Coach

Nice job getting those young hunters hooked - huge congrats to them!

What a great looking buck! Huge congrats to your son!

Heck of a buck! congrats to the hunter.

I waited a long time to finally hunt AZ antelope (19 BP). Drew unit 9, which has some great bucks. My plan was to go up early and learn the area. The first thing I learned was, it's a really big area. I got up there Tuesday before the hunt, got camp set up right in the middle of the unit just NW of Red Butte. I figured from there I could hunt the whole unit. Drove around a little and it was not what I expected - great elk country, not what I thought of for goat country. The first night I had elk bugling right outside my wall tent, which was pretty awesome. A little bit of light rain, but nothing major. I had elk hunters with just a couple days left buzzing around camp and Wednesday morning from my first glassing spot found a stud bull walking around in the open, bugling - I just kept thinking I was going to see him get shot. Pretty much from that point forward it was nothing but super heavy rain, hundreds of miles of super muddy roads each day, hard to glass. Skipping forward, by Thursday night, hours before the opener, I had been all over and still hadn't seen a shooter. One area I really liked was like a zoo - probably 20 trucks in a 10 mile stretch. I opted to go to a different area, but the storm coming through was going right over that area. Opening morning looked like this: That's my truck from about 75 yards away. I hiked up a hill to get a better view and it looked like this - Those bumps sticking up are miles away and it's like a lake of clouds. Visibility is limited, to say the least. As the fog started to lift I found some goats just under 700 yards off. I knew the plan was working. As I scanned from one to the next, all 8 turned out to be does or tiny bucks. The plan worked, I was in the right place, and the goats were there, only no shooter bucks. I continued to glass and found 2 more groups but they were WAY far off, but I hiked off the hill to drive and get closer. As I drove to where I could see them better, I bumped into some guys out there and, wow, were they loaded with optics. One guy had Kowa Big Eyes, another had 2 Swaro 65mm spotting scopes set up on a mount like binocs, and finally the young girl they were hunting for pulls out an 85mm swaro spotter. Nicest guys ever, but it was obvious they could outglass me all day. The 2 groups I had seen from the top of the mountain, they had pegged from ground level, and as soon as I drove to within range to see if there were any good bucks in those groups, they were right behind me. That evening I went up to Red Butte and glassed from the lower tower and found a huge group of antelope, but couldn't tell if there were any bucks in the herd - they were so far off all I could see through 15x swaros were bodies. I set up a plan - where to drive to (3-4 miles) how to hike in and get in range. About an hour later, I'm inside 400 yards of the herd, everything worked out exactly as I planned - all but one thing. Out of 14 antelope, not one was a mature buck. Now I'm down to the last couple hours of light and trying to make a plan. The West side was totally filled with hunters, the one herd I thought would hold a shooter didn't. As I was driving out, I was texting a buddy who had loaned me his wall tent and asking how the hunt was going. All of a sudden, 2 bucks run across the road in front of me. The first one, all I could see was mass, so I pulled over grabbed my rifle and tried to get on one. The first one - the one with the mass paused at the top of the hill. He was facing away but I had enough body for a shot, and BOOM, he dropped right in his tracks. Turns out it was 188 yards offhand. The bad news was he kind of dipped his head to scratch and because of the angle, the bullet went in his right flank, out just above his left armpit, into his left eye and out the top of his head. Somehow I hit every major organ in that goat including his brain, and did not hit any big muscle areas. But it did break his good side from the pedestal. The other side had a completely broken off cutter. I'm going to do what I can to reconstruct what he would look like with the cutter intact and, well not getting shot through the head, lol.

Happy Birthday, Amanda. Looks like you are having a great day.

How much for the bananas? JK, great prices. Might be interested in the rest for my son - gotta see if it's in his budget. Will you ship?

Good luck to everyone with an AZ coues tag. I get to go too this year, but in NM in about 6 weeks. Should be fun to see what the 6.5 does if I can get an opportunity. So far it has killed on every hunt - first was a 400 yard shot by my son on a muley - right through the heart. Then on my Antelope unit 9 hunt, again flawless. Glass hard, and remember they don't usually move around much this time of year. It takes patience, and don't forget about that 12 O'clock stretch or moving from one side of the tree to the other as the sun changes angles at mid-day.

Great machine, and priced right, IMO. Bump for a good deal for someone. Spent the day in the high country of unit 1 and 27 with the whole family in our 06 ranger. Great day, saw some bomber bulls that made it through the archery and rifle hunts.

Getting it done! Nice job.

Cabela's went down the tubes as soon as they became a corporate enterprise, IMO. I was a life-long Cabela's shopper for years - best customer service, best products, best selection, best prices. When they went public it all crumbled. Everything became MSRP, expensive shipping, plus sales tax since they have an in-state retailer, customer service went down the tubes. In the short-term, Amazon has become my new Cabela's but even they are starting to price everything at MSRP these days. FWIW, I never like Bass Pro - some things you could only find there, now just over-priced.

Awesome video!

Really hoping this gun is still around when I have some extra $$. Great gun, great price.

Happy Birthday, Chef. I hope it was a great day with family and good food.

Totally agree that what you have is sufficient. The .270 has been a long-time go-to gun for just about any game in the world. One thing I've found, and this applies to rifles and bows - shoot what you are most comfortable with. If you trust your equipment, you spend more of your energy really hunting and getting to the point where you get it done, then you do your job, they do theirs.

Impossible sir, It's in Johnson's underwear. All kidding aside, nice shooting!

That's amazing!!! Great story - one I'm sure all of you will remember forever. Thanks for sharing it here with us.

I was right on the intersection of 305 and 340, just NW of Red Butte. Big old water tank there, not far from the old air field. We were off the 347 road. Everywhere that we scouted before season must have been where almost everybody else did also. We took a nasty two track that was puddles of water most the way and found a buck that was away from everyone so it worked out for us opening morning. Awesome! Congrats on getting it done. It was tough with all that pressure out there. I'd love to see photos of the buck you guys got. I saw a pretty good one up there off the 347 up the Rain Tank wash, but I didn't figure him to be over mid 70's. Where I found him sounds like maybe the same area. Super muddy 2 track that goes through a basin, then back on top where you can look back in toward Anita station.

Awesome job getting Emily on a fantastic buck! Talking with Russ back in town, sounds like they were ready for a long shot - 68 yards, that's impressive! Huge congrats on putting them on that beautiful buck.

Hey Bob. Nice meeting you out there. If I had *really* gotten stuck, I'm sure you could've gotten me out the jam. Nasty mud for sure. I would love to see your pix. Feel free to PM me etc. I'd like to hear how your game plan evolved out there.

Happy Birthday, Gino!

I was right on the intersection of 305 and 340, just NW of Red Butte. Big old water tank there, not far from the old air field.

6.5x284 Norma, the first rifle I built up myself. Based on a Savage .270 action, Shillen barrel and Boyd's stock.

Not trying to derail all the derailments, but it seems the 6-wheel thing didn't really fly well even in side-by-sides. More axles, more tires, more things to go wrong, so besides "it looks cool" what could be the appeal? While I'm pretty neutral on Chevy, this looks 10x cooler IMO. http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1106455_military-hydrogen-powered-chevy-colorado-zh2-launches

Thanks! Seems the harder I hunt, the luckier I get, lol.

Would not surprise me. She was probably late teens, and based on their optics I'm sure she had access to a serious long-range rifle. All of them were super nice - I hope she got a good one.