Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Out Of State Hunting => Topic started by: go4steelhd on August 29, 2014, 11:22:52 AM
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Well the time has finally come for my Arizona antelope hunt. My wife and I leave this afternoon to start are two week hunting/sight seeing trip. I will be putting four days of scouting prior to the opener. Which is September 5th. This area is known for mega bucks. I have been lucky enough to harvest 7 or 8 antelope bucks in the past, in other states. So I am looking for what I would consider a once in a life time buck. I will be posting up lots of pics along the way with the sites we see, and bucks I find while scouting. Or any other wildlife that lets me snap a pic. My game plan is four days scouting then five days hunting for a trophy, then if I haven't found him I will fill my tag with an average buck after that. The ten day weather forecast is calling for rain starting on the opener which could cause access issues. So if you like tune in. This may be an exciting story.
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Good luck! I can't wait for my montana antelope hunt in october
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17" or BUST!!!!!!! Good luck. Hope to see a book buck.
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Good luck.
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Should be fun! Ive been to several of the AZ lope units and seen mashers in each. How many points did yiu have?
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If you're in Unit 9, I had that tag in 2012 and can help you.
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I had two points going into the draw :IBCOOL:
Soccerguy I drew unit 10. But thanks for the offer!!
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You're welcome. Be prepared for afternoon lightning, thunderstorms, and very slick, muddy roads...we either had them or the threat of them every day two years ago. That is a fantastic tag...hold out for something at least in the lower to mid 80's. My report from two years ago is below...scored 83.
Good luck!!
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,105373.msg1372502.html#msg1372502 (http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,105373.msg1372502.html#msg1372502)
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Good luck!
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Soccer guy, that was a great thread from your hunt. Nice buck to. I am concerned about the muddy roads. A few years ago I had to sit half a day in Wyoming because the clay like mud caked to your tires. So we were dead to water. You couldn't turn or go up hill :'( Did you draw off points or in the random draw?
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The Boquillas Ranch takes good care of their roads since the wind farm construction began, but there were also some big changes with how they Grant access since last year. I hope this isnt news to you.
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Here's a little dink I snapped in 10 to get your :drool: going.
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That is great to hear about the roads on the Boquillas. Yes we both got passes in hand for there ranch. That buck looks like he has good mass below the prong. Scouting will begin tomorrow!
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Yep. Good call. You didn't used to need them but you know how it goes with just a few slobs. Don't forget about the Perrin Ranch, either. Just sayin' 8)
Oh yeah if you brought your bow you can get an OTC deer tag good until the 11th. PM me if you need a few places esp if you'll be towards Williams.
Did I mention world class elk country? Man, what a rough trip. 8)
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14 points in the random draw...it was the only nonresident tag issued in Unit 9 that year...all I can say is blind luck!!!
Soccer guy, that was a great thread from your hunt. Nice buck to. I am concerned about the muddy roads. A few years ago I had to sit half a day in Wyoming because the clay like mud caked to your tires. So we were dead to water. You couldn't turn or go up hill :'( Did you draw off points or in the random draw?
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Here's a few pics of what we seen so far in Arizona.
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Some fine looking critters!
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I found this guy today. Antelope numbers are way lower than what I would have thought was in this unit.
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I'd go after him.
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I don't think I'd pass on that buck
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Looks like a stud lope.
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Sure looks like a shooter to me
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Sure looks like a shooter to me
:yeah:
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nice pics..can you go after that mule buck...wow
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The biggest mule deer buck was near the Grand Canyon and also the bison where to. The smaller more average bucks. Are where there are lots of archery tags. I seen one nice buck where you could hunt he just got out of there with out me getting a good pic in the spotting scope. If I lived about 1000 miles closer I would put in for archery deer north of the canyon. The biggest buck let me walk to about 20 yards and take a pic with my ipad
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I may go after this guy Friday
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Not bad, low cutters and he loses his mass above them.
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Today I was able to harvest a great buck. This buck I had named Mr. Diggers. He is the biggest buck I was able to find in my unit, he also has the most wall appeal :IBCOOL: I found this buck late afternoon of day three's scouting trip. He was out rutting with his heard in a huge flat about three miles across . I put a way point in my GPS with his location. This was the first buck I've seen that I was like "that's my buck." (The super tall buck that I have posted above is on the unit boundary about one mile outside my area, or I would have hunted him) After looking over more new country and some nice bucks. But not finding anything else over 80 inches. I decided to go hunt for Mr. Diggers on opening morning. I had seen a few other hunters watching him. So I figured I would get out there early. I left the hotel a 3 am. With my lovely 7 month pregnant wife. I can't believe what she puts up with :) We show up and see no other trucks there yet, it's 3:40 am now. My game plan is to get the wind in my favor and set up out in the flat before light. This was rolling the dice because he could have been anywhere. But with no cover to stalk in on them I had to use the darkness or belly crawl in and hope. So I set up near where I had last seen them. I start glassing in the twilight seeing nothing. Then right at shooting hours I see a buck chasing two does at 300 yards. It's legal hours but still to dark to tell if it's the right buck. After about 15 minutes I confirmed it was my chosen buck. They had moved closer to me by now so I ranged them at 250 yards. It seemed like quiet a while before I could get a standing broad side shot without a doe next to him. But finally he cleared himself and I took the shot. His Gross score is 83 4/8. So he should make Boone and Crockett's all time record book. We will find out in 60 days :tup:
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Great buck!
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Great looking animal - good work! :)
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:tup: :IBCOOL:
Congratulations!!
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Jackalope can you rotate these pics. I got them all messed up :bash:
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I like him. Is he going to get 3 mass measurements above the prong?
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Congrats. Good lookin buck!
MS
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He is a stud, congrats.
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Bigshooter: For antelope on the Boone and Crockett score sheet, it says if the second mass measurement falls in the prong then you move it down to just below where the prong starts to protrude. On my buck the first quarter mark or the second mass measurement falls into the middle of the prong. So this buck has two below and two above the prong.
And you may already know the rule and we're just asking where it landed. I was mainly clarifying for guys who may not know the rules. A buck would have to fork very, very low not to fall in the prong.
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Thanks for the reply. I know the rule just wanted to know where the 2nd mass measurement would be with such a low prong.
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Awesome goat :drool: Congrats
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Yes for his size he has a very low prong. It gives him a cool look :yike: The top of his prong is just under 5 inches from his bases. His second mass mark is at 4. I had to refresh my self on the rules after seeing him while scouting.
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He's a way better buck than I thought going by those spotting scope pictures. Stud of a buck. What were his measurements on his diggers? They are impressive
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Give us a score on him. With some measurements. I really like him but he looks like he would have been very difficult to judge while he was alive.
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Instead of posting a bunch of numbers I went ahead and went to the Boone and Crockett site just filled in his measurements and took a pic for you. It will make it clearer on there sheet.
As far as scoring him from the spotting scope pics: I took probable 200 of him with a cell phone. And watched him twice for probable an hour each time. Then when I go to post them on this site from an ipad it's hard to tell which ones are the best from a small pic. When you have them up on a computer it's easier. His head is a bad angle in all three pics for judging a score. I noticed this after reading you guys posts. When I posted them I just thought it would be cool to have pics up then have harvest the same animal.
I will post the score sheet now, then I will go thru the pics and get a couple in the spotting scope that you could get a better field judge from. I was very close on my judging.
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What a great buck!!!!!! Im hopin to do the same in Colorado in October. Drew a unit 140 tag! Congrats, again :tup:
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Thanks for posting. From all the pics you posted I thought he was around 82 - 83. But those low prongs kept making me second guess myself. He would still be a shooter to me even if he scored 78.
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that's a great buck and looks awesome, congrats :tup:
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Ok right on you were very close. When I first seen him there were heat rays and he was a long ways off. I figured he would go 85. Then I went back and found him at dark. He was half the distance away and no heat rays. I figured he would go 83 then. He looked like he had good mass with heat rays. Then when I took the pics that I posted above without heat rays you can tell he does not have a lot of mass above the prong.
Now I will post the references I use to score a buck on the hoof. But remember until you knock it down and put a tape on it you never know. All animals can fool you. I'm just posting this for guys that haven't antelope hunted this is not directed at anybody. Plus if you guys have any tricks you use to judge an antelope chime in. This could help all of us. This is just merely what I have come up with over the years. From magazines, videos, and my own hunting experience.
I have zoomed in on some good spotting scope pics for this. Each horn configuration has different tricks. In picture #1. This is a good angle for prong length and mass. I use the eye as a reference. Most eyes are 2 inches wide. Starting with the prong you can see it is over 3 eyes long, plus it curves in towards the end of the prong. So we know this buck has 6 inches plus almost half an eye. So 7 inch diggers. I looked at both sides but only posted a picture of one. This was his weaker side for prong length. Now for mass. For his bases he's an eye and a half wide, so we get 3 inches for the inside and outside of the base putting us at 6 inches plus the width of the horn from a frontal view. This puts him a 6 1/2 inch bases. Then move up to just below the prong and use the same references you can see he has slightly more mass putting this measurement at almost 7 inches. Then above the prong is where it gets tricky. This I just use a light, good ,and great . I will put both the top two measurements together on this. So if it looks light above the prong I say it's a 3" and a 2" mass = 5 inches. Good mass is 4" and a 3" mass = 7 inches. And great being 5" and a 3 1/2" mass= 8 1/2. I have not seen a great on the hoof only at horn shows. This buck looks light due to his over all height so I put him in between light and good. So I gave him a 5 to 6.
Then in picture #2 is horn length. I use the ears as a reference. For easy math I call them 6 inches. So when we tilt the ear up straight and follow the the bend of the horn to his tips he looks three ears long. Putting us at 18" then we subtract 2 inches because the ear is 2 inches lower then where the bases start. This gives him 16 tall horns. This gives us a score of 83 with 5 inch mass above the prong and 85 with 6 inch above the prong. Again this is just my method that works for me. Most of the time anyways.
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That is pretty much how I field judge them. A couple years ago in Nevada I passed on a buck that looked a lot like yours. Except he was a little shorter on length and a little shorter on the prong. I passed on him opening day because he looked like he had very little mass above the prong. A couple days latter a young kid killed him and I got to see him up close. His mass measurements above the prong were 4.5 and and 3. I couldn't believe I passed on him. He grossed just over 80. I field judged him at 75. The kids dad wanted his son to pass on the buck because of the low prong and what looked like light mass above the prong. But the kid wanted the buck. I'm not sure who was more surprised with the final score me or the kids dad.
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They can be really hard to judge. Especially if you can't get with in say 300 yards. I filled my tag on the wrong buck in Wyoming because he would never give me time to judge and shoot before talking off. I finally on the third day I took a quick look in the bino's and shot him. Then I walked up on a mid 70's. Not the 82 ish I was hunting. How was your hunt in Nevada? I put in there every year but that's one state I have never drawn a tag out of. A few of my buddies hunted it and said there were very low antelope numbers. It was known more as a trophy area. But when you look at the stats they shoot some great goats.
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I drew a tag north of Elko. I would have to look up the units. It is a unit that is not known for huge bucks. I saw 2 nice bucks. The one that the kid killed and another one that was on a little sliver of private land. He was huge. I think he might have had 3 mass measurements below the prong. I have no doubt that he was over 16 tall and he might have been 17. He only had about 4 inches of horn above the prong. His only week spot were his prongs. They were only about 5 inches long. He either stayed on the private all day or moved on and off of it at night. I kept trying to catch him moving on to the private in the morning but when it would get light he would already be on the private. I also tried to do the same in the evenings, thinking that he might leave the private before dark but that also never happened. I saw anywhere from 30-60 lopes per day. Which from the other hunters I talked to that was a lot. Must of the bigger bucks I saw were 14 inches that would barely break 70. It was 100+ degrees during the day and at night it would get down into the 30's which made for an interesting hunt in its self. But I would be happy to draw the tag again.
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Nice job on a great animal! The failed stalk animal referred to in my Unit 9 post earlier was similar to this one. We guessed him at 16-17" length, but shorter, higher cutters and only average mass. We estimated him right around 80 and based on your score I think we were close. Also, based on the sky in the pictures it looks like you avoided the leftover hurricane moisture that hit there a day or two ago.
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The weather was great on the opener. The last few days would be rough. We got caught in one of those flash flood storms you see on TV when we where coming back from Hoover Dam. It is impressive the amount of rain that was coming down. It was stopping traffic on the highway for awhile. Flooding the ditches and making rivers in no time.
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PHX got 3+ inches of rain just today... Before noon :yike:
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Great pronghorn! Congrats! Ty sent me a pic the day you shot it. Couldn't believe what I was seeing :chuckle:. How many points did it take for you to draw?
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Rick, I had two points going into the draw. I put in for the top two units in Arizona... Well lighting struck, and I got my first choice unit 10. I think it takes 22 or 23 points to draw. It's really been a cool trip. Great hunt, Super Buck, and we have been doing a lot of sight seeing. I may never get back down in this area again. Unless the draws are kind to me again 8)
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WOW! Good for you! I had 13 going into this year and I figured I would be waiting another 10. That is some good luck my friend. Congratulations again on an awesome buck!
