elkhunter

My wife and I got tags together this year for the same hunt for the first time. We were real excited for this hunt, more than usual. Opening day I spotted her buck 2100 yards out and figured he was a mid 80’s buck. We kept an eye on him every 5 minutes to see where he beds down. While keeping tabs on him we saw 10 other bucks but nothing worth chasing after. Once her buck bedded down under a tree, we marked the spot and started the stalk. We snuck into 330 yards and the rest is history. The buck had a bigger body than we thought and scored right at 90. We had a long pack-out back to the ranger and feeling the aches and soreness today. Over the next few days we looked over 30 bucks or so. I was looking for a 4+ year old buck (secretly trying to beat my wifes buck!) I didn’t have any luck. Monday morning came and I spotted a big 2x2 buck that we have seen maybe 8 times and never gave chase to him. He bedded down during grey light and the wife and I took off. We snuck into 380 yards and waited about an hour for him to stand up and the hunt was done. My buddy Christian showed up to help out with the morning Monday hunt, he carried out some weight which was nice! Thanks amigo! Overall deer movement was phenomenal even with the full moon. The freezer is full with our bucks and my sons junior buck. We’ll definitely put in together again next year.

Opening day took us a while to find some pigs. We spent most of the morning looking over deer, the muleys were rutting while the coues were not. The first two herds we spotted were no where to be found when we got to where we last saw them. We regrouped after the two failed stalks and hit the spotter for long range glassing. It didn't take long til we spotted a third herd. The third herd stayed around long enough for my 72 year old pops to get within range. His shot was 27 yards and the sow didn't go too far.

*** Binoculars purchased for my son. Thanks to those of you guys that sent me a message!

We were excited to see that my son drew a junior deer hunt again but this time in an area we never been in. We put in some crazy hours scouting google maps and onX maps just to find an area that looks interesting. I hit up some friends that hunted the area before and they gave great advice. We did scout trips and seen 10+ bucks a day and was feeling great before the hunt. Thursday I parked right outside Colby’s school and when his bell rang, he came running out, jumped in the truck and I think I peeled out a little bit. We got to camp, my pops had things already set up and we ate dinner and were ready to roll in the morning. My son decided to go to bed at 7:30 pm which was a new thing. Opening morning was the exact opposite of scouting, basically saw a coati, 4 mule deer does, 2 small coues bucks and 5 coues does. At 10am we decided to move to glass bedding areas. Glassed for a bit and my pops and I told Colby that we have to glass at 11am, we cannot go back to camp for lunch. We told him that’s when bucks change their beds. Sure enough at 11:12 I saw a buck moving from one bed to another. Colby asked if it was bigger than his buck from last year (that’s his only goal, to get something bigger than his last buck)I said yes and he said game on. We waited til the buck bedded down again and made our move. Colby is real confident under 300 yards so we snuck in to 267 yards and the only place we could find a lane to shoot in was out in the open field. No shade, just dirt and sun and no wind. We waited 3 hours and 12 minutes and when the buck was ready he stood up, the buck was quartering towards us and Colby put a bullet behind his shoulder and the bullet went all the way to his opposite side rump. The buck hunched up, went a few steps and rolled down the mountain. Turns out that this buck is real old, can’t imagine how many lions, bears and hunters he evaded the last 9-10 years. Had some giant hooves and teeth were won down pretty good. We hung around the area for a few more days glassing, saw plenty of bucks but nothing in this caliber and headed back home today.

Awesome congrats, especially with a limited time too. I have a couple students prepping for state this Saturday and they are running pretty much whenever they can.

Awesome, congrats!

Good work Grandpa! Congrats the kiddo!

Congrats to both of you guys, stud buck.

Thanks everyone, I had my son read through all the comments and he enjoyed it all.

FYI we are getting him a haircut tomorrow.

Congrats on two great bulls.

Congrats again, well done.

Ribeye and long rice

Congrats Christian!

Last tag for javelina this year. We had some bad winds this week after my wife killed on Friday. I spent the last 4 days wondering if I forgot what a javelina looks like in the binos. My son and I went out everyday after school with no luck. We put on some good miles hiking and glassed til dark each day. Yesterday evening we got an email from the school district that we have a snow day and there’s no school on Thursday. So this morning we booked out for a last day of the season hunt. The morning portion ended up seeing diddly squat. I remembered that last Saturday I spotted a herd 3 miles out but I had no idea how to get there and couldn’t landmark the area. We watched a young lady stalk that herd but couldn’t tell if she harvested anything. When I was running out of options today, We decided to head there and see if we could pick up the herd. I glassed up a single pig moving in a wash bed and we gave chase, got to 30-50 yards but no shots. The pig caught on that he was being chased and eventually ran off. We moved to another glassing spot close by and saw another single pig walking and we gave chase. Snuck in to 85 yards and waited for a broadside shot and got an opportunity and my son (Colby) knocked him down. I’m guessing the young lady got a shot off on Saturday since both pigs were solo and moving. This one is gonna be one of the best snow days Colby’ll have. He was ecstatic with harvesting a pig on the last day of the season. The pig was a nice sized boar 7-8 years old, real stinky. Gotta have been a breeding boar.

Sure do, I joined this site in 2004, long time ago.

The busted levee just adds another cove to the lake, the water level is still good and water is still going over the spillway.

Awesome, congrats.

Friday morning we gave chase to a herd and they totally disappeared when we got to where they were. On our hike back to the glassing spot, my dad called and he had spotted a different herd and we started walking in that direction. We had a tough time getting a clear shot in the tall grass across the canyon, so we decided to stalk the herd like we were archery hunting. A couple pigs popped out but didn’t give us a shot and after following behind the herd for 10 min, one pig decided to stop and feed giving my wife a 49 yard shot. Hopefully the video works! FullSizeRender.MOV

Long shot, we are packing up for this weekend’s hunt and realized my sons binos are no where to be found. From what we can figure out, he likely left it behind on a road after we packed out a pig. It’s an older Zeiss conquest 8x32, you can see it in the picture below. He’ll be paying cash if someone returns it.

I’m thinking some of you are tired of javelina pics by now. We lucked out this morning, parked the truck before sunrise and started glassing. By 830 a herd of javelina woke up and started to feed 300 yards away from us. We had to wait a bit, get the wind right and sneak over a hill to get an 80 yard shot. Another smoke pole javelina for Pops.

Time flies for sure. I’m 36 now and when I joined AZSJ I believe I was 13 or 14 🤣.

My son is in the middle of his first year of big game hunting. We were going to try to get him onto some pigs and have him take the first shot. Friday morning, the first spot didnt produce anything but deer and cattle. We changed locations and caught some pigs moving into a cut out of the wind. We made a big circle and found the pigs bedded down for the afternoon. We snuck into 45 yards and started our waiting game. No shots due to the pig pile. Shortly after 3 pigs came to our left, we had no clue they were there and got busted. All the pigs scattered, my son located a lone pig and took him down. Turns out it was a pretty tiny one 😂. All jokes aside, he was proud of his first muzzleloader harvest. Saturday we spent the day chasing pigs but kept getting busted or they would disappear as we got closer. The winds kept the pigs down low and out of sight. Sunday morning at 9, a herd was located far out in rough country. My pops is unable to do those kind of hikes these days so my son and I took off. We were able to get to 124 yards and take this older boar down and had a brutal pack out. We'll head out next week to hopefully locate pigs in a spot that my pops can hike in.

The first two weeks was basically chasing pigs in the flats as they never moved up in the hills. 0 opportunities and a whole lot of exercise. The warm weather has em holding low and being very mobile and moving constantly. We were excited for a cold weekend, it’ll keep the pigs feeding in a small area. My son and I snuck out Saturday morning for a quick hunt before an afternoon bday party. We glassed up a herd feeding and made a move, I was able to stick an arrow in this herd boar with my recurve, he freaked on me and took 2 more in the chamber before dying. My son got to watch the whole show by my side which was great. Battle scars everywhere. He bit off and broke two of my arrows. This morning it was just pops and I out trying to keep his archery success streak alive. The morning started off dull until 9:30 when a herd was spotted feeding on an agave. We made a move and crept up to 17 yards and pops was able to harvest this old old sow. Molars were worn down to nubs and very little meat on her frame.

28 apiece for pops and I and he’s on a 19 year streak on archery pigs. 😳