 Bill Dunbar's 2010 AZ Commish Buck The 1st AZ antelope auction tag was sold last night at the Arizona Desert Bighorn Sheep Society Banquet. It was the 4th item up for bid and sold for $40,000, which is $10,000 and $7,500 more than the two tags sold for last year. It was interesting and I actually had planned on filming it just for kicks, but there actually wasn't anything worth filming. Chad Smith had a phone bidder, we had a phone bidder, and I believe one other person had a phone bidder. The auctioneer started it off around $50,000 looking for someone to jump in and no one did. He then lowered it a bit and Chad's bidder jumped in for the first bid at 40K. Needless to say, there were no other bids. One bid to start and end the auction at 40K. First time in history I've seen the antelope tag bidding start that high.
The second Arizona antelope auction tag was supposed to have been auctioned yesterday at the AAF annual banquet, but it wasn't. The banquet was canceled and rescheduled - this was the email I received:
Evening BBQ/Auction - we have reschedule this event to be a joint Banquet with the AZ Deer Association on June 5th. Watch your mail and our website for more information soon.  The second Arizona Antelope Auction Tag will be auctioned off on May 8th at the Arizona Antelope Foundation's new event "Arizona Antelope Days" being hosted at Ben Avery Shooting Range. It looks like a combination of all the events of the past rolled into one so it might be pretty cool. Best of all - it's about 5 minutes from my house! :)
 Sam Jaksick Jr.'s AZ Auction Buck from 1991, 92 6/8 B&C This tag will be up for auction on March 20th at the Arizona Elk Society Banquet.
 Rodney hired Chad Smith and Pronghorn Guide Service to assist him on his (most likely) once in a lifetime Arizona Pronghorn Raffle Tag. He hunted a buck we had named FX for 2 days and couldn't get all the variables to mesh. On the 3rd day, his last day allocated for hunting, we decided to switch to our back up buck. This buck was no slouch coming in at an official 91 4/8 SCI and 89 B&C.
 Tony Grimmett and Sam Jaksick Jr. with Sandstone in AZ, 86 4/8 BC In 1992 Sam Jaksick Jr. bought one of the two Arizona auction tags and Robert E. Petersen bought the other one. The total bid for these two tags was $21,700. Jaksick elected to hire Pronghorn Guide Service once again while Petersen chose Larry Heathington of Sheep Ltd. for his first foray into the Arizona antelope country. Sam and Tony hunted Unit 10's infamous Coconino Plateau at a time when there were well over 100 tags being issued for the unit. Early in the hunt Sam passed a buck near Farmdam that was later taken by a friend of Tony's, Steve Hopkins, and scored 91 6/8 B&C. Sam passed because he was enamored with the look of another buck that Tony had found - the Sandstone buck. Sam decided he was the one he wanted. As you can see from the photos Sam and Tony didn't have an easy time putting Sandstone down as it took them all day to do it, but Sandstone officially scored 86 4/8 B&C and was the second largest buck entered from Arizona in 1992.  Steve Hopkins with Farmdam in AZ, 91 6/8 BC  Robert E. Petersen in AZ Petersen took his buck in 17B. I don't believe Petersen entered any of his heads into the record books (except the two he took in 2000) so I asked Larry Heathington awhile back what all of Mr. Petersen's bucks green scored. According to Larry this buck scored 88 6/8.
In 1991 Arizona auctioned two statewide antelope tags. Art Dubs bought his second one in as many years while a newcomer out of Reno, NV named Sam Jaksick Jr. purchased the other tag. Combined, both tags brought in $8,100 in revenue.
Both auction tag holders hired my dad, Tony Grimmett! To my knowledge never has this happened since this time where two different statewide auction tag buyers hired the same guide. (Since the inception of the Super Raffle in 2006 it has happened twice) Art took his buck on the lonely and desolate Plateau once again. His buck finished at 87 1/8 SCI and 86 4/8 B&C. Sam took his buck right before dark in 18A and won the award in Arizona for biggest buck for the year. Sam also won the B&C award for largest buck taken during the 3 year period between 1989 and 1991 at B&C's 21st Awards Banquet. Sam's buck scored 93 SCI, and 92 6/8 B&C. You can read the story about Sam's hunt HERE.   This was the very first Arizona auction tag my Dad was involved with. Art Dubs purchased the tag and heard through the grapevine that my Dad was a pretty good antelope hunter, though not really a guide at the time. Art decided to give him a chance and hired him. My Dad scoured the Plateau that year and found the buck you see above! The buck officially scored 90 7/8 SCI and 88 4/8 BC and won Arizona's award for the biggest buck taken in the state in 1990. Also, notice the white t-shirt my Dad is wearing. Even back then, long before he knew where this antelope road was going to take him, he wore a white t-shirt.
The buck measured 18 1/8 inches long on both horns and had a 6 1/8 inch left prong and a 6 2/8 inch right prong. The bases were both 7 1/8 inches. According to the AAF's tag fund revenue list their were two tags auctioned in 1990 - the total revenue for both was $11,000. However, their sheet (and mine) don't list who the other tag buyer was or what kind of buck he took. If I find out, or if anyone reading this knows, I'll post an updated version of this post with the new information. |
