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Somehow with only 6 bonus points, I drew an early rifle bull tag in Unit 9. I figured I would be hunting antelope in Wyoming this fall, so I only put in for the long-shot early bull hunt in 9. Guess I should have bought a lottery ticket too.

I’ve always assumed it happens when they add or remove a hunt with a lower number so things shift.

It's almost time to enter your kids!!! Get them entered for a chance to win! Prizes this year are as follows 1st Savage vrx 110 scoped in 308 comes with ammo to get started, vortex 10x42 binos and harness,Gerber multi tool ,hat ,small cooler and more. 2nd Savage axis 2 in 6.5 Creedmoor scoped,ammo,Vortex 10x42 binos, harness, hat,rangefinder,small cooler and more 3rd Stoeger m320 compact 20 gauge,ammo,vortex 10x42 binos, harness and more Rules are simple! Must be Arizona resident All guns must be transferred Healeys in mesa takes care of this for me. Must be able to put in for youth only hunts Sets my age limits ( 10 to 18 ) must be 10 by the time of the first youth elk hunt. **** new is a picture of the kids at the time of transferring **** This will help with future donations For the under 10 kids there's a special draw for a savage rascal 22lr and ammo It's only open to the kids under 10 Entries accepted January 1st Deadline is the last day in August at midnight! Drawing is the first week in September Enter at youthgungiveaway@outlook.com It's all lower case. Make sure to include Your name Your kids name and age And the big one is a contact number . Thanks !!! Complete rules and prize pictures are in the contest and giveaway section here

My son is 12 years old and loves going hunting with me . I want to get him a pack that fits him , that isn’t a camel pack . Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Picture just because 😏

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Good things happen to good people!

If it snows than you can see alot a bulls that move. If it doesn't shoot the first bull you see.

I am not sure we can ever return to the quality from 40 years ago. Mother nature will win out in the end. Even if G&F shut down desert units, the drought has a larger affect than any hunting can have on a population of animals. I am of the opinion that moving all the OTC hunts to a draw or modified/separate draw, would not necessarily increase quality significantly in comparison to the drought conditions. The quota systems have largely dampened the amount of deer being killed that is for sure. Who knows how many archery deer were taken pre-quota system, it had to have been a lot. I see a lot of people on the archery hunts, but that does not necessarily detract from my experience. Most people I see don't put in much effort to hike 1000 yards off the road.

I’m old enough to have seen the archery hunts when I hunted for days without seeing another hunter. 180+ bucks weren’t uncommon. then progress happened

Everybody has a Rzr, Can-Am or other utv now days and the desert is covered with people. We used to have the area we hunt pretty much to ourselves and the hunting was great. This last rifle hunt, there was a camp with 15 or 16 tags and they were like cockroaches out there. Just running all over the place. Not one of them saw a deer but we found one area that looked like the Baja ran through there and found deer tracks bouncing where they had clearly jumped some bucks and didn’t see them. I know people hunting the 45 units that are notorious for avoiding people and the road hunters are out in full force this archery season. I wish we could go back to times before Covid where all these people used to be indoors 🤣

Do you know how many assholes now live in this state ?? Especially the Phx metro area. Explaines alot

Yes, thankfully it's green and water all over right now.

37s are filled and over quota. There must have been some healthy deer in there somewhere

I would be willing to bet half the archery and rifle deer kills are not reported. I am in favor of a unit specific archery tag with a quota, not a draw. A draw for the specific units to aquire the tag that doesnt affect the rifle draw and points would be ok. X amount of tags whether quota is met or not. The bottlenecking of archery hunters as the units close is fning ridiculous. The desert deer need a break for sure. All of the above mentioned plus the poachers are still rampant around the farming communities and freeloaders squatting in the desert and forests. My .02

Don't forget we wound more then we kill.

I honestly can't believe more people aren't talking about this at least us below the rim. I am fortunate that I average a lot of days with a bow in hand. Honestly, Southern AZ and SW mule deer numbers IMO are about 15 to 20 % of what they were about 3 years ago. This is likely generous. This is an example of what the does looked like in the 37s in May 2025. Likely days from death. This pic was taken for drought documentation, not taking of game. Numbers were already waaaay down before last years drought. That was just the nail in the coffin.

funny, don't think were not going to total archery draw. Its already happening slowly.

. I could not agree with you more, but it’s not going to happen because of money and so-called hunting opportunity that a handful of influential people opposed to a draw want to keep OTC. guess we could blame it all on crossbow hunters

Our desert deer are cooked. Best thing that could be done for the good of the herd is to shut it down for 5 years then make it all a draw....

My brother found some rutting

$15