Heat

Way to go, nice pig!

Congrats!

Well Done!

Congratulations on killing one of if not the most difficult animal in North America to kill with a bow! If you drew and hit a coyote a deer should be a piece of cake now! Way to go!

I was thinking bowstring wax in "hot spots"

Nice to see you around here Paul. Technically the answer the biologist gave you should be the correct one. They are supposed to change opportunity based on success of archery seasons, the problem is, you never seen any increased seasons when archery success stinks in a unit. Kind of a one way street if you know what I mean.

Big Browns is 100% correct. Don't over-complicate this. You're a resident and YOUR best odds of drawing will be to apply solo unless the NR has so many bonus points that it puts you over the top no matter what. Advice for those who have family members or if you yourself ever leave AZ. Buy a Lifetime License before you move and you will be considered a resident for life as far as the draw is concerned. That is huge!

Congrats on your success.

Continuing to pray for your comfort and peace at this difficult time. Merry Christmas!

Praying for your comfort and joy today. Merry Christmas!

Nice! Merry Christmas!

Going to do everything I can to be there Roy! I bet you can't wait to get your hands on this rack!

Awesome hunt guys! Thanks for sharing all the awesome photos and breaking down the hunt for us. Pretty incredible ram too! Way to go!

Will be in the western units. Probably 42 or 40.

Merry Christmas to you too Ernesto. You have a great family photo!

We've got lots of time to check it out. The more ideas the merrier!

Here's the list so far: Big Browns, SEAZCoues, Desert Bull, My Right as an American, Lancetkenyon, AZPredator, briant_az, PRDATR, muledeerarea33, rcdinaz, MULEPACKHUNTER, & Heat. If I missed anyone please let me know! Is anyone on this list totally opposed to a California hunt? We can go as a group to Tejon Ranch, Minimum of 8 guys ($625 each), up to 12 with lodging and basic food included for $583.33 each for a 2 day hunt. CA NR License is $161.49 and the NR Wild Pig Tag is $74.26. Another place called Cottonwood Hunting can put us on their waiting list with no guarantees we'll even go this year. They are the cheapest CA option I can find. $250 each pays for the guide for two days and lodging, no food. $200 kill fee if you get a hog. Minimum of 4 guys, maximum of 6. Another place called Giant Sequoia Guide Service does similar thing for $300 hunt fee and $300 harvest fee no food or lodging. These are only some of the California options I know of. Most cost much, much more than these. I see 3 major advantages to a California hunt. The drive will be much closer. I can be at the Tejon Ranch in about 5.5 hours from Yuma. Most of the better Texas options are 15 hours plus. The hogs in California on average are bigger than the Texas hogs I believe. The best thing about the California hunts is that it these are all fair chase, free range wild hogs. No pens, trapped animals, hunting at night, spotlights, etc. Big drawbacks to CA is well, its' California! Also the price is kinda high for one pig. Not sure how much the shorter drive offsets the high cost for some of you guys. Sounds like most guys here would prefer a low fence, free range hunt in Texas if we go there. I'd rather not drive much further than the Dallas or San Antonio area. Also I'm making one big assumption here that this is going to be a any weapon hunt not an archery only hunt. I need to take a look at some of these TX options to see what size groups they can hold.

Great job man! First lion with a bow is really cool!

PRDATR, briant_az are in! Right on! What say you mattys281...is that an affirmative? If I missed anyone else who is interested, let me know.

I can already tell this is going to be Epic! LOL! hey Adam, I found you a masseuse...

Prayers headed up for TJ and Peg. Hope you are back to "Pig Shape" soon buddy! Hang in there!

Here's another pretty good one: "Adults $175 a weekend kids hunt free with parent. or $75 a day during the week. My private ranch, no lodging on site but have access to a hunters lodge nearby. Or I have electricity and camp site. Pigs out my ears, I offer guided deer hunts as well and offer these hunts to thin out the hogs. Blinds and feeders gun or bow stands, feeders all have green kill lights. No kill fees." "It's in Fisher county NW of Hamlin about 12 miles. 640 acres. bow or gun, no limits." And another: "I have 9,000 acres in Victoria, all low fence. 38 blinds and feeders. Very high success rate. Lodging and food included for a full 48 hours. $500 per person. Shot opportunity guaranteed. Nice lodge and awesome meals. Guided, and care of game."

On the California note, I talked to the Wildlife Manager at the Tejon Ranch in California this morning. They are still running the Wild Pig Management Hunts there. They will take groups of 8-12 anytime during the year pretty much. I won't rule this option out, but seems really expensive compared to Texas, especially if we can get a group to split fuel costs, which still continues to drop as we speak. I've been putting feelers out on a couple of the Texas sites. One guy PM'd me with this offer. Probably one of the best offers I have so far: "Hey, I haven't started booking hunts yet, but thought I would give you a heads up on our operation. Me and my brothers do hog hunts, usually starting the first weekend in Feb and run thru around June. We hunt on 750+ acres, all Sabine River bottom in Panola Co., just outside of Carthage. We run 10 feeders with stands. Gun or bow. We don't have lights over the feeders, since being the hogs will come in during daylight hours. In the 5 years of doing these hunts, only 2 hogs have been killed after dark. The rest are shot in the early morning or that afternoon. We don't provide lodging or meals but welcome to camp on site which is all primitive. This is what 90% of our hunters do. Hunts start on Fri afternoon/evening till noon that Sun. The price is $125 for the entire hunt and no limits on hogs and all varmints included. Kids 16 and under are free with paying adult. Limit one per adult. Other words, you bring 2 kids, only one is free unless there is another paying adult. A group of 4 can have the whole place to themselves, but like to keep it no more than 6. That way we can rotate stands out. We pretty much show you all the stands, let you know which ones may be the best for that weekend and turn you loose. Welcome to bring a 4 wheeler since some stands require it. If not, we will get you to and from those stands. Most of the stands are very easy to access by vehicle. We did not conduct any hunts last year due to the low numbers on hogs, being that we went 2 years in a row of no acorn crop. This year we had a bumper crop and the hogs are moving back in. This is all free range and as wild as a hog can get. Just let me know if interested or have any other questions."

Here's a thread from a little while back of a guy looking for a cape... http://www.coueswhitetail.com/forums/topic/54160-i-screwed-up/

Pretty sure most of us are leaning very heavily towards a free range hunt. Late spring or early summer was what I was thinking, that works for Desert Bull also. I won't be able to break away until April at the earliest.