JiminAZ

The 243 Tikka T3 has killed more deer than any gun I own, as most of my kids have killed at least one deer with it. Worked great every time. My 19 y.o took a mulie with it a few weeks ago. He doesn't care that people think the 243 is a kid/youth gun. He could have used one of my 308's or a 30-06 or whatever, but he is super confident in that Tikka.. That Tikka .243 flat gets it done for $550 or so. Great trigger and all my kids shoot it very well. (I have 6 kids so it's been shot a lot). Also have a T3X in 6.5 CM that is a mild shooter. Hornady 143 ELDX killed two mule deer just fine. If I were buying a new youth gun today I might just go 6.5 CM.

Just this year bought a 2019 Honda Pioneer 1000-5 deluxe (camo) model. Thrilled with my purchase so far. Have rented and used Polaris and Yamaha also. The Honda DCT transmission really rocks. No belts, oil bath sealed clutches and gears. The thing just seems to know when to downshift and the engine braking is the best of anything I've ever driven, by far. Plenty of power and the 4wd/low 4wd is very powerful. On the rare occasion that I want to force a gear shift, it has paddle shifters. The other big selling point for us was the two rear seats we could fold down. So up to 5 people for drive around mode, put the seats down for hunting season. I added a bed extender because with the seart up the cargo room is minimal Honda was a bit late to the game with these units - my research told me to get a 2017 or later as after those dates the clutches were sorted out, heat shields upgraded, and seats with a bit thicker foam. After searching around I finally broke down and bought new. Only drawback so far is the heat from the engine works its way up especially for the rear seats. No problem in winter but it'll be something to manage in the summer. There are some bubba hacks for this with fans, etc. I am an engineer and was impressed with the engineering on this unit.

Hello, sort of a Hail Mary here. Been lurking the forum for years, finally joined a couple months ago to buy some items. Have 2 of my sons on the 20B hunt now. We scouted the Constellation road/ Buckhorn Road area and also up by Bumble Bee over to Crown King pre-season. I'll be first to admit we didn't invest enough time but saw enough sign to figure some prospective areas. We chose to work the Constellation/Buckhorn area this past weekend and the results were very poor. So far we've seen a pair of does with a spike buck right at dusk. By the time my son got a scope on the animal, it was too dark to discern the spike. This was at lower elevation like 2600-3000' I think a lot of it has to do with the moon. Just so bright right now you could read a newspaper at night. Combine that with a little pressure and they go nocturnal. Still we should be seeing more sign. And I'm thinking the 78% success rate GFD posted for this hunt was a misprint. Found some areas in the western Buckhorn area at higher elevations that are just great ecosystems. Water, browse, quail, rabbits, coyotes, etc. No cattle. Not a deer to be seen and sign is minimal. Another area we found looked fantastic, walked the area's bottom washes over about 1/2 mile on two drainages and found one deer track cutting the wash, and an old mountain lion track. I'm thinking we may need to beat feet a drainage or two away from the roads to find animals. If anyone has had success and would be kind enough to point me to a more productive area, I'd be all ears. I know I haven't earned my chops here, but throw myself at the mercy of the internet (ha ha). Thanks.

So I've been meaning to get back to this thread and relay how we did. Ended up eating tag soup but I have to say we learned a lot and your tips helped. By the final day we had found some great looking territory with water and north facing slopes with good cover, and good sign. A few days of less moon and more cool weather and I bet we'd have been able to get at least one. Moral of the story: we didn't do enough scouting pre-hunt. The moon and heat made it more challenging but there were some good deer taken in the unit. Just not by us. Again, thanks for your tips and help.

I was in his early rifle 12AW camp. That one on the left was 12AE. After we tagged out my guide helped them get on that big boy. Had a great experience myself. As did my son. Great guides can’t say enough good things about Duwane.

Spent several hours glassing yesterday afternoon. Have 13x minox's on a tripod. Looked under every bush and tree I could find. We are going higher. I may be offline for a couple of days depending on service.

thank you - confirmed my suspicions. Heaven knows I'm not God's gift to deer hunting so sometimes I wonder if I'm just clueless....

If it falls through I am a buyer too. N. Scottsdale by the airport. Easy run up to Cave creek

Just had a great experience with Dodgerboy999

Top drawer seller folks. Really appreciate the good communication, trust, and fast ship.

Third if it falls through.