couesmagnet

My buds 12 year old son had a tag also, shot a 95 incher this morning at 300 yards. Kid shoots better than me.

Looks like the first buck i ever shot, nice work.

Nice work, looks like fun!!

Awesome job!!

Put a beautiful 93 incher on the ground this morning with scott muzz's kid grayson, age 10. Perfect bedded 165 yard shot, 1 shot. What an honor to go back to the basics of seeing it thru a kids eyes. Very refreshing indeed. 1 more kid left age 12. Good luck to all the other little guys.

I'm taking a 10 and a 12 year old in 21. I can't wait to go have fun old school style with the little guys. anything with antlers gets it. This will be a fun hunt for that reason.

Big gino, after the discussion a couple of years ago with regards to tree stand pirating, i changed my out look on the whole deal. I turned my attention to finding others tree stands instead of finding my own locations. Since the majority was good with pirates at that time, i bought a black pirate patch, and a fake sword and hit the forest running. What do you think happened to all those big bucks that disappeared on your cameras last year. It was so much easier to pirate others stuff instead of finding them myself. I now have 20 cams on other hunters set ups, and it's been very rewarding. Big g , if had anything to complain about, your stand needs a much more comfortable seat, and will you please warm it up for me next time. I hunt other hunters set ups now, and the deer they spend all that time and money figuring out, it's alot cheeper for me in the long. Just wanted to say hi gino, and to watch out , this posts a time bomb waiting to go off, remember the last one. Lol

Very simple question to answer, neither one. The margin of error is to great. It can be done though, but should it be done, that's the question.

The deer are starting to move down to the lower elevations snow or not. Every year doe's and small bucks begin moving down around right now. With snow this only speeds up the process. even if the snow melts quickly, temperatures at night alone will start this process , regardless of snow conditions. i would pay attention to the night temps, these in my opinion are more critical than snow conditions. Good luck.

I've been guiding archery elk hunters for 18 years now of and on. Sometimes with new mexico seasons included, several clients per year. Almost every time i run into a guy that could shoot the eye out of a gnat at a 100 yards, i stop them and give them a warning we're not hunting deer here, but elk. I usually get the long winded explanation from them about how they shoot 200 arrows a week, and that practice makes perfect. While this makes sense , i usually ask them if their shooting 200 arrows a week at a live elk, and the answer is obviously no. Usually they don't get the point ,until we're in the field looking for a gut shot bull, or better yet one with an arrow in his rump. The whole time we're looking for the animal, i hear more stories and justifications why a 100 yard shot is do able because of their specific archery talents. I have known several people that are awesome archery shots, probably as good as anyone on here, but several of them have more wounded animals to their name than the ones that can't shoot past 50 yards. The reason for this is because no ones going to tell them they can't hit a 1 inch dot on a target at a 100 yards, cause they can do it all day. This time there is no dot, and the animal is moving to a certain extent no matter what, ie;breathing is movement. All i'm saying is unless your practicing shooting at live elk, then your not really practicing with the real situation your faced with shooting at an elk at a 100 yards. I remember shooting a bull in 1995 with a bow at 15 yards right up his rear end. I was shooting awesome that year, and took the shot knowing where the hole was i needed to punch the arrow thru. I shot the bull and buried the arrow perfectly and the bull went less than 20 yards. I remember taking alot of crap from people about taking that shot, i of course i reminded them of my skills and how good i was. It took some years to realize i shouldn't have taken that shot if i was trying to be a responsible hunter, and that just because i could have doesnt mean i should have. just my 2 cents.

Just my opinion, but even if i could shoot better than the world champ archer ,i would never take a shot at any bull in any circumstance over 60 yards. Theres way to much that can go wrong. This is the reason why so many bulls are wounded each year , to long of shots being taken. It's not about how good of a shot you are, it's about all the variables that have nothing to do with shooting itself. That being said i've wounded 3 bulls over the last 20 years, all those shots were under 40 yards. I thinks it's awesome that the person may get their elk back, wish somebody would have done this for me on one occasion a while ago, but they kept it instead. Kudos for the effort!!!

Awesome bull, great job. thanks for posting.

Shane you guys had another great year in 3c as usual, when are you going to post up all those great ones from this year. I've been waiting.

I've got a brand new theory on the antler growth this year. We as hunters have shot out most of the genes for bulls with big 5ths. The few bulls that were left with good genes for 5ths were shot this year. Next year all bulls will have week 5ths cause that's all that's left. Now rain has nothing to do with it anymore, and the only "pockets" left will be in the park. Happy fence jumping to all next year. Obviously kidding on this.

I would second this. Identify the person by the broadhead first and location, then tell them where it is , and they can go it themselves. This way it doesn't have to go thru auction. The only reason the azgfd wants it, is so they can put a large auction tax on it, nothing more nothing less. We had a tag in 23 north but didnt wound anything , and never met anyone on the hunt that wounded one either. Good luck.

Ive never guided for jay before but i did grow up with him from the 6thother grade on. We took jay on his first hunting trip in 1987 up to the kaibab archery. Ive hunted with him quite a bit but not much in the last 5 five years. I never said jay was the best, but what i was trying to say is that is a very competant hunter and if they didnt see very many big bulls in all the places they looked than they couldnt have been around every corner. Jay has done well for himself and im proud of him. Im glad you found the bulls this year in 9,its nice to hear some where there in good numbers somewhere. Im not kissing anyones butt including jays or the, ist of people provided earlier, but when i meet someone i consider on my level with regards to hunting or a higher level i always try to listen and learn. Ive also learned that a humble heart learns better than a arrogant one, or at least im trying to learn that.my last post, good luck to all in the field this year.

One more thing with regards to the pedestal comment, i put several of my friends on a pedestal when it comes to hunting and jay and darr are def some of them. Heres several more i also consider worhty of the pedestal, greg crogh, steve chappell,brady dupke,richie hogan,jay lopeman,paul stewert,and many others, just to many to name. I have learned something and in some cases several trinkets of knoledge in some form or fashion from all of them. I wish i could call myself the best hunter out there but im not. When you say there are so many people out there that do it for free and could do this stuff as good or better, i couldnt agree with you more. There are hundreds of average dudes out there that are some of the best hunters and fellow hunter could meet. Ive found that theres just a lot of die hard guys out there with awesome skill sets of their own. Unfortunately we as a group dont get to hear your guys stories like we wish we could cause your not advertising your accomplishments like the guides do. The guys that have the chance to spend a lot of time in the field are the ones i want to learn from and talk to as much as possible, and average jo has tought me as much as the big namers have over my years of guiding. Jsut when you think you have these animals figured out, u learn its them that have you figured out. I spent around 130 in the field per year the last 7couple years or so, and there isnt one hunt i dont learn something on my own or thru someone else.i think jay would agree with the learning thing also. Heres what i learned this year, just because i couldnt find, didnt mean they werent there. Good ole jed larson and his buddy found 2the absolute pigs in places i had been looking. Congrats to them also,what a excellent job they did.

Azborn 2 hunt i dont have a check station set up but i wish i did so that i could have congratulated all the lucky hunters personally. I do how ever know several of the guides across the state and chose to use my phone to call all these great people i call friends and acuantances thru out the hunt for their opinions and just to enjoy some of what they were experiencing on their hunts. I also called my indian friends on the san carlos who are also awesome hunters for their reports. I spent 27 days straight in unit 23 so in reality if it has to be first hand then i can only speak for what i saw in 23. I wish i could have found more big bulls myself but i wasnt good enough to find them this year, just like several other guides. There were however a couple toads killed this year in 23 so i did miss finding those ones, darn it. I saw weak 5ths on a lot of bulls and thats what i saw. The biggest i saw was in the low 380s and we ended up killing a 368 6bull by 6, with a pretty good back end. We are very proud of him, but wish we could have done better. Im glad you had a better year than most, its nice to hear someone was knee deep in giants, thats always a good thing. Azborn2hunt welcome to the site i see these r your first couple posts. Why dont you introduce yourself so maybe i could call you also next year for a report also, the check station always loves a good report.

I saw a ton of weak 5ths this year also jay in 23. 80 percent of the bulls with big fronts has week 5ths. Azborn2hunt, i also believe the drought played a role this year, im just trying to figure out how so many 400 inchers were killed but yet the upper middle end bulls seemed droughted to me in their 5ths. If jay and darr spent around 30 days up there and din't see anything over 360 or so the pickings were slim. Jay and darr are tenacious with their scouting , and with spending time with them over the years i have seen very few willing to put the time effort, and money it takes to find big animals. Jays down right methodical with a map, and picking out little holes where the critters live. Darr's a rabid animal also when it comes to finding big critters.

This seemed to be a very strange year indeed. There were quite a few super giant bulls killed(bulls over 400) across the state. Unit 9 produced at least 2 bulls over 400 ,which is in line for a normal year as far as 400 inchers to hit the dirt. There were a few bulls killed in the middle in 9 (370 to 380), and basically the same went for 10 also. There were also several super giants killed on the reservations (420 plus). there were several awesome bulls to come from 27 and 1, and a couple from 23. It seemed the amount of really big bulls were getting killed as a normal year, but the difference i saw across the board was a big lack in the upper middle class bulls(360 -380). while the drought affected some areas more than others, the normal amount of 400 inchers were taken in spite of this, and maybe an above average amount of super giants were filmed and killed across the state(420 plus). This seems like an anomaly when the drought should have affected the upper end bulls just as the middle end bulls there seemed to be a lack of across the state including 9, 10. & 7 east pumped out a close to 400 bull and another ive heard about in the high 420's. Why were there so many really big bulls killed , and so very few ones between 350 and 380, thats my biggest question. Any thoughts on this jay? The bulls were either really really big, or they were under 350 which is still a stud.

Way to stick with it, great buck for sure!!!

Dandy bulls fellas, especially for that dudes first elk with a bow. Love the big 4ths on the muzzleloader bull. Looks like it was a fun and rewarding hunt. Die hard i heard 9 was very difficult this year, those are respectable bulls on any year, and dandy bulls on a tough year. Great job to all involved.

Looks like a friendly little fella to glass with for a while.

Came across this pic again surfing the site. What a beast of a buck!!! I might not have been able to pull my bow back if i had the chance.

Spot on wdenike, i just got back from a straight 30 plus day run in the forest. When i left 30 days ago alot of people were bashing the unit 9 guys buck and his whole life in general. 30 days later i come home and i see some are about to start on a new guy and his trophy. I'm about to leave for another 30 days , can't wait to see who the info police will be after when i get back. Some go hunting, and some hunt others that are trying to go hunting and enjoy themselves.