whatever It Takes...

[cshold]

Sometimes ya just got to do what ya gotta do with what ya got

[bdhold]

we're gonna need a microbus

[J35]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.



------J

[RIHMFIRE]

my uncle pick up a deer that was hit by a car in a vw bug....
and when he got home....he found out the deer was not dead!

[JerryB]

I can tell you for sure that a 10 foot gator won't fit in a VW trunk.

[Shasta]

Kinda reminds me of a pic that was all over the internet a few years back:








SHASTA

[bdhold]

elk tried to jump over and missed?

[Merle]

I can tell you for sure that a 10 foot gator won't fit in a VW trunk.

Now that sounds like the voice of bitter experience....

[Sixgun]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Some nice pics there J35 --------6

[J35]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Some nice pics there J35 --------6

Thank you, tis a shame I never carried a camera but a few days in my later years of trapping and hunting, I wouldn't have the few pictures that I have if it wasn't for the urging of my wife.

There is a story for each of those pictures, not so much about the animals but the area's where they were taken.

If anyone would like to read them just say so and I will type them up.

----J

[Merle]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Some nice pics there J35 --------6

Thank you, tis a shame I never carried a camera but a few days in my later years of trapping and hunting, I wouldn't have the few pictures that I have if it wasn't for the urging of my wife.

There is a story for each of those pictures, not so much about the animals but the area's where they were taken.

If anyone would like to read them just say so and I will type them up.

----J

I would be interested.

[Dan 444]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Great pics! I had a couple of bugs "back in the day" and it was amazing how much traction they did get. Dang god vehicles that could be fun to drive.
Best,
Dan

[J35]

I have spent a lot of time in a bug in the SW desert.

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Some nice pics there J35 --------6

Thank you, tis a shame I never carried a camera but a few days in my later years of trapping and hunting, I wouldn't have the few pictures that I have if it wasn't for the urging of my wife.

There is a story for each of those pictures, not so much about the animals but the area's where they were taken.

If anyone would like to read them just say so and I will type them up.

----J

I would be interested.

The picture with the deer was the first deer I killed with my .358 Win, iron sights., it was the last day of a four day season in Oct, I had a job I had to finish so didn't get to hunt the first 3 days .

I field dressed it around 9am and it took me till 3 pm to pack it out to where the picture was taken. I was hunting a large Mtn with deep canyons that is out of the picture but off to the right. I dropped the deer in the shade and hiked the last 1/2 mile on up to the pass then drove down and then off the trail about 1/2 mile to pick up the deer.

I had left the bug at Cougar pass on forest service Rd 143 also known as Salero ranch rd on the S. end of the Santa Rita's, they call it a Road but it was a dim trail at best the last time I was over it in 1998.

The Border Patrol and Customs had a check point set up on I-19 between Rio Rico and Amado and this Salero ranch RD was a way around that check point for the smugglers. That morning when I parked the bug in Cougar pass , i parked it among around 10 abandoned smugglers vehicles that had knocked holes in their oil pans about 3/8 of mile down the rd on the south side at a real Rocky canyon crossing. I say abandoned because there is no way to get them out in one piece short of a air lift or a new engine install where they sit.

When I was trapping off that Rd I had to push a few smugglers auto's off into the canyon because they had the RD blocked.


-----J

[Merle]

http://img687.imageshack.us/slideshow/p ... 49r0s.smil


------J

Some nice pics there J35 --------6

Thank you, tis a shame I never carried a camera but a few days in my later years of trapping and hunting, I wouldn't have the few pictures that I have if it wasn't for the urging of my wife.

There is a story for each of those pictures, not so much about the animals but the area's where they were taken.

If anyone would like to read them just say so and I will type them up.

----J[/quote]


I would be interested. [/quote]

The picture with the deer was the first deer I killed with my .358 Win, iron sights., it was the last day of a four day season in Oct, I had a job I had to finish so didn't get to hunt the first 3 days .

I field dressed it around 9am and it took me till 3 pm to pack it out to where the picture was taken. I was hunting a large Mtn with deep canyons that is out of the picture but off to the right. I dropped the deer in the shade and hiked the last 1/2 mile on up to the pass then drove down and then off the trail about 1/2 mile to pick up the deer.

I had left the bug at Cougar pass on forest service Rd 143 also known as Salero ranch rd on the S. end of the Santa Rita's, they call it a Road but it was a dim trail at best the last time I was over it in 1998.

The Border Patrol and Customs had a check point set up on I-19 between Rio Rico and Amado and this Salero ranch RD was a way around that check point for the smugglers. That morning when I parked the bug in Cougar pass , i parked it among around 10 abandoned smugglers vehicles that had knocked holes in their oil pans about 3/8 of mile down the rd on the south side at a real Rocky canyon crossing. I say abandoned because there is no way to get them out in one piece short of a air lift or a new engine install where they sit.

When I was trapping off that Rd I had to push a few smugglers auto's off into the canyon because they had the RD blocked.


-----J[/quote]


Thanks! Somehow that doesn't look like iron sight country....
Lucky you didn't have any run-ins with the smugglers - they may have taken YOUR vehicle.

[J35]

The second picture was taken on the N. E. end of the Sierrita Mtns. Super country for all game both small and large.

The front tires on the bug have no air pressure, those are 8 ply 700x15's tubeless, I ran them that way for 14 years (not the same set), never a problem on or off road.

My access into this area was on that power line you can see in the distance and then cross country to where the picture was taken.

In front of the bug about 100 yrds is the Papago Indian reservation fence ,today they call themselves the Tohono O"odhom.
If you were to climb that little rocky hill behind the bug and look N/E you would see the White Dove of the desert about 10 miles distant.

http://www.sanxaviermission.org/

In November/December Great Horned owls migrate into this area by the hundred's or thousands and while they are setting up their new territories they hoot and carry on all day, never seen or heard it anywhere else. Bothered me something fierce the first time until I figured it out.

About 1/2 mile from where the picture was taken I was putting in a set and I had dug my trap bed and turned to pick up my trap and when I went to bed it, my hole had filled with water, I am sure a lot people say big deal but in the desert it is a big deal.

In this same area a lot of Yucca and Beargrass grow, i used to find all these neatly trimmed plants, it bugged the heck out me because I couldn't figure out what was doing it, then one day I found a freshly trimmed patch and was checking for tracks, i found human bare feet tracks, then it dawned on me it was Indian women making a raid off the reservation for basket material.

I was always plagued by Javelina, but in this area it was a constant battle.






----J

[J35]

Thanks! Somehow that doesn't look like iron sight country....
Lucky you didn't have any run-ins with the smugglers - they may have taken YOUR vehicle.[/quote]

It's all Iron sight country if that's all you have

I never had any problems with smugglers, they minded there business and I did the same, today it might be different. Edit--One time i was hunted, for about 15 minutes by at least two.

But I was forever being stopped by BP and US Custom's. I could tell a few stories about that as well


----J

[bdhold]

...

----J

after a couple of days on a slow-smoker, these are about the best food there is.

[J35]

The third picture with the coyote was taken in a arroyo or wash as I call them, they are just a dry river bed usually very sandy that only runs water with a flash flood.

A lot of them are not as open as this one is and you have to do a certain amount of brush whacking or going on Safari as I called it in all of them, some are boulder strewn some quite large and the VW being narrow was a big plus for squeezing thru tight spots , I had a 3/8 aluminum skid plate protecting the engine and trans-axle.

Between these washes and two tracks I would log over two hundred miles a day and never touch a improved road.

I released the coyote in the picture and many just like it, one year early on i released over 100 in ten weeks it had to be a exceptional Desert coyote before I would kill and skin it

This one has just been released, it was caught on a hind foot you can see the trap behind the tail.




-----J

[J35]

after a couple of days on a slow-smoker, these are about the best food there is.

UH--- I will take your word for that , I have had them just about anyway you can imagine to cook them, one thing is some tasted pretty good right out of the smoker or pit or crock pot, but all left-overs tasted funky the next day to me.

Here is link for you, you have probably already read it, but it was new to me, I know some of that country like the back of my hand and those guys are pretty darn tough, amazing and nuts

http://www.topofusion.com/forum/index.php?topic=3790.0

--J

[Merle]

...

----J

after a couple of days on a slow-smoker, these are about the best food there is.

Never tried one of these, but spit bar-b-qued wild boar is excellent too.

[J35]

This fourth photo is a good example of what I called a fur pocket.




I generally made eight set's at this location, and then a few miles further at another pocket I would have a few more set's and so on until I had a 150 sets out in good location's. The Mtns in the background are part of the Santa Rita range. The picture faces pretty much due East.

My main target animal was the Bobcat.

Rock pile cats or as I called the real rocky area's "CAT FACTORIES"





Bobcat doing what they do best




At the far end of the canyon in the photo where it narrows down is a spring and that whole canyon narrows down to about six feet wide and twenty or so feet deep with solid rock walls that have Indian paintings on them.

Across the canyon from the bug I had a couple of 10x12 inch gongs set up one at 120 yrds and another at 320 I used to shoot at in the evening . One year the evening before opening day of deer season i went up there to check my zero and a friend from Alaska had come with me, I laid down in prone and took a shot at the 320 yrd gong and rang it, but there was a nice whitetail buck bedded down right below it that I hadn't seen and it jumped up ran about 50 feet and stopped, I was watching it thru the scope and my friend was saying shoot shoot and I sat up and said nope season don't start till in the morning, my friend just shook his head and said you are hard core.

------J

[J35]

Great pics! I had a couple of bugs "back in the day" and it was amazing how much traction they did get. Dang god vehicles that could be fun to drive.
Best,
Dan[/quote]



I can honestly say That i never got stuck as in bury the rear wheels, on some of the old switchbacks some of the grades were so steep with loose rock and shale that I lost forward traction.

I only had to walk twice

I broke a tie rod once right in the middle and had to hike around eight miles to the nearest road to hitch a ride. I carried extra tie rod ends but not the middle section, but did afterwards .

And the best one of all is I slid backwards off the side of a MTN and most likely wouldn't be typing this if it wasn't for a little 2 in diameter mesquite tree that got stuck between the right rear wheel and the fender about 5 feet from the edge of a sixty foot drop off a cliff I only had about 5 mile hike this time but didn't mind at all

----J

[Merle]

This fourth photo is a good example of what I called a fur pocket.





I generally made eight set's at this location, and then a few miles further at another pocket I would have a few more set's and so on until I had a 150 sets out in good location's. The Mtns in the background are part of the Santa Rita range. The picture faces pretty much due East.

My main target animal was the Bobcat.

Rock pile cats or as I called the real rocky area's "CAT FACTORIES"





Bobcat doing what they do best




At the far end of the canyon in the photo where it narrows down is a spring and that whole canyon narrows down to about six feet wide and twenty or so feet deep with solid rock walls that have Indian paintings on them.

Across the canyon from the bug I had a couple of 10x12 inch gongs set up one at 120 yrds and another at 320 I used to shoot at in the evening . One year the evening before opening day of deer season i went up there to check my zero and a friend from Alaska had come with me, I laid down in prone and took a shot at the 320 yrd gong and rang it, but there was a nice whitetail buck bedded down right below it that I hadn't seen and it jumped up ran about 50 feet and stopped, I was watching it thru the scope and my friend was saying shoot shoot and I sat up and said nope season don't start till in the morning, my friend just shook his head and said you are hard core.

------J

Nice! What are bobcat pelts bringing these days?

[Merle]

Great pics! I had a couple of bugs "back in the day" and it was amazing how much traction they did get. Dang god vehicles that could be fun to drive.
Best,
Dan

I can honestly say That i never got stuck as in bury the rear wheels, on some of the old switchbacks some of the grades were so steep with loose rock and shale that I lost forward traction.

I only had to walk twice

I broke a tie rod once right in the middle and had to hike around eight miles to the nearest road to hitch a ride. I carried extra tie rod ends but not the middle section, but did afterwards .

And the best one of all is I slid backwards off the side of a MTN and most likely wouldn't be typing this if it wasn't for a little 2 in diameter mesquite tree that got stuck between the right rear wheel and the fender about 5 feet from the edge of a sixty foot drop off a cliff I only had about 5 mile hike this time but didn't mind at all

----J[/quote]



I put adapters on mine & used Chevy mud/snow tires - only got stuck once. I was going cross country thru a field & discovered that the snow had covered a gulley. When the tires don't touch the ground you don't move. Needed a farm tractor to get out that day.

[J35]

Nice! What are bobcat pelts bringing these days?

I have no idea, you would have to check some of the fur auction sights to get a idea.

The last trap I set for four legged critters was in 1992.

----J

[J35]

I put adapters on mine & used Chevy mud/snow tires - only got stuck once. I was going cross country thru a field & discovered that the snow had covered a gulley. When the tires don't touch the ground you don't move. Needed a farm tractor to get out that day.

I had a similar experience but I was just a passenger in a Blazer up on Greens Peak in NE AZ.

Winter storm warning was issued, already 3 feet of snow on the ground, broke out of the timber into a high meadow 9000FT could not see where the road re-entered the timber on the far side, just a solid blanket of white.

Friend decided he knew where the road lay so started across, I said i remember a decent size creek in the middle, about that time we found the creek, it had drifted full with snow, snow was above the roof, no shovel, hiked across meadow found dead tree, pull off large chunks of bark to use as shovels, two hrs later he was able to back out, oh did i mention it was about 10* and we called it fun

-----J

[J35]

I told the story of the picture with the cougar under" 357mag stories" That story took place in 1998 my last hunting season in AZ.

In a response to my first story I had said that the smuggler's minded their own business and I did the same but that one time I was hunted for about 15 minutes, I am going to tell that story here because it happened less than a half mile from where I shot the cougar.

This story took place real early on a Sunday morning, I was headed out to do a little varmint calling, there was a big pond out on the bombing range that I was headed to. I turned off the HWY onto a old military air strip that over the years had grown up with mesquite to the extent that most of it was no wider than a two lane HWY but there were section's that were still 100 yrds wide or so, well I came upon one of theses sections and there was a helicopter , a black 4wd chevy, and a large black car with tinted windows possibly a Lincoln they were all sitting off to the side of the air strip perfectly hidden from the main HWY, I came by them about 50 MPH, so didn't get real a good look, but I saw no one so assumed they were in the car the chopper was not running.

I went on about 1/4 mile further and tuned off onto a power-line rd and basically made a big circle in that I parked less than a 1/2 mile as a crow fly's from the chopper and I am sure they heard me or seen my dust. I parked under a big mesquite tree out in the open, where I usually parked if a range bull hadn't already laid claimed to it.

I slipped into my camo coverall's locked the truck and headed NE into the breeze, I had my Mini 14 with me this day, I walked several hundred yrds and found a nice spot that provided some deep shade up against the pond dike and crawled into it checking for rattler's as I went.

I settled in and watched and listened as i have shot several coyotes with out ever blowing a note on the call at these tanks, I had forgot all about what I had seen on the air strip and was just enjoying the morning when I heard the chopper start up. It lifted straight up until it spotted my truck and then came between me and the truck real slow made a slow counter clockwise circle around the truck exposing the left side of the chopper to me and there sat a man with a AR type rifle, I say sat but he was kneeling with the muzzle down, I am not sure how high it was but it was not kicking up any dust, it continued on it's counter clockwise circle but this time it was going around the whole tank me included, I knew I was hidden pretty good from ground level but wasn't to sure from above.

To make along story short they circled my position three times, about 15 minutes searching a area less than ten acres.


I was just to the left of the tallest tree on the outside of the dike, sorry I don't have any photo's from the outside of the pond.

This was my old pal Josh we were dove hunting.









------J