Sneaker

Walmart Cal Ranch and big five in Kingman all do not have them therefore there’s nowhere to buy a tag on the weekends… not a happy camper

Their enforcement response makes sense I guess. Any knowledge gained is unfair now, so even the absense of animals or animals you didn't kill qualifies. I used cams several years ago for a Jan 1 OTC archery opener, the cameras that I ran that did not show bucks on, I did not sit those waters because of that knowledge

Since they approved the rule, I will be following it and not using cams for hunting, and I hope they actually enforce it some magic way(seems pretty hard to see how they would ) since I don't like the idea of hunters still using them having an unfair advantage above everyone else. Maybe they set up a sting on a water hole with a few cameras during a premo hunt, and wait for the first guy wearing camo to role up and check his camera? Or follow a "civilian" back to a hunting camp? Or maybe the vigilanties will take care of all you sudden new "bird watchers" cameras and no tax funded camera enforcement will be needed. Although the irony of someone wanting to follow the law so bad that they don't put up cams and then breaking the law by breaking other people's cameras to self enforce the law is pretty stark.

2022 regs are posted and they did not decrease tags in 10 and note 49 says they have an access agreement.

You have been good to me. But our time is almost up. You have helped me when others wouldn’t. You did your job through rain and shine, hot and cold. Your hunting wisdom and wildlife knowledge was far beyond your years. You gave me motivation to keep going when I wanted to give up. You gave me suggestions when I had no other spots. In a true example of charity, you even willingly sacrificed yourself, (all too often in my opinion, but I fully understand why you did it you helpless brick), to the sad depths of the backpacks of the hunters that thought they needed you more than I. You ate my batteries and wasted my gas money and Saturdays with reckless abandon, but I loved you all the more for it. Christmas in August, Christmas in September, Christmas in December, you were the source of so much hope and joy. But no more. It wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, but they say we can’t “hang” out any more. No more late nights. No more long drives and long hikes. No more elk eyes so bright. No more kids helping me look for your next hiding spot. But thank you, it was a good run, but this is the end. 😅

“The new prohibition does not apply to other uses of a trail camera such as research, general photography and security. However, any photograph or data captured by a trail camera after Jan. 1, 2022 and used for the take or aiding in the take of wildlife will be unlawful, even if that was not the initial intended use of the trail camera.”

Yavapai Ranch and the Navajos were considering a purchase agreement. The Yavapai Ranch has been wanting to sell for a long time and end of last year or earlier this year they were trying to get their development agreements renewed with the county to move their sudivision plans forward again. I think it is only a matter of time until the access is gone. https://arizonabrief.com/navajo-nation-may-buy-yavapai-ranch-for-60m-possible-deal-would-sell-only-17500-acres/

Yeah a bit awkward to listen to those brothers go after each other, and coming from myself that has six brothers that’s saying something. I think Matt is largely being ignorant about how much he needs to keep total hunter numbers and hunter acceptance up if he wants to be able to keep doing llama hunts for the rest of his life. All he seemed do was whine about wanting less people at his trail head, and blamed media and phones for it. He needs voters that will not just vote against hunting when things come to the ballot. I really do think the meat eater guys do a good job in that department and present it in a way that non hunters can understand where we are coming from.

Everyone I know with either Kiabab or strip hunts this year said all the hunts were super tough and big bucks were much harder to come by than a normal year.

Based on the rule effective for 2022 and it’s intent, I can’t use them for hunting anymore, so for most of us, they are gone for now. Really don’t know what happens when it is pretty obvious that someone is cheating on a favorite water hole. Report to gandf? They would just laugh and say, well, maybe it’s just a bird watcher/rancher/not being used for hunting… what a rule.

To be capped at their beloved 20% of all tags, algebra says they should put each unit at 16% of what total rifle and muzzy kills were over some historic period.

I'm telling you guys, the problem is archery demand is higher, compared to rifle demand, than it was 30 years ago, but we are using the same old 20% archery harvest cap. They need to decrease rifle tags and increase archery cap to allow hunters to hunt more overall without killing more bucks. I did a bunch of research and sent in comments and beautiful charts and graphs showing the trend of demand but they just said "the department disagrees".

Man the draw odds on these will be so low I feel like the department is just stealing from addicts that can’t help themselves. Like a casino. A lot like the super raffle I guess.

I don't shoot all that much and have heard rumblings of ammo being in short supply, but wow, really nothing out there. I just bought a 410 this morning to take the kids out quail hunting with me, but dang, no ammo to be purchased in stores or online anywhere, its crazy. Good time to be an ammo maker, unless you can't get material to make the shells which supposedly is part of the problem currently.

Wow thanks guys. Just looking for 8 or 7.5 shot for quail hunting, even one or two boxes would probably be fine. I would prefer to pay for them, I live in Kingman but will be in Scottsdale area all day Monday.

Such a bad look for Chad and Mossback AZ, wow.

I hunt some of the same areas that Big Chino does for their OTC stuff(which has largely all gone away now since you can't hunt the rut on OTC anymore in any of their main spots). They put alot of time in, and alot of the area is super thick and very hard to hunt unless A. Its dry and you have cameras(not allowed starting next year) and you sit water(they have run a ton of trail cameras for many years) or B. The rut brings the bucks out into the open so you can find them with does and stalk them. The other two outfitters I know that consistantly killed big deer on OTC in the past(again, not going to be able to now since most late OTC hunts are gone) have private ranches that they take their hunters into mainly during the rut and also used trail cameras and water heavily.

I think your expectations need to be adjusted by alot. Unless you have a month to scout or live in the unit and are there all the time year after year or have a friend that does, no non-premium unit would a non-guided hunter be able to "expect" to find or kill a deer over 180. They are just very rare. They are there, but they are few, even a very good hard hunting out of state hunter would have to just get very lucky to even find one in say 10 days. Alot of places don't even have that kind of genetics/nutrients and there are too many rifle tags in all these general units for almost any buck to even get old enough to see that size. As most people probably do on here , I consider myself a very good hunter, and have probably only seen maybe 4 bucks truly 180 class or above south of the grand canyon in my whole life, and I've glassed and hiked and hunted and ran cameras in AZ ALOT in my life. I agree OTC archery changes hardly will affect what type of bucks the rifle guys could expect to see. If you would be happy with say 160, you could at least have a fighting chance of finding one if you are an all-in hunter on a general unit here.

I ran though yesterday's webcast. They didn't really share any decisions except for the big bad one for us archers: They said they are not going to change archery/overall deer taken percentage. Their reasoning behind it was very flawed I thought, they just happened to find that for the latest year, OTC tags devided by people that apply for the deer draw just happens to be about 20%, "so we are going to leave it." Come on. How about a comparison of that same percentage 30 years ago? I looked up the old hunt books over the last 40 years and that percentage they used jumps all over the place from 12% to 30%, so that is not a good indicator. A much better comparison to gauge archery demand would be to look a t the trend of OTC tags purchased vs Rifle/Muzzy tags given each year. See below. They really need to change their max archery kills percentage to be higher.

My buddies are telling me that a good percentage of the deer made an early move this year and stopped in the very-difficult to hunt and thick mid-elevation level. Last year 100 shots were heard opening morning up top, this year there were like 5.

The online map has most of them but not all. Does not have listed my favorite one for example.

That can’t be legit. Was it a marked vehicle that stopped them? I’ve spent a lot of time on the Hualapai and Supai. I also personally know several of the Game officers(tribe members) and Tribal police officers(not tribe members) from Kingman, I’ll try and contact someone today and ask. But it only costs $30 to trespass to go down to Diamond Creek on their dirt road. Passage on the paved supai road has always been free and I think has to be free since it is a highway. Wasn’t stopped during the rifle bull hunt at all. Maybe the person stopping them was actually trying to tell them/ask/inform that they have to pay the boquillas trespass fee to access the ranch but there was miscommunication?

Anyone on here do much of this freediving style? I did some 3 prong for the first time on a recent trip to Hawaii with some young hawaiin guys that were really good and man, so much fun. I'm sure a part of it was that I was in some of the clearest water with the highest density and diversity of fish of anywhere on earth, but it would be fun to get into some here in AZ. I learned to relieve the ear pressure and be able to dive down much deeper than I previously could, maybe got to around 25 feet. The regs allow spearing for carp, buff, and talapia state wide, and Mead, Powell, Pleasant and only the northern part of Lake Mohave for Stripers. It seems like alot of times the water in alot of the lakes isn't clear enough to be able to see very far, which would obviously make it very difficult. Anyone done much of this in AZ and have any tricks, time of year, locations etc? I'm in Kingman so Mohave is the closest to me.

We had alot of fun while chasing the September Bugles. It was tough for finding big bulls this year however, with the drought during horn growth season. We passed on many herd bulls trying to find something better. We shot the biggest bull we saw, a bull I saw while scouting, minus one tine, on the 4th day of hunting, which happens to be our shared birthday! Getting in position and the final sequence and realization of the accomplishment will be quite the memory for the rest of our lives. My wife and daughter are better shots than myself and most men for some reason. Maybe because they care just a little bit less and that allows them to focus on the task better?

I suggested the department change the general archery deer kill cap in a unit from 20% to 35% to allow for more OTC hunting. They have been using the same cap percentages for like 30 years, and there are far far more archery hunters now, by percentage, than there were back then. Its only fair guys. Its only fair.