Kaibab Plateau Early Rifle Hunt

[npaden]

54 does this morning and not a single buck!

Things seem to be turning around, we just need the bucks to join the does.

Stayed out later this morning and planning on a short lunch and getting back after it.

One of their hunters on the west side shot a 204” buck yesterday but they are making it sound like it is slow over there on big bucks. They are passing 180” bucks over there but I won’t be passing one if we see one over here. A 160” buck should be worried but my guide said he would discourage me from shooting anything smaller than that for now.

 

[npaden]

Screenshot of a video I took this morning. This gives a little idea of where the deer are hanging out. 4 does in this picture. This is actually in the thinner part of the aspens, they are usually in the thicker part and almost impossible to see.

The black locust is even thicker.

Just going to keep grinding. Eventually a good buck is going to show up and make a mistake.

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

54 does this morning and not a single buck!

Things seem to be turning around, we just need the bucks to join the does.

Stayed out later this morning and planning on a short lunch and getting back after it.

One of their hunters on the west side shot a 204” buck yesterday but they are making it sound like it is slow over there on big bucks. They are passing 180” bucks over there but I won’t be passing one if we see one over here. A 160” buck should be worried but my guide said he would discourage me from shooting anything smaller than that for now.

If there was a 204 taken yesterday - there were two “204” bucks taken. A friend sent me pics of one taken Saturday evening that was guided by his friend. He is passing 170-180 type bucks but has taken a few like that already.

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

I bet it’s just a matter of time.. enjoy the days

 

[NM_Hawkeye]

best of luck!!!

 

[npaden]

The 15 year old that shot the mid 70s buck opening day and his dad have decided to go home so selfishly I just jumped up to 2 guides and a helper for just little ol me at least this afternoon. They never were able to turn up the buck but think there is a chance he is still around. I saw the video of him getting shot and it for sure didn’t look like a mortal wound and he was a good looking buck that I would be willing to shoot if we end up turning him up again.

Down to 2 hunters in camp. The other guide and hunter are going somewhere on the complete other side of the unit just to check things out.

Thought we were going to be already out and going but guide had to run to town and is running a little late.

If there was a 204 taken yesterday - there were two “204” bucks taken. A friend sent me pics of one taken Saturday evening that was guided by his friend. He is passing 170-180 type bucks but has taken a few like that already.

I might be wrong on the yesterday part. Just know they got one.

 

[npaden]

Saw a picture of the 204” buck. It looks to me like a lot bigger buck than 204” in the picture. I’ll see if I can get a copy and post it.

10 does tonight. Halfway through the season.

Guide and I are getting along much better. We were never not getting along, but it was definitely more professional and now we are more like buddies going hunting. 5 straight days together can do that.

I forgot to mention that I did shoot this morning. I had dry fired the rifle and it has a very light trigger. He said it was 1.5 pounds. There was a coyote at 475 yards and we set me up on a tripod and I shot at it and missed about 3” in front of it. We didn’t adjust for wind but the wind was only 5 or 6 mph and not a direct crosswind so either the wind was more of a crosswind than we thought or I just made a less than perfect shot.

The chart shows a .37 moa adjustment for 5 mph crosswind at that range so if it was a true crosswind that would explain the miss.

Was good to get it setup in potentially a real world setup and take a shot though. I dry fired a couple more times and got my form sitting in front of the tripod better and feel that I can get steadier now.

Guide pretty much made me start using his back up tripod for glassing. I had been resting my binoculars on top of my spotting scope which was on my tripod because I don’t have the right setup for my binoculars to be on the tripod and using his tripod was a big improvement over my setup.

Sounds like the extra guide and helper are going to free lance tomorrow and help both hunters. The guide that went clear to the other side of the unit isn’t back in camp yet and since he was out of radio range I didn’t hear the radio chatter and don’t know any details of how this evening went for them.

I’m still in good spirits, we don’t need to see a bunch of bucks, just one good one!

 

[npaden]

Guys that went to the other side of the unit didn’t see a deer this evening.

They are thinking of going to a different spot tomorrow morning. I think we are going to the same general area we have been going. Hope something moves in.

 

[npaden]

My stupid phone switched time zones last night so I got up at 4:20 instead of 5:20 this morning. Got outside and the entire camp had overslept and it was darker than normal. Thankfully I double checked the time in Phoenix before waking anyone up. Sitting in the trailer ready to go, just have to wait a while.

The phone has been getting a bit confused on what time zone but the signal is good enough in camp it had always been on the right time at camp until now. Guess I will change that setting to not let it automatically change time zones.

 

[Wild Bill]

My stupid phone switched time zones last night so I got up at 4:20 instead of 5:20 this morning. Got outside and the entire camp had overslept and it was darker than normal. Thankfully iI double checked the time in Phoenix before waking anyone up. Sitting in the trailer ready to go, just have to wait a while.

The phone has been getting a bit confused on what time zone but the signal is good enough in camp it had always been on the right time at camp until now. Guess I will change that setting to not let it automatically change time zones.

Definitely can be a PITA. Certain days I'll cross the time zone (Missouri River) 4/5 times in a day and my phone sometime has a tough time keeping up.
Better early than late!

 

[WNC2500]

My stupid phone switched time zones last night so I got up at 4:20 instead of 5:20 this morning. Got outside and the entire camp had overslept and it was darker than normal. Thankfully iI double checked the time in Phoenix before waking anyone up. Sitting in the trailer ready to go, just have to wait a while.

The phone has been getting a bit confused on what time zone but the signal is good enough in camp it had always been on the right time at camp until now. Guess I will change that setting to not let it automatically change time zones.

Like @Wild Bill says, it is always better to be early than late, but I am the same way. My body and life and all of that is always on EST so when I am in MT or NM, I am always up earlier and feeling like I have overslept something. My body usually never gets used to the Mountain Time until about the time I am coming home.

 

[Valley1320]

Go find a big un today!

 

[npaden]

A little more exciting this morning. Other hunter in camp ended up taking a shot at a 180 type buck and missed and we hustled over there to try to find him but weren’t able to turn him up.

Other than that saw a bunch of does.

Have 4 extra people spotting for us. The guide that had the 15 year old and the guy that was helping him, a friend of my guide came up and is helping spot and the guide that had the client who shot the 204” buck on the west side came over to help us look.

Surely we can turn something good up with that many people looking. This was when several of them met up before lunch.



Doing lunch right now and then going to head back out. Beautiful day out.

 

[Big Fin]

Go get 'em. Hope you find a good one.

P.S. - I'd hang close to the guy with the gray Raptor. Rumor is, guys who drive rigs like that and aren't afraid to scratch the hell out of them know what they're doing . Though given the results of my season so far, that would be pure rumor and it would be very hard to validate such rumor from my hunts.

 

[npaden]

Go get 'em. Hope you find a good one.

P.S. - I'd hang close to the guy with the gray Raptor. Rumor is, guys who drive rigs like that and aren't afraid to scratch the hell out of them know what they're doing . Though given the results of my season so far, that would be pure rumor and it would be very hard to validate such rumor from my hunts.

That’s my guides truck! We drove it pretty fast on the way over to see if we could turn up the buck that the other hunter shot at and missed.

 

[El Jason]

P.S. - I'd hang close to the guy with the Raptor Tundra. Rumor is, guys who drive rigs like that and aren't afraid to scratch the hell out of them know what they're doing

 

[npaden]

The guy with the Tacoma has blood on the tailgate and he’s the guide that just had his client shoot the 204” buck.

 

[seeth07]

Rumor is, guys who drive rigs like that and aren't afraid to scratch the hell out of them know what they're doing .

That is probably true considering its just a Ford - no concerns about ruining the paint on a worthless truck

 

[BuzzH]

The guy with the Tacoma has blood on the tailgate and he’s the guide that just had his client shoot the 204” buck.

That's not surprising for guys that drive Tacoma's...just sayin'.

 

[Mallardsx2]

I can’t wait until I start guiding deer. I’ll finally be able to afford a $100,000 truck. Lmfao