12A West Late or 12B West Late. Which one?

[oilcan]

12 hours ago, Umpqua said:

That is awesome you drew in Montana!

I started in the early 80s chasing sheep tags and it overflowed into other species.  When preference systems went into effect, I was an early adopter.  My biggest regret hunting was not buying my Arizona hunting license the very first year bonus points went into effect.  I still can't believe that move I made.  Live and learn.

Same here but at the time I had a young family and money was tight.

you had to front not only the tag fees but the license fees for every species applied for and I just didn’t have the money.i Hunted Colorado Deer  so I didn’t apply for Deer only Elk the first couple years so I’m 2 behind max. Looking back that turned out to be a major mistake I could have still drawn my Elk tag if I had waited a couple years and applied for Deer first.

[jbone]

I would suggest 13B first 13A second, both rifle. If you didn't have another hunt in August then I would say 13B archery second choice. 13A should be great this year, the feed is unreal on the strip right now, just got back yesterday.  The Kaibab is always good for feed just not normally as good as this year, the deer on the Kaibab don't get hit with the drought like they do on the strip. Also if the Game and Fish stays consistent with the changes made to the Kaibab it is only going to get better, almost 300 tags cut this year between junior hunts and general hunts. This will help with the age class increasing along with a population boom over the next several years, you will always have some 3 year old 200'"deer but there is a big difference in a 7-8 year old deer and a 3-4 year old. That's the difference on the strip is age class, most mature strip bucks break 40" on mass and it's rare to break 35 on the Kaibab.

Don't get me wrong the both 12A west and 12B are awesome but unless you are done with the system stick with 13B and 13A, when you are done draw the Kaibab, its only going to get better over the next few years and this moisture will carry over to next year. If we just finish this year in the normal range for moisture next year will be off the charts for the health of these animals. That being said there are some unreal bucks in 12A west right now and some will end up in 12B west and some will be in 12A west. I think 12A west gives you a bit more ground and a little bit less of a rat race than 12B west. 

Good Luck, 

[Umpqua]

23 hours ago, jbone said:

I would suggest 13B first 13A second, both rifle. If you didn't have another hunt in August then I would say 13B archery second choice. 13A should be great this year, the feed is unreal on the strip right now, just got back yesterday.  The Kaibab is always good for feed just not normally as good as this year, the deer on the Kaibab don't get hit with the drought like they do on the strip. Also if the Game and Fish stays consistent with the changes made to the Kaibab it is only going to get better, almost 300 tags cut this year between junior hunts and general hunts. This will help with the age class increasing along with a population boom over the next several years, you will always have some 3 year old 200'"deer but there is a big difference in a 7-8 year old deer and a 3-4 year old. That's the difference on the strip is age class, most mature strip bucks break 40" on mass and it's rare to break 35 on the Kaibab.

Don't get me wrong the both 12A west and 12B are awesome but unless you are done with the system stick with 13B and 13A, when you are done draw the Kaibab, its only going to get better over the next few years and this moisture will carry over to next year. If we just finish this year in the normal range for moisture next year will be off the charts for the health of these animals. That being said there are some unreal bucks in 12A west right now and some will end up in 12B west and some will be in 12A west. I think 12A west gives you a bit more ground and a little bit less of a rat race than 12B west. 

Good Luck, 

Your advice looks very solid compared to what my research is digging up, especially the part about age means mass and the potential improvement to Kaibab age class with the tag cuts.  Time helps that situation.

Another piece is two days ago we found that my oldest son (29 years old) has a draw number in the top 0.09% for California Bighorn sheep here in Oregon.  Since the odds to draw are about 0.8% for the area he applied, he's in a pretty good spot,  We won't know for sure until after the AZ application window has closed.  That's a big chunk of September and October devoted to that if he were to draw.

I am leaning slightly to burning my wife's AZ points for a late Coues tag for her.  A few days to make up my mind.

[yotebuster]

How many points does your wife have?

[Umpqua]

4 minutes ago, yotebuster said:

How many points does your wife have?

She will go in with 14.

[GreyGhost85]

1 hour ago, Umpqua said:

She will go in with 14.

I personally would not burn them on late coues. You can draw the same units, just earlier in the year (which i prefer anyways) for 0-3 BP’s most times

[bigorange]

7 minutes ago, GreyGhost85 said:

I personally would not burn them on late coues. You can draw the same units, just earlier in the year (which i prefer anyways) for 0-3 BP’s most times

This is a good point...I'd consider Kaibab for her too. Late coues is an awesome hunt, but not sure it's 14 points awesome.

[Umpqua]

1 hour ago, bigorange said:

This is a good point...I'd consider Kaibab for her too. Late coues is an awesome hunt, but not sure it's 14 points awesome.

Unfortunately the point game is a much different world for nonresidents.  It's always a balancing act of what we'd like to draw and what we can draw.  14 points puts her in line for some of the hardest to draw late Coues tags.  

[Umpqua]

28 minutes ago, GreyGhost85 said:

I personally would not burn them on late coues. You can draw the same units, just earlier in the year (which i prefer anyways) for 0-3 BP’s most times

That's a great suggestion.  I've heard good things about the first hunt.  Best timing for us usually to be in Arizona is around Christmas though.

[Hoss50]

14 points would probably get her and early kaibab tag for sure, and put her in a good spot on late. Just dont do 12b early.