one_drake

Well..... we had a tough hunt. With that said we had some good chances at nice deer, but archery hunting is tough. To add to the problems we had the tongue of our trailer rip off 12 miles down a dirt road, 5 days of snowing, and my dad high centered my truck. Had enough action that I plan on returning before the month is over, maybe to 9 or maybe to another unit that I got some good intel on. Got to see some nice bull elk, javelina and mule deer. Despite me hating the snow for all its problems while archery hunting, the south rim in snow is a heck of a view.

Been doing a lot of research for OTC hunt this january. Seems most guys/ gals head to southern AZ for january but i wanted to stay in the northern part of the state. I can't find much of any info about the area besides what the fish and game website says. Any thoughts on Unit 9 for January? I have to believe it has some good deer, being close to the "strip". All thoughts/ opinions welcome, and thanks for taking the time to help. Brandon

Great story!! Nice deer.

Head out for AZ tomorrow. Will give a report on everything when I get back. Good luck to all.

Easy game to improve is put two "reaction" targets (those plastic ball things) in the yard or at the range 50 yards apart (left to right) and switch back and forth between the targets. Shoot 4 times on the clock and challenge each other. Can change the scope zoom to make it harder or easier. More importantly, nice buck!

Dang, thats a bummer. May just turn into a camping trip where we hike every morning at dawn....

Thanks for the info. I am getting a lot of info from guys on how bad the weather can get there. Just hope we get a few good days to poke around. I don't know the first thing about finding javelina, but maybe we will stumble across some. Are they at higher elevations 6500 and up? Have hunted that unit many tomes and hit it hard every spring. We see javelina everywhere in the unit. The are big, thick and wooly. The weather can be crappy. It gets plenty cold out there. Thanks again for the info. My dad has a friend that has worked the grand canyon for 25 something years and hunted around there. He is gonna give him a call and see what he knows about the area as well. Hopefully he has some good deer pockets that he knows about. Just got some more cold weather gear and getting pretty excited about the hunt.

Thanks for the info. I am getting a lot of info from guys on how bad the weather can get there. Just hope we get a few good days to poke around. I don't know the first thing about finding javelina, but maybe we will stumble across some. Are they at higher elevations 6500 and up?

I would say you had some blood! Nice work.

Any luck??

great deer! love the unique left side.

I have a carbon knight (first bow) i like it. Don't know anything else but it is nice to hike with. I think the icon is the same but with the new setting system on it.

Thanks. Was hoping to look in the north east corner of the unit, where there is a little elevation difference and also hike all along the coconino rim. There seems to be a small valley running south of the airport too that looks interesting. My dad will probably bring his animals so we can cover a lot more ground.... and have a slight elevated vantage point. Brandon just realized that spot below the airport is where you said has little sign.... so that helps narrow the spots.

Thanks for the info, plan on 8-12 days moving around the unit. Maybe move to another next year if we don't find what we are looking for. But like you said i don't want to unit hop and waste time driving when i can be hunting.