Leaderboard

Went home for lunch today and told my wife I wanted to sell everything we had except the camp trailer......and get off the grid!!!!

Another shout out for Troy at Authentic Taxidermy. After he did the dual antelope mount for us, my wife and daughter whacked their first pigs, so we asked him to do the same. I think came out pretty darn good.

If you ask me, there's not much greater than chasing these little Coues deer each December. My family & I always wait for the crowds of opening weekend to pass before we head down between Christmas/New Years annually, and we typically have the place to ourselves. This year was no different. The first day we got down there (myself excluded), my dad went out in the afternoon to glass a ridge we've always seen deer on. He spotted two bucks, and knew we had a plan for the morning. While he took a friend of ours to an area these deer might push to, my brother snuck up the backside to where the bucks were spotted the night before. No more than 2 minutes after coming around the a hillside to where that area was in sight, he spotted a buck broadside at appx 150 yards away. One shot later & he dropped this nice little 3pt in his tracks. As I was driving down that morning, simultaneously, I was disappointed to hear that I missed all the action, but excited he was able to seal the deal. That night, the temperature dropped significantly and we even took on some rain/snow. The plan for the next morning was to hike up high and spend the day. I only had 3 days at this point to tag out, and I'd had success previously going high to this one particular point. I wish I knew ahead of time just how cold/windy/snow-covered the higher elevation was, because I never would have gone up there. We saw a few does run up and over the top, but the consensus after only a few hours was that the cold weather had pushed everything down to lower elevations. On our way down a different route, we spotted a small small 2pt that my buddy wanted me to take, but I have killed plenty of small Coues deer in this area, I wanted to hold out for something bigger. And I'm glad I did. The plan for the next morning was to take a horse trail up to a saddle a couple of ridges over from where my brother shot his buck, and work my way west towards that area. I got up to my glassing spot right before light (any earlier and hypothermia would have set in), and immediately started seeing deer. All does for the most part, and another small buck that went up & over the top of a ridge before I could be tempted. I decided to continue on this horse trail that went around the backside of where that small buck went over, and took me to where my brother had success. I popped over the top onto the cold, shaded north-facing slope, and immediately kicked up one doe. She slowly meandered off, not too spooked. I kept walking and kicked up 5 more does that ran straight north out into the flats, but not necessarily hauling a$$. It looked like everyone was trying to stick pretty close. As I came to this rocky outcrop, the trail then hooks briefly back toward the way I came into a tiny little bowl. At that time, I heard my friend over the radio say he saw yet another small buck on the ridge line across from me. It was Saturday morning, I had one more day to close the deal, I thought "what the heck". So I sat on a rocky flat spot, threw my .270 Ruger over my shooting sticks and got setup on this deer. When I spotted him in my scope, his head was now behind an ocotillo and I could not confirm it was the same buck with 100% confidence, so I waited. In the meantime, I chambered a round. Right as I pushed the lever locking the bullet in place, a large 4pt buck jumped up behind me at 60-80 yards in that small bowl. He had been watching me the whole time. I quickly jumped up, threw the scope on him as he ran towards the top of the ridge. He briefly stopped at appx 120 yards, BOOM! Center punched, a little high. I could see the blood exiting his body as he managed to run another 30-40 yards. He started to slow his run again, BOOM! Spined him. It took one more finishing shot and he was done. This buck died no more than 50 yards from where my brother's died 2 days earlier. This is definitely my biggest Coues to date, and I could not be happier. I believe all those previous does in the area were hanging with him, and he was not content leaving them. Based on the fact that all previous 100-class deer I've seen in this area do NOT stick around when you jump them. I want to take this last minute to pay my respects to a close family friend/hunting buddy we lost a few months ago. Allen "Grizz" Samuelson. Or Uncle Sam to me. Him and my dad have been hunting friends since the early 80's in Steamboat Springs, CO, and he's always been a kind, helpful friend who wouldn't miss any opportunity to spend time out in the field with his friends. He was a big part of my life, and I know he was standing over me as I harvested my biggest buck to date. Miss you every day, buddy. RIP.

Went to glass for pigs this morning and do some deer hunting. Found no pigs but saw 40 deer. We glassed up a herd that finally had 3 rutting bucks. A spike. A 3x0, and a 160 class 4x4. Put my daughter on the stalk of course to shoot the 4x4 but when she got up there the 2 bigger bucks pushed the spike out of the herd and he came to her at 43yds. With 2 days 3 days left in December and never killing a buck with her bow she got it done. Long pack out. The arrow was all the way to the fletchings but he fell on it and pushed it out. He went 30yds and expired so proud of her and we cant wait for January

As accurate as the volantary harvest reporting.

hook that trailer up with solar and gtfo

I have personally talked to people that have passed up smaller animals just so they could have a bigger animal for social media purposes. Arizona is nothing like Colorado as far as wilderness and places for animals to get away from hunters goes. Most units in Az have prime areas for long range hunting and a lot of people know about them and pass that info on to others. I personally think less tags need to given out or else the animals will not be able to recover from hunters new abilities to harvest them from longer distances.

It's not just technology, its mostly tag numbers. Pull up regs from 10-15 years ago and look at the amount of tags then vs now. It's insane. More tags=less and younger animals. The Game and Fish have increased opportunity an decreased quality just like they said they were going to.

HELP NEEDED!!! Arizona Elk Society’s Heroes Rising Outdoors / Hunts for Heroes is an established program for wounded veterans here in Arizona. We’re working on a very special outing for the weekend of February 22-24, 2019 --- Hunt Units 19A and 20A! Javelina tags needed!!! We have confirmed five (5) lady Arizona veterans who are eager to go javelina hunting! Three of them have just recently joined our hunting ranks, while two have never hunted big game before. This will be set up as a hunt to help introduce these women to the therapy that hunting offers, and to build camaraderie among lady vets here in Arizona. Here’s the catch --- we are in need of five (5) rifle javelina tags to make that happen! So … what hunt unit tags are we looking for? Again, the rifle javelina hunts we’re looking at are scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 22-24. Specifically, we want to get the lady veterans hunting in Units 19A and 20A (possibly Unit 21) --- we have facilities (cabins and cooks) available adjoining these hunt units. That brings us to the question --- who can help us out with this??? If not you personally, who do you know with pig tags for those units they might be willing to give up next month? There are many Arizona veterans who gave so much while serving our country. Here’s your chance to give back to some special ladies while helping build Arizona’s hunting heritage! Plus, if you’re free, we also could use some help that weekend guiding our lady vets in the field (lodging and meals supplied). Is that you? I look forward to your phone calls! You can contact me via my cell: (480)760-3868 …Thanks in advance! (Feel free to share!) --- Tom Wagner, Coordinator – Heroes Rising Outdoors / Hunts for Heroes

That is one beautiful ram. Congrats to you

Beautiful Ram congrats!!!

Thanks for putting up the story and pics!

Seems like a very reasonable price. Would be nice if AZGFD could buy it and open it back to the public.

Would u trade rifle

How much has the price drop?

Wow great Ram!!! Man that sounds like a Tough as Nails Hunt! Congrats

Yeah, I’d say he sure checks all the boxes! Awesome ram!!!

That is a beauty. Love the dark coat, white face and dark horns. Congrats to you sir

Outstanding ram, congrats to you.

Wow, beautiful sheep. Almost looks like a stone’s sheep.

Please see below for the units needed, as CHA is the host organization. CHA will be hosting our annual Mentored Javelina Hunt in February and we are currently working with the AZ Elk Society - Heros Rising Outdoors/Hunts for Heros program to have five female wounded warriors in our camp. This will require five permit holders for the general javelina season in unit(s) 19A, 20A or 21 to donate there tags for the wounded warriors. (Hunt date: 2/22/19 - 2/24/19. Hunt #s 5006,5008 & 5011) CHA has been able to donate many tags to this awesome program in the past and we are hoping that some of you that have tags would be willing to give them up to support these incredible ladies that put their lives on the line and were injured serving our country.

WOW! Love those dark horns. Congratulations

I have a 21 tag that u can have.

Any one who says hunter numbers are on the decline is full of crap.