PineCountryHunter

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.

Nice heavy Buck!

Thank you, wish more people would post on their hunts. Like to read about peoples experiences. Score isnt everything to me. I’ll only draw so many tags and just like to enjoy my time out in the woods with my good friends. I did put a tape on him for fun and he was about what I thought. Good enough for me

That is a nice buck, was a tough hunt for sure. Congrats.

Nice last day 3x….congrats

Thanks….the late hunt should be awesome this year. We saw quite a bit of deer down on the winter range munching on the cliff rose treatments. Good luck

Awesome! look a great time had by all! looking forward to heading up there next Wednesday

I drew an early 12a rifle deer tag that opens on 10/24. I know from years of hunting archery up there that cell phone service is scarce and very limited. I have no knowledge of information on sat phones. Are there options to rent a sat phone for period of hunt? Does onstar on Silverado work with limited to no service? Just want to make sure I can check in and keep tabs on my wife and son or have ability to reach out if something happens. I like to play it safe and be able to contact help if need be and or family.

That’s good to hear. Know that area pretty well from archery hunting that area for years

Definitely looking forward to it, friend and I have the tag. Got all our good buddies coming up to help glass and help with camp chores. Going to be a good time

That’s for the recommendations, will be up there for 2 weeks and just want to okay it safe. Going up early to scout and hunt the whole hunt or until a good one gives me a shot

There is more to it than just the trail cams they were using. From what I heard road hunting was part of it, there was an undercover officer posing as one of the clients

In the park

The North rim lodge burned down this morning in the Dragon Bravo fire. Estimated 90% of the building on north rim are gone.

12AW early rifle for me. Had ten points and just barely got drawn.

Really hoping I drew 12AW early rifle and not 3a/3c rifle. My hunting buddy that has helped me and wife on our 3 deer tags in 3c used his points for and early 12AW west tag. Told him to put in for it and we could get a good deer. He has never been there so did it on my word me and a friend would put him on good deer. If I some how got 3a/3c somehow I’ll be turning it in and getting points back…so still a chance someone might get a tag

I had 10

Going deer hunting again for first time in 8 years with a rifle! either 3a/3c or 12AW early......wooo hooo

I was up there 2 weeks ago and the fishing was stupid good.. Fished Sunrise mostly and spent an afternoon at Horseshoe. Wanted to go to Reservation but its closed. average rainbow at Sunrise was about 18" and fat.

Glad this did not make it out of the third reading and got shot down. Need to stay on top or our representatives and make our voice heard to the 20 reps that voted yes

Been tough sledding In 3c this far, wind was killer Friday and all my good stand by spots have been void of sign and no noise at all. Hope others are having better luck. Going to try some new areas in the morning and pray

Well after many years of holding out for a good archery bull elk hunt this was the year to finally draw a tag. My son will be 10 in February and already itching to go out in the woods and hunt. So this was the year to spend the time to try and go out and shoot a good bull. The hunt came quick and was glad to have a great group of friends to help me for the majority of the hunt. I have hunted with them for many many years and been with them when they were able fill there first archery bull tags. Day 1 started early and out well before sun up. The weather was not helping much as it was warmer than usual and very windy, made hearing bugles difficult. We heard some bugles and set off after them but were not able to get in close enough and see if they what they were. We headed back to the cabin around 11 for some lunch and a nap and made the decision to sit water in the afternoon. I felt with the weather being unseasonably warm that would be our best bet. I sat a tank we have had good success on from 2 till dark but nothing made its way to water. heard a few faint bugles in the distance as the sun set on day one. Day 2 was basically the same result and was not very productive. Moon was bright and up most of the night, temps were warm and elk movement and bugling was very minimal. Day 3 we were able to get on a group of 5 different bulls screaming their heads off. Shooting like came and they continued to bugle but were moving away up the ridge to the area they wanted to bed. I was able to circle around in front of them and get the wind right. Gave out a few meek cow calls and had a calf come running in to my position. She finally moved off and I was able to move up another 100 yards and get to where I thought they might pass by. Shortly after a small young 6x6 stepped out of the think jack pines at 15 yards. We had a good staring match before he decided something wasn't right and walked off. Sat water the rest of the day only to see some turkeys and a whitetail doe. Day 4 we were greeted with cooler temps but socked in fog and rain for most of the morning and then heavy winds all afternoon. Elk were not very active and ended day without much to be excited about. Days 5-7 were very similar, on elk early but couldn't find the right bull I was looking for. I passed a few opportunities in the mornings and sat water in the evenings to with no luck. Days 7-9 we made a pivot to another area in the northern part of the unit. We were on elk in the morning and chased bugles until late hours of the morning. The bulls were smart and always seemed to be in an area you could not get in close to them. Between the topography and thermals it was almost impossible to get on them without blowing the out of the country. Day 10 started out in the same area as the past few days. We were on them early and able to get in a position that the wind was in our favor and elk moving towards us. Unfortunately the only bull we got a glimpse of was the small 5x5 raghorn my buddy called into 7 yards. We had a good laugh at how tough he thought he was hiked the several miles back to the vehicle to get some much needed breakfast and rest. For the evening hunt we decided to go back to the tank I sat the first night and have my buddy go check an area not to far away for bugles. As luck would have it the bulls in that area started screaming about an hour before sunset. he sent me a message and we hightailed it over to where he was stopped. As son as we got out there were 5-6 bulls absolutely screaming, I believe there had to be a hot cow in the area because it was chaos. We got the wind in our face and slowly started sneaking in on the bull we thought sounded the meanest. We were closing the ground but light was fading fast. The bull was glunking and decided to give out a few subtle cow calls and that did the trick. He came walking right in quartering slightly to me and stopped to bugle at for 45 yards. I let the arrow go and connected just behind his shoulder. The bull trotted up the ridge a little bit and bedded down just in sight. Just like that the hunt was over, he wasn't the monster bull I had hoped and dreamt about. But he was a cool old bull that had been in his fair share of skirmishes and thorough many ruts. His front teeth were worn to the gums and had some scares to show his age. we got him taken care of in a timely manner and the meat to the processor to fill the freezer for the family and close friends. Look forward to hunting with my boy in the years to come and hope it doe not take another 17 years to draw an archery bull tag IMG_4804.MOV

Awesome deer! congrats on your success

Great bull! Congrats

great bull! congrats on the success