bigbuckfever

Awesome!!

Happy belated b-day and good share.

Great buck and great write-up! Thanks for sharing and I love it when someone's hard work pays off.

Scare some libs and put a bayonet on it

Sorry for your loss. It sucks to lose a childhood friend.

Congrats. That is a shooter for sure.

The mandatory pic with powerlines, nice. Slay em.

So I was able to get away to do a little archery deer hunting this weekend and had a bit of fun except for one incident. The area I was hunting has very little hunting pressure and is pretty remote. I was driving to a ridgeline I have some salt on early Sunday morning, it was still dark. Just as I was making the turn to head to the ridge, (there are no other roads forking off this ridge road, It only goes to the end of the ridge and then it dead ends) a side by side coming from the other direction on the road I was on pulled onto the ridge road and got right on my butt and proceeded to follow me. This road dead ends in less than half a mile, so I pulled over and waved at him to stop so I could see where they were headed so maybe we could both still work the area without pissing each other off. He blasted right by me and kept going. I know I don't own the area but I was clearly there first and was trying to make the best out of what was becoming a frustrating morning. He proceeded out of sight while I sat there fuming. I decided to just go to the closest vantage point and sit and glass, while they did whatever they were going to do. There were two grown ups and a youngster with them. What a great way to teach your kid about hunting ethics. Had they made the turn before I did, there is no way I would have followed them and crowded 'em. I would have gone to plan B for the morning. After all that, they only got out and glassed for less than half an hour and they left. When I told my buddy about it , he said I should have gone after them and got right on their butt and when they stopped, get out, slam the door, and in a very loud voice say "are you guys here to hunt too? Maybe we can hunt together" making as much racket as possible. What would you guys have done?

As a general rule, I pull over and let somebody by if they come up behind me. However when I'm about 300 yards from where I intend to park to begin archery hunting right at first light, and they are riding my butt, I feel no obligation to speed up and race to hopefully not make them mad. When I archery hunt, I am in quiet mode, not arriving full bore and skidding to a stop just so someone who has been riding my a** can fly by me into the spot I intend to hunt. I would never ride somebody's a** to a spot I was going to be hunting, bow or rifle.

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. Wow, I guess I wont be pulling over again any time soon! Lol. I guess a few more details to the story are necessary. In my mind at the moment I turned onto that ridge road before he got there, I was relieved I got there first. Had he gotten there first, I would have been pissed (at myself for not getting there early enough) but I wouldn't have followed him, right on his butt. (that is the main ethical question I had in mind) So when he turned onto it too, I was disappointed and a little pissed. Just to be clear, there was no mistaking my arm gesture out the window to stop. I didn't flag him by. I usually stop well short of the beginning of the ridge and walk the rest of the way, still hunting my way to my ground blind and salt. The road used to stop a few hundred yards past where I park and it was just a cattle trail that has been turned into a road by quads and sxs's. I knew that if I stopped in my usual spot, he was going to just go on up the road and ruin any chance I might have of sitting my salt, so, I tried to talk to him before we got that far. That didn't work too well for me. I thought it was pretty chitty of him to tail me like that since he had to know what was ahead, I mean you don't go to your second or third choice area first thing in the morning, you go to a place you know in the dark. Even if I hadn't stopped, he would have been going past me and driven thru some prime hunting grounds. That is why I stopped and tried to get him to stop. Again thanks for the feedback.

I asked for you're opinions. I guess ethics mean different things to each of us. I hope that kid questioned his "hunting partners" about the drivers decision.

I personally love trail cameras. I have yet to shoot an animal I have a pic of. No problem there, but up by the big ditch, there is big money involved and AZGFD is morphing into big brother more than it's there to manage wildlife for our enjoyment. I always prefer less bureaucratic involvement. Some will say "get over it". My response to that type of comment involves a didgit

That's a solid offer. I'd take Mark up on that if I was you.

Prayers sent for a speedy and full recovery.

Awesome for him!! That smile tells it all.

I'm in the middle of a big job and wont be able to make the opener for archery deer this Friday, so, keep the updates coming. You'll get one.

Look for the yellow grass hillsides as far from roads as possible early in the am. Be very patient.

I've hunted 23 in Nov and Dec and there are still bulls in some of my regular areas that I would see in the rut (although not in large numbers) PM me and I can share what I know about 23.

Muley. dinky eye guard.

I always use scent killer. I spray myself every few hours while sitting anywhere. I went to Illinois on an archery hunt and every hunter there swore by it. these hunters were from all over the midwest and the use of scent killer was one thing they all agreed on. When you're sitting somewhere you cannot control where a deer might approach from so it just might give you an edge. My two-cents.

I invested some money in Tierra Grande about 10 years ago. Didn't turn out very well. But, I get to chase whitetails in November, so all is well now.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. I would just take my old AZ drivers license with me on the hunt to back up my story if I was stopped.

I never met him , but feel sad that I wont be seeing his posts here anymore. RIP DelW

AZGFD has decided to spend ad dollars to entice out of staters to come and try to harvest animals in AZ. so AZGFD could bring in more revenue. It brought AZ more money , but at what cost? As an AZ resident and hunter, I can no longer go to my favorite unit to archery hunt in January. That sucks!! During a time when about 90% of the water holes I have frequented are bone dry and deer numbers appear to be down, they entice more people to come here to hunt ??? I've spent years finding secluded hot spots for deer and now I have to go somewhere else, but as long as AZGFD made more money ( I'm supposed to be ok with that?) Pretty frickin pissed.

Shane Lafortune 480-206-0609. I'm a painter and have used him a few times and he does quality work