Flatlander

You volunteering to go? Given the option of not going and going alone, I choose the latter. I feel confident, the unit is the periphery of grizzly habitat, there are no known resident bears. And I don’t plan to hunt any back country, in fact most of the moose habitat is almost agricultural. But yeah, the thought of tracking an arrowed rutted up bull moose is hair raising enough, add the bear potential I might need new shorts.

Well I am hunting solo so . . .

Awesome story Fred. Helped give me se confidence before heading out on a solo moose hunt. Which mag is it in?

From my research, the biggest challenge will be the height. You need more clearance than most cargo trailers have.

Oh, and I got this last week. There were never grizzlies there when I lived there but apparently they have been spotted in this unit the past few years. So there’s that ...

T minus 6 days... There is a stack of coolers in the man cave. Rifle has good feed and is confirmed out to 500 yds. Have 6 arrows with sharp FIXED blad wac’em broadheads. I have made a personal rule to keep things within 50 yds, especially on big bulls, be it moose or elk. I have arrangements with a taxidermist to clean my skull should I manage to run into one. Have a beef scapula boiling in the stock pot right now. Got a new spare for the trailer. Things are starting to come together. As tends to happen, some folks who were hoping to come have had to change plans so it’s looking to be a mostly solo adventure. I have been in touch with some locals who have kept their eyes open and can probably help at different times. Word is that the rut is hitting pretty hard right now. Hopefully it lasts a couple more weeks.

I referred Todd here. He's a good honest dude and easy to do business with.

I forgot about the cow elf thread . . .

Wow, the boy is a killer. Congrats.

We counted 150 trailers between the pavement and Dogtown Reservoir road on Labor Day weekend.

Good work!

That buck is seriously cool. What were his mass measurements?

Thanks Hector that means a lot! I wish I had known you guys were up there. I saw Ernesto’s buck, looks giant.

Congrats on a great goat Ernesto! We were there also, hunted mostly in Aubrey in a Silver F150 and Red Tacoma.

So instead of Rachel or Monica you ended up with the homely waitress who closed down the bar? It’s happened to all of us. Seriously that’s a tough pill to swallow, I did the same thing on a Wyoming antelope hunt and fortunately I had good buddies who helped me do the right thing because my first inclination was to keep hunting. Good on you for doing it right from start to finish.

Awesome buck! I haven’t been down there for a long time but I don’t ever remember seeing bucks like that down there!

For crying out loud Fred! Show us the goods!!!!

Oh come on... the anticipation is worse than Prom night!

Sometimes there is no stopping it. See above.

Update since others have asked; Hunter’s little brother Nash is A-Ok. He’ll be ready for his opportunity come Jr deer / Javelina.

Badass!

Maybe he just didn’t want his thread to turn into another string of idiocy. Stanley and Outdoor Writer are the kind of contributors who make this site head and shoulders above any other of its kind. The rest of us would do well to follow their lead.

Antelope throughout this state are struggling. Even, perhaps especially, the very traditionally high population units have really taken a beating. And with the urban sprawl in the Prescott area, I think Arizona’s day’s as a mass producer of top tier antelope are all but gone.

Ok... since we are sitting in the OR waiting room with nothing to do. The hunt was a bit of a whirlwind, but definitely a huge success. We spent Labor Day weekend getting familiar with the unit and trying to locate a few goats. To my surprise antelope were relatively scarce and the heat waves made it really tough to glass more than a few hundred yards. Saturday we drove up to Valle and across unit 9 on the Willaha road towards Tin House then down to the Espee road and back into Williams. We did not see a single antelope. Sunday we ventured over to the Aubrey Valley and before we even arrived we saw a buck chasing a doe near Ash Fork and one lone buck North of Seligman. Once we rounded Chino Point we started glassing the AV and immediately picked up a buck with several does far across the valley floor. He was impossible to judge from our distance but size wasn’t all that relevant anyway. We weren’t being picky. We hadn’t been glassing long when Ty from OE4A called and told me that one of their youth hunter’s had just tagged out with his crossbow. We packed up shop and headed their way. This was my first time on the Big Bo, and I must say I was a little bit intimidated by the rules and permitting. I was very pleasantly surprised that it was not complicated at all and their hint manager Lee made everything easy for the folks helping Hunter. Once we got signed in we met up with Ty and Joe at his buck. I have to say, of the whole experience, this might have been the most important part. I had both Hunter and Nash with me and they got to meet Joe, a 16 year old boy with two prosthetic legs and toes sewn onto his left hand for fingers, beaming and showing off his very well earned trophy. While we were standing there he took off his prosthetics and dumped out the rocks and sand that had accumulated from crawling under fences. This is important, for my kids to see someone with incredibly challenging circumstances, not being defined by them, but instead choosing making their own course. After driving around the flats for a while we ventured around the West edge of the unit and up to the far north and drove roads into camp 5. Again we did not see a single antelope, which really had me perplexed. But, at least we had some goats located for the next weekend. During the week I talked to a few archery hunters who suggested I take a look near Tin House again. Fearing that all 85 tag holders would experience the same thing I had and the AV being a foot race on opening morning, I resolved to get out of town early enough on Thursday to go check some Of the points that had been provided. Thursday came quick. Fortunately Ty would be joining us and was able to get up to the unit on Thursday morning and spend most of the day looking for a buck. We arranged to meet near Long Point and after working for the AM and a rushed packing job we were in the truck and headed North. Hunter was all smiles. Because of the size of the unit and not wanting to be tied to a specific location we decided to pack a nomad camp and just throw down cots and cover wherever we ended up at the end of each day. I would love to regret this decision. After several hours of driving we were sitting on the Babbit ranch overlooking lots of great antelope habitat but only managed to turn up a solitary doe. Ty had found a decent buck, but with 4 guys staking him out, it looked like the next morning would be a foot race. We talked it over and decided to drive the 2+ hours to the Aubrey Valley where we at least we knew there were more antelope. There wasn’t a convenient campsite for where we planned to glass from so we plopped the cots down on a pull off from the highway and hunkered down for the night. Well if you have ever been on Route 66 you know that a train passes through that country about every 20 minutes. Thursday night was not exempt. Our cots were about 100 yds from the train tracks. I MIGHT have slept for 2 hours. Maybe. Good news is that Hunter is a professional sleeper and he was out before the second train of the night. In the morning a quick muffin for breakfast and then we made the short jaunt to our glassing outpost. To my surprise before we were really even settled AZGFD had pulled up alongside our trucks and an officer made his way out to our knob. The check was uneventful but professional and courteous. Before long we turned up a buck with several does about 4 miles across the valley floor. We didn’t have any better options so Hunter and Ty geared up to head out after him. They needed to move the truck for the stalk and in the process they found that several other groups were headed after the same buck. We aborted the plan and decided to move on. Shortly later Ty called and said he and Hunter were headed after a different buck. So I dropped off the glassing hill and headed their way. Now I think this is a good time to mention something I learned recently. I heard Eddy Corona recently talk on a podcast about the value of having kids spend some time with a mentor other than Mom or Dad. Spending time with their parents is good, but sometimes kids respond differently when it’s not mom or dad pushing them to do something hard, or try something new, etc. This was on my mind going into this hunt. Part of Hunter’s condition causes his hands and feet to be weak and causes occasional drop foot and he is really skinny. All of this combines to create a kid who can be a bit cautious and hesitant to try new things physically. So instead of being the one to take him on his stalks I asked Ty to go with him. Ty does this for a ton of kids and is awesome with them. It was hard to hang back and not be by his side the whole time, but I also remember being a young man and that sometimes the last thing I wanted was my dad telling me what to do and how to do it. So I played eyes in the sky and watched things unfold. Mine thing that Ty provided tha was very helpful was a 30.06 with a chassis and suppressor. So I didn’t even realize as I was watching that Hunter had actually taken a couple of shots. Unfortunately some crossed wires on the range / coping ecercise lead to a clean miss.by the time they got back to me I had another group spotted. I could tell there was a buck, but the mirage was so bad there was no way to really judge anything. So if there was a buck, we were just going after it. While going out after those lope we ran into a group of hunter’s who had just tagged out. It was a well known outfitter and his family. When they saw the CHAMP sign on the side of the truck they stopped and were very gracious to share all of their scouting results and took our number to check with us if they found anything of interest, which they did later and called us to see if we were still looking. Class act, all the way. After looking that buck over Hunter was anxious to get back after it. We started cruising the flats and glassing. It was tough when we would find them out in the flats to get on them with out much topography or landmarks. While eating lunch I was glassing with a sandwich in one hand and found a small group we had been after earlier. We made a plan for me to keep eyes on them and the dynamic duo to drive around and come at them from a different direction. I was looking back and forth between my 15’s Which were set on the goats and glancing at the truck periodically to see their progress. To my surprise they had only driven a few hundred yards when the truck stopped. Soon I saw the doors open and Hunter getting the rifle on the tripod with Ty looking over his shoulder. I glassed down the fence line and soon saw two bucks just down the fence from Hunter. My heart raced as I put my 15’s on the bucks and prayed for a clean shot. Soon I saw the bucks take off running and smiled as the larger buck slowed and laid down. The shot wasn’t perfect, but soon with a follow up the buck was down for good. When I walked up Hunter was already holding his buck, all smiles, and refusing to let go of those horns. The buck ended up being better than initially thought. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. I cannot thank everyone who helped enough. There were tons of people who offered suggestions and shared info. Eddy Corona who helped hunter receive this tag is really amazing. The guy spends an unbelievable amount of time helping kids and vets get awesome opportunities. And on this hunt especially Ty was fantastic. For a kid who cant play sports it was important to have this experience of having someone mentor him and push him. When the time came, having someone other than Dad, say he was proud of him. Hunter was eating up the attention. Thanks again to everyone and sorry for the long read. Thanks for sticking it out.

Interesting you said that. . . Went straight from the hunt to the hospital where Hunter’s little brother is having his appendix taken out.