codyhuntsaz

9/10 i believe they are talking about.

There is a popular theory that wet years are bad for antelope, it goes something like this.....high moisture years basically “water down” the nutrients in the plants they eat (more water, less nutrient dense). They can eat less and feel fuller. That’s one theory. Another one I’ve heard is that on dry years it forces them to eat a whole other plant source, because their normal food source isn’t as available. The dry year food source isn’t as palatable, but much higher in protein, leading to better horn growth. As far as the fawn crop being low, i attribute that to the coyote problems.

I believe your second statement is the case. In that unit, 2015 and 2016 were exceptional years, tons of big bucks killed. I think between that, the amount of tags given with the high success rate, predation and a wet year, the unit hasn’t had a chance to bounce back properly. I only saw a handful of fawns while scouting.

I know you do! I’ll be picking those kill pills up soon!

You’re the man!

Yep, that’s the chance I’m taking. I’ve never not been able to go on a hunt in 27 years, let hope this doesn’t bite me in the butt

Yes, you get all your points back and you get a bonus point as if you weren’t drawn. I don’t understand why anyone would buy point guard and not use it in that situation either, but to each their own.

Not to open a whole other can of worms, but a guy i know has that rifle tag and he is turning it back in too. Not a lot of big bucks this year apparently. He had 26 or 27 points. A gentleman on here, him and his son are in 5b now on the archery hunt and they haven’t found a buck over 80”. He kept the tag because he drew it with less than 5 points.

heck 26 points may guarantee me the rifle tag, but i hear what you’re saying!

See that’s where you and I differ. I much less understand turning in a deer and elk tag, that I can draw 2,3,4 maybe even a dozen times in that timeframe then I do turning in the tag I turned in that I waited most of my life for. I’m not gonna except an average antelope after I’ve waited this long. You’re right, I have only seen a small selection of bucks to choose from. But I also only had a limited number of days to scout. I’m not going to chance 26 years on hoping I find one during a 10 day hunt. And as far as my scouting comment went, you’re calling me crazy and saying I shouldn’t have turned in the tag in when you have spent zero days in that unit and know what kind of quality it is producing this year. That unit is a very up-and-down unit and year-by-year it can produce a world record or not many bucks over 80 inches. That’s coming from the best guide in the country for antelope. I think I’ll stick with his advice.

No s h i t, right! Haha

I see that now

Hey, if you’re happy to shoot an average buck on a down year good on ya. I wasn’t and didn’t have too, so i didn’t.

Call it bullshit if you’d like, but you’d be wrong. Myself, a well know antelope Guide (archery tag holder), and 2 guys with archery tags i met while scouting turned their tags back in. I know of another guy who was advised to turn his rifle tag back in by his Guide, i don’t know if he did or not though. How many days this year have you spent in 10 scouting for antelope? I’m guessing not many or you’d know it’s a down year. The way i look at it is this....i didn’t wait all this time to shoot an average, slightly above average buck in a unit where the quality should be better than average. I could have done that a few years ago in a number of units.

If i could have found him consistently i May have kept the tag, but i wanted to have a couple plan b, c and d bucks to hunt and i couldn’t find any.

That’s the chance you take, thanks for the good wishes though, tool.

Hopefully a deserving Veteran or a kid that will appreciate it. I donated it to the OE4A.

Maybe i can, maybe i can’t, but i know what “look” i was looking for. To me that was more important than the score. I watched a lot of videos on scoring antelope, took a lot of the “guess the score” quizzes that Pronghorn Guide Service puts out and got fairly good at scoring them, by no means the expert you seem to think you are. I buy point guard for many reasons, this is one of them. Had I been able to consistently find a few bucks that had the look i wanted i would have kept the tag and hoped for the best. Since i didn’t, i didn’t. I spoke to a few guides that confirmed the same things i was finding, just a down year in the unit. I spoke to a few guys that had the archery tag that were going to turn it back in. One guy had a rifle tag in 2015 and an archery tag this year, said it was night and day difference and the quality and quantity had gone down horribly. Spoke to another guide that had advised his rifle client to turn his tag back in as well. It is what it is. I wouldn’t call choosing to your an insurance policy “point guard” high maintenance, but you can, that’s cool.

I MIGHT have kept the tag if i could find that 2nd buck consistently, only saw him once in 5 days. I’m not sure there’s any tag in the state you can’t draw with 27 points.

^^^^^ these are two of the best three bucks that I found while scouting. The other one, I didn’t get a picture of him, was a little bigger than these two.

I’m new to antelope hunting, but i couldn’t find a single buck over 80”.

Hopefully you don’t spend too many points on it.

That’s been a theory floated out by a lot of people. What I’ve heard is that on a dryer year it forces the antelope to feed on a different plan that is higher in protein. The antelope numbers themselves are way way down! In five days of scouting I saw maybe 100 antelope. That’s on the Boquillas and on public land.