Archery Kills rolling in already

[SunDevil]

9 hours ago, trphyhntr said:

I’m not sure how to address this quote

 

i mean there’s been plenty of book stuff killed the last 20 years 

 

and unit 1 is way better than it used to be. 3c as well more deer, 3b more deer. Never been but sounds like 7, 9, 10 are doing really well on deer. Desert units producing giant bucks. A 290 was killed in the desert a few years ago.  There’s been giant bulls killed. 300” strip deer. Some of the biggest coues ever have been killed recently Maybe you’re not looking in the right spots. 

matter of fact, what unit is worse off now than it was in the late 80s? I can’t think of any. 
 

edit: aravaipa ram peaked about 1990. 

33 mule deer

[trphyhntr]

9 minutes ago, SunDevil said:

33 mule deer

Agreed. I addressed the desert mule deer in a previous post. Too many coues in 33. 
 

[trphyhntr]

10 minutes ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

 That depredation hunt was due to does in the fields and they should’ve made that an antler less hunt but all the hunters did was shoot bucks. Can’t blame them. It was a glorified trophy hunt. That hunt covered miles upon miles of alfalfa from Hwy 95 to Texas Hill. Also, it had nothing to do with alfalfa fields, it was to keep them away from produce fields due to food safety concerns. Now, the majority of the fields up until about  40E have large fencing blocking animals from getting to the fields. Not all crossings but a lot of them are blocked. 


 

Wish I would have been there for that smack down. 

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

1 minute ago, trphyhntr said:

Wish I would have been there for that smack down. 

It caused Some drama in Yuma because a lot of locals didn’t know about the hunt but all the farmers were given a heads up so they told their friends and family and bunch of them got drawn and shot some big velvet bucks. That was the other issue, they did the depredations ahead of the general rifle hunt and pissed a ton of people off. 

[trphyhntr]

Just now, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

It caused Some drama in Yuma because a lot of locals didn’t know about the hunt but all the farmers were given a heads up so they told their friends and family and bunch of them got drawn and shot some big velvet bucks. That was the other issue, they did the depredations ahead of the general rifle hunt and pissed a ton of people off. 

Dream hunt. 

[Sky Island junkie]

23 minutes ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

It caused Some drama in Yuma because a lot of locals didn’t know about the hunt but all the farmers were given a heads up so they told their friends and family and bunch of them got drawn and shot some big velvet bucks. That was the other issue, they did the depredations ahead of the general rifle hunt and pissed a ton of people off. 

That sounds like AZG$F. Sometimes they’ve been late to the party with the depredation. More than once a group of farmers or ranchers have petitioned them to conduct a depredation and they drag their feet. By the time they create tags and sell them to the recipients the problem has been taken care of. Nothing for them to shoot. Rumor has it!!

[Sky Island junkie]

27 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

Dream hunt. 

Using the word hunt loosely! 

[Coach]

2 hours ago, trphyhntr said:

24a still is crawling with deer though. 

I'd love to check out some of the old spots. Honestly, after the rule change where they started making that unit an "opportunity" hunt, I haven't been back except to add extra eyes on friends' hunts. Some of the guys I grew up with hunting that unit have gotten tags and know it really really well, have gone weeks without seeing a mature buck. If ever there was a unit I'd like to see back to the 80's it's 24A. Man I used to spend so much time in there. Pinky's ranch, Haystack, Dripping Springs. I ran into an old rancher a long time ago when my oldest boy was just 5 (now 25), and he took us to some indian ruins and told stories about the old times there. He had a pet albino bobcat, and a coues deer that lived in his place over by Seneca. He was convinced there were a small subset of tiny coues that were dog-sized but had full racks. I picked one up on Picacho Colorado one year that was 3x3 but would fit in the palm of your hand. It's supposedly debunked but I've seen enough sheds from 24A and the rez that I still think the "fantail" exist, or at least used to.

 

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

36 minutes ago, Sky Island junkie said:

That sounds like AZG$F. Sometimes they’ve been late to the party with the depredation. More than once a group of farmers or ranchers have petitioned them to conduct a depredation and they drag their feet. By the time they create tags and sell them to the recipients the problem has been taken care of. Nothing for them to shoot. Rumor has it!!

Oh no, this wasn't one of those cases. This was put together rather quickly and some locals benefited and shot some giant farm deer. There was actually another depredation hunt going on in Gila Valley just a couple years ago but it was anterless and the interest was extremely minimal because of that. 

[JSR]

Just go to a draw for archery like every other state and make rifle/ML's hunts mandatory harvest report also.

 

Simple

 

 

[firstcoueswas80]

I rememeber one-time as a kid going in to the same areas I hunt now with two very accomplished glassers. First thing in the morning they were calling out deer literally quicker than I could take notes. 

Now, we still see 20-40 deer everyday but if memory serves me right, the total tally was something like 65 in 2 hours on that particular trip.

[trphyhntr]

13 minutes ago, firstcoueswas80 said:

I rememeber one-time as a kid going in to the same areas I hunt now with two very accomplished glassers. First thing in the morning they were calling out deer literally quicker than I could take notes. 

Now, we still see 20-40 deer everyday but if memory serves me right, the total tally was something like 65 in 2 hours on that particular trip.

you’re not hunting with 2 experienced glassers anymore. That’s the 20-40 deer difference 

[Sky Island junkie]

15 minutes ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

Oh no, this wasn't one of those cases. This was put together rather quickly and some locals benefited and shot some giant farm deer. There was actually another depredation hunt going on in Gila Valley just a couple years ago but it was anterless and the interest was extremely minimal because of that. 

Yeah I think they communicate better than they used to with ranchers and farmers.  The one I got called on 15 years ago was an any elk depredation in the Gila valley. 5 tag holders saw nothing. One farmer laughed when he told me we were a little late! I took that as they had a full freezer!

[creed]

2 hours ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

It caused Some drama in Yuma because a lot of locals didn’t know about the hunt but all the farmers were given a heads up so they told their friends and family and bunch of them got drawn and shot some big velvet bucks. That was the other issue, they did the depredations ahead of the general rifle hunt and pissed a ton of people off. 

I pretty much got ignored over a javelina problem. They did $25000 in crop damage to an emerging cotton field. G&F could have cared less. I finally raised enough heck they sent a guy out to set up a pen trap.  What a freakin joke!

[bigorange]

Is there a pool on which unit closes first? Nothing in the southern 30s units yet…or not being reported/updated.