Trophy Success and Physical Fitness

Your own body and mind are and always will be your two best weapons for any trophy hunt. Your mind is mega important for a million different reasons, but lets talk about the body. I have encountered numerous hunters over the years that have spared absolutely nothing on gear and equipment. They have thousands of dollars worth of of high performance hunting clothes. A few grand more spent on optics. Yet a few more thousand spent on a custom rifle. They have done everything under the sun imaginable to prepare for their once-in-a-lifetime hunt right? Wrong! They have neglected something thing that is more important than anything else, their physical fitness. They simply cannot access the areas needed to up the odds of killing the biggest buck possible. Alot of Arizona is high desert canyon and plateau country. While it may be a cake walk compared to say a Colorado Wilderness area with multiple 14,000 foot peaks, it is still rough and rocky and a days hunt can easily take in several miles of it.

 Although his hunt is over, John H. hiked dozens of miles over 7 days to harvest his Arizona Giant!


Cameron Hanes is the poster boy for hunting physical fitness. I have a few good friends that know Cameron and they all say that he can run off and leave anyone, anytime, in any country. He thrives on self punishment and trains like a possessed mad man. It is safe to say that Cameron's fitness will NEVER stand in the way of being successful on any hunt. Not so for many others. While Cam's insane training level is not necessary to be successful in Arizona, one must still arrive in somewhat decent shape if he wants to make sure that he is as prepared as he can possibly be. I have, on occasion, watched hunts finish unsuccessfully, due 100% to the lack of physical ability of the hunter. Again, you need not finish top 10 in the Boston Marathon to hunt AZ, but you should fill your backpack and hump some hills for a few months before your hunt. 90% of our AZ hunts involve, at a minimum, moderate hiking. Alot of it in the dark. We climb uphill everyday to gain elevated advantage for spot and stalk hunting. We spend the middle part of the day hiking around, cutting tracks, rimming canyons and doing whatever else needs to be done while we pound the countryside while hunting the specific bucks we are after. Guys that arrive in their personal best shape and prepared, have a huge advantage right out of the gate as opposed to the guy that has done little or no physical preparation. No matter how great of the tag you draw or how many big bucks or bulls your unit has produced, you will be at a severe disadvantage if you cannot put on a backpack and hike, off and on, for a whole day. Very few truly big animals are killed without at least some degree of physical effort. Oh sure, there is always the chance of harvesting something big without doing much but that chance is darn small and I hate relying on luck. Trying to get lucky has never worked for me.

In my opinion nothing can prepare you for hiking around in rocky country, like hiking around in rocky country. Gyms are great for cardio. But there is nothing in a gym that can adequately match the workout of strapping on a loaded backpack and hiking up and down rocky hills. Rocky uneven ground is also not attainable indoors. You don't need to be the next Cam Hanes, but you do need to be able to hike and move and hunt the country that holds the animal you are after! If you are holding a premium AZ tag, and high expectations, you owe it to yourself to at least make an honest effort, starting a few months before your hunt, to get your legs hardened up and your lungs stretched out and ready for business. It will be a sad day if your hunt ends unsuccessfully because you were unable to physically do what is necessary to get close to the animal you wanted to kill. Go for a hike!