Ty Goodman, Unit 10

Earlier that day...

Ty Goodman, Unit 10

I picked up Ty in Valle about noon on Thursday. He brought enough stuff to camp for a month. On Wednesday he called me to tell me when to meet him in Valle and during our call I was driving down an old two tracker in an area I don't usually scout much. I hit the brakes and said, "Hold on just a sec!" There was a buck a mere 100 yards out my window standing there - this never happens on the Plateau. I could here Ty yelling though the phone wasn't next to my ear, "What do you see? How big? You're killing me man..." After just a short peak I grabbed the phone and quickly rattled off, "I'm looking at the buck you're gonna kill. I gotta go," and I hung up the phone. The buck started trotting off. I grabbed my back up camera, a Panasonic FZ30, and put it up to my scope to try and get some evidence before the buck disappeared. My pictures weren't very good.

The buck cleared a ridge and I hiked after him. I spotted him at just over 200 yards and took some pics with my real camera, though it wasn't quite made for this distance. The buck had short prongs, but great bottom mass. I thought he was about 16 inches. And knowing what I know about top mass I figured his tops were pretty big as well. I guessed him at 86 to 88 inches.

The night before the hunt I sat down with Ty and we reviewed all my photos. I showed him several bucks over 84 inches, 3 serious candidates for us to chase opening morning. One was in Aubrey Valley and the other two were on the Plateau. Our camp was right near Tin House on the Plateau so I hoped we wouldn't have to go to Aubrey, but I didn't tell Ty where the bucks were as I didn't want that to influence his decision.

I told him all 3 bucks were 86 inches on the conservative side and just told him to pick the one he liked the best.

He chose the buck in Aubrey. Ugh. With the road going through Rose Well closed we would have to drive clear around and it could take several hours. Looks like we were going to be waking up EXTREMELY EARLY in the morning.

And we did. I had an energy drink to get going and Ty helped keep me awake during the drive with more elk hunting stories than I'd ever care to remember! :) Turns out that Ty knows Chipper Jones and had guided many of the same hunters we had.

We got to Aubrey at exactly the right time surprisingly as we weren't sure exactly how long the drive was going to take. We plodded down the dirt road and stopped to glass a few times before we spotted him. He was within a few hundred yards of where I had seen him last. No hunters in sight which was unusual. We started hiking. Two miles out and the buck herded up with some others and rutted his way clear to the other side of our truck. We hiked back. When we got to the truck we were both dripping with sweat though the morning was still a bit chilly. We replanned, but while we did the buck made tracks right back to where we just were! Gr...

We hiked on him again as there weren't any roads in this area. This time, when we got to where the buck was, he decided to move away from us another two miles. We kept after him. We also noticed several hunting trucks just beyond him and wondered if anyone was chasing him.

We knew the buck was just on the other side of the ridge about 600 yards from us. BLAM! A gunshot rang out and Ty exclaimed, "They shot him!" We didn't even know who "they" were at the moment, but we knew "they" were very close to us and most likely firing at the buck we were after. The herd bolted and appeared directly in front of us running full speed without the herd buck! We scanned, no buck, all does. Our hearts sank and then it happened - the buck appeared, unscathed, nearly 300 yards behind the does. The buck paused on the hillside just 311 yards away. Ty dropped him.

The other hunters walked over to us afterward and they were very cordial. I wish I could remember their names, but one of them was a guide for Diamond Outfitters. Both were genuinely happy for Ty's success. Definitely an exciting hunt!

Ty waited (like most people) well over 20 years to draw this tag! We had a blast hunting together and hopefully we'll get to do it again real soon.

Ty's buck officially scores 90 3/8 SCI. Not much length or prong with those coming in at 15 3/8 and 15 4/8 and 5 4/8 and 6 1/8, but HUGE mass with his bottoms measuring 6 5/8 and 6 7/8 and then 7 5/8 and 7 6/8 under the prong. His tops were unreal at 5 7/8 and 5 6/8 just above the prong and 3 5/8 and 3 6/8 on his last measurement.

The buck I saw when I was on the phone with Ty

The buck I saw when I was on the phone with Ty

The buck Ty chose!

Ty's Buck Again

The Official Rundown for 2008 - One Buck at a Time

Dave Brown with buck

Mark Norris with buck (pictures taken next morning)

Mark Norris, Unit 10

We hooked Mark up with Dave Brown and, quite unaccustomed to how we normally do things, Mark and Dave scouted many times together. This isn't a bad thing, it's maybe even a good thing, just not how hunts normally happen because usually hunters are coming in from out of state. Since Mark lives in Arizona and he knew he may never draw this tag again he thought he'd make the most of it by spending as much time in the field as possible.

Together they scoured most of the unit and decided to chase a particular buck up on the Plateau on opening morning.

I was guiding Ty Goodman, but having a lot of cell phone troubles so I couldn't contact anyone the day before the hunt. However I ran into several hunters (never did see Dave and Mark) who were all telling me of a giant buck that supposedly everyone was going to chase and, of course, it was in the same area Dave and Mark told me their buck was!

Ty and I were done opening morning around 9 and I high tailed it to where Dave and Mark were hunting hoping that they were done, but that if they weren't that I might be able to help out.

My phone finally worked and I talked to Rocky (who came to help and have fun with Dave and Mark) and he said they weren't done yet. I told Rocky that I might have a buck for them stashed away and with only about 60 minutes of light left Rocky said to meet Dave where their camp was ASAP and to see if we could figure something out.

I got to camp and Dave quickly explained their morning adventure and 12 miles worth of hiking and it seemed that those "other" hunters were right as there were a lot of people hunting that same buck.

I showed Dave some video I had of two really good bucks and Dave agreed that we should go after one of them, but the problem was they were both an easy 30 minutes away which wouldn't give us any time to hunt them once we got there. I then remembered one last buck that I found last year and just the day before opening day found again. He lived about 2 miles from any road, but could be scoped up with enough patience and luck. I flipped on the camera and Dave about jumped out of his shoes. Mark agreed. Let's go kill that buck!

We got to the spot where I saw him the day before and we found a few bucks in the distance and then finally found the one we were looking for. With only 30 minutes of light left Dave and Mark went for it! Rocky, Travis, and I stayed behind and watched through our spotting scopes. After about 20 minutes we could still see Dave and Mark and it appeared that they hadn't walked very far - they were still a long ways from the buck! 5 minutes more passed by, the sun has been gone for a few minutes now and the remaining light was fading fast.

And then it happened - the buck and his does took off running! Uh oh! It appeared that they had been spooked by something. We didn't know if Dave and Mark saw this or what or if they were the ones who spooked them.

And then a good thing happened, but we weren't sure how good it was going to work out - the herd bolted straight toward where we last saw Dave and Mark! And then...a few seconds later...we heard the gunshot!

Mark recounted the story when we got to them - complete darkness by now - and the shot was only 80 yards away! How's that for a perfect ending to the day.

Mark's buck officially scores 90 0/8 SCI. It's 16 4/8 on both horns with prongs of 6 6/8 and 6 5/8. Awesome bottom mass of 6 7/8 and 7 0/8 at the base and 7 4/8 and 7 5/8 at the first quarter. The tops were this bucks only slightly weak point, but they were still about average for a giant buck at 4 2/8 and 4 1/8 and then 3 1/8 for the last measurement.

Arizona Regs!

They're finally here - get the PDF version HERE.

I'll go over the worst and best units for 2009 sometime after Christmas.

Also, there's a field photo on the cover of a great buck taken by one of the regular readers/contributors of the Arizona Hunter Forum! And, on this rare occasion, I happen to have a few live photos of this buck that I'll post either tomorrow or Friday.

Amendment

I need to make a correction to my thoughts on the Arizona Antelope Recommendations. I misread the 19A hunt. It appears as though the rifle hunt south of 89A is still active, but that the G&F is just going to combine the hunt south of 89A with the hunt north of 89A. So, basically they just eliminated both individual hunts and combined them into one hunt...and added 15 tags to the overall equation.

Antelope Transplant

Here's the LINK.

I'll find out where exactly the were released and where they came from in Utah - I'm guessing the Plateau Unit.

A Buck we Named "Buddha"

We found this buck in Unit 7 in 2002. He was running with a buck we thought was about 87 inches and Buddha clearly dwarfed him. We didn't have any hunters for this unit, but we went up to locate the buck the day before opening day and to hopefully see the buck on the ground if someone took him. Unfortunately the buck was nowhere to be found the day before opening day or anytime during the hunt. We never saw the buck again.

Whatever You Do, DO NOT CLICK THE BUTTON!

Our DVD, Size Is Everything will soon be sold directly from our blog...along with a lot of other really cool stuff that you won't be able to resist! But for right now, whatever you do, do not, under any circumstance, click the button below. You'll scream obscenities, you're head will spin in circles, and you may indeed vomit pea soup! Don't do it, it's not worth it.

This is just a test to see if I can work the buttons.

2009 Arizona Antelope Hunt Recommendations

Click HERE for the link to the 2009 antelope hunt recommendations.

The major changes that I see are:

1. Unit 19A Rifle Hunt: No rifle hunt south of 89A. This hunt was instituted in the late 90's I believe. This hunt was a bad idea from the beginning.
2. Unit 7 Archery Hunt: This is a new archery hunt! Looks like they're going to issue 5 tags. I won't be applying for this hunt. If you're a long time reader you know how much I love Unit 7.
3. Unit 10, 18 Archery Hunt: They're excluding Unit 18B from this hunt now and they dropped the tags from 100 to 85. On the flip side they opened Unit 18B for a separate archery hunt with 25 tags. Go figure.
   

Cool Post

I saw this over at the Bowsite.com Forums and thought it was cool.

New Number Two in SCI

Apparently there's a new number 2 buck in the SCI record book!

Check it out here.

If anyone knows anything about this buck or has any pictures we'd love to be informed so send us an email!

The buck scores 97 4/8 and was taken by Reade Taylor.

Unlikely Unit Spits Out GIANT!

This buck was taken in Arizona's Unit 18B and scores just over 90 SCI (hunters buddy Tom Smock poses with the rack above.)

Unit 18B isn't known for producing 90 inch bucks on a regular basis, but it does have the genetics to grow mid to upper 80 inch bucks each year.

We actually guided Tom Smock in this unit a few years back and he took a great buck that scored in the mid 80's! (it would have been 87+ had it not broken a tip.)

I'm not sure about the name of the hunter who took this buck but there are a few more pictures of the buck posted over at the Coues Whitetail Forums.

We don't recommend this unit for a few reasons:

1. A large portion of the unit is the BACA Float which no one can hunt without permission and a trespass fee.
   
2. The unit is divided, rather oddly, into three distinct sections for antelope. Traveling from one to the other is very time consuming during scouting.
   
3. Very few 90's have ever been recorded from this unit. Obviously, from the photos, you can see that it can produce 90 inchers, but the past says it's more an exception than a rule.
   

New Mexico Screws Up Everything!

The way permits are allocated and ranches used will be changing soon.

Not in 2009, however. Phew. That was close.

We're not sure whether or not these changes would be good or bad. Our initial reaction is that trophy antelope will be gone within a few years! This is not good!

They cited in one paper (can't remember where) that they were trying to make the state more like Wyoming! Huh? As many of you know, if you want a trophy pronghorn you don't go to Wyoming! You go to New Mexico or Arizona.

Fortunately, at least for now, the changes won't take effect until 2010 at the earliest.

I saw on one forum where everyone seemed to be for the changes while every rancher we've talked to seems to be against the changes.

You can decide for yourselves. Let me know what you think and comment below!

Here's the link to the proposed changes:

Proposed New Mexico Rule Changes

New Video Test

Arizona Auction Tag Buck 2008

Here's the gang posing with the buck we named Arnold. From screen left to right sits Tory Brock, Dr. David Meyer, Me, Tony Grimmett, and Chad Smith. The buck was taken on opening morning by Dr. Meyer at just over 200 yards. The buck is due to be officially scored sometime very soon. I'll let you know when we get the final verdict. I've held the buck next to Meyer's world record buck named JoeBoo and this buck is clearly bigger, but we'll have to wait to see what the tape says.

Wyoming? Really?

I wasn't planning on posting this, but since I've seen photos all over the internet I guess it's OK. We were told this buck was taken in Wyoming during the last weekend of the season. It was rough scored at 94 inches.

Here's the email we received:

"Here are a few photos of a tremendous Wyoming buck killed about a week ago north of Douglas, WY in hunt area 26. I took a few rough but relatively accurate measurements of the right horn and the buck grosses around 94 B&C. The right horn had a lenght of only 14.25" but nearly 8" bases, 9.25" second quarter mass, 6.5" prong, 6.25" 3rd quarter mass and 3+" forth quarter mass. I enjoyed your video and the photos you post on your website are nothing short of incredible. I apologize these photos are not the best, but assumed you would enjoy hearing about this buck regardless!"

I'm not sure who the hunter is, but if I find out I will surely give him credit for taking such an amazing buck! If you have any information about the buck or the hunter post a comment below and let us know.

It's About Time!

We just took a trip to Wyoming and had quite the adventure! Almost plowed into another vehicle that spun out on the icy road, got stuck in the snow (fortunately someone drove by within an hour), and shot at a different buck and missed twice before even locating this buck. In the end, my sister made a 555 yard shot on this buck on the very last day of the hunting season! The buck rough scores about 87-inches and was by far the largest buck we saw during our trip.

On another note, we're heading to New Mexico for one last hunt - the second of the two New Mexico Auction Tags. The first buck was taken by Mike Gallo in August and now his son, Peter, is coming back to take his buck. With any luck we'll be back in a few days.

Back-Quarter Views!

There's something about a "Back-Quarter View" of an antelope! It's almost always the view that makes the buck look it's absolute biggest! If the buck doesn't look big from this angle then be careful - the buck may not be very big. But, if the buck looks HUGE from this angle, also be careful because the buck may be fooling you into thinking it's bigger than it is.

Like the buck above - it looks (in the words of Jeff Foxworthy) Stupid Big! But from the front view it looks to be not much longer than 15 inches with only average top mass.

We're leaving today - our FIRST HUNT is upon us. Stay Tuned!

Tank?

Here's a cool big buck! We call him Tank. There was a buck a couple years ago that Blake Lanoue and I posted pics of on the AZOD forums. This buck looks similar to that buck so we just transferred the name. The original "Tank" is the buck below and we have no idea where he disappeared to. (the pic below was taken in 2006)

Arizona Auction Tag - The Second One

The second Arizona Antelope Auction Tag was auctioned last night for $67,500 at the annual Arizona Antelope Foundation Banquet. In semi-related news it appears that a buck scoring over 93-inches was found dead a few days ago. Apparently the buck was found caught in a fence crossing. I'll report more as I found out information.

Hunt Openings!!!

We have TWO HUNTS AVAILABLE! These hunts are for the north east corner of New Mexico near Springer. Typically we take bucks on this hunt between 78 and 82 inches. Of course, we do take bigger bucks and we do take smaller bucks - sometimes it depends on just how patient you are and how itchy your trigger finger gets! Last year our biggest buck off this hunt scored just over 86 I believe. The hunt starts August 23rd and is 3 days long. Contact us quickly if your interested at 623-566-8708.

The picture below is from a scouting trip we took to our ranches in that part of the state earlier this year!

Family

Crisp?

Tack sharp photos are a photographers dream! Here are a few tips to get them:

1. Always use a tripod, even if you think you don't need to.
2. Use a cable release so you don't have to actually touch your camera when taking the photo. If you don't have a release then use the timer function.
3. Use Mirror Lock-Up
4. Get close! The closer you are the less the aberrations in the air will affect your photo.
5. Use Photoshop!

These are the things I do. I don't always take tack sharp photos, but it's usually because I neglect one or more of the tips above.

100-Incher - Not Again?!

I've seen a few pictures of a buck that would clearly and easily score more than 100-inches. In fact I field judged the buck at close to 102-inches with a horn length of 22 1/8-inches and a prong length of 6 6/8-inches and mass totaling 22 1/8-inches. For a long time now I haven't been sure if the photos were real or fake. I'm still not sure, but I've analyzed the photos on many different occasions and I'm leaning towards REAL. I have no idea where the buck is. Do you?

Running Man

Here's a pic I took while in Unit 10 - you know the place...where the antelope are always running whether you're chasing them or not. It's not a whopper buck by any means, but since he wouldn't stop running alongside the truck I decided to photograph him and I "accidentally" got a few good ones.

Hunter Days

The number of antelope permits issued in Arizona since 1974 has steadily decreased from 1213 down to 473 in 2007. The number of first choice applicants has increased from 6435 in 1974 to 28042 in 2007. All this is cool information you can find in the 2008 edition of the Arizona Survey.

I was wondering if hunters were really prioritizing their tags - if they were really believing that these tags might be the only ones they ever receive. One way to take a look at this is by calculating the average number of hunter days in the field over the years. I would guess that hunters nowadays would spend more days in the field then they may have in the past. The average number of hunter days in 1974 was 2.07 per hunter. The lowest number recorded since 1974 was 1.97. In 2007 the average per hunter was 2.70, the highest average since 1974! The correlation coefficient when comparing the years to the hunter days in the field is .49 which means that the number of days in field per hunter have been steadily increasing.

This could all mean that hunters are definitely realizing that their tags are very rare and that they need to take all the care and time in the field they can. Or, it could just mean that antelope are getting harder to find due to the drastic decrease in the pronghorn population over the last 30 years.

Sunset

Here's a semi-cool picture. I tried my best to capture a sunset shot with an antelope in it, but this was the best I could get. I trotted to the north to try to line the buck up with the orange glow in the distance, but he kept running and got a bit too far out of range. He also never got skylined like I wanted, but he'd have been way too far by then anyway. Next trip out I'll try again. Does anyone out there have any cool silhouette/sunset shots of antelope?

Wings?

An image to hold everyone over until I return with even more pictures! I'll be back Friday or Saturday and hopefully with good news.

Page 10

Here's page 10 from the Oregon FNAWS 2008 Spring Newsletter. What's wrong with this picture? Well, for starters none of those antelope were photographed in Oregon. In fact, all 5 of those bucks were seen in Arizona's Unit 19A. At least 3 of them were taken last year. Also, and more importantly to me, is that all 5 of those photos are mine and no one asked my permission to use them!

AAF Clinic 2008

The annual Antelope Clinic is tonight at Sportsman's Warehouse and starts at 5:15 (doors open at 4.) Click HERE for more information. I'll be there and so will TLH from AZOD fame! :) Hope to see you all there.

King Kong Front View

Here's a front view of King Kong.

King Kong

Here's a buck we named King Kong! We think he's pretty big. Hopefully we'll be able to hunt him this year. What do you guys think?

Gnarly

A buck we named Gnarly. Not that the buck is very gnarly looking, but, compared to the other bucks in the area, he's got more knots and bumps on his horns than they do.

Prongs?

One of those kind of pics that gets you excited!

And We're Off

Heading out tomorrow to scout up some 100 inch antelope! Home either Thursday or Friday with pictures galore.

Philly

I'll be in Philly for a few days so no new posts until I return. We're trying to schedule a trip in Arizona right when we get back, so with any luck we'll have some great news to post after the scouting trip! See ya then.

The Long Road Ahead?

Another rascal from my first trip. The photo, though it probably doesn't deserve a title, will be called, "The Long Road Ahead." :)

First Trip 2008 - Part 2

Here's another decent buck Blake (ArizonaOutfitter.com) and I saw shortly after we started our scouting for the evening. Good length for this time of year and decent mass. His prongs were short, however.

First Trip 2008

I scouted for 3 days over the weekend and saw very few good bucks. However, I did see several that could have been good, but they were out in the distance. I would have normally walked to get closer, but every time I saw a potential big buck it was the middle of the day, extremely hot, and extremely sunny...and the bucks were running away. :( Oh, well. Maybe next time.

I did take a pic of at least one decent buck...

Horn Growth & Rainfall

Let's take a look at rain and horn growth. A lot of hunter's are excited about the rainfall recently and some even believe that it will impact the horn growth on certain animals. I have no idea how it will affect the deer or elk, but several years ago I researched what differing amounts of rainfall might do to antelope horn growth.

How the research was done:

I am not a researcher or biologist and this is probably a crude attempt at determining any relationship of rainfall and horn growth, but I'll present the findings anyway for your amusement. First, I went through the Arizona Record Book and marked down the number of big bucks. This was several years ago and I honestly can't remember what my cut-off number was for what I was calling a big buck - it could have been 82 or 84 or even 80. I then marked where each buck was taken and what year. Next I looked up records on the rainfall in those areas in those years. I then compiled this little graph. More or less. The accuracy of these results are up in the air, but it's interesting nonetheless.

How to read the graph:

Obviously the number of big bucks taken is on the left side. The bottom indicates during what period I grouped together for the relationship of horn growth to rainfall. For instance - the first three bars represent the number of record book bucks taken the year after "poor rainfall", "average rainfall", and "good rainfall". This does not take into account the year that the bucks were actually taken. From the graph you can see that if the rainfall was poor the year before the buck was taken then there were only 5 big bucks taken. If the rainfall was average the year before the buck was taken then there were about 7 or 8 big bucks taken. If the rainfall the year before was good then there were about 17 big bucks taken.

The P/Y stands for the rainfall the Prior Year and Year of being taken. So, 1/0 means that just the prior year was taken into account. And 1/1 means that the prior year was taken into account and the year that the buck was taken.

I know this all seems complicated (even to me now), but when I actually did all this many years ago it made sense at the time. If I haven't explained it good enough just post your questions in the comments below.

Podcasts?

I've been entertaining the idea of doing a podcast of some type for some time. I'm not sure what it could be or what I could do with it, but it's always been something that has intrigued me.

If anyone has any ideas for something like this, let me know.

Honeymoon Photos!

Here are a couple photos from our honeymoon. We went through Yellowstone Park and saw a million buffalo! Then, just outside the park, we saw a few herds of antelope. This is officially the first antelope buck I've seen this year! Only one way to go from here. :)

Back...

I'm back from my honeymoon and I've been moving into an apartment. I'll post some antelope pictures as soon as I get them loaded onto my computer. Probably later today.

WEDDING!

This post will be the last post until probably May 1st because I'm getting married!

Bachelor party today, wedding rehearsal tomorrow, wedding Friday, honeymoon from the 19th until the 28th. After all that I'll be back online and ready to make more posts. And, of course, that should be close to the time where my Dad and I start our scouting for the 2008 season.

See you then!

(Notice the Grand Canyon and the camouflage :-)

Ken Ross' Buck!

I was going through some archived emails and I stumbled across this one. The email was sent to us from Ken Ross on October 2nd, 2005.

"Tony, I bought your video (Size Is Everything), and watched it over and over again. Then, I took what I learned from it and put it to use on many, many scouting trips this year. Just had to let you know that I believe what I learned from your video made it possible for me to accurately judge and take a trophy of a lifetime. Many thanks."

"Gross score is 92 5/8. Deductions are 1 2/8. Don't know where he'll end up after the drying period, but he sure is great."

"Had spent weeks scouting, photographing antelope, trying to score them and then trying to keep track of them. Your video tape was invaluable. It made scoring much easier and although we had seen many good bucks, I think we made the best choice possible using your scoring method. Thanks again. Ken Ross."

That Just Don't Look Right!

Along the same lines as the last post, I came across another picture that I've posted before - either on this blog or elsewhere on the internet. I thought to myself..."WOW!, that just ain't right!"

Things That Just Don't Look Right!

I was flipping through some old photos, like I often do, and I came across the one you see below. I've seen this picture a million times, but every time I see it I feel the adrenaline rush and I think to myself, "That just ain't right!"

Arizona Auction Tag Dates?

Arizona has moved opening day for the Arizona Antelope Auction Tags from August 1st to August 15th. I have no idea why they moved the dates. It's a raw deal for the potential bidders.
The Negatives:

1: Now the auction tag winners will actually not be the first antelope hunters in the field since the 19A archery season opens on August 8th! Considering ALL 3 auction tag bucks last year were taken in 19A this is something I wouldn't tolerate if I was a potential bidder.

2: The potential for horn breakage increases for every day an antelope has it's horns. The closer to the rut it gets the greater the chance for breakage.

David Clayton's Buck

One of our readers, David Clayton, took a great buck last year in 18A! The buck net scores 81 2/8 with 6 6/8 bases and a 6 7/8 first quarter. He took the buck on opening morning at 6:20 AM. (He also took a great field photo - see below!)

19A History

A reader requested our record in Unit 19A, so I dug up some stats. I think this is all of the bucks we've guided to in 19A, but I'm not 100% certain. The older stats were kind of jumbled up. If I find anymore bucks I'll update this list. As you can see we've had pretty good success in 19A with most of the biggest bucks being taken in recent years!

Did You Know?

Many hunters have long believed most big game animals cannot see in color. While I have no experience or evidence to the contrary for most big game animals I do have some interesting information regarding pronghorn.

Upon investigation it's been determined that a pronghorn's eyes contain both rods and cones. For those of you unfamiliar with eye anatomy rods are the black-and-white receptors and cones are the color receptors. This means that it's highly likely that pronghorn, unlike most big game animals, can actually see in color! Pretty cool!

Also, for it's size, pronghorn have the largest eyes of any ungulate!

Rumor Mill - WR5

We've heard through the grapevine that "WR5" may have been taken last season! We have no specifics. This was one of the bucks we were excited about finding this year, but if the buck is no longer alive there's no reason for us to spend a lot of time looking for him. If anyone has any information about this buck or any leads please let us know.

The rumor has the buck scoring around 93 after sixty days of drying.

Unit 10 and 18A History

Awhile back an Arizona Game & Fish officer asked us about our Unit 10 and 18A hunters - he was wondering how many big bucks we had taken in those two units. I prepared a little list for him and emailed it to him. I've been keeping track of the list ever since then and I've posted it below.

We've had quite a bit of luck since we started guiding and have been fortunate to take as many big bucks as we have. So far, in just Unit 10 and 18A we've taken 10 bucks that score over 90-inches out of 30. Our average B&C score has been 86 4/8! If we looked at only what we've done since 2000 the results are even better with an average B&C score of 87 4/8 and an average SCI score of 90 1/8!

If you've drawn one of the coveted Arizona Unit 10 or 18A pronghorn tags this year you may have a chance at a whopper! Good luck.

Arizona Draw Results Out!

I didn't draw anything. Neither did anyone in my family. :(

If you drew a tag then post a comment and let me know where, I might be able to help.

Things You Don't See Everyday

In New Mexico last year on one of our ranches we were hunting and came across this - I couldn't help myself, I had to take a picture...

First Arizona Auction Tag 2008

Dr. David Meyer bought the Arizona Auction Tag at the Arizona Elk Society Banquet on March 22nd. The tag was auctioned for $62,500. Dr. Meyer hunted with us in 2001 and 2002 and took four giant antelope in that time period - 0ne of them was the 95-inch B&C World Record! Two of the other three were over 90-inches, including the one picture below.

What I love more than anything about this auction is that it usually signifies the starting point for us - the time when we begin to plan our scouting schedule, get our equipment ready, and wonder about what's hiding out there for us to find. Also...the rumors start to find there way around.

Baseball Stuff

This post has nothing to do with antelope or how to kill a 90-incher. As many of you know I'm a huge baseball fan and an avid "Fantasy Baseball" player! XM radio 175, baby! It keeps me going when I'm in the middle of nowhere scouting for 90-inchers. A few of my gut feelings for the 2008 baseball season are below...

Paul Konerko, Carlos Pena, and Ryan Braun hit fewer than 100 HR

Ryan Zimmerman, Kevin Kouzmanoff, and Hanley Ramirez hit more than 90 HR

Prince Fielder and Mark Teixeira duke it out for the HR crown

Rickie Weeks becomes a 2nd round draft pick

Eric Byrnes repeats last year

Alex Rios and Ryan Braun switch ADP's

Miguel Cabrera hits under .300

Stephen Drew becomes a Top 10 SS

Rich Hill and Tim Lincecum K 400 batters

Ben Sheets is mentioned mid-season as a Cy Young candidate

That's all I've got for now. I always look back at last season and say that I knew Prince Fielder was going to hit 50 HR and that Andruw Jones and Travis Hafner and Jason Bay were going to flop, but I had no proof that I said any of that. That's why I posted this...just in case this stuff does happen I'll have proof! If everything happens the exact opposite of the way I say it will...hm...I think I'll just go back and delete this post. Haha! ;)