200"mulie

thanks guys i had told him to call the unit manager to see if he could get any info ... and the first thing i told him was to get maps. hopefully i can rpay the favor Nice goat your cousin got Brian

So my buddy put in for this unit and got drawn for it ... without doing any homework. Once he told me about I looked up on G&F website that access can be an issue and the unit is more or less "checkerboard". I am going to stop by Tucson Map & Flag to see if they have any BLM maps for sale for that area. Otherwise I'll have to call BLM to get them. My question is where to you start asking land owners permission to hunt/cross? Drive up on a scouting trip and go door to door? Try to find phone numbers or sending letters? We plan on going up and scouting the unit here in a month or two to get a feeling for the unit. Any help on where to start asking private land owners permissions will greatly be appreciated. Is this question more for the Pinetop regional office? Thank you, Andrew aka 200"mulie

I always start at g&f site ... onto maps and finally scouting/driving/glassing the unit

Thanks for the PM I got some very useful info and hope to repay the favor. Thanks

nice buck manny

far a few between in the 37's but when you do find a buck he's usually a good one ... lots of miles on your boots

Ya my buddy Jesse said that area has a little more public access.

on a mountain in a forest ... do i win lol

yup can't wait for the pics later this year thanks for sharing

thanks saguaro ... We'll try and negotiate something with land owners

they're loud ! pretty cool

34A i had 14 on one of my cams along with 4 cats...

Well it took me long enough to post about my success but here it goes.... Well i happened to put in for 30B December just to say I got to go on a December hunt. I've hunted the unit a few times in the past so I knew where i wanted to go for opening morning on Sunday for the first day. I didn't scout the week before and that was heavily on my mind as opening weekend came closer. I only had the weekends to hunt because i had a new job .... anyway Sunday came and we got to our spot where i wanted to start ... hoping someone might push a buck to me from the main road. Right out of the door we see 4 deer 3 does and a big rack coming up over a small hill .... blood is pumping sweet deer right out of the gate and there's a buck ... quickly identified it as a mule deer. Well at least we saw a buck....the day went on and only saw 4 coues all does. Now i'm worried i won't get a buck let alone see one .... The next weekend is here and have a positive .. i have 2 days and I scouted on google earth for more access to some more country. Saturday morning we drive in and it's cold and windy... not a good sign...forecast calls for 30mph winds. We get to the spot I thought I wanted to be at from what i scouted on google. We get out and made our way up this draw seeing little sign....it's just getting colder as we press on with this wind. We come to the top of the draw and I tell my Dad to find me a big buck while a take care of some business ... I came back up just couple minutes later as i'm about to ask him where this buck is something made noise down below us....sat and waited for a few seconds and my father says it's a buck. I throw my back pack down get my tripod up rest my gun on it and start searching for the buck.....finally see him maybe only 125 yards should be an easy shot even with this wind.... only problem is I can't keep steady. With the wind pushing on my back and buck fever... SINCE I'VE NEVER KILLED A DEER. I couldn't get steady on his shoulder.... this whole time he is looking back into thick cover he was hunkered down in to see what the noise was and walking away.... My hunting partner makes his way up to me and throws his pack down and says " here get down and use it a s a rest. I get down on my knees and located him ok now how far is he....."300 yards" My buddy Paul says.... i calm my breathing and aim just at his back.....but I leave it back a little to adjust for wind... perfect broadside shot.... BANG! ... when I can see clearly threw the scope after the shot all I could see is him Rolling toward a bush ... I jumped to my feet and sigh of relief heck YEAH i got em! ... I got right back on my gun cause I thought better make sure he's down and not wounded. We would see him trying to get up ... falls and rolls into another bush this happened couple more times....untill finally we didn't see him anymore. YES! he's down my first deer and not a bad one ... not huge but for this unit ... small population of deer not a bad looking buck sweet ! We waited for 30 minutes to walk over to kill spot.... took us another 30 just to go 200 yards threw this jungle. We get to the last spot we saw him. We see blood and quite a bit of blood ... we can see where he was dragging and rolling. The walkie talkie goes off "He should be right in front of you" my buddy calls out. My Dad and I looked and looked but no deer ... uhhh ohhh. I told Paul to come on over and help track ... while Paul was making his way threw the bottom of this jungle .. I hear rustling and then what sounded like a wheez. Sweet that must be him Paul comes over and says " just shoot him in the neck." I go up and he hears me snaps his head looks me right int he eye......longest 5 seconds of my life. He then turns and tries to run and shoot him....bang fell right over. Waited another 20 minutes to make sure. We walked up and made sure he was expired. Now the celebrating can begin ... CONGRATS ON YOUR FIRST DEER my Dad and Paul where telling me AND A DANDY FOR A FIRST! It turns out i shot his spin but it wasn't fatal just made him paralyzed from that point on which makes sense since he was trying to get up and run but could only use his front legs and rolled down the hill. I had lots of fun and can't wait till next year!

cool !

nice pics keep it up

nice looking kitty

congrats ! and thanks for sharing

nice !

ant, grasshopper......

good luck and thanks

0.0

nice pics thanks for sharing !

.270 WSM and a Boyd's stock .. thanks !

yup nice find congrats !

sweet ...bummed i can't get out !