6AYoteHunter

Jessie is really good. Him, his son, and I moved a 2000+ lb safe in 20 minutes.

Most crowded elk unit in AZ. Most hunters I run into during that hunt are asking for advice after the 1st weekend and have seen no bulls. The elk are all super healthy this year. Best in at least 10 years. Locals and guys that scout every weekend do fine. Everyone else basically gets nothing.

I think that 11m has way more does due to so little predation. Anyplace I go hunting that has less predators and enough water does are abundant.

Get some Turtle Skin Snake Gaiters. Nice bucks in some interesting spots.

Cannot even put in comments on the several errors they made on the map. Some roads they are closing are actually the safer and older access points. Then they plan to leave open some roads that are newer and not properly built for travel in poor weather. It is obvious the people drafting this did it from an office and not in the field.

Eberlestock, Mystery Ranch, Kifaru, or old school Badlands (anything since they came out with the Sacrifice they all suffer with issues) will be durable enough. Don't count on the Alpz Outdoor pack to survive a pack out in rough country. Out of my 8 hunting packs the Kifaru Fulcrum with Guide Lid or Eberlestock Dragonfly with the large pad waist belt works great for almost anything.

13A/B age class and numbers are very predictable from year to year, 12B varies a lot depending on migration.

Verde Valley @ 4300 ft @ 7am and has not stopped all day.

If AZGFD moves forward with this scam they should make any of those tags unguided. If caught getting guided loss of hunting privileges for life for all involved. That will eliminate much of the tag grabbing behavior that keeps occurring.

Wish Swarovski would do a 75mm for the stx/atx. My 85mm is heavy.

Kowa 77 is a nice middle ground you should consider running side by side with your 12s.

I have killed a 7x8 bedded bull at 31 yards and a 5x6 bull on a trail at 7 feet during late rifle hunts. I have also killed 2 cows at under 50 yards during late hunts. I have passed numerous bulls over the years within average bow range during late rifle hunts. While helping friends during late rifle hunts we have bulls less than 50 yards about once a week without trying to sneak any closer on other bulls we could get up close and personal on. They have all killed bulls within bow range over the years. Almost all our close encounters have happened on trails that time of year. It is easier sneaking up on a bedded bull if you can pinpoint the exact location than any deer so that would be my focus during the middle of the day. If not picky and you pattern some elk you should have a good hunt despite what many will say.

Think all the wind and smoke has made things tougher this year.

"The Strip" is 13B, 13A, and 12B. Many think just 13B and 13A. "The Kaibab" is 12AW and 12AE 12AW the youth hunters really stir things up. Have seen some good bucks thanks to the kids making everything nocturnal. The overpopulation of buffalo in the park and lack of water tank maintenance has made it quite rare to see the historic caliber of bucks. Predator population is way higher than 15+ years ago and has played a role in numberous kills near limited water sources. Anymore bigger bucks could be taken in some southern units. The number of deer is still impressive though. Lately the early hunt has actually been better when targeting a specific buck due to the extreme pressure of guys with 10 careless buddies blowing out entire areas. 12AE is very scouting friendly IMHO. The same deer can be seen in the same spot day after day and act like nothing will ever bother them. Same issues with buffalo, water, and predators impacting the deer. Numbers have been high since the fire. A substantial amount of deer have been pushed off the west side into the aspen regrowth on the east side. 12B is way underrated. Most hunters are not looking in the remote spots or walking in the chest high sage. I think it supports some of the widest bucks. Lots of bucks also get pushed and/or migrate out of Utah into this unit for the later hunts. The highway fence doesn't seem to bother them; they have the crossings all figured out. 13A if you can scout enough it will produce some of the best bucks. Think this unit is going make a huge comeback after some loss of focus in recent years. Many bucks not getting hunted and aging nicely. They also have had great fawn survival rates. 13B always produces jaw droppping bucks. In drier years this unit can still out preform anything you have ever seen. There is a reason so many auction tags are filled here.

Have seen plenty of cats water during the day. You would actually probably do better watching deer nearby to locate that cat. They hit water in less than a minute most of the time. They will spend hours trying to get on a deer to kill. Will get more shot opportunities if you do spot one stalking

I have some very mixed feelings about this rule. Cons: I think it will severly hurt keeping new hunters in the field. It is really easy to convince someone new to keep hunting when you have 1000+ animal photos off one water source. I use this method all the time. Experienced hunters, sorry you should know better and don't need the photo confidence boost, haha. I personally like to be able to see the max amount of cool animal photos on my cameras and can get 10x more per water source camera during dry spells. It is a lot of fun. People will illegal bait more and that can spread disease depending on what they are putting out. Could be a pro or con depending on who you are: It will help bring back the you never know unkown factor in many units. Many units mature animals get hammered well before they peak. I have a 330+" mule deer shed from a buck never harvested or photographed by a hunter that I know of. This was before trail cameras became big. The area only has man made water sources. With 100% certainty this buck would have been easily killed to fill a governer tag nowdays before that buck made it to 300". During unit wide game camera surveys almost every animal can get accounted for over massive areas when camera counts are 100+. Last year there was a 173 camera string in one unit. Basically any animal that meet criteria got huge amounts of pressure along with anything else nearby. When that animal moves it just gets picked up on another camera. If you have enough camera runners it is super easy. How do you think people know such and such bull moved 27 miles during last years rut and the exact route prior to getting killed and it is a typical 6x6 that could be like a other bull. Why do you think certian people pay so much for photos of certain classes of animals that no one has seen before in a unit. Pros: I don't have to hear people cry as much about camera theft. I don't have to hear people lie about what is at such and such water source based on their camera surveillance. Although I have seen them at the same area weekly. Maybe I will not have guys checking cards at a water source all super loud all the time and taking 45 minutes to do it. SD cards are cheap and easy to swap, so weird.

Good one, who knows

You would think AZGFD would have know they had a problem. Who knows what other errors occurred with the draw. They probably forgot to consider our points and limit the out of state hunters, haha.

100% chance of computer glitch! I know of 10+ applications for antlerless hunts on that list. Guys and their kids got bonus points so they did the app correctly.

Have seen elk get quieter when they have their cows all secure and moved them away from other bulls. They don't want to give away their position if they have plenty of cows. They will sound off though if another bull gets too close or his cows start splitting up. Is a sign the elk numbers in unit 9 are too low. Not enough younger bulls to cause problems for the big guys. If bugling is bad I would look for larger groups of cows on the edge of clearings and on travel corridors to trick tanks. Basically every group should have a bull with them right now. With a muzzleloader, spot and stalk is going to work well.

Clean them ASAP and it is way easier. Some Corona classic pruners make things faster. They also work well on turkey and cutting catclaw.

Bring extra arrows. Lost half a quiver falling down.

Knee pads and leather gloves

We only give Benadryl if someone is having an infusion reaction to the CroFab which is super rare since it is made with sheep. The old horse stuff was way more dangerous.