rossislider

With Draysen playing his first year of high school football, and miraculously drawing an early archery bull elk tag, we knew it wouldn't leave much early season time to hunt deer. So we threw up a "Hail Merry" and applied his two bonus points towards a late December whitetail hunt. With the year we were blessed with, I really shouldn't have been surprised when he drew it. This past September for his 15th birthday, we bought him his first big game hunting rifle, an upper end Tikka, chambered in 7mm Mag. He saved up his skull cleaning money and topped it with a Vortex Viper HS LR 6-24x50. In short time we had his load dialed in, and he was shooting groupings inside a quarter at 200 yards. I had a funeral to attend on Thursday, so we decided to head down to our unit around 4:00 AM opening morning from the valley. We were towing our Ranger and had to stop for gas, so were a little behind when I had hoped to be to the mountain. I like to be in glassing position well before first light. We just about ran up the mountain cutting our normal hike time to this spot almost in half. I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with myself. Draysen is the athlete these days, but I put a lot of time and work this spring and summer into dropping 50 pounds and getting into my best shape since my early 20s. I got a little pleasure in listening to Draysen suck wind and really have to work to keep up behind me. He says it is because his pack was heavier than mine. Nonsense! 🤣 We reached our spot just as it was about to become light enough to glass. I threw the binos up and on the tripod right at glassable light. In seconds I found a group of about 10 does and fawns 500 yards on an adjacent ridge. I quickly called Draysen's attention to them as I scanned for antlers. While picking through the does, Draysen spotted two bucks coming up behind our herd and shouted in a whisper "There is a shooter!" We did a quick swap, me in his binos and him throwing his rifle and Claw combo on my tripod (it is the bigger more steady tripod). I called out the distance "482 yards, but he is moving away. Dial 13 clicks to 500." Seconds later, BANG!!! His buck flopped and rolled about 15 yards down the steep hill before coming to a stop. I estimate this all went down in about 3 minutes of me first looking into my binos. We have had short hunts before, but nothing like this! He head down and across the canyon while I stayed put to direct him to his deer. There was a rough 4wd road near the base of the opposite side of the hill his deer was on. All we would have to do for the pack out was top out about 20 yards above his deer, and it would be downhill all the way to the Ranger. Once he was within about 100 yards of his deer I started packing up to make the hike back the opposite direction to get the Ranger and drive to the previously mentioned spot. Then my phone rang, Draysen was on the other end frantic! "Dad, a buck just jumped up in front of me and is running away, is that my deer?" Of course, I had cased my binos and put away the tripod. I had watched his deer lay dead in an unnatural position for about 30 minutes, and was sure he had bumped another buck. But Draysen was about to have a meltdown as I relocated his buck. He was dead as ever and hadn't budged. I reassured him and watched him the rest of the way to his deer before heading back to the Ranger. I think the buck Draysen had bumped up was Draysen's buck's buddy we had seen earlier. He had likely bedded by his buddy and we hadn't noticed. Meanwhile, as I headed to get the Ranger Draysen posted a teaser picture on Facebook. A couple of member "friends" from here wanted to know when he would post a real picture. To which he replied, "When my dad gets here" so I could see him first. Of course the JERKS, you know who you are 😉, and Draysen had a great time making jokes on Facebook about my slowness. Of course my punk kid never bothered to tell them that I had gone back for the Ranger, and allowed them to believe he had left me in the dust and gone ahead. Hiking up the backside of the hill to Draysen was nasty. It was much steeper than anticipated, and being the north facing slope, was thick with Mesquite brush and prickly pear. Eventually I made my way to him. About the time I reached him I realized my new cell had fallen out of my bino case somewhere between the deer and where I had left the Ranger. Fortunately, we have a family tracker app on our phones that led us straight to it a few hundred yards back. We got back to the buck, took a few hundred pictures, and I directed Draysen a bit as he capped and processed his buck. It was a challenge on the steep hillside, but we eventually got it done. We eventually made the descent back to the Ranger falling (both of us) many times down the steep rocky thorn filled slope. I had loaded the cooler into the back of the Ranger, so we were quickly able to get everything on ice. As early as it was, we decided to take the Ranger and explore some new country for a bit, and turned up a couple more spots that have huge future hunting potential. While short, it was a pretty great morning with the boy. I titled this post "My Sidekick Closed Out The Year Strong" but the line that defines who is in fact the "Sidekick" is pretty blurred these days. As long as I get to be along for the adventure, I don't really care. From 500 yards across the canyon. We didn't have time for pictures before the shot. Coming out heavy! There was a pretty good debate on the drive home and into the afternoon about whether to do a shoulder mount or euro. A good friend offered a great deal to shoulder mount. But in all the hundreds of deer Draysen has euroed, he has never done one of his own, so that was the scale tipper. He is hard at it this morning.

Sorry, he already gave it to a friend.

We're got several hundred pounds of ground elk burger. So with the grind meat from Draysen buck, we had a sausage fest! 😂

That is awesome guys! Congratulations.

We could start a club!

Draysen found something interesting while cleaning it. He appears to have broken his nasal bones and healed up at some point in the past.

It really wasn't necessary, but we had the last two tags on our elk rip off in the wind while in the back of the truck. This went straight into the cooler once at the Ranger, but he wanted to be safe. These new tags AZGFD are using are crap!

What he said. I don't see them as much in the flats, but as soon as you get into any type of rolling hills, they are there. You will also find them at the highest spots in the unit.

He doesn't seem overly interested in doing the glassing classes. I thought it would be a good experience for my kids and have called and left a few voicemails and sent a couple of emails over the past year about a glassing class. Have yet to get a response to any of them.

It is a pretty dang good tag, and there are deer everywhere in the unit. I would take it. My son has the same tag so we will be out there as well. Get up high with good glass and if you don't find deer, you are doing something wrong.

1. Yes, you can buy tags at any point prior to or during the season. Yes, Walmart and pretty much any sporting goods store sells them. 2. The OTC archery deer tag is not specific to any unit. Not all units are open during OTC archery deer, but your tag is good for all open units.

I have them. I have used them in 80 degree weather this fall on early elk hunts and I used them (layered with other clothes) in 4 degree weather on my deer hunt a few weeks ago. My favorite pants.

Great ram! Congratulations.

I use Jake Peter's (fellow hunter) at Southwest ATV in Queen Creek. I highly recommend him if you are in that area.

I also picked up a few pairs of the Wrangler Outdoor pants at Walmart based on a recommendation I saw on a hunting forum on Facebook. For $20, why not. I was about to drop 3-4 times as much on some Prana Stretch Zions. I normally am not a fan of clothing and gear from Walmart, but these pants are a heck of a deal for $20. I wear them daily. I also tried a pair of Eddie Bauer Trek pants Costco currently has on sale for $20. I bought them on Monday and wore for the first time yesterday. I like the look, fit, and feel of them, but they are by far to noisiest pants I own. I feel like George Costanza swooshing around in them. Fine for an everyday pant. But I would never wear them hunting. The Wrangler is definitely the better of the two. https://www.wrangler.com/shop/mens-performance-series-outdoor-cargo-pant-nw780

Like others have mentioned, I would probably pull it about 10 degrees below your desired done temperature as the temp will continue to rise after you pull it and wrap it. Please come back in here and let us know how it goes.

Dang man, that is a stud and BEAUTIFUL ram! Congratulations!!! I need more pictures!

Never tried it with prime rib, but I have smoked pork butts, immediately wrapped in foil, placed in a cooler with a towel on the top and bottom, and left them for about 4 hours. After 4 hours they were still to hot to bare hand pull.

Her grandfather did sign the tag down to the granddaughter. She shot a nice ram yesterday. It is posted to a group he created on Facebook. I imagine Jack will share it in here before to long. Huge congrats to the whole group.

My son's whitetail hunt starts in a couple of weeks and goes through the end of the year (12/13-12/31). We will probably take our side by side with us and hunt the weekends. If the hunt goes long, I am considering options for storing the side by side on the flatbed trailer rather that pull it back and forth to the valley. I found a storage unit in Oracle, but the 7:00am to 7:00pm access hours aren't conducive to hunting hours. Anyone have any suggestions in the area?

How was the spice level of this chorizo mix? I love a spicy chorizo, but don't make it often because several members of the family can't handle anything over a very mild spice level.

It was on Tonto's page. Here is the info from Apache Sitgreaves. They are a little more difficult. Christmas Tree Permits It’s that time of year again! All districts on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests are selling Christmas Tree Permits. A permit may be obtained from any of the district offices on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests or by mail. The cost of one Christmas Tree Permit is $15.00. To purchase a Christmas tree permit by mail, please include a check or money order and a self-addressed stamped envelope. If purchasing one permit, please place one .55 cent stamp on the return envelope. For each additional permit, please add an additional .55 cent stamp to your return envelope and send to the desired district office. Make the check or money order payable to USDA Forest Service. Please carry the permit and place the tree tag on the tree as soon as it has been cut. Please cut only the tree species specified on the permit and only cut in the area designated on the permit and map. The sale of Christmas tree permits began October 15 and ends December 24. There are no refunds. An armload of green branches for decorations may be taken along with your tree as part of this permit. These may be found where timber has recently been logged. Also, feel welcome to pick up pine cones for decorations. Please see district office addresses below. Alpine Ranger District, Attention: Front Desk P.O. Box 469, Alpine AZ 85920 Phone number: (928) 339-4323 Alpine Christmas Tree Cutting Area Map Black Mesa Ranger District, Attention: Front Desk P.O. Box 968, Overgaard, AZ 85933 Phone number: (928) 535-5972 Black Mesa Christmas Tree Cutting Area Map Clifton Ranger District, Attention: Front Desk 397240 AZ 75, Duncan, AZ 85534 Phone number: (928) 687-8600 Clifton Ranger District Christmas Tree Cutting Area Map Lakeside Ranger District, Attention: Front Desk 2022 West White Mountain Blvd, Lakeside AZ 85929 Phone number: (928) 368-6476 Lakeside Ranger District Christmas Tree Cutting Area Map Springerville Ranger District, Attention: Front Desk P.O. Box 760, Springerville AZ 85938 Phone number: (928) 333-6200 Springerville Christmas Tree Cutting Area Map

Here is a little mor einfo on it for you. The Tonto National Forest will be selling a limited number of Christmas tree permits to the public beginning at 8:00 a.m., Monday, November 18, 2019. There will be a total of 3500 permits available at $15 each, which can be paid for by cash, credit card or personal check over-the-counter (sorry, no phone or mail orders will be accepted). Payments in cash (exact change) are preferred to keep the lines moving. One tree per household. One person may purchase up to four permits for other families not living in the household. These permits are for personal use only. Permits are first-come, first-served until sold out, and will be sold at the following locations: 450 permit at the Cave Creek Ranger Station: (480) 595-3300 1025 permits at the Mesa Ranger Station: (480) 610- 3300 1025 permits at the Payson Ranger Station: (928) 474-7900. The office will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 23, November 30, December 7, December 14, and December 21, 2019, as long as there are permits available. 1000 permits at the Tonto Supervisor’s Office: (602) 225-5200 Please note that the number of permits available will change day-to-day and will not be updated on this web page, so call the location you are planning to purchase from to check how many permits they have available. Trees must be cut within the designated cutting areas. A map of the cutting area will be provided with the permit. Trees may be cut from November 23 to December 24. There are no refunds on Christmas tree permits.

I am looking to trade for H1000 and ELD-X Bullets in 30 Caliber 200 grain or 7MM (284) 175 grain. I have the following that I would be willing to trade: Unopened 1 pound canisters of Retumbo and H335. Unopened (100 count) Berger VLD Hunting Bullets in 30 Caliber 210 grain. Located in the Phoenix east valley. Thanks

Hey guys, my surplus of Retumbo is spoken for. Thanks