A few more pics from bow season

Here are just a few more misc. pictures from the archery hunt. It was a great and successful time for all involved. Our first season offering "scouting packages" proved to be a sound investment with the harvesting of great buck that scored within 1/8th of an inch of 200"!

These packages are an awesome idea for those tag holders that either can't afford, or don't want, a fully guided hunt yet don't have the time to properly scout to set themselves up for success...

Mark's huge 226" buck As-He-Lay at the end of a blood trail a blind man could've followed!

Another live pic of Jeff Huffs awesome 195" incher...

Jeff Huff's Arizona Strip Buck taken on the 16th day of hunting...



Gale Bundrick with a huge Russian Boar taken during his Strip hunt! What a bonus...

Gale and his 199 7/8ths gross whopper harvested after purchasing a scouting package from us!

The End of the Bow Hunt

Well, here is the last buck for us during the 2011 Strip bow hunt. Jeff Huff harvested this great buck on his 16th day of hunting. While Jeff hunted some bigger bucks that never did just cooperate, he was thrilled with this 195" gross 5x6. Heavy rains toward the end of Jeffs hunt as well as the velvet rub that many of the bucks were going thru crushed the patterns on a couple of our top bucks. I can not say enough great things about Jeff and Mark.(read Marks story below this post) These two buddies from California, who usually hunt DIY, were honestly a couple of the most upbeat, patient, and good natured hunters I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. They stuck to the plan, hunted hard and were both rewarded greatly for the effort. Thanks again gentlemen, see you in January!

Arizona Strip Archery Hunt Update

Well here we are over half way done with the Strip bow hunt already. The 2011 season has started well for us. The first buck to fall was a deer we had nicknamed "Lefty" for obvious reasons. Lefty was one that we had hoped to harvest but due to his roaming habits, inconsistency and the thick country he called home we had all but scratched him off the hit list. He used 3 different water sources and would often vanish for up to a couple weeks at a time. We kept scouting and even started the hunt on different bucks but kept checkin to see if Lefty would show up. The evening of opening day, Lefty was spotted. We quickly threw up a blind at the closest water, waited a day, and then Mark climbed in it the afternoon of day three. At 6:20 pm Lefty strolled into view alone and thirsty. Mark reacted with a Grim Reaper that nearly passed clear thru poor ol' Lefty. His awesome and unique 7x10 antlers grossed 226 5/8ths. We were all very pleased. Thanks Mark!!

Marks partner Jeff is still hunting for another huge buck that we have been having close calls with. Jeff has showed an amazing amount of determination and persitence and has remained focused in his hunt for a huge deer. Many would have thrown in the towel after the insane hours and long days Jeff has accumulated on his hunt. Hopefully he will score on the 36 incher soon...

"Lefty" two days before Mark Warrington harvested him.

The second buck harvested was taken by a gentleman that we assisted with one of our scouting packages. Not having enough free time to thoroughly scout, Gayle contacted me and we devised a plan. We met in 13B a few days prior to the opener and spent the day glassing bucks and checking waters. Gayle supplied all his own blinds and camp gear. He set up on a couple waters that showed promise and began hunting. After a couple close calls his main water source dried completely up. Not to be stopped, he quickly switched to a spot and stalk strategy and with the help of his son, was able to arrow the awesome buck below. After his ratty, dried velvet was stripped he grossed 199 7/8ths. Congrats guys, great job!!

Well, I just returned from 7 days on the Strip and am pleased to say that the both the country and the deer herd look phenomonal! I spent time in all corners of the Strip over the last week and cannot remember it ever looking as healthy as it does right now. The grasses, forbs and browse are all showing great growth and I think it safe to say that regardless of what weather does or doesn't develop this summer, antler growth will be fantastic. The buck's bodies are in 100% great condition. Their antlers are just now reaching enough growth to start determining whats what. More info coming in mid July....

Test Video Edit

I recently decided to learn a bit more about computers than simply being able to press the power button. I have had a ton of past footage sitting around for years so I bought an editing program and starting playing around with it. Here is a short clip I put together. Very amateur I know, but there is a couple pretty big deer in it. Enjoy...

John Gisi's 2010 241" Auction Tag Buck

I have posted these pictures before but here is a liitle detail about how the hunt went down.

My good friend John Gisi bought the Arizona Commisioners tag for Mule Deer in 2009. This tag is good for one 365 season starting on Aug 15th. 2009 and running until Aug 14th 2010. After much effort by many others, John had to yet to kill a buck when the Spring of 2010 rolled around. He gave us a call and a plan was formed.

I started scouting around the 4th week of June. The Strip was as green as I can ever remember seeing it and the monsoons had not even started yet. As I began to refind old bucks and discover new, one thing was clear, antler growth was un-freakin-believable! I was joined by Bryon around July 15th and by then I had already seen gobs of bucks over 200" including several over 220" The giant we knew as the "Fifty Incher" (buck pictured on the title of this blog) was one of two bucks that had are close attention. We figured "Fifty" to be over 40"wide and well over 230" gross. We also had a menagerie of backup bucks that were between 220" and 230" when John arrived to start hunting on August 1st. Sounds hard to believe I know but 2010 will go down in history as one of the best ever seasons on the Arizona Strip.

Aug 1st-Let the troubles begin. Right before we commenced hunting, things began to unravel. An enormous amount of non-stop monsoon storms racked the Strip daily. This threw most of our bucks patterns into chaos. Our two top bucks changed country and no amount of effort was going to turn them up. They had simply retreated into unhuntable, unglassable, dog hair thick country. Combine this with the fact that Strip bucks are very elusive by nature and don't allow the luxury of being able to find them at will, and we were quickly running out of time. We kept spreading out and looking, as well as starting to keep tabs on a few of our backup bucks. Time wore on and after 10+ days and only a few days remaining in the season, we decided it was time to shoot something.

On Day 12 we caught a break and when we spotted one of our best back-up bucks. We immediately seized the the moment as John and I made a long stalk and got in position. As is so common on the Strip, the buck and his buddies had retreated into a dark, nasty thicket of cedars to bed for the day. We posted up on the only marginal vantage point available and hunkered down underneath a tree. We had waited for several hot hours for something to move when Bryon and Ben made an awesome spot on John's buck from well over 3 miles away. They informed us that the bucks were exiting the thicket on the backside. We grabbed our gear and cut right through the bedding thicket going straight at the bucks. As we neared the edge we stopped and and started watching for anything to move. We kept slowly closing ground and finally a buck moved into view. It was not the big buck. We stayed put, eventually making one more small move and there he was feeding in a small opening between two trees. John readied himself on a tripod in the standing position and after watching the buck for an extra second or two to make sure he was the right one, John hammered him.

We were all very pleased to have harvested this buck after taking the hunt down to the wire. With only one day left in his 365 day season Johns awesome buck grossed 241". His frame was a tad over 210" with over 30 inches of trash. He measured over 23 inches of mass per side and had an outside spread of over 34" inches.

A huge thanks go out to John for his many generous contributions to Arizona wildlife. Without the purchase of these types of tags there would not be the funds available to manage and improve so many of the delicate areas these bucks call home. Thanks to Bryon Goswick and Ben Wells and everyone else involved for all the dedicated hard work.

Auction Tag Hunt with Pax Prentiss

A few years back, client and good friend Pax Prentiss purchased one of the Arizona Commissioners Mule Deer tags, also known as the Auction , or Governors tag. I had hunted with Pax the year prior on the Kaibab and that hunt ended with the harvest of a 194" buck in fading light on the last evening. He not only took home a nice buck but that started the fire burning for a giant mule deer.

After purchasing the tag, Me and Bryon and Blake went to work on the Strip the third week of June. We scouted long and hard for over a month. We found many great bucks but it wasn't until around July 25th that we finally glassed up a buck we knew was "The One". One look and we knew this buck was over 40" inches wide with an insane amount of mass. We were able to get some grainy video from long range and quickly sent it to Pax. We tried our best to get an estimate of what we thought this buck would score, but due to his odd antler configuration and the fact that we were unable to refind the buck in the field, we were never quite certain. However we did know that he was a giant and even without a solid number estimate we decided to hunt him.



Bryon and I continued looking for the buck for several more days to no avail. The country he inhabited was flat and thick with a limited number of vantage points. Pax arrived on Aug 1st and we continued to spread out and scour the country. Finally on Aug 6th, over 2 miles from his original location, we caught a quick glimpse of the buck as entered the thick trees to bed. Pax and me quickly positioned ourselves in a spot that would provide a shot if the buck fed back out in the evening. After a long and hot day we snuck out in the dark after never seeing the buck.

The following day the buck was not spotted, but the next day he was. This time he bedded underneath a small dirt hump in the trees that was no more than 15 feet high. Following direction from Bryon and friend Blake, Me and Pax snuck to the top of the mound a mere 60 yards from the bedded buck. The trees and brush were so thick that we couldn't see more than 30 or 40 yards in the direction of the deer. By standing on my tiptoes, I could look down and see the antler tips of the bedded buck. There was one lane that extended down through the trees for a little over 100 yards but it wasn't near the bucks location. We knew that we had no chance unless the marginal wind held, the buck either moved into our lap or traveled into our only lane.

Over the course of the day the buck changed beds 7 times. We caught a few glimpses of his antler tips and could watch the dust rise over the trees and hear him he pawed out new beds. We broiled in the sun for over 10 hours and as the sun sank we started to get nervous that we again weren't going to get a shot. Then, like on a string, the buck just rose and started angling toward our only lane. As we watched pieces of his rack steadily moving toward the opening we realized this was it. The gap was less than 2 feet wide, and as the buck strode into it I bawled like a varmint call. The buck stopped and Pax's crosshairs were already in place. He instantly pulled the trigger and just like that the hunt was over.



As we approached the downed deer we knew that he was big but we had no idea how big until we lifted his head. Pax was in shock and could barely breath. I just sat down next to the buck and admired him in awe. The buck is almost 42" inches wide with well over 50" inches of mass. His 10x11 antlers complete with over 5 inch eyeguards, 29 inch beams and over 38 inches of inside spread totaled an official SCI score of 268" and placed him number 4 in the world Non-Typ. After being joined by Bryon and Blake, we all were humbled to be able to hunt and take such an admirable deer.

Special thanks to Bryon Goswick and Blake Chapman for the hundreds of hot hours behind the glass. If not for them this buck would not have died. Thanks to Chad Smith for organizing the details of the hunt, and of course Pax for allowing us to do what we love and help him harvest one of the biggest bucks to ever come from the Arizona Strip.