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Hit the lotto and I am a resident that drew 27/28 whitetail tag, my Jan and Feb will be busy.

Another thread got me thinking about old stories, and since this is the campfire, what better place? I'll start. I moved from Oklahoma to AZ when I was a freshman in HS back in the 80's. My dad worked in forestry and was working for the WMAT at the time. We went quail hunting in the fall and did a lot of ice fishing and just fishing in general. I had only hunted small game before moving here. A couple mornings in a tree stand for deer but hadn't even taken a shot. My first hunt in AZ was unplanned. A guy in one of my classes invited me to come along on a deer hunt. I didn't even have a gun, so I borrowed one from my dad. I don't remember all the circumstances but I found myself driving a ford escort to Alma NM, and following a hand-written map with scribbles and drawings in the middle of the night with a big ol' moon. Somehow I found their camp and settled in with a pop up tent and sleeping bag. We were just barely in AZ around Maple Peak. Being young and starting out I didn't have a backpack or even binoculars. So first morning we set out hiking, I had no idea where we were going. I had a pocket full of sunflower seeds and some water. We saw tons of deer but no bucks. Around lunchtime I spotted a white rump sticking out of a mahogony bush. I said "hey I've got a big buck here" and my buddy says "don't shoot until you see it's horns". I replied "it's nuts are hanging to it's knees! It's gotta be a buck!" and he replied again - "don't shoot it until you see it's horns". Right about then, it raises its head - it's a bighorn ram, and a big one. All I could think about then was a giant fine if I had shot it before identifying it. Again, young and just learning to hunt in the desert. Later that evening just as the sun was going down, we were hiking back to camp a little dehydrated and hungry. I looked across the canyon and right where it was a stark line between the shadowed part of the ridge and the brightly lit portion stood a big 4x4 muley. I was shaking with buck fever, and he was a good distance away. This was way before range finders and my borrowed gun was zeroed at 100 yards. I steadied on a tree limb, aimed way over his shoulder thinking he was 400 yards away and fired. Nothing. I didn't see where I hit so I just kept trying - and missing. Eventually, the buck just walked off and I was out of ammo. We went back to camp empty-handed. And so went my first ever Arizona hunt. Eventually I learned the ropes and started out small with javelina, an old pawn shop PSE bow and cheap binos. It was several seasons before I actually learned how to glass and hunt out west. Hope you enjoyed, and let's keep the old campfire stories going.

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

Everyone remembers The best days.

That’s the cylinder release

This happens every August. All the time. Every year.

I'll chime in. Pulling a trailer doesn't limit you at all. I have never had an issue of getting in and not being able to get out. With a SxS, I rarely drive very far into the woods without unloading the SxS. Why beat your body up in a pickup when a SxS is smooth. As far as prices go, they, like everything else, are extremely high right now. I am not convinced they will drop significantly any time soon. They *should come down, but by how much, it's anyone's guess. The cost of ownership depends on the machine I think. I have a 2018 pioneer 1000-5 I bought new. I have only changed the fluids so far. Knock on wood, it has been bullet proof. Insurance depends on what kind of coverage you want. Full coverage runs about 700$ a year street legal. Less than full coverage can be half that. Depending on your financial situation, I think they are a great tool and have helped me get into some places I would have never attempted in my Pickup.

If you think there are too many wt now, you would have crapped your pants in the 70s and 80s

Desert mule deer way down. Unit 1/3c/3b mule deer WAY Up

24a still is crawling with deer though.

Not an equine friendly trail.

IMO, you are way off. I wasn't around in the early 80's, but everyone I talk to says there were ALOT more deer. I know for a fact that 12a is a completely different unit than it used to be. Have you seen the tag cuts? Both quality and quantity are far below where they used to be. Sure a big buck or 2 get killed each year, but overall, quality down too.

30-40 years ago we’d see bachelor groups of 6-8 velvet bucks in unit 1 when fishing up there. We camped at Wynn for a few days and had a group of bucks feeding within 100 yards of camp with not a care while we cooked burgers. So wasn’t surprised to see 8 on the ground yesterday.

The western desert units are a train wreck compared to 25 years ago both quality and quantity.

I can’t speak for the rest of the state, but numbers wise, the desert I hunt doesn’t have any where close to the number of deer it had even in the 90’s. As a kid, I could remember seeing giant herds of does and young bucks. I’m talking multiple herds of 20-30+ deer and now days if you see a herd of 5-7 deer that’s a big herd and rarely do you see more than one or two herds during a hunt. The difference between now and then is everything is on the internet now so things appear better but that’s not the case across the board, in my opinion.

The numbers of animals in the later 80s &early 90s were WAY more than now. It may not be reflected in the books, as things have changed drastically with technology since then, but as far as numbers it’s no comparison. I keep hoping we will go into a 10-20 year wet cycle again so those kind of numbers might come back. It was awesome.

Should have gone to a statewide draw

Swarovski stepped it up there lighter brighter and just have a better feel. Don't get me wrong the 12 El are great and $2000 is a great deal when your talking about $1000 different but its what you want and can afford . I love my NL'S and still have my 12el's you can never have enough good glass especially when i have kiddos that love to hunt .

Nice bird bud! His beard is almost as long and magnificent as yours....almost but not quite.

FOV is only an issue when using the spotter for glassing. I personally use my SLCs (10s or 15s) for glassing and my spotter (STX 65/95 or Kowa 554) comes out for confirmation. The Kowa 554 is very nice. I personally found it better overall than the STS 65 (hunt on Kodiak where I was able to do a side=by-side comparison over the hunt) and slightly behind my STX 65 (weeks in the field comparing it with my STX 65 while scouting and hunting in AZ); this is in a package that is about 1/2 the cost (shop around) and weight of an STX 65. Look at the spotting scope comparison done by Backwoods Pursuit. Like everything else online, take it with a grain of salt.

I’m no videographer but here is my 23N archery hunt. There are a ton of bulls in the unit. If you want a 375+ you’ll need some good scouting but it’s easily achievable. My only regret is shooting the first bull I had in range on day 2. Wish I would have hunted longer, but I was happy getting my bull DIY with my Dad by my side. Saw some monsters in there. I ran into A3 on day 2 of my pack out. Tried to wave them down to chat and give some help and they instead almost ran me off the road in their Ranger. I later found out 4 of their group of 5 hunters tagged out. The female who was in the Ranger with them did not.

Finished a bear this week. It turned out really nice!

I Completed my 5th Deer mount yesterday. I'm really happy with the results. I can definitely tell I get more confident with each mount.

If they pave the road Apache lake is ruined.