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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.

Brian has done a heck of a lot more than send an email to get this considered. He has been pitching this idea, adapting and improving it for almost a year in an effort to try and preserve OTC opportunity in AZ. I am learning the hard way that sending a few emails is not an effective way to get anyone to listen to your ideas. Pretending Brian is getting some special treatment is just plain ignorant. Trust me, the dept (Amber Munig specifically) started giving the same nonsensical argument about barriers to participation etc. and Brian didn’t let it go. He took it to the commission, branch chiefs, critter groups, etc. There is no need for sour grapes. Mandatory reporting is good for wildlife management and we have been asking for it long enough. Let’s make sure everyone hears it this time.

Do non hunters watching hunting shows? I don’t remember buckmasters or realtree outdoors being drunken rednecks idk man imo if meateater, joe Rogan, cam Hanes, randy newberg, jay scott podcast etc. didn’t exist we’re not having these conversations on otc deer tags, trailcams, whatever else is next.

You guys that want a draw are out of your minds. That would be a dang shame.

Go to a draw.

Why you need more mounts to finish the team.

I think this is social media, but this is it for me.

AZ's population going from 1.5 million to 8 million+ and growing is a dang shame. AZ is the only western state in our vicinity that does not have a draw for archery deer. OTC deer is toast, if not now soon.

Not really, still have to buy the turkey point in the fall. What sucks even worse is entering Social Security numbers 92 times! I'm fine with supporting the dept, just doesn't always feel like a 2 way street.

Never occurred to me hunters look like drunken rednecks that kill for horns. I was raised by ethical hunters that put wild meat on the table regardless of horn size. That's what I teach my kids as well. But hey, who doesn't admire a nice rack?

I have no problems reporting if I killed an animal or not. I also think it’s the best chance to keep OTC hunts open long term.

It’s the best proposal out there. Everyone should email the commission about this.

My emails to the commission over the years recommended mandatory reporting or a loss of ability to apply for the next years draw years ago, modeled after the Navajo GF. The response was it would discourage hunter participation. Suddenly, because of Rimzas position with the ABA they’re going to listen to it? Freaking politics...... I guess you gotta be a “somebody” to be listened to. I fully support the idea, I am just highly amused that now it’s a consideration.

My wife have a good arrangement, she told me I could put the mounts on the walls and when the walls were filled up she could get a new house. So I bought a house with 23 ft walls and keep filling them up..

I doubt anywhere even close to 3600 archery deer were killed last year. Maybe the 800

If this is still available next week it will be mine

This trailer is in excellent condition and has allot of extras. It is a 2016 Mid 6X12 utility model with 6X8 tent. If you hunt/camp or just go out to ride ATV's etc, this is a great trailer. It is another item from my friend who passed away. His mother is in the process of transferring the title over. It is currently set up on my property. When closed up you can load 3 ATV's or a side by side on the top. $8,000.00

Mandatory reporting is the most exacting method to manage the herds. It also puts absolute pressure on G&F to discover the true reasons for herd loss/reductions if not due to hunting. Real, trackable management! i.e. Why are there so few mule deer in 3B? I know part of the answer is poaching in that area because while hunting we had a local admit to it and invite us to come back anytime and do the same. Outside of 3B we know that Nobull360's brother was eventually convicted of poaching and Nobull360 made it sound like no big deal. How big is the poaching problem by locals really? And by others? Mandatory reporting would help diagnose and prove what the true causation of herd loss was/is and allow G&F to focus on the real problems and thus more efficiently utilize the revenue to improve game opportunities. I would only exempt varmint for now unless there is a very rapid or major reduction. Nobody likes regulation. I hate regulation! But to help sustain our wildlife opportunities all hunts should be reported ( still excepting varmints) to stop the thieves and provide quicker response to health and thief issues. Safeguards should be in place so that exact location is not required but general info like 3B N (or S,E,W, central) would be helpful but they should be required to protect any information on location other than the hunt area (i.e. just the 3B) from public release. Such should be enough for herd management. Even that exacting may not be necessary. I use 3B because 3B seemed to me to be in real trouble for mule deer. That is where I hunted this year and I learned a lot!

Not if the hunting year started in January. You’d be at the beginning of the season. Worst case, August gets closed early.

Threshold idea sounds good initially. As thresholds are met, remaining open units would likely be overrun. Time to go to a draw for archery deer. Maybe do OTC permits for traditional archery (no wheels, no sights).

Just saw another one for the mule deer hunt

The Arizona Game and Fish Commission, during a public meeting Aug. 6 in Williams, voted 5-0 to approve Commission Order 30: Limited-Entry Permit-tags, which establishes initial seasons and season dates, permit numbers, and open areas for elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer. It was closer to 4 months ago they voted on Commission order 30 so its been in the works for a little while.

Are those the Lowa Caminos?

I'll give you $3000 if you throw that Boxer in too, LOL