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Had a chance to catch up to this tall goat. 16 6/8ths

Buddy sent this from clints well neighborhood. Rubbed clean and looking good.

Seen a few.

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.

All I need is a dumb, deaf, and blind one to stand in front of my arrow!

Henry pump 22 with octagon barrel and Simmons 3-9 scope. Action worked over and is really smooth. Shoots S, L, LR. Like new. Without the scope, SOLD FTF San Tan Valley Bob

I’ve seen avg/better than average growth in 3B/1/27 areas. Saw a pretty good bull tonight by the house with about 20 cows….sniffing and chuckling already.

Polished tips. Beautiful bull

Ive been sitting in a blind for deer and the bulls are bugling really good. Seen a few pushing cows. One is a nice 330 bull. Seen spikes smacking their velvet antlers together. Saw 3 herds last night and all had bulls with them, dark antlers and bugling. Elk look fat and happy, lots of water, grass to their belly, really my favorite time to be in the woods.

My friend has 5b, can I get that bulls address?

I have that same truck in 2007 and I think that is a great deal!!!!! good luck on the sale

There's a pair for sale on this forum.

Couple more

Smoking deal. Great glass too. I’ve just purchased a pair a month ago and compared these to an older pair of SLCs and these were way brighter and more crisp. Good luck w the sale.

that what I tell my wife..... dont blow it for me.

Sad, when hunters, bash other hunters for filling their freezers. Hunting has turned into "look at me" I, like many others I know, don't post pics online because I KNOW some asswipe will find something wrong with it.

10 years old gut shot from the road Walked up to it dad was going to finish it with a knife, didn’t realize it was still THAT alive. It jumped up and stopped about 20 yards away and I took the hair off it’s back. It took off and we had to track it for a little while, jumped it again, went to shoot it off my dads shoulder and I flipped the safety back ON not knowing he flipped it off for me. Tracked it awhile further found it bedded on the opposite side of a small tree. Dad told me to shoot it through the bush you see in the picture. Me being 10 tried to look through the scope and missed it at about 6 feet. Then told to just point the barrel at it and shoot. Finally finished it off.. I’ll never live down missing that deer that close. Good memories

1988 30a

My hat is off to Hornady's advertising devision. They can really sell. And, they R&D devision is second to none the last 10-15 years. Nosler has come out with a few firebreathers, but Remington and Winchester have been sitting on their hands. Heck, even Weatherby and Sig have released a couple new cases. But, that article is nothing but hype and misleading information. The case drawing is showing it to be a long action cartridge. Just a couple months ago, it was said it should fit in an XM or LA. 3.4"+ is definitely LA length only. Claims that the 7 PRC will outrun a 7RM. Then claims it is a ballistic twin to the 7SAUM. (The 7SAUM is a ballistic twin to the .280AI. Which is outrun by the 7RM). Claims the oldwives tail of the dreaded "belted mag" 7RM not being able to be reloaded but a few times (I have 11 and 12 firings on my R-P 7RM brass). Claims the 7PRC will feed better than the 7SAUM because the case has a "lower 30° shoulder angle" (so does the 7SAUM?). I think this cartridge will take off, with as popular as the 7SAUM and .280AI are, especially if Hornady can get Lapua on board to make brass. ADG already makes 7SAUM brass, and also 6.5PRC amd .300PRC brass, so no change if they make 7 PRC brass too. Peterson makes 6.5 & .300PRC brass already, so I am sure they will jump on 7PRC brass also. I still feel Hornady brass is very lacking, so jist getting factory ammo (even if it is Hornady) will be advantageous to a lot of guys wanting a new flavor of medium capacity 7mm. If you are a handloader already, there is a world of medium 7mm that are already available, even a lot with proper headstamped brass. I look forward to seeing how it performs.

My first, and ONLY Coues deer. I am a muley hunter. Applied for the wrong number and drew a Coues tag back a long time ago. 2001 or 2002 I think. Being a Mule deer hunter, I had no clue what a Coues was supposed to look like. I saw this buck for 5 days and passed on him hoping for something big. On my last day to hunt, he was the biggest I had seen, so I hiked out and popped him. I was quite disappointed at how small he was. If I had only known then what I know now....and if I would have had the money to get a shoulder mount.....

A friend of mine named Mike. He works out of his house in mesa. Superstition Creations located at Broadway and Val Vista. He has done several different mounts for me. Her are a few pictures I've taken.

Torch, deep socket, drill.

Thanks again everyone, I haven’t stopped smiling. it was a great hunt. I took my buck to a CW members son who did a euro for me -Great Hunter Skullz. The turn around was amazing and I am very happy with the results. The NL 12x42 are awesome. Super light and great feel. They almost feel small in my hands. I have a pair of EL 10x42 from circa 1999-2000, first edition that were my go to since purchase. The NL 42 outside objective is smaller than my EL’s. . I think the only improvement is if they ever make a NL12x50. Happy hunting

Very nice buck! My dad and I also tagged out in 4b also. I guess there's 3 tags out of 25 in 4b.

Thanks for all your kind words of congrats. It sure was bittersweet to be tagged out so quickly into the hunt but awesome I got a respectable buck. 2 things that I will take on all my hot weather hunts from now on is a bug-a-salt gun and a bucket misting fan. Made it fun and cool.