Arizona Hunting Club & Outdoor Adventure Group

Building Hunting Journal
for Future Generations of Hunters

Over time even the best memory begins to fade away. Many families hunt the same areas from generation to generation. If you would like to see your kids and grand children enjoy the same hunting experiences that you enjoyed throughout the years, you should start keeping a hunting journal. It may sound like a pain in the ass, but what else do you have to do while sitting on a tree stand 4 to 8 hours a day? The knowledge you pass on the future generations of hunters will be priceless.

Have you ever gotten drawn for an area that you had never ever hunted before? Wouldn't it be great to be able to tap into a database of scouting reports that contained information like the one on this hand drawn diagram?

The Arizona Hunting Club has started building a database of written scouting reports for every stock tank in Arizona. We decided to do this to pass on our hunting experience with people that are just learning to hunt and those who will draw a hunting tag in area that is too far away for them to scout before the hunting season.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to browse through a database of stock tank reports like this one we did for Upper Brady Tank in Unit 6a South? If you'd like to help us out, here is a blank scouting report that you can send to us via email.

Here is what we try to record:

• What quadrangle map is the tank on and in what hunt unit? - Quadrangle Map: ? Hunt Unit: ?
• What are the GPS coordinates? - Latitude: ? Longitude: ?
• What was the prevailing wind at the time and date you were scouting?
• What does the tree cover look like? - Tall canopy, cedar trees, pine trees, oak trees, fruit trees?
• What does the ground cover look like? - brown grass, green grass, clover, grazed, not grazed, looks like a lawn mower has been eating there?
• What does the water look like? - stagnant, muddy from recent animal visits, clear, deep, shallow, dry?
• What does the shoreline look like? - quantity of deer tracks, elk tracks, turkey tracks, heavy on one side, wallows in the mud, dead animals, lots of green?
• How many game trails are leading to the tank? - lots of tracks, rubs, scrapes, which direction are they coming from, is one trail better than the others?
• How many ground blinds are built there? - what side of the tank are they located, good shape, need to be rebuilt, full of beer cans?
• Are there any trees suitable for treestands? - how tall, branches trimmed, what side of the tank? shooting lanes?
• Are there any game cameras located there? - did you use a game camera to scout this location? what did you see? any picture of big game animals?
• What is located within 1/4 mile perimeter? - grassy meadows, bedding areas, canyons, drainages, game trails, rubs, scrapes, roads, etc.?
• Any unusual sighting at this tank a hunter would want to know about? - hungry bears and/or mountain lions?
• Include a 4" x 4" hand sketched drawing. Take a digital photo of the drawing and send it.
• Digital photo facing the north side of tank (take picture with hand straight up)
• Digital photo facing the south side of tank (take picture with hand straight down)
• Digital photo facing the east side of tank (take picture with hand pointing right)
• Digital photo facing the west side of tank (take picture with hand pointing left)
• Digital photos of blinds:
• Digital photos of tree stand sites:
• Digital photos of game trail #1:
• Digital photos of Game Trail #2: