brhoton

My name is Brian Rhoton I was the "A3" hunter referred to in this post, I have not been on this website in years but was made aware that there is some controversy on this site and guess facebook over the giant buck that Tol killed with DA outfitter's. I don't have and will never have a facebook account so l am on here to clear up all the FAKE NEWS that seems to be circulating the web. I have spot read through the 14 pages of posts here so i don't know exactly what all has been said but got the general idea I think. Here is what happened I got a call on the Saturday morning prior to the buck being killed from my brother who is an owner at A3, he had been contacted by Ben Brochu about a large buck he had found while archery hunting that morning, he had almost killed the buck with his bow and had got good video in the process. I looked at the video and was immediately interested in the buck. I could not make it down that day as I was on the Navajo reservation watching my daughter play basketball but was able to talk to Ben. I could not hunt the following days because of a daughter getting a surgery until thursday the following week. My brother and I showed up on Thursday morning met ben, one of bens friends and one of chads friends who wanted to help hunt the big deer. Ben had been able to keep track of the deer every day except for the prior day in which they did not see the deer. Ben spread everyone out to different glassing points and we all went to look for the buck. From the first video I had seen of the buck I was concerned that the deer was a hybrid, the concern arose from the location of the deer and the lack of whitetail in the area, obviously the size of the deer as it is huge both antler and body, and the general look of the deer in the video. Obviously I was willing to take the chance that once killed the deer might be a hybrid, I was fine with that fact as I believe anyone in their right mind would be. After about an hour of glassing in the morning I glassed a deer up at the edge of the mountain and the flats and immediately told Ben I have a whitetail, we had seen allot of mule deer that morning and this deer defiantly looked to be a whitetail. Once the buck cleared some brush it was immediately clear it was him, the buck is giant. To make a long story short we lost the buck midday and did not get him killed on Thursday. Friday morning we went back to same side of the ridge we glassed the buck from and sent another guy to the other side. The guy on the other side radio and said he had glassed up a pile of mule deer does with several mule deer bucks and one smaller buck with a whitetail rutting the does, about 5 min later he let us know the large buck had joined the party. Ben, my brother and myself immediately began to relocate to the ridge directly above the deer, while on route to the deer we got a call from the spotter asking us if we had just pulled up in our truck under him on the knob he was on we said no. About 5 min later he called and said it was Duwane Adams and that he had the raffle hunter what should he do, we asked him to let Duwane know that we had the buck located and were moving in to kill the deer. Duwane asked which deer he was told and he said they were two deer and they would look for the other one. In the meantime the rutting party broke up with a few bucks heading up the ridge and the big buck heading downhill to the flats where everything bedded up. Duwane and his crew and our spotter started glassing together and we made it up to the top of our knob. When we got up on the know Duwane did call Ben and asked for prices on two sets of 15s, Ben told him he would talk to him later after we got the buck killed. We quickly picked up the group of deer 500 or so yards below us most were bedded and started trying to find the buck as our spotter had lost track of it while talking with Duwane and his crew. We were not concerned at all about Duwane and his hunter as we believed the buck was with the does right below us about 1200 yards from the knob everyone else was on. It was flat desert between us and our spotter and Duwane with his guys and 1300 yds. After some time i glassed over to our spotter and Duwane and saw a mad panick going on our spotter called and said the buck popped up 300 yds below us they want to shoot it what do you want me to do right then the buck bedded. The buck had worked to 1000 yds from me and 300 yards from them and bedded, we told him do nothing if they are really going to shoot help them out, hopefully their hunter can't shoot, we can't shoot from here the buck is bedded behind brush. After a few shots the buck was dead. We made our way over to the buck helped them set the buck up for pictures and had some great conversations. Tol is a great guy, I could not be more happy for him he first drew a tag of several lifetimes and than sealed the deal on a buck of several lifetimes. We all went our separate ways as while there was obviously some upset feelings everyone there felt it was not worth ruining a great hunting experience for Tol. A few hours later I believe a few phone calls were made between DA and Ben and some of the others that were in the field expressing some frustration as to how the whole situation came about. A few clarifications, some in-site and thoughts i had while spot reading this threat. 1. I feel the worst for Ben, he pulled off archery hunting the deer because I was interested in hunting and killing it. He is the one that "lost" the most in this situation with not continuing to hunt a once in a lifetime buck and waiting on me to show up. Many will say that he made the choice and can live with the consequesces True that doesn't mean consequences don't suck. 2. I regret not killing the deer, I would have been excited and had decided to shoot the deer even though I suspected as did most that knew of the deer that it was a hybrid. After looking at its glands and such I believe if DNA tested it would be considered a hybrid. That deer was the "bird in the hand" every other giant i know of is tough to locate. 3. I have been shown or told about several deer just this year that are similar in score to this deer, none of them as close to as easy to relocate, but each of them have been shown to me by at least 2 people or I know of at least 2 people that know about the deer. I know this deer was know and seen by a minimum of 3 different groups of hunters this year. Giant coues deer have to have significant age, i was fortunate to also have the auction tag last year, the buck I killed last year has been same size or bigger for 5 years prior to killing, he had to be at least 4 or 5 years old when he was first located by the guide that showed me the deer which means the deer was at least 10 years old, I suspect he was close to 12. It is hard for a giant buck to remain a secret there are allot of years to locate a buck in his prime with allot of hunters that have great glassing skills, high tech backpacking equipment that lets them get to remote locations and stay much easier than 10 years ago, improved hunting sills combined with the use of trail cameras and its hard for those bucks to make it unseen like they used to be. On a side note the buck I killed last year had the opportunity to create a lot of drama between mutual friends as both parties had significant time watching the deer year to year, no drama made the hunt. 4. There have been several posts about people glad that the raffle guy killed and I did not because I bought the tag, i agree completely with those comments. Tol is a great guy that got lucky and drew a great tag and killed a smoker buck. 5. While big bucks are not necessarily a secret they are tough to find. I have probably spent more time and $ in the field than the majority of people trying to locate a truly giant deer and have never personally found a deer I thought was giant. Biggest I have found on my own and killed is 128" typical; I have seen plenty of 120 and 130 inch deer but never a true freak. I know those that have found multiple true giants, my hat goes off to them. If some believe me to be a "sell out" or not a "true hunter" because I decide to go and hunt a deer someone else found and compensate them for it I don't care, I will continue to do it. If you got a deer I would be interested in hit me up lets go hunting. 6. The number one problem with hunting is that we all love it and obsess about it to death, so much that that many hunters invest all, some invest most and most invest a substantial portion of $, time and energy into it. When things don't go our way it pisses us off. Just like it would with anything that means a great deal to us including our families, work or any other hobby. 7. When the result of one hunter or group of hunters success results in the failure of the other hunter or group of hunters it naturally creates great conflict in most situations and any flaw in the opposing parties actions is naturally attacked. I was happy that there was no conflict in the field everyone acted in a professional matter congratulations were given even though it was a tough situation everyone left on good terms. Personal person to person calls were made a few hours later so that opinions could be expressed. I think the internet has made that conflict and ease of attack worse than ever before. 8. This site is drama city, I have heard facebook is too and many other internet sites. Everyone get over it, its just a deer they are a renewable resource others will grow hopefully bigger. 9. Name me one person that has not made a mistake in the field, in life, at work or anywhere. Crap happens we all make mistakes, especially in the heat of the moment. Did Duwane make a mistake, who the heck cares, no one has a spotless reputation and everyone has a different perspective. I don't care about spelling or grammar. This will be my only post.

Arizona Griz what is your name? Chris What? This is Brian Rhoton, who i guess you concider one of the "boys". Just want to know who is flapping their jaws out there.

this is brian rhoton i tried to send you a e-mail it did not work. give me a e-mail brhoton@empirecos.com. marc showed me pics of your bucks from this year they are sweet.