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Big thanks to Eric and Josh and the team at Arizona Desert Outfitters,cant say enough about their help helping me fulfill my dream of harvesting a sheep. Great guys all ! Will post better pics when I have them. 6.5 creed more 143 grain eldx 409 yard shot peak to peak. played in cholla needles for over half an hour waiting for him to get up.Gotta love standing up and having ticks all over your pants and shirt IMG_0040.MOV

My Grandson took his first deer on an Oct left over tag. No new fangle Creed...No Super Scope...No TriClamp "Old School", Spot & Get Closer.. .308 Win. VX 3x10 350 yds. Standing, Resting on Tripod, Safari stile. One Proud GrandPa. I love hunting with this guy.

Good people of CWT, I have a confession to make.....I love big muley bucks. I hope that doesn’t make me a traitor. With that being said, my brothers & I drew some great permits this year including out of state archery tags & rifle Strip! Yes, the famous 13B. We were absolutely shocked when cards were being hit. Seven bonus points somehow got us in the show. Don’t think you don’t have a chance!!! With the early moisture we knew we were potentially in for an epic year of hunting. When the dust settled (and there was lots of it), it was epic indeed. Honestly, the prep for the hunts is the best part for me. I love everything about it. Shooting my bow is one place where I find peace in a hectic schedule. We made a few scouting trips & set up some cameras in hopes of finding a giant. My brothers & I were texting each other constantly formulating plans to the point where our wives were ready to kick us out! 😂 Finally, game time..... Opening morning just a couple hours into the archery hunt I got a text from Trent saying he had shot a big buck. According to him he glassed up a bachelor herd of bucks & made a mad dash to cut them off. Trent can be a bit of a joker so I was fully expecting to see perhaps a “trophy” deuce point. We hustled up to meet him & my jaw dropped when I saw the buck. NOPE, he smoked a giant! We were on cloud 9. I just absolutely love hunting with my brothers & if I didn’t personally have success on this trip I would have gone home a happy man seeing the smile on his face. Trashy Big bucks always get the VIP treatment Little did we know that was just the beginning. Four days later I spotted my buck. Being familiar with the area from previous scouting trips I knew exactly where he would head to bed which would make him vulnerable. True to form he did what he was supposed to do & headed into the kill zone. I stalked through the forest into 40 yards & waited for him to stand. 45 minutes later, it happened. I gathered my composure & let it loose. All that practice in the 110 degree valley heat came to fruition as my arrow hit its mark perfectly. He takes a few steps, his legs get wobbly, & it’s game over. Big buck #2 hits the dirt. Most stalks do not end in success..... Measuring session Onto The Strip! We’ve never been guided before but reached out to A3 for this one. We wanted to do it right. Hunter Weems & Heston Morrell were our help & were absolutely awesome to hunt with. Exceptional guys. The Strip was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced & is everything people say it is. Total of 4 flat tires.... Insane dust due to the drought.... Vast & beautiful...... Oh, & huge bucks!!! The first couple days we were hunting one of the local legends (along with numerous other people), but decided to get away from the circus & check out other areas. In the new spot, I picked up a buck moving through the sage flat bright & early. I casually said, “Got a buck, but I don’t think he’s a shooter”. In no time Hunter had him in the spotting scope & immediately said, “We need to kill this buck”. We went from 0-100 mph in two seconds!!!”. Little did I know we were looking at a true 200 typical. Whoops, my bad. I learned that the bodies on these deer are huge & their antlers are much bigger than you realize. After traversing the landscape we found a good high point approximately 680 yards from the big typ. We just needed him to stand, & when he did Daryl was ready. Buck #3 goes down. Hunter takes good pics! Pretty cool walking up on this beast. Admiring... It felt good to finally be on the board. We headed into a completely different area that evening riding high from the mornings events. On the Strip you just never know what you might see next & it didn’t take long for luck to be on our side once again. Right at dark we spotted just a beast of a buck. He was a super, super, heavy 4X4. Trent looked him over, put his gun down, brought his gun back up, then dropped him in his tracks! The mass was just to much for him to take. I think he made the right decision. Buck #4 - We call him B.A. Barrackus 😂 Perspective. Elk mass. I feel like I’m always the last one. The hunt is starting to wind down & I’m running out of time. I feel a bit stressed. I mean, I can’t eat my Strip tag!!! We wake up Thursday morning but I feel different, like there is no doubt it’s going to happen today. I’ve felt that feeling before & every.single.time it’s been upheld. The morning is slow & we don’t see much. 10:30 rolls around but I keep glassing hoping for some sort of movement, perhaps a change in bedding spots, anything! Finally, some does get up & there is hope. The rut is starting so we know if there are does, we need to double & triple check for bucks. Hunter gets his spotter out & within a matter of seconds finds an antler barely sticking out from under a tree. This wasn’t his first exceptional spot. The dude has eagle eyes!!! He gets up to follow the does & is BIG but has a busted g-3 on his left side. Hunter asks, “What do you want to do?” I wasn’t about to pass this buck because he was broke. He just had to much character. I knew he could be fixed, so off we went. We found ourselves perched on a knoll above the thick cedar country he was bedded in. We will have to wait him out as long as needed & prepared for potentially a long afternoon. However, after 30 minutes or so we hear the dreaded buck snort & they’re off & running out of nowhere. We look at each other wondering what the heck happened? Wind was good, we were hidden...perhaps a predator? Regardless, with no time to waste we head back to the truck to circle around & hopefully cut them off. Hesston is on a nearby high point watching everything go down. He guides us in on where he saw them last. We’re on a little hill overlooking the area & know they’re close, we just can’t see them. Like quail they flush out right below us & are high tailing it directly away. I grab my bipod & sit down to steady myself for a running shot. I find him in my scope & try to pin him down, it feels like trying to shoot a running coyote! I lead him just a tad & squeeze the trigger...miss. I chamber another shell & fire again but this time he drops like a ton of bricks! Holy crap! It’s over, the brother tri-fecta on the Arizona Strip has been completed. As I walk up to the buck I’m elated, relieved, & humbled beyond measure. What a beautiful creature. Buck #5 A3 has trail cam pics of this buck so I know exactly how he looked before he broke. I was pleasantly surprised to learn he has a split g-3. 😍 Trail cam photo credit-A3 I wonder if we could be so fortunate to maybe do this again. The sun sets on an amazing season. Thank you for reading.

Hey all, Been enjoying all of the great discussions for many years and finally decided to join. Been in Arizona 9 years now brought here kicking and screaming from Michigan by my lovely wife. I quickly fell in love with this incredible state and have harvested many animals in those years. This year my good buddy and I drew 22 south muzzleloader elk tags, him for the first time and my second. Killed a great bull in there in 2014 so was very excited to get back. We ran 12 cameras all summer and felt like we knew what our expectations should be. We had one bull in particular we were targeting we named El Diablo. We figured he'd go close to 370 and we kept tabs on him all the way up to 2 days before our hunt. Opening day came and we went to where we figured he was living but only turned up a handful of satellite bulls. Day 2......On the second morning I had an old bull with huge 3rds and 4ths at 185 yards and the temptation was to great so I dropped the hammer. Spent the rest of that day with 4 buddies packing him out. Day 3......my buddy and another friend headed to a spot that always had a herd with a great bull and I slept in recovering from the packout. At daybreak we had multiple bulls screaming outside of camp. I grabbed my binos and quickly found a big herd bull pushing cows around. Got a hold of my buddy and after an hour of cat and mouse in 6' Manzanita he dropped the hammer at 35 yards. Spent the rest of the day packing him out. Day 4....we spent the morning of day 4 cutting up and packaging elk as well as dropping off the 4 quarters to a processor in Payson. That evening we decided to go see if we could find El Diablo. We didn't locate him but found another great bull. We had a camp of two guys down the road from us with on gentleman from Wyoming having a tag. I offered to take him in to try and kill that bull the next day and a plan was made. Day 5.......we left before daylight and hiked into the mountain I wanted to start calling from. At light I called in a decent bull but no shot opportunity. I had a bull screaming across the canyon and he sounded mature so we took off. As I got closer I got eyes on him and realized it was El Diablo. He bedded with his cows just out of sight so we found shade and waited him out. At 1 pm he got up to move and Bill dropped the hammer. He had no idea what he killed but I did. After lots of celebration we packed him out and I put a tape to him....366". What a trip!!!!!!

With Draysen playing his first year of high school football, and miraculously drawing an early archery bull elk tag, we knew it wouldn't leave much early season time to hunt deer. So we threw up a "Hail Merry" and applied his two bonus points towards a late December whitetail hunt. With the year we were blessed with, I really shouldn't have been surprised when he drew it. This past September for his 15th birthday, we bought him his first big game hunting rifle, an upper end Tikka, chambered in 7mm Mag. He saved up his skull cleaning money and topped it with a Vortex Viper HS LR 6-24x50. In short time we had his load dialed in, and he was shooting groupings inside a quarter at 200 yards. I had a funeral to attend on Thursday, so we decided to head down to our unit around 4:00 AM opening morning from the valley. We were towing our Ranger and had to stop for gas, so were a little behind when I had hoped to be to the mountain. I like to be in glassing position well before first light. We just about ran up the mountain cutting our normal hike time to this spot almost in half. I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with myself. Draysen is the athlete these days, but I put a lot of time and work this spring and summer into dropping 50 pounds and getting into my best shape since my early 20s. I got a little pleasure in listening to Draysen suck wind and really have to work to keep up behind me. He says it is because his pack was heavier than mine. Nonsense! 🤣 We reached our spot just as it was about to become light enough to glass. I threw the binos up and on the tripod right at glassable light. In seconds I found a group of about 10 does and fawns 500 yards on an adjacent ridge. I quickly called Draysen's attention to them as I scanned for antlers. While picking through the does, Draysen spotted two bucks coming up behind our herd and shouted in a whisper "There is a shooter!" We did a quick swap, me in his binos and him throwing his rifle and Claw combo on my tripod (it is the bigger more steady tripod). I called out the distance "482 yards, but he is moving away. Dial 13 clicks to 500." Seconds later, BANG!!! His buck flopped and rolled about 15 yards down the steep hill before coming to a stop. I estimate this all went down in about 3 minutes of me first looking into my binos. We have had short hunts before, but nothing like this! He head down and across the canyon while I stayed put to direct him to his deer. There was a rough 4wd road near the base of the opposite side of the hill his deer was on. All we would have to do for the pack out was top out about 20 yards above his deer, and it would be downhill all the way to the Ranger. Once he was within about 100 yards of his deer I started packing up to make the hike back the opposite direction to get the Ranger and drive to the previously mentioned spot. Then my phone rang, Draysen was on the other end frantic! "Dad, a buck just jumped up in front of me and is running away, is that my deer?" Of course, I had cased my binos and put away the tripod. I had watched his deer lay dead in an unnatural position for about 30 minutes, and was sure he had bumped another buck. But Draysen was about to have a meltdown as I relocated his buck. He was dead as ever and hadn't budged. I reassured him and watched him the rest of the way to his deer before heading back to the Ranger. I think the buck Draysen had bumped up was Draysen's buck's buddy we had seen earlier. He had likely bedded by his buddy and we hadn't noticed. Meanwhile, as I headed to get the Ranger Draysen posted a teaser picture on Facebook. A couple of member "friends" from here wanted to know when he would post a real picture. To which he replied, "When my dad gets here" so I could see him first. Of course the JERKS, you know who you are 😉, and Draysen had a great time making jokes on Facebook about my slowness. Of course my punk kid never bothered to tell them that I had gone back for the Ranger, and allowed them to believe he had left me in the dust and gone ahead. Hiking up the backside of the hill to Draysen was nasty. It was much steeper than anticipated, and being the north facing slope, was thick with Mesquite brush and prickly pear. Eventually I made my way to him. About the time I reached him I realized my new cell had fallen out of my bino case somewhere between the deer and where I had left the Ranger. Fortunately, we have a family tracker app on our phones that led us straight to it a few hundred yards back. We got back to the buck, took a few hundred pictures, and I directed Draysen a bit as he capped and processed his buck. It was a challenge on the steep hillside, but we eventually got it done. We eventually made the descent back to the Ranger falling (both of us) many times down the steep rocky thorn filled slope. I had loaded the cooler into the back of the Ranger, so we were quickly able to get everything on ice. As early as it was, we decided to take the Ranger and explore some new country for a bit, and turned up a couple more spots that have huge future hunting potential. While short, it was a pretty great morning with the boy. I titled this post "My Sidekick Closed Out The Year Strong" but the line that defines who is in fact the "Sidekick" is pretty blurred these days. As long as I get to be along for the adventure, I don't really care. From 500 yards across the canyon. We didn't have time for pictures before the shot. Coming out heavy! There was a pretty good debate on the drive home and into the afternoon about whether to do a shoulder mount or euro. A good friend offered a great deal to shoulder mount. But in all the hundreds of deer Draysen has euroed, he has never done one of his own, so that was the scale tipper. He is hard at it this morning.

This was Seans 3rd buck and by far his best. We glassed up this buck along with three other smaller bucks and several does about a mile away. Both my grandsons had tags so with my buddy Dave keeping glass on them we started the hike in to try and get a shot at them. This was around 8 am. It took us around a hour to get 600 yards from the deer and we got set up to try and figure out where the bigger buck had bedded down. Dave was trying to explain to me the tree he had gone into and not came out of. We watched the next biggest buck try and mount a doe and decided to go ahead and try and get close enough to have my youngest grandson Fabian try and take him and then see if we could get the bigger buck when he stood up. We moved into a ridge that was 300 hundred yards from the saddle the three point kept chasing the does in. That put us 385 from where we thought the bigger buck was bedded at. Once we moved down to this spot we could no longer see the 3pt as he had went back into the saddle. For some reason a doe and fawn came out of the saddle and climbed up to where the doe and bigger buck was. When they got up there The bigger buck came out of his bed and started nosing the 2 does. That was when Sean got on the rifle and made a great shot at 385 to put down the big 4. It was kinda crazy watching these deer rutting already. I would also like to throw a thank you to Dave and his son Timmy as Timmi came down and drove his truck a couple miles up a wash to save me about 2 miles on the packout.

Christensen Arms Hunter .300 RUM Very Light gun just under 7lbs - Carbon fiber barrel less than 100 rounds, added rail (Bipod not included) 1300.00 Call or Text - 602-695-2143

We were unbelievably blessed to harvest 3 beautiful Coues bucks this last week.We got quite a bit of footage of the 4 days we hunted to tell the story. We had our share of ups and downs with some bad weather and missed shots but gratefully filled our freezers. I think we learned from our mistakes and experience and will be better hunters because of it. Enjoy the videos! Day 1: https://youtu.be/IJKpsNoV6_U Day 2: https://youtu.be/WRmRH8ZyINI Day 3 and 4: Coming Soon!

My son had the early November hunt. We had been watching his buck for about 5 weeks. we had photos and films of him and estimated him to be between 96 to 105. Rough gross was 100 3/8 and netted 96 6/8. Shot was 560 yards, with sun in eyes. he was not behind gun enough so the shot was a little high. but went in and came out the left side behind lungs. Crazy did a 90 degree turn in body. He used my gun since he likes it better..LOL. First day tag out before 9:00 am. I had built both of us 28 Noslers his had a APR hunter action and mine had my Bighorn SR3, We had shot over 300 rounds in each gun over the summer from june (when i finished barrels) to august, Then in sept and oct another 100 or so. We plan to change the barrels out this spring for next year. Shooting brux barrels 195 grain bergers at 2950. Next set of barrels i have a new reamer being built that should help get some more speed but will shorten barrels for weight. Also bought a new chuck to eliminate stress on work TBAS system. Then came my hunt for late November. We hunted every day except for the first day. We saw this buck one day during hunt on the move and was able to located him on last day glassing from the vehicles. Unfortunately with the fog rolling in and out and rain coming every few minutes when i spotted him I had to tale the shot or loss the opportunity. I had practiced for this for years now and knew i had it. 830 yards right behind shoulder and dropped him right there. Never dropped one with a shot behind shoulder but wow it was neat. Been worrying about the boys these past years that i finally got one. I wanted my dad to shoot but he passed since he has a hard time shooting far.

Ruger M77 Hawkeye Magnum Hunter chambered in 300 Win Mag. Used but in great condition. Only getting rid of this gun to fund a custom build. Shot less than 100 rounds through this gun, but was very pleased with it. PM me with questions/offers. Asking $800 - I live in Phoenix and would prefer local buyer.

Hey all, My pop's, Mark senior finally drew his first elk tag as a non resident from Michigan after 6 years of applying. We would be hunting unit 8 for bull elk. As I spend 90% of my time hunting elk in 6a and 22 I had some work to do. I started by looking at topos to find transition areas from fall to winter range and canyons those bulls like that time of year. Mid summer I finally got boots on and confirmed that my research was well directed. Tremendous amount of older scat, great winter brouse, and good thermal cover. Hit the woods one more time in October to cut the canyons apart to log glassing points and it was time to wait. As the hunt got closer we realized the weather was going to be brutal and I now felt even more confident in our location. To make things even better 2 of my best buddies were going to fly in from Michigan to help out. We arrived at camp early Thanksgiving day and set up in the torrential downpour. The evening was spent playing cribbage and yuker, card games for those of you not from the Midwest with the woodstoves keeping our tents toasty. Day 1......woke up to tents wanted to collapse with 7 inches of heavy, wet snow. After cleaning them off we waited for daylight to fully assess and realized with visibility at 100' that we would be better off waiting for a break to head out. That break came at 10 am. We loaded the buggies and the 7 of us headed to the spot I had picked out. After a long hike to our vantage point the snow socked back in and we took refuge under a big cedar and built a 🔥. At 1 the weather broke briefly and we got behind some glass. In 10 minutes we had 3 bulls located and pop's wanted the bigger of the 3. Having never elk hunted before we had decided the first decent 6 point was in trouble. Pop's made a great shot at 400 yards accross the canyon with my 6.5 PRC and the next two days I was extremely grateful for all the help as the packout and drive out was brutal.....another trip for the books!!!!

Not much to the story. Had a great hunt, scouted some big bulls before the weather came in. We saw more elk on this hunt than any year in the past 6 years. I passed a few bulls, but with another storm on the way we decided to shoot anything we could. I shot this bull Tuesday night out of a huge herd. Had my family there for the recovery. Shot was 125yds with an xbolt 300 wsm 165gr sst. Bull never took another step.

My boys have certainly had some great youth hunts over the years. Turkey, elk, deer and javelina. I've shared stories and pictures of them over the years. Well, my two oldest boys are grown up but I got one more youth hunt with my youngest son, Josh. We found this buck at sunlight opening morning but after a long stalk, could only locate the does he was with. The next morning it was all Josh. I had an idea where they had gone but Josh decided to split up because he had his own idea - and he was right. It's bittersweet - I wouldn't have found this buck again, but Josh did it on his own. I'm extremely grateful for the many hunts I've had with my boys, and can only hope that as they get older, they'll still want to go hunting with the old man.

We could start a club!

nice job! heck of a ram

Im tired of this Kids Success!!!! Hes making me look really bad Congrats, well done. Great looking buck

I'm in prescott. If you still have it when I'm back in town in a couple days I'll take it.

Draysen found something interesting while cleaning it. He appears to have broken his nasal bones and healed up at some point in the past.

Super important guy in my life. During his last year with us he still wanted to hunt and I would carry his oxygen tank as he shot pheasant over my dogs or deer on one of the farms. He literally hunted till he passed away.

Let the man do what he wants with his trucks. Sheesh

Not sure I buy that it is dumb. Truck has about 40K on the Trans, Torque Converter and Flex Plate. About 10K on the tires. Shocks and both diffs were done in the last 2 years. If I spent $18K on another truck I'd get one with 200K. That is lower than the mileage I have, but I don't know how it has been maintained. At least with this truck I know that. Not saying I'd do it if it were my personal vehicle. heck … I'd buy a 1 Ton Gas if it were mine, just because diesel likes to gel where cold and I am moving to the cold soon. But if the choice is this truck with a reman or a half ton … I am going with this one all day long.

Thanks for the comments! I feel like often pursuit of big game and often older age class animals becomes so competitive that we lose sight of why we hunt and the impact of our actions and examples. I lost 2 trail cameras on this hunt, both in lock boxes and it troubles me to share the woods with such individuals but what can you do. I guess, never miss an opportunity to do good and teach, especially young people and new hunters.

After eleven years I drew my 12 AW late tag. Due to health issues two of my three doctors said I should not go deer hunting. Fortunately one of my doctors said I could go but not by myself. I knew I had to hire a guide and I decided to hire Duwane Adams. Duwane has been guiding on the Kaibab for 40 years and knows every two track road and ridge to glass from. Usually a hunter gets one guide but I had three, Duwane, Rick Wyler and Johnny Wyler. I had never harvested a mule deer so I was looking forward to a fun hunt. In addition I had spent one day on the Kaibab in the past 35 years so I knew nothing about the unit. Opening day was cool and clear after 3 days of snow. They found a nice buck at first light but I missed the 440 yard shot. I was told the shots would be long and they were right. The rest of the first day were multiple sightings of nice 150 to 170 inch deer. I was looking for something better after waiting more than a decade. Days two and three were much the same seeing multiple bucks but passing on them. Monday, day 4 was clear and bright but the weather forecast was for high winds later in the day with snow for days 5,6,7 and 8. I was concerned about the weather and the possibility of bad and dangerous road conditions so there was some concern in my mind. Mid morning Johnny found a buck bedded in some oak brush. We could see the buck' right side but could not see his left side. We could not tell if he had 4 points on his left side. So we glassed for 40 minutes and finally Duwane said get the gun and shoot that deer. We ranged him at 350 yards and I took the shoot with the 270 WSM. I could not see anything but everyone said he was hit hard. He went behind a tree and we lost sight of him. We waited an hour and found him. The shot was good. I did not know how vast the Kaibab is. It is a tough hunt to scout for because the deer are migrating every day and a person needs to know where the deer are going and how they get there. One thing I wanted in addition to a great deer was to have a fun time with lots of laughs. I got all of that and more. Another thing that was important to me was not to feel any pressure in case I missed a shot, could not keep up with guides, or could not go to certain areas because of my health issues. Having three guides with me caused me some nerves early in the hunt having three people watching me shoot. In addition when I took the shot three of Duwane's friends including a former client were behind me. I was comfortable because we talked about my nerves a bit and they alleviated my concerns. I want to thank Duwane, Rick and Johnny for a great hunt and an enjoyable experience.

Not a clue. Not a care either. Awesome ram regardless of score.