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My little girl filled her elk tag on Friday evening. The youth tags were doubled in the unit this year, which made it quite a bit more crowded than we expected. We had to work a bit harder and we were blessed with some really good luck. She shot this cow at 90 yards with about 30 minutes of shooting light left. She had been broadside, but turned quartering towards us. My girl had been ready to pull the trigger, but stopped to ask what to do when she turned. I told her to imagine where the opposite lung would be and shoot along that line. She put the bullet just in front of the near shoulder and it passed through and destroyed the off-side lung. The cow reared up and came down hard. She never took another step. This is her third big game animal in the past year. All three were taken with one shot and we never had to do any tracking. Some of you know the story of how she got sick right after the Kaibab doe hunt last year. When she was two weeks removed from the hospital the good people at Y.O.U. hooked her up with some mentors that helped her fill her pig tag with as little physical effort as possible. Her strength is back to normal now, and she is in remission. She looks as good as ever. We recovered the bullet too. I loaded her 7mm08 down to reduced recoil loads. It was pushing a 139gr interlock at 2440 fps. This is what the bullet looked like after an impact at around 2300 fps and passing through about 2 feet of elk. It retained 119 of its 139 grains. It's a great bullet when not pushed too fast (or too slow)...one of the first harvests I have been a part of where a cup and core bullet was used...I'm usually a Barnes guy, but this did the trick.

Had a great time in Payson this weekend for the youth cow hunt. We got to meet some new friends and spend times with old ones. It surprises me how easy it is to get along with other hunters everyone was on the same page this weekend and we had a blast going 3 for 3 on youth tags. Big thanks to Adam(big browns), Chris and Thomas we had so much fun even though you duped us into squirrel hunting at the end. I love AZ you guys rock keep up the solid work and good luck to all on the rest of your seasons.

Well here is the short and sweet version of my wife's first elk hunt. She drew a limited opportunity "Any Elk" HAM hunt. I knew it had the potential to be a tough hunt so contacted my friend Shane Koury to help us out. We got on a monster bull early on day one that none of us had ever seen before, but he wasn't in a shootable location. As we moved in on him, he and his cows busted us. We were determined that he would be our target bull and set about to pursue him the rest of the hunt. The first day and a half were great. He was a very silent bull and bugled very little, which made it tough to find and trail him in a flat, cedar heavy unit. Late on day two the weather started moving in and for the next few days we were pelted by rain, snow, sleet, hail, and heavy wind with little to no breaks in the weather. This weather effectively killed the rut in our unit. The bugling slowed to just one bugle before light by day two. By day four the bulls were back in bachelor groups and there was zero rut activity or behavior. On day five Shane and I did an evaluation of my wife's mood. We agreed that we (mostly me) were putting our standards and expectation of bull size/class on her and encouraged her to be more open with us about what she was looking for in the hunt. It was clear she really just wanted to shoot a mature bull, and we didn't want to kill her enthusiasm with the continued grind for our target bull. After we "adjusted" our expectations and plans, we quickly came across this guy in a bachelor group of three bulls. Kursty made a good 235 yard shot with the muzzleloader. We heard the loud unmistakable thump of the bullet making impact, but he ran off into the thick cedars. After a short time we began tracking him. No blood, but because of all the moisture, a blind man could have tracked his deep prints in the mud. After bumping him a couple times we agreed to back out and give him four hours. It was probably about 40 degrees at the time so we weren't too concerned about meat spoilage. We could tell he was struggling to stay ahead of us and was done, but needed some time. Those four hours drove my wife to a near nervous breakdown. After picking up the trail where we left off that morning, we found he had bedded up not far from where we left him. Kursty put one last shot in him at 21 yards and he was done. This was a fantastic first elk hunt for my wife that had a little bit of everything, highs and lows, grinding it out, crazy weather, a little rut activity, etc. I am super happy for her and can't wait to get her out in the field again.

In 2013 I remember watching a TV show about Antelope hunting in Wyoming. I vividly remember wanting to go Antelope hunting really badly, but didn’t know how or when I could afford that type of out of state hunt. After a little research I discovered I could buy preference points without having to buy an out of state license. That’s when I recognized I could afford to start accumulating points until I could afford to go out of state and draw a good tag. Fast forward to the spring of 2018 when I finally decided to cash in my 5 points for what Eastman’s calls a “Blue Chip” Unit. Upon receiving the notification I had drawn the tag I immediately called a friend (Cliffton)in Utah to assist me with the hunt. We had talked about hunting together in Wyoming for years. This would finally be the year we could hunt together. For this hunt I was planning on taking my bow, my Ruger Precision and Custom long range Savage Striker pistol. I had spent numerous trips to the range with all three and was very prepared to take whatever type of shot that presented itself. Approximately 3 weeks prior to leaving for my hunt I was having lunch with my boss. While at lunch I reminded him I would be leaving for vacation in 3 weeks. After further discussion we realized one of my key staff members would be gone at the same time. With another key staff member already out on Military leave we both could not be gone at the same time. Knowing my hunt would not be end for several more weeks I decided to cancel the original week of vacation and extend it two weeks later. This extension would cause me to spend additional driving time. The extension would also cut a few days off of my hunting. Upon arriving in Wyoming I would only have 3 days to hunt before having to return home. I would now leave for a family vacation to San Diego & Disney Land on Friday October 28th. We spent 5 amazing days in California with the family! The only issue now is we would be driving home on Tuesday October 2nd. The minute we arrived home I had to immediately leave for Wyoming! We left Disney Land at 7am. We arrived in Phoenix at 2pm and I left for Wyoming within 15 minutes. I knew I wouldn’t make it to Wyoming, but I wanted to make it as far as possible. The plan was to meet Clifton in Salt Lake City the next day and leave for Wyoming ASAP! After a long day of driving I made it to Beaver Utah by 1 am. After a short 5 hour nap I continued my drive to my Clifton’s house. Upon arrival at his house Clifton informed me we would not be able to leave until he and his wife finished laying sod in their front yard. He told me to take a nap inside his house and we would leave as soon as he was finished. Of course I couldn’t let him work without my help so after a few hours of laying sod for the first time we were finally on the last leg to Wyoming. We arrived to Wyoming around 9pm that night. We had a fantastic steak and then an even better night’s rest. With excitement in the air it was difficult to get to sleep, but with 2 days of driving behind me I settled in for a short, but well needed rest. The next day was a beautiful sunny, blue sky Wyoming morning. We had a quick breakfast, filled up the truck and headed into the vast Wyoming prairie to start the hunt. If you have never been to Wyoming I can assure you that filling a buck and 2 doe tags was not going to be a problem. The real challenge would be to find a quality buck that was worthy of waiting 5 years. My buddy had hunted this unit on several different occasions so we had a good idea where to go and what size goat we would peruse. Within 30 seconds of leaving town we started seeing Bucks in my unit. That started the very long day of looking over 200 plus bucks. I know some of you might feel 200 is an exaggeration, but let me assure you, it’s not! We actually counted! I’ve never seen so many Antelope bucks in my life! It was crazy! The day ended with us seeing several great bucks, but nothing worth ending my hunt so soon. I stated earlier that I had planned on taking my bow on this hunt. Unfortunately with having to leave my house so soon after arriving home from Disney Land I forgot my bow. This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. Throughout this hunt we saw numerous Pope & Young Bucks either right next to the road or within a short easy stock. If I could do anything over on this hunt I would have brought my bow and shot my buck and both does with my bow. The second day started much the same as the first day. We immediately started seeing bucks. On this day we looked at the opposite side of the unit to hopefully find a great buck. After looking over 100 bucks by noon we still hadn’t seen anything worth taking. We did see several great Muley Bucks lounging in private alfalfa fields. I’ve never seen such huge bucks with zero fear of humans. It was incredible to see. Nearing the end of the day we located a monster shooter buck in a valley without roads. This buck was definitely over 80 inches and was Amazing! The problem is the buck was on a nearby reservation. The buck was close to public land so we decided to come back to him in the morning to hopefully find him on public. With about 30 minutes left of shooting light we located another great buck. This buck had really tall horns, but was weak on the prongs. He was also on public land and was only 300 yards off the road. We spent a few minutes carefully looking over this buck with the spotting scope, but had a very hard time judging him. The real problem with this buck is we kept thinking about the monster buck from 30 minutes earlier. If we hadn’t seen the monster buck we would have 100% shot this buck. We decided to pass and started driving back to the hotel. Of course we were both uneasy with our decision and began seriously second guessing our decision. This ultimately led me to turn around and attempt to harvest this buck. We arrived a few minutes to late and just in time to watch the buck walk onto private land. This turned out to be the only mistake I had made on this trip. With only 1 more day to hunt I should have shot this buck! The drive back to the hotel that night had a strange somber feeling to it. With only the following day left to hunt we were both a little uneasy about what we would find the next day. Harvesting a buck in this unit or any unit in Wyoming is not hard. What we were finding out is harvesting a Boone and Crocket style Buck was becoming almost impossible! While eating an amazing Prime Rib steak I recognized that I had made a huge mistake and should have shot the tall buck! Unfortunately I let “score” get in the way of “fun”. We ended the night with a solid plan to go after the Reservation buck first thing in the morning and then go after the tall buck if that didn’t work. At first light we were both staring at the Reservation buck. He was chasing does about 200 yards on the wrong side of the fence. We felt he might cross onto public, but with only 10 hours left to hunt we decided to find the tall buck. About 30 minutes later we located the tall buck, but he was still on private land, but was slowly making his way to public land. We decided to look into some other area’s for an hour and come back to see if he had made his way onto public land. We drove away and found numerous more bucks. As it had been the previous 2 days all the bucks were nice, but not worth tagging. It was now noon and my heart was beginning to feel that all too familiar feeling of Dred and regret! We returned an hour later to find the tall buck. Thankfully we found him quickly and on public land. The problem was he was steadily walking towards private land. We quickly attempted to get close, but as it was the previous night he made it onto private land before we could make a move. At this time I was heartbroken! With only 6 hours left to hunt I knew my chances of getting this buck or any nice buck was seriously slim! We decided to look at some completely different country for the next few hours. This ended up being another huge mistake, because this was the only country we didn’t see any antelope in. It was beautiful country, just void of any living creatures. We returned to are of the tall buck at 2pm. Surprisingly we located him bedded about 100 yards onto public land. We quickly made plans and began our stalk. The stalk was going perfectly, until a doe popped up in the general area the buck was bedded. The doe ran off, but we never saw the buck go with her. We continued and got within 100 yards of the last location of the bedded buck. Unfortunately after a few minutes we realized the buck was gone. We never saw him leave and we could only surmise he was bedded close to the doe and she took him with her. It was now 3:30 on my last day to hunt. My buddy could easily tell I was beyond stressed out! I couldn’t believe I had come to Wyoming and would not get a quality buck! I knew I could kill a smaller buck just about anywhere in the unit, but that’s not what I wanted. I wanted a mature buck! At this time I had already made up my mind that I was not going to shoot any buck just to fill a tag. If it wasn’t mature and had the look I wanted I wasn’t going to tag out. Shortly after this realization I suddenly remembered the two bucks in the valley without any roads. The area was only a few minutes away so we decided to try and locate them. Within a few minutes we were fortunate to locate the bucks within 100 yards of where we found them a few days earlier. The bucks were only 650 yards away. I could have easily taken a shot with my Ruger Precision 6.5 creedmoor, but I decided I wanted to end the day and hunt with a challenge. Therefore I decided to take my long range pistol on the stalk. I was very comfortable taking a shot at 400 yards. Thankfully the terrain had enough small draws that enabled us to stay out of view for most of the hunt. We had a plan to get to a particular hill that would hopefully get us within 300 yards. Well, our plan worked a little too well. Upon popping our heads up out of the draw I immediately located the bucks and they immediately located me. That’s because were where within 150 yards. We spent the next 30 seconds attempting to the video camera working and getting me set up for the shot. This proved very difficult to do quietly and ultimately didn’t work. The bucks slightly spooked and ran out to 230 yards. At this time my Clifton told me to forget about the video and shoot when I was ready. I had a pretty solid rest, but not great. I took the shot as soon as the buck stopped. Once I recovered from the initial recoil of the gun I was able to see dirt fly about 3 feet in front of the buck. Clifton immediately said those dreaded words “You Missed”. I was not shocked, because my rest was not really solid. I was hugely dissatisfied with myself and wished I hadn’t taken the shot. The rest of the Antelope ran out to 300 yards and looked back at us for about 30 seconds. I could have taken another shot, but without seeing the second buck in the group I wanted to make sure I missed before attempting another shot. We gathered out gear and hiked up to the area the buck was standing. While hiking up I was filled with emotions. I was sad, mad and disappointed in myself! I was shocked I had just missed my last opportunity at a buck an hour before dark on my last day to hunt! While walking up I tried to keep it together, but with only an hour left to hunt I knew the hunt was over! I walked 5 more steps and I caught a glimpse of something white in the grass ahead of me. That’s when all my sadness and disappointment turned to hopefulness and excitement. Another 5 steps and I could see those beautiful black horns lying on the ground. To say I was excited and elated would be a huge understatement! I had just filled my tag with a really nice Antelope Buck with a pistol. The feeling was Awesome! After taking about 100 pictures we cut up the buck and began the mile hike back to the truck. We headed back to town for dinner and ice and began the long drive back to Salt Lake City. The rest of the trip ended much like the beginning of the trip. A lot of driving! We arrived in Salt Lake about 11pm that night. I continued my drive for another few hours until I reached Beaver again. I awoke the next day to rain and snow. The rain and snow continued throughout the rest of my drive home. At one point I was in a mini blizzard just north of Kanab. The rain continued all the way through phoenix. This trip taught me one very important lesson. There is nothing wrong with working hard to find a huge animal, but the search for a monster did take away a little of the fun. Ultimately I made a few mistakes on this hunt, but the knowledge and lessons learned were invaluable! Thank you very much to all those who assisted me on this adventure!!!!

Another successful youth hunt still up here have 1 more tag to fill.

Well, after my wife killed her bull (see other post from a few minutes ago), it was time to get my little princess some practice. She turned 10 this past Saturday, and has her first big game hunt at the end of this month (3A/3C deer). There was no hesitation in her as she dropped the hammer on some squirrels. Lucky for her, she knows someone who does euro mounts (big brother) and made her a nice trophy for her birthday.

This past weekend my 10 year old had her first ever deer hunt and she did awesome! Think her highlight was being allowed to drive the Ranger on her own (which she did for hours around camp) but mine will be seeing her take her first deer with my wife and I next to her. She had to work through some gun shyness that developed prior to the season starting but we took a couple steps back and built her back up.

This was truly a great hunt!!! Going 3 for 3 and seeing the smiles on the kids faces was awesome. Easily my favorite hunt I have ever been a part of. Great times with great people!!! Sorry we poached some squirrels from you guys

Over the years I have been lucky enough to help each of my 3 sons kill their 1st deer when they turned 10 years old. There is something real special about being with a kid when he kills his first. All 3 boys got it done in different units. My oldest son was a a leftover tag in 34b. My middle son was in 36c on a general tag and my youngest, Camm, luckily drew a youth tag in 34a. We had never really hunted 34a before and our scouting trips mostly yielded places that we didn’t want to hunt. Luckily, the place we went on opening morning proved to be a good one. Within the first two minutes of glassing light we found two bucks and a few minutes later we had a third. The day ended with 5 bucks and a bunch of does located but no shot opportunities. Over the next few days this became our theme. We would find bucks, make a stalk, get set up on them, and wait for the right shot angle. Unfortunately that last part proved to be the hardest. Camm had probably 5 different bucks in his scope before he finally pulled the trigger. Every time he would find them in the scope they would not be broadside or be partially covered by brush or they would start walking right as he would be set. It was starting to get pretty frustrating. Finaly the stars all lined up for him and we found a buck in a good spot that gave him plenty of time to get ready for the shot. Even then, we had to reposition three times as the deer moved across the hillside. After a couple of not so great shots, he made a great one that sealed the deal. Really proud of him and all 3 of my boys that got to be here for this experience. We got up very early every day and climbed up a very steep and long hill every morning and stayed out all day glassing on most days. They did great. And got along pretty well despite having to fight over a limited number of binos and tripods. My wife and 3 year old daughter even made a trip to hang out with us one evening. It was fun having them around for sure but we didn’t see many deer that evening haha Also big shout out to the mule deer foundation for setting up the youth camp in Sonoita. We only camped there a couple days because it was too far from where we were hunting but it was cool being around all the kids and seeing them so excited about hunting.

I got almost hourly updates during this hunt....and decided to go buy my own preference points for a future WY antelope hunt!

Big thanks to Mark Healy at Healy Arms in Tempe.

Haha I knew you were gonna go there 3E807741-B680-48DA-AC5C-FCE423CEBCAA.mov

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I was truley blessed this year...and was lucky to harvest this buck from my tree stand at 19yds. Had 6 bucks come in on my first day in stand. This buck decided to come in as I was preparing to leave for the day. I only had this buck on camera twice... but in 3 weeks from the first picture he must have doubled in size...amazing, and I'm sure he had a little growing left to do as well. We rough scored him at 107 1/8"

Awesome experience - I love Wyoming! Thanks for the story...

That’s the cleanest truck bed I’ve ever seen! Wyoming is special for antelope although I lived there for school I never hunted them. At the range we’d get called to stop shooting until heards left. I saw more huge antelope dead on the road than I do rabbits and skunks in az. Congrats on an eventful hunt.

Thanks for sharing!!... Super Awesome!!!

Nice story. Lessons learned for sure. Don't let the stress of getting a book animal get in the way of the fun and adventure. Congratulations on getting your tag filled with a very nice buck!!!

Your wife is a trooper. Glad she got to experience the hunt, full circle. Good meals coming ahead!

Oh, I thought you wanted to trade a rifle for a wife. Was going to ask for pictures of the rifle.

Yeah that’s it exactly. I just wanted to avoid stepping over another hunter. I found a draw I wanted to watch when the sun comes up opening morning. When I was hiking out I saw this set up and it became obvious I wasn’t the only one hoping to shoot a toad out of that canyon. I searched my pack for some way to leave a note but couldn’t scrabble together something.

I think the 12x vs 15x comparison depends on use. I have extensively reviewed both side by side as I own the 15hd and my brother in law owns the 12el. The 12s are slightly brighter and clearer but there is a difference in magnification that my bro in law and I both agreed is noticable when looking for details, and not just at long range, we noticed it at closer ranges too. If you plan to continue to use your 10s and don't mind carrying both, get the 15x. If you want to carry only one pair and are willing to retire the 10s, get the 12s. I plan to buy the 12s at some point in the future and will use my 10el, 12el, and 15slc hd all depending on the situation.

Diesel is the answer. The more the merrier . Its mostly oil and it stays in the ground for a long time. Bleach or ammonia evaporates pretty soon and deer will come back. Don’t ask me how i know, just take my advice.

My vice is shooting and guns. So I spend accordingly. I have some cheap guns that shoot well. They are mainly reserved for loaners. But customs are where I reach when I go shooting or hunting. Smoother actions, built how I want them built, in chamberings I wanted. Look how I want. Triggers that I want. Twist rates that I want. Features that I want. Have scopes that I want. I want my rifles to shoot the bullets that I want. I want those bullets to go where I want them to as far as possible. Cheap guns can get you there. But the difference is like the following: Ford Fiesta or Ford GT? 1970 Datsun or Ford F250 Super Duty crew cab 4x4 diesel? 1 man tent or 35' 5th wheel? Mtn bike or Polaris Ranger? Schlitz Malt Liquor or a fine wine? Singlewide trailer or the mansion on the hill? Tasco or Tangent Theta? Bologna sammich on Wonderbread or 2" thick USDA Prime ribeye? Inner tube or 22' Ranger? Call it vanity, call it wanting the finer things in life, call it blowing your money. Potato, potato. We all have our voices in life. We all have that itch we need to scratch.