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My son connected with this cool forky today. He was sure pumped and I couldn't be more proud. His 2nd year in a row dropping one...he's making me look really bad.

After not drawing a tag in the initial draw and having no hunts this fall I decided to put in for one of the left over tags. I was lucky enough to get a whitetail tag down on the border as my second choice. From the start my intentions were to use my custom XP-100 pistol in 6.5 CM and shoot the first buck that provided an opportunity. I shot this little guy at 1:00 PM opening day while he was feeding on a hillside at 188yds. After not hunting whitetail in over 25 years I had forgotten how small there bodies were. Not a trophy but will make some great jerky and sausage.

It is a shoe. Duh.

My two jap crap rigs will out preform almost anything. I had a power wagon that couldn't come close to my Toyotas. Good luck with the sale!

I have MANY questions on this post.... 1. What? 2. Are you being serious? (If "Yes", see #5) 3. Are you being sarcastic? (Similar to #4) 4. Are you just messing with us? 5. Are you drunk?

Well short story. Hunted three hard days. One missed shot opportunity. Had to work 2 days. Watching the clock waiting for the time to get back to my glassing spot. Hoping for redemption. Finally Wednesday morning came and 10 minutes into glassing turned up 3 coues bucks feeding with 2 muley bucks. Range 255. One shot later from the Savage 7MM and patiently/impatiently waiting to make my way across the canyon to retrieve him. Not my biggest coues but a tough fun hunt. One heck of a pack out of the canyon. Big thanks to Josh for dropping everything and helping me with the pack out. Well I just bought a new truck and was waiting to get back on the board with my second coues deer. Does anyone on here know where I can get a coueswhitetail window decal. Thanks.

Great season! Got into a herd having a full blown party, opening morning (a week late in 7w this year for the early muzzy hunt in there) Had some bruisers just out of bow range. Got into big bulls every single day and no shortage of amazing elk hunting! Met some cool hunters in the field, earned some blisters and bruises. Found a good shed, hiked through God's most beautiful country, I had a great time overall. I called in many bulls, saw some of the most jacked up bulls I've ever seen, took a shot and missed at a 3x6 that was so strangely cool.. and an hour after that, I managed to slock this little guy on Monday evening. Ranged him at 86 yards, as I began to punch the trigger I noticed a blade hanging out if the rubber band..... Talk about a dilemma..... I punched the trigger anyway. Bull ran 40 yards and spin-out dead! Had him half quartered up before my fellow archers showed up, 2 trips down the mtn, and we had him bagged and tagged and hanging in the cool air back at camp by 1am. My 4th archery bull and I really really enjoyed the hunt. Just got home to do laundry and work tomorrow, then back up the hill to call in another bull for my buddy.

The only thing I can think is that it's some kind of salt lick?

Umm..... So don't buy it. Haters gonna hate, I suppose.... 🙄

Big baller luxury hunting rig! Nice vehicle, and looks immaculate for an 18 year old vehicle.

Your zero stays your zero (under the exact same conditions) in a FFP or SFP scope on any magnification. But change conditions, like elevation, temps, etc. it will shift minutely. Beyond 100 (or 200 if that is your zero) is where you see a difference in drops from where you usually shoot. Still pretty close out to 400 or so, but changes in POI will occur as conditions change. Go from low elevation cold weather to high elevation summer weather, and drops change significantly out past 400, and big changes occur past 600-1000+. Your clicks stay the same in FFP or SFP scopes on any magnification. 1/4 MOA clicks are 1/4 MOA clicks @ 3x or 24X @ 100 yards. @ 200 yards, they become 1/2 MOA clicks in both FFP or SFP scopes. 400 yards, they become 1 MOA clicks in both FFP or SFP scopes. 800 yards, yep, 2 MOA clicks, 1000 yards, 2.5MOA clicks, and so on. Subtension values are what change at different magnifications in a SFP, whereas they remain constant in a FFP scope. A SFP scope with subtensions are ONLY accurate at max magnification & 100 yards. So say you have a BDC reticle in a SFP scope. Usually*, SFP BDC reticles are 0, 1.5MOA, 3.5MOA, 7.5MOA, 11MOA (or similar). That is @ 24X in a 6-24x50 scope. But, once you turn down magnification, all bets are off. You have to go to half max magnification to get back on track. @ 12X, the same subtensions become 3, 7, 15, 22MOA holds. When you go to 6X, they become 6, 14, 30, 44MOA subtensions. But only @ 100 yards. Start moving out, and those numbers change again, and you better break out a ballistic program and a calculator. FFP subtensions remain constant at any magnification. A 5 MOA mark is a 5 MOA mark @ 6x, 8X, 12.2X, 15.7X, 20.1X, or 24X. At 100 yards. At 200, they double in inches. Still 5MOA, but it is now 10". At 300, they triple to 15" at 400, the quadruple to 20" which is still 5MOA.....@ 1000, they are 10X or 50" but still 5 MOA (yeah, I don't know that term). But magnification has no effect of subtension values.

The only pic I got. Time was of the essence. I'll have a cool Euro mount done by Authentic and a buffalo rug. That is the entrance wound on this side. See the horn that's broomed off. Not so easy to see, but she is laying in a nest of cats claw. I have a few new scratches.

First off, you are right. There was 10 tags issued for the late hunt and all are cow tags. Russ wasn't up there at the beginning of the hunt because he was helping a client fill a sheep tag and other lousy excuses. (just joking) On the opening day, there were 6 of us hunters and we tried to coordinate as if Russ was there. One of the hunters had a friend who has filled a tag on this hunt in the past and he was helpful in getting us organized for opening day. On opening day, I was designated an area in a pinch point. If buffalo were moving through the area, this area could be hot, but as it turned out, buffalo were not in that area. Nor were there any sightings in any of the areas that the other hunters sat that day, day 1. Others did some scouting on the first day and locations of fresh bison activity was discovered. One hunter tagged out on Saturday morning, day 2, based on information she found scouting the previous day. On the second day, I was recommended to go and sit an area that had a nice dirt tank and a pretty meadow. That is what I asked for. I wanted to make the time sitting the blind very enjoyable with just that type of setting. The problem is, I have never been in the Bab before this hunt and I did not have my GPS with me. I drove past my suggested area. By the time I realized my mistake for sure, I was quite a ways past that location. I decided to educate myself a bit and drive along an area with known recent bison activity. With a little scouting, I found a trick tank that had plenty of fresh bison sign. Russ already had a blind on the tank/ salt lick. I sat that blind for a 3 or 4 hours without anything coming in, but I knew this was the place for me. I decided to set my own blind up next to Russ's. With my own blind set, I can leave some stuff in my blind without having to carry all my stuff to and from the blind each day. One rule of Russ's blinds is that you do not leave anything behind when you leave that set each day. On day 3, I misjudged and parked about 3 miles from my blind sight as opposed to only 3/4 to 1 mile away. Took my old fat butt too long to get to the blind. I sat that blind all day and didn't see anything all day, BUT............BUT I heard bison moving around me. Their hooves sound like horses hooves as the buffalo moved along the gravel road. My blind location gave me a very limited view around me. All I can do is sit and wait. I remember Russ saying the worse thing you can do, is come bounding out of a blind and booger up the buffalo. He says to sit it out and wait for them to come to you. At the end of that day, I walked out while it was still light, because I had a long walk ahead of me. At a puddle, just about 200 yards from the blind, there were signs of mass chaos. The buffalo made big wallows in ash laden silty areas along both sides of the road. Right at the edge of the puddle were signs of some fighting, including some splatters of blood on the ground. Then I saw a horn that apparently was broken off in the fight. All this happened right outside my blind just 200 yards away while I sat in the blind. On day 4, I knew where to park my truck and I was totally set. I sat that blind all day, but it was much quieter than the day before. About an hour before dark, I could hear some noise coming from my left, the park side. Then a couple of bison came running in, fallowed by more and more bison. Soon, there were some 40 or 50 bison jammed together around the salt and trick tank. I was watching the bison trying to pick out a cow that was clear from the rest. I watched and waited for about 10 minutes. One big cow started moving away from the herd. I got a glimpse of utters, so there was no doubt it was a cow. She was big with a horn on one side broomed off about 2/3 gone, so I knew she was old. She didn't have a cow tagging along and her hide on her hump had some gray. She might have even been the lead cow. As she moved to my left, she was in line with the low sun such that I really couldn't make out her front legs. I aimed slightly back, as to avoid her elbow and squeezed off a shot from my 444 Marlin. She ran about 25 yards back towards the park and fell over in a cloud of dust. The herd lingered for a while as I waited in the blind. I did not want to booger them up any more so I waited about 10 minutes before I went to the cow. There was a huge bull that came in about 5 minutes after the first bison came in. This bull literally towered over all the other bison like Shaquile O'Neil. As impressive as he was I was looking for a clear shot at a cow so I didn't watch the bull for long. Two other hunters filled their tags on the same day. As it turned out, I ended up having to break her down by myself. That job beat me up, but I got her done. I was able to drive up to her so that made it easier. THE END

I did pretty good at big lake a couple weeks ago. The big one is 21”. All 16”+. Caught all cut throats

Yea, I had a chance to talk with him for a few minutes. That's where my info came from. The bottom line from what I gathered, the feds activities in the park are not likely to effect the late bison hunt much. The biggest factor now is the weather. Cooling temps and continued precipitation isn't helping, but that's the biggest factor. I'll be heading up there next Tuesday or Wednesday. Russ is a guide that usually plays a central role in each of the Kaibab Bison hunts. Basically he has blinds, salt licks and cameras set up that he shares with hunters even if they are not paying clients. Generally, he designates hunters to particular blind sites based on his knowledge of where the buffalo are. It works to his favor, because by having an organizing role, he can keep individuals from screwing things up for everybody else. Everybody has a greater chance for success when they work together with these particular hunts. People are amazed that he offers as much of his time and energy to help people, sometimes purely out of the kindness of his heart. On my hunt Russ was not present, but he still allows bison hunters to use his blinds. To help understanding, you gotta know that what happens in Grand Canyon Park borders is the National Park/Feds business and is totally disconnected with the State. Management outside the park on national forest is a states authority, but on the Park it's the Feds. You can almost go as far as to say that the State and Feds are often at odds with each other. The issue here, is the bison we hunt on the Kaibab are living in the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park. The hunt for the bison happens on the National Forest when the bison leave the park's boundary. The fact is, bison have overpopulated the caring capacity of the the North Rim area of the Park, plus lack of water and salt force the bison to leave the park. The Feds objective is to bring the population down to somewhere under 200 total bison. Right now, estimates on total number of bison on the park vary from 500 to 1000. Obviously the Feds want to eliminate hundreds of bison. The problem with federal management, is at a national level, there are many more "stakeholders" and is open to many more levels of litigation. At this point it appears efforts to allow volunteer hunters to play a role is population reduction by allowing hunting in the Park have come to a screeching halt. A corral capture effort will now be used to capture and relocate those bison, but I have not heard much about the destination of relocated bison. Now, if you got all of that, there is a whole 'nuther thing happening with the state in regards to bison. The state is actively forming a new and totally independent herd. Up in the HouseRock Wilderness, the state is introducing pure genetics bison from South Dakota (I think that's where they are coming from). The notion I get, the state wants to offer a bison population that is not under Federal management. There were 6 bison tag holders up there on the start of the current hunt on Friday. By Monday evening, 4 of the 6 tags were filled. I kinda wish it lasted longer as I filled my tag Monday evening.

Good luck on your first hunt! Also good to recognize the unspoken rule! lol Some folks get a little worked-up when a newbie asks for advice on spots for their very first post! Check this out, if you haven't already: https://www.azgfd.com/hunting/units/mesa/24a/ Enjoy yourself and learn the area! You might not get one this year, but as you spend more time in the unit you'll surely find yourself a honey hole or two! S.

Well I ended up with an x bolt long range hells Canyon. Love this gun and I have not even shot it. Light, comfortable, and solid. I handled the Ruger and it was heavy. I am a backpacker at times and I need something I can pack around. Will post up a review of the gun once the vortex comes in. Shout out to optics planet and vortex. 40% off for first responders no questions asked. Ordered the new vortex viper pst gen 2. Great job again vortex and taking care of our first responders and military-this is fantastic!

Another gem by Jim.

This was my "proposal bear" from last October. I shot it while "camping" with my girl friend and proposed to her that evening. Our wedding rings were made out of it's leg bones!

To me that's more like a snack. Looks good though. What is it?

I know this is long. I was going to keep it brief, but thought I would add more detail, as I like to analyze each hunt and try to learn something from it. I had this same hunt 7 years ago, which my brother from Indiana joined me on. He was able to hunt with me the first week only. I got selective after seeing my trail cam picture of a 340 class bull. We hunted him that whole first week, having close encounters with him and passing on smaller bulls. My brother had to leave, and so did this bull, with all 20 of his cows. I did not fill my tag that season. I drew this tag this year and my brother flew out to hunt with me again. This time he was able to stay for most of the hunt, but not arriving until Sunday late morning. It was the first time I had missed opening day of an elk hunt, let alone the first three days. My anxiety was through the roof. When my brother arrived, I told him, "this time I'm killing something while you're here". My early criteria was 5x5 or bigger. My early scouting was discouraging...very little sign where I hunted before, hot temperatures (85 degrees), very dry, tanks very low... The first Monday and Tuesday saw little action and only a few bugles. Wednesday we hunted all day in the rain and had a blast. The rut was firing up. We had close encounters with a nice herd bull twice, but couldn't get a shot. We did 12 miles chasing bugles all day. Each day after seemed to get better. Even with the full moon there was good action, although the bugling shut down by 8:00 am, so we had to find them bedded. We had close encounters each day, with 4 or 5 in the 330 class. Most within 30 - 70 yards, just couldn't get a shot opportunity. I am very conservative with my shots, and will not try to force it. Up to this point, my brother had been struggling to produce good cow calls, using open reed calls that I had. He did pretty good in camp, but in a set-up he got "stage fright". I could tell he was pretty discouraged with himself. Heck, I've been using these calls for 25 years and still struggle now and then. He said, "they don't like calls with a Hoosier accent". On the last Tuesday of the hunt I gave him one of my diaphram calls to try. To my surprise, he did pretty good with it. I also broke out the....Hoochie Momma. I resisted this for 9 days, as I really don't like the sound of it, compared to diaphragm/reed calls. But he could make consistent cow sounds with it. It was getting down to the wire...Tuesday afternoon...our 9th day. We wouldn't be able to hunt the last day of the hunt, Thursday, due to my brother having to fly out. So we had two days left. After doing some camp chores, it was getting late, about 4:30 pm. We were pretty worn out and feeling a bit lazy so we decided to just walk a short road behind camp, about a 1/2 mile back. We would try a new calling strategy. I would initiate the cow calls with a couple different diaphragms, then he would mix in with the Hoochie Momma...so they wouldn't be shocked by it if they came in. Then I would move up in shooting position and leave the calling to him, as needed. We set up at the end of a point. With some cow calling, we provoked a bugle across a draw. He seemed to be hung up, when another bull bugled to our right. We adjusted our setup and got ready, as this bull seemed to be coming in. I had told him, "the caller is the quarterback, you have to draw that bull in and stop him for the shot". He whispered in the radio, "do you see them coming from the right?...get ready". Here come two cows and a calf...trotting in to find their friends, with a small bull following about 40 yards back. I ranged the cows at 25 yards as they trotted by, got nervous and kept on going. As the bull's eyes went behind a tree, I drew my bow. The bull took a further line to follow the cows....I estimated 35 yards. As soon as the bull was in the clear, my brother hit the Hoochie, stopping the bull. My shot was true, as clearly seen by the Nocturnal lighted knock...low, right behind the shoulder...THUMP. As the bull ran off, we both hit the cow calls. I listened...but no crash. Holy smokes! What a turn of events, in just minutes! My brother walked up to me and we quietly discussed what had just happened. We slowly/quietly walked up to where the bull was hit. It was easy to follow his tracks, dug into the pine needles as he ran. Within 50 yards we found the arrow, covered in bright red blood from tip to knock. There wasn't a lot of blood, but enough to follow, with some difficulty. It took about 45 minutes to cover about 150 yards. At that point, we were finding clots and where he stood, bleeding from both sides, barley dripping on the ground. Now it's dark, and we break out the headlamps. I'm a pretty good tracker, but on my hands and knees I could not find another spec of blood or disturbed pebble. We began a grid search along the line he was taking. We searched for a few hours, then walked back to camp, grabbed a bite, and rode the quads back to the site. We continued to search all over the ridge top with the quad lights...until 2:00 am. We went back to camp and washed down some Alieve with peach schnapps and got 3 hours of sleep. We were back out there at 6:00 am. I used the Backcountry Navigator app on my phone to coordinate our search grids. We searched the ridge top, and the surrounding side draws/canyon. We finally found him at 1:00 pm, nearly 1/2 mile from where I shot him. What a MIRACLE! I was humbled and overwhelmed....I broke down and cried...in front of my younger brother. This had never happened to me before, with archery/rifle kills...elk, deer, javelina...one shot and they die within site. I have been on quite a few of these tracking jobs for others that didn't turn out well. The hard part to understand was the shot was perfect, both lungs. How in heck could he travel 1/2 mile?! Miracle #2, the meat was still good! It appeared he had been in shade until the last hour before finding him. Also, that night was the coolest we had, 50 degrees. I had my doubts, but had to take a chance. There was a slight rot smell, I think from the blood and gut cavity. I skinned back the hind quarter and sniffed the meat...not bad. I cut through the meat, to the bone and sniffed...not bad. We took the meat to the processor, who said it looks and smells great. Cooking some backstrap confirmed it was still good. It was an epic hunt! We had close encounters with nice bulls, saw some awesome country, and had a great adventure with my brother. Lessons learned: #1 Don't get discouraged with lack of sign/activity in a place known to hold elk in the past. Have patience. The rut will kick in and opportunities will happen. This season had several negative conditions stacked against it...hot, dry, full moon. It was still a great hunt. #2 Hunt hard. If the success rate is 20%, hunt 5 times harder than everyone else. According to my brothers step counter (not sure how accurate these are) we covered 64 miles in 9 days and 9,000 feet in elevation change (up/down). #3 Have a good hunting partner that will encourage you and continue to get out of bed every morning at 4:00 am. #4 Don't discount a particular call because you "don't like it". Try everything in your tackle box and figure out what they're biting on. #5 The last day we were in camp, my brother came up with a yellow jacket trap, using a water bottle and apple juice. GEEZE! Do this on day one! They were a real nuisance. I got bit by one day one and stung on day 10. #6 Avoid the temptation to track the animal right away. Wait an hour. I was confident in my shot...certain he was dead. I don't know for sure, but it's possible I pushed him. It took 45 minutes to track 150 yards, but maybe not enough time. #7 Don't give up on the search. I was confident in the shot and knew he was dead. We searched for 15 hours and covered many miles in steps. The Backcountry Navigator (or similar app) is a huge help with this. #8 Don't give up on the meat. I believe my bull was dead for 18 hours. The meat was still good. Arrow covered in blood from tip to knock: Two happy hunters! Meat ready to go: Shot entrance: Shot exit: Went back 9 days later to look for a lost radio. Not much left: Interesting...the toe is covered with a hard sheath.

Done... Ed F

Love those freaks and looks like G&F will need a new study participant.

I just had one donated to me. If I do the taxidermy work it's free. Ed F

My Philosophy for finding coues deer for several years has been the only place you won't find them is where you don't look. They don't read the book, they don't read the internet forums. They go where they want when they want why they want.