Kaibab time again.

Well it was a short weekend trip with the Hoffmans, Raul and Wyler but it ended with Awesome results! Jimmy's daughter shot a giant buck! We almost died in the wind the night before, it shredded the ol' teepee tent and just about took the big wall tent down too. She made a good stalk and a great shot. Glad I got to be part of it.

Little last day buck

My good buddies Eli and Jesse drew general AZ deer tags in a tough unit. It's just tough because it's sooooo big and has a long ways between deer. I was only able to go the last weekend with Eli but we had a ton of fun and got it done on the last morning. We had been practicing on some long range shooting and it paid off big time. Im going to try to embed a video here so lets hope it works.
We found this buck on Saturday afternoon but couldn't get a shot before he snuck out of the country. We glassed the rest of the day and we even saw some elk and Desert Big horns and one old muley shed and a pretty darn nice elk horn. Next morning we found him half mile away and made a little jog to get with in range. The rest is history. Eli made a great shot at 465 yards on his buck.
It was a really great short hunt. Enjoy the pics and hopefully the video.

 A broken bull Eli glassed up.

 Jesse and Eli.

 This was almost a cool picture with the d silhouetted deer and the moon.

 Not a great ram but I was really excited when I found them... just ask Eli. This ram was actually huntable too, that's a rare find.

 Some girl and a baby sheep.

 Eli's buck laying down.

First Archery Buck

Friday afternoon Eli and I made a run to the woods. He said he was going to spot for me because it was too hard to make a good stalk on crutches. Half hour in we had some bucks. They were quite a ways away  and even farther below us in elevation. Long story short is the stalk took me two hours, I got 116 yards from the small buck and he smelled me, they trotted over the ridge and started feeding, Eli told me to just go on over cause they were just standing there. Well he was right, snuck over the ridge and the two bigger bucks were 90 yards straight down below me. I couldn't tell which one was the one I wanted but I would be happy with either. Drew back and let her fly. Dark was coming fast so as soon as they were out of sight I went to check for my arrow and blood, Eli literally talked me into the exact spot where I found first blood from about a mile away! Got over there and no arrow.... just LOTs of good blood trail. DEAD buck. The next morning Jesse B and Taylor came and helped me finish packing it out. I couldn't be happier and more thankful for my good friends. 

stripping.

This last week was the first day lucky Doug's strip hunt. Doug drove for a few hundred hours to get from Denver and Wyler and I met him up there Wednesday afternoon. By late evening we had the camp all set up. Wyler and I saw a couple of smaller bucks on the road on our way to camp it got us pretty excited for the days to come. Next morning the three of us went and learned a few new roads and waters and glassed for a bit. We didnt see much but I guess thats not a weird thing for up there, there is just SO much country. We met dad out on the main road that after noon, showed him where camp was and we went to glass again for the evening. Opening morning (friday) we went to a point were dad said he has always seen some deer on the early part of the hunt. We all spread out and just glassed our way to the end. Of course Dad found a really cool deer shed horn that he said we walked right by. when I got out to the drinker on the end of the point at about 9am I set up to glass a bit and my eyes wandered to looking at a far off ridge. I SEE A DEER! ... a doe.... and a buck, i think its just a small one tho.
Dad calls me and says, I see where your looking and if you can see horns at that far (2 miles) we need to get back to the truck and get over there.
Before we packed up, Wyler and I both put the spotting scopes up just in time to see him turn side ways and walk up the ridge and all we could say is wow! he is bigger than I thought. I took a compass barring and we were off.
The next few hour found us driving the 15 miles to get around the canyon and we decided which ridge he was on and we took off hiking. Dad and Wyler stayed to glass the side of the ridge where he could maybe sneak off. Well Doug and I got out there and found him and his does just where we thought they were. They herd us and blew out of the trees. The 3 deer ran bout 550 yards to another patch of ceders and they just laid down! Doug and I watched them for a hour or two and snuck a few hundred yards to get a shot. The buck stood up and came out in the open and Doug whacked him! We caped and quartered him and started out the 2 miles to the truck in the dark. Weeks and weeks of planning and packing and getting ready for one day of scouting and one day of hunting! Thats how it goes. He got a buck of a life time thats for sure.

 here is the buck alive taken though my spotting scope

 Doug and I with his club horned buck

 Me, Dad, Doug and Wyler

Our camp.