bows as well though, so I'm not heart broken if I get a rust spot or have to fix a squeaking or creak from it getting wet.

The reason for someone to not tell the truth is to manipulate harvest rates to make it easier to get the tag again. You harvest, but you say you don't. The harvest rate reported is lower than actual, less people are willing to put in for hunts with lower harvest rates, you therefore would have a higher chance of drawing the tag again for yourself. This would cause many other problems of course, like the department having bad info, making bad decisions from bad info, potentiality leading them to changing the hunt, decreasing tags, etc. etc. A great example would be 16A archery elk. 4 tags, a bad survey would throw results automatically by 25%. I always fill them out online. Takes like 2 minutes. I don't want the department, or myself, to have bad information about the hunts going on in our state.

Nice!

I put this together really fast. I think I got it all in there, give or take a year in some cases(used '64 in a couple of cases instead of '63 when they didn't have hunts). Looking at Harvest Data, at tags issued every 10 years, the only tags that have gone up alot recently appear to be elk, but elk's range and population has also spread alot. Food for thought. Book1.pdf

I went to the Public Forum in the Kingman office on Monday night. There were 3 members of the public there including myself. Big turnout I know haha. The only real notable type item was that their recommendation to the commission is that the Bull tags in 10 need to be increased based off of the survey they did (the bull to cow ratio that they counted was above the suggested range, sorry I didn't take good notes, didn't get their exact most recent ratio or count) mostly and also that hunt success has been within or high end of the units suggested range. It wasn't a huge increase. 50 tags maybe? They did say that all of the tags would be added on the late bull hunt, so they wouldn't be messing with the premium hunts. I made a comment that this seems like a knee jerk over-reaction to survey of only some of the elk in the unit. There response was that "100% of the elk habitat in the unit is surveryed" so they have alot of confidence in their survey. Riiiggghhhtttt. How many square miles in unit 10?? Not that I know anything about aircraft surveying, maybe the really do see most of the elk in the unit by the time they are done, but it seems unlikely. Just thought some of you might want to know. I have heard from several 10 hunters this year that they have had seen fewer elk than normal. I haven't been able to find the written 2015 Elk recommendations anywhere.

As an update, here are the recommendations. http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/documents/huntRecommend/2014Guidelines/S-3%20Attachment%20Commission%20Orders%2011-21-2014.pdf They added 125 Muzzeloader Bull tags and 5 CHAMP tags for Unit 10. For those that like to count, 915 Bull and Champ tags in 2014, 1,045 proposed Bull and Champ tags in 2015. 130 additional tags, 14.21% increase in bull tags. Harvest rate on the late muzzy in 2013 was just over 50%.

I've seen a couple of these lately. I'm wondering if anyone uses them or has experience with them. Do people use them more in the rut, or just anytime to try to get another layer of stalk protection? Doesn't seem like a bad idea. May be hard to handle that, my bow, release, binos, range finder all at the same time though. http://headsupdecoy.com/products/4

You asked, so I'l tell: Your missing that some of the new hot packs on the market, namely Kuiu, weigh a third what your pack weighs, and cost less money even with accessories added.

Impressive

They could have done better in their sale explanation, saying "In Stock only, while supplies last" or something. They changed the wording on the checkout page to state that backorder items were not included in sale, but it didn't even start out saying that. I wanted an Icon Pro, all sold out in my desired specs, ended up getting an Ultra 6000 in Vias because the pricing was just too good to pass up.

7

I got the Prime HDs a couple months ago on sale from cameraland. No complaints, clear end to end, very bright and vibrant color, very solid construction. I expect them to be my neck glass for many years to come.

Is that somebody out in the wide open middle of that field with two feeding mature bulls? How do you make that happen? Must have some new stalking technique I've never heard about! Great bull!

That is always the question.

I got several buffalo on trail cams in 18a recently. One has an ear tag. Can any rancher run them, or are these some long lost souls from another herd that have traveled over 100 miles from one of the well known herds?

Its much easier to just use a smart phone made in the last few years with a GPS map app. Phones have been getting larger anyway. There are alot of hunting/hiking GPS map aps that you have a ton of map options(including google satelite, land owner type, and google terrain). The only thing you have to do is download the maps for the area you will be in before you go out of cell/wifi coverage. Then it works off of GPS satelite and the maps you downloaded once you are out in the sticks. No need to buy extra hardware or lug ipads or laptops around. You always have all you waypoints, routes, notes, etc right in your pocket all of the time. I'm running Iphone 6 and Gaia GPS app.

It must be these guys: http://fortrockhunting.com/about-ranch.html "Buffalo $3,600 and up, call for availability" But it is surprising the range that they allow them in, it is quite vast, state and private land. I would imagine a hunter would have his work cut out in finding them, I've only seen them on cam.