Yuma Outdoorsman

You make it seem like the road hunters would be able to shoot something big. There is a reason there are so many spikes shots. This buck laid here at 30 yards back in July. You won’t see a mature buck along a road where anybody can shoot them. Takes some effort.

Glad you only got a warning and sad you lose your buck. Sounds like you know going off of GOHUNT is not the wise choice and you learned your lesson the hard way. Congrats on successfully stalking a desert mule deer and making a kill shot with a bow. That is a very challenging task. I wish you success in the near future. out of curiosity, did they count that towards your legal buck for the season or are you able to go shoot another?

It's too bad we can't make it a forkie or bigger requirement in Arizona. I saw so many spikes posted on social media over the weekend. It's great people are out hunting but it is a bummer to see so many spikes killed.

72 bucks killed so far....

That is crazy. That is a joke for sure.

Oh no, this wasn't one of those cases. This was put together rather quickly and some locals benefited and shot some giant farm deer. There was actually another depredation hunt going on in Gila Valley just a couple years ago but it was anterless and the interest was extremely minimal because of that.

It caused Some drama in Yuma because a lot of locals didn’t know about the hunt but all the farmers were given a heads up so they told their friends and family and bunch of them got drawn and shot some big velvet bucks. That was the other issue, they did the depredations ahead of the general rifle hunt and pissed a ton of people off.

That depredation hunt was due to does in the fields and they should’ve made that an antler less hunt but all the hunters did was shoot bucks. Can’t blame them. It was a glorified trophy hunt. That hunt covered miles upon miles of alfalfa from Hwy 95 to Texas Hill. Also, it had nothing to do with alfalfa fields, it was to keep them away from produce fields due to food safety concerns. Now, the majority of the fields up until about 40E have large fencing blocking animals from getting to the fields. Not all crossings but a lot of them are blocked.

I can’t speak for the rest of the state, but numbers wise, the desert I hunt doesn’t have any where close to the number of deer it had even in the 90’s. As a kid, I could remember seeing giant herds of does and young bucks. I’m talking multiple herds of 20-30+ deer and now days if you see a herd of 5-7 deer that’s a big herd and rarely do you see more than one or two herds during a hunt. The difference between now and then is everything is on the internet now so things appear better but that’s not the case across the board, in my opinion.

The thought of hunting desert mule deer in February with a rifle when no other hunter is out there is why I put in for the hunt.

I have been addicted to watching the doppler that last few weeks and watching all the rain in the desert. I finally got a chance to drive through some of my favorite areas to hunt this past weekend and there was standing water on Sunday from rain on Thursday. That is awesome to see. Usually, that water is soaked up in a few hours but to see it still there days later means the washes have been running and the desert has been getting plenty of water. Let's hope that translates into some big, fat, healthy bucks for us all.

All those farm hunting road hunters aren't going to know what to do when they have to go find deer in the desert. It's a little different hunting when they aren't coming/leaving on the same trails every morning and evenings.

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-nevada/lake-meads-unusual-summer-rise-likely-aided-by-monsoon-season-2623130/amp/ Lake Mead is up 18” recently….hopefully it continues.

That is true. I’ve seen it also.

With all the rain we’ve been getting, this would’ve been a bad year to run cameras anyways. Storms 4-5 times a week in some places I hunt. Love it.

Sad but true.

I work in the ag industry. The water is getting tight and they are already feeling the wrath. The acreage that people are willing to farm are being cut due to water and farming expenses. One other interesting thing I heard was that some "business folks" have approached growers about being paid to leave their ground fallow. They were being offered some pretty substantial amounts of money to not grow anything. Tempting for a farmer who would be paid what his normal contract would be from a shipper to grow for them, Only this would be 100% profit and no grower costs (labor, gas, seed, fertilizer, spray, etc.)....This is the first I've ever heard of it in my area but I heard it's been attempted in the past in other places, mainly California. With all the fires across the country at food processing plants, there are some concerning issues between both food and water going on.

Few and far between. People should stay up north no doubt!

That would be amazing.

Ya Cabeza will be as green as ever with all the rain it’s had this monsoon. It awesome though. These animals need it.

That is crazy but we could sure use all the rain. Been a great monsoon season thus far.

Getting more rain in some of Unit 39 and a few of the 40's units of the desert. Should be some fat and happy deer over the next few months. Only 83 days until the opener. Should be a great rifle season.

That mount looks awesome man! Congratulations on a nice ram also! well done.

I hope they are spread out. Makes the hunting tougher for road hunters!