Archery Kills rolling in already

[Non-Typical Solutions]

I had one of my students.....7th grade......come up to me and show me pictures on her phone of their deer hunt this weekend. Unit 1. Five in their group hunting, 4 kills.

Three of the 4 pictures looked like wide open out in the grass no trees and I realize pictures could have been taken anywhere.........she is showing me her buck....one of three spikes killed in their group.......and she said she shot it at 40 yards. I asked her how in the world she got so close to the deer? (I struggle getting close to deer)................she said, well we were driving down the road and.............yep you know the rest of the story.

The fourth buck taken by the group was taken by an adult and it was a forkie!

[CouesFanatic]

21 minutes ago, Non-Typical Solutions said:

I had one of my students.....7th grade......come up to me and show me pictures on her phone of their deer hunt this weekend. Unit 1. Five in their group hunting, 4 kills.

 Three of the 4 pictures looked like wide open out in the grass no trees and I realize pictures could have been taken anywhere.........she is showing me her buck....one of three spikes killed in their group.......and she said she shot it at 40 yards. I asked her how in the world she got so close to the deer? (I struggle getting close to deer)................she said, well we were driving down the road and.............yep you know the rest of the story.

The fourth buck taken by the group was taken by an adult and it was a forkie!

The majority of the deer killed with this new system will be the dumb and young bucks. Sucks for guys that are looking for older deer but at least your students are out hunting instead of being a tree hugging liberal.

[Garryett]

🤔 typo?

[Non-Typical Solutions]

19 minutes ago, CouesFanatic said:

The majority of the deer killed with this new system will be the dumb and young bucks. Sucks for guys that are looking for older deer but at least your students are out hunting instead of being a tree hugging liberal.

Oh I was excited to hear they got to get out and hunt, I was jealous I didn't get to go hunt! Agree on all counts!!!

[bonecollector]

40 minutes ago, Garryett said:

🤔 typo?

Doesnt look like that on my screen. Weird

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

It's too bad we can't make it a forkie or bigger requirement in Arizona. I saw so many spikes posted on social media over the weekend. It's great people are out hunting but it is a bummer to see so many spikes killed. 

[firstcoueswas80]

2 minutes ago, Yuma Outdoorsman said:

It's too bad we can't make it a forkie or bigger requirement in Arizona. I saw so many spikes posted on social media over the weekend. It's great people are out hunting but it is a bummer to see so many spikes killed. 

I'm typically against Point restrictions however if they are implementing a harvest limit, I actually don't think Point restrictions would be a bad idea in that situation.

[bonecollector]

Let the big guys live and spread their genetics later in the year. 

[Chef]

The draw season hunts are going to be that much sweeter with opportunities at the mature bucks that would have otherwise been killed.

[bigorange]

46 minutes ago, firstcoueswas80 said:

I'm typically against Point restrictions however if they are implementing a harvest limit, I actually don't think Point restrictions would be a bad idea in that situation.

Yeah this makes sense…good point. 

[yotebuster]

Lotsa “good old days syndrome” on this thread.  I remember as a kid in the 80’s hearing about the good old days, now I heard guys talking about the 80’s and 90’s as the good old days.  Considering the amount of pressure on the herds from every direction, things are going great all across the west.  I hate to tell you guys, but it ain’t getting better so enjoy the “good old days” that are occurring right now because big bucks, low pressure, and easy to draw tags is gone and will never be better then today. 

[Couzer]

A friend of mine shot a nice buck in unit 1, waited 30 minutes tracked it down the hill near a dirt road only to see a truck with a hitch mounted cargo rack Buck strapped in hauling butt away?  🤷🏼‍♂️ Sucks to loose a buck to a road hunter IF that’s what happened. 

[knothead]

2 hours ago, firstcoueswas80 said:

I'm typically against Point restrictions however if they are implementing a harvest limit, I actually don't think Point restrictions would be a bad idea in that situation.

Maybe a point restriction for the Aug/Sept season and then any buck in Dec/Jan?  Still allows the kids and meat hunters their chance at anything.  Maybe doing it this way would keep some of the units from closing so early and have a few more hunts open in the cooler weather.

[gunthenbow]

DID I JUST POACH A BUCK THANKS TO GOHUNT??

 

Well I never thought I’d have to do this but I just got back from manually reporting myself at the AZGFD office. To rewind a little, you all know AZ has started a new system this year with manually reporting when you kill for OTC deer. Well, Friday night, I hopped on Google to check that my unit was open. When I typed it, an article from GOHUNT was one of the top results. It was titled, ‘Changes to Arizona’s OTC deer hunts’. I naturally clicked it since I am a GOHUNT insider and am on their website like every other day e-scouting/looking through their gear shop, etc. Within the article, it had all of the units with which season dates that were open for each particular unit. (See original article PDF below for article) under (one of the 40's), it showed August 19- Sept. 8th 2022, Dec 9th-31st, 2022 and Jan 1-31st 2023 all open. I promptly got off my phone and started getting my things together because I was going hunting! Fast forward to the next day, my wife spots a cool buck, we bed it and it happens to bed in the perfect location for a stalk. Between perfect wind and lots of luck, I made a solid shot on my first ever mule deer buck and my first ever bow kill AND it was even in velvet! I was on cloud nine, telling all my friends and even got some of them to help me pack it out. Fast forward to the next day, Sunday. It was time to process all the meat so my wife and I spent around 5 hours trimming vac sealing and labeling all the cuts to put into the freezer still high on life wondering how I was so lucky to make a bow kill on a mule deer in the desert in August. Fast forward to the next day. Monday- mandatory reporting day. I hopped on google again to find where I needed to report my harvest and that’s when I found out that the season wasn’t actually open for this time of year in (we will just say, one of the 40’s) and a lot of other units GOHUNT claimed were open. (One of the 40’s) was one of many other units that were incorrect on which seasons are actually open right now and the rest of the year. I guess I’m writing this article to hopefully help anyone else who might make the same mistake I did. Anyways, I loaded up the cooler with the meat neatly wrapped and labeled in vac sealed bags and the head and went on down to the local AZGFD office to report myself because I felt like it was the right thing to do. I also called GOHUNT on the way and they didn’t answer of course. I told the G&F officer what happened and he didn’t seem too upset about it. He said something to the effect of “these kind of things happen and you did the right thing by reporting yourself. However, we will be seizing the head and all the meat but you’ll only receive a written warning.” I know it was lucky to get off with just a written warning but the whole thing turned a magical experience of my first ever bow kill to nothing but feeling sick to my stomach. I NEVER would’ve hunted that unit if I hadn’t thought it was open. GOHUNT let me down and they didn’t do anything to help me out with it.  In the same article, it states, “(details will be published in the 2022-2023 Arizona Hunting Regulations booklet and updated here when available).” I assumed GOHUNT was “up-to-date” like they said they would be. I was wrong and learned my lesson not to trust GOHUNT even though I pay them for that kind of trust.
 

Listen, I know it was wrong of me to rely solely on GOHUNT. However, I was under the impression that I paid these people to give the correct information regarding seasons and stats. I did get a call back from them on my way home AZGFD and I told them the situation and they said those were just “pending dates”. However, nowhere in that article did it say pending and it also said they would be updated when they were available. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being a big baby but I feel like I got screwed over and there’s nothing I can do about it. AGAIN, I DO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY IN USING GOHUNT AND NOT AZGFD DIRECTLY AND WILL NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. I am writing this to hear what others think and most importantly, to warn anyone else of this issue before they make the same mistake I did.

And as for the nicely packaged meat we worked so diligently on- it’s going to the AZGFD animals rescue shelter to feed to the coyotes and other predators after it’s tested. The antlers will be auctioned off in AZGFD yearly auction. The gentlemen who took the meat from me even gave me his business card to send him an email to buy the antlers back from them when the auction happens.

 

Changes to Arizona’s OTC deer hunts.pdf

[Yuma Outdoorsman]

20 minutes ago, gunthenbow said:

DID I JUST POACH A BUCK THANKS TO GOHUNT??

 

Well I never thought I’d have to do this but I just got back from manually reporting myself at the AZGFD office. To rewind a little, you all know AZ has started a new system this year with manually reporting when you kill for OTC deer. Well, Friday night, I hopped on Google to check that my unit was open. When I typed it, an article from GOHUNT was one of the top results. It was titled, ‘Changes to Arizona’s OTC deer hunts’. I naturally clicked it since I am a GOHUNT insider and am on their website like every other day e-scouting/looking through their gear shop, etc. Within the article, it had all of the units with which season dates that were open for each particular unit. (See original article PDF below for article) under Unit 42, it showed August 19- Sept. 8th 2022, Dec 9th-31st, 2022 and Jan 1-31st 2023 all open. I promptly got off my phone and started getting my things together because I was going hunting! Fast forward to the next day, my wife spots a cool buck, we bed it and it happens to bed in the perfect location for a stalk. Between perfect wind and lots of luck, I made a solid shot on my first ever mule deer buck and my first ever bow kill AND it was even in velvet! I was on cloud nine, telling all my friends and even got some of them to help me pack it out. Fast forward to the next day, Sunday. It was time to process all the meat so my wife and I spent around 5 hours trimming vac sealing and labeling all the cuts to put into the freezer still high on life wondering how I was so lucky to make a bow kill on a mule deer in the desert in August. Fast forward to the next day. Monday- mandatory reporting day. I hopped on google again to find where I needed to report my harvest and that’s when I found out that the season wasn’t actually open for this time of year in (we will just say, one of the 40’s) and a lot of other units GOHUNT claimed were open. (One of the 40’s) was one of many other units that were incorrect on which seasons are actually open right now and the rest of the year. I guess I’m writing this article to hopefully help anyone else who might make the same mistake I did. Anyways, I loaded up the cooler with the meat neatly wrapped and labeled in vac sealed bags and the head and went on down to the local AZGFD office to report myself because I felt like it was the right thing to do. I also called GOHUNT on the way and they didn’t answer of course. I told the G&F officer what happened and he didn’t seem too upset about it. He said something to the effect of “these kind of things happen and you did the right thing by reporting yourself. However, we will be seizing the head and all the meat but you’ll only receive a written warning.” I know it was lucky to get off with just a written warning but the whole thing turned a magical experience of my first ever bow kill to nothing but feeling sick to my stomach. I NEVER would’ve hunted that unit if I hadn’t thought it was open. GOHUNT let me down and they didn’t do anything to help me out with it.  In the same article, it states, “(details will be published in the 2022-2023 Arizona Hunting Regulations booklet and updated here when available).” I assumed GOHUNT was “up-to-date” like they said they would be. I was wrong and learned my lesson not to trust GOHUNT even though I pay them for that kind of trust.
 

Listen, I know it was wrong of me to rely solely on GOHUNT. However, I was under the impression that I paid these people to give the correct information regarding seasons and stats. I did get a call back from them on my way home AZGFD and I told them the situation and they said those were just “pending dates”. However, nowhere in that article did it say pending and it also said they would be updated when there when available. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being a big baby but I feel like I got screwed over and there’s nothing I can do about it. AGAIN, I DO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY IN USING GOHUNT AND NOT AZGFD DIRECTLY AND WILL NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN. I am writing this to hear what others think and most importantly, to warn anyone else of this issue before they make the same mistake I did.

And as for the nicely packaged meat we worked so diligently on- it’s going to the AZGFD animals rescue shelter to feed to the coyotes and other predators after it’s tested. The antlers will be auctioned off in AZGFD yearly auction. The gentlemen who took the meat from me even gave me his business card to send him an email to buy the antlers back from them when the auction happens.

GOHUNT WRONG SEASON DATES.pdf

Glad you only got a warning and sad you lose your buck. Sounds like you know going off of GOHUNT is not the wise choice and you learned your lesson the hard way. Congrats on successfully stalking a desert mule deer and making a kill shot with a bow. That is a very challenging task. I wish you success in the near future. 
 

out of curiosity, did they count that towards your legal buck for the season or are you able to go shoot another?