AZ Strip Shed Hunt

DeerAddiction4 · Sep 30, 2024

Anybody ever done it?

Founder · Sep 30, 2024

Years ago my buddy and I went down for a few days. We hiked a LOT of miles and found nothing. Then while riding a road on the ATV I spotted one about 100 yards off the road and it was a heavy one, pretty nice. That was the only one we found.

hook1969 · Sep 30, 2024

I’ve been down there numerous times trying to find some of those big bucks sheds w/o much luck. There’s a lot of country and I think the guys that guide and watch them through out the year probably have better luck. I did pick up a monster 2 point last year and I’ve found a few others over the years but nothing like what I’ve hoped to find.

AZ4life · Sep 30, 2024

Honestly the deer density on the strip is so low, you really have to have some legacy knowledge or go with someone who has some recent intel to expect to do any good. I "helped" my brother on the archery hunt this year and it is such a grind up there just to find a deer, let alone trying to walk on where a mature buck dropped his antlers. Much of the area where they would shed is sage brush flats and junipers with not alot of contour, so most sheds have to be stepped on or seen from flying(Ryan Hatch's old specialty) and cannot be glassed up. I hiked a bunch and did not find a shed during this year's hunt, or the previous three hunts that I've hunted or helped with up there haha. I did however glass up this ~185" deadhead from 850 yards that I was quite proud of

But hey, you could always get lucky and find a little honey hole. You can't win if you don't play.

Pirogue · Oct 8, 2024

Big area, small deer density yields tuff shed hunting

stealth_archer · Oct 10, 2024

I picked up few. Got a 84" right side, a 140 set, and my kid found a pretty cool dead head a couple years back.

We don't spend a ton of time there, but but probably more than most and they are hard to come by to say the least.

People think there're 200" deer behind every tree, and that's certainly not the case. There's about 2500 deer total spread out over 2m acres, so to come across sheds will take a lot of miles or just plan lucky.....

elkhunterUT · Oct 10, 2024

AZ4life said:
Honestly the deer density on the strip is so low, you really have to have some legacy knowledge or go with someone who has some recent intel to expect to do any good. I "helped" my brother on the archery hunt this year and it is such a grind up there just to find a deer, let alone trying to walk on where a mature buck dropped his antlers. Much of the area where they would shed is sage brush flats and junipers with not alot of contour, so most sheds have to be stepped on or seen from flying(Ryan Hatch's old specialty) and cannot be glassed up. I hiked a bunch and did not find a shed during this year's hunt, or the previous three hunts that I've hunted or helped with up there haha. I did however glass up this ~185" deadhead from 850 yards that I was quite proud of But hey, you could always get lucky and find a little honey hole. You can't win if you don't play.View attachment 159631 View attachment 159632

how did your brother do on his archery hunt?

WHT_MTNMAN · Oct 10, 2024

I've helped out on a ton of hunts up there over the years and have found 1 or two decent sheds and one old chalk set. BUT I don't go up there specifically to shed hunt either.

TKMulePacker · Oct 10, 2024

Went down last year looking sheds, didnt find chit. Talked to a local that had found 1 in two days. Not worth the trip IMO. Other places in that region north of the border to look for deer sheds

AZ4life · Oct 13, 2024

elkhunterUT said:
how did your brother do on his archery hunt?

He hunted long and hard, he had two really good chances at one of the biggest bucks up there but unfortunately no deer were harmed. The deer up there are just big. Big bodies, big antlers. My boy just killed an old desert buck with worn teeth on Friday in the lower desert in the central AZ and that buck is 1/2 the size of strip bucks that are half the age.

DeerAddiction4 · Oct 13, 2024

AZ4life said:
He hunted long and hard, he had two really good chances at one of the biggest bucks up there but unfortunately no deer were harmed. The deer up there are just big. Big bodies, big antlers. My boy just killed an old desert buck with worn teeth on Friday in the lower desert in the central AZ and that buck is 1/2 the size of strip bucks that are half the age.

Did they kill the bucks your brother was after?

AZ4life · Oct 13, 2024

DeerAddiction4 said:
Did they kill the bucks your brother was after?

Nope

TrophyTracker · Oct 24, 2024

I’m the brother, hunted 15 days sleeping 4 hours a night grinding like crazy, was on what I think would have been comfortably the biggest archery buck shot up there much of the hunt but didn’t close the deal and he still wasn’t a mega giant, had him in low teens. Right at first light he would always make a mad dash for super thick bedding area and not move until dark. It was a really bad growth year for the majority of the strip and with no cameras most of the big bucks are now getting whacked in rifle instead of archery. I know of 3 bucks killed over 200 between the two units. And I know a bunch of guys ended up settling for bucks less than 180.

1manshow · 2024-11-03T21:10:18-0700

TrophyTracker said:
I’m the brother, hunted 15 days sleeping 4 hours a night grinding like crazy, was on what I think would have been comfortably the biggest archery buck shot up there much of the hunt but didn’t close the deal and he still wasn’t a mega giant, had him in low teens. Right at first light he would always make a mad dash for super thick bedding area and not move until dark. It was a really bad growth year for the majority of the strip and with no cameras most of the big bucks are now getting whacked in rifle instead of archery. I know of 3 bucks killed over 200 between the two units. And I know a bunch of guys ended up settling for bucks less than 180.

Did you have a 13A or 13B tag?