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sigfour

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Everything posted by sigfour

  1. sigfour

    2022 NWTF 31- Day Gun Raffle

    -I'm sure the AZ nwtf raffles are legit. The NWTF wold not want the bad press .There is a web page and contact info up if you look .Az nwtf raffles it has contact info Thanks for the idea. I’ve contacted them several times but as of today there is no response. I also looked up the statewide Arizona NWTF presidents and committee members and I found several familiar names. Apparently they are allowed to put on a raffle, enter the raffle, can and have pulled their own winning ticket. Even if 100% legit I see how anyone could think otherwise
  2. sigfour

    NAZ NWTF 3 Raffle Items

    -I'm going to send you a PM with an offer of reconciliation. I hope you'll consider it. I don’t want anything extra or special just because I was in your raffle. I appreciate your offer but no thank you. Good luck moving forward with your fundraisers. Unfortunately, I don’t feel confident in entering them anymore. happy holidays
  3. sigfour

    NAZ NWTF 3 Raffle Items

    No need to post. I’ve been putting in for these raffle items since January. After the ticket cut down from whatever to 100 and then 50 I’m realizing my purchased tickets probably were for not. I’ve learned a lot about the nwtf and their raffles. According to some other posts I’m not the only one. I for one will no longer enter or inquire about nwtf raffles. Thanks for the lesson and enjoy your spoils. Good luck on your hunt.
  4. sigfour

    NAZ NWTF 3 Raffle Items

    Any update on this ? When will winners be posted/announced ? I purchased tickets for all three items. I am a bit concerned when I checked Tuesday 12/13 (two days before your drawing) -there were still 50 of 50 tickets remaining for the marsupial bird bag. Happy holidays
  5. sigfour

    $25 European Skull Mount Plaque! Local AZ business

    I like them as well and would like both AZ designs. PM inbound
  6. I drew my first AZ antelope tag this year with 17 points (15 pts + HS +loyalty). I still feel very fortunate to have drawn with 17 and personally know of others who didn’t with more. I started preparing immediately. I spoke with some of last years tag holders, AZGFD officials, guide friends and internet searched all I could. I purchased maps, OnX hunt chip and the premium membership and drove the unit marking areas. I became a member of the Arizona Antelope foundation and attended their online webinar. I even sweet talked the wife into some new NL 12x42’s. I was all in, putting everything I could into this hunt. Who knows if/when I could draw again. I spent over 33 days scouting and put 6,500+ miles on my truck, not to mention 2 new sets of tires. I’ve hunted Wyoming a few times for antelope and have looked over plenty, but judging them is still tough for me, especially from a distance. Anyhow, I made a list of the best bucks I saw and named a few. Some of them I had patterned well and saw them often, some I only saw 2-3 times. My biggest hurdle would be finding one on public land during the hunt. I arrived on Tuesday before the Friday opener and camped on a piece of BLM 6 miles from Holbrook. Not wanting to mess up any archery hunters I glassed from camp, the highway and once from Denny’s when it was raining, Hee Hee. I did manage to find one of my top 5 bucks on Wednesday but never saw him again. Thursday afternoon I spoke to an archery hunter headed home. After talking and looking at a few pictures I found out the best 2 bucks were taken during the archery hunt. Opening day- I’m in my target area but only see some small goat bucks and a few muley bucks. I head to another area for the afternoon hunt and spot a tall and wide but thin buck I had on my list. I watched him until dark and headed back to camp. I had several friends come up Friday night to lend a hand glassing or to deplete my supplies. We had a quick dinner, a few spirits and went to bed. Saturday- Two buddies and I are looking for the buck from the night before. We see a small buck chasing two does. We move to a little knoll an spot him glowing in the morning sunlight almost a mile away. I check with OnX and we are both on state land. We watch him feeding for a few minutes until he beds. I make a plan and we go over some signals. I head off west with the sun at my back and the wind in my face. I’m at a brisk walk while below a small rise trying to make up time. I stop occasionally to look at my buddies for instruction and to look at OnX for location. Before the last knoll I turn for last direction. They indicate the buck is walking towards me. I creep up towards the top of the knoll, lay down and start crawling forward to a bush. After a minute or so I see the buck through the brush feeding towards me at around 600 yards. I decide to crawl another 30 yards to a rock outcropping for a better shooting platform. After reaching it, I see the antelope feeding to me around 500 yards. I get set up to shoot, ranging several trees and bushes along his path direction. He should walk within 300 yards or closer. Naturally, at 445yards he beds down looking in my direction. I decide I will wait until he stands back up. I check my ballistic calculator and decide on 34” of hold over. After 15 antagonizing minutes and several trains horns later I feel the wind start changing direction. I afraid he may not stand but instead bolt from his bed. I decide to set up on the gun, blow a call and hope for the best. With a great rest I blow the call and watch him stand up broadside facing to my right. I find my hold over, settle in and the recoil surprises me. As I’m cycling the bolt I hear the impact and watch the goat run from left to right FAST !!! I watch him pile up in a cloud of dust and rocks. He must have slid 12’ or more and broke off a prong that we never found. I collected my brass and walked back to the top of the knoll. I flagged my buddies, sat down in the shade of a juniper and started shaking. I dug out my tag and some water from my Fanny pack and texted my wife and kids. Soon my buddies arrived. We hugged, high five and shook hands. I tagged my buck and took some pictures then we headed back to camp. We skinned/processed the buck and got the meat cooled. Soon we started celebrating and with Holbrook being so close, everyone got dilly bars from DQ.
  7. sigfour

    Another AZ Lifetime Combo License

    Thanks for responding. Congratulations to whoever won the lifetime license, I’m sure they are happy. I went back on the website after your response and for the first time there was a limit on the amount of tickets I was able to purchase. In the past I tried to buy 500 to see if possible and determine a limit, but until today there wasn’t one. I’ve purchase several tickets (as have many friends who I encourage to enter) for all of your raffles but there is still 100 available tickets for items I’ve (we’ve)purchased tickets for since early Nov. Was there more than one item per raffle for- bird bags, gift cards, etc? -maybe a question for the raffle coordinator. Are we lost in the new shuffle ? We don’t mind donating but like transparently when it comes to raffles. Good luck to all who support and enter the fundraiser.
  8. sigfour

    Another AZ Lifetime Combo License

    Yeah the lifetime lic had a limit of tickets sold and has been sold out for a while now. The other items apparently don’t have a limit of tickets sold or an end date of the raffle. I was just wondering if a winner had been drawn or announced or when they would be. I couldn’t find anything.
  9. sigfour

    Another AZ Lifetime Combo License

    Just wondering if any winners have been announced on the lifetime lic, marsupial bird bag, Sportsmans warehouse gift cards or the turkey vest.
  10. sigfour

    Scouting Colorado

    Is that Wilson peak (coors logo) ?
  11. sigfour

    AZ 4B rifle antelope success

    Sorry for sideways pics
  12. sigfour

    AZ 4B rifle antelope success

    Thanks again everyone, I haven’t stopped smiling. it was a great hunt. I took my buck to a CW members son who did a euro for me -Great Hunter Skullz. The turn around was amazing and I am very happy with the results. The NL 12x42 are awesome. Super light and great feel. They almost feel small in my hands. I have a pair of EL 10x42 from circa 1999-2000, first edition that were my go to since purchase. The NL 42 outside objective is smaller than my EL’s. . I think the only improvement is if they ever make a NL12x50. Happy hunting
  13. sigfour

    AZ 4B rifle antelope success

    Thanks for all your kind words of congrats. It sure was bittersweet to be tagged out so quickly into the hunt but awesome I got a respectable buck. 2 things that I will take on all my hot weather hunts from now on is a bug-a-salt gun and a bucket misting fan. Made it fun and cool.
  14. sigfour

    4b rifle antelope hunting is hard.

    I tagged on Saturday morning. Will share in a new post
  15. sigfour

    4b rifle antelope hunting is hard.

    Well done ! Congrats to you guys. I also had the 4b rifle tag.
  16. sigfour

    Pronghorn Sucess

    Very nicely done. Congrats to all involved
  17. sigfour

    Nobody / anybody

    Either me 17 pts, my son 7 pts or my daughter 1 pt drew antelope. One of us also drew bull elk
  18. sigfour

    Card Hit

  19. I had three buddies who had tags for the early hunt. One bud was a meat hunter and shot the first spike he saw opening day. Second hunter took his sat afternoon on a nice wide buck. Wednesday the last tag got filled on the hunters best (2nd) coues buck. We all did some quail hunting after and agreed it was a successful hunt regardless of the tags filled. Good luck to all tag holders.
  20. sigfour

    3 bucks down early hunt

    Here is a shorter arm shot ha. Sorry for sideways pic
  21. sigfour

    Eureka!!

    Lead wasn’t the only thing I saw in the pan
  22. sigfour

    1st Coues, finally....

    Nicely done. Congrats
  23. sigfour

    2 youth hunters get it done

    I’ve had a great couple of weekends hunting with my son- 15 and my cousins son- 10. My son drew his first ever bull elk tag, an early muzzleloader tag. We scouted and practiced shooting several times leading up to the hunt. My cousins son drew a youth javelina tag that would start 2 weeks after. With my truck loaded with camp and gear my son and I left home around 11pm the night before the hunt. Arriving to our hunt spot about 3am, I listened for bugles in the dark while my son slept. 45 minutes before light, I woke him up and he got dressed, we geared up and headed out. After glassing, walking and calling for about an hour we finally got a response. Soon we saw an elk coming from the valley below us. We set up the shooting sticks and waited, cow calling some to keep him interested. After a few minutes he came into an opening and we could finally tell he was a branch antlered bull, our goal. One look through the scope and my son said he wanted to take him. With the muzzleloader sighted in at 200 yards, I tried to stop him around that distance but couldn’t. He kept coming straight to us. Finally at 125yards, after trying bugles, cow calls, etc, I let out an awful squeal/howl/sound and that stopped him. Reading the script he turned broadside for us. Guessing he would be around 10” high at that yardage he held the crosshairs at the bottom of his belly and behind the front leg. Smoke clouded our view at the shot and when it dissipated we could still see him standing there, although hunched up a bit. I frantically reloaded the rifle as my son kept watch. Reloaded, I put the gun back on the sticks and told him to aim for the heart. I moved a bit to the side so I could watch without the smoke. At the shot, a high shoulder hit, the bull went down. After yells, screams, hugs and High fives we went down to the bull. His first shot was a perfect heart shot. We tagged him, took pics and started the hard work. After breaking him down and hanging him up in the shade of a tree we hiked back to the truck so he could start his online school (lucky we had service). By the end of the day we had homework finished and the bull in the truck. A truly amazing hunt. 2 weeks later my son and I are joined by my cousin and his son. This will be his first ever hunt. Opening day found us helping a stranger get his vehicle unstuck, which took a few hours. Afterwards we decided to take a quick look at where we wanted to hunt before lunch. We jumped a single javelina but he was too quick for a shot. The rest of the day was uneventful. Day 2, we went back to the same area and got into a decent group of 8-10. We got him and the youth .243 rifle onto the shooting sticks. After several minutes of trying to “find javelina in the scope” he finally sees them as they bust and go over the next ridge, ignoring my calling tries to bring them back. We let him drive the side x side and shoot BB guns for the rest of the day as per his wishes. As long as he had fun I didn’t care what we did. Day three was uneventful except for a few nice bucks we saw. Day 4, Monday we are back in the same spot glassing early. We spot 2 javelina and slowly move into shooting range, just over 100 yards. We get him set up on the sticks again and he finds one in the scope. After a few heart pounding moments he says he is ready and touches one off. A perfect hit and the collard peccary rolls down the hill. Some hooting and hollering are followed by the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. After an easy recovery and pack out, we headed back to camp all smiling and fist pumping. At the end, just before they left for home the young hunter told me he couldn’t wait to do it again. Music to my ears.
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