Hunter Days

The number of antelope permits issued in Arizona since 1974 has steadily decreased from 1213 down to 473 in 2007. The number of first choice applicants has increased from 6435 in 1974 to 28042 in 2007. All this is cool information you can find in the 2008 edition of the Arizona Survey.

I was wondering if hunters were really prioritizing their tags - if they were really believing that these tags might be the only ones they ever receive. One way to take a look at this is by calculating the average number of hunter days in the field over the years. I would guess that hunters nowadays would spend more days in the field then they may have in the past. The average number of hunter days in 1974 was 2.07 per hunter. The lowest number recorded since 1974 was 1.97. In 2007 the average per hunter was 2.70, the highest average since 1974! The correlation coefficient when comparing the years to the hunter days in the field is .49 which means that the number of days in field per hunter have been steadily increasing.

This could all mean that hunters are definitely realizing that their tags are very rare and that they need to take all the care and time in the field they can. Or, it could just mean that antelope are getting harder to find due to the drastic decrease in the pronghorn population over the last 30 years.

Sunset

Here's a semi-cool picture. I tried my best to capture a sunset shot with an antelope in it, but this was the best I could get. I trotted to the north to try to line the buck up with the orange glow in the distance, but he kept running and got a bit too far out of range. He also never got skylined like I wanted, but he'd have been way too far by then anyway. Next trip out I'll try again. Does anyone out there have any cool silhouette/sunset shots of antelope?

Wings?

An image to hold everyone over until I return with even more pictures! I'll be back Friday or Saturday and hopefully with good news.

Page 10

Here's page 10 from the Oregon FNAWS 2008 Spring Newsletter. What's wrong with this picture? Well, for starters none of those antelope were photographed in Oregon. In fact, all 5 of those bucks were seen in Arizona's Unit 19A. At least 3 of them were taken last year. Also, and more importantly to me, is that all 5 of those photos are mine and no one asked my permission to use them!

AAF Clinic 2008

The annual Antelope Clinic is tonight at Sportsman's Warehouse and starts at 5:15 (doors open at 4.) Click HERE for more information. I'll be there and so will TLH from AZOD fame! :) Hope to see you all there.

King Kong Front View

Here's a front view of King Kong.

King Kong

Here's a buck we named King Kong! We think he's pretty big. Hopefully we'll be able to hunt him this year. What do you guys think?

Gnarly

A buck we named Gnarly. Not that the buck is very gnarly looking, but, compared to the other bucks in the area, he's got more knots and bumps on his horns than they do.

Prongs?

One of those kind of pics that gets you excited!

And We're Off

Heading out tomorrow to scout up some 100 inch antelope! Home either Thursday or Friday with pictures galore.