Flatlander

Can we just get over the it’s legal so it’s above reproach mantra? It’s technically legal to wound a dozen animals and continue hunting but I don’t think anyone is going to argue that’s acceptable.

This hasn’t been my experience. Do you have examples you can share? We are derailing the thread a little bit but I am interested to hear about this.

You’ll never get that info from a FOIA request. Someone would have to audit the draw process and confirm if there were any irregularities, probably the auditor general. I don’t believe there has been a state audit of the Dept since 2014. At that time they didn’t audit the draw process but noted that the lack of transparency was one of the biggest risks for issues.

Did you see my suggested adjustments to the rules and guidelines? One way of reducing the impact of point guard is to change the group application rules so that a group doesn’t average points but instead receives the lowest number of points of any applicant in the party. This would reduce a lot of abuse and bonus point double dipping. This is a huge contributor to point creep.

The input I received from a WM was that they were still instructed to include ALL male pronghorn, regardless of age, in the count. I simply would like them to only count sexually mature animals. If we are targeting 15-25% of all male antelope including young of the year, that’s very different than 15-25% of sexually mature animals.

Where was this?

The other side of that argument is to say that just because something is legal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s ethical. And if we as hunters do not want the government regulating every aspect of the sport then we have at least some moral obligation to voice our concerns and self police before we are regulated. I don’t necessarily think the debate is a bad thing.

You must have listened to MeatEater this morning 😁 I’m no biologist I’m a freaking construction worker but what I would like is for AZGFD to only count mature breeding age bucks in their survey.

Go ahead and start a petition dude. Or come on here and talk more shoot to me. See which gets you further. Makes no difference to me. I’ll make the best difference I can when and where I can.

Actually, I don't shoot long range. I have never in my life dialed a turret to shoot an animal. I've also never adjusted a slider on a bow site. I would love to see the long range game adjusted. I think it's grossly overused by mostly incompetent shooters who practice far less than they should and almost never search for lost game. I think its the worst thing that has happened to hunting in the last 50 years. I just haven't been able to think of an enforceable way to change it. If you have suggestions I'd love to hear them. I am not a big government supporter. I do not like new regulation. However, when it comes to hunting we can only improve the pump for so long without improving the well before it runs dry. Time to throttle back the pump a little bit.

Can't you use a crossbow during rifle season?

Yes, rotate 1/4 turn and save. Then rotate back and save again. For some reason it’s only necessary when posting directly from my iOS products.

Good idea to take care of the trophy tag first. Congrats on your success!

That one was terrible. The terrain looked crazy, wonder where it was.

What you’re doing in that pic right there works pretty good. Go check out some of the ridges running north away from the rim. Supposedly there are good bucks there, I’ve just never found them.

If you have OnX you can get similar info from TopRut as part of their premier subscription. But… Gohunt is formatted a lot better. If one of them keeps you from applying for a tag with 0 odds then it’s probably worth the investment.

Not looking forward to those years. Glad you are getting better, prayers it sticks.

Your loss dude. Someone taught me a good lesson long ago… bring more than you take away.

I think Mike was literally just trying to tell you that you might not like some of the responses you got (he was right by the way). Your OP asked where to go because you weren't trying to be around a ton of other people. There are dozens of podcasts and videos on this topic which don't require someone to type out a specific location on the internet where it can appear in every Google search for "Late Season archery Bull Tag 22N" for eternity. Yes, when people ask where to hunt, the reception is cold. But consider what you have invested in finding the elk you have so far. It requires time, gas, gear and effort. For most of us this is acquired over a lifetime of hunting and scouting. Each year habitat is reduced by some amount while tag numbers remain more or less stable. This means every year there are more people in a smaller area. That means that the knowledge that hunters have spent a lifetime gaining becomes more valuable every year. So try to understand where folks are coming from when they don't offer it up casually just because someone came on the internet and asked. You've been offered some solid advice. You seem like you are off to a good start. Come back and share your experiences and I think you will find that people are more than willing to be helpful as you show your effort and interest.

I don't think anyone here is trying to make you feel like an idiot. I think that MulePackHunter was giving you some legit advice about sources of advice that might be more fruitful than this site. To be fair, that unit gets a TON of pressure every year. I can't think of another unit with TWO early firearms hunts, an early archery hunt, a youth hunt, a general cow hunt, 400 late archery tags and two more late rifle hunts. That adds up to like 1,000 people trying to kill an elk in a unit that probably doesn't even have that many elk. The point being, people likely aren't going to be real loose with the knowledge they have about the unit. It sounds like you are doing well so far, but to the point made above, right now is the easiest time of year to locate elk. They literally scream at the top of their lungs and give away their own location. So take what you have learned now and use it to help you scout for the rest of the fall. In terms of pressure, anywhere there is a road will likely have traffic on it. So start looking for some places to get away from those and start figuring out how to close the distance once you locate those elk. Best of luck. Please keep us posted on your progress, I think you will find there are plenty of people willing to help you learn how to do it, even if they aren't eager to tell you where to do it.

I called one in this morning, but had to sneak away from him to get to work. Most of my experiences have been in reverse, but this dude came in on a string and wasn't going away.

Called one in and had to give him the slip in 22 South this AM.

Congrats

Bet you saw some giant bucks and bulls

I’d say you did pretty good