Delw

I am pretty jazzed about hunting as always. I just like to call them in for my kid and others. I dont like to hunt elk its kinda like shooting a moo cow. I love deer so cant wait to go Thursday for the last day. last couple of years we deer hunted almost the whole season from Thursday to Monday every weekend. this year my 1st time will be Thursday . I noticed my daughter had all her shoot packed , now I have to do my stuff before we leave tomorrow night. going to tow her jeep up there this year. this should be interesting as I haven't towed a jeep in 30 years behind a pick-up and still have to finish the brackets for the towbar tomorrow. They still will be for the most part last year was the same way, friday sat and sunday lots of people monday through -friday we didnt see a soul unless we were driving. then the following week we didnt see anyone driving but we hunt low anyhow and hike the canyons.

I'm buried at work and I like this new company were doing work for. We didnt go for deer every weekend like normal. so Daughter and I are hunting thursday for deer, then she hunts friday through monday for elk then thursday through the next monday. I am hoping she gets it done friday Am, but you never know I have seen her pass up shots the last 2 years cause she doesnt like the shot. Good luck to everyone.

congrats

That 1st lope I would have shot before anything else that has some pretty cool character to it, the second one is extreamly wide another shooter. i like non typicals one you got is nice congrats. if you dont mind can you pm me how where and cost(trespass fees?) you hunted in WY for lopes . Daughter wants a lope really bad more than anything else. maybe next year I will put in.

No need to appolgize to these twits, go out and have a good time. Delw

here ya go, Got google earth to work finally. Its against mt better judgement to post spots ont he internet, but its a lope tag in unit 8, not many of those.

GP is a waste of time to hunt cause thats where everyone goes for everything. Drake perkins ville road has a ton of lopes and some pretty big ones. from north of the perkinsville turn off to ashfork to east of the devil dog exit. The roads are nice and be can traveled with a 2 wheel vehicle just get on a hill and glass then take your pick. if you want to hunt in the trees then west and south of whitehorse lake south of that main road and north of elk tank. there tough to hunt but there the biggest ones I have seen in the unit over the last 3 years. you usually dont see them everyday kinda a hit and miss deal. one other place has 2 very nice bucks and thats south of whitehorse down the sycamore canyon turn off. follow that road till it opens to grass 3 miles from the end of road(you cant miss it). on the west side of road just as it turns south to canyon walk about 4 miles east towards (that one main lake with the bathroom jd tank of the road you will see a slight rocky hill with some pines that go to the edge of the canyon south theres also a pond back there. theres 2 that hang around the WEST side of that little hill in some clearing and pines/ scrubs. were going to be elk hunting in in unit 8 we see lopes all the time. we will be there from Wednesday night to monday then again the following week from Wednesday to monday

We are leaving wednesday evening after the kid gets off work. Not ready at all, nothings packed nothing sorta'd. should be easy to find everything is in the same place and hasnt been touched since we came back last year. hope I can remember where we put everything last year that was a long time ago. Taking Daughter out tomorrow to ben avery for some archery practice and to make sure her new bow is sighted in. Works been crazy the last couple of months and havent had a day off in a few months(including weekends) so I am looking foward to just having time off with my kid. You can wish in one hand and crap in the other, see which one fills up first. LMAO my Dad use to use that saying all the time .

I only heard of 3 muleys this year killed by my buddies, nothing big yet. seen some pics of some very nice ones off in the distance/ couple of my friends haven't hunted yet as they say its too hot, I am taking my daughter out sat afternoon and sunday . normally I dont hunt a holiday weekend but I been stuck at work for the last 3 weeks.and my daughter is beat between working and school, so I havent asked her if she wanted to go last week.cause if she would have said yes I would have ditched work and gone. She is saving her time off of work for her elk hunt coming up. last year and the year before we hunted every thursday evening -monday from archery deer to end of archery elk and sometimes 5 days instead of 4.

My goal is pretty simple this year just like last year and the year before. Sign over my archery bull elk tag to her. Driver her up there, set-up camp and let her call her own shots. Have a fantastic time..... After that its making it back down ALIVE to the Valley. In that order The kid is a brute and doesnt stop, no mountain is too tall no canyon is to rough and hiking back to camp 4 hours after dark is no big deal for her. if its light out she is hunting dont care what time of the day or how tired she is. called in a bunch of bulls the last 2 seasons she passed up shots for a few reason all 8 yard to 50 yard shots. too slow, questionable light, looking at wrong bull waiting for the bigger one to walk by, branches in the way, Laughing to hard and cant pull back for a good draw or shooting at squirrels and doesnt see the bull laying down until he stands up bugles and walks off etc etc., This will be the last year I believe I can sign my tag over to her. shes 17 right after the season ends. its defiantly been the best 3 hunting seasons of my life( also because we hunt deer in the same unit as well). If she finally releases and arrow this year great, if she doesn't I am going to buy her a mop or broom for her birthday . Delw

Idgaf Congrats on your Lope. you definitely put the time in on it. Loved watching the scouting pics.

Was up 12b (off the platue) about 4 years ago scouting for a nov hunt. was up from oct every 4 days. mid oct it was 4-6 degrees at night. day times was pushing 60 during day.. been hunting it since 1982 every year for otc archery and then rifle when I got drawn which was often. seen it snow in aug -dec also very hot aug - dec. this year I am going to say be prepared for very cold and maybe snow late oct only because the way the weathers been, kinda like its going back to the pre 90;s weather.. regardless always take extra sleeping bags and blankets, as you never never know whats going to happen up there. when we went up 4-5years ago, I brought wrong sleeping bags. we dont sleep in a tent we sleep on the ground. 3 of us. I gave my daughter the warm one, Imagine my freaking surprise when I took them out of the bag. My buddy brought a slumber party one. so I gave him my extra one. I froze my freaking butt, off but I had a blanket as well. he took the towels out of my truck and used them. our fire was big and hot and we kept it going all night. next day we went to kanab to the hiking store paid 250-300 bucks for there best sleeping bags each. thought cool 3 more days no problem Wrong they were Pieces of crap we froze for 3 nights. when we got back to phoenix we called the company and they took them back. I love my Coleman peaks from the mid 90's. every mornign there was thick ice on our sleeping bags. my daughter said she slept like a baby so always when you go out take extra sleeping bag for each person and extra blankets and keep those in the truck, , anything can happen, had kids throw up and wipe out 3 sleeping bags in one night on a elk hunt, no problem had more sleeping bags., 2 years ago elk hunting in unit 8 during archeyr bull had huge thunder cell come in during the afternoon hunt and blow tarp down ripped sleeping bags off the rope they were hanging on and got wet. no problem had extras. when we got back that night from our hike our stuff was scattered like a tornado hit it. on bag was up 30 feet in a tree. always bring extra shoes and clothes and leave them in truck as well. why waste your hunt.

The plague has been in AZ since I been here in 1982 and even before. There used to be signs in seligman and all through out unit 10 from west to east even up to tucyeon(sp) P dogs mainly carried the plague. it died down dramitically around 1995-1997 when the p-dogs got really thinned out by a few dedicated hunters and the drought. The babbit Ranch pretty much dried up for P-dogs as well as the whole valley from unit 9 around red butte to red lake up on the res in unit 10. we saw maybe 2 dozen for 4-5 years where it used to be 1000 round days in a 5-6 mile area. same with the seligman valley area both north and south and west of seligman. then we got a little rain p-dogs came back and so did the plague. around this time the G&F dept put the black footed ferret in the valley west of seligman. the pdog hunters dissapered due to shooting near or around the ferrets while legal was still not wiorth the risk of killing one of these endangered buggers at 800-1200s thinking it was a p-dog. then the drought came back and dried everything up. with all the rains we had in the last 4-5 years it doesnt suprise me that the plague is back and the p-dog population is getting close to what it used to be back in the 80s and 90's. well lets just say about 1/2 of what it used to be. They are also spreading out not we have shot them both east west and north of flagstaff. saw some in unit 8 last year unit 9 they are everywhere. going to kaibab a few times 3 years ago I was shooting them on the way back home just north of flag along the res property.. if the p-dog population is around then your guaranteed to have the plague also. as 654321 mentioned Eric york got it from a mt lion, others have died and only a few have lived through it. 3 of them were p-dog hunters in the 90's 1 from CA if I recall. also a guy from tucson got it as well. one or 2 guys have claimed to gotten it while yote hunting. This is just what I recall since the early 80's. you dont touch p-dogs you wash your hands before you get in your truck and leave the area, then do it again when you get home. I never worried about the plague as long as you stay clean and dont touch the p-dogs you will be fine. when we shot them with bows we would use rubber gloves and pic up the arrows toss them in the bed of the truck in the sun for a ton of hours then use the arrows again. Can you get it from other animals yes but its unlikely. as those type of fleas from what I was told hang around on rodents mainly. the lion probably ate a few p-dogs recently and had them on his body. when we heard about the yote guys we quite cutting there tails off/skinning them and just used yotes as ballistic jelly. like they were meant to be what surprises me out of all this is the indians. we would shoot the p-dogs they would come and grab them up put them in a bag and go home. dont know what they did with them and dont care but I dont ever remember reading or hearing about and indian getting sick from the plague. what is really good news about this post is that the P-dogs are back on the rebound big time and I can dust off the 15+ varmit guns I have dig out the 10k+ rounds of ammo and start wacking and stacking again. life is going to be good used to rely on maps with 20 years of p-dog town markings on them to revisit old p-dog areas and hope there was something to splatter. now I been finding new pdog towns by google earth some places show up really well.

That's a lot of work, I just use a couple blades of grass to call them in. I tried it from my car last season and an elk got in and kicked it for a while. I'd laugh at that but I watched a kid call one in with a folded up straw. same kid that shot the cow the day before we called the baby in. High pitched varmit calls work too. dad didnt believe me but we have it on video while bear hunting north of sedona a bunch of years ago. varmit calls are the most versatile calls around.

Those are cool pics with in inchs of the exact same spot last year., also notice the small pine tree growth behind him was about 1 foot taller than last year. and the pine cones are in the same places but not as many as last year.. anyway typical average lope in az mid to low 70's. I wouldnt pass it up lopes are just bad butt.

Ive seen some of the funniest crap out while hunting elk. I bet I have called in just as many hunters as I have elk. called hunters right out of there trucks. Elk dont care what call you use. they all work. I dont buy the educated theory like many others do. I been calling yotes since the 80s and call close to phoenix dont have a problem calling them in. same goes for elk up north. we dont have a problem calling them in. I use what ever calls I find at the closest store. hoochie mama I been using for the last 15+ years never failed me yet. The main problem with calling is movement and talking(so called whispering) cut that out and your success will come way up. we have had not just stay 100 -300 yards out and not come in for 30-40 mins. sometimes we just wail on the call and they finally come in. cause curiosity got the best of them. other times they go way because 1 they are bored with you or they saw you. I mean think about it. full camo and your walking around in the woods. how many elk seen bushes mover around, Id be disturbed and leave too the best one ever was Daughter and I last year had a decent bull come in about 80-100 yards and just hang. his cows were with in 20 yards. what seemed like an hour this bull would not budge. he would bugle at me I would bugle at him. I finally got pissed and grabbed a big stick and beat the crap out of the ground with it. just after I blue the ugliest bugle out there even the daughter said WTF was that. then blew it again and that bull tucked his down down and ran straight at us stopped behind some bushs and kid couldnt get a clean shot. funniest thing I ever saw.. sometimes people put too much emphasis on the type of calls and how much or how little they are supposed to be used just like camo and everything else.. take what you want they all work and go have a good time dont worry about what anyone else says. we did call in a elk calf 2 years ago with a hoochie mama. with in hand petting ranged 1 to 2 feet?. he hung out for a while and they 4 of us were just standing there looking at it whispering to each other.. we think he might have been with a cow that our friend shot the day before. Daughter enjoyed it so thats all that mattered. next month She gets to do it for the 3rd time in a row same unit same areas same dates going to be fun as always whether she tags one or not.

Also most other states are allowed as well. I know my 1978 one from washington state was allowed to be used in colorado in the 1990's. I couldnt get into a class in AZ fast enough when we decided to goto colorado hunting. we have hunted white river wilderness, some other wilderness area north of the big valley north of Grand mesa, Grand mesa(most fun) wenemuchi (sp) wilderness area north of durango. We always shad fun on there hunts, bring a fishing pole and a sling shot for grouse. we never seen very many people in any of these areas except the one wilderness area I forgot the name of. we hiked up saw no one. the day after opener there was atcs all over the freaking place. still didnt see anyone while out hunting just along the trails. Oh yeah I forgot about the wenimuchi wilderness hunt. That was an interesting one. a buddy put us about 20 miles north of the wilderness, he took us in on horses.( all the others we hiked in) so a good friend of mine and I couldnt find a freaking elk or sign tons of deer. in glassing we found them on one of the mountain years snow banks laying in the hot 90º sun he and I hiked all day to get up there. we still had maybe 5 miles to go by 4pm in some of the nastiest walk crap we had hiked in, so said screw it hunted back to camp. as we are getting close (to 2-3 miles) camp we start seeing people freaking everywhere. I'm not talking 1-2 groups I am talking 20-40 groups. were like WTF it was dark and we could see anythign but flashlights and we thought we saw some car lights. But hey thats impossible right its a wilderness area and we were 20 miles from the nearest entry point. next morning early dark 30 we leave earlier and start back up to the glacier. people everywhere (again the lights tipped us off) about 8 miles into the hike we bump into some other hunters. after the usual bs we asked were there camped at and taht we were camped about 8 miles down the way took a 20 mile horseback ride to get there and planned on being there for 8 days. they laughed and said they drove in. were like WTF, they informed us that there was a plane crash about a month earlier and a small fire. the FS plowed a road to get to wreckage and to make sure fire was out. So the day after the season started they opened the gate and let hunters in the area. next 3 days we said f-it buddy came up and got us. went o his ranch and shot some whitetails then drove back home to Az. still a fun hunt, but kinda disappointing at the same time. we did laugh about it all the way home

My best advice to you is just go out and start driving the roads. deer will find you. look at the canyons just below the rim rock basically anything that is different from the terrain thats normal in that particular area. Dont worry about water desert deer can go 5-7 days with out visiting a water hole (some seminar by big named some hunter back in the early 90's). before the season just drive the roads till about 9am then start back up an hour before dark in the desert areas in the north cooler country driving roads all day to get familiar with the area as deer are generally moving through out the day usually till 11am then slow up until about 5pm. to me glassing is over rated as well as water holes and camo. since 1982 I have never sat on a water hole an seen deer unless elk hunting but I am not a sitter either, I like to move around. one exception would be a buddy and I wanted to see if that seminar was true so we staked out a few water holes in 12b and 12a west for a few days. yups its true. deer know if someone is in the area and they find another water hole. as far as units grand ave all the way up to kingman on both sides is loaded with deer an very few people . unit 21 22 have lots of deer but a ton of people so week days are usually best I like to hit them on Wednesdays and Thursdays as it gives the deer time to settle down. always try to find a high spot when desert deer hunting and sit there and watch the desert you will be amazed what you see when the sun comes out and just before the sun goes away. sometimes you will crap yourself when your sitting on the only hill scouting for yotes and a extreamly nice buck just gets tired of looking at you stands up and walks away and you never knew it was there for the 20 mins you were blowing the call. if your scouting after sitting for a while like an hour dont hesitate to make some noise with a varmit call to see if anything moves. Called in many deer with a varmit call and well as got them to move and never knew they were there. most importantly bring water and watch for those stupid butt snakes

Heres my 3, the one buy it self was my 1st tag in AZ (daughters recent deadhead in foreground) was a 700+ yard shot in the neck. Funny story with this one, I got up there the day before opener. got a call at 4:30 in the am saying we had a major problem at work and I needed to come back immed.. Packed all my shoot up which amounted to a sleeping bag tarp and some water jugs and headed back to phx back stalling for 1st light. got 1 mile away and saw this one in a flat. got out of truck walked to a small small rise and shot it. was back at work by 10-11am. the 2 together are the last 2 I drew for. 3 tags in like 5 years all unit 9 rifle, I gave the tag to out oldest daughter she shot it at like 25 yards or less, we watched it walking towards us for about a mile and it walked right up the the scrub oak we were hid in. the lope we were after got shot opening morning by a guy in utah. I was elk hunting early rifle bull in unit 8 that morning. we probably watched 40-75 bucks in 5 days before she decided to go back and try the one she killed. we drove every day from unit 8 to unit 9 hunting elk in 8 in the mornign till 10 then up to unit 9 for lopes then at 4 back to unit 8 for evening elk she shot it on second to last day of hunt. had a heck of a good time with her. somewhere I got outdoor pics but cant find the hard drive so I took these the other day. I dont know how to use a camera that well on a smart phone I just got. so the pics are crappy

Raghorn thats some awsum country. I spent almost every other 4 days in that west of big springs to east of the 12a border from 1982-1987 including winters, summers sprngs and the entire archery season I hunted from 2 weeks before start to 1 week after all on vacation( I had a 4 on 4 off schedual ). lots of back packing. I almost went to work for the saw mill up in ferdonia in 84, good thing i didnt they shut down they shut down shortly after. I havent been to that area since around 2008. been trying to get a 12west archery tag since they started archery draw, however always end up with a 13a 12b or 13b rifle tag( i think ive gotten 4 or 5 tags rifle tags since 1998 up there I was new to the super fast small dia cals at that time(dave jerry and kevin over at randalls got me into those pdog plinkers years and years ago). I always used a .300 winmag .308 243 or 270. all my hunting cals I use nosler ballistic tips since they 1st came out with them still shoot them in the neck and have absolutely no problem I still have 4-5 25-06's too but mostly use .243 and .300 winmag anymore.

No read the bottom paragraph post 20. he wouldnt let me have it. even offered him a ton of money even threaten to fire him and his wife ( j/king of course) he found it his words were "finders keepers," but if it helps any heres approx where I shot it. Ive been hunting that same area from 82-96 both archery and rifle, taken some decent bucks but nothing really nice. I backpacks and drycamped everyone of those fingers/ridges in that area both both east and west of the old cabin that used to be at the end of a road.seen some monster deer and one elk. one of my best calling spots in that area too for varmits. 36°35'4.32"N 112°30'40.13"W I remember seeing it on the side of the hill, shot it thing fell down. pregnant Wife ran up to it with in a few yards it got back up. so shes yelling shoot it shoot it and she ducks behind a tree. I shoot it in the neck again. we wife swore it went up the hills, everyone else said no way down the hill. very little blood showing up the hill then disappeared did take a chunk of meat and fure out of its neck, wife found that where I shot it the second time.. was shooting hot loads out of a 25-06 with game kings. I screwed up. loads didnt expand they were too hot and fast to have a chance because I choose a neck shot. I remember walking on the edge of a decent side rock cliff looking for it.never even thought to look over the edge straight down. only big game animal I ever wounded with a gun. I personally think it was running/staggering and slipped of the rimrock or was running folded up and slide off it. "

Dont have any and I wish I did. didnt have a digital one back then. I know the guy used to work for fortner and gifford in prescott back in 93 so did his wife. hadnt seen him since I left in 95 you know whats sad. I just tried to think of anyone who saw it (didnt know the NM guys) My father passed away and so did his buddy, My wifes friend moved out of state and lost touch, the guys at randalls "Big Dave" passed away too he knew about it wow talk about a bad trip down memory lane. I shot it with a smith and wesson 25-06 rifle I bought from his personal collection he was a very close friend of mine. so your going to have to take my word on that one or I might get lucky and theres a before picture somewhere on my 30+ rolls of film I am still getting developed which reminds me I need to drop a few rolls off. (yup had them that long in the fridge. and surprisingly a few rolls turned out not terribly bad) we should have some really cool pics of stuff on VHS and film cameras

yeah I saw that this morning also. for some reason last night it came over as a new thread on my pc, or I did a stupid and just clicked the wrong button. I never looked at the date

Nice cat we always have a lion tag. made the mistake once and will never do it again. and that was the only time I had for gotten to buy a lion tag, then put it off. now when we buy our licenses we buy lion tags

I dont think a bleached out skull and horns are going to be that much of a problem. From most G&F guys unless they are dicks or you give them reason for concern/ to think otherwise I think the problem will be more of a nice 1-2 month old deadhead thats still brown. reason is they think someone shot it and planned on coming back later and pick it up ie intent. Back in the 90s that was a rumor going around people shooting stuff in dec and picking them up in feb in unit 6a. Same thing up in units 12b and 13's cause its in the middle of nowhere. Ive done a ton of varmit hunting in those units from dec to march and never ran across a dead head.and I do a ton of walking I found maybe 2 during the deer hunts that were bleached out. My kid on the other had found more in 3 years than I have found in 30 years. My buddy and I were hunting(he went along for the ride) in 94 unit 12a, I had gotten drawn again, I had a tag in 93 and shot a very nice 30" plus deer. we had 6 people looking for it for 3-4 days I went up every weekend for a couple of months. never found it. I was sick over it and obsessed with finding it. 25 yard shot too. witnessed by me my Pregnant wife her friend a New mexico G&F guy and his buddy(that happend to see it when I was shooting it) with the same tag. My dad and his buddy came too help use find it(4 of us got drawn 2 from out of state) The next year with my buddy I am hunting the same spot he is just along for the ride. showed him were I shot it and where we last saw it. he was walking back to the truck and looked over the cliff there it was sitting in the top of a scrub oak 20 feet down. the deer instead of going up the hill like I thought we saw him do JUMPED over the cliff. The rack was stuck in the tree, he saw the white bones at the bottom and then the rack in the tree and started yelling for me. last I saw the rack it was sitting on his coffee table at his apartment. 1st time he ever went out hunting let alone walked in the woods and 2k wouldn't even buy it back from him or even threatening to fire him I didnt even know about this rule until I read it on here a while ago. do I care? yes if its a brown I will call someone, still going to take it and take alot of pics and mark location, if its bleached I am taking pics and packing it out and be done with it.