Flatlander

Nash is carrying a horseshoe that’s never seen daylight. After having a desert sheep tag last year he drew an antelope tag this year. Scouting was tougher than we expected. Not a ton of goats in the unit and we went out plenty of times and never saw a single lope. It was still fun. During my archery bull hunt we slipped out one midday to look around. We bumped I to a dude who told us where he had seen a few. We ended up finding a few right there. Lots of people shared ideas with us and local friends even went out and glassed a few times for us. It was fun to have a hunt where people were really open and wanted Nash to be successful. Nash had practice opening day, this kid is ridiculously committed to wrestling, so we headed up midday. By that night we had a decent buck spotted but we just couldn’t cut the distance down. These antelope were super spooky and would run for miles at the site of a truck. We pulled out after dark and nearly stepped on a baby prairie rattler walking back. The next AM we slipped right into where we saw him at dark and waited for it to get light. The group was right where we left them, except the big buck. He was somehow 1-1/2 miles away. We ended up walking a 7-1/2 mile loop and lost track of him somewhere in the rollers. Unreal. We tried a new spot real quick before running to town for lunch and had a super close encounter with a bit g cutter buck before he got a wild hair and ran into Colorado. For the evening we hit up one of the spots we had seen a decent buck scouting. Didn’t take long for me to find some a mile or two out. We went to loop around on them and bumped into a different buck before we got there. A little sneaking and Nash had a 325 yd shot with only the top 4” of his back exposed. Thats all he needed. After the shot I said you dumped him, and Nash say “Actually?!?!” Apparently he flinched so hard his eyes were closed when the gun went off. Thank goodness for that 2-1/2 lb trigger! Nash asked if he could do all the quartering himself and did a fine job. I’d say these boys have almost outgrown their old man. The buck wasn’t real big and Nash didn’t care. He has two from Wyoming that are curled and heavier. This time he said he wanted a tall one. This one is almost 16”, so I guess that qualifies. We had time the next morning to go scout for his sister’s cow hunt. They were going good and we saw a good bull to round out the trip. Then he took it home and did his own euro.

Congrats and thanks for coming back to share.

Same. We had one very sleepless night camped about 100 yds from the tracks before an antelope hunt. Hunter was 10 at the time, he slept fine. Everyone else, not a wink.

A lot to unpack here so I will do my best. 1) I assume you are a resident and not an AZ native living somewhere else now. 2) A mid-80's antelope is a monster. 82" is B&C minimum so that is roughly equivalent to a 190" typical mule deer or 375" typ bull. It used to be the case that a firearm pronghorn tag in AZ gave a near guarantee at a buck of that caliber in most units. That is not the case anymore. In most units mid 70's is a really good mark. 3) The hunts you are applying for are fine from a quality perspective. I suspect 80 is possible there, with a lot of effort. But there are very limited tags, only 1 bonus pass tag for each hunt. You may want to consider either hunts with more permits, or less popular units. There are several rifle and muzzleloader units you would have 100% odds for. 4) If your brother actually has 29 bonus points and is a resident, there are only 13 other residents with that many points. He should be able to pick a hunt and go. Unless he sat out last year, he could have drawn any hunt he wanted. Hard to call it bad luck if he is being that level of picky. BTW, where I was, the rut was cooking and there were solid bulls for the early rifle hunts.

Deserved.

Ancient bull. Pretty much the only place that happens in AZ is somewhere adjacent to a park or Rez where they can get away from the pressure.

Especially when you can buy a Gould's tag for like $1500.

Our family has drawn 2 sheep tags and 0 Gould's tags in the same amount of time applying.

I've wondered this too. My understanding, I can't remember where this was explained, it may have been something Mike Chamberlain said, was that turkeys have such a short lifespan and so many winter kill, that fall harvest of hen doesn't change the overall spring population much. If that is true for AZ and our mellow winters, I don't know. It would be worth taking this to a commission meeting or bringing up during a hunt guideline comment period.

We have killed 7 or 8 elk with Berger Hybrids. Rarely get an exit wound. Even on a small mule deer there was no exit. Everything has died in sight. The hybrids leave catastrophic damage at the entrance. It usually looks like motor vehicle trauma, expands in the vitals and ends up in the opposite ribs. Very little blood trail on most of them, but to be fair its usually less than 10 yards. I was stressed after the first few animals when we didn't have exits and even the entrances were usually the diameter of the bullet unless it caught bone on the way in, but its been very consistently effective at stopping them in their tracks.

Congrats, that’s awesome but I am tired just listening to that. Ever thought about quartering them?

Gnarly. Congrats on a sweet bull.

His dad is a bad dude and an AZ sheep slam holder!

Seemed like the rut was strong last weekend. Rain and pressure slowed it down a little by Saturday night. But I don’t think they are done.

Lots of town elk there. Heber has a lot fewer town elk than they used to, but seems there are lots more deer around.