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Get over yourself. Nobody is hating here that I can see. We’re simply pointing out a few issues with the current rules. Crossguns have their place……just not in the archery only season. Perhaps it’s time they have their own?

I’ll start off by saying I don’t know if this is the proper “category” for my post, but I feel that it is as good as any. This is more of my journey as an archer than anything else. I am beyond blessed that I was born into a family that owns a large piece of land in Texas, in good deer country. I grew up hunting the place with my father, grandfather and cousins and have had many “firsts” there in the world of hunting. I started bow hunting when I was 12, exclusively here in Arizona and exclusively for deer. It was more of a way to spend more time afield with my father, I was never a very good archer as a child/young adult and the limited opportunities I had always failed to pan out due to lack of practice and nerves. I stopped bow hunting around the age of 15 and didn’t pick a bow up again for almost 10 years. When I did, all my childhood experiences and failures quickly caught up to me and I gave up within the year. Fast forward to mid 2020. Amidst a major career change and the pandemic, I knew that I needed a “new” hobby to occupy my time. My parents recognized this and my father who is an accomplished bow hunter generously offered birthday money in the amount to afford a modern economy type bow to get me back into archery. I ended up with a bare PSE BowMadness unleashed. I researched endlessly, watched videos, talked to pro shop employees, and came up with a solid setup. I practiced for a couple months and shot literally thousands of arrows and began to feel confident as an archer for the first time in my life. In early October 2020, I made the drive down to the ranch in Texas. Their archery season opens the first Saturday in October and I thought it would be a great opportunity in a target rich environment. I figured it would be easier to kill a deer there than in the desert, and even thought I may kill multiple deer during my week long hunt. I got a reality check. I missed 2 great bucks, and 3 does. Branches, string jumps, and nerves were to blame. I made an incredibly poor shot on a feral hog that was somehow lethal, and the glory of my first archery success was shadowed by failure just like all the years before. This time I didn’t give up. I took what I learned and started from scratch to build a “correct” arrow, properly tune my bow, and practiced consistently. I hunted all of the OTC season without a single shot opportunity. In March of this year, I drew an archery cow elk tag. I continued to practice and revised my setup as necessary in preparation for my upcoming elk hunt. In April of this year, my father and I traveled to the ranch in Texas to hunt turkeys and pigs and do some ranch work for the 2021 deer season. On that trip, I killed another feral hog with my bow - but this shot was far, difficult, and the arrow flew exactly as I had intended it to. I watched the hog expire a mere 32 yards from the point of impact. That was my first moment of pride as an archer. In September, I found myself in the elk woods on opening morning of my hunt. I had some good intel on the area and the elk showed up right on schedule. At 7:30 a large cow made her way in front of me at 35 yards and as I drew, she spooked. Simultaneously, I heard elk behind me. Knowing that the cow in front of me was gone, I turned 180 degrees to find 15 or so elk. I was already drawn, so I picked the biggest cow, estimated the range and let the arrow fly. I watched it sail 3” over her back. Discouraged yet again. I returned to the same location on day 2 of my hunt, and at 7:01am I watched as a bull pushed 2 cows directly to me. The bigger cow stopped at 22 yards and my arrow found its mark. After a 315 yard tracking job I had my first “game animal” with a bow. I still wanted that “first buck” with a bow. October 1st, I set out for the ranch in Texas. Opening morning found me in a new setup I had constructed solely for archery hunting. To say that things didn’t work out is an understatement. No shots fired, but plenty of frustration. The whole first day was spent working out the kinks. The second morning was foggy, and 30 minutes after sunrise I was looking at the largest buck I have personally seen on the ranch to date - a mere 120 yards away. He never came closer. The evening of day 2 and all of Day 3 were days of more frustration. No opportunities, poor weather etc. The morning of October 5th found me in the same blind where I had the encounter with the big buck on day 2. Before it was light enough to see, I could make out a deer about 70 yards in front of the blind. As the sun came up I realized that this deer was a good mature buck. I told myself if he came into range and offered me a shot I would take him. 10 minutes later he was 23 yards in front of me, oblivious to my presence. I drew, anchored, and let the arrow fly. The buck ducked at the sound of my bow, but not before my arrow reached him. Much to my surprise, the buck immediately hit the ground. I’ve watched enough hunting shows and videos to know that when deer drop from a bow shot, they have been hit in the spine and that is almost always a non lethal hit. I quickly got out of the blind, approached the buck and put another arrow in him. He expired quickly, and I watched it all from 10 feet away. The moments that followed were special in a way I will never be able to accurately describe. The light fog, the cool morning air, the sun rising behind me as I laid hands on my first buck with a bow. 16 years after I first tried my hand at being a bow hunter. All the failures, ducked arrows, twigs, straight up misses, all brought me to those moments and I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything. The buck is a mature 10 point that scores right at 120”. By no means a giant, almost enough to get into the Pope and young book. He will soon reside on the wall next to my first ever deer, which was taken less than 1/4 mile from him on the same property nearly 20 years earlier. If you’ve made it this far thanks for sticking with the long read. I hope that this post inspires those struggling to be successful as a hunter, and reminds others of the struggles it took to get where they are today. Good luck out there!

Got drawn for the 1st general WT hunt in 33, had two locations I was tossing back and forth that hold deer. Well I went to the Redington location and it paid off. Started glassing at 0600 and by 7:15 had 3 bucks at 792 yds. Closed the distance to 438 yds and tag filled. Kind of sad that it’s over so quickly, but looking forward to WGP’s chorizo and snack sticks!!!!

I picked up the Outdoorsmans Spur50, works out pretty good and really adjustable. Not a fan of the price though. Took borrowing one for an afternoon to see how well it fit and how comfortable it was to justify the price to myself.

Ask your kids if they want to make $20. Lol!

Major annoyance, as long as there are people this will never change. People don’t have enough respect for themselves to follow basic basic rules. items on our last hunt. 1- camp squatters 2- making new trails into camp sites 3- driving through pristine meadows with no road 4- 8 year old kids driving utv solo no helmet 5- shooting guns at night in camp 6- shitting in camp site 7- garbage, found a kill site and picked up gloves, wipes, broken havelon blades, wrappers for havelon blades, and they drove cross country on closed posted old dozer road to get to kill. Parked 40 feet from it and still left garbage. 8- hunters coming in for next hunt plowing into the hills while current hunt is going on. Driving up to water in prime time. Hiking out of a heck hole I hit a two track with three utv and 7 dudes blowing cow calls and bugles while sitting in utv and when I asked they said they were scouting for next hunt 2 days away. It was 11 am. ????? I just said good luck and walked on shaking my head.

They were wanting a permit to drive on the PAVED road... If you read your screen shot, that permit is about non-paved road.

Contrary to these coues deer hunting charlatans, mature desert mule deer are much smarter and harder to find. Especially in the central AZ units

My son was on a youth cow elk hunt in unit 10 on Oct. 2, as a helper. While traveling on the Western boundary, the paved road from Route 66 North to the Supai tribe, he was stopped twice on the paved road and told he had to pay a $50.00 access fee to access the BIG BOQUILLAS. He is 18 and did not believe this to be a Indian road, so he said no and kept going. I called G&F today in Kingman and they told me that in fact, this is a Indian road and they can charge whatever they want. I used to hunt there all the time before 3 million people moved here and made the tag extremely hard to get. G&F in their wisdom has not posted anything about this to let hunters be aware of the potential access charge, but they are completely aware its happening. Just letting people know that this is going to happen again and you should be prepared.

The forest service already has laws in place to stop all of the abuse that is going on in our forest they just don't enforce them. Littering, abandoned camps, 14 day camping limit, 35 mph speed limit on forest roads are just some of the things I would love to see them enforce. The travel management plans are a total joke. If a road is closed then build a gate and close the road otherwise it should be open to everyone.

SOLD

Kifaru striker has done me well on the last few packouts during day Hunts

Your the only one talking about shooting at people. I said warning shot.

No

My oldest son and I both have the older model Eberlestock X1A3, and we both like them quite a lot. My younger son bought an Eberlestock Gunrunner last year, and he seems to like it. The X1A3 is 1500 c.i., but the Gunrunner is a bit smaller, coming-in at only 1000 c.i. FYI..... https://eberlestock.com/collections/daypacks/products/x1a3-pack https://eberlestock.com/collections/daypacks/products/gunrunner-pack

I have a couple of Sightron Scopes SIII series and love them they both have serve me very well. I have nothing bad to say and lots of great thing to say about them. After 8 years of great service on Coues deer hunting and shooting at the range, one of this scopes started to "act a little weird" a good friend told me to send that scope out and have it check. I was a little skeptical at first, hard for me to believe I had a scope problem because like I said before, it was always perfect and never failed; but at the end heck I said I'm going to send it and I did. About 5 days later I recieved a phone call from Sightron Company. I was told that effectively, there was a problem with my scope internals and they will send me a new one! I said what? A new scope? they said yes! And how much I will owe you? They say nothing! We are sending it for FREE! I was like wow really? Yes they said! The following week I recieved my NEW SIGHTRON Scope! I'm a very happy camper! I have nothing but words of appreciation, THANK YOU SIGHTRON!!

Clover must be of the lucky four leaf variety as she drew two consecutive elk tags and filled each 😉 We started this October rifle cow elk hunt Friday by still hunting through a wide draw with scattered pinyons, but the elk did not want to be there that morning. That evening we sat a long opening above a similar draw thinking the elk would move across to feed that evening/night. Four cows did cross about 600 yards out, but held off considering the 20 mph wind. The next day had no activity in the opening or draw. The slow walk for a mile through the P-J to the long opening was good for the mind though. After the third fruitless morning, Clover and I went west and sat another opening for the evening. About 15 minutes after sunset, a lone cow followed by a raghorn bull came out. She lingered long enough to catch a 124 gr Hammer Hunter from the 6.5 WSM behind the shoulders and made a 30 yard dash before collapsing in the trees. The bullet exited leaving about a 1" exit hole. I did the gutless dressing so did not inspect for internal bullet damage. The 124 Hammer hunter is the one I used last year in the 6.5 WSM with similar results. I am sure Clover picked out a tasty elk for this hunt's freezer filler as she was very excited seeing her cow elk down on the ground. (Sorry, no pics were taken and only one elk was harmed.) Let quail season begin 😉

Duct tape

I know it’s been hard to find and the Walmart at Arizona Ave/202 in Chandler has probably 30 boxes of core-lokt for those looking.

2 million illegals crossed this year without one, you shouldn't need one either

Here's a link to the Buckeyes PD report. Scroll down, it's 54 pages. https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/missing-24-year-old-was-rebuffed-by-woman-shortly-before-his-disappearance/ After reading the report, I believe the PD is doing all they can. I've met Mr Robinson, he's a disabled vet and a heartbroken dad. He seemed genuinely grateful to have everyone volunteering to look for his son.

Imagine getting a phone call from a police department thousands of miles away that your son or daughter has gone missing. .. Help bring the family some closure in this case. Search teams will be assembling off Cactus and Sun Valley Pkwy 630am 16 Oct. https://searchfordaniel.org/

🤥

Deer movement was slower this past weekend, the bucks I saw laid down around 7 got up around 1 then laid back down until dark...does were moving. The grass is chest high and I was overlooking deer - good luck - we only had 2 days so it went quick

We need fewer Randall Newburgers