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I've been hunting both Spring and Fall for several years and have only harvested a couple of hens and a jake--all in the Fall. I've come close a time or two, but have previously failed to connect with a tom in the Spring. Yesterday, the second day of the last season, my luck changed. First morning, we heard a tom going at it almost right behind camp. But after calling to him with my glass pot call for a while, he shut up. My buddy and I trapesed around the woods all morning calling and hearing nothing. Then yesterday, I decided to ditch the pot call and try my ghost cut mouth call that I'd been trying hard to master. I'd never felt confident with the mouth call (although I'd been trying for a few years). This year, I felt like I was ready, and apparently the tom did, too. About 7:00 I leaned my ML shotgun against a tree, plopped myself in front of the tree, and started calling timidly. To my surprise, a gobbler replied immediately. I got serious, and grabbed my gun and pointed it in his direction (probably over 100 yards away). I kept calling, giving clucks and yelps that verged on kee kees. He kept on gobbling. Soon, I saw him cross an opening quite far away. I kept calling, using mostly clucks, as to not accidently make a weird sounding yelp. After loosing sight of him behind some trees, I looked over to my right and saw something red beside a tree. I thought, "that's got to be his head"! He walked further right behind the tree, and I used that opportunity to move my shotgun toward him. When he cleared the tree (at maybe 45 yards), I pulled the trigger and he went down. Quite a heavy tom with a 7" beard. CVA Optima Pro with 12ga ML barrel 1-3/4 oz #5 magnum lead shot BPI Multi-metal shot cup 75 grains 777

A couple more Goulds photos from the weekend.

I don't love this. It basically sounds like you will be selected to kill alot of bison, and then spend 5 days packing meat out. Of which you "might" receive a whole bison. I also think it is dumb that straight wall cartridges are not allowed. It's not like they didn't almost exterminate the millions of bison from north America with them in the not so distant past. I will not be volunteering to be an unpaid exterminator of bison and then spend 5 days packing them out of who knows where.

I'll take the rest. Bison shanks for Osso Bucco Brisket for low and slow smoking and corned bison Two HUGE hind quarters with subprimal cuts for slow braising and ground bison Flank for marinating and grilling over pecan & oak plus short ribs for braising I'm ready!

Went hiking into a canyon in the unit I drew my tag in. Found a few sheds. No browns. All but one of them I found stuffed into bushes while walking ledge trails.

I thought it was pretty bad butt. That dinner was delicious. I had to leave after the coors light keg kicked and I started on that higher alcohol beer.

Here are a few from the weeknd. VID_67220724_090614_141.mp4 VID_67220723_161411_901.mp4

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Hope he has another chance and hope he had point guard. Real champ hunters should have more opportunity imo.

Likely very few if any AZ residents will get a crack at it. I didnt see being a resident was a qualification. But if they succeed and this actually happens a very hard hunt to draw will get way harder real fast. I feel very lucky to have gotten one here because after this i doubt i ever would have the chance again.

Typical drama in this hood. Seen the King. Again this morning looking fat and happy, always hunting. All hail The King!

True in NF also. So you start the animals on a processed or certified seedless feed 2 days in advance and off you go.

It's horsesh!t. No... I mean that literally. They don't want horses or mules on the NP because of what they might be brining in their guts... meaning invasive weed seeds and such.

I just want someone from CWT to be selected so we can hear what a flustercuck this turns out to be. 😋

I would bet that population estimate is light.

People build fences to keep elephants contained. Don’t think it’d be that hard to keep a bison out. There are 10,000 wild horses wrecking habitat across the state that the feds will do nothing about but they’ll slaughter the few hundred bison (native species) inside the park? Nice move feds. What a joke.

All you’ve gotta do is fence the water, you don’t even need to drain it. Buffalo won’t jump a fence but all the other critters will. A few hundred T-posts, several thousand feet of barbed wire and some volunteers will fix the problem in about a week and you don’t have to slaughter all the dang bison. G&F doesn’t want solutions though.

A random thought on getting the bison off of the park. Drain all park water for may and June. Get rid of the water and salt within 3 miles of the park fence. They will move to find new water and salt. Just a theory.

They did something similar up here in ND with the elk on Theodore Roosevelt national park. Except you couldn’t approach them and couldn’t collect any part of them. Just shoot them and walk away. They hired packers with helos and horses to pack them out and donated the meat. I wouldn’t want any part of that. If I got to keep a bison for meat I think I’d be down for something like this. That’s a cool way of doing it. Hope they get someone who is qualified and doesn’t ruin the name for everyone else. 3/5 in 4” at 100 in hardly a “qualified” shooter!

After failing to locate any birds yesterday I was able to get a bird to gobble from are camp just after dark. This morning we set up on him and by 5:35 bird down he came in right off the roost put on a little show for us and Tessa made a 20 yard shot to seal the deal what a great hunt.

Lol... I'm fine. Just reminds me of why I left the Facebook hunting groups.

Per the hunt guidelines if more than 20% of the total annual harvest comes during archery the unit transitions to a draw unit. Because there is no cap on the number of OTC non-permits sold to non-residents, that means that a flood of successful non-residents can push a unit to a draw for archery. I believe we should be petitioning the commission to adjust the guidelines regarding NR archery deer permits. I would advocate a cap on the total number available for purchase, which could lead to problematic situations for a first come first serve buying scenario. Or requiring NR’s to apply for archery. But either way, my recommendation is that NR be required to choose between applying for a rifle hunt / building points and hunting the archery hunt.