| Grand Canyon, AZ | Yahoo! Weather |
| Fri, 30 Jul 2010 4:54 am MST |
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| 60° F |
Winds: CALM |
| 77° / 55° |
Sunrise: 5:34 Sunset: 7:35 |
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Hunting Articles
Scouting Report: Memorial Day
Well folks, we recenty got back from a great little 3 day getaway over Memorial Day to the Kaibab with the family and I'm now officially obsessing about the upcoming deer hunt! Being this early in the year I wasn't expecting to see a lot of antler growth on the bucks but was more interested in scouting out a couple potential hunting spots, taking some pictures and just spending some quality time with the family up in the woods.
Windy Weather
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| Doe in the shadows along the road. |
The weather was nice. I won't say great because it was pretty windy Saturday and Sunday which made it a little colder than normal - not so much an issue for me but it took a little while for the wife and kids to acclimate. The wind was also blowing trees over the roads making it difficult to get into some of the areas we were hoping to
see and probably explained why we didn't see more deer than we did. With that said, coming from triple digit temperatures in Phoenix, it's always nice to get into the cool pines every once in a while.
We saw a lot of country touring around the far west side, near the Saddle Mountain Wilderness to the east and a bunch of places in between. Overall the plateau looks to be in pretty good shape. It's pretty dry but no worse than I've ever seen it before. I visited 10-12 different waterholes and all but one dirt tank was full to the brim - we'll see how much of that water is still there come September. The area
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| A nice ground blind sure to be used this September for the bow hunt. |
was pretty green and a couple of burns have occurred in some new areas since last season, which will make for some good feeding areas maybe even by this fall if the grass can take root over the summer. Next year I'm sure they'll be lush with fresh grass and thick with deer - we hope. The forest service has been hard at work thinning out some new areas as well, helping to minimize fire fuel and opening up the canopy so the native grasses can grow.
Lot's of Bucks
We
saw a lot of deer, not tons but a lot, and most of what we did find were bucks! Like I said earlier I wasn't expecting to see a lot of antler growth this early, but we did see 6-7 button bucks and one fairly mature muley with a good 7-8 inch start to his rack and decent mass at his bases. This early, it's hard to tell just how big a buck will be once the hunting season starts, but I think it's safe to say that this guy wasn't going to be a little fork horn. Just how big he gets will have to wait until September to find out! As usual the does and fawns were out in abundance and the deer in general look fat and healthy.
Getting the Kids Involved
It's always great to see kids excited about hunting and the outdoors. On this particular trip we did a few fun things with the kids to keep them entertained.
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| We found this cement apron just 300 meters from a nice dirt tank! |
1. We had a 'deer counting' contest, with candy as the reward. My 6 year old was the first to spot a doe just off the road and he was pumped the rest of the weekend to find more. He never got tired of playing 'count the deer' and earning his candy all weekend long!
2. Another trick my 6 year old liked a lot was learning his 'pace count' and figuring out how far we traveled from place to place on foot. Any military folks here should know what a pace count is but for those that don't, let me briefly explain. Your pace count is figured out by counting every time your left foot hits the ground for 100 meters. You have to either have 100 meters accurately marked or be with someone who knows their pace count so you can figure out what yours is. Mine is 66 and my boy's ended up being 90. So we know that every time I take 66 steps with my left foot or 90 with his we have traveled 100 meters! We had a great time figuring out how far the waterholes were from the roads which is information that will come in handy when I'm hiking into my hunting spot(s) in the early morning dark.
3. We also go
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| Hiking Trail #4 along the Saddle Mountain Wilderness. |
t out for a little trail hike and was I impressed with how well my boy hung in there! We hiked over 2 miles and it wasn't over the gentlest terrain either! Even though there was a little complaining, he toughed out and made it all the way back to the truck on his own!
So all in all it was a great trip. We saw a lot of bucks, some great scenery, enjoyed cool temperatures and had spent some quality family time together. And of course, I got to scout for deer and work on the old hunting strategy!
Anyone that has hunted the Kaibab knows the caliber of mule deer bucks that can be found there and someone's going to get lucky this year and bag a monster. If it turns out to be you, make sure you send us some pictures and a story to share with everyone here at KeyToTheKaibab.com!
Be sure to keep coming back for more scouting reports. We try to give upates as often as we can, especially as the hunting season gets closer!
Hunting Articles
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North Kaibab Ranger District Forest Service Map
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This is where hunting the Kaibab Plateau starts! This is a must have map and a perfect compliment to the 1:24k Kaibab Series Topo Maps and the Top Secret Kaibab Waterhole Map! At 1:126,720k scale...
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"Hunting Monster Mule Deer In Arizona's Kaibab Region"
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"Hunting Monster Mule Deer In Arizona's Kaibab Region"
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The opportunity to take the mule deer buck of a lifetime is waiting on the Arizona's northern Kaibab plateau. While many huge bucks...
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