[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Southwest DIY Javelina Hunts? #24528

Maps are important, but since it’s public land they’re easy to come by. Pick the area you want (anywhere in the SE corner of the state is as good as any other) and get both the FS and BLM maps. the first is better for back roads, the second is better for land ownership. The backroads can be very rough–definitely high clearance 4-WD country. But you don’t have to beat your rig up to find pigs. Go as far as you feel comfortable, then get out and start walking. Look for some elevation at the base of the mountains. The javelina are usually at the same level as the prickly pear. The hiking is great. Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Southwest DIY Javelina Hunts? #23343

I’ve been spending time in Arizona during the winter for years. Spent three weeks there this January hunting quail. Archery javelina season is generally the first three weeks of January, but, as always, check the current regs. It is a drawing, but tags are easy to get unless you are looking at a district near one of the population centers. It’s almost all public land. Quail season is open at that time as well, but not much fishing then. (Warm water fishing gets good for bass and panfish during the spring.)The SE corner of the state is best, and they always have leftover tags in some of those districts after the drawing. Coues deer are also open for archery then, with over the counter tags. Have fun! Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: too much time in the woods? #15733

Clay–Shed those clothes, lose the beard, and run naked through the Berkeley Hills eating cactus as I did back in the 60’s and you might turn into a bowhunter. Or something. Yeah, right. Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: trail cameras #15728

Excuse me! I hate to be the bad cop, but here we go. As a bowhunter, I have to point out the disparity between traditional values and technology as a solution to anything. As a photographer and film editor I also have to point out that I’d never seen a good trail cam shot of anything until this weekend in Missouri, (when a technically good shot of two fighting hawks opened my eyes to new possibilities). But I can say that every “good” trail cam shot represents a blown opportunity to do it better with a real camera. Sorry, Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Man Eaters of Kumaon #15726

Corbett is a model for all of us. No one has ever seriously disputed the veracity of the stories, the heroes of which are, in this order: 1. The great cats, 2. The people of the Himalayan foothills who dealt with them, 3. The terrain, and 4. (and a distant #4 at that), the writer and hunter. Quite a contrast to today’s TV hunting stars. Bear in mind that although Corbett tracked down more man-eaters than anyone, ever, often under terrifying conditions, non/anti-hunters named India’s first tiger sanctuary in his honor, AND a threatened subspecies. As a hunting writer I’ve always found Hemingway disappointing despite the brilliance of his early fiction. “Green Hills of Africa?” Hunting as competitive sport–are you kidding? If you want great American writing about hunting, go straight to Faulkner’s “The Bear.” Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Bows on the Big Screen #14488

I’ve been disappointed in the archery form demonstrated in virtually all of the films mentioned here, whatever their other merits. However, if you’re Kiera Knightley I guess getting your dominant eye down next to the fletching isn’t a big concern. In fact, I didn’t even notice that for quite a while… Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: What kills WI deer? #58483

Back when I lived on the Kenai Peninsula, the local biologists–good friends of mine–were studying this issue closely. They showed that 50% of the moose calves born in GMU 15A were killed during their first 10 days of life, not by wolves, not by brown bears (there were plenty of both) but by black bears. In southern Africa, the most efficient predator on ungulates is the diminutive caracal, a felid roughly the size of our bobcat. Two points: 1. The predators that do the most predation are not necessarily those one would first assume. 2. So what? Bears, canids, and felids have been killing moose, deer, and impala for millennia. Sudden changes in predator-prey dynamics are almost always due to multiple factors. Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: A different kind of pay-to-play hunting #17214

Steve–Here you go: “Experience has shown that in caring for the land and water private ownership has been our best guarantee of conscientious stewardship, while the worst instances of environmental degradation have occurred under government control… Congress should reconsider whether parts of the federal government’s enormous holdings and control of water in the West could be better used for ranching, mining, or forestry under private ownership.” Translation: The rich guys shouldn’t just get tags–they should get the last land all of us out here have left to hunt on. By the way, I most certainly do have a dog in the fight as anyone who has followed Montana wildlife politics can tell you. I simply don’t chose to have my views determined for me by outside interests, Democrat or Republican. Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Man can live on peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches #16496

Believe it or not, a question on the Alaska guide’s official test used to be (and maybe still is) which of four choices would be the best option to meet a client’s protein needs in a survival situation. The correct answer was peanut butter. It’s a ridiculous question–protein is the last thing you need in an emergency–but still. Let’s hear it for Skippy! (Chunky, of course.) Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: A different kind of pay-to-play hunting #16493

Col. Mike asks about a paper trail to follow the money. I would refer you to the editorial I wrote for TBM on this subject a while back. Of $2.4 million earned by SFW by auctioning tags in Utah during the last year for which records are available, nearly half was spent on “conventions and conferences.” Exactly how much good does that do for wildlife? And while this forum is not supposed to be political, I would strongly encourage you all to read the relevant plank in the 2012 national Republican Party platform. If you can’t find it, get back to me and I will quote it for you here. (BTW, I am officially an Independent with no ideological dog in the fight.) Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Cougars, livestock and hunting #58178

Quite unusual. Not long ago I followed a female cat track until two yearling kittens joined it, then on to a spot where the female had killed a mule deer. Study of the tracks in the surrounding area showed that a coyote had approached the kill site from downwind, looking for an easy meal. Mom and kittens enjoyed coyote for desert. It’s rough world out there! Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Cougars, livestock and hunting #55888

My apologies for the confusion over PLOS, with whom I have no argument at all. The info I sought simply required me to click on “About the Authors” or whatever it was. I am old enough to be set in my ways, and reading journals on line isn’t one of them. Peace. Selectively targeting livestock killing cats already takes place–I’ve been called out by game wardens on a number of them. However, it would be difficult to make that the ONLY legal cat hunting. (It would also be biologically unnecessary given the high cougar population in most parts of the West today.) Trouble is, raising, training, and maintaining good hounds is a huge commitment, and no one is going to do that on the off chance they will get a chase every couple of years. There’s another variable that hasn’t been discussed here–wolves. (There–I said the W-word.) Good science shows that in areas where these two high end predators overlap wolves displace cougars from about 50% of their kills. (That’s why cats run up trees even though a 90-pound female could kill a pack of dogs any time she felt like it.) Cougar biologists were perturbed when this interaction wasn’t even considered in the initial wolf ESAs. Point is, wolves in mountains also displace cougars to lowland terrain. I’m just sayin’… Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Cougars, livestock and hunting #55420

I appreciate the info about PLOS and have no reason to doubt them. It’s still odd that the abstract didn’t include the details of the original publication, as is standard in scientific literature. John LeCarre’s great fictional British intelligence agent John Smiley was fond of saying, “Informtation is no more valuable than its source.” And that was BEFORE the Internet. Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: Cougars, livestock and hunting #54765

Murray–Since you asked… The findings described in the abstract really don’t surprise me. One of the major causes of mortality among cougars is other cougars, specifically mature toms killing kittens and young males. Eliminate the former and you’ll have more of the latter. Furthermore, after years of studying cat tracks I’ve found it unusual to see big tom tracks down in the lower country where livestock winter. The cats that cause most of the trouble are usually young males, and the selective harvest of mature males means more troublesome cats in just the terrain where they are most likely to cause trouble. In the West overall, livestock losses to (all) predators are in the range of 2-3%, which could be looked at as the cost of doing business. However, these losses are not randomly distributed. Most ranchers experience none and a few get clobbered. (I know one who lost 70 sheep to one cougar in one night.) But you’re really not going to do anything about that by targeting the cat population as a whole–that’s like trying to reduce our murder rate by putting every third man in jail. It makes far more sense to target the rare problem cat specifically and manage the rest by best science. And managing the population of any large mammal by killing only or mostly mature males doesn’t make any sense. The lion harvest should be broadened by sex and age structure, and MT is doing that by issuing more female permits than male permits in many areas. Personally, I’ve never hunted cougars because I wanted to reduce their population. I hunted them because I love the solitude of the mountains in the winter, eating sweet and sour mountain lion, training the dogs and listening to them run… you get the idea. Thanks for asking for my two bits worth. By the way, as a scientist who has reviewed a lot of journals, I was perplexed by my inability to determine exactly where this piece was published. What is PLOS? Is this truly an independent, refereed journal? Don

[Don Thomas]

in reply to: How long before your first harvest? #52739

It’s been so long ago that I honestly can’t remember. But I can remember that however long it took, it wasn’t long enough to dim my enthusiasm. I would encourage you to examine your definition of “successful” and “unsuccessful”. The former does not require a dead animal at the end of the day, and the absence of one does not mean the latter. Don

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