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Thanks for the support and all who showed up…

I’ve been drawing these late archery bull tags now and then for a while. I’m just tired of wearing myself out. I’m strongly considering just putting in for rifle hunts. It would be nice to just hear bang, then flop for a change. Well, my oldest son and I both drew this year. I wound up letting him do most of the stalking. We would glass in the morning, and try to get on them. We located some of the biggest bulls I’ve ever seen. Most of them were located in completely unstalkable locations. I thought my son was gonna seal the deal a few times, but he always got discovered at the last second right before a shot opportunity. He never did connect, but time spent with my son can’t be replaced. On our way home from work, my wife saw a bull she thought I could get to. She’s be praying that God would give me a nice bull on this hunt. I’d seen a few bulls on my commute, including some real studs, but never had time to go after them on days I had to work. But the hunt was drawing to a close, and this bull was low hanging fruit. Even after a terrible shot, I got it done. My wife’s prayers were answered! Also, my youngest son filled his first youth tag and got an elk. IMG_3284.mov

You are a complete joke. You couldn’t catch a lion in a zoo. You have no idea how difficult hound hunting is. It takes years to train a successful dog. Most hunts are failures, and are extremely difficult.

2006 Yamaha Rhino 660 $5,500 OBO Full body skid plate 4000lb winch New ball joints, axels, brake pads. Carb serviced this year by AZ Cycle Centers Great Hunting Rig

This year my three youngest sons all drew a youth deer tag. We spent a lot of time shooting and preparing for the hunt. As the hunt grew closer, it was fun watching the excitement in my boys. For two of them, this was their first time on a deer hunt with their own tag. Much to my wife's dismay, there were a lot of youtube hunts on TV in the house leading up to the hunt. Opening morning found us on our go-to knob glassing a large bowl. This bowl has always been good to us. Fairly quickly we were picking up deer everywhere. About 20 minutes after seeing light, my buddy spotted a group of bucks and I was able to find the biggest in the group. Nothing crazy but a decent 3x2. My older son took a look at him and decided since he was feeling super sick, he would take that buck. We got him set up quickly behind the 7 PRC and he made a great shot that put the buck down quickly. I was proud of him. After we packed that buck out, my son decided it was best for him to go home. My buddy loaded him up in my truck and drove him all the way back into town. Good friends like that are hard to find. Second day I had another buddy join us. He brought a couple young men with him who had never experienced hunting before. They did awesome and are hooked. While driving to a spot, we spotted a little sporky and my youngest son immediately wanted to shoot that buck. We tried talking him out of it, but he was determined that was gonna be his first buck. We quickly hiked up and around a hill we thought he'd be headed to and were able to cut off the group of deer he was with. We got him set up on a tripod for a fast 100 yard shot. As soon as the buck started to come up the hill opposite from us, I told my son that was him and to take the shot as soon as he stopped. The buck paused long enough to look back at us and my 10 year old son made an absolutely perfect shot and the buck ran hard for 30 yards and piled up. The bald, grassy hill gave us the perfect show of the whole event. My son could not be happier with this buck. He is very proud of it. Hahaha. On the third day, we went to a hill where we spotted a group of bucks at last light the night before. We immediately picked up the bucks at first light. At 750 yards, we wanted to cut the distance. So we left my youngest son and my buddy on the hill to keep an eye on them. My son and I made the fast move and cut a few hundred yards off. As soon as we topped over the shooting knob I saw 20 big bushy whitetails flagging at us as they ran straight up the hill away from us. I was shocked. The wind was in our face. We were under the hill from them and they could not see us. I have no clue what spooked them. But my son didn't panic and laid down behind the rifle. I ranged and dialed. I got my BTX set up and found the biggest buck in the group and walked my son into it just before he topped over. My son made an amazing 512 yard shot and the buck dropped without taking a step. Game over. The practice paid off for each of my boys and I was a proud papa.

Part of me got excited and wants it... then I remembered it hurts to fall off. Glws

Following dogs on foot ain’t for the faint of heart.

I used to think there was no sport in it until I saw firsthand the amount of work that lion hunters put in with there dogs. It takes a lot of training and endless miles.

Gaslighting 1000%. Hoping it passes is you in support of taking away peoples livelihood away and opportunities away from people. I would also venture to say you probably have never been on a pursuit/hunt with dogs. Trailing a pack of good working dogs is watching natural art unfold. The shot of a treed animal is 1% of the hunt with dogs. There’s so much more to it. I’d suggest you try something and do it before you speak on something you have no knowledge of besides what you assume the hunt is. Regardless I hope all hunters can support this petition not passing as the last thing hunters need is more opportunities and rights being stripped from them because its something the uneducated public doesn’t support or know anything about. If you truly like hunting coues, mule deer, sheep, antelope, and elk id support the houndsmen as they make a big difference taking the lions and predators they do.

And here is the problem…. Just because it’s not something that you agree with or wish to participate in you automatically want to take someone else’s legal right away from them. Pathetic. Hunters are hunters worst enemies. Always looking to take away another hunters method of take or way they hunt. I don’t understand why people can’t just live and let live.

Ok, my New Mexico solo 2024 mule deer hunt is in the books, link to story coming soon. Now for the 46A, and B hunt. We went scouting and saw a medium sized 3 x 3 the first evening on the Cabeza, and a large bobcat. We really didn't glass a whole lot we were just trying to get familiar with the roads as we didn't have a whole lot of time. I'm sure if we had spent more time glassing we would have found more deer. We do have an area picked out for opening morning.

Alright, its been alluded to on another post so figured I might as well let it rip here. My 15 yo son has the one sheep tag for 37B. The odds to get the tag are ridiculous and I don’t want to even pretend it’s fair. But he is also a hard working student athlete who sacrifices a lot for his goals. I want him to be successful. We have found a few rams and one solid one we hope to reconnect with. But his time will be limited as he has school and practice everyday until 12/20 and then he has practice everyday except Christmas Eve and Christmas. So we are going to hit it hard on weekends until school gets out and then see how much practice he thinks he can get away with missing. If you’ve ever wanted to be part of a sheep hunt, this might be your chance. If you would like to team up and help glass on 12/1 (opening day, Sunday after Thanksgiving), shoot me a message and we will coordinate. We plan to put out as many eyes as we can to try and turn up a ram and see if we can get him killed. The unit is huge and pretty remote with sheep spread out all over. So trying to figure out where they are is the biggest challenge. Then waiting for them to be in a spot where you can get to them is the next challenge. Then execute an effective long range shot. This is no cake walk. You’ll need your own transportation and glass. If we have a spare radio we will loan you one, but cell service is pretty good in a lot of that country. It would be awesome if guys were comfortable evaluating sheep. The plan is to get as many eyes out locating on the first to see if we can turn up something good and then put together a plan to kill him. If it doesn’t work out, we’ll try again the next weekend. Rinse and repeat until school gets out. Thanks to those who have already reached out and those who want to participate. I think this could be really cool.

$20 in Tucson or I can mail it to ya.

270 Weatherby mag mark V. It’s German made Weatherby scope also have two boxes of Weatherby ammo And 20 rounds of Weatherby brass $1800 or trade

I have several of the Razor LHTs. Better than my VX5 by a large margin. The NX8 had terrible eyebox. The ATAC-R scopes are great but $3600 and 3 pounds. Some of the VX6 Leupolds are pretty nice. The one my buddy had on his Alterra tracks pretty good. Limited testing but lots of one shot kills out to 700

There are some bonefish in San Diego Bay and Mission Bay.

My daughter after a dozen years, decided to start hunting again. Her fiance passed last year and has moved back home at our request. Her sadness has been apparent. First time putting in, in that time and she gets the coveted 37a late season bull tag. Fortunately, for her, there are few people that know late season elk as well as me. 🤣 Scouting was difficult, my usual spot on had 10 broken bulls in it, so I decided to check other areas that I know. Wednesday, I find a spot with a herd of about 25 bulls, but a guy in a gray single cab Toyota pulled behind and these elk acted very skittish. I wasn't comfortable focusing on them. Yesterday, I decide to go to my original spot and 15 bulls are off in the distance. One weird one with a double main beam I wanted her to take. This was the final dress rehearsal. I had everything timed from house to shooting position, including pee stops and circle k shopping at two hours and two minutes. Everything, for once, goes perfectly. Then the unexpected happened. A newer Ford started following us down a two track with very limited access points. I speed up and he speeds up. This causes me to go way closer to our hunting spot than anticipated. My brother took off his jacket and asked to be let out too discuss hunter etiquette. We get to a spot where a tacoma is better than a full size ford and leave him behind but very close to the hunting spot. We get to our spot and I see a silhouette of a man a few hundred yards from us. I curse out loud(very loud) then glass the field and find 15 elk bodies to our left and 850 yards into the field. The silhouette was 90 degrees to our right. I go through options in my head and for a brief time my daughter was not my daughter she was a hunter. I tell her 'let's c'block the m'fer'. The terrain and visibility was in our favor with him having a slope in front of him. I tell her let's cut across the open field into the little valley keeping the hill between the hunter and us and getting closer in the progress. We set up 3 different times before I dare not get any closer in the wide open. I'm anxious and texted Flatlander this Pic. He knows this spot in 37a Then I started texting ranges when they get to 500ish yards a fog bank rolls in and my rangefinder reads 7 yards. Last night my daughter said in a stern voice "I am shooting the first bull i see. I am not a trophy hunter". As we are in front of 15 bull elk, she says I like the gray one and the one way in the back. I am going to shoot the last one. I tell her weirdo is in the middle, a 4x6 with a split main beam, and there is a giant in the way back in the herd to the right. The fog lifts a little and the ones up front are under 400. The first ones cross at 307. Some broken small bulls. She let's them pass. She's set up and ready. I am thinking she is going to shoot weirdo as i swing the binoculars to the front of the herd. Boom! I ask her which one did she shoot at. Then Grey falls, not taking a step. After a few seconds it trys getting up and she puts a second round into his neck. Then he'll breaks loose. The elk just next to Grey make it look like Grey ran off. We stand there in disbelief. Then we look where she shot and see antlers sticking off the ground. Elk are running in every direction with this batch looking at its leader just lying there as we get closer i see this. as she walks up to it. My brother comes and we pose for a pic. this fat old 7x7 was shot at 705 am and we got the last piece out at 230pm. She did the majority of the field dressing

I don't want to see it banned - I get it's place in the ecosystem and generations of breeding and dedication but no one can convince me it is fair chase (regardless of the hours on the ranger circling points and then hiking in/keeping up with the pups) and if I had to be totally honest, i'd sway to yes on the wildlife harassment side too. The sad part is any difference of opinion here - you are automatically an idiot.. sounds leftish to me. It's ok to have a discussion and have an opinion. Alright - light me up lifted chevy guys!

I love my soy latte, they are delicious and help me keep my figure….which your wife greatly appreciates………..

While I respect your opinion I steadfastly disagree. Hounds have been bred for thousands of years to do just that. Predator control is just one minuit aspect of it. AZ needs to bring back trapping on public lands. Sure it serves a purpose but the shooter needs to cover a lot of ground. Killing isn't pretty and is just one aspect of these hunts. People participate in them for a lot of personal reasons. Not every treed animal is killed each time.

Now spill it.

That is excellent advice for a client. I wouldn’t want a bunch of weekend warriors around messing with my work either. I’m not worried about the folks who are rolling with us. These guys know what they are doing. And even if they didn’t, we aren’t babysitting anyone and I am definitely not telling my kid to kill a ram so some Joe blow can take a picture. Some pretty awesome dudes have raised their hands and I appreciate it. I don’t have a lot of die hard friends and the ones I have work their tails off taking care of their families. So I appreciate anyone who is willing to pitch in. It’s been a cool way to make some friends over the years. Some of my best buddies have come from this site and I value those relationships tremendously.

I could see that being more of a self serving statement from the outfitters. Probably just doesn't want a bunch of new people learning the areas that they hunt.

I've said some bold things in this thread and another, so I am prepared to eat my hat in shame if necessary. Anyone who wants to come play, I have calendared shooting Saturday, January 30, 2021 9:00 am until we've had enough fun. If it is just a couple people, we can hike and shoot rocks. If there is a bigger group, then I can find somewhere to set up steel at increments out to 1000 yards. We can do it out between Gila Bend and Maricopa, accessible to East and West siders. PM me if you are in. To anyone who beats me--we can make the rules up as we go--I will give you a shooting bag. If people just want to come shoot, they are welcome to come see me eat my hat in shame. I can show you what I know within my competency. I'd welcome any others who know more than me to be there and chime in. Its gonna be informal.