broadhead

I decided to put in too and was pretty impressed with how easy it was. Maybe I'll get lucky and pull a tag. Good luck everyone.

Very sorry for your loss. My dad passed away two years ago. He was the one who got me started in the woods too and bought me my first rifle and gutted my first deer. Exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam finally caught up with him at only 65. Happy for the time I had with him.

Welcome. This is a great site with lots of guys who are willing to help you out. I'm sure you'll find the learning curve is pretty steep here but if you keep a positive attitude it's a lot of fun. Some tough hunting but beautiful terrain and fun animals to hunt. Good luck.

I love the whiteboard message.

I know technically January archery is the first hunt of the year but it always feels like the end of the season to me so I'm calling it that. How did everyone end up this year? Successes? Lessons learned? New gear tested? Crazy stories? Close calls? Goals for fall? I'll start. I'm still very new to western hunting. This was my second season out here after growing up mostly rifle and shotgun hunting in Wisconsin then not hunting for almost a decade due to military obligation. Got back into it the year before last and realized I knew absolutely nothing about western hunting so I definitely had my work cut out for me. Had a really fun first year learning how to glass and getting familiar with new gear available. One thing I realized after that first year was I needed camping gear and some optics upgrades So I saved up everything I could and got the best binoculars out there. What a difference. Deer jumped out at me and my ability to glass got much better too. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend nearly as much time out on the mountain as I hoped to this season. A nagging injury kept me out of the game almost all fall and with the wife nearing the point of giving birth I had to stick close to home for December and January. Nonetheless I checked out a spot literally two miles as the crow flies from my front door so I spent as much time as I could scouting around looking for a place to set up for the late season. I ended up seeing more bucks than I ever thought I would in that spot but it was a season of so close but so far away. Rutting bucks were sneaking past just out of reach from where I was setting up in an ambush or I'd lose them in the flats when I was glassing. Finally after the rut I was sitting on a hill surrounded by hikers, pig hunters and even a bird hunter kicking around trying to flush some quail. I had mostly accepted the season was coming to a close with my tag very well in tact when I decided to sit up on a hill and glass a little since the weather was so nice. Within five minutes I spotted a bedded buck watching the same activity I was watching, including the three horseback riders that walked through the wash right below him. I put a stalk on him but without a spotter I ended up beneath him a little and I looked up in time to see him bound away. I have so much to learn. This year I decided to put in for elk and I think when early archery comes back around I'm going to have to push up into the higher elevations to tree stand hunt the pines. Hope you all had success last season and are looking forward to the next year. I'd love to hear what you guys (and gals) had going for you!

Did you fill your December tag? That can be a tough draw but what a great rifle hunt.

That sounds like a pretty awesome season even if you didn't fill your tags. I went back and forth about applying for archery elk this year versus buying a point but decided to try to draw even if the odds are really low for bull tags. My 3 4 and 5 option went to cow applications just to try to get some experience and see some different units. I have never hunted elk and have no idea what I'm doing so I'm sure if I manage to draw a tag it will be a really fun train wreck of a hunt haha. And if I don't draw I'll just try again with another point next year.

Going crazy in 34A.

Congrats on the great buck! I wish I was able to get out today while the snow was still on the ground but I was out most of yesterday and loved it.

Question for you guys that have experience hunting the ocotillo flats. I stumbled upon a new spot that has deer and seems mostly if not completely untouched by other deer hunters. It's in some flats featuring a lot of ocotillo and mesquite and a couple gullies that look really tempting to set up an ambush in. I still hunted/scouted them yesterday afternoon and stalked up on a doe bedded in the bottom of the creek bed. Fun 30 minute staring contest. A little further down I set up on top of the gully until dark and caught a nice buck slipping down into it about 150 yards away. Hoped he would come my way because I had just rattled but he never showed up. I tried again today and set up where I saw him and at about 4:30 I caught sight of either a young 3x3 and a small spike or doe another 150 yards down the way coming up out of the gully heading for the flats. My hope was they are using the gully to sneak around unnoticed in the low ground or to bed but from what I've seen it looks like they cross it more than anything. It's impossible to glass more than 200 yards around it and setting up an ambush spot is tough when you can't pin down any choke points. The good sign is there are obviously deer in there after 2 for 2 seeing bucks. Maybe I'm not understanding their use of gullies in flats like that. Any thoughts on how to set up on them? Thanks in advance!

Apparently gully is a funny word in Arizona.

I'm glad I read this post and replies. I read a lot of comments from guys claiming they pick up deer at a mile or more with 12x50s or 15x56s, and I'm not saying they can't, but I have a really hard time picking up deer at distances past 800 if there is any type of concealment. Maybe those guys are referring to animals out in the open. Last offseason I took everything I was able to save up for gear and bought the 12x50 ELs and those things really do make glassing much better but if I'm looking into any sort of cover I need to be within 600 yards and very often I prefer to be inside 500, especially when it comes to Coues deer. If you're talking about deer on the move or less concealed I've very easily seen deer plain as day well past 1000 yards but those were just about perfect circumstances which rarely happen and they were does. If I have to pick apart brush and shade I have to be closer or I'm just staring at stuff and hoping one moves.

Haha yes but I'd like to change that!

Hey guys One of the most important things I added between this season and last is ultralight backpacking camping gear so I am no longer forced to hike in and out of my spots each year. I have a couple glassing spots that each have the space to set up a small camp so ideally I could set up my camp right there after last light and pick it right back up in the morning when I wake up. The area can be a little tricky to find in the dark so ideally I want to set up right there without having to make my way in or out even a few hundred yards. I'm picking up game at about 500 yards and beyond from these spots so with that in mind would camping there risk spooking the game? Thanks!

Got back from 33 yesterday afternoon (Dec 22). Got out late Friday evening and glassed hard for about six hours on Saturday. Nothing but a few does browsing around. Tons of sign in an area known to hold a lot of deer so it looks like it's a little early yet. Last year it didn't get busy until early January.

Nope I get mine at Walmart or Sportsman's Warehouse. Just make sure you have your license with you when you go to buy. I used to go to Dick's also but then they got a little too political so I tend to avoid them now. You can get your 2019 tag now too if I'm not mistaken if you mean you need a 2018 for the rest of the OTC. **Almost forgot - call ahead though. Some places run out because they hand you a tag as opposed to printing one off.

This is my first year with the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 2P and so far I like it. I got the Mountain Glow version on sale which is pretty nice in the early evening when it gets dark early.

MT_Sourdough That's a really good point. I grew up hunting Wisconsin hardwood and farmland deer and since moving out here got into Coues. They're worlds apart. But deer are deer which means they'll pretty much do whatever they want when they want. I'm jealous you get to hunt up in Montana, I'd love to get up there regularly.

For sure. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to hunt regardless of how big the moon is. Just curious what differences anyone has noticed. The part you mentioned about the length of days and the rut seems to be about the only reliable pattern with deer movement. The rest of the time they are where they are, when they are.

I'll be out in 33 this weekend so I'll hopefully see if any rut activity has kicked off. Another forum member told me he was out last weekend for awhile but the few bucks he saw weren't showing any interest in does yet. Won't be long now. Warmer weather coming this weekend so they might be sitting a little tighter until next week.

I live in in Corona. Which unit were you thinking about hunting?

I got out to a new location last weekend that is at a lower elevation than I am used to hunting for coues and I'm not sure what to make of it. It is an east-west canyon about 1100 yards across at the top so it has pretty good north facing ridges and draws spaced out where I spotted a few does. I was only out about 5 hours but glassed pretty hard until I lost the light. Aside from the draws there isn't a ton of thick cover in that canyon but there are multiple pockets of ocotillo spread throughout the area, mostly at or near the tops of ridges. I didn't spot anything moving in and out of any of them but I only had a few hours in there so far. I've heard bucks really like ocotillo so I guess I'm wondering if I should stick with glassing those pockets and draws or if I should spend my time where there is a little better cover. The area doesn't appear to be highly pressured due to access issues nearby. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

Sounds like you have your decision made but FWIW I made the switch from 10/15s to EL 12s and have not regretted it for a second. I also added a pair of 8x32s when I saw a deal on another forum and they make an awesome combination but if I could only have one I wouldn't feel like I'm missing out on anything with just the 12s, especially on a tripod with the stud installed for quick on and off if I want to look at something on the move. I'm not the most steady freehanding them but I can make do. The quality of those binoculars is just so good it's hard not to enjoy them. It's also worth mentioning that I experience a HUGE difference because I upgraded from entry level 10s and mid level 15s to the Swaros so someone who is switching to 12s from high quality 10 and 15 equivalents is obviously not going to see quite as much of an improvement as I am.

I'm really glad the shade went up. I live in Corona so that's my range but the sun during the hot months really made you get out there early. Thanks for posting.

I'll also provide a great review of Bull Basin Archery. When I decided to get back into archery I need to buy everything and needless to say a lot had changed since I had last bow hunted about 17 years before. Richard helped me out with everything and continued to help me out in the months that followed if anything was quirky with my bow no matter how small the issue was,. Jesse was also very helpful any time I needed anything. I highly recommend giving them a try if you're in Tucson and looking for an archery shop.