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Holy cow was this an adventure!!!!!!! First, I started off by spending $2300.00 on a sheep tag. Then I didn't know if my wife had the tag or if it was mine. Luck ended up in my favor and I got a rebate for the additional money spent on the tag. In all I made 5 scouting trips and one trip down for the hunt. As it turned out I had 14 days of scouting (buddies had probably more days than me towards scouting). After scouting ended, we had only seen sheep 1 out of the last 8 days of scouting. I can't begin to tell you how difficult it is to sit there and glass for days on end and not see sheep. We had a 3 day and then a 4 day stretch with seeing no wildlife. We didn't even see a deer, rabbit, nothing. As opening morning rolled around the feeling in camp was different than any other hunt I have been on. Normally everyone is super excited and ready to go but everyone knew this could be day 5 with seeing no sheep. We also knew this would likely be a hunt that lasted more than 10 days to get the job done. Either way we knew that heading out before first light would need to happen. We developed a plan and sent everyone to their spots to find the elusive ram. After a solid hour of glassing, I decided to grab some grub out of my daily bag of food. That went so well that I decided that grabbing something else would be even better......little did I know that would be the last food I had before dinner. I kept on glassing and finally found a few white butts moving in the distance. I told my buddy to get eyes on them and then grabbed my BTX's after he obtained them in his glass. He started off by saying he could see 3 sheep and one was a ram. Then he said that there were 4 sheep and all of them were rams. Then his voice changed a bit and he said that one of the rams was really, really good. Once I got my glass on the rams I could see one that was well above average. We were sitting about 2.5 miles from the sheep. We knew he was big enough to look at but we really couldn't judge him from that far away. Luckily, we didn't have heat waves yet so we could tell that I needed to go in for a closer look. I grabbed my pack, glass and rifle and off I went. My buddy was going to stay and keep an eye on the rams. My other buddies were off in the general direction of the rams so hopefully we could all meet up if this came together. After a 2 mile walk (seemed like the longest walk of my life) I would see the rams up the mountain and decided to take a look at the bigger ram with my spotter. He was with 3 other rams. One of the rams was probably in the 150 class and he just looked tiny compared to this guy. I was fairly confident that this was going to be my ram. He had great mass all the way through. He looked like he was turning up at the tips and seemed to have good length. I'm far from a sheep expert but he looked good to me. Well after looking at this ram at 1000 yards I decided to make my approach. Off I went through a wash moving slowly (mostly because it was hot and I was tired) and gaining ground on the rams. They were starting to look like they were going to bed. I continued my stalk. The rams decided to bed down in a spot where I could take a shot if I could get into position. After a good chunk of time, I finally got as close as I could to the group of rams. The bigger ram was at 462 yards and bedded down in a position where I couldn't have a good shot at him. I knew that I would have to wait until he stood up before I could shoot. I'm not a very patient guy so this was going to be a challenge. I found a good resting spot and laid my rifle down on my pack. At the time I could see the ram in my scope but I couldn't see his body. It was now right at noon and the sun was just beating down on me. This was not typical hunting weather in my book. After about half an hour two of the smaller rams got up. Now I'm on high alert because I'm sure the bigger ram is going to get up any second. At many points I was shaking like crazy.....not because of nerves but I was just tired of laying behind my gun waiting for my ram to stand up. Every so often I would put my head down and get off the gun just so I could take a few breaths and relax. Then all of a sudden I look through the scope and the bigger ram stood up. two seconds later there was a light click and then a big boom. Big ram down!!!!!!!! I was super excited but knew the work was just to begin. My buddies joined me for a photo session and then we did a life size cape job on my ram. After breaking the ram down into pieces, we went down the mountain and made the journey back to the glassing spot which was 2.5 miles away. Luckily, we barely made it back before dark. I was plenty thirsty. It was 6pm and I was looking forward to getting some water in me and hopefully a good meal. A few guys were heading to camp to help for the second day but their help would be needed to pack up camp. We might have celebrated a bit and had ribeye's for dinner. Life was good. I was spent. The reward was worth the effort and I feel very fortunate for all the help I received from many people. Many of the people I only talked to on the phone and have never met in person. I even had one buddy Greg that went down twice on his own to scout and found multiple good rams. It's hard to believe so many people were rooting for me to find a big ram.......but that is sheep hunting.

Well after waiting for 10 years for this tag I finally got lucky and drew the tag. I knew that I wanted to go with a guide. After talking to many different guides I decided to go with A3. They were great and sent me pics of many different bulls earlier in the year. I was able to show up a couple of days before the hunt and we looked over a couple of different bulls but after seeing this 8x7 I knew he was number one on the list. On opener we were unable to turn him up but we were pretty sure he had not been killed on the opener. The next day Jay one of the owners was able to turn him up in some thick stuff. We headed that way. He was a couple of miles away from where we saw him the day before opener. There was no way to get in on him for a close shot so we set up on him at 885 yards. We waited him out and when he got up to get out of the sun we were able to place a shot that put him back down. It was such an amazing experience and the guys at A3 are the best out there. The bull scores 363 7/8

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!

A lifelong friend finally drew an Arizona Desert Bighorn tag after over 45 years of applying (never, never miss a BP). He managed to get it done on the second morning after a week of scouting. His son and his GF were with him. I got to spot it and watch. The Stats: RH 36-1/2 LH 38 Bases 15 ½ Green Score 175 (the broken horn cost him over 3” but who cares! G&F score 172-1/4 (pretty dang good for two newbies learning!) 6.5 CM (I hate it) with 127 Barnes LRX going 2960 fps at 488 yards. One heck of a sheep. I couldn’t be happier for him.

I didn't really want to start my own thread but I haven't seen a meat pole thread all week to add to. I did want to thank the forum for all the help and advice, though. Being from CO originally I had a lot to learn about AZ elk when I moved in 2015. I drew my first AZ elk tag in 2017, a late rifle tag, and it's what pushed me to join the forum (thanks for the recommendation @cpugsie). I didn't fill that tag in 2017 and had to face the fact that I had a lot left to figure out about these elk. Drew the same tag this year, learned from my mistakes, and got it done on a bull I was very happy with. Thanks for all the lessons, guys!

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!

The sky is falling!! Bunch of Karen's in here.

Kenton Industries

NIB Ruger Mkll 50 th anniversary all wrapped up in 50yr decorative red and green box for Christmas $475 cash firm Ruger OM Vaquero 7.5" SOLD Ruger IM Vaquero 45LC 4 5/8 with box $750 I'm in Sonoita

😜😜😜

*** Taking off market ***

This right here. You coulda put ur first borns bday. If they can verify ur asss one way or another they’ll accept it. It was all about the money.

Good news is i got my stink pig tag in the mail today!

Oh their definitely gonna take your money. ... if they denied your app they still "processed it " right into the round filing cabinet....

I'm a man, I dont read instructions........

Keith at Phoenix custom guns is great to deal with and built me a awesome shooting 7-08 .

Call Leupold

I would call and see how they respond. Their system shouldn’t be allowed to take the app money without putting the app in the hat. But this is the G$F system!

What if your customer ID is your social ? Thats the way mine has been set up since day one.

Had same hunt for 36a. Very tough hunt. Opening weekend we hiked and glassed multiple areas but only turned up does. Came back and hunted Tuesday and turned up a lot more does but that was it. My buddy spotted this buck during the heat of the day and I hiked in and took him. Not a huge buck, but it was my first whitetail and the amount of work put in made it well worth it. Learned a lot from the hunt, and had a great time. It was a great bonus to put some meat in the freezer. God is good

ASU!!!! U of A will be in the sunbelt before you know it!!!😂

The liberals are all attending ASU, with their protests of not accepting a jury verdict by our justice system, or crying because another student supports law enforcement by wearing a blue lives t shirt, and needing a safe place where no white males can go to study along side of women of color. People who live in glass houses should not throw rocks.

Dustin epitomizes the desperation of UA fans to stay relevant when compared to ASU. After going on the worst losing streak of any major sports team in AZ (worse than the suns and d backs which have been historically awful at times) he decides that because ASU lost 4 games total in a year, UA is successful. This is typical of losers and liberals throughout the world who are too insecure to look themselves in the mirror and face their failures and instead spend their lives justifying their shortcomings and making excuses about the success of others. Now, can I get those fries please?

I have done a lot of of hunts where I have to hike 5-7 miles into back country and a lot where you are hurting your odds greatly by getting away from the truck. I do whatever it takes for my hunt to be successful and sometimes that’s a pack in and sometimes it’s truck glassing. No rule out there saying you need to hunt the same way anyone else does and vice versa.