Az strip scouting trip

CWeeks

Active Member
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188
I'm one of the nonresidents with max pts for deer in Az. Looking ahead and figuring I'll be unsuccessful for a Co deer tag this year, I'm wondering how beneficial a scouting trip to Az would be for a future tag. It's a long haul from Al, but I did it to help a friend in 12AW two years ago and decided not to burn my points there. Any thoughts from those of you who know the area would be greatly appreciated, as it will take time away from work and family, so I would want it to be a useful trip.
 
In 2009, there were 145 with max points applying first choice for 13B. Only 11 with max were drawn in the bonus pass, so there are still a lot left in that pool. There are 173 nonresidents with max points (13) this year. Figure many of these are waiting for 13B. Add the 10% NR cap, and it may be years before you draw. Personally, I would wait to draw first before making the trek, but a scouting trip is always valuable , will let you see the vastness of 13B, and help keep the fire burning till you draw. Good luck to ya this year in the draw.

You are welcome to visit my Photo Gallery here http://dougkoepsel.smugmug.com/
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CW;

I've been up there a few times, so if you have some spcific questions, please ask, cause it's a little early, but these questions come up every year.

Steve Cheuvront
 
Doug, Awesome pics! Just looking at them makes me want to pack my bag. Maybe I can use them to lure my family out for the family vacation.

Steve, The dilemma is would a scouting trip benefit me enough that I could hunt this tag DIY when I do draw it or would I still have to have a guide to make the most out of the tag. May be a question that only I could answer by doing it, but I thought some insight from the MM bunch could help with the decision. Like Doug pointed out, I figured I was only running about a 10% chance of drawing the tag every year I applied so this could be wishful thinking also.
 
CW;

My honest opinion is that I would maybe consider a trip when it was convient and you had a week to spend in the unit and a $1,000.00 bucks to waste on your adventure.

AS RR said it is a huge unit and big deer can be harvested in every sq. foot of the place.

My advise would be start saving your money and have a nest egg of about 3-7 thousand dollars for this once in a life time hunt,
and when you get drawn, hire the best guide avaliable, I didn't say could afford, but the best there is and you will never regrete your decision.

Big, bucks are hard to find, let alone put on the ground. It will be some of the hardest 10 dats you ever spend in the field, aside from sheep hunting, but you will love the experience, and with a little luck, come home with a real " TOAD ".

Let me know if I can help you out some more.

Steve Cheuvront
 
I was a max point holder until last year. Lucky enough to draw the 13B tag. Like Steve said you can take a monster any place out in that beautiful country. You either love it or hate it. It was the most fun I have ever had on a hunt. Hunted all 10 days. Save your money for the once in a life time tag and hire the best guide you can afford. There are a few guys that know the unit well. I went with Marvin James Guide Service. Everything I could ask for. The "Strip" is a big piece of real estate and if you don't know where your going it would be real frustrating finding a buck.
Good luck, Gary
 
Agree with Gary, Marvin James. I like seeing the country I am hunting in before to get an idea. If you can afford both do it if not then get a guide.




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RAM187;

Fly mentioned Marvin James- good guide, lots of years on the strip, get his clients on big bucks.

Johnson Brothers--2 brothers out of Fredonia Az., The brother I know best is Alvy Johnson. He is a hell of a tracker and does most of his hunts in that manner, be prepared to walk a lot, and he gets big Bucks on a regular basis. He drives a front end loader for the county on the strip roads and knows the area, like the back of his hand.

Bundys- hell there are a lot of them,

Clay Bundy, of course was born on the strip and grew up next door to the famous " School House ". His wonderful father
was guiding on the strip before most of us were born and he still gives his 2 cents worth and does the cooking for the clients. Clay is a legend on the strip for Mule deer, Antelope and Big horn Sheep.

My personal favorite is Chad Smith the owner of Vaquero Outfitters, with his crew of the best guides on the strip, Chad and the boys, work 16 hours a day every day to get you a giant not just a good buck. Be able to shoot and be in shape and they will make your dreams come true.

I almost forgot about ,and I hope I get the name correct, At First Light Guide Service, these guys are from the area and always get their clients a great buck and have a great time doing it, these guys will hunt their guts out for you and have fun doing it. Just plain good guys that hunt real hard from dark to dark.

That would be my top 5 guides, remember I don't know all the guides, and am forgeting some real good ones I'm sure.

Call early, book quick, but check them out way before you need to make a decision, thats the way it works. Remember, they make a living doing this and have a great deal of unseen expenses, so either pay their price, or find a cheaper guide, but don't insult them by pleading poverty, and tip them 10% or more with cash, they don't need an other rifle or new camo, they have all that sh!t already.




THE END-ha ha ha

Steve Cheuvront
 
Thanks for the input and info on guides. I guess your confirming what I already thought, but I really do like the feeling of accomplishment a DIY hunt brings. A friend ask me what my most memorable hunt was, thinking it would be the sheep tag I got about 3 years ago in Co (that I hunted with a guide). I told him that I'd put at least 3 of our moose and elk DIY hunts ahead of the sheep just from knowing we did it ourselves. That being said, a big toad of a buck on the wall sure would look good in my old age, so I don't think I'll blow this opportunity when it comes.
 
To give you a little info on the strip it is 1.3 million acres... If my math is right, which it could be very very wrong, is 20,000+ sq. miles of desolate, vast land... The bucks are few and far between due to the lack of water...

If I were you, I would higher a guide, hands down, don't burn a tag on arguably the best unit in the world...

+1 for clay bundy, the guy knows what he is doing...
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best way to ruin a great tag is paying several grand to have some guide with garlic breath hovering over your shoulder. but i guess they have bills to pay too.
 
AYA;

You are right, but unless you have a couple of months to learn the unit and have current info, you then have to rely on luck.

I'm not sure a couple of months would do it, if you didn't get a little help to start with.

But, guys do it solo all the time and do well, and I suspect they are great hunters in any area you drop them.

Steve Cheuvront
 
Steve, Thanks for the input and I've printed it and placed in my Az file for future referrence. I have previously talked with a couple of the outfitters mentioned already. If this Nov. turns up with no tags for me, I still may take a week off and go see the country if the wife doesn't seem to mind too much. Road trips always sound better in the spring when I've been out of the mountains for too long.
 
Why not save the several thousand dollars for a guide and use it to travel down and scout/learn the unit for a few years...? I know it'd be a much more memorable hunt for me if it were a DIY. There seems to be so much 'vanity' about getting the biggest buck possible... When did we lose touch with enjoying the hunt more than the giant rack on the wall? Just my two cents...

Workman Predator Calls Field Staff
 
Hey guys;

I agree I,ve been going up there for 10 + years and still haven't been everywhere yet.

It's a wild and beautiful place, but unforgiving at the same time. If you are out scouting and it's not a season, you are likely there by yourself, so don't get yourself in trouble for a stupid mistake.

Take everything you need, and I mean everything, cause town is 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours away, on a dirt wash board road.
water, ice, gasoline, 2-3 spare tires, etc, etc, etc,---

Big bucks, whats a big buck---I'll know it when I see it---maybe!
If you are not used to strip bucks and you see , what is refered to on the strip as a dink, and it is 24" wide mainframe and scores 165" it may, I said may, be the biggest buck you have ever seen. I would advise you NOT to shoot it the first few days, but if it lights your switch, put him on the ground, hard.

But, SCORE, he!! there are bucks on the strip that wouldn't net 175" that would make us all go week in the knees, some old bruiser who made 1 mistake and let you see his 34" main frame spread, with a huge 3 point frame with more extras than a christmas tree, Thats a real buck I call " Uncle Henry " don't know why, just do, oh yea there is a " Uncle Henry Jr." also
not as heavy but just as big maybe an 1 or 2 wider, definately a wow factor in those bucks for me.

Yes there are some great scoring typicals and some real toads out there in the 230" + class, but of course they ain't running out in the road for you to shoot them.

You can tell I am a nut for the place, and can't wait every year for the snow to melt so I can start scouting!!!!!

Steve
 
LAST EDITED ON May-04-10 AT 09:41AM (MST)[p]When I draw my inevitable one-time strip tag, I'll be going guided. I've got 13 NR points, so it'll happen eventually. I've done a lot of hunting on my own, as well as a lot guided. I view this as a no-brainer to do guided. I'll never draw the tag again, and won't be able to scout it enough to even begin to know the unit like those guys mentioned do. Also, the cost of hiring the best guides is mitigated to a great degree when you factor in what your costs are to go DIY. If you're going to do the hunt the right way on your own, you'll spend quite a bit of the money you'd spend on a guide, just for supplies and spares, etc.

When my son drew his late Kaibab tag, we did that hunt on our own, and didn't even consider a guide. I think the strip is a different deal, though. As for AyA's comment, I'll bring along some extra toothpaste and gum.
 
Just got my Huntin Fool Magazine in the mail today and my 2009 "Strip" buck was pictured in there. Like I said in an earlier post save your money for the best hunt out there.
Gary
 
Hey Fly;

Post that bad boy up so we can all see it and droooool.

Steve Cheuvront
 
Try Kevin Harris of Phoenix who goes by wetmule on this forum. Great guy......great muley hunter.


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I think I'll save this whole dialogue so I can show the divorce judge when I explain my side of the story($$$) to the judge. Those guys you listed don't come cheap, but I'm sure its like everything else and you get what you pay for. I feel sure I could go back to 12AW and get a 170 class buck DIY were I helped my partner a couple years ago, but in the end I'll likely never get a chance to do better than that if I waste this tag and that would be harder to live with than my wife after I tell her how much this hunt will cost.
 
Gonna cost you 8-10K for 10 days with a top guide, save your money. There's no satisfaction in paying someone to do your homework for you.
 
LH26;

I hear you. But

I do about 6-7 trips a year anywhere from 7-8 days to a full 35 days during the rifle season, then return for the full rut in 2 weeks. So you figure that many days X 75 to 200 miles a day in just gas, not counting a set or 2 of tires depending on the area I'm heavely scouting, then food, mechanical woes,etc, etc, etc and I'll bet I spend 5-8 thousand a year and no new truck price or trailer price, or, or , or.

Now I spend more time in the area than most guides, cause I don't see them. But I am not a guide, just an old fart that likes big mule deer and tries to learn their habiats and trends.

Yes I spend a lot of time on the strip, but don't ask my wife what it costs, cause she will give you a figure much higher than I did. Sufice it to say, you need to scout an area several years to know where to hunt and when. No one will tell you, espically on the strip. You need to spend a couple of years during the hunting season to see how the deer begin to change as the folks get busier and louder in their travels. These deer move and change their habiats as the days go by, don't believe it, one of you pro's get on here and tell them.

I will say again, that a truly good hunter can drop in nearly anywhere and use their instincts to read the sign, terrain, and people, yes I said read the people, their the ones you see coyoted out on some gawd forsaken hill top waiting for Mr. Big to make a mistake. And more often than not they are successful.

Yes it's fun to do it my way, but I'm retired and have a lot of time to invest. I'm not bad mouthing the Strip, but it ain't no cake walk either, just ask anyone who has hunted it, un-guided or guided.

Steve Cheuvront
 
I have 12 points and just want to live long enough to draw it again. When I do draw it I plan on spending most of the late summer and early fall out there.
 
I talked to Kory at First Light and he recommended putting in 13A as my second choice. What do you guys think, 13B only or 13B first choice, 13A second choice?
 
CW;

The first light boys are in the CURRENT know up there and I would take their opinion.

I will be going to the strip in about 1 week for about 14 days.

If you remind me after I get back I will give you MY opinion on current conditions on 13B, until then all I can do is give you an educated guess, but putting boots on the ground will give me a lot more information.

Steve

P.S. ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR GUIDE !!!!!
 

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