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Well, I shot my buck Friday morning about 10 minutes into the season. During all my scouting, I never saw a buck that made me say "Wow". Combine that with leaving Wednesday for my elk hunt, the God awful heat and the fact that the opener would have been my dad's 81st birthday, I really wanted to shoot one the first day. I saw a couple that were a little bigger than this one but he was decent enough. And best of all, he hung around in a very stalkable spot. I put him to bed Thursday evening and was back before light Friday. Sat drinking coffee waiting for it to get light enough to start out. They were hanging out in a spot that was just over the rise of a gentle slope the last time I saw them Thursday so I slowly moved in that direction. I was getting close so I put my pack down and continued on. I was keeping an eye out, hoping I would see them before they saw me. Well, they had moved into the bushes above and to the left of where I thought they would be and I actually passed them without seeing them. Next thing you know, I see does trotting along the fence about 150 yards away. I saw the buck coming along behind. Of course, he stopped behind some brush. I moved a little closer and I think a doe must have seen me. The does started trotting again and I got ready as he went behind another bush. The grass and bushes were so tall I had to shoot offhand. He came out on the move and I let him have it. He went down but I hit him a little back. I put another one through his shoulders as he tried to get up. I didn't realize he was all busted up. A fighter. Broke off the prong on his right side and the tips were broken off on both horns. Decent mass and right at 14" long. Now....on to elk. Forgot to mention....shot him with one of my dad's rifles also. Winchester Model 70 in 7mm WSM.

God is good!!! The first few trips out this hunting season were less than stellar in productivity, but I was able to enjoy the country I was in and the company I had on every trip out. Yesterday evening after getting off work at 2:15pm my buddy Brad and I hit the sticks for an evening hunt. God blessed me with great company and very good help as well as a nice archery coues deer. Thank you brad for all of your help it is very appreciated!!! Hadn’t chased coues in over 10 years since I had moved away from Tucson and couldn’t be happier with getting this buck my first few months back.

Ok... since we are sitting in the OR waiting room with nothing to do. The hunt was a bit of a whirlwind, but definitely a huge success. We spent Labor Day weekend getting familiar with the unit and trying to locate a few goats. To my surprise antelope were relatively scarce and the heat waves made it really tough to glass more than a few hundred yards. Saturday we drove up to Valle and across unit 9 on the Willaha road towards Tin House then down to the Espee road and back into Williams. We did not see a single antelope. Sunday we ventured over to the Aubrey Valley and before we even arrived we saw a buck chasing a doe near Ash Fork and one lone buck North of Seligman. Once we rounded Chino Point we started glassing the AV and immediately picked up a buck with several does far across the valley floor. He was impossible to judge from our distance but size wasn’t all that relevant anyway. We weren’t being picky. We hadn’t been glassing long when Ty from OE4A called and told me that one of their youth hunter’s had just tagged out with his crossbow. We packed up shop and headed their way. This was my first time on the Big Bo, and I must say I was a little bit intimidated by the rules and permitting. I was very pleasantly surprised that it was not complicated at all and their hint manager Lee made everything easy for the folks helping Hunter. Once we got signed in we met up with Ty and Joe at his buck. I have to say, of the whole experience, this might have been the most important part. I had both Hunter and Nash with me and they got to meet Joe, a 16 year old boy with two prosthetic legs and toes sewn onto his left hand for fingers, beaming and showing off his very well earned trophy. While we were standing there he took off his prosthetics and dumped out the rocks and sand that had accumulated from crawling under fences. This is important, for my kids to see someone with incredibly challenging circumstances, not being defined by them, but instead choosing making their own course. After driving around the flats for a while we ventured around the West edge of the unit and up to the far north and drove roads into camp 5. Again we did not see a single antelope, which really had me perplexed. But, at least we had some goats located for the next weekend. During the week I talked to a few archery hunters who suggested I take a look near Tin House again. Fearing that all 85 tag holders would experience the same thing I had and the AV being a foot race on opening morning, I resolved to get out of town early enough on Thursday to go check some Of the points that had been provided. Thursday came quick. Fortunately Ty would be joining us and was able to get up to the unit on Thursday morning and spend most of the day looking for a buck. We arranged to meet near Long Point and after working for the AM and a rushed packing job we were in the truck and headed North. Hunter was all smiles. Because of the size of the unit and not wanting to be tied to a specific location we decided to pack a nomad camp and just throw down cots and cover wherever we ended up at the end of each day. I would love to regret this decision. After several hours of driving we were sitting on the Babbit ranch overlooking lots of great antelope habitat but only managed to turn up a solitary doe. Ty had found a decent buck, but with 4 guys staking him out, it looked like the next morning would be a foot race. We talked it over and decided to drive the 2+ hours to the Aubrey Valley where we at least we knew there were more antelope. There wasn’t a convenient campsite for where we planned to glass from so we plopped the cots down on a pull off from the highway and hunkered down for the night. Well if you have ever been on Route 66 you know that a train passes through that country about every 20 minutes. Thursday night was not exempt. Our cots were about 100 yds from the train tracks. I MIGHT have slept for 2 hours. Maybe. Good news is that Hunter is a professional sleeper and he was out before the second train of the night. In the morning a quick muffin for breakfast and then we made the short jaunt to our glassing outpost. To my surprise before we were really even settled AZGFD had pulled up alongside our trucks and an officer made his way out to our knob. The check was uneventful but professional and courteous. Before long we turned up a buck with several does about 4 miles across the valley floor. We didn’t have any better options so Hunter and Ty geared up to head out after him. They needed to move the truck for the stalk and in the process they found that several other groups were headed after the same buck. We aborted the plan and decided to move on. Shortly later Ty called and said he and Hunter were headed after a different buck. So I dropped off the glassing hill and headed their way. Now I think this is a good time to mention something I learned recently. I heard Eddy Corona recently talk on a podcast about the value of having kids spend some time with a mentor other than Mom or Dad. Spending time with their parents is good, but sometimes kids respond differently when it’s not mom or dad pushing them to do something hard, or try something new, etc. This was on my mind going into this hunt. Part of Hunter’s condition causes his hands and feet to be weak and causes occasional drop foot and he is really skinny. All of this combines to create a kid who can be a bit cautious and hesitant to try new things physically. So instead of being the one to take him on his stalks I asked Ty to go with him. Ty does this for a ton of kids and is awesome with them. It was hard to hang back and not be by his side the whole time, but I also remember being a young man and that sometimes the last thing I wanted was my dad telling me what to do and how to do it. So I played eyes in the sky and watched things unfold. Mine thing that Ty provided tha was very helpful was a 30.06 with a chassis and suppressor. So I didn’t even realize as I was watching that Hunter had actually taken a couple of shots. Unfortunately some crossed wires on the range / coping ecercise lead to a clean miss.by the time they got back to me I had another group spotted. I could tell there was a buck, but the mirage was so bad there was no way to really judge anything. So if there was a buck, we were just going after it. While going out after those lope we ran into a group of hunter’s who had just tagged out. It was a well known outfitter and his family. When they saw the CHAMP sign on the side of the truck they stopped and were very gracious to share all of their scouting results and took our number to check with us if they found anything of interest, which they did later and called us to see if we were still looking. Class act, all the way. After looking that buck over Hunter was anxious to get back after it. We started cruising the flats and glassing. It was tough when we would find them out in the flats to get on them with out much topography or landmarks. While eating lunch I was glassing with a sandwich in one hand and found a small group we had been after earlier. We made a plan for me to keep eyes on them and the dynamic duo to drive around and come at them from a different direction. I was looking back and forth between my 15’s Which were set on the goats and glancing at the truck periodically to see their progress. To my surprise they had only driven a few hundred yards when the truck stopped. Soon I saw the doors open and Hunter getting the rifle on the tripod with Ty looking over his shoulder. I glassed down the fence line and soon saw two bucks just down the fence from Hunter. My heart raced as I put my 15’s on the bucks and prayed for a clean shot. Soon I saw the bucks take off running and smiled as the larger buck slowed and laid down. The shot wasn’t perfect, but soon with a follow up the buck was down for good. When I walked up Hunter was already holding his buck, all smiles, and refusing to let go of those horns. The buck ended up being better than initially thought. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. I cannot thank everyone who helped enough. There were tons of people who offered suggestions and shared info. Eddy Corona who helped hunter receive this tag is really amazing. The guy spends an unbelievable amount of time helping kids and vets get awesome opportunities. And on this hunt especially Ty was fantastic. For a kid who cant play sports it was important to have this experience of having someone mentor him and push him. When the time came, having someone other than Dad, say he was proud of him. Hunter was eating up the attention. Thanks again to everyone and sorry for the long read. Thanks for sticking it out.

This deer is not a monster but I just got him back and he is my first whitetail. The main reason for this post is to publicly thank Morgan Zimmerman of Patriot Precision for building me a rifle I could rely on. I hunted for about ten years with various rifles and was unsuccessful. Morgan built me a 6.5 x 55 AI that shoots “lights out”. I highly recommend him if you are looking to build a custom rifle. JT

After 4 years, finally got drawn for a deer tag! I'll be chasing the grey ghost up in 22 the last week of Oct. Been hunting it since we moved here with otc tags, so I actually have a few spots lined up. Super pumped to finally get to dust off the 7mm Encore and hopefully knock down my first AZ deer! Good luck to everyone else with tags!! Pics to follow, hopefully!

Savage Axis At one Boyd's stock fully adjustable Timney trigger Rail and I believe Warne rings & for sure 30mm. Fits Vortex Viper Hs Lr 4-16x44 no problem and 4-16x50 probably even better. 👉*NO SCOPE OR BIPOD* Firearm is like brand new. After great debate I am just gonna show my 7-08 more love. $600 cash in N Phx

My hunt started around 6 weeks ago when my son and I decided to hike some cameras and treestand into some remote country. A couple weeks after that him and a friend dove in and checked pictures and hung another treestand for me. We had several really nice bucks hitting his stand area and a couple good ones at mine. We could not head in until opening morning so we spent the first 3.5 hours of friday hiking into camp. My son passed up a decent buck that first evening as I sat around camp recuperating from the hike in. Day 2 my son missed what he called a giant and from the scouting pictures if it was the buck he thinks it was he is right. On Sunday morning I shot my best archery Coues buck as it is my only archery Coues buck. After a few more chances we packed out after 7 days spent in the Az back country. The trail cam pic is one of the bucks he missed (we think).

I have debated about what to say about this as I know some have mixed feelings about these highly sought after tags being donated. But after thinking about it I hope that if we are able to share the story that more people might enjoy the experience this increasing the good that has come The selfless decision someone made to donate the tag. A little background. In April of last year my son Hunter (9 at the time) was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Toothe. CMT is a degenerative neuro-muscular condition that causes muscle atrophy and reduced sensitivity in the extremities. As a result of this condition Hunter also had hip dysplasia in both legs which led to two separate reconstructive surgeries last year. He turned 10 in August and we squeezed in a youth Kaibab hunt as well as a cow elk hunt (from a donated tag) between surgeries. I was proud of his effort as he did whatever he had to and filled his deer tag and stuck with it through three cold days for his elk hunt but that tag went unfilled. He goes to PT twice every week and probably will do PT//OT until he is skeletally mature. We are blessed that his lifespan is not impacted and for now he can walk and ride a bike likE his friends, other than limited strength and the unknown of when and how fast the degeneration of his nerves will occur. Well a couple week’s ago Eddie Corona from OE4A called and asked if Hunter would be interested in an antelope hunt. This has been an aspiration of his for several years since accompanying me on scouting trips for my antelope hunt in 2014. So the next day, after going to PT, and the dr and getting x Rays we met Eddie Corona and picked up the tag. It’s been his top choice every year since so of course we were in. Then to find out it was Unit 10 tag, well, we were over the moon. I hope to share this experience with as many as possible and want to make sure that those involved know how much this means to a kid who has not had an easy past 12 months. Thanks to Eddie and everyone who helps OE4A in anyway and also to Darren Couturier who donated the tag. We can hardly wait to share the journey with everyone.

Man had a scare tonight. Got home tonight earlier than I was planning and drove past the house to feed horses about 80 yards away. Dogs were barking as they always do when someone comes to the farm and it alerted the ol lady. I didn’t tell her I was coming home early. As I’m feeding horses I hear a shotgun blast and then get peppered. I hear “Kenny is that you” and I say yes thanks for the shower. At least she was ready and willing to protect herself. Kinda funny and at the time I was like dang she did good lol.

I have a 2007 Rokon Trail Breaker for sale. Includes bumper rack for carrying, gun scabbard, extra parts, and tools. Super easy to ride but will go anywhere you have the guts to take it! $4000 OBO https://www.rokon.com/bikes/trail-breaker

Timber Mesa

I sure am glad to hear that those two boys have a father that cares that much about them. Looking forward to hearing Hunter's story and seeing some pics. Congrats on quality time!

It's very hard not to buy these at that price!

If anyone is single and doesnt wanna be anymore, buy that truck 🤣🤣 In all seriousness that is one of the cleanest most handsome of those big Dodges I've ever seen. If I had the money I'd buy it right now. Beautiful truck. How it goes to a good home.

There are only 25 total tags. One outfitter has 20% of the tags and is swinging a goose egg?

Hunter vs client .. ladies man vs jon... i preffer to have skills to achieve my goals. Not pay for results. Great read cant wait to read the end result. Regardless of the outcome you have had an amazing adventure!

nice

Well done.

killer!

Consolation prize

I bet they’re inside one of those 40 acre trailers, sheds, motor homes, camper shells, old vans, or semi trailers that belongs to a friend of a friend that served time in prison together.

Dude you talk like thats not a killer buck. Bro, that is indeed a killer buck. Seriously that thing is bad butt! Congrats!

Ride around in the dark and stop to listen.