AZ needs Dinkshooter

[Devil Diver Down]

or at least someone with some Havalon to quad sidewall expertise.

I had quads blow out the bulls I was working - twice! - on opening day. Right after first light, one blew me off a nice 6 I'd been patterning for 2 weeks - the other a raggie that was coming on a string to my cow call near sunset. I kinda let the second guy have it. All of this, btw, happened on roads (well, the first one was only a trail) in areas that were supposed to be closed to all motor vehicles per the new Forest Service TMPs. I hiked in and it took me over 90 minutes to hike to where I was hunting. Those other guys drove in to the closed area. In fairness, the Forest Service did a crummy job of letting people know about the closures and didn't mark individual roads.

I explained to a number of people about the closures and showed them the 'Motor Vehicle Use' map - some reacted well, even moved their camps out of the closed area. Some had some unkind things to say about FS and about me personally. One guy, after I told him about the closures (we were 2.5+ miles from the 'open' road), asked me in his best (I'm assuming) a-hole voice, 'Yeah, well then how did you get here?' When I told him I hiked in, he said 'Yeah, right!' like my Left Quad and Right Quad couldn't get me there. Only Polaris or Yamaha, I guess...

Third day, I passed on four raggies in a bachelor group at very first light on my way in to where I saw a herd the afternoon before and I hear bass-thumping house music. Loud. That music played (from another closed road) all morning until about 10am. After talking to one of the groups I saw driving the road I was hiking out, I learned it was a guy from PETA. That guy should need 4 new tires, IMO. Glad he was too far for me to hike to or my subject line would be 50 Shades of Red.

 

[CabinFever]

That'd be enough to make me a little hot. Kudos to you for keeping your cool, as far as we know at least...

 

[Dinkshooter]

They were just saving wear and tear on their pick-ups.

 

[Oak]

The one bad apple was in AZ last week.

 

[Wyodeerhunter]

Hey now they are probably disabled!

 

[AH64DMatt]

You're a far more patient and good-hearted man than I am. I'd have sent an arrow or a bullet to his tire. Oops...must've missed... Some people don't understand the conservation efforts of hunters.

Good on ya for being the better person.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Likely just retrieving game they were about to shoot.


It is all good.

 

[Devil Diver Down]

Likely just retrieving game they were about to shoot.


It is all good.

Good one. I actually laughed out loud.

Bulls were bugling pretty regularly morning and late afternoon the first week, but most of the quad drivers never shut down engines long enough to hear them. One guy who drove by me in the dark (on a closed FS road) and then putted around the top of the mountain on unmarked trails nearby me told me he hadn't heard a bugle since Friday morning. It was Monday late morning and we were crossing paths on an open road 3.5 miles from where he passed me in the dark. I had followed a herd of 60+ with at least 8 bugling bulls those 3.5 miles, pack and all. Those bulls started bugling in the dark when he couldn't have been 1/2 mile from me but he never heard them. He even remarked that he had seen me hiking in and asked how/why I got so far from that road he saw me on earlier.

While I was dogging the herd, I could hear vehicles driving by closely on the major roads but never saw anyone join the chase. Guess they couldn't hear the constant bugling and mewing above their engine noise. It sounded like an elk train.

I'm sad I missed a great photo opp of one guy riding in a Rhino down a major but bumpy forest road at mid-day with an arrow nocked.

 

[junior88]

good for you keeping your cool. since the FS instituted the new travel management plan, enforcing it will be next to impossible. they don't have the manpower. most guys either don't know about the changes or just don't care. were most camps following the 30' rule? williams ranger district instituted their TMP last year and quite honestly it looked like nothing had changed

 

[noharleyyet]

You don't need to slash tires...the game cops need to do their job.

 

[Devil Diver Down]

good for you keeping your cool. since the FS instituted the new travel management plan, enforcing it will be next to impossible. they don't have the manpower. most guys either don't know about the changes or just don't care. were most camps following the 30' rule? williams ranger district instituted their TMP last year and quite honestly it looked like nothing had changed

I was pretty hot under the collar but tried not to get confrontational. I don't think knowing and following the rules should put me at a 'competitive disadvantage'. But it did in many cases.

The camping rule is 300', at least in that section of Coconino. Some were following, some not. People were camped on closed roads all over the place, driving on anything that had ever had a tire track near it. Some of the closures are head scratchers and seem arbitrary - good quality roads that connect sections - but I'll save my gripes/suggestions for the FS comment period. In the long run, if people follow them, I think the closures will have a real benefit for wildlife and the land. Thanks to the folks at AZ Elk Society for getting the word out to as many people that did know.

You don't need to slash tires...the game cops need to do their job.

Agreed. The FS and G&F are way undermanned, didn't publicize the closures well and frankly most people just don't want to be denied driving access to 'their public land.' I'm not LE and would never try to enforce it but I did inform some folks. 95% of the people I talked to had no idea about the closures. At least 90% of the people I informed, showed the map to, etc kept driving and camping on those closed roads. Oh well.

 

[junior88]

DDD, did you happen to see that the AZ elk society's steve clark is one of 7 finalists for field and stream's hero of conservation award?


the 30' rule in the kaibab natl forest (williams district) applies only to vehicles. camp can be 100' from road but vehicles including trailers can be no more than 30'. good thing i tent camp. the new TMP for north kaibab will be out jan 1st.

 

[Devil Diver Down]

I missed that about Steve, but it is well deserved. He and the others in the AES crew are at locations all over the state promoting hunting and other outdoor activities for kids. They do a lot for wildlife via work projects and will continue to get my membership, banquet and other $$$, plus some work project time from me and my boys.

 

[Lawnboy]

Snap pictures of the said vehicles and get plate or sticker numbers. The officers really like pictures and then turn them in.

I got yelled at (15 minutes) by a guy last year on a trail that was open. I was on my wheeler (sorry Dink) I'm not a purist. I said you know what mister I have a wheeler, a horse, a mtn bike and my own 2 feet and if it's legal I will use what ever means will help me.

It's the scumbags that aren't following the rules that ruin it for the rest of use that are "just trying to save wear and tear on our trucks"

 

[Devil Diver Down]

I drive a desk most of the year, so it's not like I'm some badass hiker. I'm going to take my truck to a decent (legal) distance to where I'm going to hunt. I have no problem with quads in general. Certainly not with ones being operated on open roads, especially those being driven before/after shooting light. All day cruisers aren't going to get much sympathy from me. Guys tearing into areas in the first/last half hour of shooting light might catch my ire. Just my POV.

Pictures are an excellent idea. I actually came up with that (late) after I'd had some less-than-friendly run ins with the same group 3 times. First time they were on a trail that isn't quad-legal even if the area wasn't closed to all MV's, which it was. The guy called me a liar when I told him (nicely, I thought) about the closures. When I pointed out that he was on an unmarked road that wasn't legal in any case, he said he was leaving but was going to call FS and check my story. I offered him the phone number but he declined. Second time, I had just chased a nice bull almost 2 miles from where I left my pack/water (won't make that mistake again. probably) without getting a shot and up rides Numb Nuts, his wife and dad on another closed road. I ask if they called FS to check my story. Father of Numb Nuts tells me they "have been hunting this area for over 20 years" as if that trumps the closures. Wife of NN tells me I'm trying to bully them from hunting the area and that I'm full of crap. Next day, they're on a different closed road in the same section, so I greet them with a smile for 'My favorite group of law breakers' (this was before the PETA guy started playing music). Numb Nuts instructs me to 'just walk away' from his vehicle/road. I invite him to move me if he is so inclined. NN blurts out 'The FS is F#@%ing us!', which shocks wifey. I say that may be but that he does realize he's breaking the law then. He confirms and said 'it's not a law he feels he needs to follow.' I congratulate dad on 'raising such a fine man, who chooses which laws to follow.' When I start texting license plate #s into my phone, they speed off. The idea of pictures only occurred to me at that point but I never saw them again.

rant over. quads for all

 

[spook12]

Sad too say but it wont be the last time it happens.

But hey, you got a nice bull.