Heat

Congratulations sir! This is a little late payback for all that you have done for wildlife over the years! Right on! Really happy for you! Nick

If you draw a Kaibab tag you can buy a buff tag. Call your regional office. Pretty sure you have to kill a cow or yearling but that may have changed. I believe it does count toward your lifetime bag limit as well. Good luck!

Congratulations! I put in for that hunt too. Now I can pick your brain when you are done! Ha, ha! Best of luck! I'm really pulling for you knowing that you are doing it with your bow! Nick

Here's my 2010 Pronghorn with some of Jim's "ear magic". I thought it was pretty cool that he was able to make the ear as real as possible. Thanks again Jim! Nick

I just want to reinforce what some guys have touched on. Like the other lottery says, you can't win if you don't play! Unless you are in the max pool or very close to it, forget about points and apply! Get in the drawing no matter what. I only had 8 points and drew a tag out of a unit that didn't have any tags taken out of the max point round. I had tag #1. My childhood friend got the same tag on a different application the same season and he only had 10 or 11 points. Good Luck to everyone! Nick

Hi Ken, Considering you are an accomplished archery hunter, if I was in your shoes, I would consider the early archery hunts in 13B and 13A way before I consider burning points on 12B. They have killed a number of giant bucks during those archery hunts. Nick

Keep wishing and keep applying TJ! If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody! Good Luck! Nick

yes...again... http://www.azcentral.com/community/peoria/articles/20130529officer-lake-pleasant-boating-accident-released-abrk.html What I want to know is, how does a boat just capsize while on "routine patrol"? Sorry someone got hurt, but that's going to cost the sportsmen and the wildlife of AZ quite a bit once all the doctor bills are paid and a new boat is bought! Nick

I want to clear a few things up. I have a number of friends with the Department. This was not meant to be an attack on Arizona Game and Fish Department or any of the individuals involved. I am still very curious how this happened. I apologize if any Game and Fish Employees were offended by my post. I also hope and pray that Officer Ruben Gonzalez makes a full and speedy recovery and I apologize to him and his family for not making my sentiments more clear in my first post on this thread.

123456, that's a clever handle...did you think of that one yourself or did your teacher help you out with that? Have you ever heard that it's poor grammar to use the same adjective more than once in a paragraph? "Clearly" not. Oh wait, I forgot, you're still working on numbers 7-10...OK count after me Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten. I said I was sorry the officer got hurt, how more direct do I have be! Maybe someone with a better handle on English than 123456 could explain how I was "bashing" Game and Fish by linking a story and asking some questions that other people obviously want the answers to, based on the follow up posts to mine. Lighten up tough guy...It's not cool to call someone you don't know the "low of the low". You don't know me from Adam. I doubt you would call me the "low of the low" to my face. We can work that out if you want. I said I was sorry the officer got hurt. How much more detailed do I have to be that I feel sorry that people got hurt? Or did you just completely ignore that part of the sentence? You came to your own conclusion that I was worried about money "rather" than someone's safety. I honestly don't know how you could come up with that when my words are right there in black and white ( in this case brown).

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that it was a Mountain Dew can left behind? Doesn't that crap have some of the highest caffeine content? Too funny! Don't care what group it was, they should be ashamed of themselves for leaving the forest littered like that, and even more ashamed for doing it in front of youngsters!

NICE! Great report! Thanks for sharing!

I could not disagree more with what Couesmagnet has to say! That is ridiculous!

We kept the premium tags out tghe last time they got approval. This is what happens when you lwt your guard down enjoy your 114 ek tag while it lasts September archery bull hunters because it5 will be your last! This is rotten to the core!

Fished the Greer area a few times last summer. Fished Big Lake all day and Greer lakes a few hours and caught 2 trout at Big Lake. Tried Sheep's Crossing to change things up during my antelope hunt and caught my limit in minutes. My take on the fishing up there is it takes considerable more skill and luck to catch them in the lakes, especially at Big Lake, but the quality at Big Lake is much better. If you can drift a nightcrawler downstream at Sheep's Crossing or probably any of the creeks, you will catch fish! Nick

Dang...another great Arizona conservationist is gone. I met Brian on the Heritage Fund Public Advisory Committee for Game and Fish. He was always willing to lend a rationale voice. He was also a generous and friendly fellow who would make someone he just met feel like you were his best friend. We lost a good one boys...May Peace be With Him and his loved ones at this most difficult time. Nick

I almost can't believe this, but I know it is true. This needs to be investigated for sure! Shame on anyone involved! This is beyond ridiculous!

That was such a good show! Thanks DB for posting this again! Wish I could of bought ya a whiskey! I was the skinny feller in the 6th row back (Row C) in the straw cowboy hat with the happy feet. I hope none of you was the guy behind me I told to go to heck when he told me to sit down while I was dancing! "By God Boys, they are American!" Ketch "sherriff joe" Secor!

Here's mine. He's decent for a first one, and a memory I will never forget!

You might want to answer a few questions for yourself and you might have your answer. Do you live near a unit that has sheep? Do you know anyone that has killed a ram? I would recommend applying for a unit that you can maximize your time in, meaning you either hunt one that you know well or one that is close by that you can learn. Big rams are all over the state. Some units are better than others. The average size ram harvested in the unit I hunted was 153" and it is not known for great big rams, so you can do a lot better than 125". Access is a huge issue for hunting sheep. Unit 9/10 is a lot easier to draw than a lot of units, but are you prepared to hike down into what is basically a finger of the Grand Canyon to get your ram? Same thing with some of the units North of the Colorado River. Hunts in Unit 46 are in Wilderness and you have to walk or ride stock many miles before you are even in sheep country. There are some units in Region 6 that have been producing gigantic rams but do you really want to compete with everyone else to draw one of those units. Would you prefer a unit that has less sheep and only one tag or two, or a unit with a healthy population but more a chance to bump into other hunters? Tell us more about the experience that you hope to get and we might be able to narrow it down. Another thing to ask yourself is do you want a Nelsoni or a Mexicana? Of the Mexicana do you want a red horned ram or yellow horns? If these things matter to you, there are certain places that you will want to focus on. 2010 Ram Aged 9+ years old 158" Gross 157.5" Net AZGFD

If Hussain waves his magic wand, I mean cigarette and says "so let it be written so let it be done" poof!! More like magic joint or blunt! His high school and college days were full of cannabis indulgence yet he continues to prosecute people for doing the same things he enjoyed. He a hypocritical megalomaniac!

Just wanted to remind ya'll that tickets went on sale today. Scored Row C Orchestra in the center! Sweetness! Desertbull, hit me up with a PM, I want to buy you a beer at the show for putting this thread on here!

Thanks for posting this my man! Old Crow Medicine Show is some of the best stuff I've heard in a long time! I'm there!

Wow! Congrats Jim!

After 23 years on and off of hunting deer with a bow and arrow, I finally managed to get it done! I killed my first mule deer buck on Monday January 2, 2012. Conditions were extremely windy and helped me get in my comfortable range of this deer. I made a 40 yard shot and the deer made it about 100 yards before piling up. There are a few folks that I want to recognize. First my family and my girlfriend Amanda, for putting up with my bowhunting addiction. Second, my buddy Marvin, who is one of the best hunting buddies a guy could ask for. Thanks for helping with those front quarters Marv! Finally there are a few standout guys that have inspired me to keep at it and have given me lots of great advice and motivation like Roy Grace, Jake Ensign, Bill Allard, Marvin Zeiser, and Dick King! Thanks for all! DIY, public land Mule Deer buck! Don't get much better than that! Nick Here's the long version: On this particular trip we planned on returning to a spot where my buddy killed a javelina and I had a few shots at them in the past. Marv got there the day before I did and did a little poking around not seeing much. I arrived on the New Years Eve. I set up the tent and camp and was ready to go for the next two and a half days or so. It was nice when I showed up but as the day turned to night the temps dropped and the wind kicked up. It was so bad I got up in the middle of the night I got up to try to fix the tent fly so it wouldn't flap so bad. I didn't really rest all that well compared to how I normally do. I thought it was going to be a nice change from the freezing temps we endured in the last javi season. Opening morning was really windy still. I had a quick snack and bit of coffee and I headed out. I was packing my 15s around and tried to sit and glass as much as possible but the wind made that pretty tough. I also figured whatever was around might be holding pretty tight to cover and not moving much. I covered a bit more country with the boots and the glass, not turning anything up. Went back to camp and ate some lunch and got ready for another session. That evening I didn't see anything either, but felt that with the near constant 20-30 mile per hour winds, it would give me a little more leg up than usual. Didn't see any javis but did see a few set of tracks that weren't too old and some digging, so the javelina were around somewhere. Marv saw a buck that morning as well so things weren't all that bad. The next morning on the second day I went more towards some flatter country rather than some of the bigger hills where we had seen the javis before. I made it up one glassing spot and spent some time but realized I would probably have a much better vantage to glass from on the next ridge. This is where it gets funny. So I get up on the next ridge over and I'm heated up and ready to take the thicker layers off. I also had nature call so I dropped a deuce. Since I was on top of the hill I tried my phone and saw that I had service so I called my girlfriend. After all that I packed it back up and started heading for another spot to look from. I hadn't made it 50 yards from my glassing/break spot when I spotted a buck just a short ways over the crest of the little hill on the ridge I was on. I couldn't believe it. I slowly knelt to one knee and got my rangefinder out. He was 54 yards away. Some might have taken a shot from there but I felt it was best for me to wait. I was behind an ocotillo and there was a short palo verde just a few yards ahead. There was also a big saguaro that somewhat gave me some cover. The buck I don't think ever noticed exactly what I was and the wind was gusting my scent way beyond his scent zone. I kept analyzing my next move and all I could come up with was just wait and see what he does. I also was slowly moving towards the palo verde in front of me to give me just that little bit of extra cover. The whole time after I ranged him, I had an arrow knocked and ready to draw. After what seemed like an eternity I noticed some more movement down below me even closer. It was a doe. "Awesome" I thought. A huge distraction for the buck. I think the doe might have been ready to move out and the buck stayed with her. They stood there for another minute or two then the doe started to come my way, even more upwind and into much better shooting terrain. As they were passing by another palo verde about 40 yards away, I drew back. As the buck cleared the tree they stopped and I realized this was it. I put my pin on him and the next thing I know I hear the arrow hit him. I felt pretty sure I hit him, but with some of my previous experiences a lot of what ifs went through my head. As I watched the doe and the buck bail out, I noticed the buck starting to get really hunched on his leaps. They just started to get out of sight over a small rise when I saw the buck start to tumble. Right then I knew I had killed my first archery deer. I screamed out loud "Oh F-sharp Ya" in jubilation. So I tagged the buck, took some pics off the pack and started cutting him up. I got the hind quarters and the backstraps out with me on my first load in my Kifaru Late Season. My friend came back with me and we grabbed the fronts and the head and some trim. We ate a delicious meal of fresh backstraps that night in the blowing wind. They got cold fast but meat never tasted so good as it did that night. I stayed up well past 1 AM that night running the day's events over and over in my head staring at the deer and the stars and drinking a few choice ales. I am incredibly stoked beyond belief and have accomplished something that at times seamed impossible but nonetheless within reach if I just kept putting myself in positions where I could get it done. This particular hunt it just all came together. Now if I could just kill a javi! Here is a pic of the arrow as I found it. Here is the bloodtrail. As I found him. Happy Hunter! One more with the bow!