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Day 2 Hunt Update Another before-5 a.m. wake-up call had us dragging a bit, but we pushed back into the same canyon we hunted opening morning. This time, no other hunters were in there—just us, yes! As the first light started creeping in, my buddy with the tag whispered that he had an elk spotted. Hard to tell in the grey light if it was a bull, but based on the size and the fact we haven’t seen many cows in there, I was pretty sure it was. A few seconds later, I spotted another elk the same time my brother whispered he had eyes on a second one. Things were getting good fast. About five minutes later the light got just good enough, and we could clearly tell they were both bulls and one of was definitely a shooter. They were feeding their way across the ridge to the south of us and heading up into a draw. We were really hoping they'd pop back out along the ridge directly in front of us instead of disappearing up the draw. Another few minutes passed and then a third elk stepped out on the far side of the draw. Bingo. Three bulls, all headed in a direction that would put them about 300 yards in front of us. The three of us quietly glassed them and then all agreed on which bull was the biggest. My buddy loaded his rifle. I gave him the yardage—255 yards. Perfect. The bull stepped out from behind a bush, standing perfectly broadside, and my buddy sent it. Looked like a hit, but the bull barely reacted. The bull walked maybe 20 yards and stopped broadside again. I told him to reload and hit him one more time to be sure. And then the worst happened. His gun jammed. Probably ran his bolt too softly in the excitement. As he tried to clear it, I scrambled to sort out his mag. Five seconds… ten seconds… felt like ten minutes. The bull was still somehow just standing there. Finally got the jam cleared, took aim, and sent another round. Again, not even a flinch. We were all thinking, what is going on? Then the bull suddenly tipped forward and started going down. Yes! He went down for good and we were all super excited! As we were high fiving and giving congratulations, five more bulls came out from nowhere. It’s always crazy how many elk can be right in front of you without ever being seen. My buddy asked if we should’ve waited and I told him absolutely not—250 yards, broadside, on a great bull? I would take that any day of the week, at least that’s my opinion. Then came the part every hunter loves: the pack out. Took two full trips to get him off the mountain. Long day, heavy loads, sore legs, but totally worth it. Could not be happier for my buddy—his first big-game animal with a darn nice bull. Thanks to everyone following along with this thread, and good luck to everyone still out hunting. After roughly 20 miles in the last three days, I’m honestly looking forward to “sleeping in” until the babies wake me up probably around 6:15 tomorrow haha.

Went out this morning for a quail hunt with a buddy out in 37A, Beautiful morning, went to my usual honey hole spot for quail and while walking to my spot I always try and go to this vertical 30’ mine shaft where (2) large barn owls like to hang out in. As I’m getting close to the opening, I see a bunch of little bones, then I see more bones/skulls. I gather up all the skulls and place them on a rock. These owls eating good!!!! Needless to say, the owls were not in there, so I proceeded to quail hunt. Knocked down 2. The drought this past year really did a number on the covey’s. Then came across this bench. May have to bring my wife and a bottle of vino and enjoy the sunset in the near future!!!!

SPF FTF in Chandler near Ray and Arizona Ave. Minty like new Sako AII Forester Deluxe in 308win. Mirror blue finish on metal, engraved bottom metal, skip line checkering, nice straight grain stock. Nearly flawless, only a few minor imperfections. Does not appear to have been fired much. also open to trades /trades+cash. Please pitch your trades in your first PM. -Not interested in AR15s, glocks, anything with plastic or polymer Post and PM Please, make your best offer

Collected stuff over the years but I am not a reloader. Some dies, over 25 pounds of lead shot, lots of reloading manuals, some wads, 2 reloaders, cleaning medium in the top box, RCBS Ammo Crafter II, stock refinish kit, etc.

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!

Different unit, but no luck here. Crazy thick fog rolled in and stayed until about 11AM...could hear lots of birds flying but they couldn't see decoys and never came below the fog.

I have been to that bench. And not too far away I found a tiny javelina skull in the rocks.

Nice meeting you today. Grandson loves the gun.

What do you want us to say? Missing your best players with Jeff Sims being exceptionally horrible. It’s a recipe to lose to a good football team. Could’ve been worse if it wasn’t for our defense. UofA was the better team last night. No more crickets lol

Crickets from ASU fans. Crickets.

Arizona 23 - Tempe Normal (ASU) 7

I don’t have any skin in the game, but I was going for asu. However I can always get behind fat shaming, and I would give them titties 2 thumbs down.

Evening hunt update: We put some miles on the boots tonight—ended up doing about a 5-mile loop through a mix of thick pines and open pockets. Afternoon action started pretty early when we glassed a group of cows with a spike and a little raghorn hanging back. It was nice to get eyes on some elk, even if it wasn’t quite what we were looks for. We pushed deeper in and ended up bumping another group of cows. They caught our wind right as we crested a bench and slipped out before we could get a solid look at what was with them. The wind was terrible tonight, it was constantly swirling so we really couldn’t even work with it to get into any one specific area. Near the end of the loop we saw our last group of the night. Two cows traveling with roughly six spikes. We’ve got an unspoken opening-day rule: no punching a tag on a spike. So no tag filled yet, but the way the elk were moving tonight was good. And it was nice to lay some eyes on. If we can’t find anything over the next few days I know where we’ll be on our last day out. It’ll be another early morning tomorrow back after it. Elk are around—we’ve just got to get our eyes on the right one. I’ll keep you all updated!

Timney is in North Phoenix. If they offer a new one, just buy a nice replacement. Then you don't need to pay a gunsmith.

Roosevelt really produced this year. Had some 30+ fish days and some big fish days. Sorry about the sideways pics! All fish released. Big largemouth 8.25# and big smallmouth 4.3#. I’m watching the rain in Tonto Basin now and hoping for a lot of runoff in the spring. Water temperature Monday was 70 degrees. I suspect it will be low 60’s when this storm passes.

Only if she is 5'3"

Just curious if anybody on this forum has ever been down to Yuma to pheasant hunt. They used to have this as a draw type hunt broken down into several different seasons throughout the fall. We always hoped for the later draws as the birds would color up better in October vs September. Now, it is an open hunt that follows the same dates as dove season. It has been an open hunt for a several seasons now and the pheasant are few and far between. Mix that in with the standing cotton we have left in September and it becomes really tough. We don't hunt them the "proper" way with a dog pointing them and flushing them. Instead, it becomes more of a spot and stalk or hope for them to be in an area where they think they are hidden. I am sure some people do use dogs and point them but we mostly hunt in or around the cotton fields and these pheasant won't flush easily; they usually just take off running and you can hear them on the dry leaves in the furrows. This season, we made it out several times but only managed 3 roosters. We saw 15 roosters and 3 hens total for the season. Most of the time, they run into the cotton and become almost impossible to find. We did trick a few though. The first one, he was outside of a cotton field about 50 yards. I glassed him and walked from the opposite side of the field to where he was. He saw me and immediately hunkered down in the border and thought he was hidden. I marked him and came up from behind him and he flushed at 15 yards. When chasing pheasant in Yuma, I tend to have longer shots more often than not so I prefer #2 steel shot as the tighter pattern works great in the 30-50 yard range. Well, for this first one, I must have not put my duck loads back correctly last season and I ended up loading in BB shot and at 15 yards, I did some damage on this poor rooster. you will notice his tail feathers are completely blown off. Oops. The 2nd one, the wind was blowing 20mph and you can see with my daughter's face holding the pheasant. It was dusty and it was getting in her eyes which is why she has the face she does in the photo. He ran across an open field in front of us and into a cut cotton field that still had the beds up but cotton was gone. I saw what bed he laid in and we walked to the spot and he ended up jumping up at about 50 yards and with that #2 shot, I was able to connect and get us the second rooster of the season. Last night, just before legal light was no more, I spotted this rooster in a disced cotton field. He saw us and flew to the other end of the field and just laid down. I couldn't tell exactly where he was from our location and looking back into the sun though. We drove to the other end of the field and got out and started walking to where we thought he could be. He ended up flushing up at about 60 yards and I took one shot and knocked him a little sideways but he kept going. We watched him glide across a couple fields to the south and to a ditch bank. With about 10 minutes of shooting light left, we hauled butt over there. I got out and walked the ditch bank and found him "hiding" in a tumbleweed. I got to 10 yards and he flushed up and I let him get to about 25 yards and dropped him. Rooster #3 of the season and it was the most colorful pheasant of the season for us.

That lead killed game is exponentially safer and more healthy than 99.99% of what you buy at the grocery store. Fear of lead poisoning is probably the last reason I would switch to all copper. Probably the best thing you could do for your family’s health, physically and mentally, is to get them off of social media and listening to people who have found success in monetizing fear and paranoia.