jonscaife

So I'm taking the family up to the north rim at the end of the month for a camping/scouting trip for my 12A East general hunt. Anyone with any experience have any recommendations for a place to camp? The wife would love to be in the aspens. Anyone want to shoot me an area or two? Thanks in advance!

Honestly, maybe it’s not a strip or Kaibab tag but this is awesome tag! Rut activity will be starting to kick in in the northern part of the unit and 150”+ should not be a problem. Have fun!

Thanks guys!! Appreciate the help!

Paradise ridge

So I'm in a bit of a predicament. After 8 years in a row of drawing local units around my house, I decided I needed to commit to killing a mule deer with my bow. Problem is, if I have a rifle tag in my pocket, I tend to commit to it. My plan going into the draw was to put in for the 'Bab, not draw, start accumulating bonus points and hunt the OTC archery hunts around my house. Well, I ran into a little bit of a problem with my plan (a very good problem I might add), I drew my first choice, 12A East early. I'm a pretty experienced mule deer hunter but new to the 'Bab. I'm super excited for the hunt! Any words of advice from anyone that has experience up there? Any thoughts on where the deer tend to end up during the hunt (pines, pinyon/juniper, sage flats)? I know that can be weather dependent but does hunting pressure play a role in that too? Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated. Honey holes are welcomed or just feel free to talk crap about my e-scouting. Feel free to DM me or text 928-925-4067 or whatever. Oh and here's a pic of my best mule deer to date just cause.

Thanks! That buck is from unit that is considered average at best. So Im stoked to have a tag with a chance something even bigger.

Let me clarify a few things and get pretty detailed here for a second. Yes you can have an elk hunt every year (kind of) and here is how: 1:OTC elk tags. Pros:You can go down to the AZGFD office and pick up a tag. Cons:You will never ever even see an elk. 2:Late archery bull hunts Pros: Great draw odds. There's a few hunts that seem to hover in the 70-80% draw rate with a couple that are as high as 90%, so theoretically if you put those hunts as first and second choice you should draw a hunt every year. There are a fair amount of elk in these areas and some nice bulls have been taken on these hunts. Cons: These are tough hunts. Plan on either sitting water (BBBBBOOOOOOORRRRRRRIIIIIINNNGGGG!!!!!) or spot and stalk in some nasty country. These hunts have pretty low success rates, not because of lack of animals, but because they are hard to kill this time of year with a bow. 3: Late rifle cow hunts Pros: Good draw odds. There are a few hunts that hover between 40-60% draw odds, so once again, theoretically, if you put these hunts as first and second choice you have a pretty high possibility of pulling a tag every year. Cons: It's not a bull hunt. Also, weather can start to play a huge factor, I had some buddies a couple years back that got snowed in for a week on one of these hunts. These are also surprisingly difficult hunts. There's usually plenty of elk but they've been pretty pressured by this point and are real spooky. That being said, if you do your homework and hunt hard you have a good shot of coming home with a freezer full of meat. 4:Limited Opportunity Any Elk hunts Pros: Decent draw odds. These hunts are usually in the 30-40% range, so if used as first and second choice there is a good chance you pull the tag (you may not get a tag every year but probably more like every 2 out of 3 years). Some monster bulls have been taken out of these hunts. Also, it's an any elk tag, so if you see an elk you can shoot it, which is nice. Cons: Elk are few and far between on these hunts. Plan on hitting this hunt HARD if you want to stand a chance at getting an elk. If you want a high quality hunt in Arizona you'll have to wait a couple years. If you just want to get out there and have a good time with the possibility of getting some meat then it's possible to do it every year. I live in Chino (just north of Prescott) so if you have any questions about what units to apply for that are close by for elk or deer or whatever, feel free to pm me and I'll line you out.

I have the traverse. I think it's a fantastic design but I find it to be a little on the heavy side. That being said, I have hauled multiple deer and an elk out of the woods with it. It holds up well and feels great when loaded down. They have great customer support as well. I blew a zipper on a backpacking alps pack and the replaced the whole pack no questions asked.

I believe this bull is being grossly underestimated. I'm saying 380. He is a solid 330/340 bull with just his frame, add up the trash and you got 370/380 bull there my friend.

jay scott put up a podcast where he goes over ever single unit and the pros/cons with each. Listen to that and you will know exactly what you want to do. in fact there is a post on this forum where he provides a link to the podcast.

I personally would like the current bonus point system to be done away with. I say do away with the max point system and just run the whole thing like the 1&2 pass. I feel like the max point pass makes is feel that eventually we should be garenteed a tag and the reality with species like sheep that's probably just not possible.

Awesome breakdown fellas! I feel pretty darn squared away at what I'm gonna do now. Thnx again!

7w early cow for the mrs. It's her first hunt ever. Should be a blast!

Congrats on the tag! The results will be up on the website here within a couple days. The tags will be mailed out shortly there after.

Worked fine for me.

I got hit which means either general 8 or 19a for me or 7w cow for the mrs. The 7w hunt is in late October, not sure if that classifies as an early hunt. But he 8 and 19a hunts are both November so definitely not early.

Hybrid.

If I understand what you're asking, I think I have the answer. This last year, during the October hunt, I found three sheds the morning I killed my buck. Found one (little forky) during the stalk. One (nice 4 point) within 10 yards of where my buck fell. And one smaller four point about 1/4 mile from my buck during the pack out. Based on this, there are nice bucks in the area in both the spring and fall. Of corse, this is based solely on my experience and mule deer have a much dr bigger home range than coues do. So shed hunting may be a decent way to find some areas for the fall hunt.

If you draw 19a, pm and I'll point you in the right direction. That can be a tough hunt but here is tons of glassing and you'll get on elk if you do your homework and spend the time out there.

Sweet buck! Quite the gentleman's setup you have there with the wood cutting board, copper mug and the jay marttiini fillet knife. My hat is off to you sir.

Awesome bucks and great write up! Thnx for sharing

Rad bull IMO!

Awesome first bull! Way to get it done!

There are some toads in there, but it is WORK to find 'em.