AZJR

Thanks naturebob for your thoughtful post, it is special to be able to share your excitement about your Kaibab tag with your Dad, even if he is unable to physically join you on the hunt. I am sure he will look forward to hearing about your long waited for adventure in that wonderful country chasing a big Muley! My 77 year old father isn’t doing all that well, struggling with heart issues. He is keen to hunt but his body is failing him. I burned a pile of resident elk bonus points to assure him of an elk tag this fall in his favorite unit on his favorite hunt. He is working to be able to physically pull it off, we hope and pray he can push back the hands of time and physical deterioration and make one more walk through the woods after a big cow to know the satisfaction of filling his freezer again. I applied with him for a mule deer tag in two units north of the River as he longs to hunt the Kaibab county again. I put a low-odds unit as our first choice and the late 12A West hunt as our second choice. We drew tags 6 & 7 of our first choice and will hunt into December for a handsome buck, likely our last tag together in the unit. My dad was born and raised in southwestern PA and hunted a bit for rabbits, birds and, occasionally, whitetails. It was my youthful passion to be a “Hunter” and hunt deer that spurred him to take me hunting in the Sierra Mtns in California. He rekindled the fire to hunt laying dormant for so long and we’ve shared some outstanding adventures over the past 46 years. I am looking forward to this fall more so than ever, nothing better than fathers and sons (and daughters) sharing a hunting camp. Good luck to all this fall and may you be blessed to hunt with your Dad. Jim

Another vote for the .270 Winchester

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My 77 year old Dad and I have elk tags for a rut hunt, likely cow tags. BPs on pronghorn, son up to 25 Bps now.

I have a box of Winchester Double X 2 3/4 " Mag, copper plated BB, 1 1/2 OZ shot

Good for you, nice buck!

Terrific adventure! The call to your Dad had to be the best! Congratulations on a fine bull.

Blessings to be in the elk woods in the rut, congrats on your fine experience, new friendships and a memorable trophy of the hunt!

Contact swarovski and see what kind of deal they will give to upgrade your older bino to current specs. I did and was very pleased with the results and cost.

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If you know of any students who have completed their Online Hunter Education Course and need the Online Field Day to earn their AZ Hunter Education Graduate Card, we have some open spots @ our event on Sunday, May 21st, @ the Tri-State Shooting Park in Fort Mohave, AZ. The course is available for sign-up on the azgfd.gov website in the Hunter Education portion of the portal. If you have a question, please PM me. Jim Rich Lead Instructor

Sent you an email Bruce! TTYL, Jim

AZBuckeye, Are you meaning an Arizona Hunter Education Online Field Day or something run by the National Rifle Association (NRA)? Jim

The one day nonresident supplemental classroom course had been posted for sigups for well over a month now. April 23 in Golden Valley @ 7 Mile Hill Shooting Range. No online course necesary, this is a one day blitz class for nonresidents that already hold a hunter ed card from another state and want to complete the AZ Hunter Ed Card to earn the Permanent Hunter Education Bonus Point. This is NOT a class for youngsters unde age 14, way too fast paced and too much material covered for kids. There are seats open in that class at the moment.

There is an Online Field Day scheduled for Sunday, May 1, @ the Tri-State Shooting Park in Fort Mohave, AZ (in the Colorado River Valley south of Bullhead City, AZ & north of Needles, CA). This OFD is NOT yet posted on the Hunter Education portion of the azgfd.gov website because staff is working through the draw list to determine how many youth applicants were drawn for permits who do not yet have a Hunter Education Graduation Card to the Department's knowledge. As soon as that process is completed and the potential students are notified, that class will post up. All of the Hunter Ed Teams around the state are made up of volunteers. Many, if not most, of the volunteer instructors are passionate hunters and participants of various shooting sports and all have lives outside of their Hunter Education Instructor volunteer positions. With various turkey hunting seasons currently open and more opening soon, lots of these instructors are out in the field. Others are involved in running shooting activities or instruction at various ranges or participating in archery programs. Many more have kids involved in youth sports, rodeos, 4-H activities and the like. Others are cranked up hitting the waters as fishing season is in full swing. My suggestion is to diligently watch the Hunter Education page on the azgfd.gov web portal and get yourself and your loved ones needing or wanting a class registered as soon as you see one with open seats. You need to get in when the getting in can be had! That said, please do not book a seat if you are not going to attend, as happens too often. No shows take a seat that could have been filled by a student who wanted to participate. Good luck to everyone this coming hunting season and take a kid hunting! Jim Rich Chief Hunter Education Instructor Region III Volunteer Hunter Education Team

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Nice rifle, what stock is on it? Is the rifle the SPS version? Thanks for your reply.

You still have this trailer available?

I participated as a Hunter Assist on a bull elk hunt last year and was required to enter the hunter I was asisting's name and permit number on the Big Bo application. How can any of the outfitters that are going to get the 40% of the HD pass allotment know "their hunter" is going to draw? They can't. So what will happen is that the outfitters will each get some number of tags and if you want to hunt guided you'll get a tag from them and have to pay whatever outfiter/guide fee the particular outfit demands for their hunt package. That will be a very expensive proposition I suspect. Those DIY hinters that will contend for the 60% of ranch access passes are going to have to have some type of "draw" to make it fair that all get an equitable crack at one of the ranch passes IMO. I have a family member with 22 BPs and friends at or near max BPs, all would pay the $500 but none would pay a guide as all know the ranch really well. It will be interesting to see how many folks appy for GMU 10 HD permits with no guarantee they will be able to secure a ranch pass?

I welcome a tag surrender with full bonus point restortation. Twice I have had my son in casts with pins holding together various parts of his body after drawing a tag.Neither time was a tag turn in an option and the bonus points were burned and we started over. It would have been a fair option in light of his documentable inability to utilize the permit to have been able to surrender it.

You never know about the draw. I have applied for 25 years and have drawn 5 pronghorn permits. In that same time span my dad has drawn 3 tags. My daughter has drawn one permit in 16 applications and my son has yet to draw a tag in 19 years of applying. Good luck to all!

My first hunting rifle was a Ruger 10/22 carbine, received it as a Christmas present when I was 12. My first big game hunting rifle was a sporterized Remington manufactured Springfield 03-A3 in .30-06 Gov't. It had a Bishop & Sons walnut stock and a dang fine blued finish. I had worked an entire summer cleaning lawns, pulling weeds, raking leaves and helping neighbors with odd jobs. My dad took the coffee can full of coins and cash i had saved and made a deal for the rifle from a co-worker at an oil refinery he worked at. I was 15 at the time and no rifle ever looked finer than that rig! Jim MV, AZ

Dave, Sent you a message. Jim

I spotted only 2 deer on the opening morning of the recently concluded muzzleloader bull elk hunt while on the Boquillas Ranch. I have spotted a couple outsized bucks while hunting on the ranch in the pass, both were magazine cover quality and in some gross country. I have actually seen more deer off the ranch than on, probably just circumstances of that particular time and day. Good luck to all still afield.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and the coueswhitetail.com family