May came and I started calling everyone I ever met through the years that had hunted the unit and their brothers.
By July my ONX had so many waypoints you could hardly see the map when you zoom out a bit.
I decided to take a ride South over the 4th of July weekend. I was warned that the...
However, that was pretty much the last good sized bear we saw that wasn’t rubbed. The rest looked like baboons at times. This was the most I’ve ever spent on a hunt, but I still didn’t want a rubbed hide either.
I went in to the hunt declaring I was all in or nothing!! I figured if I was going to have to spend the rest of my life finding places to hang a bear hide, it better be big! I also wanted a nasty old skull with missing teef and age. So this was an easy pass first day.
Funny how the draws always seem to work and everyone knows, you draw everything when you draw big. I had applied for and drew a Kodiak Brown Bear hunt the prior year, for Spring of 2023. This is also pretty cool because who knew a poor Colorado Kid would ever get to go chase the most infamous...
So 2023, 23rd year of applying plus my extra credit points for 25. No one thought I wouldn’t draw.
I was confident, except for the fact AZ was having it best moisture year in a long time plus the calendar shift, you never know in this Information Age how people will apply.
I threw down...
Along the way I tried and tried to get a solid bigger type archery bull under my belt. I spent weeks in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and even Colorado. It just just never happened for me.
This little fact started to get me concerned, as I really wanted to go on the perfect hunt with zero...
Everyone knows the difference between a dream and a goal. Unfortunately, it was only a dream for a long time as I was too disorganized and too poor to apply out of state until 2000. But then I even flew to to AZ to take the Hunter Safety class for the extra point. Certainly, I’d draw in no...
It not often for me to remember the one thing that made me want to go someplace, hunt something, buy something etc. But I can clearly remember the one thing I read 38 years ago that made me want to bow hunt elk in Arizona. I’d beg borrow and steal to get this new magazine into the cart when...
I went to a season structure meeting at CPW last summer. I asked if it would be possible to take a deer DAU and completely manage it different than the rest of the western slope. Manage for age class instead of ratios, change season dates etc. They looked at me like I had 3 heads and said it...