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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.

I got my wife one of the new 2025 4 runners. It’s an sr5 with the turbo 4 cylinder, not the hybrid. nice rig for sure and pretty zippy. I paid for a super extended warranty just because the new motor isn’t proven. It does seem to have more power than the "old" motor and gets 22-23 mpg on the highway. Haven’t really offroaded it or anything yet but i’m sure it’s capable.

Not a 4runner, but my mom has a 25 tacoma. I'd stick with the V6. Not that we've had issues with it or anything but just one more thing to break and it doesn't get that great of gas mileage

Yeah I laughed while doing it

My boy has been making us some great dinners out of his deer.

How much is access to the Big Bo? I'd be willing to help you out on the cost. Send me a pm

This was my buck. I Forgot to share the picture got him on the 9th day

Congrats on (2) nice bucks. I also had that tag and I held out for a giant until the last day. Passed up (1) buck that was 170” with trash and another 4x that was 160”. Saw (1) legit 190-200” buck but he wasn’t sticking around for a shot. I ended up killing an old big bodied 3x on the last day to fill my tag. I think I’ll stick with the archery tag for now on.

SOLD

Buddy asked me to list this. Ill connect interested parties. Send me a message. 1980 K-10 353 cid 4 speed manual MSD Atomic fuel injection 35”x12.5”R15 Dual fuel tanks Runs, drives, 4wd, works. I drive it to and from work. City streets and state highway. Clean AZ Title It’s not a super model but it’s cool. $6250.00 Or Best Offer

Very easy to use. Just download then turn it on and off as you please. I travel to China so the VPN(s) I use are geared towards what's currently working well there— right now it's Astrill and LetsVPN.

what ammo your rifle shoot best?

Im in too!

Get a chain and move it , bet they won’t do it again

You really didn’t break the law, you were forced into doing it

When people know where you are at and don't respect that and come and sit right next to you. Closest I've ever been to a fist fight in the field was over something like this. Another one was we beat a couple guys to an area where they had a Target buck and even though we beat them they still went to the spot. I was whatever guys you've been out here looking for this Buck you can have him but he a buddy of mine was not so lenient. Turns out they killed him and he was only like 83 in.

This happened to me a few years back. Going up a nasty trail where I almost never see anyone. At a nasty choke point an asshat parked his rig on the trail thinking he’d have the trail to himself and nobody could get back to the end of the trail. Little did he know I knew the country pretty well and went back 200 yards, drove off the trail and went way around(technically breaking the law I know). As I got close to the end of the trail and I was trying find a spot to crawl my General back up to the trail I could see 2 hat lights above and appeared they were stopped and looking at me, I made it to the trail and parked at the end and continued with my day. I honestly don’t understand how these idiots can block you and then walk off not caring that they could come back to 4 slashed tires and a super long hike out!

The biggest problem I’ve found so far in 10, is it’s extremely dry. Not a lot of good feed in the areas I’ve been looking, and most of the dirt tanks are dry, or almost dry. I looked over some great looking country, and found very little sign. But that’s why we scout right. I’ve had my son up with me on all these scouting trips which has been great. It’s great teaching him what my dad taught me. The circle of life baby! Note to self, don’t sleep next to the train tracks. There’s a lot more train traffic than I anticipated. 😆

I love it!

This is a good one! To the guy in the white ram 2500 down south who did exactly this after I told you where I was planning on going,I hope I didn’t damage anything when I dragged your truck off the road for you. I’ve always wondered if you found the booger on your door handle…

I always find it amusing when they ban poachers from hunting. At least these guys got some jail time.

I doubt douche bags like that will quit their illegal activities just because their legal hunting rights have been taken away. They’ll just be more sneaky

I hope people give them a break. Shoot a few, leave many. Those evening hunters shooting young birds off their roost is bad for business. I saw that note from G&F, why would they not lower the limit? Their message is - Bad year, don't shoot them all, but we aren't going to lower the limit - confuses me.

Thank you I guess, my Grammer sucks but more important im a man of my word..