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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/14/2018 in Posts
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1 pointHeres my OTC Buck, shot him Monday just after noon, took about 8 or 9 days of spot and stalk/sitting. Have a shed of his and last 4 months of cam pics. This is my biggest coues and my first archery coues...addicted.
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1 pointShould have been 4-0 in LA but they blew 3 of the 4.......................aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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1 pointI went out with oz31p this evening and he was nice enough to meet me and bring out both pairs of binoculars for me to look through. I was surprised to see the difference between the two binoculars. The 12s were clearer and brighter than the 15s. I could see the 15s had the extra power, but I could still see the same objects. I think the 12s would work better for me. David
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1 pointThanks Brian, it was great meeting you today and picking up that antelope for my son. Because of homework and shrinking daylight, we usually discourage him from cleaning skulls on school nights. But he had a light homework day and had all his equipment set up and ready to when I pulled into the driveway, so he got a good jump on it tonight. It still needs drying time and finishing work, but it is looking fantastic. Congratulations on a beautiful buck.
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1 pointSo I’ve been off CWT since they switched the format and figured I better get back on here and update everyone on the hunt. It was an absolute grind, and I’m glad it’s over, but it was a really great time!!! I ended up buying a proof research 28 nosler and topping it with a 2.5-25x52 March. It was under 8# all put together. This thing is scary accurate with 195 eol Berger’s sitting on 86.5 gr RL 33. Anyhow, onto the hunt! I was lucky enough to have my 3 brothers along for it as well as my wife and my sister in law. To say I couldn’t have done it without them is an understatement! We picked out and area on google earth that I found based on the biologists suggestion. Her exact words were “it’s reallt hard to get to but you’ll find a lot of goats in there”. We all met for breakfast the day before the hunt opened and headed to the trailhead around 10:00am. The hike in to base was only 5 miles so I was thinking we’d be in easily by mid day. Boy was I wrong. Ran into another tag holder on the way in and he said “you’re going in there? You realize there’s no trail and it’s solid blow downs right?” On the plus side he did say they glassed some goats “way the heck back there” this summer!! We trudged on climbing about 2000 vertical feet in the first two miles. We followed the spine for a mile or so and then it dumped into the basin we picked out. I guess I have to say that I was a little underprepared for it!! On google earth I could see some blow downs, but I didn’t expect this! Literally every 30’ for the entire next 2 miles was a blowdown! We plodded on, finally making camp about 4:00 pm. We got a little glassing in that night and were pumped to find plenty of goats!! We glassed up a lone billy above camp a mile or so. We planned on getting a closer look at him in the am. We had to do all the bear stuff, hanging food, no chapstick etc. I had never dealt with that and it’s sort of a pain but I guess considering there was grizzly crap everywhere we needed to do it! The next morning we awoke to high 20’s and clear sky’s. We hiked up to the billy we had glassed. We found him not far from where we left him the night before. One of the many drawbacks of the blow downs is there was literally no cover to approach the goats with. While he was still way above us, I wasn’t sure how much activity they would put up with. Most of the goats I’ve run into on other hunts have been fairly stupid and just watch you from above within easy rifle distance. Realizing we didn’t have any choice, we just headed at him. At about 1000 yards he just got up and hopped over the ridge out of our lives. This made us realize this might be a little tougher then we expected. I wasn’t too bummed as I had gotten a pretty good look at him and he was the type of billy I knew I probably shouldn’t pass but also wasn’t a giant so I was a little optimistic that we would find a better one. It didn’t take long glassing and my brother glassed up a big group of nannies and kids. I had made a decision that I was only going to shoot a billy so we kept looking. About an hour later my other brother picked up some goats that we had somehow missed. It was two mature animals together. It didn’t take long looking to realize they were both mature billies. One had a Snow White coat and the other a kinda piss yellow one. The yellow one may have been a 1/2” bigger but the white one was much prettier. We decided whichever offered a shot would do. This time we were smarter and found a ridge to hide our approach. We picked a spot that we figured would get us to 500 yards and looped around to it. When we got there we peeked over and ranged them and it was 770 yards. I am capable of the shot with a decent wind read or a calm day, but the wind was literally blowing 3 different directions including straight up!! We pushed on and found a new location that got us what I thought would only be 100 yards on them. When we got there my brother ranged them and said 435!! Bingo. That’ll work! We slid into position, the only visible one was the Snow White billy. He was bedded with his left leg hanging off a cliff looking down on us. The obvious chest shot was actually blocked by his nose as he looked down so I decided to slip a bullet right past it and into his shoulder, hopefully catching some back lung and liver and breaking his close shoulder. With my brothers all locked on him I sent one up. He jumped up at the shot carrying his leg. I assumed it was a lethal shot but slammed another in his opposite shoulder as fast as I could. He dropped at this shot, anchored on the ledge he was bedded on!! Billy down! High fives all around! We didn’t realize that we were just getting to the hard part! It took us around 2 hours of rock climbing to get to him, and these billies were in some of the easier to get to stuff in there!! I was blown away with how gorgeous he was when we got to him. I had a lot of people tell me to wait for later season for better hair, but I’m in love with the dense look of his hair. It’s probably 3” long and dense. My first shot broke his close shoulder but wasn’t lethal due to the steep angle. I was very lucky to get a second one in him. His horns were awesome. I really didn’t know what to expect and wasn’t worried about an inch of horn either way but was really excited to see he was a mature billy. The biologist later measured him at 9” long, 5 1/2” bases and 7.5 years old. A really good billy for this part of Montana. We were able to get some pics on the shelf he was on but had to lower him with paracord to get him somewhere safe to butcher. With packs loaded with meat and a life size cape we slowly picked our way down the mountain and back to spike camp. The next morning we got up and loaded our packs and headed out. We had between 40-60# packs going in with our food and gear for 5 days. There’s a surprising amount of meat on a mtn goat and that combined with the cape (which weighed 40#) we all ended up with 50-70# packs on the way out. It took us 5 hours to go the 5 miles out. I can’t explain how demoralizing those blow downs are!!! I’ve never been so happy to see my truck!! We were all wiped out so we stayed in Cooke city that night. A giant ribeye and a half dozen Coors lights never taste so good!! I’m really lucky to have drawn the tag while I was still fairly young and somewhat fit. When we got home we butchered the meat, which looked and smelled excellent. I had heard so many horror stories about goat meat but I don’t believe what I hear as I’ve heard people say antelope, Sandhill crane, and sharptail grouse are all gross as well and they couldn’t be more wrong. My wife cooked up some tenderloin and backstrap that night and I have to say it was incredible. Similar flavor to antelope but maybe a little tougher. I was really thinking I would have to grind it all I to chorizo or jerky but we instead did all roasts and steaks with it. We got back to ND and turned and burned to the Missouri breaks for an archery elk hunt. Saw 25-30 bulls and had some close calls but no arrows in the air. I had to go back to work for 2 days to make sure the place didn’t burn down and now I’m off to Utah for an elk hunt! I love this time of year!
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1 pointSat in a blind and spot and stalked for about 8-9 days. The last 4 days i sat in a blind out of frustration, and at about 2:35 it all came together on monday.
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1 pointIn a meeting with co-workers, somebody got a text from a news organization stating a plane had crashed into the WTC. Did not think much about it figuring some incompetent dolt crashed his Cessna 150 into a building. Solemn day. Later that night in my backyard, watching USAF aircraft flying grids over Phoenix was a sobering moment.
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1 pointTo contact Hunts for Heroes, call me at: (480)760-3868. I'd be happy to explain everything with regards to tag donation and Point Guard. We make sure the tag transfer is handled properly and that you retain your bonus points (if you purchased Point Guard). Going forward, a disabled Arizona veteran gets to go hunting in Arizona's amazing outdoors with Hunts for Heroes providing the experience free-of-charge! Pretty cool for you --- very cool for the veteran!!!
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1 pointUsing the 900 Mhz radio frequency, Garmin’s Astro 900 is a GPS and GLONASS dog-tracking handheld that can track up to 20 dogs at a range of up to five miles — and can update their location every 2.5 seconds. “Canadian hunters no longer have to settle for second best,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Now they can have a robust, reliable, and easy-to-use dog tracking system, which is approved for use in their country. And since it also can be used in the U.S., it’s an option at large hound events where many systems may be in use near each other.” The Astro 900 is pre-loaded with topographical U.S. and southern Canada maps and turn-by-turn road maps for North America. In addition, the bundle comes with a one-year BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription. The new handheld also includes enhanced Hunt Metrics dog performance data. like distance traveled, time afield, and an automatic accounting of how many times a dog has treed or pointed game – valuable statistics in evaluating a dog’s performance. Built to take the rigors of hard-charging dogs and the outdoors, the handheld is IPX7 water rated and the T 9 collar is water rated to 1 ATM1. Battery life on the Astro 900 is up to 20 hours, and battery life on the T 9 dog device is 24 to 40 hours (depending on use). The Astro 900 must be used in conjunction with the T 9 dog device, as other Garmin tracking collars are not compatible. The Astro 900 works with Garmin’s new DriveTrack 71 in-vehicle dog tracker and GPS navigator. When paired with an Astro handheld, the large, nearly seven-inch pinch-to-zoom touchscreen display on the DriveTrack 71 makes it easy to locate a pack of up to 20 dogs and updates their location every 2.5 seconds. The DriveTrack 71 also comes preloaded with topographical maps for U.S. and southern Canada and 1-year BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription for enhanced in-vehicle dog tracking solutions. When afield, data from the Astro 900 can be viewed on any Garmin fēnix 3, fēnix 5, tactix Charlie or tactix Bravo series smartwatch, providing a hands-free glance at a dog’s distance and direction and immediate notification via vibration alerts when a dog trees or points game. The Astro 900 is the latest solution from Garmin’s expanding outdoor segment, which focuses on developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ outdoor experiences. Whether hiking, hunting, trail running, mountain biking, golfing, diving or using satellite communication, Garmin outdoor devices are becoming essential tools for outdoor enthusiasts of all levels. For more information about Garmin’s other outdoor products and services, go to Garmin Outdoors. The post Garmin’s Astro 900 has it all — and it’s approved for use in Canada appeared first on Garmin Blog. View the full article
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1 pointI have a trigger tech special its set at 2 Lbs but feels a bit lighter. My second rifle has a timney 510 set at 2.5 lbs
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1 pointOne thing to help make sure it's a good experience for a new hunter is to remember to not pressure them to shoot. Let them decide if they are comfortable with the shot or not. If you pressure them to shoot and the person makes a bad shot, it may turn them off from hunting all together. Make the hunt about learning and not necessarily about killing something. Your ultimate goal is to foster a desire to hunt, that may mean passing on a shot that you might take, but that the person doesn't feel comfortable with. Sometimes it's hard for experienced hunters to remember what it's like to never have hunted.
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1 pointI have started listening to some of your podcasts and picked up some useful info as well as good entertainment.
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1 pointGreat info thanks, so as a ranch volunteer I will be putting out a lot of deer cane #6 for the cows. They really love that stuff, it gives them a shiny coat. Kidding of course, thanks again
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1 pointAll of this can be quite confusing, and there are numerous regulations that cover these topics depending on which critter you may be hunting. There are federal regulations that are rather broad regarding baiting waterfowl or migratory birds. Don't even think about it. You can hunt around normal agricultural practices or food plots. Bears have had a prohibition on baiting for quite a while. Again, don't even think about it. These are state regulations, but again preclude virtually any baiting of bears. During the last year, additional state rules were promulgated that regulate the placement of bait for other big game. There are 4 things that are exempted. Those things are: (1) water (so you can place water out to bait in deer), (2) salt (you can use water softener salt or white salt blocks, or even organic sea salt if you wish), or (3) salt-based products manufactured for the livestock industry (so you can use a trace mineral salt block). Finally, you can hunt over a nutritional supplement that has been placed by a livestock producer for his livestock (so you can hunt over a molasses wheel, but you can't place the molasses wheel yourself). Cervid urine is another recent change (prohibition). The recent rules were intended to address potential CWD issues in part, and the cervid urine is that entirely. You can use a synthetic, but not the real stuff. If you use the real stuff, you are spreading urine from captive game farm cervids. Urine carries prions, which are involved in CWD transmission. Consequently, you are spreading captive cervid urine, which is where the most likely source of CWD may come from, around Arizona where no CWD currently occurs. Synthetics won't spread the prions or CWD. Hopefully this clears up some of this confusion. Brian Wakeling Game Branch Chief