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Well my daughter drew her last ever JR deer hunt in 33. Her goal was to fill her tag with any size antlered deer. She and her best friend went out again, hoping to fill their tags just like they did during their recent cow elk hunt. Went out to where I got my deer in Reddington on Friday, just does. Saturday took her to our other go to spot and saw 6 different bucks ( spikes, forks and a really nice 3x) nothing would give us a shot though. Around 4:30 she said let’s start heading back, before we go I told her let’s look at one more canyon. We get set up and start glassing. I look down and just past 3 small hills a solo deer is laying out in the open in the shade. It turns its head and I see a glimpse of bone. I said hey, I got a buck. Her first response “how far”? I ranged it and said 485 yds. Her reply “Can I shoot it”? I said, we didn’t come here for a haircut. She gets set up using her backpack as a rest. I’m behind her with binos and tell her whenever your ready because I got eyes on it. A few seconds go by and lead is sent down range. The bullet clobbers the deer, it jumps up and starts to wobble and shake. It lays down a few feet away, I tell her shoot it again it’s not dead. She puts another one in it and that’s all it took. Two 485 yd shots to fill her tag. Absolutely awesome marksmanship to seal the deal. Due to her birthday, she could only put in 6 times and during her total jr hunts she was able to fill 6 out of six tags, all whitetail. So proud of her.

Just like to share my 12yo son's recent success! Many months of practicing and scouting paid off on Tuesday. My son took his first archery elk and I couldn't be more proud of him and we made some memories that will last a lifetime. I love my son so much and so happy that everything came together!!!

Nothing really exciting to post about this. My buddy glassed him up within range, I got behind his gun and got a little lucky. Mark and I had a blast and went 2/2. He shot his the morning before, I shot mine yesterday.

Good luck everyone. IMO, it can be great hunting or you'd swear there's hardly and elk around in 6A. We hunted for 5 of the 7 days of the bull ML hunt that ended this week (11/12-11/18). All the dues I paid with walking, walking ....and more walking with my smokepole and my longtime buddy Fred so far not paying off. It seemed someone had stirred up the few herds we did see with no good shot to take. They were at a trot to other places. Finally on the last day, yesterday, as we walked up a Jeep trail, God smiled on me. A small herd crossed the trail just 75 yards in front of me just as we were in the shade of a pine tree. The third elk was a 6X6 and I sent a Barnes 290 grain into his lungs. He never took another step but did not go down. Actually, I wasn't completely sure I hit him because he had no reaction, but soon blood started coming out of the wound in his lower chest. I had time to reload and send one more, not 6 inches from the first, and he STILL stood motionless. Tough animal! He finally dropped after a couple of minutes. I will NEVER use another bullet than the Barnes TEZ either 250 or 290 grain bullets. The performance is outstanding. The round we recovered was exactly the same as what was printed on the box the bullets came in. And more good news, We were able to drive right up to him! Quartered at the butcher he was just under 400 pounds.

This is a cow elk hanging in my fridge i converted

Here is mine I been using for 10 years. Just an upright fridge, some 2x4s going across top with eye bolts going through. Can hold a whole elk w room to spare

I have a buddy that got an old ice freezer like the ones out in front of gas stations. He put some kind of controller on it so it doesn’t freeze and fashioned a rod that will hold quarters on meat hooks. Probably the slickest set up I’ve seen other than an actual walk in. It‘ll hold 2 elk i believe

More pics to come.

I was able to take one in 42 opening morning I only had 3 days to hunt so I ended up filling my freezer with a little guy.

Anyone else going Elk hunting next week??? My last tag was two years ago, and there was a BIG snowstorm on Thanksgiving night that effectively shut me out of my unit for the first three days. That's all the time I had to hunt, so it was basically a bust. Was fortunate to get another tag this year. I'm taking the entire hunt off work this time and will be living in my Alaknak for the week, starting Thanksgiving day. Though I wouldn't mind a little snow, I'm sort of hoping the weather will just stay as it has been for the duration of the hunt. One more scouting trip this weekend! Good luck, all! S.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/arizona-strip-desert-sheep-hunt.627/

fyi

SPAM alert

Yes Sorry typo

wish2hunt and his family are some really great people, was honored to hunt with them. also got to hunt with our buddy Len from 46ae. i thought our sheep camp last year was pretty nice but we did not have dutch oven cherry cobbler at our camp. as far as real hunters go, his daughters will hunt most dudes into the dirt i promise you.

Good luck out there I am in Flagstaff now. Cool but not terribly cold some weather coming next week but nothing to major. Still heard some bugles today.

Man the draw odds on these will be so low I feel like the department is just stealing from addicts that can’t help themselves. Like a casino. A lot like the super raffle I guess.

I wanted to provide an update here… today I was informed by Randy Newberg that he has withdrawn from his contract with AZGFD. This is a tremendous accomplishment by the hunters of Arizona. I know that in recent years it’s been said that it doesn’t matter how much we speak up that no one listens. Well now that has changed. Thanks to everyone who spoke up!

Man, all the OP wanted to do was share an awesome hunt with everybody. Dam jealous trolls can’t just let the family hunt without shitting all over it. What a bunch of peckerheads we have become.

Why hasn’t anyone invented a breathalyzer for keyboards yet?

I have hunted an area in unit 23 on and off for years and have seen fighter jets come roaring just above the tree tops and following some of the canyons that are in the area. There are usually two, or sometimes three of them doing practice runs, following each other. Always cool to see and hear as it sounds like a freight train is just about to hit you. This past week I was walking on one of the open grass covered mesas next to a long canyon. I looked up and saw , then heard, a fighter jet coming my direction, low and fast. I guess he was about 200 to 300 yards above the tree tops. (It's hard to judge the actual distance of something moving that fast, but he was low) I started waving my arrow above my head at him to say "Hi". He must have noticed me because, in one swift movement he turned sideways for a split second, then as he was over top of me , he went inverted for a split second and then he rolled upright again and then finished off with a little waggle of the wings , as if to say "how 'bout that". Then he was gone from sight. I was left standing there in amazement at what just happened. An F-22 fighter jet just flew over top of me, INVERTED, and shook his wings at me. Truly one of the most awesome experiences I have ever had while deer hunting. And , no I didn't get a deer on this trip, but I didn't really mind.

Thanks coffeeman yes that was my boy and his cousin you talked to. We definitely struggled to find deer the first couple days but eventually got into a few. We hunted down low the start of the hunt saddle mountain area and didn’t turn up anything. Never saw a deer over 150” entire time up there. ended up with a little 4x on the last morning I will type up a story after work.

Hey man that was a tough hunt, I think I talked with your kids on Sunday morning at Jacob lake and if they were, awesome kids. We were seeing 40-50 does a day Wednesday-Friday all up high. Only saw 2 spikes and a forky on Friday morning and tons of does. Ran into a small 4x on Friday night on telephone hill and hunt was done. Hope you guys get it done.

My little brother (zackcarp) and his wife found this buck. Unfortunately opening day we got the news that our dad had passed away so we left thinking we were done. Fortunately i was able to return with some friends a couple days later and make it happen. I know that I had my dads help getting it done. This buck will be known as my Dads buck from here on. I got my passion for hunting from my dad and am doing my best to pass it on to my daughters.

Did you see my suggested adjustments to the rules and guidelines? One way of reducing the impact of point guard is to change the group application rules so that a group doesn’t average points but instead receives the lowest number of points of any applicant in the party. This would reduce a lot of abuse and bonus point double dipping. This is a huge contributor to point creep.