Kaibab Plateau Early Rifle Hunt

[npaden]

Ya I’d keep driving thru querque at all costs

Made it through and spending the night in the Route 66 Casino parking lot along with at least a dozen other RV type setups.

Showing 6 1/2 more hours to go tomorrow so should get there early afternoon if we don’t hit any snags.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Nearly half century ago Catherine worked for ADFG. Spent three years up there studying deer and plants. She is very excited to follow along. Good luck.

 

[npaden]

Uneventful night and back on the road. Should be getting there sometime around 3 pm if things go smoothly.

 

[ShootsManyBullets]

Uneventful night and back on the road. Should be getting there sometime around 3 pm if things go smoothly.
View attachment 390024

Looks like you're slumming it! Good luck up there.

 

[npaden]

I did research my permit # and the first 12 permits went to the ones with enough bonus points to draw so my permit # 17 means I did get it in the random draw side of things. My extra points made it a little higher odds but it was still under 2% chance.

 

[rustednuts]

I heard that the deer are still in the burn area, and are a lot easier to spot. It may be a banner year with a lot of bucks getting shot with the increased visibility.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

i wont be too far from ya,,i drew the unit 7 and 9 deer tag on the south bside of the canyon for deer.

 

[npaden]

Got to camp early and got set up. Pretty neat drive.


Then drove to Apple Valley, Utah to drop my ram off to get replica horns done. Very pretty driving around this part of the world!



My guides name is Easton and I’m going to have to be careful about pictures and specifics from here out for a while. I think after the season is over I can post whatever I want but they would prefer to not give away spots while the season is still going.

I will still be posting, but probably just at the end of each day, we have good coverage here at camp but it gets spotty pretty quick once we head out.

We don’t have a specific buck we are trying to turn up in the morning. Rumors of a big one in the area but sounds like that isn’t a secret so might be a crowd in the morning.

We discussed me bringing my rifle and he said unless I really want to he would prefer that I just use his. I had thought I would be using mine for closer shots and his if we needed to stretch things out but he said it would just be simpler if we used his the whole time. I’m not really sentimental about my rifle so I’m just going to leave it at camp for now and see how things go.

Leaving camp at 5:30 in the morning. Sounds like we are going to be doing a lot of driving around and glassing.

Wish me luck!

 

[F250]

What rifle/caliber is his compared to yours ? I would be hesitant to use someone’s rifle without a chance to fire it a few times at different distances.

 

[npaden]

It’s a 6mm creedemor. Really fancy, arrowhead rifle with a swaro z5+ scope.

Guide is very particular with it so I think I’ll be okay.

Sunrise this morning.



Saw about 20 does and 2 bucks this morning. Really tough glassing with a lot of brush and aspens. Thick stuff.

I was proud that I spotted the first buck about 1,000 yards off. I said it looked like a decent buck, but not a giant. Guide said it was a good buck and we needed to get closer. Got to about 750 yards but the deer bailed onto the other side of the ridge. Guide thought it was an upper 170’s low 180’s buck.

They had a different guide and client closer to the deer than us so sent them after him and they caught a glimpse of him but ended up not being able to turn him up. The other buck was a younger 150’s type buck and we lined up another guy to maybe go make a move on him.

Lots of shooting this morning all around us. Different guides reported mostly it was people shooting small bucks. Lots of talking back and forth on what the different guides are seeing or not seeing.

Rumor has a big one in the area we hunted this morning, but we didn’t see him.

Eating lunch and then headed back out here in a bit.

 

[Silentstalker]

Good luck! Hope you find a good one and enjoy a great hunt!

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

trying to confirm if hwy 89 a is open now through the burn?if anyone knows.

 

[npaden]

trying to confirm if hwy 89 a is open now through the burn?if anyone knows.

I drove it to Jacob Lake. Not sure where it would be closed at?

 

[npaden]

Not much this afternoon and evening. A dozen does and the same smaller buck from this morning. We worked hard with another guide and hunter trying to turn up the bigger one from this morning but weren’t able to find him.

One of the other hunters in camp is a 15 year old who is being guided by my guides brother. He shot a 170ish buck just before the end of shooting light this evening and hit him in the back leg. They ended up backing out and are hopeful they can find him in the morning.

Lots of folks in camp. Several of the hunters have an extra person with them and some guides have someone tagging along with them too. I’m being anti social and just hanging out with my wife at the trailer.

Sounds like the plan is to go back to the same spot in the morning.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

was going to travel through 89 a from kanab instead of taking the longer route thru page ariz to get down to unit 9 {coming from oregon}

 

[npaden]

was going to travel through 89 a from kanab instead of taking the longer route thru page ariz to get down to unit 9 {coming from oregon}

We drove down to Kanab yesterday coming back from dropping the bighorn off no problems.

 

[Valley1320]

Does the silence this morning mean a dead buck??

 

[npaden]

Does the silence this morning mean a dead buck??

Yes and no.

Where we are hunting I don’t have cell service so just getting it when we are back at camp.

I’ve been prepared to stay out all day but we’ve ended up coming back to camp for one reason or another so I’ve been able to update this during lunch. Guide is going into town to fill up with gas today so dropped me off at camp. I’m not really a hang out at camp kind of guy so at least happy my wife is here to hang out with.

We saw the bigger buck from opening morning again today, it was dead in the back of a pickup heading to a spot to take pictures so evidently another outfitter found it. Another guide saw it up close and said it was a really good buck.

They still hadn’t turned up the 170s buck the other hunter in our camp had shot the evening before and some other friend of some guys that are sharing camp and guiding an 84 year old guy they all call grampa shot a medium size buck that they were trying to track down to shoot again. Sounded like he was at least hurt bad enough they were able to find him bedded and felt like they were going to end up getting him.

We spent the morning in the same place we had been the evening before and didn’t see much. About a dozen does and one small 3 point. The country we are hunting looks really good but just couldn’t turn much up today. It’s a bit breezy so maybe that is keeping them hunkered down out of the wind.

Again lots of glassing, a bit of driving and not much walking at all. Not my preferred hunting method but evidently that is the most successful method here.

Not exactly a migratory hunt but it seems like they are expecting new deer to be coming through anytime. I expect we will be in the same area this afternoon and evening.

The lithium battery on my trailer doesn’t like the cold, it’s been getting down to freezing at night and with the wife we had the heater running quite a bit. Battery died yesterday evening and I had to jump start the generator to get it charging back up. Wrapped some towels around the battery, will probably build some type of insulated box for the future.

Thats about all I can think of. I’ve been taking some pictures and will share them at the end of hunt. Nothing exciting but something that will give a general feel for the area we are hunting.

Hoping things pick up this afternoon and evening.

 

[rustednuts]

trying to confirm if hwy 89 a is open now through the burn?if anyone knows.

It should be open

 

[BOHNTR]

trying to confirm if hwy 89 a is open now through the burn?if anyone knows.

It’s been open for quite some time now.