DonMartin
Very Active Member
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Thought I would share the story of a young lady who got her first ever mule deer this year which by the way is HUGE, AND she followed up that accomplishment by taking a javelina too.
Her name is Allison Kilroy and she actually lives on the East coast (Maryland).
She is 16 years-old and this young lady likes to hunt and is fortunate to have a father that lives in Las Vegas who totally supports here desire to hunt in the Grand Canyon state,
Allison has been applying for Arizona fall juniors only deer and javelina tags for many years and has drawn her fair share of tags.
Before this year, she had drawn two javelina tags and one juniors mule deer tag.
Her dad Ron and I have stayed in touch over the years, and the first year she drew a pig tag she came out and hunted with one of my veteran guides, Mike Cobb.
That hunt lasted just one day and she bagged her first ever big game animal, a big boar javelina.
A couple of years later she drew both a deer and a pig tag in the same unit, and though she didn't get a buck, she got her second javelina.
This year, the lucky young lady drew both a pig and a deer tag again.
This time she would be hunting with AWO guide Tad Levandowski who really enjoys hunting with the young hunters and has a long history of getting kids on big game.
Now remember, junior non-resident hunters are subject to the same 10% rule on tags that adults are. So Allison has beat some big odds in getting these tags!
And due to school schedules, Allison would miss the first weekend of the juniors hunts. She would be flying into Las Vegas the night BEFORE Thanksgiving and would start hunting the very next day.
As it turned out, the timing was perfect.
The trio left Kingman in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day and arrived in the field right on time for Tad to begin glassing.
It didn't take him long before he found a big buck, feeding by himself, near a turbninella oak thicket.
The hunt was on and by the time they got to the area where the buck was last seen, he was gone!
Ron had stayed behind about 300 yards and watched as the veteran guide moved closer to where the buck was last observed.
Tad felt the buck was still in the area and he found the big buck bedded down with only it's antler tips visible.
Soon had the young hunter within 80 yards of the unsuspecting monarch.
They got set up and waited, and sure enough, their patience paid off when the buck finally stood up and started to stretch.
"You got em, Allison?" Tad asked.
"Yep," she said as the safety on her rifle slid off and she squeezed the trigger on her trusty 243 rifle.
The buck collapsed where he stood, never knowing he was in sights of this young hunter.
It wasn't until they actually reached the fallen buck that Tad realized just how big this buck was.
"I've never seen a body on a mule deer as big as this one," Tad said. "He was well over 200 pounds!"
But it was more than the body size that made this a true buck of a lifetime!
The buck sported a heavy, thick rack that was just a little under 26 inches wide: but it had eight scoreable points on one side and seven on the other counting the eye guards!
Later on the buck would be rough scored (gross) at just over 200 inches, according to Levandowski!
One can only wonder what she is going to do in the future?
I mean how many of us, who have been hunting for a lifetime, have a buck like that?
But the story doesn't end here.
Nope, remember she still had an unfilled javelina tag.
Allison filled that tag with a boar that she bagged at just 50 yards on the last morning of her four-day hunt.
Quite the hunting experience for a young lady from the East who only gets to hunt once every few years!
Now her dad tells me she wants to hunt elk....
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
Her name is Allison Kilroy and she actually lives on the East coast (Maryland).
She is 16 years-old and this young lady likes to hunt and is fortunate to have a father that lives in Las Vegas who totally supports here desire to hunt in the Grand Canyon state,
Allison has been applying for Arizona fall juniors only deer and javelina tags for many years and has drawn her fair share of tags.
Before this year, she had drawn two javelina tags and one juniors mule deer tag.
Her dad Ron and I have stayed in touch over the years, and the first year she drew a pig tag she came out and hunted with one of my veteran guides, Mike Cobb.
That hunt lasted just one day and she bagged her first ever big game animal, a big boar javelina.
A couple of years later she drew both a deer and a pig tag in the same unit, and though she didn't get a buck, she got her second javelina.
This year, the lucky young lady drew both a pig and a deer tag again.
This time she would be hunting with AWO guide Tad Levandowski who really enjoys hunting with the young hunters and has a long history of getting kids on big game.
Now remember, junior non-resident hunters are subject to the same 10% rule on tags that adults are. So Allison has beat some big odds in getting these tags!
And due to school schedules, Allison would miss the first weekend of the juniors hunts. She would be flying into Las Vegas the night BEFORE Thanksgiving and would start hunting the very next day.
As it turned out, the timing was perfect.
The trio left Kingman in the early morning hours of Thanksgiving Day and arrived in the field right on time for Tad to begin glassing.
It didn't take him long before he found a big buck, feeding by himself, near a turbninella oak thicket.
The hunt was on and by the time they got to the area where the buck was last seen, he was gone!
Ron had stayed behind about 300 yards and watched as the veteran guide moved closer to where the buck was last observed.
Tad felt the buck was still in the area and he found the big buck bedded down with only it's antler tips visible.
Soon had the young hunter within 80 yards of the unsuspecting monarch.
They got set up and waited, and sure enough, their patience paid off when the buck finally stood up and started to stretch.
"You got em, Allison?" Tad asked.
"Yep," she said as the safety on her rifle slid off and she squeezed the trigger on her trusty 243 rifle.
The buck collapsed where he stood, never knowing he was in sights of this young hunter.
It wasn't until they actually reached the fallen buck that Tad realized just how big this buck was.
"I've never seen a body on a mule deer as big as this one," Tad said. "He was well over 200 pounds!"
But it was more than the body size that made this a true buck of a lifetime!
The buck sported a heavy, thick rack that was just a little under 26 inches wide: but it had eight scoreable points on one side and seven on the other counting the eye guards!
Later on the buck would be rough scored (gross) at just over 200 inches, according to Levandowski!
One can only wonder what she is going to do in the future?
I mean how many of us, who have been hunting for a lifetime, have a buck like that?
But the story doesn't end here.
Nope, remember she still had an unfilled javelina tag.
Allison filled that tag with a boar that she bagged at just 50 yards on the last morning of her four-day hunt.
Quite the hunting experience for a young lady from the East who only gets to hunt once every few years!
Now her dad tells me she wants to hunt elk....
Don Martin
Arizona Wildlife Outfitters
