What was your most memorable Az Hunt

[couesmagnet]

I absolutely pounded this super giant buck with a 308 at less than 150 yards still hunting that morning. Deer was across a small drainage and went down hard immediately. Stood there for 3 or 4 minutes watching him and started over to him. When i got to 10 yards the buck somehow got up and struggled with all his might and went 10 yards to the top of the hill he was just underneath. He hadn't gone 10 yards and i heard a boom from literally where he was standing. Buck dropped and rolled right back to me downhill.. Ended up there was an indian standing there clenching his open sight rifle like no one i have ever seen. He spoke very broken english and kept saying "my buck", "my buck". I was to young to understand what to do or what not to do. My shot was perfectly placed with a huge hole and the indian could clearly see where all the blood was just 10 yards away where he was laying originally but it didn't matter to him , and the way he was clenching his rifle made me nervous to put it lightly. if it was now i would have run up and thrown my tag on the deer and argued later. Shot the 221 buck just 20 minutes later after loosing the 3rd biggest deer I've seen to this day. The 221 buck was tiny compared to the other buck though and still haunts me to this day. Oh well!!!

[GreyGhost85]

man. tough break. i always hear stories like that and wonder what the conclusion would be if it happened to me. got any pics of those monster bucks you guys killed?

[mattys281]

 

I can pretty much remember all of my hunts. Probably 50% of them were total solo hunts and some were concluded with me taking game which were reverent and fulfilled a deep sense of accomplishment, even though I was alone.

I think though that the ones that were more meaningful to me where ones where I contributed to with my skill and perseverance which resulted in another taking game.

Some of those were my kids first deer on the JR Kaibab hunt and my sons first turkey hunt and assisting a friend on his first turkey hunt.

 

Chris... you're an awesome guy and a great hunter. I am honored to have a friend like you. One of my most memorable moments was when I was able to go out with you scouting for my javelina hunt; You shared some much knowledge about not only javelina but all sorts of neat things that I never knew. Thanks buddy.

Thats one of the best things about the sport. There seems to be some real good personality traits that are pretty common amongst sportsmen.

[Edge]

I absolutely pounded this super giant buck with a 308 at less than 150 yards still hunting that morning. Deer was across a small drainage and went down hard immediately. Stood there for 3 or 4 minutes watching him and started over to him. When i got to 10 yards the buck somehow got up and struggled with all his might and went 10 yards to the top of the hill he was just underneath. He hadn't gone 10 yards and i heard a boom from literally where he was standing. Buck dropped and rolled right back to me downhill.. Ended up there was an indian standing there clenching his open sight rifle like no one i have ever seen. He spoke very broken english and kept saying "my buck", "my buck". I was to young to understand what to do or what not to do. My shot was perfectly placed with a huge hole and the indian could clearly see where all the blood was just 10 yards away where he was laying originally but it didn't matter to him , and the way he was clenching his rifle made me nervous to put it lightly. if it was now i would have run up and thrown my tag on the deer and argued later. Shot the 221 buck just 20 minutes later after loosing the 3rd biggest deer I've seen to this day. The 221 buck was tiny compared to the other buck though and still haunts me to this day. Oh well!!!

This happened to me in 27 when I was about 12. The buck was nearly dead on the ground and maybe 100 yards ahead of me when some dental challenged hick shot him again. Suddenly half his clan was there screaming ownership and they looked desperate with nothing to lose. Was like a scene from Deliverance only I was much prettier than Ned Beatty. I went on to get a much nicer buck the following day.

[couesmagnet]

Another kabab story from 2008. I was guiding a couple hunters on the west side. We were going back to camp when i noticed a minimum 200 richer rutting about 80 yards from the road. We pulled over and stared at the buck to make sure he was a 200 inches cause that's what the clients minimum was. After 4 minutes of judging him we all came to the conclusion he was a 205 type buck and pounded him a little high. The buck went down and didn't even kick a leg. We sat there in awe of just how lucky we just were for at least 5 minutes. I went up the hill in plain sight to the giant laying there motionless and just downright smoked and ready for the wall. I got to the buck and started counting points and yelled down the hill "he's def going to go 205 to 210. The client asked me to lift his head out of the brush so he could stare through the bins at him. While lifting the deer from the bases of both his horns the deer came to life and stood up right in my hands and put his ears back and wanted a piece of me for sure. I backed up yelling for the client to shoot immediately, but the client being ultra safe wasn't going to take the chance of shooting anywhere near me. The hole under his back was the size of a softball but the buck was able to run just a little slower than i was. Twice the giant turned around to square off with me while chasing him. Long story short the buck out winded me and ran parrallel to the main road and we lost him. While looking for him along the road a black jeep pulled over with no shot fired and quickly loaded a buck and drove off fast. I assume with no shot fired that they had seen the dead buck laying next to the road and quickly performed a pathetic act all in the name of bragging rights and took the buck. It's amazing what some people will go to, to be famous in the hunting world. And to think it's gotten 10 times worse since then in just 8 years time span. Being a fake in the hunting world is now the norm and most buy into all the dog and pony shows hook line and sinker. If people only new how full of it half the look at me's out there are it would blow their minds, honestly!!!

[AverageJoe]

Lol same story with Goodman's son's buck they robbed from a normal hunter in Kaibab a few years back.

[GreyGhost85]

Lol same story with Goodman's son's buck they robbed from a normal hunter in Kaibab a few years back.

oooh, that sounds juicy?

 

i hammered an antelope a few years ago in colorado. straight through the lungs at about 500 yards. the buck took off like antelope do a lot and went on about a half mile death run that seemed to last all of about 20 seconds. died right in front of another hunter near a road. he loaded my buck up and hauled butt. i wasn't too heart broken. he was just an average buck and the place i was hunting was loaded up with goats that year. shot and tagged another one the next morning

[208muley]

 

16 days in the strip with just my dad and myself.

I can't imagine 16 days on the strip with just my dad...I bet everyday was an adventure. Time well spent!

It's tough to pick the "most memorable" as all my hunts are memorable for me for one reason or another but my 15 day solo hunt on the strip was my most rewarding hunt I've done so far for myself. My wife and kids first kills were pretty special as well.

I kinda hope the most memorable hunt hasn't happened yet if you know what I mean!

15 days solo, I bet there were some tough moments on that hunt facing challenges alone, good job staying focused until the end.

 

 

I definatly did! Lows were: lonely in camp, having a 261" shot by a road hunter that I had scouted and was a little behind him when he got shot in the middle of the road. Highs were everything else including taking a 208" buck on the 5th day that had everything I had dreamed of wrapping my tag around except a dropper point. Awesome experience!

[firstcoueswas80]

My little brother smoking a coues deer at 400 yards with a perfectly-placed shot is pretty high up on there, worth it being his first kill ever. Also watching him shoot his first elk was pretty cool too but the deer was better.

[Snapshot]

 

I absolutely pounded this super giant buck with a 308 at less than 150 yards still hunting that morning. Deer was across a small drainage and went down hard immediately. Stood there for 3 or 4 minutes watching him and started over to him. When i got to 10 yards the buck somehow got up and struggled with all his might and went 10 yards to the top of the hill he was just underneath. He hadn't gone 10 yards and i heard a boom from literally where he was standing. Buck dropped and rolled right back to me downhill.. Ended up there was an indian standing there clenching his open sight rifle like no one i have ever seen. He spoke very broken english and kept saying "my buck", "my buck". I was to young to understand what to do or what not to do. My shot was perfectly placed with a huge hole and the indian could clearly see where all the blood was just 10 yards away where he was laying originally but it didn't matter to him , and the way he was clenching his rifle made me nervous to put it lightly. if it was now i would have run up and thrown my tag on the deer and argued later. Shot the 221 buck just 20 minutes later after loosing the 3rd biggest deer I've seen to this day. The 221 buck was tiny compared to the other buck though and still haunts me to this day. Oh well!!!

This happened to me in 27 when I was about 12. The buck was nearly dead on the ground and maybe 100 yards ahead of me when some dental challenged hick shot him again. Suddenly half his clan was there screaming ownership and they looked desperate with nothing to lose. Was like a scene from Deliverance only I was much prettier than Ned Beatty. I went on to get a much nicer buck the following day.

 

That stinks. Back in the early 1980's I was up there with my Dad, and a friend of his. Me and my Dad's friend were stalking up on a couple buck's on a mountainside. Some dude on a horse opened fire on these bucks, and he came charging down the mountain side on his horse, to cut us off from the buck's. Needless to say, the dipwad didn't get the buck, but neither did we.

[muledeerarea33?]

Not my best hunt but a hunt I think about almost daily... Unit 32, 5 years ago. Started out with a guy shooting himself due to family issues. Didn't know him but talked to the sherif and a few other hunters way out in the sticks. Sad story. We ended up staying at the camp he killed him self at (not knowing entirely what happened at first) apperamtly he was in a cot when he did it and the cot was left there since it was new with no blood stains, no, we never touched it. The next day I was about a mile from camp and glassed back torawrds camp and saw deer. I walked back torawrds camp and when I was close I noticed the deer were on the opposite side of camp. I walked in and my buddy and I decided to circle around and maybe get a shot. I went low, he went high. I ended up under 100 yards from the buck bedded with a small 8' ledge in my way. I eased up the ledge and grabbed the top of the boulder. That's when about 500 pounds of the boulder cracked off and took me with it!! It landed on my foot. At this point I saw the scoriopins that had lived in the boulder crack and I jumped back lol. Needless to say the deer ran off and I hobbled back to camp and spent the next two days hunting. I finally couldn't take the pain and we started our drive out. On the way out my buddy spotted a deer and we stopped. It was 450 yards out and a small buck. He wasn't comfortable shooting that far so I told him if I shot it he'd have to go get it haha! Ended up he went and retrieved the spike I shot. Next stop was dropping off the meat at his house then the ER. Turned out I broke every bone in my foot and 3 toes!! Still hurts to this day.

[Edge]

Yup memorable hunt don't necessarily mean a fun hunt.

[trphyhntr]

Not my best hunt but a hunt I think about almost daily... Unit 32, 5 years ago. Started out with a guy shooting himself due to family issues. Didn't know him but talked to the sherif and a few other hunters way out in the sticks. Sad story. We ended up staying at the camp he killed him self at (not knowing entirely what happened at first) apperamtly he was in a cot when he did it and the cot was left there since it was new with no blood stains, no, we never touched it. The next day I was about a mile from camp and glassed back torawrds camp and saw deer. I walked back torawrds camp and when I was close I noticed the deer were on the opposite side of camp. I walked in and my buddy and I decided to circle around and maybe get a shot. I went low, he went high. I ended up under 100 yards from the buck bedded with a small 8' ledge in my way. I eased up the ledge and grabbed the top of the boulder. That's when about 500 pounds of the boulder cracked off and took me with it!! It landed on my foot. At this point I saw the scoriopins that had lived in the boulder crack and I jumped back lol. Needless to say the deer ran off and I hobbled back to camp and spent the next two days hunting. I finally couldn't take the pain and we started our drive out. On the way out my buddy spotted a deer and we stopped. It was 450 yards out and a small buck. He wasn't comfortable shooting that far so I told him if I shot it he'd have to go get it haha! Ended up he went and retrieved the spike I shot. Next stop was dropping off the meat at his house then the ER. Turned out I broke every bone in my foot and 3 toes!! Still hurts to this day.

are you pulling my leg?

[muledeerarea33?]

All true bud, only leg that was pulled was mine.

[Snapshot]

Took a ride on a huge boulder in unit 27. Fortunately I only got scraped and bruised when I jumped off. My rifle scope was not as fortunate.