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Congrats catfishkev to you and your kids on some fun hunts. What a nice first mule deer! Posts like these make me look forward to when my kids are of age and I can enjoy those moments with my kids. Thanks for the post!

I am getting the itch and started watching some video I had and figured I would share. Not a giant but fun hunt. IMG_5005.MOV

Congrats man!

Thank you!

Not even sure if I have shared before and if I have I am sorry.

Congrats Stanley on your tag. I had the same hunt last year and it was a blast.

Wow that’s looks very good and makes me glad I did a left turn on my bison. Can’t wait to get it back!

Was it a bad call? I got a call from azgfd offering me the goulds tag. They called me on the sixth of may and I had already missed the first week of hunt. I turned it down due to fact I didn’t have any scouting done plus it would of been last minute and no way to get off work and be able to hunt for more than a few days at a time. Just wasn’t what I wanted out of the tag I had been waiting for such a long time.

Thank you dale and heather on a beautiful mount. Just want to post and share some good work

Yes I saw his post and actually makes me feel even better that it went to him. I am 36 and I have had some good tags recently from my kaibab mule deer and bison tag to archery 3a3c tag in 2016 for elk and I am ok with waiting for this one. Looks like it was a bucket list hunt for him like it is for most, and he had also just got a kaibab buck so I am glad I helped this hunt happen sooner than later with me declining the tag.

Congrats and I am glad the tag made it to a member! Very nice bird!

someone else must of declined the surrendered tag as well maybe two people. The tag was turned in before the hunt started just took that long to make it to me for the call from game and fish.

I didn’t turn down the tag due to me thinking I wouldn’t shoot a bird. I turned it down due to me not actually getting to experience the full hunt. I wanted to scout, find birds, and have some fun calling to them. I also wanted to take the wife and drink some good wine down there. With me not being able to get the full time off from work and have others to enjoy it with, it just wasn’t right for me. Turkey is what got me started in hunting and I have always looked forward to one day getting this tag, but not like that. My time will come and I will enjoy it as much as I can with calling and just seeing what those birds will do.

I think someone else maybe more must of declined the tag as well. That is the only thing I can think of. I had from may 6th when she called me tell the following day at 10 am to take tag or she was moving on.

Thanks guys made me feel better!

I still have my 19 points plus loyalty and hunter Ed point so I should be getting close

My son was at chucky cheese and fell out of the monster truck ride and broke his femur. I learned real quick that he is one tuff little four year old. I wasn’t there for when it happened but man has he been tuff for the aftermath. Can’t believe he broke the biggest bone in body for his first injury. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery. Getting a wheelchair delivered today so we can at lest get out and do some trout fishing at the community lakes around me that they are stocking with trout. Any prayers will help! Thanks guys

It all started with the credit card update and then the morning check to see if the cards got any hits.Boom $650 hit on the card and now the waiting game began to see if it was the wife or I that grew the bison tag. Weeks later and I find out I am the one that drew the tag and the homework began. Started watching every video I could find on bison including everything the game and fish had for us.also sent out a few pm messages to catfishkev and idgaf. They both handed out info on the hunt and catfishkev was gracious enough to let me jump on is bandwagon and use his trail cams that he had. politics up there made us come to conclusion it would be best to have our own information. catfishkev made the first trip up to place trail cams. He placed 6 cams on different locations. My turn was next and I headed up with my dad and son to meet up with another hunter that catfishkev new and we checked cams and went over the pics for the start of his hunt which started sept 13th. After viewing the cam pictures we learned that we had a lot of bison coming thru different locations with some at night and some during day. The other hunter took that info and just couldn’t make it happen during his hunt. i also Sent the cards to Kev so he could view them and also see what the bison were doing. Seeing this cam pics made the weeks before my hunt even longer and to top it off I was unable to make it for opening day and weekend for my hunt. From day one of getting drawn and looking at graphs of herd movement and what time of year the herds were moving to different places from there gps collars I had my eyes set on the east side of the unit. All the cameras on the east side said different and that the bison just were not there. I had e mail game and fish to ask about any information I would be missing on the hunter meeting that takes place night before hunt. I got an e mail telling me I didn’t miss much and was told over the last week or so there was some movement on the east side. 5 days into the hunt and I arrive on the plateau worried I would not have a place to hunt. Went to the east side and checked out first spot. Cam didn’t work but there was very fresh sign that wasn’t there 2 weeks before. Decided to sit there for evening sense there was not any other hunters. Sat from 3 to dark and only saw deer. On way out I stoped at another camera location and man had that place changed. For over a week there was bison at that location everyday and nobody was there hunting them. That night I reviewed the cameras and saw there was a guide checking cams too that day and he had placed a ground blind in the location due to what he saw on cam. That morning I get to location and there is nobody there and I had the spot to myself so I thought. Hour into sitting with sun up I hear a truck driving up close. Said to myself no way is somebody going to walk up on me after seeing my truck. Few minutes later I hear foot steps hour after sun up. I look over and see it’s a guy my age and an older man with crutches. Start talking to them and find out that the hunter Dan is a wounded warrior that received the tag a week prior to hunt. He had met up with the Guides up there and they had sent him to this location. After I found out he was a wounded warrior and he had a hard time getting around I decided I was going to leave the area and let them hunt it telling them that there are bison coming in everyday. They turned and looked at me like I was crazy and asked me to stay which at first I was still going to leave still but then decided to stay and hunt with them. Told the wounded warrior to take the first shot if anything comes in and i will see what happens after. 0930 comes around and they are at 90 yards and closing. The heard came In and it was a mad dash to the water then the fight for the first licks of the salt. That’s when the real stress started and had to try and identify a cow bison out of the herd. I can hear the other hunting trying to figure out which one to shoot and I was doing the same. Boom they take a shot and the herd scatters. son jumps out of there blind and says well he shot let’s go look for blood. As he was doing that I decided to Pursue the herd and I went around a clump of aspen and they’re were standing there 80 to 100yards away. I dropped to the prone position and put my crosshairs on the first bison I see. She was starring right at me facing me for what seemed like an eternity. She then turned broadside and one shot dropped her in her tracks. I guess the east side of unit was calling to me because that’s were I made it happen. Turns out the wounded warrior missed his shot and didn’t get a bison down. The wounded warrior and his son stayed with me after my harvest and helped me break down the animal. I couldn’t tell them enough how much I appreciated that and if they were not there I would be having one heck of a time getting it done. I gutted her and flew back to camp to get my saw and my dad to help out. The whole time the other hunters stayed to watch over my bison tell I got back. We finished the bison and his son help me load everything into truck and I was back to camp. Long drive back to gilbert to get meat taken care off and hide and head to taxidermy. all in all I had an amazing time from start to finish and I met some great people along the way that were very helping in every way I could imagine. I am very grateful for being able to harvest a bison and share the memories with others. Catfishkev without your help I am pretty sure it would of never happened and I thank you. hope you all enjoy the long read! And catfishkev and idgaf thank you both again. trail cam pics are location I harvested my bison plus I threw in a nice deer! All cam pics are from catfishkevs cams that I was lucky enough to be able to share with him

Sweet buck congrats

Congrats

Congrats!

So I never really posted about my kaibab buck for 2018 so I figured I would now. Was lucky enough to draw the tag with very little points. A guide was on my mind but the I didn’t have the funds to make something like that happen. Made the trip up a few times with the family to learn the area and see what I was getting into. Also lucky that people are willing to share a little info on what the deer should be doing sense it’s such a lucky tag to have. The hunt time arrived and was lucky to have my buddy Devon with me for the hunt which I owe him a lot for being able to make it and I had my uncle and cousin there for the first three days as well to help out. The first three days were amazing and we cover tons of ground from north to south on the far west side of the unit. We saw tons of deer and some big deer but I never made an attempt to get in on them we just glassed and watched. What a show we got to see with them rutting all over. By the third evening my finger was getting itchy but I still didn’t make any attempts on deer. My uncle and cousin had to leave that evening and it left just my buddy Devon and I to hunt. Fourth day came and that morning we watched a big three by four that was very tall for a while plus some other smaller bucks chasing and we watched some other hunters go after him. Still didn’t go after anything that morning just watched. That evening we went to a different spot and I picked up a buck right away that had one doe and bedded right away. It was also my daughters fifth birthday and I felt it was the right time to make an attempt. We got into 450 yards and ran out of cover. Buck was bedded with his doe with a rock right in front of his vitals so I had to wait it out. Waited for about thirty minutes and then the doe finally stood up and the buck stood as well presenting a perfect broadside shot and I took it and the buck wobbled down hill and fell over. The celebration started between my buddy and I and I couldn’t of been happier. What a great moment and plus it was on my daughters birthday so I felt it was meant to be. I am sure I prob watched bigger bucks or maybe that was the biggest buck I saw which I have no clue as I had never seen that many shooters in my eyes before. It was a hunt that I will never forget and I got to do it with a my great friend Devon and my uncle that got me hooked on hunting from the start and his boy. I can’t wait tell I draw that tag again.

Mount should be done soon

Yes

No worries on the pics and if you get some time send them my way. if not I know how it is I don’t get much time either with the kids and work. Now with the the little man hurt he needs some help too. He has been in and out of sleep today sense he really hasn’t slept much in a few days so I finally got time to post on cwt.