Leaderboard

Thanks for the fun, the deals, and the hard times in fun. You people are the Best!!!!! Please enjoy these holidays and your hunts. Stay safe!! And may all of your ventures be successful!!

You filthy animals

The wife and I moved to Colorado a couple of years ago now, but we are back in Arizona—and for a pretty special reason. My buddy drew his first elk tag! It’s something we’ve both been looking forward to for a long time. We packed up the little ones and made the trip south over the past few days to help him out. We spent last night talking strategy and catching up with his family. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, its times like these that I am very thankful for. It’s nice to be “home”. This morning we were out early to finalize some scouting before the holiday cooking began. We checked out a few new spots, glassed some ridges, and got a feel for how the elk are moving. It was nice being back in a familiar unit, getting boots on the ground before opening day tomorrow. For those who have seen me post over the years, it’s been somewhat of a tradition for me to do a semi-live hunting thread whenever we’ve gotten drawn. I’m excited to do another and share our experiences as we get started on this year’s late hunt! Happy Thanksgiving to all, and I’ll be updating this thread daily. Thanks for following along!

The hunt was an amazing adventure. I left home late Friday/early Saturday (midnight-ish) and headed up, stopping in flagstaff and fredonia for fuel along the way. I reached my camp spot 9 1/2 hours later and heard my passenger rear tire leaking after unhooking the trailer. After plugging the tire and airing it back up, I started unloading and setting up. Around 3 pm I jumped into the SxS and set out to check some of the spots I had scouted. I found lots of fresh sign in most of the same areas as before. Once it got dark I broke out the spot light and drove every road and two track I came across until around midnight, then headed back to camp to sleep. I would then wake up around 4-5 am and head out spot lighting until the sun came up and I could see. Usually I planned it so I could be stopped at a place I could glass for a couple of hours until mid morning. Then I would head back to camp and sleep until 2-3 pm and repeat. I did this until Wednesday afternoon when I needed to drive into St. George to pick up my cousin from the airport and resupply. We spot lighted that evening and into the early morning of Thursday before heading to camp for some much needed rest. Around noon we checked a couple of areas we had chosen as opening day spots and decided on which was best. We glassed until dark then headed back to camp to organize our gear, have a quick dinner and then go to sleep. We woke up early to ensure we were first to our spot and waited for a few hours until grey light before slowly walking in, glassing along the way. We unfortunately bumped the deer and broken heartedly watch them head to their bedding area which seemed like a position we couldn’t access them or have a chance at them in. Nor did we want to push them out of their core area. There were lots of vehicles that seemed to want to be in this spot so we didn’t want to leave and give it up. We waited, glassed and move around a bit until 3pm when they started coming back out from the cut. We watched as two nice bucks ran each other off, both wanting to be the dominant male for the group of does. The bigger of the two presented a shot when the smaller buck ran him off but I decided to pass. An hour later the smaller buck offered a closer shot but after passing the bigger buck I couldn’t justify shooting him either. My cousin called me an idiot for passing either of them. We watched until dark then slowly backed out and headed to camp. We had a nice dinner and discussed the day, looking at the video we had taken of the two bucks. It was decided we would head back out to the same spot to get another look at them if we could. We woke up extremely early and drove to the same spot, arriving first again and waiting until grey light. We went about half as far in as the day before and stopped not wanting to bump the deer again. We spotted the group with just the smaller buck in it. We couldn’t locate the bigger buck. After a couple of hours the smaller buck gave me a shot and I connected at 475 yards. He hunched up and moved away a bit. We thought he would go down at any second but slowly turned broadside again at 525. I adjusted the turret and connected again. He lumbered a few feet and collapsed. We waited 20 mins and walked towards him. I instantly started having shooters remorse. I was done after a day and a half of the 10 day hunt. When we reached the buck I was surprised at the body size of the deer. He was definitely the heaviest deer I had harvested. I tagged the buck, we took some pics and then we attempted to load the deer into the SxS. Wow was he heavy!!! It took us a couple of tries but we somehow managed to get him into the back. I didn’t want to gut the deer there as I thought it might mess up another hunter who might want to hunt that area. We drove closer to camp, unloaded the deer and gutted him. He was sure easier to load the second time and then we drove to camp and using the winch on the SxS, hoisted him into a tree at the back of camp. We skinned, quartered him and washed the meat. After it dried we put it into game bags and hung it all. We had barely finished when an AZGFD and BLM officers rolled into camp. They checked my tag, license and pulled two lower teeth for an age check. We talked a while and they told us about some coyote areas and a possible spot for a lion. We took the deboned carcass to the lion area and disposed it in a spot we could see from a knoll a few hundred yards away. Over the next few days we switched looking at the gut pile and the carcass hoping for a shot at a coyote or a lion without any luck. It rained, hailed and lightly snowed the next couple of days making it pretty sloppy and messy. We waited until a break in the weather, broke down camp and left late Thursday. It took almost 3 hours to hit pavement which was a slippery and sliding drive out. We also stopped at Jacob’s lake for some cookies to eat on our way home. We had a trailer tire shred 25 miles before flagstaff, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. We pulled into my driveway early Friday morning, took out the rifles, binos, spotters, the expensive gear and put them into the safes. After a quick hello to sleeping family members and a shower we went to sleep. The next few days we dried out and put away the gear, washed our clothes, took care of the deer and celebrated a great hunt. We saw 112 deer, 36 bucks, one fox, one owl, 2 coyotes, 17 turkeys, 14 horses and an uncountable amount of cattle during the trip. Thanks to all who helped and/or offered info. A shout out to Jason “coach” Jones who had the tag a few years ago and offered up everything he knew. He was very unselfish and I hope to follow his footsteps for future tag holders. A special thanks to my wife for holding down the fort while I was gone and to my cousin for taking time away from his day to day to help me. Happy safe hunting ! -Sig

My sons hunt was there too. It felt tough tough too. But Monday when the sun came out saw lots of does. I had work to finish up so we called it quits.. A handful of other hunters said they had a hard time trying to find just a deer. But very proud of my son though. He is getting better at glassing. He was the first one to locate a deer. 1100 yards, bedded down under a mesquite tree while cloudy out side. He even guided me into the location and I said yeah I can see why you might think that is a deer. Second guessing him. And then her head moved lol

My boy did great in the draw this year drawing elk, deer, javelina, crane. He was on fall break, and I had the time off so we loaded up and headed to camp on Wednesday. My buddies parents were there so we hung out, enjoyed the weather and waited for the rest of the crew. Everyone got there and we waited..... for the rain. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. We stayed in my buddies dad's tent and got absolutely soaked. I was legit worried about my son. We ran the wood stove all day and night and eventually got stuff decently dry. With some borrowed bags, we survived. Threw a tarp over the tent and all was good. The mud was absolutely insane. We got atleast 4 inches and the roads were insane. We didnt hunt much the first couple days, but did help a friend's son pack one out. Sunday morning heading out, the voltage regulator got caked in mud in my rzr and absolutely fried. No luck Sunday morning but had to tow it back to camp. Sunday evening we walked from camp (truck batteries are dead too). Walked out from camp, the wind was bad but was hoping we could see something on either side get the wind right and circle. We got to as far was we were going to go then circled with the wind in our faces to slowly hunt back to camp. Glassing as we went, I immediately found a cow. As I was carrying the rifle, I extended the bipod legs and jacked one in. Levi asked me "dad what are you doing?" "There are elk up here buddy, and atleast one is a cow!" We got behind cover and snuck up about 100 yards. Peaked around a bush and saw the bull, a really nice 6x6 let out a bugle. Put eyes on his cows and got back behind cover and closed another 40-50 yards. We peek out and there is a lone cow, broadside shining in the sun. I range her, 281 yards. Turn the dial on the scope and tell Levi to get on her. Hes on her. Im ready. "Let her have it buddy, squeeze that trigger." He lets one rip. THUMP. "Good shot buddy, you hit her. Reload hit her again." My boy racks another round like a seasoned vet and lets it rip. "You rushed that shot, reload hit her again." THUMP. Great shot buddy! I put two more in his gun. She steps out. "She's still standing, hit her again!" THUMP. She lays down right there. I can hear her labored breaths. "Reload buddy, stay on her but dont shoot unless she gets up!" Needless to say she doesn't. She made it about 10 yards. Three shots in the boiler room. The supressor absolutely made the difference as they had no idea where we were or what was going on. Money well spent. I can not put in to words how proud I am of this kid. Hes persevered hunts with no luck. Lots of rain. Being cold. Not seeing much (these were the first elk we had seen). And then, during crunch time he handled his rifle like an experienced hunter. Not to mention trying to control blood sugar through all this. Writing this up and reflecting brings tears to my eyes. Rifle info: Bergara B14 in 7/08 shooting 120 TTSX, all 3 rounds blew through.

I had 3 White Wings this morning in Casa Grande

Have the white wings always been legal in the late season? It's been awhile for me and we never saw any in the late season anyway.

Bucks and bulls on here had one

I've asked the same question to 4 different WMs and gotten 5 different answers before. Interpretation of some of the regs is all over the place. Some will tell you using your vehicle as a rifle rest is not considered using a vehicle in the aid of taking game, while others have a very strict interpretation that using your vehicle as a rest absolutely is considered using a vehicle in the taking of game. One thing I've gotten consistent answers regarding is picking up deadheads as long as there is no fresh meat/hide. Picking them up whitewashed or with obviously mummified fur/meat has always been ok with every WM I've ever spoken to.

MDT LSS stock for a right hand, long action Remington 700. Some signs of use, but overall very good condition. Includes Luth AR adjustable buttstock and 5 round magazine (fits standard LA cartridges) $300 FTF Catalina, OV, NW Tucson. Willing to ship at cost.

Happy to say I’ll be helping on a hunt during the Black Friday BS!

I plan on doing one for Elk this week.

I do, I drop it off at your house! 🤣Then it magically gets skinned and ends up pretty and white!

We were near Arivaca Lake also and saw a ton of deer, but all does that I could see. I think a few of the deer I saw were bucks but could not see their heads. Some probably had headgear on them, but we did not get a good view of those.

Anyone willing to hike will most likely have an entire area to themselves! But this sucks.

But the box says $8.99.🤣

Idk, I was trashed

Could be that it just needs fouled back in after cleaning. Also ensure that your rear tang is free floated after putting it back together. Anything behind the rear action screw shouldn't touch for best results on a Savage. Like said before, bedding never hurts but those Savage tuperware stocks are notoriously bad.