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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/11/2018 in Posts
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9 pointsI drew my only choice with 10 bp and was eager to get scouting as soon as possible. First Trip wasn't until mid July but my father and I saw lots of bucks and got a taste for what bucks were where etc. My next scouting trip was productive but it had become a reality that the unit experienced one of the driest years its ever had. I never saw a single fawn in all of the time I spent up there, hopefully a few years down the road the number of permits will be reduced to account for the absence of a fawn crop. Leading up to the hunt, I knew my schedule was limited with school and I needed to get a buck on the ground quickly. My goal was to kill an 80" buck and I really spent a lot of time learning how to field judge these animals. Scouting allowed me to practice judging goats and also forced me to stalk numerous animals to get a GOOD look at what's on their head. The hunt came around and I felt I hadn't laid eyes on a giant buck, so the plan was to Look for a buck or two we saw the evening before opener. Opening morning came and before the sun was up, Steven found a buck a few miles off with his BTX. We looked and when the sun hit him, we decided he was worth a closer look. Afraid of spooking the buck, John and I decide to just hoof it rather than try to drive around with the truck to get closer. We end up finding him bedded with a doe he pulled off the herd and took into an isolated valley. John and I crawl up to a spot where we think we can shoot. Skipping the BS-i mistakenly ranged the tree behind him and doped the scope to 600 when in reality it was so flat, he probably closer to 500 or worse. He stood up, gave perfect broadside shot and I was sailing them over his back. He runs off but we keep watch. We start working him again, relocate him and now he's back with his herd of does. Not seconds after we see them, they start running our way and the chaos began. Bucks were running all over the place, the buck we wanted was obviously the alpha and he was running the others bucks off continuously, It was an incredible experience to see them going wild like that. After setting up for shots probably a dozen times, the buck finally chases another buck off to our left which allowed for an open shot through the high brush. He runs after the inferior buck, sticks his horns in the little ones butt then stops, turns around and gives a quartering-to shot at 198yards. We were done by 9am and i couldn't have been happier. He's not the biggest buck i saw scouting but he was one that definitely caught my eye. Ultimately, he caught my eye on opening day and its history from there! I can't thank my Father, Reyes, John, Steven and Gavin enough for coming on the hunt, It was the best crew i could've imagined! We took photos then hung him in a tree, and pitched a nice midday camp to make lunch. Doesn't get any better... I learned alot on this hunt and I can only hope to get to hunt antelope again sometime soon I will post photos of the bucks I saw in scouting below the trophy pics but here is my 2018 Arizona Pronghorn Antelope The crew- My dad, I, Gavin, John, Reyes and Steven "Tipsy"-nice buck I passed at first light on opening morning "Double D"- only saw him once and got some decent photos in the heat waves This buck looks awesome in this photo and I imagine he grew another inch or two but he broke off his whole left prong... A massive buck i would've liked to see again Nice buck Reyes and I snuck up to While he was Snoozing with his ladies My Buck on July 18th. He pushed out another 1.5-2" of horn after this photo was taken and he also lost his giant mane Then this is the buck I Liked most from scouting Misc Bucks
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8 pointsWell, I got my antelope opening day, which was nice because I had the rest of the weekend to get ready for my elk hunt. I started in an area I had located a couple decent bucks but didn't turn anything up so started exploring some new country. I was glassing into a giant flat off of some really cool painted desert stuff and found a nice buck chasing a doe way, way out there and moving away fast. From my maps, it looked like I could get to a road that would take me closer, but ended up hitting a locked gate in the middle of nowhere. It looked like if I went far enough back around, I could get to it from another angle, but I decided to take a little two-tracker that looked at the flat from another direction. As soon as I got my tripod up and started glassing I found another buck, all alone about 1.5 miles out. Well, a buck right there was worth going after rather than trying to make a 20 mile loop to get on the guy that was moving fast in the wrong direction, so I started my stalk. I picked out a "knoll" way off in the distance that would at least tell me how far out in the middle of the flat this guy was. It turned out that knoll was much bigger than it looked from a distance - ha. So I worked my way off the red dirt hills to the edge of this huge flat. It was weird because it was really hard to navigate around in there. lots of dead-ends, up-and-down just to get to get off the hills and into the edge of the flat. I re-located the buck but he was still so far off I couldn't get a range from my sig kilo. Over 1000 yards still. I started working out a plan, and this guy just started trotting toward me. I got my first range at 643 yards, but it was clear he was going to do all the leg-work for me. There was a little ridge out there I didn't even see from up top, but once at eye level, he dropped behind it giving me an opportunity to make a move. There were almost no trees or bushes, so this was just what I needed to close the distance. As I got closer, there was a little run-off ditch I could use to stay low, but I knew once I came up out of it he'd be pretty close. Turns out, closer than I expected. When I popped up and started looking for him I expected him to be 200-300 yards out still, but he was withing 100 yards. I dropped back down and dialed my scope back down to the lowest power, then came back up to my knees. He was about 80 yards with his head down. I raised back up and shot him off-hand. He dropped right in his tracks. Doesn't get much easier than that - well until the pack out. Once I had him quartered and stuffed in my pack along with my gun, two pairs of binos, a tripod, etc. I could barely take more than a few steps in the sandy soil uphill toward the truck. I ended up having to leave half the meat and his head, and come back for them after getting more water and some food in me. Really kicked my old butt, but I manged to get him out.
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5 pointsGot my first Coues yesterday! Been hunting with traditional archery gear 10+ years and coues proved to be a challenge. Been in Arizona for the past 3 seasons and finally got one!
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4 pointsCoues hunting Ended with a 'dang what just happened' yesterday. Found a spot in unit 1 with a pocket of coues deer. Hunted it every weekend and finally got into shooting range when a very good buck jumped cover at less than 20 yards and this guy watched from 45 yards than when I went to pull back he ran.
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4 pointsThe best part of liberals and anti hunters getting felonies is they can no longer vote!!
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3 pointsCanyon Point Campground between the Woods Canyon turnoff and Forest Lakes has showers. I imagine you could shower there. I'd call to verify. Some of those campgrounds will allow non-campers to use them for free or for a few dollars. https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/asnf/recreation/camping-cabins/recarea/?recid=44631&actid=29
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3 pointsThere was a camera thief from this very sight caught red handed. He was given the free pass by many... and then was cited for poaching... anyone remember that?
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2 pointsTo contact Hunts for Heroes, call me at: (480)760-3868. I'd be happy to explain everything with regards to tag donation and Point Guard. We make sure the tag transfer is handled properly and that you retain your bonus points (if you purchased Point Guard). Going forward, a disabled Arizona veteran gets to go hunting in Arizona's amazing outdoors with Hunts for Heroes providing the experience free-of-charge! Pretty cool for you --- very cool for the veteran!!!
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2 pointsDon’t forget to pack some cheap flip flops if you know what I mean.
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2 pointsStock looks like a target stock for a bench, not a hunting stock. Why are the rings so high?
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2 points
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2 pointsleaving them in the freezer for a long period does work as well. I've got 3-4 bucks i've done it on with success but i have always left them for waaay longer than is probably necessary. Seems like Goldman is about the only taxidermist in AZ that has a freeze drier anymore. I need to free up some space in my freezer.
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2 pointsI think people believe their camps and noise disturb deer a lot more than they do. Especially in the case of wilderness deer. Ive been 8 miles deep in the mazatzal and had two herds of deer walk into my camp to stare at my little fire from less than 10 yards away within 30 minutes of each other. Had a forky buck walk dang near right up to us when we were camped by a creek making breakfast in the morning one time. Last year I had a doe and her fawn walk right up to me when I was going up a tree in a climber. Deer are very curious critters. In my experience your much more likely to spook them out by moving through an area. I usually sleep right at my glassing spot if I’m using binos and if I’m sitting an ambush, I’ll be within 100-200 yards of it so I don’t make too much noise going in. I’ve even slept in my ground blind before and still seen deer the next day.
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1 pointCheck out our latest video on youtube, my wife had a muzzle loader coues deer tag this past year and got a opportunity at a awesome buck opening day. Brittany put our family in the triple digit club. Check it out! The Mountain Project
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1 pointShowing up early enough to make a water run in would be the safest thing to do. Better than leaving a day early because you ran out.
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1 pointTwo color or one? That seems cheap for a two color. I usually Google earth measure the perimeter of the house than average the slab to roof height including the eaves etc. And go $.90 per measured square footage. That is usually 2 color and includes prep.
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1 pointLast year was my oldest son's first pronghorn hunt, and this year it was Nick's turn. He's going to Creighton in Omaha, so I drove up to Albuquerque and met him at the airport there on Thursday night. Quick 4 hours of sleep, and we hit I-25 for the 2 1/2 hour drive up to the hunting area (Lancetkenyon and Zeke-BE know where it is... LOL). We rolled into the property right around 7AM and began seeing pronghorn immediately. We glassed for just a bit upon getting there, but then drove on into the ranch headquarters to say hello to the owner and thank her for letting us hunt there. Like last year, she was gracious and we had a nice chat. She mentioned that there seemed not to be as many pronghorn this year as in past years, but after hearing other reports and seeing Lance & Zeke's reports here we were optimistic. We had already seen one nice buck early in the morning upon getting on the property, and he quickly did what basically ALL others had done last year; As soon as we stopped the pick-up, he and his squad ran out to about 3/4 mile. When I got out to glass them with the 15s, they proceeded to run even further! So anyway, with that in mind I had a brought along a secret weapon. A couple of years ago when I had an archery bull elk tag, I had bought one of those fabric pop-up cow elk decoys. (Her name is Miss September! Got a good laugh at that when I bought the decoy....) I decided that I would try holding her up in front of us to try to get closer to some of those spooky bucks. Well, after visiting with the ranch owner we drove off and quickly spotted another nice buck and some does. He did his usual antelope-thingy and was in the next county in short order, but I hadn't had time to break-out the secret weapon yet. We drove up on a large knoll and glassed all around, and I eventually a nice buck popped up at about 1/2-3/4 of a mile out. I broke out Miss September, and held her up in front of me and started walking directly towards the buck with Nicholas walking right behind me. I walked a steady pace, stopping every 50-75 yards or so and the buck never broke his stare. We proceeded along closing the distance, and when we were at about 500 yards I was thinking it was actually going to maybe work. We are not big on super long distance, with about 400 yards generally being our max shot distance. Well, we kept strolling and eventually got to a nice little tuft of grass on a little mound of dirt. I stopped and check the range-finder, and the buck was still staring at us from just about 350 yards. The 30-06 is zeroed for 200 with 180gr. PSPs, and I told Nick to hold just slightly over it's back. He got on the bi-pod in between Miss September's legs and let it rip! The buck bolted for about 50 yards, then stopped and started to look sick. Within about 5 more seconds he was down. 9:30AM on opening day, and it was all over! Went and got the truck and drove right to him (we had met up with a ranch hand just prior to that and he said it was no problem driving across the pasture....). Anyway, two hours later and we were done cutting it up and enjoying a couple of sandwiches. Overall a GREAT hunt!!! Drove back last night so that Nick could spend the weekend with his mom (really, the other way around... lol). A 36 hour round trip for me, with only 4 hours of sleep but lots of great road-hours with my boy! He was nice enough not to nap it all away, and we had a great time the entire way! Getting done early let's me spend a couple of mornings at the dairy shooting doves before I leave for archery deer in Utah on Tuesday morning! I'm blessed! S.
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1 pointthat sounds about right. Little under a gallon a day. However, you are on the edge. another half gallon?
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1 pointI may forgive you, my fience might want you to take a dirt nap.
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1 pointWe did pretty good got 3 legal doves, 37 Euros, and 3 pigeons in a couple of hours. I lost about 7 to 10 to the pond again
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1 pointA lot of guys says it dramatically reduces recoil and yes your ears. Seems like a win win