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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.

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.

For years I had been saving points for an archery AZ Strip hunt. I already had a decent mule deer on my wall, but I wanted a true monster. In early 2023, I began to hear stories of how much more difficult the hunts were becoming without the use of trail cams on the strip. Additionally, I also heard that the Kaibab had seen some great antler growth in 2022. Although the forecast for 2023 was slight lower, antler growth was still expected to be well above average. I ultimately decided to bail on the Strip (which was still a few years away for me with point creep) and go all-in on an early Kaibab rifle hunt. After finding out that I had indeed drawn a tag for the hunt, I spent four days up on the west side of the Kaibab in July just to re-familiarize myself with the roads, watering sources, etc. I didn't see many deer, but still considered the scouting trip well worth the effort. By the end of my second scouting trip, I was gradually coming to realize that finding bucks would not be a problem. But finding a true 180+" trophy was going to be more about luck than preparation. After some late nights and serious soul-searching, I decided to raid my Big Horn Sheep fund and hire a outfitter. It was a tough decision to make, but even with 32 points I knew that statistically I was still several years away from drawing a sheep tag in a 'second tier' unit. On the other hand, the Kaibab tag was in my hand and the prospect of a giant was very real. I did a lot of searching on line and asking questions of everyone I new about some of the better-known outfitters on the Kaibab plateau. Although I was able to narrow it down to four outfitters, the name "Shadow Valley Outfitters" (SVO) kept floating to the top. I ended up having a great six-week-long dialog with Pat McCarty, one of the owners of SVO. Their focus on the client and depth of bench when it came to guides finally tipped the scales in their favor. I could spend pages describing the hunt, but that is best left for another time. The hunt itself was an epic adventure filled with emotional highs and lows. Travis Lyons was assigned to be my guide for the week-long hunt. What I learned from him alone about deer behavior and migration movement on the Kaibab was worth the price of the hunt. By the end of day two, I had become convinced that had forgotten more knowledge about finding and hunting deer than I had accumulated in my lifetime. He could spot deer so much more quickly than I could and his ability to judge racks was incredible. We had several close encounters with some 180+" bucks, but we either couldn't get a shot opportunity or mother nature was working against us. On the second morning of the hunt, I had a 180+" buck in my scope at about 410 yds. How Travis ever spotted this guy in a dense stand of jack pines was beyond me. The problems I encounted with the shot were: 1) the sun was just peaking over the hill and was directly in my eyes, so I could only make out his head and top line of his back through my scope; 2) there was a tree trunk covering his vitals; and 3) there was a full value wind gusting from right to left at 15-20 mph. We elected to pass on that shot, thinking we could move around and get better position on the buck's vitals. The buck didn't care for that plan and took off at a dead run away from us. That one will haunt me for the rest of my life. On the final day of my hunt, I told Travis that my expectations for a buck had dimished considerably. I told him I would take any buck with a gross score of 160 or better. We had planned on going back to the same valley where we had seen that 180+" buck, but didn't even get to the spot. As we were driving in, Travis spotted some does with a buck hiding out way in the back. I could only catch glimpses of him, while Travis was describing his rack in great detail. Travis felt very confident he would go at least 160". After some discussion and agonizing decision making on my part, I went with the old "bird in th hand' analogy and the stalk was on. The buck gave us the slip and did a large buttonhook run to reunite with his does. It was thick forest, but Travis found him back with his does in the opposite direction from where we were first looking. He was standing broadside at a mere 80 yds, but once again - an obstruction was covering his vitals. All I had was a neck shot, but unike last time, there was no hesitation. He dropped at the shot from the 160 gr. Matrix bullet out of my 6.5 PRC. As we hiked over to him, Travis smiled at me a said "I think you're gonna like this buck". After skinning and quartering the buck, Travis again told me that the buck was definitely going to score in the mid 160's. When several of the guides finally put a tape to him, he ended up with a gross green score of 170 & 3/8". Not bad for a last day consolation buck. I couldn't be happier with the hunt, the trophy and with SVO.

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I know we are right before the holiday and mid-season on a bunch of hunts, but there is an issue in Unit 3A that needs immediate attention. Below is a picture of the hunt recommendations for 2024 Elk and Antelope. Included in the recommendations is a modification to the boundary description for 3A that changes the hunts or area for draw tags to that portion of the unit within the Apache Sitgreaves NF. The remainder of the unit was converted to OTC at the insistence of the ranchers in the area. With the OTC designation, the Elkins ranch has entered into an exclusive access agreement with an outfitter who is selling OTC hunts for $10k. This privatization of hunting and commercialization of a public resource is not in line with the North American Model and is a disservice to all hunters. Please submit a comment to AZGFD to close elk hunting in the Zeniff hunt area until these ranches create a public access agreement similar to what other ranches in the state have done. Submit comments to: AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov

Last weekend my 2 sons and I went turkey hunting for our first fall hunt. We arrived on Thursday evening and setup camp. Friday morning we went to our first spot and someone beat us to it so we decided to go explore some more of the area and went a few miles north. We walked some tanks and glassed some open areas with no success. On the way back to camp we bumped a small group of hens crossing the road. We tried to get out of the truck quietly but they gave us the slip, we were too slow. We continued towards camp and spotted another larger group of turkey that had just crossed the road. We stopped and started sneaking down the road. As we came over a rise I spotted a coyote also putting the sneak on the turkey and he was headed up the road directly at us, but didn't see us yet. I played the gamble of just shoot him and bag a coyote and then try and go for a bird in the chaos, or hope he runs and doesn't bust the turkey. I chose option 2, but if course he freaked and ran right thru the turkey trying to get away and they exploded across the creek and into the trees. No luck. Next day in the AM we got close to some hens but not close enough. Saturday afternoon we went to go setup on a waterhole. On the way we spotted a group of hens walking the road. I stopped the truck and they walked right up to the truck and I told my son's not to move and let them pass. When they pass we will sneak out from behind and see if we can bag them. They literally walked to 5 feet in front of the truck and then walked around it. We slowly got out and I was clear first so I took the shot on a hen and smacked her good for my first turkey! Lincoln ran down the road and in the chaos was able to get 2 shots off at a hen, but missed in the excitement. We grabbed my bird and went on with plan A to the waterhole. My son's and I setup in a ground blind an archery hunter made and waited. About 30 minutes in a Tom comes flying into the tank. Literally flying in the air with another 2 behind him in the air. They landed a d started eating. 2 more Tom's joined them shortly. The 4 walked around on the other side of the water about 80yrds out for about 15 min. Then I whispered to my son's to not move and stay quiet. I heard a turkey behind us in the brush. A 5th Tom strutted out and worked his way over to the group of 4 and started strutting and parading around like a tough guy. Eventually they all calmed and kept eating. 2 birds started for the water cautiously. They were in range but were crossing each other, and my son froze a little and didn't shoot when he could have. The other 3 started working in too, and finally the 3rd bird which I think was the one from behind us walked in and my son smoke him at about 40yrds. 1 clean shot and he was flopping. Unfortunately he flopped right into the waterhole. My son's were both stoked to say the least but I may have been more excited on the inside than both of them. My son's first turkey was a nice Tom. 7.5" beard and once we washed it the fan turned our pretty nice.

I figured in Mexico a monster like that is possible once in awhile. Hope they aren't engineering bucks like some of the Midwest states are doing here. I see these pics of monsters getting killed and couldn't be less interested in a hunt like that. But I guess when there is big money involved good things get ruined

Outstanding buck!! Nice job.

Congrats Eli on an outstanding buck. Good job bud. Thanks for inviting me.

I'd have to agree with everyone my hunting buddy has high end vortex binos and my leupold bx3 are better and they still have a lifetime warranty . Ziess ,meopta,Swarovski or most cables euro made by meopta are much better glass for the money.

Can’t speak to the fury’s, but l was pretty disappointed in the clarity from the UHDs. A good set of used 15x56 SLCs is about the same price as a new set of UHDs, but you will be much happier looking through the SLCs and you won’t take as much of a hit if you choose to sell in the future

Part of our license fees go to the land trust. That’s why you can access and hunt it with a valid hunting license. It’s not luck, it was designed that way.

That's how it goes sometimes! Congrats on a fun hunt with family!

Heck ya, great work!

swarovski, buy once cry once. Or go cheaper, japan leupold

I'm not familiar with the ranch names but very familiar with the area. So are we talking about the guy on Zennif that used to be hay farm and the ranch to the east of that north of the rr tracks south of the big power line? I tried to get in there on 2 hunts in the last few years and it is all locked. We have been hunting in their since 93 off and on.

Good job guys, congrats

I think what you are doing is incredible. If you can get a gofundme or alternative started I’d like to pitch in. This isn’t something one person should have to carry on their shoulders alone.

Thanks Brian IA born for the rifle case donation.

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

Big Bo is not like this yet but outfitter has tried to lock up. It’s all about money and outfitters don’t care about anything else.

We mounted his fan and beard DIY and it turned out pretty well.

Just a few pictures of the 7-08 and the 3-08 after Eric and the axis works guys donated muzzle breaks for the guns . The shiny break will be getting cerakote work by mferaz. When I get back from my dad's muzzleloader elk hunt in a few weeks. Thanks Michael for donating your time and resources.

I cleaned up my inbox. You would be surprised how many people want my opinion on bison, 4b antelope, and otc elk.