rossislider

drawing a tag on a 2md choice is a whole different ballgame than drawing a tag on a 3rd choice. Only the worst of the worst hunts get drawn on 3-5th choices. Yes thank you. This was my point. Nothing to do with meat. Only way you are drawing your third choice is if you put in for the worst of the worst hunts. You won't draw a decent cow hunt as a third choice. Also, a large percentage of the hunts you would draw on your third choice could have been picked up as left over tags. Thus saving your old points and the new one you would have gotten for the current year.

Putting a third choice on an elk app is pretty much a waste of time. Definitely a waste of any points.

Nice, congratulations! You packed him out whole? Just like Adam to give you his cold. Next time tell him he has to stay in his own bed no matter how much he begs.

Nice of you to worry about your hunting partners, but their hands are aren't full of rifle. So if necessary they can cover their ears. I always keep my plugs in my chest bino pouch as well as a couple of individual packs of the foam ones in case buddies forget. Like pretty much everyone said, put that brake on and leave it there.

Nice job!

Daughter took the hunter ed course when she was 9 Yeah, something isn't right here. The can definitely take Hunter Education as soon as they are 9. My kids did it this way.

That was it and it made sense when they explained it to me last summer. Thanks for the reminder of why I gut-checked myself when I first complained. It is a valid point, but poaching is poaching, and someone who did this would be guilty of poaching. The argument that odds of being checked are slim hold for just about everything in hunting. A lot of what we are charged to do when hunting is a honor system.

I think the line is pretty clear and what I suggest would clarify and simplify it for everyone. I don't see any grounds to move the line for someone else. If they are legal to hunt at 10, why should it matter where in the hunt they turn 10 as long as the hunt is open and they don't start hunting till that day. Obviously you wouldn't be able to apply if they turn 10 the day after the hunt ends, but if it is during the hunt, why not?

Ughhh!!! I hate so much about the stupidity of this rule. 10 is 10, let them apply and hunt!

I'm leaning towards doing this as well, but it seems that if no one at AZGFD can answer the question, they need to allow it, fix the online app, promise they will accept the paper app, or clarify the rule. Unfortunately, it is not in my nature to just let something like this go. There are definite advantages to putting her in for the youth hunt (time of year, cost, her fall break from school, fewer hunters to compete with, etc.) that I would really like to take advantage of. This will affect both the elk and the deer draw as their will be youth hunts that weekend for both species.

I ended up going a slightly different route. Since I traditionally don't need anything overly large I got a Kodiak Canvas 10x14 Flex Bow tent. It is built like a tank and very easy to put up and take down. It doesn't have a stove pipe option for the cold weather, but I picked up one of the Mr. Heater Big Buddy heaters that is more than sufficient for what I need. I was able to get a steal on it new last spring for under $400. I also picked up a couple of painters drop cloths from Harbour Freight that I put on the floor to help keep it clean and nicer to walk around in bare foot. It is a fantastic setup! http://www.kodiakcanvas.com/10-x-14-ft-flex-bow-canvas-tent-deluxe/

I am curious if anyone has any personal first hand experience with both the Cabelas Anaknak tents and the more traditional canvas outfitter tents and can compare them. Most curious about comparisons in: Durability of the material Heat retention Overall value Thanks

These late hunts are inaccurately called rut hunts. They are pre-rut at best.

No rush just let me know.

Strange, my son is 13 but has had one since he was 10.

Your sale gets a bump up to the top of the list every time every time someone comments.

Hey, I'm taking my daughter to the Taylor Swift concert. She's getting stage side tickets for Christmas. I shudder when I think about how many hours I had to spend earning points on her website to get these tickets. But someone is going to be the best dad ever and a total Swiftie for one night! I have no problems with or sense of shame when it comes to buying my little princesses's love! I'm gonna be rockin it like this dad!

I run the very system you are talking about. Reckoning on the large frame with a medium belt and the gun bearer. By far the best of anything I have ever used. Definitely give the gun bearer a try. I have carried my rifle in a regular shoulder sling for years. As most of us know, it can be a pain with a big heavy rifle over long distances. The gun bearer is awesome! It makes the weight of the rifle and the constant rubbing on my neck disappear. I thought the forward carry would bother me and get in the way. I have not found that to be the case at all.

I was up there this past weekend helping three different hunters. One hunter couldn't make it up till Saturday morning, but each of the three had their cow on the ground withing the early hours of their respective opening morning. Those cows, like most, are super patternable. I'm back in the valley now, but would be happy to give you a few places to look and tips. I'll shoot you a PM.

One of these years I hope to be in town when you do this. Sounds like fun. On the bright side we did get 3 elk on the ground this weekend, two of which are already cut up, ground up, made into sausage, brats, etc.

Pretty sure I have seen a video of this buck.

That's pretty awesome! Congratulations. I'd also love to see a picture of both horns, just pure curiosity.

Nice! My son does the same thing. I'm going to shoot you a PM with some tips to help him get started, things I wish he/we could have learned the easy way. Once he is up and going let me know. We get a lot of calls from guys on your side of town, but the geography makes drop off and pick up difficult. We'll send them your son's way.

Congratulations! Nice job having a successful hunt despite dealing with some knuckleheads. Even bigger congratulations for having such a great daughter and raising her right. Not sure what is going on with the clients of outfitters this year, but it seems that just about every outfitter I know personally has had client shooting struggles. I think they have averaged 10 misses to every hit, many from under 100 yards. I'd lose my mind. I have absolutely no problems with guides or people hunting with guides, but it seems to me that more and more that the average client feels that his checkbook is doing all the prep work needed. One buddy I recently talked with said his client stated his rifle was driving tacks, but kept missing. After a little more probing about the "tack driving" the client explained that it was dead on when he sighted it in for his previous hunt 5 YEARS EARLIER?!?!

My son has pretty impressive draw luck, and as many of you know, drew his second 3A/3C rifle deer tag in three years. We spent quite a bit of time up there through the summer and fall scouting for his hunt and a friend’s bull elk hunt. Leading up to the hunt we had found a really nice buck that we had planned to target. But in the final weeks leading up to the hunt we lost track of him. Try as we might we were unable to relocate him prior to the hunt. Unfortunately we believe he was shot by another hunter opening day. So over the first few days of the hunt we went through plans B, C, D, E, etc. We had several good friends come and join us for the hunt and had a great time looking over in excess of 300 deer, mostly does and probably 20-30 bucks. While we were seeing some good bucks the first couple of days, he didn’t see anything that he wanted to wrap his tag around that early. As opening weekend progressed we noticed we were seeing fewer and fewer deer and the ones we saw were smaller and smaller. Our original plan was to return to the valley Tuesday afternoon so my son could go to school for a couple of days, get caught up, then return Thursday after school (it is a 10 day hunt). But the way the hunt was going we thought we might be better served to drive home late Monday night and return Wednesday after school. We figured this would give us more time to hunt after a lot of the pressure had left. So Wednesday after school, I met him in the driveway and flew up to the area just in time to get in about 20 minutes of good light. We jumped out of the truck to hear the unmistakable sound of air coming out of our tire. We decided to come back and change it in the dark after we looked over our predetermined ridge. No deer, but lots of elk including a couple of bulls still sparing. The following morning we headed out well before first light, and were just reaching our predetermined spot when I got a call from my friend Houston (WHT_MTNMAN). He was kind enough to offer to go check out a couple of spots for us in the morning before heading off to work. He had located a group of bucks and thought there might be a buck or two in the group we would be interested in taking a look at. We raced to meet up with him at speeds that were most certainly faster than I should have been going on those dirt roads. On the drive up the night before, my son and I had talked and he decided that for the second half of the hunt he would be willing to shoot a big three point or good four point. As we reached Houston and looked over the buck we noted a big three and good four point in the group. Draysen looked from his binos to me and said, “I want to shoot that four!” I ranged him at 630, a shot that I knew he could make, but was not wanting to push our luck. We made a plan to hike down to a finger between us and the deer that would have cut the distance in about half. But as we were getting ready to go I started to get concerned with the direction the deer were feeding into some thicker stuff, and was worried that we might lose him. I asked Draysen if he was comfortable taking a shot, which he said he was. So he got the 300 RUM set up on the bipod, found the bucks in the scope, we dialed in the scope, and then waited for the buck to step back out of the brush. A couple minutes went by, the buck stepped out, and Draysen made a spectacular 630 yard one shot kill. From there out it was smiles, fist bumps, and hugs. I want to thank all of my buddies who came to help us glass, and a special thanks to Houston for his help finding and dragging this buck out. It was yet another great hunt and week spent with my son and great friends. Shot Placement Pic (sorry, a little bloody) From last night's butcher session.