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I did not see any WT bucks bigger than 100. I killed a nice mulie , however. Deer numbers were good but buck to doe ratio was terrible and many does were tended by 2 and 3 year old bucks. The horses aren't helping either. Far more horses than deer or elk.

I think this raining coming on Friday is going to smash hopes of killing bucks over water. Reiterating what CouesPursuit said, sitting in a blind over water is going to be the most effective with a young one tagging along. I say, roll the dice and sit some water--only need 1 to show up.

+1 on Woody's rain comment. My opinion is that the full moon won't impact watering habits too much. Deer get thirsty and want to drink whether the moon is full or not. They can/will hit the water at any hour of any given day. Side note: The 'full moon' impact on deer activity has been debated SO many times, it seems. Though most hunters would disagree based on their own experience and anecdotal evidence, there have been studies that show the full moon has little/no effect on deer activity during the day. Go sit that water hole with your boy!

If I really wanted to know, I’d ask a few dudes that are local hammers and decide for myself. If that aligns with the study so be it. but I just hunt when I can, moon be damned.

Coming out of St David just a bit ago a young couple took out the front end of their Ford fusion. We saw airbags deployed and stopped to see if they were ok. Right at mile marker 310, couldn't be any more exact actually because the cat bounced off the car and took the mile marker sign out.

Completing the circle of a unit post, just because I feel like it is the right thing to do, especially for us non residents. To sum up our hunt, in over our heads and not enough time. About 2-3 weeks prior to the hunt my dad’s cancer doctor notified him about some concerning findings in his levels/bloodwork and told him that he needed to get in before the first of the year. Well they scheduled that appointment for mid week of this first week of the season, it was the only available time for his doctor. That might seem crazy to some of you, but this doctor is the reason my dad is still alive and he travels a lot as he is an expert in his treatment of myeloma cancer. Anyway, we were cut short before we even started and because of where we live and the holidays this first week was our only chance. I didn’t really have any information but my own, and I never had any specific spots or anything, just general information. I don’t know anyone down here and don’t have any inside info or experience with hunting desert whitetails. So I just had areas that I had pinned on my maps that looked good for glassing. We sold out in those areas and I really thought we would see some coues through the glass. The information I read online eluded to the fact that coues deer were everywhere in this unit in high numbers and that mule deer were dwindling and maybe they are, but that’s not what we found. We found mule deer, and lots of them. We found mule deer in every spot I pinned and we found some really good bucks. We couldn’t get away from mule deer it seemed. The first coues deer we saw was two days in after we hiked out of this bowl that I thought looked good, it was, there was a stellar mature 4x4 hanging with some does and another young buck at the bottom of it. Leaving that area and heading to another glassing spot we saw a coues doe and fawn off the road. That felt like a small win! We finally had some validation that coues deer existed. All the OTC guys we ran into stated they were having troubles finding bucks, so I tried trading info on the mule deer we were seeing for info on coues. Not a lot knew or wanted to share where the coues were or what type of elevation band or terrain we should focus on to find them, but since we couldn’t hunt muley’s we tried to line everyone we could on where the bucks were. The day before we left I glassed up a young forky Coues with a doe, my dad passed. That would be the last Coues deer we saw. On our last evening of our hunt, just before dark we were heading back to camp… lo and behold, I saw a big bodied deer leaving a tank. I pulled over and took some film, another mule deer buck, cruising by himself. Anyway, 4 coues to 40-50 mule deer, that’s what we were able to turn up. It’s clear to me, I don’t know what the heck I am doing on these whitetails and I wish I had more time to figure them out. Not sure if I would have been able to anyway in a full week, but I definitely didn’t in a half week of hunting. If I had any advice for a non resident in my similar situation, with no experience or a friend who hunts them, I’d say don’t put in for this hunt unless you book with a guide or have solid reliable info on where to start and what to look for. This is a tough hunt for sure and coues ain’t like any other deer species that I have ever hunted. The terrain is nasty and mean. All in all, dad and I had a great time together and we made some memories together that are worth a lot more than a tag filled.

This. And when I end up eating tag soup it’s just another excuse I can tell myself. LoL

Agreed on the wink emoji (Too much emoji use on my part, in general. Likely the result of years of text exchanges with my daughter… ). That being said, it IS a fact that there are studies. For sure though, the results of the studies are just that; results (not necessarily’facts’…).

This rain won't help

Crap shoot imo. Deer could stop hitting water completely or not change a thing. That said, unless you can get another ambush setup with lots of deer movement, water is still probably the best chance at arrowing a buck in front of the youngster from a warm, enclosed ground blind.

who hunts drunk? drink when you get back to camp.

Thanks so much for the follow up as I know we all appreciate when someone follows up after first asking for assistance. Best of luck to your Dad.

Thats what it gets for drinking bud light

Oh and the roads, really are as bad as everyone says. Holy smokes, we got our fill of some legit off roading/crawling. I’ve still yet to find something impassable in the General though.

If your not going to kill a coues deer , this is the next best thing

This is the direct link to the table from AZGFD, works better on the phone: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1Cx1a40_mywVd8rv1IvsOoG4tQwoTWvXM4LHn31721Hw/htmlembed/sheet?gid=412778987&pli=1

He is very interested.

If he’s interested in working at Empire Cat let me know.

Greetings and my apologies for not posting this write up earlier because i truly thought i had. I was lucky enough to draw the early 45c sheep, in 2022, with 23/24 points. I spend 2 or 3 weekends on month, starting in July, and running through October in scouting mode. Needless to say, it was brutally hot and I had to get creative by installing a portable AC unit into the bed of my truck/camper because average summer night time temperatures averaged around 95+ degrees. Daytime temperatures were very consistent at 110. I lived 3.5 hours from my unit plus another 30-60 minutes to my glassing spots. The first few months was really learning roads/access and locating the persistent water holes. I tried to limit my hikes to early mornings to avoid high daytime temperatures, but more times than i would like to admit, i found myself hiking in/out in high temperatures - brutal. Minus the search for water holes, most of my glassing was limited to road glassing or a high point near the road. During all my early scouting trips, monsoons were pretty consistent and by October the north facing slopes in the large basins were loaded with food - literally a green up. By November, I had seen many sheep and just as many rams but all seen from afar. Even with using my big eyes (two 20-60x65mm swarovski spotting scopes with a bracket), I hadn't seen anything that wow'ed me and really used my scouting trips to try and exclude areas during the hunt. I started to question my decision of DIY and should I hire a guide - I was beginning to doubt my approach. So my hunt was starting on 11/18 and I set up sheep camp on 11/10. Most of my support was going to show up a few days before the start of the hunt. With nothing but time and tread on my boots to waste, I started hiking into areas based on my months of scouting. i was averaging 10+ miles a day and it wasn't until day 5 before finding what i considered a book ram. I sat on this ram for multiple days. This ram was named and if it was opening day, i would have shot "Dirty Brown". He was an old class 4 ram with most of rump hair missing so he looked like a dirty @ss ram - aka dirty brown. While in the same basin, I also found another shooter ram. He was smaller than dirty brown so we didnt name him. On the third day of sitting on Dirty Brown, he went MIA. I spend the whole day trying to relocate but I would never see him again. Luckily the day i lost dirty brown, my buddy showed up in sheep camp. I sent him into the next basin to the south - we thought divide and conquer. I was truly dejected thinking i lost the best ram i had seen in the unit. I finished the day watching ram #2 - we still hadn't named him. We both returned to camp and i was licking my wounds. I figured ram #2 was a shooter (likely a book ram) and I will go back and sit on this ram. I am telling my buddy that i lost the target ram but had a backup ram. The whole time updating my buddy on my trials from the day, he had a shitty grin on his face. Once i was done crying about losing dirty brown, he showed me pics of what he found - we ended calling him Rick Flare (horns flared). We wake up the day before opening day. My buddy goes back in to sit on Rick Flare and i went to sit on ram #2. At the end of day, on Thursday, we were left with only one ram - Rick Flare. Ram #2 went MIA on the third day exactly like Dirty Brown. We were ecstatic that Rick Flare was still in the same basin, so plans were drawn for opening day. Back in camp most of my team arrived and few were arriving in the morning. We had one plan for opening day - find Rick Flare and shoot him. However, after losing dirty brown and ram #2 on the third day, i was really worried he would not show because opening day would be "Day 3" for Rick Flare. I didn't sleep well that night. While sitting on all these rams, we did not see any other sheep hunters, but paranoia set in and departure time was bumped up. We were over an hour+ to the ram from camp and the caravan pulled out at 400 AM. Multiple rigs in-tow, we make our way to Rick Flare. We stopped short of the basin to split up the teams since we were not fully sure where the ram would be. Half the team stayed far back to see more of the basin and a small group headed up to where we last saw Rick Flare. To our surprise and utter disappointment, no sheep in the entire basin. Despair, frustration was setting in that the sheep moved out of this basin. We didn't have any back up plans since we already lost two shooter rams days before. My buddy said, "i am going up into the cut where i originally found the ram.". 15 minutes later he comes running back and he found the sheep in a tight crevice. my team moved to continue our search for Rick Flare and it was not long before Rick Flare was spotted. A handful of my team stayed back to watch and my buddy and I attempted to make a move. Rick was well over 1000+ yards so we moved for a closer shot. It appeared with every step the ram was watching us especially since he moved away from the other sheep in the cut. Luckily, in hindsight, he was moving closer to us while we moved closer to him. Unfortunately, it felt like every step we moved was being watched by the ram. In our eagerness to get in shooting range, we pulled out of the wash to set up for a shot. We were lined out at 571 yards - prone. Keep in mind, i do all my load development and DOPE on a 300 RUM. I was consistently shooting out to 900 yards (popping one gallon water jugs), so at 571 I felt extremely confident. I was shooting 210 Berger VLD pushing 3100+FPS. I was on reload number three for the brass and normally start to discard brass after 5-6 reloads. The video below was the first shot. It was hit, he partially flopped, but he got back up. I am cycling my next round and only part of the case came out. I realized quickly that i just experienced a head case separation and the ram is still on his feet. Adrenaline was running high and half the case was still stuck in my chamber. In the heat of the moment, the only thought was to slam the gun on the butt of the gun. Luckily the sheep gods were on my side and the case slid out. After removing the case which seemed like an eternity, the ram had moved and i was blocked by a palo verde and forced to move. I will give credit to my buddy for remaining calm and staying on the ram. I was able to reposition and locate the ram. I take my second shot, with no adjustments, and my spotter could not tell if it was a hit/miss. I thought it was a hit because i heard the thud on impact. Now, the ram is behind a tree and all we can see is his head and horns. We were told after the fact, he was a dead ram standing after the second shot. He was doing the death wobble but all my buddy and I could see was his head/horns moving in and out of the tree. On the next wobble outside of the tree, i sent bullet number three and ended my pursuit of the rugged desert bighorn. I was tagged out by 8:30 AM on opening day. 7C3F14A3-3DBF-4070-B892-8CFF1D10A56F.mov

Had to take a pic of my phone, I suck at this. Doing Woods and Willow next 2 days

Eli, that’s a great turnaround time and the buck looks awesome! I only take in a certain amount of work each year. I quote a 12 month turnaround, but usually complete within 10 months. It’s a more of a passion for me, so I try and care for each piece. Couple bucks finished up the last few months.

Took this bad boy this week. My first. I am a late onset hunter.

Because its only 3 years old!

Yep, I had seen that episode originally about a year ago (I think I posted it here....). I posted a message to Pulse Factor's Facebook page at the time, warning & scolding them..... Apparently they really don't care. S.