sigfour

Finally drew a 13a strip tag. I had 16 resident points- 14 +hunter safety & loyalty. I’ve been to 13a & 13b a few times shed hunting 15+ years ago and hunted the kaibab (12AW) early and late with my son and friends a couple times over the last 10-11 years but have never hunted the area for myself. I’m beyond excited and anxious. I ordered a flatline map, a few quadrangle maps (7.5’) and have done an insane amount of e-scouting for others hunts, places to camp, hunt and azgfd spots to check out. I purchased 6 extra fuel cans (total of 11 now) and have 4 extra tires mounted on wheels/rims. I will have plenty of gear and backups just in case. I am 100% a DIY hunter and this hunt will be no different even though I know I will not draw this tag again. I do want to make the most of this hunt but I won’t hire a guide and seriously doubt I would even buy a scouting package. I come from a hunting family and have hunted CA, NM, MT, UT, CO, WY and my home state AZ for deer, elk and antelope since 1985ish. I am 52, in good shape and have been on lots of 2 week+ long hunts so I think this is very doable physically and mentally. I’m planning on 2-3 scouting trips, more if possible, (it’s around 7-8 hours one way from Queen Creek) and showing up around a week early before the 10 day hunt. I will be sleeping/cooking in my 16x16 wall tent (along with my cousin) and driving a 4x4 crew cab RAM diesel truck w/ shell pulling my 20’ enclosed trailer to lock up my supplies/gear and perhaps bring my SxS in. If anyone has any tips, ideas, info, banter or has the same hunt I would love to hear from you. Thanks in advance and happy hunting ! -Sig

All the pics were taken with my cousins IPhone so it’s just the angle not a fish eye lense. The barrel does look long thought. The rifle is a ruger 300wm with an axisworks brake and has been pretty lucky the last few hunts.

The hunt was an amazing adventure. I left home late Friday/early Saturday (midnight-ish) and headed up, stopping in flagstaff and fredonia for fuel along the way. I reached my camp spot 9 1/2 hours later and heard my passenger rear tire leaking after unhooking the trailer. After plugging the tire and airing it back up, I started unloading and setting up. Around 3 pm I jumped into the SxS and set out to check some of the spots I had scouted. I found lots of fresh sign in most of the same areas as before. Once it got dark I broke out the spot light and drove every road and two track I came across until around midnight, then headed back to camp to sleep. I would then wake up around 4-5 am and head out spot lighting until the sun came up and I could see. Usually I planned it so I could be stopped at a place I could glass for a couple of hours until mid morning. Then I would head back to camp and sleep until 2-3 pm and repeat. I did this until Wednesday afternoon when I needed to drive into St. George to pick up my cousin from the airport and resupply. We spot lighted that evening and into the early morning of Thursday before heading to camp for some much needed rest. Around noon we checked a couple of areas we had chosen as opening day spots and decided on which was best. We glassed until dark then headed back to camp to organize our gear, have a quick dinner and then go to sleep. We woke up early to ensure we were first to our spot and waited for a few hours until grey light before slowly walking in, glassing along the way. We unfortunately bumped the deer and broken heartedly watch them head to their bedding area which seemed like a position we couldn’t access them or have a chance at them in. Nor did we want to push them out of their core area. There were lots of vehicles that seemed to want to be in this spot so we didn’t want to leave and give it up. We waited, glassed and move around a bit until 3pm when they started coming back out from the cut. We watched as two nice bucks ran each other off, both wanting to be the dominant male for the group of does. The bigger of the two presented a shot when the smaller buck ran him off but I decided to pass. An hour later the smaller buck offered a closer shot but after passing the bigger buck I couldn’t justify shooting him either. My cousin called me an idiot for passing either of them. We watched until dark then slowly backed out and headed to camp. We had a nice dinner and discussed the day, looking at the video we had taken of the two bucks. It was decided we would head back out to the same spot to get another look at them if we could. We woke up extremely early and drove to the same spot, arriving first again and waiting until grey light. We went about half as far in as the day before and stopped not wanting to bump the deer again. We spotted the group with just the smaller buck in it. We couldn’t locate the bigger buck. After a couple of hours the smaller buck gave me a shot and I connected at 475 yards. He hunched up and moved away a bit. We thought he would go down at any second but slowly turned broadside again at 525. I adjusted the turret and connected again. He lumbered a few feet and collapsed. We waited 20 mins and walked towards him. I instantly started having shooters remorse. I was done after a day and a half of the 10 day hunt. When we reached the buck I was surprised at the body size of the deer. He was definitely the heaviest deer I had harvested. I tagged the buck, we took some pics and then we attempted to load the deer into the SxS. Wow was he heavy!!! It took us a couple of tries but we somehow managed to get him into the back. I didn’t want to gut the deer there as I thought it might mess up another hunter who might want to hunt that area. We drove closer to camp, unloaded the deer and gutted him. He was sure easier to load the second time and then we drove to camp and using the winch on the SxS, hoisted him into a tree at the back of camp. We skinned, quartered him and washed the meat. After it dried we put it into game bags and hung it all. We had barely finished when an AZGFD and BLM officers rolled into camp. They checked my tag, license and pulled two lower teeth for an age check. We talked a while and they told us about some coyote areas and a possible spot for a lion. We took the deboned carcass to the lion area and disposed it in a spot we could see from a knoll a few hundred yards away. Over the next few days we switched looking at the gut pile and the carcass hoping for a shot at a coyote or a lion without any luck. It rained, hailed a lightly snowed the next couple of days making it pretty sloppy and messy. We waited until a break in the weather, broke down camp and left late Thursday. It took almost 3 hours to hit pavement which was a slippery and sliding drive out. We also stopped at Jacob’s lake for some cookies to eat on our way home. We had a trailer tire shred 25 miles before flagstaff, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We pulled into my driveway early Friday morning, took out the rifles, binos, spotters, the expensive gear and put them into the safes. After a quick hello to sleeping family members and a shower we went to sleep. The next few days we dried out and put away the gear, washed our clothes, took care of the deer and celebrated a great hunt. We saw 112 deer, 36 bucks, one fox, one owl, 2 coyotes, 17 turkeys, 14 horses and an uncountable amount of cattle during the trip. Thanks to all who helped and/or offered info. A shout out to Jason “coach” Jones who had the tag a few years ago and offered up everything he knew. He was very unselfish and I hope to follow his footsteps for future tag holders. A special thanks to my wife for holding down the fort while I was gone and to my cousin for taking time away from his day to day to help me. Happy safe hunting ! -Sig

Just got mine today

I didn’t think about phone service. Thanks for the heads up. I usually have my garmin inreach to text when service is spotty.

Great advice. Thank you !

I’m sure I will figure out lots on my scouting trips and depending on how bad the roads are because of weather, but does anyone have any advice on camping areas pulling a trailer ? thanks in advance.

I have the rifle tag. Good luck on your hunt!

I’m kinda undecided on the primary rifle but will be between a ruger 300wm, rem 700 300 wtby mag or a kimber 308 all topped with Leupolds. The ruger has been on the last couple hunts so will probably get the nod.

Probably same group that hangs out near the hospital IMG_3762.mov

Beef filet, thin pork loin, baked potato, sweet corn on the cob, jalapeños, Mexican corn chopped salad and cheap Cabernet wine for son and I as wife and daughter are shopping. Thanks Costco

We have always used pro surfacing for our (Affinity S.E.) epoxy at Boeing and Abbott and they do great work. Mike Rideout -623 694 0555 mike@prosurfacing.com

Camofire also usually has vortex hats which IMO are just as good, if not better than the Swarovski hats. LOL

Great seller buy with confidence

Found a dog last night on a dirt road coming back to camp near superior. Asked the few camps that are around without luck.

UPDATE- After 3 days, ended up turning dog into animal control. He was chipped and owner contacted. Apparently was missing for almost a month but never reported. Owner never came to pick him up. After a week in jail, my cousin ended up adopting him and taking him to cold and snowy Idaho. Perfect for the husky who has adapted well and goes to the office everyday.

Any trades ?

-I'm sure the AZ nwtf raffles are legit. The NWTF wold not want the bad press .There is a web page and contact info up if you look .Az nwtf raffles it has contact info Thanks for the idea. I’ve contacted them several times but as of today there is no response. I also looked up the statewide Arizona NWTF presidents and committee members and I found several familiar names. Apparently they are allowed to put on a raffle, enter the raffle, can and have pulled their own winning ticket. Even if 100% legit I see how anyone could think otherwise

-I'm going to send you a PM with an offer of reconciliation. I hope you'll consider it. I don’t want anything extra or special just because I was in your raffle. I appreciate your offer but no thank you. Good luck moving forward with your fundraisers. Unfortunately, I don’t feel confident in entering them anymore. happy holidays

No need to post. I’ve been putting in for these raffle items since January. After the ticket cut down from whatever to 100 and then 50 I’m realizing my purchased tickets probably were for not. I’ve learned a lot about the nwtf and their raffles. According to some other posts I’m not the only one. I for one will no longer enter or inquire about nwtf raffles. Thanks for the lesson and enjoy your spoils. Good luck on your hunt.

Any update on this ? When will winners be posted/announced ? I purchased tickets for all three items. I am a bit concerned when I checked Tuesday 12/13 (two days before your drawing) -there were still 50 of 50 tickets remaining for the marsupial bird bag. Happy holidays

I like them as well and would like both AZ designs. PM inbound

I drew my first AZ antelope tag this year with 17 points (15 pts + HS +loyalty). I still feel very fortunate to have drawn with 17 and personally know of others who didn’t with more. I started preparing immediately. I spoke with some of last years tag holders, AZGFD officials, guide friends and internet searched all I could. I purchased maps, OnX hunt chip and the premium membership and drove the unit marking areas. I became a member of the Arizona Antelope foundation and attended their online webinar. I even sweet talked the wife into some new NL 12x42’s. I was all in, putting everything I could into this hunt. Who knows if/when I could draw again. I spent over 33 days scouting and put 6,500+ miles on my truck, not to mention 2 new sets of tires. I’ve hunted Wyoming a few times for antelope and have looked over plenty, but judging them is still tough for me, especially from a distance. Anyhow, I made a list of the best bucks I saw and named a few. Some of them I had patterned well and saw them often, some I only saw 2-3 times. My biggest hurdle would be finding one on public land during the hunt. I arrived on Tuesday before the Friday opener and camped on a piece of BLM 6 miles from Holbrook. Not wanting to mess up any archery hunters I glassed from camp, the highway and once from Denny’s when it was raining, Hee Hee. I did manage to find one of my top 5 bucks on Wednesday but never saw him again. Thursday afternoon I spoke to an archery hunter headed home. After talking and looking at a few pictures I found out the best 2 bucks were taken during the archery hunt. Opening day- I’m in my target area but only see some small goat bucks and a few muley bucks. I head to another area for the afternoon hunt and spot a tall and wide but thin buck I had on my list. I watched him until dark and headed back to camp. I had several friends come up Friday night to lend a hand glassing or to deplete my supplies. We had a quick dinner, a few spirits and went to bed. Saturday- Two buddies and I are looking for the buck from the night before. We see a small buck chasing two does. We move to a little knoll an spot him glowing in the morning sunlight almost a mile away. I check with OnX and we are both on state land. We watch him feeding for a few minutes until he beds. I make a plan and we go over some signals. I head off west with the sun at my back and the wind in my face. I’m at a brisk walk while below a small rise trying to make up time. I stop occasionally to look at my buddies for instruction and to look at OnX for location. Before the last knoll I turn for last direction. They indicate the buck is walking towards me. I creep up towards the top of the knoll, lay down and start crawling forward to a bush. After a minute or so I see the buck through the brush feeding towards me at around 600 yards. I decide to crawl another 30 yards to a rock outcropping for a better shooting platform. After reaching it, I see the antelope feeding to me around 500 yards. I get set up to shoot, ranging several trees and bushes along his path direction. He should walk within 300 yards or closer. Naturally, at 445yards he beds down looking in my direction. I decide I will wait until he stands back up. I check my ballistic calculator and decide on 34” of hold over. After 15 antagonizing minutes and several trains horns later I feel the wind start changing direction. I afraid he may not stand but instead bolt from his bed. I decide to set up on the gun, blow a call and hope for the best. With a great rest I blow the call and watch him stand up broadside facing to my right. I find my hold over, settle in and the recoil surprises me. As I’m cycling the bolt I hear the impact and watch the goat run from left to right FAST !!! I watch him pile up in a cloud of dust and rocks. He must have slid 12’ or more and broke off a prong that we never found. I collected my brass and walked back to the top of the knoll. I flagged my buddies, sat down in the shade of a juniper and started shaking. I dug out my tag and some water from my Fanny pack and texted my wife and kids. Soon my buddies arrived. We hugged, high five and shook hands. I tagged my buck and took some pictures then we headed back to camp. We skinned/processed the buck and got the meat cooled. Soon we started celebrating and with Holbrook being so close, everyone got dilly bars from DQ.

Thanks for responding. Congratulations to whoever won the lifetime license, I’m sure they are happy. I went back on the website after your response and for the first time there was a limit on the amount of tickets I was able to purchase. In the past I tried to buy 500 to see if possible and determine a limit, but until today there wasn’t one. I’ve purchase several tickets (as have many friends who I encourage to enter) for all of your raffles but there is still 100 available tickets for items I’ve (we’ve)purchased tickets for since early Nov. Was there more than one item per raffle for- bird bags, gift cards, etc? -maybe a question for the raffle coordinator. Are we lost in the new shuffle ? We don’t mind donating but like transparently when it comes to raffles. Good luck to all who support and enter the fundraiser.