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21B34F5E-2DF9-425E-976B-8F0F143AA63B.MOV My wife could have filled her tag with a pitchfork this morning! Looks like one of those White Mountain bucks migrated down here!

First off, I just want to say I enjoy looking at all the giants people kill with this outfit. They do a great job. I just saw they are doing a new thing where you get to go photograph deer on the ranch before any hunting season opens up. The cost is $4500 per photographer. Is this something people do all the time? This is the first I’ve heard of it.

Nonhunter yuppie white trash bragging and posing with their photo captures….. price is mind blowing,

This 👆🏼 I’ve Dropped deer and elk with M’s.

Just need a little more speed to make it now.

It is, but it's also a true response.

I drew my first AZ antelope tag this year with 17 points (15 pts + HS +loyalty). I still feel very fortunate to have drawn with 17 and personally know of others who didn’t with more. I started preparing immediately. I spoke with some of last years tag holders, AZGFD officials, guide friends and internet searched all I could. I purchased maps, OnX hunt chip and the premium membership and drove the unit marking areas. I became a member of the Arizona Antelope foundation and attended their online webinar. I even sweet talked the wife into some new NL 12x42’s. I was all in, putting everything I could into this hunt. Who knows if/when I could draw again. I spent over 33 days scouting and put 6,500+ miles on my truck, not to mention 2 new sets of tires. I’ve hunted Wyoming a few times for antelope and have looked over plenty, but judging them is still tough for me, especially from a distance. Anyhow, I made a list of the best bucks I saw and named a few. Some of them I had patterned well and saw them often, some I only saw 2-3 times. My biggest hurdle would be finding one on public land during the hunt. I arrived on Tuesday before the Friday opener and camped on a piece of BLM 6 miles from Holbrook. Not wanting to mess up any archery hunters I glassed from camp, the highway and once from Denny’s when it was raining, Hee Hee. I did manage to find one of my top 5 bucks on Wednesday but never saw him again. Thursday afternoon I spoke to an archery hunter headed home. After talking and looking at a few pictures I found out the best 2 bucks were taken during the archery hunt. Opening day- I’m in my target area but only see some small goat bucks and a few muley bucks. I head to another area for the afternoon hunt and spot a tall and wide but thin buck I had on my list. I watched him until dark and headed back to camp. I had several friends come up Friday night to lend a hand glassing or to deplete my supplies. We had a quick dinner, a few spirits and went to bed. Saturday- Two buddies and I are looking for the buck from the night before. We see a small buck chasing two does. We move to a little knoll an spot him glowing in the morning sunlight almost a mile away. I check with OnX and we are both on state land. We watch him feeding for a few minutes until he beds. I make a plan and we go over some signals. I head off west with the sun at my back and the wind in my face. I’m at a brisk walk while below a small rise trying to make up time. I stop occasionally to look at my buddies for instruction and to look at OnX for location. Before the last knoll I turn for last direction. They indicate the buck is walking towards me. I creep up towards the top of the knoll, lay down and start crawling forward to a bush. After a minute or so I see the buck through the brush feeding towards me at around 600 yards. I decide to crawl another 30 yards to a rock outcropping for a better shooting platform. After reaching it, I see the antelope feeding to me around 500 yards. I get set up to shoot, ranging several trees and bushes along his path direction. He should walk within 300 yards or closer. Naturally, at 445yards he beds down looking in my direction. I decide I will wait until he stands back up. I check my ballistic calculator and decide on 34” of hold over. After 15 antagonizing minutes and several trains horns later I feel the wind start changing direction. I afraid he may not stand but instead bolt from his bed. I decide to set up on the gun, blow a call and hope for the best. With a great rest I blow the call and watch him stand up broadside facing to my right. I find my hold over, settle in and the recoil surprises me. As I’m cycling the bolt I hear the impact and watch the goat run from left to right FAST !!! I watch him pile up in a cloud of dust and rocks. He must have slid 12’ or more and broke off a prong that we never found. I collected my brass and walked back to the top of the knoll. I flagged my buddies, sat down in the shade of a juniper and started shaking. I dug out my tag and some water from my Fanny pack and texted my wife and kids. Soon my buddies arrived. We hugged, high five and shook hands. I tagged my buck and took some pictures then we headed back to camp. We skinned/processed the buck and got the meat cooled. Soon we started celebrating and with Holbrook being so close, everyone got dilly bars from DQ.

you can download the app for e-tags from azgfd now.

who the heck would check them?

Literally what I’ve done for New Mexico pronghorn the last two hunts, since E-tags were rolled out there. 😂

Geez! Not for me whatsoever but some of those guys that are good can make a ton of money off a good wildlife photo. Must have had some interest for them to come up with this?

Hang in there, Lance. Nothing easy or comforting about that except it didn't drag on for his sake.

you need to ask this at your age? The one with out the twig and berries! Ah puppies.. these should go fast.

E-tag, but you still have to tag the animal with a "material of your choice" with a unique code on it. What the point of an e-tag if we still have to tag it? Might as well keep the original sticker tag.

Thanks for the referral. We’re police and fire and spend a lot of time hunting. I’d be happy to help you at Superstition Golf Carts.

If anyone is wondering, the ELD-M is an awesome hunting round. Does great on deer, elk and bear from personal experience. Not so fur friendly on coyotes. Lol.

Contact Doug @ Camerland NY. I have bought scopes from him and he is great to work with. They sometimes have new open box demo models with full warranty at a discounted price. Family operated business that has been around for decades. He posts in the CWT Optics section almost daily.

I own a company too. But I don't wanna talk about it. 😂

The warranty is great! Cause you'll need it. Hopefully not during a hunt but who knows.

You think if I showed up to azgfd office with a deer to check in like I thought I was supposed to they would turn me away to use the phone?? I think I would have been ok. Yall are unhinged now and this has turned into a FB group

So many hurt shoulders out there archery hunting... Sorry if you can't hunt with a bow, then you can't bow hunt - it's not a right. Hope they ban those stupid things.

I'm almost convinced the bigger bucks stay in the flats early season and only get lured out by does in January and December.

That's alot of driving for 1 shed

Swarovski stepped it up there lighter brighter and just have a better feel. Don't get me wrong the 12 El are great and $2000 is a great deal when your talking about $1000 different but its what you want and can afford . I love my NL'S and still have my 12el's you can never have enough good glass especially when i have kiddos that love to hunt .

Its not too late to call it off....