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I have always enjoyed journaling my noteworthy hunts on here both for posterity and entertainment. Although this is not MY hunt, it is noteworthy as it is my sons FIRST hunt. Not just of deer but of ANYTHING.. My son has never shown ANY interest in hunting. ZERO. Not even in VIDEO GAMES. I mean ZEEEERO. So when he said he would be interested in applying for the deer draw I was somewhat surprised. I think we were ALL shocked when he actually got drawn. I spent a LOT of time planning and preparing and begging for advice (a HUGE thank-you to all that sent info to me) I had a pretty good game plan of how to get him a deer. All that went out the window after we learned he is HORRIBLE at shooting. We practiced and practiced and got help from some extremely good teachers(not me) but he just couldn't find the rhythm. He developed a pretty bad flinch even with the lightest of deer rifles. So I switched him to my 223ar and locked him into a pretty decent tripod system(field optics research) to help with the flinch and stability. He was shooting good this way but it severely limited our range and options for hunting. I decided we would be limited to 100 yds or less and in a controlled environment. So that means sitting water. So now our epic journey begins,,,,,, Day one. Opening morning. It's over. The end. Our view curios visitor The best part of the entire hunt for HIM The end...... Sat until 10 am when it started getting hot and I figured they might come get a drink. First saw the above doe and watched her for quite awhile. Then another and another. Eventually two small bucks showed up. There was a larger buck farther back behind the water hole but Easton could not see it well. The small one was standing broadside at 80 yds. After about 5 min of watching and waiting for the bigger buck he decided the little one was good enough. Calm as a rock he he went through the process we practiced. Pretty much a bang flop. I was a "little" nervous about the 223 but it WRECKED that little deer. Never had a chance. He was a ROCK. ZERO nerves. ME on the other hand. I was a nervous wreck. Took me forever to calm down. I was so bad I for got to video it. Oh, I HAD the camera set up and I turned it on. I even followed the deer around for 5 min all the way through the shot. I just neglected hitting the record button. I so totally suck at video. It is my Achilles heel. About 5 min after the shot 2 buggies came up the trail. I think if he waited for the bigger buck any longer we might have gotten nothing. I commended him for his good call and his excellent shooting. Funniest part of the entire event was afterwards. I asked if he had fun and he said it was awesome. I asked if he wanted to do it again and without pause and very emphatically he said... Nope. Oh well. We'll see,,,,,

One tag filled.

10x50 Swarovski SLC $1150.00 lens has a small spot on it does not affect the view. Meopta Meostar S2 82mm spotting scope $1700 glass is perfect and clear. Pictures coming.

First off thanks to the good Lord for the time I got to spend with my boy, it was a heck of a time with plenty of ups and downs. Can't say enough how cool it is to watch your kids slowly become young men. Second thanks to @M@tt for coming down to help the first couple days. Great guy for sure. And of course @zackcarp for squeezing room in the walk in to hang the kids buck. This hunt started with high expectations, Kiki said he wants to hunt muley's, and so we did. Started off in an area I thought was a slam dunk. As usual (for me anyway) hunting mule deer made me humble. Spent the first couple days glassing up only forkies and does. Moved the camper closer to home, glassed up more forkies and does. Luck turned Sunday morning when we spotted a couple decent coues bucks and we went for it. As they do like ghosts they disappeared while on the stalk. Thought for sure they were heading for thick cover but in retrospect that phrase got me.. "coues are always where you last saw them". Looked up to see them high tailing it away from us. Next morning got off to a 15 minute late start, my fault but it could a made the difference. Got to the glassing point and immediately picked up a herd of muley's. Saw one that I knew right away was a stud. Bailed off the hill to give chase. No biggun where I thought he should be though. Had a doe and a spike walk right in front of us and that was it. I decided to pull out to not ruin a future chance. Came back that evening and no deer to be seen. Talked momma into coming the next morning, promised her we were close to sealing the deal. The next morning she was not as gung-ho when 330 rolled around, but she still came. Got breakfast at Denny's (part of the deal we made) and off we went. Got to the spot early and started glassing in the dark. No deer... Kept glassing... No deer.... Kept glassing... A couple does.... Oof. I told Caliche even if it's trash deer we should probably go for it since momma don't come out often. He agreed. Well once the sun was up I spotted one lone coues over a mile away verified he was a decent buck based on overall frame but we kept glassing for a closer opportunity. Suddenly like clockwork several white rump patches started appearing very close to the coues buck. We all converse quick and decide there is a chance the big one is nearby and if not we still got the coues. Bailed again off the hill, while in route momma said the big one is out there. We got to where I felt comfortable stalking and started to glass and could not find any muley but the WT buck was right in front of us under 200. The wind also started to shift. Momma said where the big muley was but due to the wind shift and not knowing the location of the rest of the muley herd we quickly decided let's kill this coues buck. Texted momma we are on the WT and getting ready to shoot. Well momma was so mesmerized by the muley she didn't keep eyes on the buck we were actually shooting and she didn't realize what I meant by WT. So we set up for the shot in a quick and quiet rush, Caliche looks at me and says "dude, this is so exciting!" and a minute later bang! I see the buck in my binos fly backwards and drop. Clearly we are full of adrenaline and I tell him he dropped, I texted momma "he dropped him". She responds I'm still looking at him??? I'm like no babe he shot the whitetail buck! So we rack another round and creep in just in case. we were in tall grass and sure enough the hit was a spine shot. Saw him up flailing and told him put one through his neck high and he did but for good measure had him put another in his head. Hence the bulging eyes. Once we really stopped and got to look him over I was pretty stoked at the buck he just killed. I assured him this buck was an old stud. Pretty gnarly horns and big body. Rack had some serious character and we had no regrets shooting this guy over the big muley. Called momma for the pickup while I showed Kiki how to quickly gut a deer. We earned ourselves some deer dragging sweat and met momma for some more pics. As per usual my new hunting partner Bucky the Boston terrier was there for the entire hunt, although not on the stalk he still put on the 12+ miles with us for the rest of it. Can't say as a dad how proud I am of Caliche.. out of all of my kids he's the one that seems to be bitten by the hunting bug the most. He was all in and fully immersed in this hunt. Even being the first one to pick up deer behind the glass a few times. This kid has grit and he sure makes me proud. He even caped his buck himself and measured him. He did dam good too on both fronts. Buck grossed 94" and netted like 88 and change. Can't wait to do it again. Got another youth tag this Friday and can't wait. It's my youngest boy Enoch. I don't think he's gonna embrace the suck though so probably forkies are on the menu, but if he's happy I'm happy. Thanks for reading. Ps. Not gonna lie, we had a hard time not laughing while taking the first few pics. Them crazy Steve Buscemi eyes

My cell 6o2 56eight 7nine88

FYI they have great mounts !

Hello! I have two handguns for sale. Both were purchased for my wife many years ago but have just been taking up room in the safe. Located in the West Valley. Bersa Thunder 380 in two tone. Slight holster wear on the slide. Otherwise is good shape. Bought for my wife about 12 years ago and has been a safe queen. Comes with Fobus paddle holster, 4 loaded magazines (two with Hornady Critical Defense and two with target ammo), 100 rounds of Winchester 95 grain FMJ. $275 Ruger LCP 380 with Raspberry frame. Purchased for my wife about 15 years ago and has been a safe queen. Comes with one loaded magazine of Hornady critical Defence, Uncle Mike's soft pocket holster, 100 rounds of Winchester 95 gr FMJ, 32 rounds of Magtech 95 gr FMJ and 14 rounds of Fiocchi 95 gr FMJ. $225 Both for $450 Thanks for looking! -Tracy

SOLD....Great meeting you Tracy. Good luck with your upcoming hunt. Maybe see you out there.

If all you had time for was a 1/2 day, would it be better in the morning or evening?

Heck ya, congrats and 1 more to go!

Wow day one! Congrats. I love the youth camp they put on up there. Kids won a replaceable blade and a pair of binos. Good luck tomorrow!

Ordered 2 on the 1st go around and they are awesome. Hope to buy another soon.

Have the following used bike in near new condition ready to sell as sitting in the garage. Great bike to access them closed roads.

Love mine.

Very cool product. Hopefully I’ll be needing one soon.

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to the guys prizedpossesionsbrand.com - last week I ordered 4 of their AZ Flag wall mount and requested to have the HuntAZ logo smaller in the bottom right corner. I dealt with Noah and things went flawless. Within a day I had a sample picture sent over to make sure I liked it. Placed my order the 5th and received the wall mounts the 9th. Def going to be following their business for future designs.

Same here for my older son and a buddies son.

good luck. put my kids in for that hunt and struck out.

Good luck to them.

Spending the last few evenings processing my bull has been a lot of work , but something I always look forward to . Teaching my son to take pride in your blessings , along with teaching him skills that I hope he will carry on to his son. Having my father there this time to see me pass on the passion of hunting and the outdoors the way he instilled them in me is something I will hold tight for the rest of my life. This has been my favorite part of this hunt.

Dinner is on the way! My son’s Boy Scout buddy tagged out Sunday. This was his first hunting experience. Big thanks for the help goes out to hunting machine, Cody Bigelow and his brother, Johnny! Now my son and I will spend the next five days trying to find this one’s grandfather!