Coach Report post Posted October 6, 2016 I waited a long time to finally hunt AZ antelope (19 BP). Drew unit 9, which has some great bucks. My plan was to go up early and learn the area. The first thing I learned was, it's a really big area. I got up there Tuesday before the hunt, got camp set up right in the middle of the unit just NW of Red Butte. I figured from there I could hunt the whole unit. Drove around a little and it was not what I expected - great elk country, not what I thought of for goat country. The first night I had elk bugling right outside my wall tent, which was pretty awesome. A little bit of light rain, but nothing major. I had elk hunters with just a couple days left buzzing around camp and Wednesday morning from my first glassing spot found a stud bull walking around in the open, bugling - I just kept thinking I was going to see him get shot. Pretty much from that point forward it was nothing but super heavy rain, hundreds of miles of super muddy roads each day, hard to glass. Skipping forward, by Thursday night, hours before the opener, I had been all over and still hadn't seen a shooter. One area I really liked was like a zoo - probably 20 trucks in a 10 mile stretch. I opted to go to a different area, but the storm coming through was going right over that area. Opening morning looked like this: That's my truck from about 75 yards away. I hiked up a hill to get a better view and it looked like this - Those bumps sticking up are miles away and it's like a lake of clouds. Visibility is limited, to say the least. As the fog started to lift I found some goats just under 700 yards off. I knew the plan was working. As I scanned from one to the next, all 8 turned out to be does or tiny bucks. The plan worked, I was in the right place, and the goats were there, only no shooter bucks. I continued to glass and found 2 more groups but they were WAY far off, but I hiked off the hill to drive and get closer. As I drove to where I could see them better, I bumped into some guys out there and, wow, were they loaded with optics. One guy had Kowa Big Eyes, another had 2 Swaro 65mm spotting scopes set up on a mount like binocs, and finally the young girl they were hunting for pulls out an 85mm swaro spotter. Nicest guys ever, but it was obvious they could outglass me all day. The 2 groups I had seen from the top of the mountain, they had pegged from ground level, and as soon as I drove to within range to see if there were any good bucks in those groups, they were right behind me. That evening I went up to Red Butte and glassed from the lower tower and found a huge group of antelope, but couldn't tell if there were any bucks in the herd - they were so far off all I could see through 15x swaros were bodies. I set up a plan - where to drive to (3-4 miles) how to hike in and get in range. About an hour later, I'm inside 400 yards of the herd, everything worked out exactly as I planned - all but one thing. Out of 14 antelope, not one was a mature buck. Now I'm down to the last couple hours of light and trying to make a plan. The West side was totally filled with hunters, the one herd I thought would hold a shooter didn't. As I was driving out, I was texting a buddy who had loaned me his wall tent and asking how the hunt was going. All of a sudden, 2 bucks run across the road in front of me. The first one, all I could see was mass, so I pulled over grabbed my rifle and tried to get on one. The first one - the one with the mass paused at the top of the hill. He was facing away but I had enough body for a shot, and BOOM, he dropped right in his tracks. Turns out it was 188 yards offhand. The bad news was he kind of dipped his head to scratch and because of the angle, the bullet went in his right flank, out just above his left armpit, into his left eye and out the top of his head. Somehow I hit every major organ in that goat including his brain, and did not hit any big muscle areas. But it did break his good side from the pedestal. The other side had a completely broken off cutter. I'm going to do what I can to reconstruct what he would look like with the cutter intact and, well not getting shot through the head, lol. 11 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HyNoon Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congratulations, nice goat and good write up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mattys281 Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congrats on your goat. Man, thats a long time to wait on a tag! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pine Donkey Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congratulations on a real nice goat. Thanks for taking the time to post the story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZBULLHUNTER Report post Posted October 6, 2016 good goat and story Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jim Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Nice buck, a good taxidermist can fix him up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Allforelk Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Nice Lope. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bonecollector Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congrats Jason! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
WHT_MTNMAN Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Great job on nice looking buck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZHog Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congrats on a nice looking buck! Thanks for the story and pics! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PelaPapas Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Very cool how that goat just crossed your path! Congrats! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TOBY Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Nice. if its the girl im thinking of she made a 700 plus yard shot with the A3 guys. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Very cool congrats Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johnnygeturgun Report post Posted October 6, 2016 Congrats on a great goat. Thanks for sharing a great story. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
