Hunting in Arizona

To go hunting for deer, bear, turkey! Since the discovery of America this has been a traditional and democratic privilege of the citizens of this country. Every fall game is prime and ready for harvesting. Certain dates are set to mark the opening and closing of hunting season. These dates when associated with the urge to go hunting usually start a sequence of events ending with a man, woman or youth or combinations of these around a campfire 'way back in the mountains of Arizona. For here one can have the full satisfaction of a good hunting trip. Anticipating and planning a hunting trip in Arizona is keen pleasure itself. The hunter, if he goes in for analysis, will find many things making up full enjoyment.

There must be a certain type of country. There must be game. There must be provision for comfort and satisfaction of two men in every hunter. One is a product of civilization, softened by years of planned catering. Underneath is another, sane and primitive in desire. This one has been buried beneath veneers and varnishes of culture for centuries but during hunting season he recognizes opportunities. Well rounded enjoyment on a hunting trip is only obtained through a delicate balancing of rewards for both.

A hunter searching for territory in which to pursue game can find it here. Any Arizona map is filled with imagination-stirring names: Turkey Butte, Deer Springs, Bear Flats, Turkey Mountain, Deer Run, Bear Sign Canyon, Gobbler Point, Buckhorn Mountain.

This country was settled and explored by men who lived off the land. They obtained their meat by hunting and it was natural for them to name a locality by associating it with an experience. These men have long since gone on the Great Hunting Trip, leaving the flavorful names for their old stomping grounds.

And what man planning a hunting trip and reading such descriptive names on a map hasn't given way to the Deerslayer within and imagined himself stalking silently through the forest? He visualizes swales, wooded canyons, aspen draws and swift, cold mountain streams. With his mind's eye he sees the deep green shade under the firs. An occasional Colorado Blue Spruce lends an even more mysterious shadow. His imagination is rampant. Huge Ponderosa Pines with rich yellowed bark tower over him as he treads softly on thick layers of pine needles. In the head end of the draws are thick stands of aspen showering golden flakes upon the forest floor. Gamble oak thickets are knee deep with thin ragged sheets of burnished bronze.

There is rim country with windswept points where he can pause a moment and stretch his eyes by looking over miles of rolling land. Distant mountain ridges are silhouetted in ever-changing shades of blue haze.

These scenes are not all in the daydreams of your hunter. Here in Arizona they are an actuality. A trip need only be made to Barney's Pasture south of Flagstaff, or along the Mogollon Rim, to either Kaibab South or North on either side of the Grand Canyon, or to the Catalinas, Santa Ritas and the Rincons near Tucson, or to the Campbell Blues and White Mountains south of Springerville.

To get the real picture of hunting in Arizona let us reel off still more of a man's dreams of perfect hunting-dreams that can and do come true every season.

Out-of-doors, city clumsy feet learn quickly to move as cat's paws, quiet and sure. They avoid every brittle twig and loose rock. The only sound as the once-a-year woodsman all but flows through the forest is the soft brush of rusted woodland fern against his legs. Here in the woods he is lithe and when the supreme moment comes he is swift and sure with his rifle. He makes a clean, sportsman's kill.

The bite of pine-scented mountain air freshens his skin. His nostrils, flared with exertion of carrying his game, gather the odors of the forest: decaying and rotting wood, damp loam, crushed pine needles, flowing pitch, even a late blooming flower. As he nears his camp aromatic wood smoke drifts across the clearing.

At the camp he hangs his game. His partner has a bed of coals ready. The tantalizing aroma of campfire coffee whets his already razor-sharp appetite. In a matter of moments fresh deer liver is frying in a pan. Venison heart is stuffed and roasting in a dutch oven.

As he waits, ravenous with hunger, he recalls the events leading up to the moment of success. He has walked through swales and wooded glens, through thick dark stands of jack pines, through sunlit glades, over and along ridges, in and out of canyons. And, not once did he come to a sign "No Trespassing, Private Lands." There lies a story of democracy in action.

Most of Arizona's forests are primitive, blanketing thousands of acres of mountain land-all public domain. Over 11,000,000 acres of wooded lands in Arizona are under jurisdiction of the U. S. Forest Service, administered under the precept: for the greatest good of the greatest number of people. The wild-life inhabiting this public domain is one of Arizona's greatest renewable resources and is under administration of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, whose policy of management may be stated thus: Development of game Wild turkey is Arizona's greatest game bird and is found in heavily wooded country through the pine belt above 5,000 feet altitude.

populations to a point consistent with an ample permanent food supply, with due consideration for livestock and other related interests. This involves control of predators and entails annual cropping by hunters to insure that proper population levels are not exceeded.

Arizona's deer are renowned throughout the hunter's world. The finest trophy, in the form of an antlered deer head, ever seen by the outdoor sporting world, came from the Kaibab Forest on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The chemical composition peculiar to the Kaibab soil is transmitted to the deer through the vegetation, promoting exceptionally fine growth of spreading, massive antlers.

The Rocky Mountain Mule Deer and two subspecies: Desert Mule and Colorado Burro, as well as the fleet, alert Whitetail are to be hunted in Arizona. The knowing hunter studies the country, for the different species are select in their habitat. Rocky Mountain Mule frequent the higher elevations and range from 4,000 to 10,000 feet, and are scattered throughout northern Arizona. Desert Mule are found in more open country, frequently brushy, rolling foothills farther south. Colorado Burro confine their range to slopes along the Colorado River. Whitetails, slender and alert, live in steep, brushy terrain and their habitat is the roughest of deer country. They are considered a great game animal because of their quick, elusive action.

Wild turkey is still Arizona's greatest game bird. Hunting wild turkey is exceptionally good outdoor sport. This wily bird is found in heavily wooded country throughout the pine belt from 5,000 to 10,000 foot elevations. Big gobblers are extremely alert and the man who can successfully stalk and bag one is more often than not a postgraduate of the school of woodlore and hunting. The hunter's reward for hanging up a brace of turkeys is knowing he has a quick, all-seeing eye, sharp shooting ability, for there is nothing harder to hit with rifle bullet than a wild turkey.

Bear hunting in Arizona, too, is in a class by itself. The man going after bear is necessarily interested in experiencing a great hunting sport. Trained packs of hounds are employed to bring bruin to bay. This training of dogs requires years of work. A good bear hound must not pick up other sport and after finding a trail must run it to the end of a bitter, grueling race, taxing stamina of hounds, horse and men. A bear-hunting pack of good hounds are not only picked for trailing and running ability but for voice as well. The blending of their tongues is called “music” by sportsmen.

There is no combination of sounds as unforgettable as deep, rolling bass-voiced bloodhounds baying in harmony with bell-mouthed, fast-running Walker hounds. Put them in the orchestra pit of a deep canyon whose acoustics are enhanced by sheer walls of white limestone and red sandstone in cathedral-like proportions.

Mute this music with stops of thick stands of pine. Accentuate the cadence with a staccato of shots from high-powered rifles when the bear steps into view below. Inscribe all this on memory's disc and it will thrill any hunter's soul whenever it is replayed.

Bear hunting is colorful sport and has developed such famous characters in Arizona as: Frank Colcord and Floyd Pyle hunting Tonto Basin country; Giles Goswick hunting Secret, Sycamore and Fossil Creek Canyons; A. G. Martin hunting Four Peaks; Jes Burke coursing the White Mountains; Lee Brothers hunting territories in Arizona and Mexico.

For full enjoyment of hunting there must be a wide variety of country for the hunter. Arizona has this. It can be heavily forested mountains or rolling, open terrain, either accessible by automobile or remote, to be reached only by pack train. There is hunting territory here for you, which means a sense of freedom and real sport. There is game, too, of almost any species offering special thrills to discriminating hunters. There is only one thing left to be desired for that unforgettable hunting trip. Reward the cultured counterpart with a realization that wildlife is without peer for providing a return in social values; recuperation of a tired mind and body, the satisfaction of knowing you have been fair when you were alone in the woods harvesting your share of Arizona surplus wildlife, and the realization you have been indulging in one of our nation's greatest democratic privileges hunting in your out-of-doors, taking your game-in Arizona.