Hatchet Jack

Hi Guys, need some input please. Just got out of an interview and I'm going to be getting a job offer, office is in phoenix, but I can work remotely most days. Will need to likely drive to Phx once or twice a week. Married w/ 4 kids ages 1-9. I'm not afraid to turn down the offer if I can't figure out a good place to raise my family. A little background: grew up in a town of 500 people in Utah (don't hold it against me, and I don't wear a flatty). After college I lived in Safford for 5 years and loved it, had my first 2 kids there, made some lifelong friends and developed a deep appreciation for hunting coues bucks; . We decided to move back to UT in 2019 to be closer to family and I've regretted it every day; Not a fan, it's way too busy. Mountains are too crowded by my house and it's now too expensive to buy property where I grew up. My wife and I miss AZ and the Gila Valley every day and started looking at opportunities to get back to AZ when this opportunity popped up. I know, phx has about 5x the people as Utah, but I'm just trying to give this opportunity some proper thought. Top priorities are living somewhere fairly small with a good community/schools and good public land access. Preferrably would like an acre of land. I'm not made of money but make a decent living. Should pocket some decent cash if I sell my house in Utah. My main concern is that everything within 2 hrs of Phoenix is either way overpriced or overcrowded. Is there anywhere a common guy could afford a little land and a decent house and raise some outdoor feral kids while making this job work? Appreciate any input from you guys. Thanks

Thanks for all the input so far guys. I guess I should have mentioned that I still would need to be close to the company operations which range from Flag to Tucson and between. So as much as I'd love to live in Blue, Alpine, Show Low etc. that's not in the cards. Been looking at Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Wickenburg, outskirts of Prescott. Open to any other input you guys might have.

Been a few years since i've had a coues tag, picked up a Thanksgiving tag ..... What optics are y'all carryin for a backpack coues rifle hunt? I have meopta 10x, Swaro 12x, just picked up some used Swaro 15x, Twin Kowa 30x66 and a Kowa 884 spotter. Obviously not going to carry everything unless I can get @CatfishKev to tag along and be my pack b!tch. Will also be packing all my own water so gotta try and keep things light. I've always sworn by my EL 12x50s but am considering carrying only the 15s for this hunt. I hate carrying 2 pairs of binos. I used to pack 10x and 15x and only time I used the 10x was for a rear rifle rest. Will be glassing the standard distances of 400 -1800 yds. I'm leaning toward carrying the swaro 15x on my chest and the big Kowa spotter in the pack. Curious if anyone was a 12x guy and moved back to 15x for coues and how they liked it.

i'm surprised at how many guys don't pack a spotter. I feel naked without mine.

Anybody here have a 16e archery tag? I’ll be helping on a youth hunt there in October and curious how the roads have held up with all the rain. Thanks

both outstanding bucks. That first buck is what dreams are made of. What porro prism binoculars are you using there? They obviously work well 😎

Do these have fluorite?

Any interest in Zeiss victory ht?

do you, by chance, have a famous youtube channel? Congrats

Did not draw a 29 Thanksgiving coues tag with 2 points as a Resident; Unbelievable

I got lucky and drew a random 12aw late tag this year. I honestly expected to see more bucks per day, i'd say we averaged seeing 10 bucks a day, but roughly half of those we saw were pretty good bucks in the 160-165 range, with a handful of 170-175 bucks over the course of 5 1/2 days. They seemed very pockety to me, one draw would have a bunch of deer with some bucks kicking around, the next draw with the exact habitat would have nothing. The evenings were very slow for us, at least the first few days since it was so dang hot. Most of the mature bucks seemed to be hanging in the pines right before it opened up into the oaks. My dad found this inline buck on day 3 and i figured he was on the bubble; good deer but i wanted to hold out for a few more days. Day 4 we couldn't turn him up and considered him gone to find new does, but we hung around to see if new bucks would move in. I was able to put glass on him the morning of day 5 in the same canyon and knew he was a shooter. After several days of looking at what i'd consider good bucks, he stood out a lot. I knew he didn't have great mass or width but was long and had character so i couldn't resist.

Thanks guys. Yeah bob it was diy if you can count 6 guys in camp as diy. heres my unpopular opinion: as far as pure adventure and hunting style I prefer a early season backpack coues hunt. But there’s no denying the kaibab is a special place and I’m grateful to have got to hunt it.

Dang. Email I got from g&f said it’s now open. So does forest service just expect 75 camps to hang out at the gate until midnight of the opener? So instead they’ll have 150+ trucks going over top on the snowpack roads Hauling trailers to get to west side, but they claim to 22 road is closed because it’s a hazard. Bunch of idiots running the show. keep us updated if they open it, I’m headed there Wednesday.

I drew 12aw late with not very many points (don’t worry Catfishkev already gave me a bunch of chit for it) ended up turning my 3rd season Colorado tag back so I could focus on this hunt. This is the first real sought after tag I’ve ever drawn. I keep hearing fantasy stories about the late hunt, but I’m still not buying it. Going DIY. I expect a good number of 140-160 bucks but thinking that digging up a 180+ is gonna be a chore. I’ll have 3-4 family/friends helping out, with plenty of big glass to go around. I learned a lot about the kaibab last trip out and am planning another one after the early hunt to better learn the lower west side. Then I’ll be there 2 days prior until end of the hunt. Do any of you kaibab vets have any input a guy should know that most don’t consider on their first hunt there? The main thing I hear is don’t shoot the first big buck you see. Any other input or realistic expectations? I’m just excited to spend a couple weeks in such a cool place. Thanks guys

Does anybody have insight on the road situation? I called the forest service and the kind lady said there's a chance they could extend the 22 road closure if it's a safety hazard; i'm hoping she's lying. Also I saw that ADOT closed SR67 after this last storm. Will ADOT typically reopen this road once it's cleared or do they just shut it down till spring? Even if USFS opens the 22 road on Nov 20th it's gonna be a cluster F on opening morning.

I was under the assumption if there’s a big storm it would be hard to get back out over top on that road. Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong road? I’m still learning.

It sounds like the biggest worry is the 22 gettin washed out with all those big canyons being torched, then the only access is going out over top which can probably be a pain if it gets a couple feet of snow.

Yeah I heard that. Is it a factor of the snow being too deep to get around or more that the roads wash out or get too sloppy to get around? I have access to snowmobiles so if snow is the problem I’ll just treat it like a wy late cow hunt and if the camper has to stay until March so be it 🤘🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

thanks for the input guys. headed back down in a few weeks to see what made it through the early hunt. i'll let you know if i see anything worthwhile.

eh. farm animals don't do much for me

You have to experience these to know how good they are. Believe it or not they can hang with the $4500 14 lb highlanders all day.

Bro just pack your 30s on your chest like a real man

This is a sweet deal especially for the APO version