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Home Page Photo Categories 2017 Big Buck, Big Bull & Other Big Game Contests

"Two Unreal Archery Trophies ... Monster Buck and Ram (Contest Winner!)"
Photo provided by: Marvin Zieser

Winner of our Most Impressive Buck Contest!
Prize = $100.00 Gift Card!

Marvin Zieser (aka StickFlicker) shared his 2017 hunting adventures recently in the forum. He posted..........

"The past 12 Months with My Bow - Great NT Muley and Desert Sheep - A few days ago, I received an email from the Awards Chairman of the Wild Sheep Foundation congratulating me for being a 2017 Archery Ram Awards Winner for my Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep, and inviting me to receive the award at their convention in Reno next month. It reminded me of just what a great last 12 months of hunting my Hoyt and I have enjoyed!

I was able to arrow a great Desert Bighorn ram that officially scores 173 2/8 P&Y (and B&C), more than 33 inches above the Pope & Young minimum and 5 above the Boone & Crockett minimum. That places him in the Top 15 all-time in Pope and Young and #3 all-time in Arizona with a bow, per the current entries in those record programs.

I took him on the third day of the season with a steeply downhill, cross canyon, 70-yard, quartering away shot. He only took a few steps and went down. While that is further than I like to shoot at animals with a bow, even though I target practice to 80 yards regularly, it was late in the afternoon and I wasn’t sure I could go around the small canyon and get to the same side as him before dark. My 78-year-old hunting companion and I had hiked 4-1/2 hours to get to the ram before the shot, then were forced to spend a very cold night on the mountain before the 5-1/2 hour pack-out the next morning.

I was also fortunate to arrow the largest bow-killed mule deer taken in Arizona in 25 years. Rough camp measurements showed the 11 x 8 buck to have a green gross score of nearly 262 P&Y, with a 219 gross-typical frame, 37-inch outside spread, 30-inch main beams and more than 51 inches of mass! While he has not yet been officially measured (although I am an Official Measurer for both P&Y and B&C), he will likely just miss being the State Record but should easily be the # 2 all-time Non-Typical Mule Deer in Arizona with a bow. He should also place in the Top 10 Velvet Non-Typicals in Pope & Young, if I enter him to that category.

They were both taken on public land, and while I did have help scouting pre-season from a couple of guys that are guides, I was alone when actually hunting the deer and with a 78-year-old companion on the afternoon I took the ram. After years of waiting for these hard to draw tags (13 years for mule deer, 33 years for desert sheep), I was fortunate that I was able to make good use of both of them! Bowhunter Magazine plans to run the full story in an issue in 2018, so keep an eye out for it!"




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