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I won the lottery this year and drew a late 12AW rifle tag. This fall has been a mess with a lot of family things going on, including my father in law having a stroke, so it’s been very touch and go season hunting wise. I knew going in I didn’t have the full season to hunt so I tried to keep my expectations reasonable. @buglethemin came through and made the trip up, giving up family time and spending thanksgiving in a tent. We saw some huge bucks scouting. Opening morning we saw some does where we had seen a monster buck with does the night before. The does were moving down a finger. We followed the does out, and saw a few smaller bucks and this guy in some oak thickets, but we didn’t get a real good look at him but could tell from the body he was big. They fed down the finger and down the slope to a draw to our right, then up the slope of the next finger. There was a clearing about 175 yards away and he stepped out and we got a better look at him. I decided he was the deer for me, and took the shot. He dropped, and I put another in to be sure. Just like that, the hunt was done. Could not be happier with this guy and can’t wait to go back some day.

I heard Home Depot has some deals

My son and I found an optical device in Unit 33 this past weekend. If you can tell me what type, brand, and roughly where you were, I'll gladly mail it back you to you.

Big buck. That buglethemin guy is a hammer.

My son drew the late youth hunt in 33. Opening day was the Friday after Thanksgiving. We made a family plan to head down Wednesday, picking up our daughter up at UofA, and have a family camping trip followed by a deer hunt. Our good friend, Christian, drove down Thursday night to help out. He's like a little brother to me and a great mentor/role model for Jacob. Our daughter even asked me to throw her hunting gear in so she could help glass Friday before heading back to UofA to study Saturday. We glassed up a couple dozen does, a handful of spikes and forks, and a few 70s bucks Friday. We got chased out by rain Saturday morning, right as we found a buck Jacob liked. We watched the bucks bed down, so we went back to camp to wait out the storm. The rain let up a few hours later and we were back out glassing, quickly relocating the bucks from Saturday morning. I was sore from a steep, rugged hike the day before, so Jacob and Christian put a plan in place to stalk up into the steep area they were and I stayed back to glass and talk them in. Something in the canyon bottom spooked the deer as they were setting up and two deer turned into about 9 running all over. By the time they settled down, the objective buck was nowhere to be seen; however, this young fork presented a perfect broadside shot at 248 yards. As was told to me, Jacob said "I didn't hike all they up this $h!t to not shoot something!" Good for him! He ended up packing it all the way down the ridge and up and down the next three ridges. He earned every bit of this young buck, but now he says he's holding out for 80s or bigger moving forward. Again, good for him! 248 yards is officially his shortest shot at a non-javelina or turkey game animal. I'm super proud of his determination and grit.

Black Friday didn't exactly blow my tits off, any killer deals out there?

like new condition shot only to sight in, comes with muzzle brake,3 boxes of ammo, Swarovski z.55-25x52 scope . boyte gun case ,everything in like new condition. excellent for long range couesdeer hunting . $2400.00 call 602 756 4167

Congrats on a Stud.

Great looking Buck congrats

Caveat Emptor.

Nice Buck congrats

Nice!!

Are you having a go at me?? Lol, I already picked them clean.

Buddy texted me this pic today. Absolute stud whether it goes 170 or not.

Just a quick video of 20231121_082329.mp4 the turkey we ran across on the elk hunt last week.

RUN!!!!!!!!!

This is why it’s BS: Prior to 2022 ranchers in 3A and 4B banded together and started complaining about all the elk on the ranch lands north of the forest boundary. The hundreds of elk in the juniper country are eating them out of house and home. There is legitimacy to this, there are lots of elk in places they hadn’t been for several years. AZGFD responds by creating a bunch of new draw hunts starting in July and running through December in 2023. Success is pretty high. Game and fish also runs a BUNCH of pop man hunts which are also pretty successful. Not even halfway through 2022, before the draw hunts even start, the ranchers decide everything north of the forest boundary has to be OTC. They threaten to lock their gates and deny access to ALL hunters if their demand isn’t met. Sportsmen contest this but AZGFD concedes and converts everything to OTC starting in March 2023. Carlisle had already locked his gates due to a dispute over a AZGFD violation years before. He had at one time given A3 exclusive access, but that agreement is no longer in place. Elkins locked his gates and refuses hunters access to remove the elk. At some point Elkins sells exclusive access to Big Chino Outfitters who has a similar arrangement on a large ranch in western AZ. They advertise hunts for $8500+. So essentially, the ranchers used their ploy to get OTC tags as a Trojan horse to create land owner tags that they can sell to the highest bidder. The have unlimited supply and the most generous seasons in the state. This was never about elk eating grass or drinking water. This was always about ranchers maximizing their return on the public’s resource while simultaneously flipping the public the bird. That is why this is BS. Please write to AZGFD and ask them to discontinue the OTC Zeniff hunt area seasons until Elkins enters into a public access agreement.

Get rid of outfitters. They seem to be the common denominator

1. Not a liberal. Our political views aren’t really important, but we are registered Republicans if you want to keep throwing that around 2. we support hunting 3. we support all animals 4. your attempts at “boycott” are not hurting our business. The business revolves around horses, it’s a guest ranch 5. no, horses don’t spread disease to sheep. 🤦‍♀️ 6. We actually never said “leave them all in the forest” unchecked. There are many forms of management. 7. Born in CA. Wasn’t a choice. Was a choice to leave. Not sure what that has to do with anything either 8. have yourselves a great night stirring the shoot pot. The fact this post was even created is ludicrous. The fact there’s so many jumping in without any facts is disturbing. ✌🏻

Come on guys, it’s Tom Petty’s dream gal, an American Girl…. Be CWT nice…, btw, their website highlights seeing “wild horses” in their list of “wildlife” to view in the area…. No such thing in AZ, American Girl. The correct term is feral horses.

The principals of Aspen Lodge (you) have taken a stance on an issue that is very important to outdoorsmen. We will vote with our money and do our best to make fellow outdoorsmen aware of Aspen Lodge's stance concerning feral animals on public land. ^^^^ this

Literally none of that matters if you support keeping the horses. So do you? We don't care how nice you are or if it's a family business. If you advocate for the feral horses then that's all I need to know about supporting your business.

It’s truly pathetic how you try to use forums like this one to bully people into hurting a family business. Not everyone who comes from CA are liberals. There are plenty of people that just like to see all the species in our beautiful forest. You really should listen to yourselves. If that’s your mindset, then by all means, please don’t stay at the Aspen Lodge. But I’ll tell you right now, you only know 1% of the story. And it takes a real special person to try to take out a family business they know nothing about. Have you been there? Stayed there? Ever met the family? No. You haven’t.

Hunting 6a for turkey and went by buck mtn look out and buck tank and the smaller tank on the 9353p and came across some jack wagons crime scene. Any one see anybody hunting the tank probably Friday or Saturday . Please call it in . It's OK to fill your tag but when you leave a whole bird you clearly shot and knew you did that's not ok. The bird was left at the water hole and it's probably only 30 yds across and in plain sight . Also within 40 yds of the two skinned out Jake's at the fence all within clear sight .

Oh good. Those were the 2 that were tempting me.