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After a 3 year Hiatus of not drawing general hunts I typically would draw almost every year, I finally got to chase desert bucks with my rifle again. I drew a unit I have only stepped foot into a few times; and never personally hunted for myself, so I knew it would be a challenge trying to pick apart areas to focus my time on. I had help from some buddies who knew the unit but the dry conditions proved to be challenging, where a lot of young bucks would show themselves in the first few days along with dozens of predators. After day 2 I was given some info/tips and with a game plan in mind, I made the drive into some new country. Right before day light of day 3, I spotted this buck bedded down a few hundred yards away. I had my partner keep eyes on him while I scanned the rest of the what we could see from the glassing point quickly and to wait for the sun to pop out to get a better look. After waiting a bit,I decided he was good enough to wrap my tag around and laid down at 384 yards to take my shot. First shot was a touch high on him and he jumped up confused/hurt and I quickly chambered another round and he had moved about 10 yards from his bed before the second shot connected and put him down. It was a quick morning but I am extremely happy with him and how it all played out. Venturing into new country is always an adventure in itself but having a good network of friends willing to help out, ultimately made me successful and for that I am forever grateful. Best of luck to everyone the rest of the year!

My dad passed away in July and this was my first outing since his passing. He and I started hunting together in the late 1970s. Like most of us, our dad’s taught us the skills needed to be successful, the appreciation for everything we harvest and how to take care of the meat from field to table. In his memory I used his favorite rifle and I was able to hunt our favorite unit. Over the years, we have harvested many deer, bulls and cows from this unit. I am thankful to have had a successful hunt and relive over 40 years of memories.

Arrived Tuesday , got set up , and then the rains came. Quite the downpour , some moisture inside as well. Wednesday morning sunshine . Coyotes were heard frequently and on a morning sit, 5 went by me about 20 ft away. The last one stopped to look at me. Sorry I didn’t get a pic. Ran into a herd (?) of coatimundi, 20 plus. Was surprised that the east side of 4186 burnt again. Had not known of a wild fire there this summer. F 35 flying , A10’s and border patrol helicopters. Spectacular moon rise and sun sets. Always a treat and pleasure to watch . Does were everywhere. Did not see a Buck until day 5 of my 6 days to hunt. 8:45 , he is walking down a draw and put him down at 174yds. As I watch him drop, I see a much larger /wider Buck go back up the mountain. Lesson learned, maybe glass behind the 1st Buck you see. My Buck was a 3 pt with a kicker on the right side on front side of brow tine. Drug him down the wash , about 3 hours back to camp and butcher up. I love this unit with or without a harvest. BTW, that is my happy , excited look.

I guess I never shared this buck. I figured I would just because Since I get to go to Mx every year I've tried to apply and get mule deer tags whenever I can. I really can see the writing on the wall and the decline of the mule deer. I shot this buck in CO in 2021 on a solo hunt in a new area. Got a little lucky for sure.

My daughter shot her first buck Saturday She was headed to SEMA with her husband so her time was limited. Thanks to my buddy Ammon we made the best of it.

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After his first deer hunt last year (unsuccessful) I put my grandson in for the youth hunt. He drew a cow tag in 4A. We scouted a couple of times and he was excited to see them up close. We got there on Wed before the hunt and drove some roads and saw elk. Thursday am I woke him up and there were elk 75 yds. from camp- he was shocked. That evening drove around and saw more elk. Friday- opening morning we left camp and were into elk but too far away for a shot. We tried following them but couldn't catch up with their quick walk. That evening hunt we didn't see anything. Saturday - AM hunt was uneventful but we did help another group with some tracking but trail was lost. PM hunt driving to where we were going to sit a herd ran across the road about 200 yds ahead of us and dropped into a steep draw area. I told him that's where we were going to sit for the evening as I figured they would come back up there to graze and hit water. After sitting there we heard some cow yelps and moved 250 yds towards the sound. after a few minutes I spotted a cow starting thru a small clearing. It went thru too quickly. The next one by was a spike. Another cow stepped into the clearing and stopped - he was steady and drawn as I waited for the shot- didn't happen. I think we had a slight case of buck fever- that was all we saw of that small group. A few minutes later we heard bugling and cows where we were initially and headed back over there. The herd was moving back across the road where they had first crossed and dropped into another draw. I told him we probably wouldn't catch up but he was insistent to follow. We ended up a ways from the road and they had stopped in another meadow area. We slow footed towards them and ended up about 100 yds from the herd. We waited for a cow to enter a clearing and the rest is history - except for the quartering and pack out. Congrats Mason Burns

I’ve got a used kodiak canvas tent in good condition. Just haven’t used it as much as I thought I would have. I do have the awning enclosure too. $500. I’m located in the Safford area. Looking for a 20” heavy barreled Howa Mini Action in 6ARC but may take other trades or partial trades. Worse I can say is no.

HK USP 45acp, V1 (DA/SA), XS Big Dot tritium sights, two 12rd mags. Approx 200 rounds fired. $950 now $800 Brand new tritium sights, cost $150 for sights with installation. Have the original sights also.

Thanks to all that offered some pointers. Saw tons of deer just nothing with size so when this guy stepped out it was a no brainer. My buddies 76 year old dad made a great shot at 140 yards and ol boy was piled up. Good luck and shoot strait to everyone with hunts still coming up.

Mason used my 50 year old wood stocked Remington 700 ADL in 30.06. My handloads were Hornady 150 gr interlocks. He took a head on shot at 90 yds and hit upper chest area. She went about 15 yards and dropped there. Thanks for all the positive replies.

Ernesto, it looks like you will have to just come down and help us on our HAM hunt.

Pm sent

Pm sent

Congrats on a solid buck!

Good job. Its very very tough prerut in the desert units this year. Poor monsoon, hot. The deer are in conservation mode and are not moving hardly at all during daylight...

I literally logged on here just now to make a post about how quiet all the ASUdouches, especially the guy who's screename is based on their mascot have been. Yall been MIA since last November....

Good times... I miss hunting with my dad.

New Swarovski BTX with 95mm objective $4700 Comes with carrying case as shown in pics Have original boxes Call/text with any questions 602-763-7236 -Austin

My boy and I were so excited when we found out he had got drawn for the late jr Kaibab hunt. That's all he could talk about. So then I had to decide what he was gonna shoot. I ended up picking up a ruger american predator in 6.5 Creedmoor. I put a nikon 3.5x14x50 on it. After we went out shooting once we decide it was going to need a muzzle brake. After the easy installation, because the predator model comes threaded already, we went back out shooting and he loved it. Had him shooting out to 200 yards, which he though was cool and so far. Then we started the long drive up there on Thursday, this is my first time going to 12aw , and I thought this would be a great first tag for my ten year old boys first hunt. We got camp set up Thursday night and both us couldn't sleep because we were too excited. Opening morning was actually really slow and we didn't see very many deer. The only two we saw were in the bed of another successful hunters truck. We woke up the next morning and headed out to some more areas that were burned and we were able to glass. Then we started seeing deer acrossed the deep canyons. They Were About 150 To 200 yards acrossed. I found a doe for him to shoot and he got on the shooting sticks and said I don't see her dad, so I looked down at his level and poor kid couldn't see over the pine tree branch and that was our only shooting lane we had at the time. We tried to reposition but she busted us. We located a few more doe but couldn't get the shot set up before they went through the shooting lanes as well. We hiked back to the truck and went back to camp to eat and my boy really wanted to shoot his bow. After he shot his bow and we ate, we went to another canyon to hunt. We ended up getting on a couple of groups of deer and yet again these deer were super spooked from the prior hunts and on the move. A group finally stopped to feed at last light and was at 300 yards acrossed the deep steep canyon. I got my boy set up and told were to aim and to make sure it didn't have antlers. He told me to zoom the scope in cause he found them now. I zoomed the power to a little over 12 and he said that was good. I told him to check again for antlers and he said it didnt have any, so I told him to squeeze when he was ready. After the blast for the brake scared the crap out of me I saw one deer tear out of there and straight down the canyon, like it was hit and the others just kinda bounced around. It got dark quick and after starting down the canyon, I decided it was best and safer to wait until morning since the oak saplings were so thick over there it would be a very difficult job to locate his deer tonight and it was going to be in the low 20's at night anyways. We woke up in the morning after yet another difficult night of sleep. We drove to the other side of the canyon. I had the shot pinned on my gps. We found the shot location and started to look for blood. I found one drop and let my boy at it to see what he could do on his own. This is one of the things I was most proud of too, was how well of a tracking job he did all on his own, with next to no help from me except for the beginning. After a about a 50 yard track through very thick oak saplings the blood just started pouring out thick. So I looked around and spotted his downed deer. It rolled down to a group of oaks and stopped. While he was on the trail I walked past his deer so I could record him finding it. He said dad there's alot of blood here and two steps later, ..... hah my deer , my doe ! He was so happy to find it and I was so proud as well. After a 303 yard shot and a awesome track job we started the fun stuff. As much as I wanted to do the gutless method I wanted to teach him how to gut it , so we did that then I carried him out whole, a half mile back to the truck. We jumped a couple of nice bucks on the way out too. He ended up shooting an antlers less buck. When we got back to camp we skinned it and quartered it up , packed up camp and started the drive home. I couldn't of been prouder seeing how happy he was at the g&f check in station as well as the whole drive home with his big Ole smile until he fell alseep. This is by far my favorite hunt to date and can't wait to do it again. We had a blast. Pictures to come soon......sorry.

18,000

Pretty easy. I've done 4 Savages that included a Bell and Carlson stock with an aluminum block, Boyds wood, and one higher-end Savage tupperware. I used blue painters tape for the recoil lug and stock edges and Play-Doh to fill in everything I didn't want compound getting into but it dries out if you are doing the project beyond a days work, modeling clay is better. Devcon 10110 is the best compound, especially $-wise for 4 stocks. I really liked using several layers of Hornady One Shot as a release agent. No mess or fuss. I used action screws covered in red bearing grease and gently set them to 15 lbs. Food for thought and especially if you don't have a smooth barrel nut, even a small amount of compound in a ridge of the nut (or anywhere) will lock the action to the stock. Fill any nut ridges or edges on the action not facing down with Play-Doh/clay. Triple check before you marry the action/stock and clean out any overflowing compound immediately with qtips, etc. In addition to roughing everything up with a dremel on any stock, I drilled some shallow holes in my plastic stock project and it worked really well for me.

The odds of drawing a sheep tag with 30 points is actually 30 times better than with 0 points. It’s diluted but it’s a fact.

funniest part is most people that cry put in units that goto max point holders every year 😂

I think sometimes the tag holders are so old by the time they draw they cant get their walkers and oxygen tanks up the mountain.