JMP

I figured I'd catch this. You are one hundred percent correct, deer density should dictate taking shots with higher wound rates. Why on Earth does the number of deer around dictate how far you can lethally and ethically take a shot? It doesn't, you decide that. My shooting limitations won't change just because there aren't as many critters running around. Like I said, if you guys want to shoot it more power to ya. I won't. I have pins out to 60 currently. Im sorry your Wisconsin hunter decided to cave on his goals and change his previous practiced range by 40 yards, I wont. If it means I go home without a deer, OK. I don't base my success on taking a deer home no matter what it takes. Not sure why staying within my limitations is laughable to you....but it is ok. I guess I'll just waltz into AZ, and expect to stalk within 20 yards within the first weekend, or else... I know my limitations, and when a target shrinks from what I am currently used to shooting, my range naturally wont double. You can shoot 150 for all I care, your bow will have enough KE to kill from there, so why not? Like I said, numerous times, do whatever pleases you. Just stating I WON'T, and don't need some guy riding my back telling me I'm some bafoon since I hunt in the East and won't shoot past 50 or so yards. SEVERAL fellas from AZ state it before me, but as soon as an out of stater mentions perhaps 95 is too far it is ridiculous. And Waltz in and fill the slam? LOL I love your guys impression of all hunters from the East. I have already stated I expect to take nothing away from the trip besides learning experience. I plan on coming every year from here on out until I get one....but your right, because I merely hope to be succcessful on a trip when traveling to hunt, I am some big egoed know it all. I will not be treestand or blind hunting, I will be glassing, ambushing, and stalking...if I don't get one, I won't break down..I'll simply learn from it and seek revenge the following winter. I can accept defeat, though I'll try everything within my limitations to avoid it. Stalking CAN be done to get within 50 yards, maybe not as easily as 100...but it can happen. I stalked my Pronghorn back in August in the prarie of SD for a 15 yard shot. Just look at it this way, if it is soo impossible for me to get within 50 yards without a treestand, thats just one more deer out there for you to hunt after I leave. Not exactly how I wanted to start off here on the boards, but don't get on my case for not wanting to shoot far. Ill stay within 50ish yards, you can shoot at 100. World will keep turning. Best of luck for the coming season...Heres to short blood trails and quick recoveries....regardless if shot at 5 yards or 100 yards. dude, it's not about ethics, or deer densities or anything. it's about skill sets that may be sufficient in one situation that may not be in another. the way you hunt back east is probably different than the way we hunt here. You probably don't use optics and tripods the same as we do. but when you come out here, you'll learn. you will develop a new skill set. shooting out to 100 yards is a skill set that with the right equipment can be developed just the same as the guys shooting their 300's out to 1000 yards using the claw. there's more risk of something going wrong with that too, but its a risk those hunters are ok with, and have hopefully trained to minimize. we're just saying that maybe you should be open to and work on developing a skill set that suits the terrain and the quarry you are hunting. if you were hunting elephants in africa you'd practice with a large bore rifle, open sights, and short range quick and very accurate shooting. the terrain out here is open and rugged and big. lots of canyons, steep hills, and sometimes you just can't get any closer. this year i got to 35 yards of the buck i shot. i much prefer that to shooting at 80 yards. but if 80 was all i was given, i sure am glad i am practiced out that far. you're ambitious - you would be too.

"You are one funny cat. I love it when someone from a small state with over 1,000,000 WT. gives their two cents about distance limitations to us long shooting barbarians in Arizona. Heck, if I lived in a state with over 1,000,000 deer I would probably limit myself to 30 yards. Alas I live in a large state with an est. WT pop of 85,000 scared deer. From a previous post you said you plan on filling your slam by waltzing out here to Arizona and whacking a deer in two weeks. Do you plan on keeping shots amen, Bob. ... words from my mouth man. TEmbry - three words for your sucess in az: seven deadly pins.

here's my question about this. suppose there are two bucks in an area rutting for does. the first buck is 7 years old. big. etc. the second buck is 3 years old, and smaller, but was sired by the 7 year old 4 years earlier. suppose this year a hunter kills the 7 year old before the rut, and the 3 year old breeds all of the does. do the genes of a deer change as the buck ages, such that he's going to father stronger fawns when he's 7 and in his prime than when he was 3?

nice job! spot and stalk, c'mon!

love that he has no rear forks. awesome tine length. great job!

Me and a buddy backpacked into the wilderness area Thursday evening to find a buck. We arrived at the trail head at about 2 in the morning, slept for two hours, then started hiking at about 4:30 in the morning. We wanted to get to our vantage 4 miles in as the sun was coming up. We were a few minutes late, but immediately saw bucks chasing does all around this particular canyon we've been watching throughout the year. Mostly small bucks, and a decent bladed 3 point. We watched them all day long without an opportunity to get near them. Then that evening before we set up tents, I turned on my magic binos and I spotted a good buck on a hillside about half a mile the other direction. I didn't see him for long, and couldn't get a real good look at him, but I could tell he was the biggest deer we had seen that day. We both felt a little discouraged by the deer we saw, and not having any opportunities to try to get close. The next morning, we woke up as it was getting light, and immediately began glassing. I started to look back at the hillside I'd last seen the biggest buck on, while my friend went back to glass the canyon we'd been watching. After twenty minutes, I didn't see a single deer, so I went over to where my buddy was glassing. he hadn't yet found anything either. We both decided to pack up camp and head to an area about 2 miles away that we both wanted to look at, giving up hunting for more of a scouting trip. He packed his gear quicker than I did, and went to have one last look into the canyon before we left. When I caught up with him, he turned to look at me with a smile from ear to ear, and said he'd found a good buck that was now chasing does in the bottom of our canyon. I took a look at him, recognized him as the buck from the previous evening, and decided that a two point his size was better than a two mile hike with my gear, so we watched him. He chased does all around the bottom of that canyon for a few hours, and then they finally bedded down on the opposite side of the canyon where we could see them. We planned my stalk and I started moving. It took me about two and a half hours to make my approach, having to go pretty far around the hillside we were on to get the wind and topography in my favor. About 100 yards away, I changed clothes into my camo, and then took my boots off. Most of the rest of the stalk was on my knees, and I swear it took me an hour to go that last 100 yards. I finally peeked up over a rise to where I could see the buck bedded, and he saw me too, I didn't have time to range him, but knew I was close enough and my bow shoots flat enough that I would be good. I put my 30 yard pin on his vitals and released just before he took off. I hit a little lower than I aimed but it put him down cleanly about 80 yards later. I figure he was about 35 yards when I shot him. I quickly taped him at 84". But would bet gas money he's a little less than that.

thanks fellas. i was pretty psyched. made packing him out much easier. shane, whenever you want to backpack hunt let me know, i'm in.

anyone hear of a new record... 150" shot with a bow this morning or yesterday? heard it from a reliable source, just haven't got the pictures yet.

that's a bummer.

from a scouting trip

awesome video. thanks for sharing it. looks like they were on a pretty steep slope. i'd rather watch home made video like that than the discovery channel any day.

what i try to do is watch the deer until they bed down. if i cannot see them in their bed i probably don't stalk. once they look to be settled, i'll plan my stalk (considering wind and terrain), taking notes of landmarks and such, knowing everything looks different once your vantage point changes. i'll move in to about 200 yards and then put my camo on (kept in scent free bags until this point), and spray dead down wind pretty liberally. at about 100 yards i'll take my boots off and add an extra pair of thick socks. then i try to get as close as possible for a shot. i like to shoot under 50, but practice out to 70 regularly, and would take a shot that far provided the conditions were right (deer not moving, no wind, clear shooting lane, etc). i just don't have the patience to sit somewhere if i don't know for sure that something is going to come in. i'd rather be more active. i would feel like i wasted my day if nothing came to the stand. but that's just me. lots of guys have their stand sites very established and know what is coming in, how often, and at what time of day.

every time i close my eyes i see bucks running around chasing does

I saw deer moving all day long in u31. A lot of bucks chasing does and does chasing does. Bazarre. I don't think the moon has much to do with it, and I don't trust the hunt/fish feature on my garmin.

sunrise to sunset

actually the road that used to go to high creek cuts over there behind eureka mountain and the black hills and the area gets hammered hard by hunters. during the day time they have the access road open, so you can you can now drive all the way back to paddy's river area from the ranch road. it is a nice place though, i've considered buying in there myself. pretty good prices on land from what i hear. last year we archery hunted there and saw a lot of two and three point muleys, maybe they'll all be grown up this year.

i know mathews, and i think there's some confusion here about what happened. he didn't shoot at nothing, nor was he unsure of his shot. he didn't fire a round hoping to hit something, or anything. he shot at the bush that he thought the deer was under. he had a clear shot at the ground beneath the bush he was going to hit. he was sure of his target (the ground beneath the bush), was sure there was not a deer in his crosshairs, though he knew he was shooting in the vicinity of the deer, and was hoping the shot would jump the buck up, which it did. he then hit the deer with the second shot or third shot and the deer went down. all in all it was a clean kill. people shoot at rocks across canyons all the time. that's all that happened. there just happened to be a 100" buck very near where his shot impacted.

what's good is that you guys keep at it, which is most important. the more you do it, the more you learn. seem like you care about it enough.... to the point that you'd post on here for help. you'll get it. before you know it, you'll be posting pics on here.

great late bull brian. nice job. jay

awesome deer P. Congrats, you hunted hard and deserved this one.

those date stamps aren't always right. It also says it was in september. Story on the email I got said November, and had only been forwarded three times, originating at what seemed to be the owner of the photos.

nice job Wade. are you from New Zealand? or is the NZ something else? my wife is Kiwi.

is it just me or does there not seem to be many posts of bucks killed from this last weekend???? c'mon, they get me through the days!

who was the outfitter? http://www.azgfd.net/photos/details.php?image_id=688

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