MOWhitail

Coming from Washington state with my 16 year old son for his first Mule Deer hunt, in 12AW. I am so excited for this trip I can't stand it. He is a Junior this year, and I have just a couple more years before he leaves the house for school and I have to learn to take more and more of a back seat in his life. So I am really going to enjoy this. I was going to do this hunt DIY, but my wife knew how important it was to us both and insisted we go with Duwane Adams... Can't believe the Lord blessed me with such an incredible wife and mom to my kids... so AZ here we come! Any other parent/kid combos headed to the Kiabab next week?

I'd love nothing more than to hear the stories of all these great hunts, and see some great pics in about 2 weeks! Sounds like a great crew going up that way. I hope that everyone has a safe and wonderful time!

I love decisions like this... Went through the same with both my son and my wife. 7-08 is a great all around caliber. .260 rem and 6.5 Creed are great (I'd like a Creedmore myself). Just assuming that your wife may be typically shooting at around 200 yards, then you really can't go wrong with any of them. My son had a Savage youth .243 he shot since he was 10, and killed a bunch of deer with it... He is now 17 and 6'1" and the stock doesn't fit him very well, but I notice when he is getting serious he grabs that gun out of my safe and leaves his .270... I guess he just has enough "history" with it that he feels more comfortable. Anyway, whatever you choose in those calibers will be fine. My wife ended up with a 7x57, but that is basically the same as a 7-08... She just kind of digs historic calibers, and I have a modest Jack O'Conner book collection, so she went that direction... Plus Winchester makes the Model 70 in 7x57 and it is a very good shooting configuration.

Shot that bow when it first came out. Great bow.

I'm wondering how the Triclawps attaches to the tripod. I assume you screw a quick release shoe to the bottom of it? Has anyone used it on a Slcik Carbon tripod? Is it a better system than a regular set of shooting sticks or a BogPod tripod shooting stick set up? Thanks.

Really great pictures! It's awesome that you have a record like that of all your adventures!

Nice!

Sorry for the typo... I have been looking at load data for my wife's 7X57, so must have brain farted on the 139gr... 129gr SST should be a really good deer round. I have heard of people having some consistency problems with the factory Supraformance loads, and wondered how they shot in your gun.

That is a smoking deal. And a great gun and caliber. I've been thinking about building a Creedmore out of a Savage .243 youth my son used when he was younger.... That should be a serious Deer Slayer. I friend of the family had his 12 year old daughter shoot a 320 bull, in WY, with a Creedmore last year. Worked fine on that too.

Have any of you ever purchased trip insurance for a hunting trip? I have an 84 year old gentleman in our church that is booking a guided hunt and asked me if I thought he should find some trip insurance in case he can't go for some reason... I have no idea what companies offer a good product and if there are any pitfalls to avoid. Thanks for the help.

Sounds like a great organization. Has anyone donated to HOAL (Hunt of a lifetime)? I see them listed in the AZ regs and don't really know anything about them. I have a friend looking to donate a tag, I looked on their website, and the hunts haven't been updated snce 2009

I'm super happy for you and your dad! My 16 year old son and I will be there for his first Mule Deer hunt at the same time as well. We are both very excited. It will be a great adventure for you and your dad I am sure, and I hope for my son and I as well. Good luck!

I ordered some of the "Hybrid" maps from the USFS, I purchased for an Idaho hunt, not sure if that is what you are referring to. You can select the area you want mapped I believe, or just designate a quad (which is what I did). I personally didn't care for the quality of the map. It came printed out in large format from an Ink Jet printer, and the ink was able to smear fairly easily. It was ok for use at home. The Flatline map I bought for an AZ hunt a couple years ago is really, really nice. Best hard copy map I own.

10/24/2014 - 11/02/2014 UNIT 12A WEST For me and my 16 year old son.... Yea baby.

Man! How have I not seen this before? I've got to have tone!

That is kind of what I'm hoping does NOT happen with my credit card being hit for a deer tag.... only I don't want a false positive....

hahaha.... Congrats! I guess.

Agree 100%. Waiting stinks, but they don't owe me anything. One suggestion might be for them to post "status updates" on the dept. website and FB page. The rumor mill and guessing game seem to make things worse, and the "natives restless".

I took this picture last summer in AZ... unfortunately I didn't draw a bull tag in AZ this year or last... Someday soon I hope...

This is probably a dumb question, and I've tried searching the site for this answer but I must not be typing in the right search perimeters... Is every Whitetail in AZ considered a Coues? I see posts listing units from the north all the way to the south of the state, and just wondered. I had always been under the impression that Coues Deer were in the southern most part of the state... and I guess I assumed that the Whitetails in the northern units would be a different sub species...

I know! Happens every time... And it gives me nightmares.

That is nasty! I wouldn't touch that thing at all, even if they tell me it isn't contagious.

I'm no expert on Coues Deer, but those are not Mule Deer they are Whitetails.

Congrats! That is sweet!