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Go Kristi !

Grandson Ryan had a 34a youth tag this year. We missed opening morning because of his job. Got to the Gardner canyon area around noon, set up camp and got out for the evening. Saw one doe. Sat morning I glassed up 2 bucks and 3 does. The bigger buck bedded down at 300 yards at 7:30 , while the others went over a ridge. A few minutes later a doe walked by the tree where we saw the buck was bedded. She stared into the tree where he was, and as luck would have it, he got up and followed her up the ridge. When the buck stopped at 350, I told him to hold 2 in. over his back. At the shot, he staggered a few steps, and went down. He was super excited to say the least, but the pack out took most of that away. 4 hours after boning the deer out and packing back to camp, all was good. That deer lived in the steepest , nastiest canyon possible…or so it seemed to this 72 year old, while huffing and puffing him out. Beautiful country though. The grasshoppers down there are HUGE, and they eat meat!

Wife killed this stud this past weekend, made a perfect shot at 550 yrds. What do you guys think he scores? This bruiser finally came home from Mogollon Taxidermy, unfortunately we didn't make the 110" mark, if he had longer eye guards we would have been there. 104 2/8 was the net score. Thanks to everyone and their kind words, going to be a tough one for the wife to beat!!! Thanks Clay for another beautiful mount.

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And nothing as boring as sitting all day and seeing nothing…double-edged sword.

Spot and stalk definitely is definitely more in line with what I’m used to, and the additional challenge would made for an exciting hunt! But with as dry a winter as they’re predicting, I’m thinking sitting water could be productive

Watching Hurley lose is definite entertainment…

Sounds good. As of now the cape is spoken for but if for some reason the guy doesn't want it your next in line.

Well I had my buddies from Texas put in this year and first time sure enough they got drawn. This was probably the hardest mental hunt I’ve ever been on. We hunted for a full 6 days sun up to sun down. Only ended up seeing 4 bucks total and probably 125 does. Nothing seemed to go right but sure enough we were able to get them both their first Arizona mule deer. It was for sure a fun hunt and beats sitting around at home.

Decided to leave my caller at home and just use my squeaker and handmade howler. Big guy with his little girlfriend.

Finding a good stucco contractor that is less than three months out is a miracle right now!

Here is a pic of the crew and family.

Another one of Bob's stupid comments-

I posted him up in the Arizona Desert thread. I didn’t make a new topic post about him but here he is.

Living in soft sand areas

More pics to come.

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.

Save your money, don’t apply. Our quality sucks now, apply for Utah.

Ethan pulled it off. 4pm last day of the hunt and a cow walks up on us at a new area we had good vibes about. Wanna find elk? Take a walk.. This is his last youth hunt. He’s growing up! The interaction we had with the herd was magical and it turned out that baby hoochie got em’ talking after all! Even the bull wanted to play. never had so much fun with a call.

Wanted to share my sons first buck he took the opening day in 22 on the jr deer hunt.

Day 3 was a long and hard day! We got up around 3:30 to hike further into the canyon we had been in the past few days. Everything we’d observed scouting and what we’ve seen the past few days told us that there should be Coues on one of four different ridges in this canyon. We only had 4 days carved out for this hunt, so on Day 3 we were definitely starting to feel a little bit of pressure. We got about 3 miles in to our glass spot right as the sun was lighting up the canyon. Right as we got set up, my wife glasses two bowls right at the bottom of the ridge and within 3 minutes, they were down into a thick bowl where there really wasn’t a chance for a pursuit. Bummer about missing those deer, but optimistic it was early we all set up and started glassing. We spent just over 2 hours glassing and didn’t spot a thing. It was just a tad later than 9am and our group was beginning to lose hope that we missed the deer walking through the ridges. We’ve seen enough now to know that their nickname of “Grey Ghost” is well deserved, but with 5 different sets of eyes on these ridges I felt it was almost impossible that we missed the deer. I was wrong. My wife spotted a group of deer with at least 2 bucks slowly making their way down a game trail on a ridge 800 yards away. We had likely glassed over them before as they were well within our sight (these deer are SNEAKY). I quickly got eyes on myself but then thought, “What am I doing? I need to make a move!!” After seeing how slow they were moving and knowing we were “only” 800 yards out, I knew I could make a move on these guys. We still weren’t 100% sure they were Coues since no one could see their butts, but the way the antlers came forward and their slightly lighter gray coat made us daily certain they were. Unfortunately, to get a good chance at these dudes, I had to hike on the backside of the ridge to the east and about 400 feet up. My buddy and I separated from the rest of the group and hauled up the ridge. Our goal was to get level with them, slowly pop over the ridge, and find them. If our calculations were correct, we should have been within my target shooting range (300 yards). As we created the ridge, we could not locate the deer. We glassed and glassed and then realized we needed to push forward about 10 more yards to get a better look at the ridge the deer were on. Sure enough, once we creeped forward, my buddy found the deer. We could see a doe and a buck, but we weren’t sure if they were whitetail. The buck went broadside at 272 yards and I was starring at his butt trying to get a 100% confirmation that it was actually a Coues. Again, the coat, the antlers, and the size screamed Coues but I wasn’t going to take that shot without 100% certainty. Then, I spotted a black tip. My heart sunk, was it actually a Mulie?? He stepped behind a tree and disappeared but I never got a complete look at the tail. Still coming down from the adrenaline rush, I played it all back in my head. I was almost certain it was a Coues, but was it actually a Mulie? I had cell service so I contacted my wife and father in law to let them know I lost sight and had doubts it was actually a whitetail. They told me that for sure one of the bucks they had seen was a whitetail and that they thought the deer might have bedded where I saw the buck disappear. I told them I would wait with my buddy on the opposite ridge and would come back if I hadn’t seen any movement in an hour and a half. Today was super windy in that canyon. The wind was swirling all over the place and the direction of the wind was blowing from behind my buddy and I directly at where I had seen the buck disappear. After an hour, I wondered if they winded us on the opposite ridge and walked away without us noticing. My buddy and I hasn’t seen any deer emerge from the tree they disappeared behind but the only movement we could see the past hour was wind moving grass and branches around. After almost two hours, and not observing any signs of actual deee movement (a head popping up, ear flick, etc), I felt almost certainly the grey ghost has vanished without us seeing it. We went back and forth on if they actually could have snuck away because we had eyes on that spot and we should have been able to see if they moved away from that tree. After about another 30 minutes, we made the decision to make some noise to see if we could spook anything. We figured if they were still there, then they might get up out of their bed if they hear noise and if they weren’t there then we could rest easy getting off the ridge and returning to our group. I was fairly certain that they were gone. I was wrong again. My buddy and I started making some loud noises. Nothing. We made some more loud noises. Nothing. Finally, the wind died for a second and I heard my yell echo across the canyon. All of a sudden, three deer popped up from the tree we had been watching for 2 hours. All I could think of was WHAT THE?! I immediately got my scope on a buck, and my buddy confirmed what I was thinking. COUES!! I had ranged out multiple spots on their ridge line and I knew he was about 280 yards out. I took zoomed my scope from a 4x zoom to 12x and had him in my sights. Then jumped down 20 yards. I zoomed back out to reacquire him but couldn’t find him. My buddy told me where he was and I found him again in my scope. He ended up circling back above the tree where he was bedded and stopped. I zoomed my scope back in and was hoping and praying he would give me a broadside shot. At this point, I knew he was about 290 yards out and so I needed him to get broadside before he went further up the ridge and out of my range. My prayers went answered. He turned. My heart was pounding so bad at the past 90 seconds of excitement, that I had to take a second to calm myself even though I had the perfect rock to use as a bench to shoot from. I breathed slowly and squeezed the trigger. I immediately lost the buck due the zoom and recoil and half whispered half shouted at my buddy, “Where is he, is he down??” He half’s whispers and half yells, “He’s down!! He’s in the same spot you shot him. You dropped him.” I quickly found him again in my scope and saw him move a little but he was down. A minute later my phone starts ringing. It’s my father in law. He says, “We saw all the deer jump up and then heard the shot. You get him??” I was super excited to reply, “we got him and we got eyes on him!” We told him where the buck was and made the plan to all meet up at that spot. My buddy and I stayed put watching the buck another 5 minutes but he was completely down. I couldn’t believe it. It was a gnarly, steep, super thick hike over to the ridge he was on. Luckily, we made really good mental notes on where to look for the body. We had no idea, but the ridge he was on was incredibly thick country. It was nearly impossible to squeeze through some of the trees and bushes but we managed to get over there. We almost couldn’t find the body but we did and I couldn’t have been more thrilled. After three long, hard days of hunting we had one down. My first deer ever, on a windy day, at nearly max range. I’ve been blessed to shoot two bull elk the past two years, but this one was special. From my wife glassing it up, to my buddy and I positioning ourselves in the right spot to get the shot, and getting the opportunity to ID the Coues and get him broadside for a shot….what a blessing. I am so excited to try some whitetail and give thanks the the big man upstairs for a wonderful hunt with family and friends. I appreciate all of your well wishes and support! Love being a member of this site and sharing the story with you all. Until next year, John

Finally 2 days until my son gets a crack at Coues deer. As a father I’m so excited to be able to further introduce my passion and love for all things hunting and outdoors. Well it’s finally here. My son has spent the summer earning money to purchase his first rifle. We’ve spent several outings dialing it in and honing his shooting skills. Well the bags are packed and tomorrow the truck will be gassed up as we leave. How many of you are as excited or maybe even more excited than your own kids are? Did we remember everything? Do we have enough snacks? What will we see? Will he/she shoot true if that moment arrives? It is truly to me “the most wonderful time of the year”. Arizona here we come!!!

Why instead of punishing all residents can’t we make the non-resident otc hunts draws? Every hunting show on YouTube brags about how these guys from all over the country are coming here to hunt deer in the rut otc. I think that is the problem with the greater number of hunters and harvests. I don’t get to go to New Mexico, and correct me if I’m wrong but I’m almost certain I cannot go to Utah as well, and hunt deer in December and January otc. Limit the tags for non-residents and make them draws. If you’re worried about money, then raise the prices on the non-residents. Stop punishing residents to pander to non-resident hunters. I don’t want to sound like I hate other people getting to enjoy hunting in AZ, but I’m also tired of not being able to hunt desirable units in my state because of non-residents.

just too stuck in my ways to change now!