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My son decided last year he wanted to go javelina hunting. I figured because he has already killed a couple deer with a rifle, I would put him in for the general archery javelina hunt in January. I told him that he needed to start practicing with his bow and be confident out to 40 yards, which he did. About noon on the first morning, I finally glassed up a herd of about 15 pigs. As we started to hike to an area to get up wind, we bumped 4 deer, which proceeded to run right into the middle of them and scare them up the hill. We ended up having to hike up some pretty rough terrain, but eventually got to a point where I figured we would be above them. Not long after working our way down, we ended up hearing them not to far away. After passing on a small one at 10 yards, he finally got a decent sized pig at 20 yards, standing broadside, eating on a cactus. He let the arrow fly and hit it a little back, but was able to get on it again real soon and put a finishing shot in it. Unlike his dad, he didn't lose any arrows or miss any shots. Lol. Rest of the weekend was spent chasing quail with him. Love spending time in the hills with my kids.

Last day buck after 13 days of looking for the big one. Super happy with the results and support from brother and friends! Saw hundreds of does and 50+ bucks. Early on 5 bucks in the 90-95 range, passed on them cuz we're lookinfor110. Been several years since I had a December hunt, forgot how great it can be.

I was stopped during last years HAM hunt by AZGFD and he loooked at my dead pig and 300 blackout AR handgun. Did not mention anything about it. I try to encourage anyone who builds AR's to just buy an SBA3 brace and then you can essentially build an SBR without the FED hassle. They make great truck guns in the event a coyote shows himself..

Come on, Really? A once in a lifetime AZ sheep hunt doesnt even cost that much for a guide.

21 pts is way too many to waste on 22S

Found this deadhead about a week ago.

I don't post on here much but like most of you I get on just to see cool pics of cool bucks. I feel this is a buck many would enjoy to see. Luck: when preparation meets opportunity. That’s the best way I can describe this hunt. Due to some life events I didn’t not have time to scout much this year. I actually missed the first day of the hunt and the second day committed to helping a friend fill his tag on the one day he had free. We had some luck filling his tag with a nice 90ish buck then it was game on for me and my tag. It would be a solo hunt for the rest of the season which I mostly do and prefer in most ways. I decided I would hunt a spot that I nicked named “The Hole”. It’s a spot I have looked at in previous years, one years was covered with decent buck, then some years I have a hard time turning anything up. I had never taken a deer there but knew it could hold a good one since it was a “hole”. This spot is not hard to access but I knew it’s a spot hunters overlook and I call it “The Hole” because, while it’s not that hard to access and not that far of a hike, it’s a pain in the butt to hike in given the brush and terrain. The only good glassing spot is pretty uncomfortable and with an all-day sit during an early season you WILL get burnt. I get to the glassing spot with a good 30min sit to cool down before its even light enough to start glassing. This is done for a reason as while most of what I glass from here is a good 1000 yards away, one of the better bucks I had seen in years prior was on a small ridge just in from of the glassing point about 350 yards away. As most of you know that darn close to get to Coues especially just to glass so I knew getting in there in the dark was a must. I sat there and set up the glass on the tripod and started glassing before there was much light to even see anything, thinking ‘Well it’s about that time when lots of hunters are just waking up and the deer are the most active’. Through the low light I make out the form of a deer’s body on the ridge just in front of me at 375 yards. I make out some antlers and continued to watch as the light began to make it easier to see. Due to the subdued light I couldn’t tell exactly what he was and being the first deer that morning I began looking around to see what else may be out. For about 15-20 min I looked around for more deer and not seeing any other and I kept going back to the buck I saw. He was slowly feeding uphill as I was getting a better look. I could not see his main beam on one side so I thought he was a big 2 on one side and a 3 on the other. To be honest I still wasn’t sure it was a buck I wanted to shoot to end my hunt so quick. Finally got an angle seeing it was, what I thought, a good 3x3. This look was just after coming back to him and I thought well that looks like a good buck maybe another one showed up. The decision was made at this point to shoot but it took a bit to find a place to set up, the buck only being 350 yards now. While getting the gun set up the deer disappeared on me. It was now maybe 15 min before sunrise, yes that buck was on his feet for just a short while in the daylight. The last spot I saw him was on the edge of a large brushy patch so I figured he was in there somewhere. The wind was howling to and he was on the shaded side from the wind so it made no sense for him to leave, my gut told me hes still there. I watched the brush for about 45 minutes and I catch the buck up for just a few seconds as he shifted in his bed. No shot before a bedded back down, but now I knew where he was and could make out bits of his antlers through the brush. I made sure the gun was ready and got the phone scope set up to film the shot and the wait began. I waited for about 45mins and at was getting back on the gun to make sure it was ready. Well I looked in the scope and there he was standing. He was now looking over his shoulder and looked uneasy. Not knowing if he was about to bolt I decided to bag the filming and take the shot. At 350 yards I felt 100% confident on the hit but watch to see if anything runs off the ridge and nothing showed up. I gather my gear, make the short hike across the small canyon and find this. When I pull him out of the brush he just got bigger. I did not see all the mass, extra points, and thought how stupid I was in thinking I may pass. I was gitty for a while and got to work. The pack-out was heavy and sucked but I loved every minute of it. Yes, luck had a lot to do with it but my preparation, previous knowledge and opportunity all aligned for this hunt. I've had the privileged to take some great buck, working a lot harder to do so, but this is my best. Sorry for the long read that did.

2019 Late Whitetail Deer Hunt I got the AZGFD card today asking me if I got a deer this year. Well, I was able to say “yes” this year and I had to count up the days hunted in order to fill out the survey – 14 days! That’s a lot of time spent on this hunt and much of the weather was windy and cold. But it paid off. Having hunted this area for nearly 30 years on and off, we did not spend a lot of time scouting. After all, it was the late whitetail hunt. Should be a breeze! Yah, right. It was very breezy but that is a different issue! I do have to admit the first day was pretty amazing with seeing over 9 bucks on one hill and a lot of chasing activity. Second day was less interesting with the weather getting worse as the day wore on. I came home Sunday morning for Church and then back down. The wind was terrible so I ditched the afternoon hunt. The wind ushered in some cold temps and glassing from “John’s Hill” was miserable – as it would be for most of the rest of the hunt. Throughout the next 2 weeks, we got in several unsuccessful stalks which I cynically tallied up to “passing on that one” – the deer would just disappear during the stalk or just run like crazy in front of us. Rutting activity seemed to decrease as time passed with only spikes chasing the does, which was quite disappointing. I sat out one other horrendously windy day, the next Sunday morning, Christmas Eve Day, and the morning of Christmas, but was otherwise at it before sunup till after sundown. It got old. My buddy finally scored on a mishap -- shot a spike that came out from behind a juniper instead of the big one following it, just before the snows came in. I blew off that first snowy/windy day but was back at it the next day where it snowed on and off most of the day, ending up quitting after lunch and then went home Saturday evening for a shower, replenished supplies, and attended evening Church. That left only 3 days to hunt but the weather was supposed to be better – that is, less windy. My hunting partner, Ed, had gone to California to see his grandkid. His neighbor, Brian, continued to support by glassing for me -- he is really good. The winds were not all that low and Sunday was a bust. Brian had to work Monday morning so I called a friend of my son who was visiting family for Christmas. It appeases my wife and good common sense for me not to be out there all by my lonesome. He came down early Tuesday morning and we hit the hill early. Wind was bad and coupled with the cold temps, glassing was not fun. But it did work out as Ryan found and lost the little buck right at sunup. I had stalked him several days previous, chasing does in the exact same area. We did find him again down in the bottom chasing a doe about an hour later, so I stripped down a layer and headed out after him. The experience of the previous stalk paid off greatly as I knew where to go intercept/find him. He was the only buck in the area that was beyond a spike that seemed to be actively pursuing does those last few days. I recall kneeling to pray along the road down to the fence, recalling Pastor Robert’s sermon on perseverance – I hate perseverance! I had at least 5 strikes by my count, already. The wind was less frustrating down in the bottom and I even peeled off another layer of clothes as I hurried down to the fence line west and downwind of where all the chasing was going on. Much nicer conditions prevailed: constant but mild wind out of the east. I slowed greatly crossing the last little ridge before the big wash that was where the deer would probably be. I moved from bush to bush and stopped to glass. There were large open areas higher up and lots of cover in the bottom. Several horses and cows were in the area, also. Not seeing anything, I decided to cross the wash and get up to a high point that I found on the that previous stalk. Just as I rounded a bush, I encountered a doe coming out of the bottom and we proceeded to have a standoff where I did not move for at least 15 minutes. She finally turned and walked into the brush. However, she only took 3 or 4 steps to where I could not see her and must have turned and looked my way, as she blew and busted out of there when I moved forward. Well, that could not be a good thing! Visibility was pretty bad so I moved on to the ridge just out of the main wash where I could see the bottom of the wash and the several draws that snaked off to the east. I tried several spots and ended up sitting in the shade of this small juniper for a loonnngggg wait. Ryan meanwhile was freezing his rear off up on John’s Hill and had put on my heavy coat and then ended up finally in the truck. Time passed slowly! I started the “stalk” before 9am and it was well after lunch with nothing moving including the horses and the cows which had laid down. I played with my phone and GPS and found the “Best Times” for the day were between 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm. On cue, the cows stood up around 2:30 pm so I alerted Ryan by text about the cows and magic times. I walked out to the edge of my ridge where he could see me and then went back to my stand. He called me and said there was a doe 100 yards to the east, but I could not see it. Horizontal distance and angles have always been iffy for me and my normal hunting partner even after years together, so I took the info with a grain of salt. Anyway, I went back to my “stand” and waited. Suddenly, those crazy horses came running down the hill and crossed by my ridge about 10 yards behind me. I guess they were going down the wash to water. I thought they might be coming for carrots or sugar cubes and I was out. It scared the daylights out of me to have 3 @ 1000+ lb animals running towards me for no apparent reason. But it certainly got the adrenaline going. Now I was alert! Just a few moments later, the little buck came out of the big wash onto my ridge. My rifle was on the ground so when he went behind some brush, I slowly ducked down and picked it up very carefully. I shouldered the rifle as he crossed the peak of my ridge and just started down, where I squeezed off the first shot – OFF HAND. I generally avoid off hand but this was only 38 yards (later ranged). He humped up and bolted down the ridge and piled up in the brush about 20 yards from the initial hit. He was still moving so I shot again (recall that l really suck at off hand shots) just to make sure. I texted Ryan to pack up everything and drive the truck down to the gate. I was pumped! I again knelt to pray and thank God for his provision. He was a cute little 3 point. After a couple initial photos, I pulled the deer up to the shade of a mesquite tree for some more pictures and evaluated the hit. There was just a small entrance hole right above the sternum but a giant 4” crater on the exit. Lots of blood loss on ground, too. I could not find another hole so was not sure if I just missed (he was in the brush) or I hit near the 4” crater. I gathered my fanny pack and stuff over to where the deer was and awaited arrival of reinforcements. Ryan arrived with Brian (he just got there and did not even hear the shots), along with the son of the rancher who leases the area on his horse and his lucky dog. Lucky because he got lots of scraps with his excellent timing. Seeing a guy mounted on a horse coming through the wash, I thought Brian had wrangled one of those crazy horses to haul out my deer – NOT! We got some more pictures and then moved on to skinning (going gutless). It went pretty fast with Brian leading the charge as he had done about 4 or 5 deer just recently this way. I always seem to have trouble with the rear hip socket and not puncturing the pee tube. Overall, it came out pretty clean except for some mesquite beans that we found in the lower cavity. Now that I think about it, that second shot may have gone in right through the brisket and exploded the stomach but it did not exit. All four quarters and backstraps were pretty clean. I also retrieved the heart and tenderloins (where things weren’t so clean) from inside. We packed up and Brian ended up carrying out almost everything except the head, thanks to Ryan’s coyness. That slacker! Trip out was a piece of cake. The pack-out required only a pretty casual walk of only about a half mile but it was getting cold. Thank goodness it was only another half mile drive out. WOW, did that meat chill out quick. I let it set out overnight on the aluminum Diamondback bed cover of my little truck. Ryan left for home and I gave him one of those luscious backstraps. After spending the last night at Ed’s, I drove home the next day, well rested, and traded the cape for a Euro mount at a local taxidermist on the way home. It was quite a long hunt but quite satisfying. Got to spend a lot of time with great friends and got a nice little deer that is way bigger than my hunting partner’s – first time ever in our 3 decades together! 😉 The tenderloins and heart tasted great. I did flake out and take the four quarters to WGP for processing – too tired and cold and too much procrastination. BTW: I still hate perseverance, but do know that Providence had everything to do with this harvest for which I am very humbled and quite grateful.

Hey CWT community, I posted up some of these pictures previously in another post about some bullet issues I had on my hunt, but since I have spent the better part of the past three weeks up in the mountains chasing bugles (or lack of), I really haven’t had a chance to tell much of our story. To give a full accounting would honestly take a post the length of a full novel (it was a mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting, but fantastic three weeks), but I would love to share a few highlights. I am sure it will be plenty long anyway. When credit cards started getting hit for elk tags early this year, I about fell over when my card was charged $135 by AZGFD. I use a combination of credit/debit cards for the draw, one for each family member, so I know who gets the tags. I had applied for two premium hunts that I did not have the points to draw. I had 9 points. Drawing my first choice, 3A3C early rifle bull elk, would have been like the Powerball odds, so I assumed it would likely be my second choice, 3A3C archery bull elk. Knowing that I likely won’t have many more premium elk tags in my pocket, I knew I wanted to do everything I could to give myself the greatest opportunity to kill a true giant this time. In 3A3C, NOOONE has a hand in killing more giant elk than my buddy Shane Koury. Over the past few years Shane and I have talked many times about doing this hunt together once I finally had this tag, so I was on the phone with him within 30 seconds of the card charge to make sure he didn’t book any clients. To my shock, about 5 days later, another one of my credit cards was hit for $135 charge by AZGFD, this time it was the card used for my son. I had put him in for the same hunt choices, but he only had 2 bonus points. When results, finally came out about a week later, I was even more shocked to learn that I had drawn the early rifle bull tag, and that Draysen had drawn the archery bull hunt that started the following day after my hunt ended. A lot of preparation and details went on over the next several months to get ready that I won’t go into detail on, but some of the highlights include: Getting my diet and cardio on point. I knew that if I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to kill a giant, I would have to be ready to move fast and hard over long distances. By the time my hunt rolled around, I had dropped 55 pounds and was at my lightest and leanest since I was a teenager. Draysen broke and reinjured his wrist in a combination track and football injury that required surgery late in the summer. Hunting with a bow would be impossible, so we had to get permission to use, get access to, and practice using a crossbow. With his broken wrist, Draysen (14 years old at the time) lost his spot as linebacker on the JV football team for the season. Determined to remain a part of the team, he got his doctor’s approval, took up kicking, worked hard to get good at it, and by the start of the season was the starting kicker for PATs, field goals, and kickoffs. He couldn’t punt since he could not catch the snapped ball with his wrist in a cast. With his position on the football team, he would not be permitted to miss practices or he would not be able to play in games that week. We would largely be limited to long 3.5 day weekends (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and half day Mondays). I arrived for my hunt the afternoon before the opener and hooked up with Shane to go scout a couple of bulls. That evening, just before dark, we were able to stalk into a bugling giant bull and his cows and watch him tear up a tree about 50-60 yards in front of us. I was pumped and the following morning it would be game on! The next few days were pretty awesome and intense. Shane and I had talked and agreed that early in the hunt we would not be considering pulling the trigger on anything below the 380. The rut was still far from in full swing and bulls were only bugling for about an hour in the morning and evening at best. From Friday morning through Sunday evening we put a lot of miles on the boots (averaged anywhere between 10-20 miles per day). Despite the bugling challenges, we looked at a lot of great bulls, passing on at least one 360+ class bull each day as well as many smaller in pursuit of our giant. My wife was able to drive Draysen up after football practice on Friday, so he was able to hang out with us for much of the weekend before he had to head home Sunday afternoon. Sunday evening, after Draysen had headed home, we got into our first really good bugling. We gave Draysen a hard time telling him it was his leaving was that brought our good luck. We snuck into a little valley with several bulls going nuts bugling around a group of cows. We assume one of the cows in the group must have been pretty hot to get them going like they were. We looked over about 6 different bulls in the canyon, but none of them, including the herd bull, was what we were looking for. With about 30-45 minutes of light remaining, we bailed out of the canyon, back to the truck and shot up the road a little ways to listen for more bugles. It was extremely dry up there at the time and so we were hitting a few of the tanks still holding water. We stopped about 400-500 yards short of a large tank and hit the bugle. No reply. But we did hear an odd sound, splashing! Shane said, “They are in the tank, run!” We made a dash to get to where we could get a visual of the tank. Shane threw up his spotter from about 250 yards out and immediately said “SHOOTER!” I threw my rifle up on the sticks and stared down a monster bull through my scope. Even with my heavy breathing from the jog, it only took a second or two to settle my crosshairs on the target. I flipped my safety, at 250 yards the bull was taking his last breath. I a was about to squeeze my trigger and heard Shane say “Broken G1! Don’t shoot.” This bull was a giant! Incredulously, I replied, “I can get that fixed (speaking about the broken G1), are you sure???” Shane replied “Don’t shoot, we can do better.” I though about it for a couple of seconds. My tag, my decision. I flipped the safety back on and I incredulously watched the bull slowly work his way out of our sight. I think I was in a little bit of shock about what I had just done. This was the biggest bull I had ever put eyes on. He was gorgeous, long beams, ridiculously long tines, everything I wanted in my dream bull, and I let him walk away. About this time Shane got a text from Todd, one of his guides. Todd and hunter had been chasing one illusive giant since opening morning. They had finally put him on the ground. We headed back to the truck to meet up with them to lend a hand getting him out in the dark. As we headed out Shane could tell that I was in an incredulous stupor about what had just happened and decided to get my emotions on video. I believe my words (jokingly of course) were “Shane Koury either just became my best friend or worst enemy for convincing me to pass on that bull.” As the night went on, and I looked over and put hands on the other giant that had been shot, I really began to second guess myself and question my decision. Shane could tell. It was a short night, as we didn’t get the other bull out till close to midnight, and we were back out and after it at about 4:30 AM. Earlier in the hunt we were looking for a giant bull several miles to the north of the big bull we had passed the night before. We had only seen that bull’s top ends in the trees, but based on those, believed he had to be a monster. We got into the area and listened to a few pre-dawn bugles in to dark. As it slowly began to get light we picked one of the closer bugles and set off after and see what he looked like. After following this bugle through the trees for about a mile and closing in, we came to a drop off. On the opposite ridge (162 yards across) we spotted cows and herd a bugle just below where we could see in the bottom of the drainage. Knowing the bull would likely be coming up the ridge, just behind his cows, I threw the rifle up on the sticks and got ready. Seconds later he walked up and pushed the cow we had been watching. The second I saw him I knew I was shooting this bull. Shane confirmed my decision with the words “Shooter!” As he stood broadside at 162 yards, I flipped the safety, centered my crosshairs, squeezed the trigger, and “CLICK!”. Nothing, the bullet didn’t fire! I slammed open the action ejected the bullet and chambered another round. I think the first shot had me a little rattled on the second. I knew the second I squeezed the trigger that I had pulled the rifle and the bullet wound be a miss. Without needing Shane to confirm the miss, I immediately grabbed for my bullet pouch at my waist. My big Remington Sendero 300 RUM only holds two rounds in the magazine. I slammed in another round, and to my luck, the bull hadn’t yet moved, but was looking right at us. This gave Shane time to get his PhoneSkope on the spotter to record the next events. I quickly reacquired my target just as the bull began to take off. BOOM!!! This shot felt good and looked good! My bull jumped forward, but only on three legs. The front shoulder was hanging limp. The bull rushed out of view on three legs, but we were confident he was down in the trees just beyond our sight. Shane turned to me and said, “You know that was the same bull we passed last night?” I didn’t tell you because after last night I knew you would shoot him even if I suggested not to.” Shane was 100% right. I think I felt it might be the same bull, but certainly wasn’t certain. Not a chance he was walking away a second time! Overnight he had taken his cows and moved a few miles to the north. We gave him a few minutes and watched the video of the shot to confirm what we knew. Right behind the front shoulder and into the vitals. We made the short walk over to where we last saw the bull. To my horror, he was not where we expected him to be. Worse, there was about three drops of blood and then nothing! Over the next hour or two we did our best to stay on his tracks, but it was tough. The area was loaded with elk tracks. After about 600 yards of tracking and three different spots where we could tell he laid down, we found about a teaspoon of blood in the third bed, we decided it would be wise to back out and come back in about 4 hours later. Clearly something hadn’t gone as expected with the shot, and we needed to give this bull some time to lay down and expire. My stomach was in knots and I was sick with worry over those four hours. What had I done wrong? Did I just shoot, wound, and lose the bull of my dreams? I called home and talked to my wife and son. They tried to fill me with confidence, but it didn’t help. I sent them the video, we sent it to several members of Shane’s crew, I sent it to several buddies, etc. Everyone said the same thing, “The shot looks great, this bull should be dead!?!” About 1:00 PM we headed back out to look for my bull. We returned with a crew of 7 guys so we could fan out if necessary. As we drove in, I looked at the thick gathering clouds and began to feel even sicker. Moments later rain started falling. Not a super heavy rain, but enough to ruin any blood or fresh tracks. We reached the final bed we had found with the blood in it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before we had completely lost the tracks. We fanned out and began to look. I headed south while much of our group stayed closer the bottom where we thought the tracks had headed. After probably an hour of searching in the light rain and not seeing anyone in the group for a while, reality began to settle in. I was walking back to find the group and honestly felt that I was about to break down in tears over wounding this beautiful bull that I would not be able recover. I reached in my pocket to retrieve my phone to call and tell my wife we had lost him. As I looked at the screen I saw that I had missed a call from Shane. A little hope??? As I fumbled at the buttons to call him, my phone started ringing again. It was Shane. “Hello Shane?!?” I exclaimed! “We found him!” was the reply. “We bumped him up, he is hurting, but still moving good. Where are you?” not knowing the area well, Shane described a near meadow I was familiar with where I would meet him while others stayed on the new tracks. Lungs burning, I ran as hard as I could till I saw Steffen and Skyler, Shane’s sons. Moments later we were back on the tracks! The rain that was earlier my nemesis was now my savior. The bull, was now digging into the soft wet dirt and making a very distinct track with the wounded leg. He had a good lead on us and was still moving fast. We all set after him. We would be right on the tracks for a while, then would lose the tracks when he would enter a thick area with lots of pine needles or rocks. When that happened, we would spread back out and move in the direction he was going until we picked the track back up again. This went on for probably a couple of miles. It was at one of these spots, where we were trying to relocate tracks, when we heard some cracking in some really thick willow type brush maybe 60-70 yards ahead of us. It was him trying to hide in the thick stuff. We told the group to stay on the tracks and Shane and I bolted in the direct of the sound. The bull must have heard us hot on his trail because he began to put a lot of distance on us again. We never saw him, but the tracks were deep and we could see several places where he stumbled on the wounded shoulder in his effort to stay ahead of us. We were hot on him, and went as fast as our lungs would allow us this time. Conditioning before a hunt is a good thing! Had I not dropped those 55 pounds in the prior six months, and literally worked my butt off, I might have been in trouble. After a mile or two of this high paced action, Shane and I monetarily lost the tracks again in some rocky stuff. I looked to the left while Shane went up into a wash bottom 40-50 yards ahead to look for tracks, the rest of the group was quite a ways behind us. Shane relocated the track and called me over, as I rushed over I scanned the trees ahead of me and noticed a butterscotch patch tucked up under some trees about 100 -150 yards ahead of us. I excitedly motioned to Shane and asked, “Is that and elk?” He rushed over, whipped up his binos and exclaimed “That’s him, shoot him!!!” I already had the rifle on the sticks. BOOM!!! With a loud thump, the bullet reported the impact as my bull rocked back and dropped. Exhausted, I dropped to the ground, again near tears, but this time for good reasons. We heard excited shouts in the distance on the hill behind us, and then I hear Shane say “He’s getting back up! We need to hit him again!” I slam another round into him, again he dropped. Three rounds from my 300 RUM! We (my son and I) had previously never shot an animal with this rifle using these 210 grain Berger VLDS, and not had it drop instantly. This bull was tough! Once we collected ourselves, we decided to approach the bull cautiously. He was still fighting to get up, so we approached African safari style with Shane holding the sticks as I inched forward with him in my scope. At about 50-60 yards, my bull made one last attempt to stand and run. I put one more round into his chest, head on, and he was done. As we talked about what happened with this bull and these bullets we agreed, and later proved, that these Berger bullets were not penetrating. As good as they were on smaller animals (mule deer and smaller), they weren’t getting the job done on this tank. The first shot hit right where we thought (location seen in pictures below). But the bullet appears to have grenaded on impact with a rib. While breaking the rib, it did minimal damage to the vitals. The consensus is that the final HARD push that Shane and I put on him completely exhausted the wounded, but possibly not mortal wounded, bull, and that he was trying to hide it out up and under the trees where I spotted him in. Were in not for that hard exhaustive push that wore him down, I don’t know if we would have recovered him. Sometimes you experience ground shrinkage as you walk up on an animal. My beautiful bull was a 180 degree opposite. The closer we got, the more he grew! There was a lot of gawking, school girlish shrieking, and unrestrained joy! The tines on this amazing bull are ridiculous, as are his beams. The combination of these had given the deception of him being smaller than he was. With the exception of a small kicker on his left side, his tines are almost perfectly symmetrical. All intact points G1s through G4s go over 20 inches, most over 21. His G5s measure 15 inches, and his long beam is right at 57 inches. We green scored him without the broken G1 at 385.5 inches. The intact G1 is 21.5 inches. Given his symmetrical points, we believe he would have been right at 407 intact, and will be once my taxidermist molds the intact G1 to fix the broken one. I know not everyone believes in fixing points, I get it. But my bull, my decision. This hunt was amazing. It was tough. At times tougher than I expected, but I was able to harvest the bull of my dreams, and not everyone can say that. To this point, as we broke my bull down, Shane jokingly said to me, “You can now say something few hunters can. You can say you passed on a 400+ inch bull!” Yes, Shane took a lot of grief from all of us over telling me to pass on a 400 inch bull. We can all laugh about it now! I stayed up on the mountain for an extra day after that to allow the meat to cool and help spot/locate for another hunter. I got up at about 3:00 AM Wednesday morning (9/18) to drive home, arrived just as my kids were headed to school, and spent the next 12 hours butchering the massive bull. With one more bull elk hunt, three deer hunts, and two javelina hunts still to come this fall, I headed to Lowes Thursday morning to buy ANOTHER freezer. Got it all set up, repacked all my gear, bought more food, went to Draysen’s JV football game, and immediately after, headed back up the mountain. We arrived around 12:30 AM for Draysen’s opener, just a few hours away. That is its own story… Hope you enjoyed the write up. It ended up being quite long. Enjoy the pictures. A blind bull we came across. He appears to have broken off his antlers while still in velvet running into things. He was called into AZGFD. The second shot that "missed" my bull, didn't miss the tree. Spot of blood in the third bed. The round that misfired. When I collapsed to the ground after putting round number two into my bull. This picture shows the shot placement from round number one. All other shots were from the front or other side. No pass throughs. The tree I ran up to try to get a cell signal to call my wife after getting to my bull. I am up there near the top.

If you hunt hard in any unit that has a decent population you will find deer. I have used Optics 4 Rent for probably 15 years and they are great to work with. Get a tripod for the 15's or even for 10's when glassing. The stability they offer can't be duplicated even with 10's. An extended weekender before the hunt would be invaluable to understand the type of hunting and nuances of desert hunting. Many of us would be happy to take you out and explain the country to you so you can understand things you won't read in a book or learn from a website.

I made a quick video... piece of cake. Ed F

I grew up hunting the border units and some of the units further north. If I was going out on a solo backpack hunt for coues, I wouldn't hunt the border units. For me it's just a peace of mind thing especially if I was by myself. One of the areas we hunted regularly is now getting hammered by drug traffic. You would probably see some of this:

The real reason they antis want large predators reintroduced is to cut our big game populations down until we cant hunt them any more and then they can claim we dont need firearms any more.

Fast twist .257 Weatherby. Run the 131s. Fast twist .264WM. Run the 156s. Fast twist 6.5 Sherman Max. Run the 156.

Here it is... http://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=fa2f5e84ec5545f3985c917825805f65&extent=-12337235.6233%2C3947363.8229%2C-12057476.0998%2C4124086.2323%2C102100

This was probably about my 10th consecutive late bull hunt that i had wolf problems. The last few years they have been in places where you wouldn’t expect to see them. There are SO many more than the “experts” will admit. Good thing ours are 70lb domestic dog hybrids and not 150lb canadian gray wolves.

Yes wolves alone will crash a herd. They kill the calves, the recruitment in the elk population drops below 20% the herd crashes from years Of not enough replacement to sustain. Whether that’s the case with that herd I don’t know but I bet it is. Just watch when the wolf numbers finally get high here, same will happen. The thing the wolf lovers never show is what historic wolf populations were. The wolf populations exceed what the true carrying capacity is thus they are over harvesting their food source. When the elk populations crash, the wolf’s don’t, they just move to the next mountain range and start hammering the elk there. There is a reason wolves were hated back in the day, they truly will kill for fun and wipe out their food source.

Had 11 and didn't get drawn

Joe and I on Mexican Hay Lake near Springerville. It was raining like he!!, but the fishing was so good, we just kept at it. These football-shaped rainbows were hitting Wooly Worms like crazy. The images suck because they're old scans of slides done on a flatbed scanner. I'll add a few more photos later.

Gorgeous lake and hilarious picture! What great memories! Your post reminds me of the quote by author Madeleine L'Engle "The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." Thanks for posting.

Be snarky if you feel like it. I told him what my opinion was. I’m no expert or big time guide so I don’t have any inside info. And I don’t put in for rifle antelope in AZ so whatever he does it’s no hair off my nuts. Just answering the man’s question.

I have said it many times that in my 40 years of living in 19a/19b it has been devastating to watch the destruction of one of the biggest trophy producing areas for antelope in the country. Looking back I was very upset when access issues cut a major amount of tags in 19b. But now I consider it a blessing in the fact that the herd will have a safe place to exist at least until the big chino and deep well sell off to developers.

this is a picture of walking quiet- not many secrets in 24B-but an idea for you for january-above bagley flat campground on saguaro lake. you will need a boat to get there. might be great this winter due to all the displacement caused by the fire. i have seen coues bucks at Usery Park during the rut so elevation is not key. lee

Wish I still had picks but in gmu 9 there are several scattered small pine branch shelters. They measure no more than 4 1/2'-5' in dia.. The circumference of the shelters were all rock lined with a small fire pit in the center. The entrances had a single flat rock and an offering was often left on the stone sash.

Interesting idea. Check out this old girl my son cleaned up yesterday. Probably seen over 100 pigs come through here over the past year. This old girl was by far the gnarliest.