StickFlicker

I once bought something that had been hard to find, on ebay, and when the guy took it to the UPS store to ship it, the clerk at UPS thought it was cool and the seller sold it to him, after I had already bought it at the offered price on ebay! That pissed me off pretty good, especially when the guy that bought it just did so as a novelty, and I really needed it and had spent a year trying to find it.

For those that took nice animals with a bow between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2024, and want to be considered for the biennial competition (three largest animals in each category win a biennial award plaque), get your animals officially measured and entered ASAP! If you live outside of Arizona, you can submit a photocopy of your P&Y or B&C scoresheet along with the other required items for entry (see link below). Bowhunting in Arizona Record Book

Due to conflicts, it is scheduled for June 8 this year. I believe it will be at the same hotel in Mesa that it has been the last few years. Their Webmaster has had health issues, so it has unfortunately been difficult to post website updates currently.

You might be right, of course, but did you go solely for that purpose (like the handful of guides that act as agents and buy most of these tags did), or would you have attended anyway? I agree it's a bonus to "hope against the odds" that the average guy could buy one of these tags at a banquet, but I don't think that many of these average guys would change their mind about attending if the auction tag wasn't there. Many of these banquets sell-out each year anyway, so a different person would likely just buy the ticket even if they didn't choose to attend. And there is still a strong possibility that some of these raffles will be held at the banquets, as they have been in the past, so you can go buy tickets and watch the drawing in person. Some may not buy online raffle tickets because they have conspiracy theories, but they might buy tickets in person if they could see them go into the drum and watch the actual drawing in person?

The organizations don't get a penny for auctioning/raffling off the tags. All the money goes to Game and Fish, who can then fund various projects with it. As far as attendance at the banquets potentially being down and decreasing the funds raised for any particular organization, the majority of the raffle tags are purchased by a guide that attends solely for the purpose of buying the tag on behalf of one of his rich clients. With a few exceptions, the guide wasn't typically there to participate in the banquet or spend much other money that would then help the fundraising efforts of the organization. Eliminating the auction tag sale at a banquet will likely only remove one or two attendees from any particular banquet, and they weren't going to spend money on anything else anyway.

I responded to you under your other duplicate post under Misc. Coues' Deer.

Congratulations on a great and unique buck! However, you are likely mistaken about it having ever been "ranked the 13th largest" non-typical. If your handle is your name, there is not a deer entered in the current edition with the last name Swenson anywhere near that score in the typical or non-typical section. If you never entered it, it was never "ranked" at any position and the score was never an official score. Also, the minimum for entry to the "rifle" record book for Arizona NT Coues' deer had always been 115, even back in the 1990 edition of the book when yours was taken, and there were more than 13 entries at that time that exceeded the 115 minimum. So, your buck would not have qualified for entry to the record book, although it would have been very close if that were its actual score as measured by an official measurer and it was accepted when you entered it. Just a few years ago, they lowered the minimum down to 107 and only one buck under 115 has been entered since the minimum was lowered. If your buck does actually score above 107, you should have it officially scored and enter it. If you don't, there is really no point in knowing where it "would" rank, if it was officially scored, and if it was officially entered and it was officially accepted at that score. Records of Arizona Big Game

In all the years of looking at the AZGFD website, both the old versions and the current one, their search engine is absolutely 100% worthless!

So, you're saying there's now a single woman at G&F that might be able to help me get draw every year like you?! 😄

I believe he was saying he drew a limited opportunity tag in a hunt with six different units to choose from, not that he drew unit 6.

It's time again for the annual joint fundraising banquet with the state's two largest bowhunting organizations, the Arizona Bowhunters Association and the Bowhunting in Arizona record book program. The banquet will be held Saturday, March 18 at the Holiday Inn and Suites located at the I-60 (Superstition Frwy) and Country Club Drive in Mesa. Hope to see you there! ABA Banquet Registration

Last chance to buy tickets and attend this year's banquet this coming Saturday! There will be chances to win free bows, guns, and lots of other prizes, along with auctions for things like a lion hunt, bear hunt, a bow tuning and shooting lesson with Randy Ulmer, and the Commissioner tags for year-round hunting for three different species will be auctioned. Arizona Bowhunters Association Banquet Tickets Here are a few photos from last year's banquet!

Bowhunting in Arizona Record Book has been the official bowhunting records program for the state of Arizona since 1980. The current, 6th Edition, of the record book is a beautiful 400+ page hardbound book and contains not only bowhunting records, but many full color photos and stories written by some of Arizona's best-known and most successful bowhunters. It's available for sale for $25 ($35 for Numbered Collector's Edition) at this link. Bowhunting in Arizona Record Book

Congratulations to the hunter, that is a great bull! However, Official Measurers happily volunteer their time and do not get paid anything to do so. Some of them may donate many hundreds of hours per year doing so, taking that time away from their family and their own hunting, in order to help the hunters and various record programs. While they enjoy meeting with hunters and helping them to get their trophies recognized by these records programs, please do not expect them to spend even more of their own valuable personal time measuring things that people don't intend to enter. If you or he wishes to measurer it yourself using the rules of Boone & Crockett, just to see the approximate score, you can download the forms from their website.

You know they're opening one in Chandler in September, right (scheduled for 9/30/23)? 3065 W Chandler Blvd, Chandler, AZ 85226

Are you referring to landowner tags where you buy the voucher from a landowner and then buy the tag OTC from Game and Fish?

You know that Cabelas has already been owned by Bass Pro for a few years now, right? The change to Redhead junk occurred a long time ago. This is just a matter of apparently deciding to stop supporting the two different store names. It's not likely to change a single thing inside the store at this point. That ship has sailed.

Oakley, They would also have to return to the days of requiring people to pay in cash/money order. It would be against the state's banking laws to allow the use of credit cards for that process, which is why they discontinued it when they began to allow credit cards in the draw process. I would not be opposed to returning to the days of cash, I'm just pointing out why they don't require payment in full up front anymore.

It's already mostly pre-determined. It's based on 10% of the total of all OTC deer tags sold, averaged over the previous 5 years. So that might be up or down a little from this year, but probably not significantly different.

I understand that it's based on 10% of the TOTAL resident and non-residents that were sold in 365 days, not 10% of the previous amount NRs bought. The highest ratio of NR to Resident OTC permits ever sold was 10.5%, and only in one year (the rest were at or under 10%), so I believe my statement to be pretty accurate.

Coues247, I certainly never said that, if that's what you're implying. I was saying that it's ridiculous for NRs to scramble in the first few hours to buy tags that normally take a full year to sell out., just because G&F set a limit (the limit is based on the number sold when they were unlimited in prior years).

U of A basketball is #4 in the country too

Ridiculous. The number that are for sale is based on the average they have sold in past years in 365 days (when it was unlimited), so there should have been plenty to last the entire year. A perfect example of making something seem scarce and everyone has to have it. I'm guessing a lower percentage of those purchased will actually be used than in previous years when people just waited to buy them until they knew for sure they were coming. That's probably a good thing for residents.

Nate, who did you hunt with near Kimberly?