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My dad, cousin and I wrapped up the late coues hunt. My dad shot his buck with one shot at 500 yards. Mine was one shot at 430. We looked over a lot of bucks and had a blast while doing it. I am grateful to still be able to hunt with my dad. He follows me into some gnarly country. He was able to watch my shot hit home and I was able to do the same for him. Memories that will last a lifetime.

Hey guys! Been a while since I’ve been on the forums, but I wanted to share my 2019 buck this year! This is a buck I found in the summer of 2018. Saw him in July scouting and got 160yd of him opening weekend of early archery. I didn’t see him again the next two weekends, didn’t see him scouting this year when I found out I drew the late tag, and didn’t get him on camera at all. This years hunt comes around and I packed in enough food and water and winter clothing for a 4 night backpack hunt. Get camp set up early Saturday morning, top the ridge to my area and the hillside is covered in deer. A couple good bucks, a couple small bucks, and a few does are milling about and this guy I dubbed Mr. Eyeguards from 2018 is in with them pushing everyone around! Spotted them at 500yd, moved in to 350yd and then had to wait him out a few times as he was either behind a tree, skylined, and once he even topped over and I thought I would lose him. He finally came back over and stopped quartering to me and I put one shot through his front shoulder. My 2019 hunt was done in just a couple hours! Velvet pics are from 2018, he lost an extra on his right side. He’s my first rifle buck, first time filling a tag on day 1, first time getting a “target” buck, and my biggest buck so far!

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.

Filled my 2019 tag yesterday. Glassed him up on a hillside in the afternoon following a doe around. Took him at 350 yards with my 270. To date he's the best buck Ive ever taken. Going to get him mounted for sure. Glad I decided to take Friday off rather than go to work.

Had high expectations headed into this hunt. Hunted 1 day each weekend when the hunt started then hit it after Christmas when the weather went to crap. Was happy to kill this buck when I did.

What NOTAGS is trying to point out is that the Game and Fish data is based on the total number of applicants (first and second choice) divided by the total number of tags. However this is not in line with the way the tags are allocated. First 20% of the tags are assigned to the applications with the highest bonus points. So if there are 100 permits for a hunt, then 20 are allocated this way leaving 80 for the rest of the applicants to draw. Those 80 tags are then drawn at random. Except, each application is entered into the drawing x the number of bonus points for that applicant. For instance, someone with three bonus points will have their application entered into drawing 3 additional times, the application plus once more for each bonus point for a total of 4 chances. So even in the random draw, bonus points come into play. For these two reasons the draw odds listed in the regs are not the most accurate available. However, they do offer a fair indication of overall application interest and patterns.

I was lucky enough to draw a Wyoming bull bison tag last spring. I’ve put in for WY, AZ, and UT for a decade or so and pulled a AZ tag a few years back and was unsuccessful after sitting in a blind for 158 hours. I was really hoping for another chance as I really couldn’t bring myself to shoot a fenced one on a ranch or reservation (I’m 1hr from the Ft peck rez which has bison hunts but they are fenced). The season runs aug 15-dec31 and then they reopen it from jan1-31 if they haven’t had any buffalo migrate down from the park. They shut the hunt down as soon as they start feeding the elk in Jackson Hole which has traditionally been mid jan. I decided to go as late as I thought was comfortable without getting shut out. Turned out it was still early. These hunts used to be easy, the buffalo would show up in nov or dec and they’d be near 100% success. The last 5 years or so the buffalo just don’t come down. The snow was deep when we got there, so much so we needed horses just to get through it at all. The buffalo unfortunately still hadn’t come down. There was a rumor of one bull on the elk refuge, there were about 15 more on the park about 5 miles off and the rest were all way way off in the park and likely won’t be here before they close the season. Well my luck finally turned on wild bison. We picked up tracks in the river bottom first am and caught up to the lone old bull on horseback. I was able to get into about 125 yards. I tucked a 175 swift a frame into his heart with my 7mm STW, then another. He spun around and started heading out. Couldn’t believe it. I put the next two into his low shoulder to break him, which sort of worked. I had time to reload and put two more in the base of his skull before he finally tipped. All shots where lethal. Can’t believe how tough they are!!! We got him gutted and were able to get horses and a sled to him. They’ve got draft horses here to drag them out, I really didn’t think it was possible but they got him drug about a mile to the nearest retrieval road and loaded whole!!! He weighed 958# carcass weight! That puts him at about 1600-1700# on the hoof. Should make Boone and Crockett and we are gonna have a few years of great eating!! Super stoked to have finally ended this quest. We were able to get done early enough to get in a little skiing and are having him butchered and frozen right away so we can haul him home ready to go in the freezer (freezers!). Edit: Sorry about the sideway pics. They all looked the same on my phone.

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If Jimmy Carter had a pair this would have been taken care of in 1979.

Blow them $##%&%#s off the map!

I am kinda on both sides. I enjoy hunting them but don’t like the meat or smell anymore. I decided to not hunt or put in for them again. I don’t think it’s right to kill one then not use the meat. If they are so nasty and so bad then just don’t put in.

I finally got my login working on here again so I thought share my 2019 buck from early November on the general rifle hunt. Long story short I ended up missing a good buck on opening morning so I was irritated about that until we found this buck. My wife and stepson both killed their first bucks this year so it was a good year. I like the pitchfork he has on his left side.

I would say NO. Why? It's okay to get sick or injured early but not late? Why does it matter when the person turns in the tag? The next person in line DOES NOT need to take it. What is the problem is the tag goes unused? It's just one more elk, deer, sheep, antelope that is not killed. One less hunter in the field.... It's a win all around. The only problem I see are the bitter people that didn't get drawn complaining....because they think they won't get drawn the next year. I would agree if one KNOWS they are not going on the hunt- turn it in early or donate to a hunt group so they next person HAS time.... but if somebody falls ill, sick, has a major life event, or bad weather, or just plain doesn't want to go they should be able to turn their tag in.

Good growth, bad growth, no growth... just give me another elk tag!!! Brian

Happy little family. One boy and one girl left. Both liver and white. Should be ready to go Jan 28

I don't look at the draw odds at all. I put in for where I want to hunt and pray I get a tag. If I don't either family or a friend will draw something and I will be hunting. There are also so many other things to hunt in this state that finding something to chase is not all that hard. We counted it up yesterday and I have been on a hunt every weekend since august, except 4 weekends. That's 8 deer tags, 4 different hunts. One antelope hunt and 2 elk tags on 2 different hunts.

Back to back good winter precipitation (2018 and 2019) is the recipe for full potential. Now only if 2020 packs a good monsoon (unlike 2019), so those bulls can finish out strong. It could be the year to be holding a tag, fingers crossed.

The recent reports I have heard from these units reflect dwindling age class and lower overall buck size. 19A has lots of big ones but there may or may not be any left after two archery hunts.

Same question, same response. A goal of >80” in AZ is achievable in almost any unit in the state. Pick the hunt experience you want. Unit 10 - A chance at finding a super big buck, potentially shooting long range, lots of other tag holders. 5BN - Same potential for a huge buck. Not as many tags but still gets plenty of attention from guides and outfitters. More vegetated areas. Unit 9 - Hunt the trees and fewer people. 19B - Lots of private’s land you buy access to and have all to yourself. Highly recommend doing muzzle loader instead of rifle in this unit. 5A - Very few tags. Open country. Not nearly as much hype as 5BN. 3A / 3C / 4A / 4B - Lower on the radar but plenty of opportunity for a buck over 80”. Not as big of a circus as the more popular units. Units I would stay away from 1, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3B, 7, 8, 19A (unless you do archery), anything in the 30’s. One thing to note, they reduced antelope tag numbers significantly in several units this year. When you look at gohunt it will show the draw percentages from this year but will not reflect point creep from reduced available tags. Further complicating things is the fact that many premium tag holders point guarded tags last year so they are back in the draw this year. With our current moisture conditions it’s very possible we will have similar conditions which some say lead to smaller overall horn growth. I will say this, I highly encourage you to use those points. Between aggressive tag numbers, dwindling habitat, and high predator numbers I think antelope are really struggling in this state. AZ’s days as the antelope Mecca of the world may be numbered.

Well, our hunting "party" was fortunate to draw 5 tags in the same unit for late bull. Getting two bulls on the ground and taken care of is daunting, five seemed downright crazy. Out of the 5 hunters, 2 of them would be happy to just get bulls on the ground (both guys around 70 years old) and the other 3 were were going to hold out for good bulls. With all the snow on the ground, it made access to some of our spots impossible but it did push a LOT of bulls into some other country that seemed to have basically zero hunting pressure with much more forgiving terrain. The first morning started with spitting snow, fog and wind. My dad called us pretty early and said the two older gentlemen in our party had both knocked down bulls and they needed some help. The rest of the day was spent trying to get two bulls broken down and into the trucks through a blizzard. The storm put down a lot of snow fast. we had to get out of the country soon before the roads were impassible. I didn't take any photos of these bulls because we were in such a hurry to get them taken care of and the amount of snow coming down would have made it tough anyways. One of them was a broken 300" type 6-point, the other was a raghorn 5. Nothing too impressive but they were happy. We woke up to about 8 degrees and around a foot of snow on Saturday. We headed back to the same area the two bulls were taken at the day before and immediately started seeing bulls. We spotted 8 or 10 on a near ridge (500 or so yards away) but nothing too enticing. I swung and started glassing the opposite direction and found a bull that needed a closer look. Just when we were packing up i took another look at the near ridge and suddenly there were a lot more bulls that were standing up. 3 of them would have been shooters. I just got a look at the tops of what i thought was the biggest bull and we decided we need to kill him. He had a 340" type 6-point, and a 350" type BEAUTIFUL, palmated 7x7 with him. I had to talk my brother out of shooting either of them because the one looked to be bigger. It was hard watching those two bulls walk away. The biggest one bedded after all the other bulls left the country and we could just see his tops. We decided to sneak in a little closer and ended up getting to about 410 yards where we'd wait for about an hour for him to stand up. He finally stood and walked through a very narrow shooting lane and my brother was able to knock him down. When we made it up to him, we found out that his eyeguards were extremely short. He probably doesn't score as high as the 7x7 would have but he is an ancient bull with incredible tops and main beams. I've been around a LOT of bulls on the ground and this one was probably the oldest. Hunters throw around the term "past his prime" "he's digressing" or "he wouldn't have made it through winter" FAR too often, but this bull was most likely all of those. He was bony, hips protruding, his spine looked like a razor back and his teeth were in BAD shape. Now that my brother was tagged out, we decided to bring Forest and Heather into the same area the next morning. Right away we found a bunch of bulls including the 7x7 that was running with my brother's bull. they were on the move and Forest had to shoot fast. He hit the bull and it bolted. we figured with the fresh snow it would be easy to locate. 5 miles and just some pin pricks of blood is all we found, until our buddy got on a high knob and was able to glass him up again. He made a giant loop and ended up in the same spot he was when he hit him initially. It looked like he basically just burned him and top of the shoulders, he'll be fine. After relocating him and realizing the wound was extremely superficial, we decided that we needed to get Heather on a bull that we had glassed up while pursuing the wounded one. He was in a great spot. We made our way around to him and got to 475 yards and waited for him to clear the other bulls. Heather made a fantastic shot through the middle of the shoulders. The bull didn't even twitch. He has great main beams, wide and good tine length on everything but his left G-5. Heather was thrilled, as she should have been. We spent the rest of the day taking care of this bull. The next morning we went back at it trying to relocate the 7x7 or find another good one. We glassed up a LOT of bulls again, including the one he killed later that day. We made a move on a 340" type 7x7 but he busted us. On the way back to the truck, I glassed a few bulls that were BIG. There was really no way to get withing shooting distance as they were bedded in a big PJ flat. We decided to try to push them off the thick flat and into the open flats. I made a loop around them so my scent would push into them and they SHOULD have left the country the opposite direction as my scent. Well, they didn't read the script and ran the wrong direction into some country that that would have been impossible to hunt. This was definitely not their first rodeo. There were around 10 bulls in the heard and 5 of them were no-brainers. The biggest at a glance looked to be a 380"ish bull that was busted past his 4th on one side. At this point the day was winding down and we decided to get a better look at a bull that Forest passed earlier that morning. We were able to relocate him and we decided he probably shouldn't have passed him. we worked our way into position and Forest shot, hitting him a little far back. All the bulls in the heard headed north. We looked around for an hour or so and scattered in all directions, not finding any blood or a sign of a hit. The smart old bull button hooked the rest of the heard and headed the opposite direction. Forest glassed him beddded under a rock outcropping about 250 yards away and put him down for good. He had 8-10" busted off his left fourth is why he decided to pass him earlier. This elk hunt was a blast. I've been on a lot of them and i don't think i've ever seen so many good bulls. We probably saw around 150 bulls in four days. Till next time

I didn't want to interrupt the flow of your thread while the hunt was in progress, but I will now. I was a bit incredulous as to the number of big bulls you had available. I started hunting elk in the 1960s and have done so many times since in AZ, CO, ID, WY, NM and Alberta. During all those hunts over all those years I have never seen as many shootable bulls in TOTAL as you had pictured in just one of the larger groups. That had to be a mind-blowing experience. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. 👍

Thank you for quitting. Seriously. That is the ethical path for those that have your sentiment...👍

Well I tried again, but who thought the weather in WI would be better than AZ? It rained the first 4 days so I was glad I brought my raingear! But the deer didn’t seem to move much when it rains like they do at home. Maybe it's all the lions chasing them since it’s so dang quiet. The day I flew in (1/14) stopped for 2 Sonoran dogs (which were as good as I remember) then made it to my camp with some daylight left. That eve I went looking for the tree I put a stand in 2 years ago and saw a lone javi working a hill side. Tried to get in front and he disappeared but the wind was swirling. The skies opened up walking back to camp and then it kept on raining. Next day put on the rain gear and went to a ground blind and as I was setting up I turned around and 15 yards behind me was a decent 3x3 (6 pt) coues. He had no idea I was there but heard me walk in and thought I was a doe so the rut was on. I carelessly nocked an arrow so it clicked ever so slightly and he took off. The next day (raining again) went to town the watch the Packer game at 1 pm and what looks to be a mule deer (or hybrid) walked by the blind while I was in the bar. dang curse of the trail cam, sometimes I think it’s better not to know. On Tuesday the sun finally came out at 2:30 and while I was reading a book out of the corner of my eye saw the outline of deer walk thru a gap in the brush at 15 yards. I also saw a shadow moving so I knew there was another one following. The lead doe stopped behind a downed tree 20 yds away and as I put the book down it made an ever so slight sound and she bolted, and then I saw the buck trailing was bigger than the 3x3. She came from a direction I never expected and was also downwind too so maybe that's what happened. Because it was wet these deer made no noise walking so it was very hard to stay on high alert sitting for hours. After these encounters I put out my doe decoy and had a doe and later a spike come in and circle it so that might have worked as I think I could have pulled off a shot. But dang these deer are jumpy. I did have another doe up on the hillside see my decoy from 60 yards away and she snorted at it for 30 minutes. And next time I read a book it's not going to be in my hand! I got chased out 1.5 days early by a severe winter storm warning of 14” of snow and 80 MPH winds so I changed my flight home. I really needed a few more days, with the rain (and the game) I really only had 3 decent hunting days out of 7. The last day (1/19) I went for a drive to see more country and man it’s so vast I could spend a month out there looking for hunting locations. Never saw another javi which is what I was hoping for but I was road hunting at the time. Still fun and I have the coues bug even worse now. I had 2 opportunities and proved I can get close but just failed to follow protocol. Getting the draw on one with a trad bow is going to be another matter entirely. I’m going to have to be very patient and wait for the right moment. I think my decoy may help when it doesn’t scare anything away which it did 33% of the time. I’m still learning which makes it even more fun. Plus I’m not as picky as back home so there’s a good chance any average 3x3 or better buck is a shooter. Thanks to all those who gave me tips and encouragement and maybe I’ll get another chance to do this again. You guys have a cool thing going out there so let’s hope the rest of the world doesn’t figure it out too soon!