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I was fortunate to draw and early 12AW rifle tag with my good friend and hunting buddy Dan. He was guaranteed to draw with all the points he had and I just happened to get lucky. I was not able to get up before the hunt to scout due to work and my sons baseball commitments but was not to worried about that. I have spent quite a bit of time up there in the past and had some good friends provide some great info. My buddy Dan drove up the Sunday before the hunt to get familiar with the unit. He had never been up on the Plateau before so this was a whole new experience for him. I arrived on Wednesday with a couple of my good friends that made the trek up to help. We got camp set up before the rain started and got a good night sleep. Woke up Thursday morning to scout and were greeted with Thunder snow and rain. We ran a lot of roads, glassed lots of fingers and points but did not turn up a mature buck, just lots of younger 4x4's and does. Opening morning we greeted by a parade of guides and helpers cruising the roads at 3am spotlighting trying to find a good one for their clients. this would be a common theme throughout most of the hunt. we hit the areas we wanted to hunt hard and saw several deer but nothing that we wanted to fill or tag on. For the first 3-4 days we hunted everything from the Warm Fire (a zoo opening weekend) at 8800ft down to Sowats in the winter range. We saw and passed may deer in all the areas we hunted. By Tuesday of the hunt I made the decision to stay in the area i felt gave me the best chance a mature deer. I really didn't have a number in my head of how big it had to be, I just knew i would know when I laid eyes on a good one. We continued to run and gun, glassing every point in the burn we could and picking the country apart. It was starting to become a little frustrating to be this far in the hunt and yet to lay eyes on a good mature deer. I just kept tell my buddy Dan and myself that we just needed to be in the right place at the right time and good things would happen. Friday the 31st comes and neither of us had laid eyes on a decent buck. I told my Buddy Dennis that this would be the day and we would finally get lucky and tag out on a Halloween buck. We hit several good looking glassing spots and picked them apart but nothing. Dennis decided to take a two track that looked like would get us out into some smaller cuts in the burn to glass. As he parked and got out to glass I saw a deer bedded about 100yds from the vehicle on the edge of a cut. I through up the binos and immediately knew that it was a decent buck and by far the biggest one we had seen thus far. I grabbed the Seekins 7mmPRC and chambered a round, got settle in on him and let a round fly. The buck jumped out of his bed and started to run, he made it about 30 yards before he piled up and expired. It all happened so fast that my buddy an I were in shock and could only laugh at what just happened. All the work, time behind glass, miles on the boots and to have it happen just like that off a two track road was unreal. We got the buck taken care of and checked in pretty quickly. My buddy Dennis and I decided to stay Friday night and Saturday morning to help my friend Dan try to fill his tag before heading to flag to drop the meat. Unfortunately we were unable to turn up a good one for him. We headed home and as I was cleaning up and putting stuff away I got a text from the guys and Dan was able to fill his tag on a cooler older buck. When you think of the Kaibab you instantly think about the land of giants. I was never fortunate enough to lay eyes on one of them, neither did my buddy Dan. We did have a heck of a hunt with great friends that we will remember for many years to come. Hopefully in a few years luck will strike again and we will get a second chance! only time will tell.

John Bellushi as Bluto... Animal House 1978, for all those confused Now your on Double Secret Probation!

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? 🤣 Great news and now fill that tag. Eddie

A few from this week.

Here are some recent skulls I've finished.

Congrats to all the lucky Elk Hunters. Please give me a call if you need a Euro give me a call. All my Euros are done using Maceration, no boil or pressure washing. Prices: Elk $200 Deer $100 928-595-1554 www.bigbrownstaxidermy.com

Remington Model 700 SPS Stainless, factory 28” barrel with integrated muzzle break from the Remington custom shop, chambered in 300 Rem. Ultra Mag, very low round count. Has Leupold rings and bases. The scope is Leupold Vari-X III 6.5-20x50 with Fine Duplex in great condition. Must show Ariz. drivers license, Not be a prohibited possessor and sign a bill of sale. Asking $1600.00 O.B.O. Please PM me if you have any questions. Thanks for looking, Gary

Browning X Bolt with custom design on stock. 7 PRC with less than 40-50 rounds through it. Shoots like a dart, I just don’t shoot it enough to justify keeping it. Only owned it one year and took it on 1 hunt in Colorado. Scope is NightForce SHV 4-14x56 MOA. Recoil Hawg muzzle brake. Has fluted barrel. Just selling to obtain more archery/glassing gear, or else I’d love to keep it. $2,000 obo. Shoot me a message for more info or picture. trades: shoot me an offer. Open to some hunting gear

For sale is a pair of Leica Duovid 10x50-15x50 binoculars, have all of the original packaging and case that came with them. Great binos just looking to sell to fund a pair of NL Pure. $1100.00

Good pair of binoculars. Non HD . Has the Outdoorsman stud. $1350.00 Jesse 623-680-7795 Located In Peoria

FS Ruger 10/22 SS Takedown fifty year anniversary w/ Nikon Prostaff $350.00 Located in the Show Low Area

Try calling G&F. Ask to speak with the game warden for that area. It usually takes a few days for them to get back to you.

Awesome, congrats

Try viamoutdoors.com. may be able to get it before your hunt. He's been great with everything I've ever needed from him

Tehachapi, California and for some reason I put the last four don’t know why I did that, here is the first four D884

That top Bull looks familiar. Look forward to picking him up. Adam did my Bison last year and my elk this year. He will do whatever hits the dirt next. I highly recommend.

Adam did my last mule deer. Excellent job.

Adam is the man....

Just got my mountain lion skull back and Adam did a great job. It looks awesome in my living room. Not sure why it’s sideways🤷🏼‍♂️

Covid shutdown brought out a new class of campers and hunters. State also has 3 million new residents. It sucks but we’re going to have to clean up other peoples trash if we want these areas to stay open and it still may not be enough. My favorite shooting spot in the desert is getting trash on a regular basis now. Myself and friends have been trying to keep up with it to the point I have pallets on side of my house waiting for bulk trash. Eventually I’m sure BLM will say enough. Times change.

Pinnacle peak, wear a (cheap) tie.

Those look great! Keeping that nasal cavity in tact shows attention to detail!

I know this rut has been tough this year but wanted to share a successful harvest from my Az archery hunt. Day 11 it came together. Now onto sons youth deer hunt

Well done. I went to early.

Rattlesnake being closed REALLY sucks.