azelkhunter69

Pretty cool. Fun stuff. My wife did pretty much the same thing when she shot her first elk. Hyperventilated, fell to her knees and said "I can't feel my hands." Hahahaha Fun times.

Why buy a pair when you can win a pair....with a little luck of course. https://www.arizonaelksociety.org/shop/product/your-choice-swarovski-raffle-3/

I looked at the bonus point reports on AZGFD.com. I looked at the "Bonus pass by hunt number" report. https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/draw/BonusPointProcess It was hunt #1014 last year. They gave out 450 tags. I see this year it got bumped up to 500.

At top of this page....click "Sign into account" https://www.azgfd.com/Hunting/Draw

Unless I am looking at something wrong, for the 12AW Oct. hunt, 7 pts was guaranteed and 23% of the guys with 6 pts. got drawn in the bonus round. Thanks for the info so far guys. Looks like the popular opinion is 12AW so I think that is what I will go with. We will be able to stay for the whole hunt so time is not a problem. I will keep you updated on how things go with the draw. I am excited to get up there and have a look around.

/\ You are going to be busy. I

Now we get to go through this all over again next year. Just glad that at least my wife got a tag.

Not sure about that but I see most of these guys are with Chase. My wife got hit on a Citi card.

Wife got hit for a bull Muzzy tag with 3 points. Now we just have to wait and see if she got lucky and got a 6A Nov. tag or hit the jackpot and got the Sept. unit 8 tag. She is so lucky, she probably got the early tag. She has had 4 bull tags now and has never had over 3 pts. Either way, I'm going hunting elk this Fall. This Winter sucked with no elk in the freezer.

has to drain... leave it in a cooler with dry ice for 7 days with the drain open so any blood will drain out. hot air rises cold air falls ( you already know /knew that) put the dry ice on top but use something so it is not directly on the meat, ie. a tray or something. also when in your fridge it can pick up foreign odors... if your going to do it in a fridge make room in your beer fridge, but make sure it can drain off the blood. james I bone it out and put it in my "beer fridge" and my dad's "beer fridge". I made a rack to set the meat on so the blood can drain as mentioned. Then I put newspaper in the bottom of the fridge to soak up the blood.

I think this is the trick. I have been letting them age in the refrigerator for about a week for several years now. I shot an old, big bodied bull 3 years ago and my dad thought it was one of the best tasting elk we've ever had. Shot him on opening day and cut him up the following weekend.

It went from about 3 days of Christmas Eve excitement/anticipation.... to sort of indifference because you can't get yourself excited that many times and be let down....to WTF AZGFD???? What is going on !!!??? How is it possible to drag it out longer than they have been the last few years?

Last year it started on Friday March 20th

I hope you are right!!! Christmas eve is here. Last year the card deadline was on the 12th and cards got hit on the 20th. But, there were lots of issues last year and none that I know of this year. Some past years they hit cards the day after the card deadline. Fingers crossed it is tomorrow.

Glad I'm not the only one starting to get really impatient. I am bummed we haven't seen the announcement for the deadline to change payment info yet. Last year the deadline to change card info would have been the equivalent of today. The anticipation gets really amped up after that, because I know the card hits are coming soon after. Good luck guys, it will be soon.

Does anyone know where I can find a list for the sheep that were harvested this year that includes hunter's name, unit, score, etc. ? I saw a list like this a few years ago but I can't remember where. Thanks.

Interesting. Thanks. I figured you would know. Hmmm, after I saw this I went and checked what you said. From 2004 - 2016. It does land on the 37th Friday most of the time, but not all the time. Must be some other calculation they use. Unless my counting skills are off.... 2004 the season started on the 17th but the 37th Friday was the 10th. 2006 the season started on the 22nd !!! but the 37th Friday was the 15th. Now we get into the post 2008 seasons I was talking about.... 2011 season started on the 9th but the 37th Friday was the 16th. It would be nice to know exactly how the season is determined. I think I will call them tomorrow.

I look at all of these things but so far it hasn't changed what I put in for. Although, it almost did this year since the season starts on the 9th. But it will determine when I hunt if I get drawn. If I get a tag this year, I don't plan on taking the whole season off like I normally do. I plan on just hunting the 2nd week. The rut was always better the 2nd week anyway but with these early dates it has really placed a premium on the 2nd week. I have a buddy from back east that has been building bonus points and these factors will definitely play into when I tell him to finally apply for a hunt. I was pretty excited for this season because I thought the season would start on the 16th. I was pretty disappointed when I saw it started on the 9th. I don't go to the G&F meetings or anything like that and I hadn't heard anything about the dates changing. I did some research because I thought the dates were earlier than they used to be. What I found is that the archery does seem to be starting a little earlier. I'm sure some of you guys already know this. I found an article from the Game and Fish from 2008 that talked about them changing some elk and deer dates to try to lower hunter success so they could give out more tags. Depending on which side of the argument you are on, they did this to allow more people to hunt or to bring in more money. Before then, I found hunts that started on the 16th, 17th, etc. But the hunt hasn't started that late since. I guess next year will be the true test to my theory if the season starts on the 8th. If any of you actually went to a meeting or knows if this is what happened, I would be interested to hear it. Good luck guys, the dreaded wait is about to begin.

Your license has to be valid as of deadline day.

Consider the source. Great job and way to help your brother out.

This shows how many got drawn and how many points they had. Look at the column that says "Next-Year pool" and add one bonus point to what they had last year. https://azgfdportal.devaz.gov/PortalImages/files/hunting/draw/bonusPts/antElk2015/2015%20Pronghorn%20and%20Elk%20-%20Bonus%20Point%20Report%20-%201-2%20Pass%20by%20Genus.pdf

Just curious about what you guys do with the meat to get it back to AZ. Do you have it processed there, freeze it, and bring it back? Or just throw it in a cooler and bring it back?

Anybody hear anything about if or how these hunts were different since they got pushed back to October?

It has been a brutally slow start in 8...and in other units from what I am hearing. Almost no bugles until yesterday and even then it was just a little in the morning. Still seeing cows with no bulls. Thought today was going to be great but didn't see or hear anything. I guess it depends on where you are though to a certain extent because I talked to one guy that said this morning was their best morning yet. My dad needed a break so we came home for a hot shower and a night in our own beds. Headed back Friday morning for the rest of the hunt.

The second pic shows how huge that sucker is. Truly magnificent. Congrats.