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It all started 10 years ago. When I was growing up, and showed an interest in hunting, my dad grew that interest into a passion. He taught me how to shoot. He taught me how to glass. He taught me how to climb up and over that next ridge to get away from other hunters or relocate the buck that we watched go that way. He taught me how to wait for the right time to make a move on a buck in order to be in a position for a shot. He taught me how to take tasteful pictures of the buck afterwards and how to clean the animal and utilize all the meat that the animal had to offer. My dad is awesome and he taught me all those awesome things. I always hunted with my dad and brothers. My dad was with me on all of the animals I shot...until 2008. In 2008, we had 6 tags in camp. We decided to split up into two groups of 3 to increase our chances. I was hunting with my older brother and my brother in law. We had been watching some good bucks in the area and we made a plan for opening day. Long story short, I glassed up the bucks and my brother and I pulled a double, killing two bucks that were running together. It was awesome because it was the first time my brother and I had hunted without my dad. It was awesome because we pulled the double. We learned a lot and we learned that we were confident to hunt on our own because of how well dad had taught us. Fast forward 10 years. This year, 2018. We killed two good bucks, again without dad present (he drew a different unit with another of my brothers). We did not pull a tenth anniversary double but it was still an awesome hunt. My oldest boy, Tanner and my brother’s oldest boy, Zac had drawn a general rifle tag for Coues deer in unit 32. We have become a little familiar with the unit over the years and both Zac and Tanner have killed bucks in unit 32 previously. We also brought along Tanner’s brother Parker and Zac’s brother, Colton. My dad was also there to help. We got into the unit on Thursday and got camp set up. Glassing Thursday evening only yielded does and some javelina. Opening morning brought high winds and more does. We glassed up about 25 does that morning. We relocated for the afternoon and fought more wind and found more does. Finally about 20 minute before dark I glassed up a little two point buck about 900 yards out. He was not in a huntable spot for the timeframe that we had and we decided to hunt that area in the morning. Saturday morning found us on a great knob that gave us 360 glassing coverage over a lot of great country. My dad had to stop sooner as to not run out of gas in his quad and was glassing other country. The wind was brutal. We were trying to stay out of the wind and also glass stuff that appeared to be out of the wind. We started finding does right away. Then we heard some shooting nearby and found 4 bucks running out of the country while being shot at. Finally around 9:30, I decided to glass a ridge that was out of the wind for the 3rd or 4th time. Within minutes I glassed up 3 bucks about 1500 yards out. We watched them for about 30 minutes until they bedded down within feet of each other. We made a plan to get closer and felt we could get to the 300 yard range. It took us an hour and 45 minutes to close the distance based on the terrain and our 6 man crew trying to not be too loud or get anyone hurt. We left Colton and Parker with some gear under a cedar and moved up another 30 yards to the top of the ridge with Zac and Tanner. As we eased up we relocated the bucks in their beds. We also ended up a lot closer than we had planned. 190 yards. It took us a few minutes to navigate the brush and rocks on the ridge top and get Tanner and Zac set up in seated positions. Tanner’s buck stood and began to feed while Zac’s remained bedded. The plan was for Tanner to shoot first then Zac. After a few moments, Tanner told me he was ready and I told him I was ready and watching the buck. When Tanner shot, I watched his buck do a back flip into a bush and slide out onto the ground not moving. Zac shot next and went just over the buck. The buck came unglued from his bed and stopped. Zac’s second shot found its mark and I watched as his buck made it about 10 yards before crashing! Another double! 10 years after the first one and we had just watched our boy’s pull a double! It was incredible to watch. We had such a great time and of course the success makes it that much sweeter. Tanner’s buck: .270 win, 150 gr Berger VLD, 190 yards Zac’s buck: .243, 95 gr. Berger VLD, 200 yards Sorry for the long winded story, just trying to give it some context.

Just finished a 12 day archery only DIY hunt in Kodiak Island Ak for Sitka blacktail. I was able to harvest two bucks and my bud Kevin filled all three of his tags. Remarkable hunt and location. We glasses over 100 deer per day and buck to doe ratio was about 6 bucks for every 1 Doe. Shots were all under 40 yards. My two were shot st 20 and 12 yards. These deer are made for bow hunting. It was fun hunting these bucks in the goat rocks. I felt I was on a sheep/goat hunt on a beer budget. I would do this hunt in a heartbeat again. The meat is delicious and the family and I have been filling our tummies with it every night. Here are some photos and Weaver was great. Mostly sunny on all but two days lows in he 30s and highs in mid 40s. Shout out to Ed F for letting us use his bear fence. It helped us keep peace of mind to secure the meat from any critters getting to it uh

T-1 day to hunt There is just nothing like sunrise in the desert, the day broke clear and bright, a good omen for the hunt to come. We started off the morning with a quick tour in the ranger (side by side utv). The first spot we sat in to scout is one that looks way out in "The basin", it is an area the group hunts every year and it always has deer in it. We settled in and at around 10am and saw 3 does out feeding. Def a good sign there were deer in the draw, but our spotting location was not a place we could shoot from (1000yrds) and, we saw no bucks. Weather was nice and clear, but "hot" The Desert rat I was hunting with thought it was perfect, but being a WA guy, the 77* and blazing sun was like walking in an oven and I was glad to sit in the shade of the Side by side for the ride out. We left that spot and ran back past camp and up into another spot much farther back. We spent a few hours there and glassed up more does in the afternoon. Great news they are up and they are moving outside of twilight hours, not so much luck that not a single buck was seen. We made our way back to camp and another member of the group had arrived. We spent the remainder of the afternoon setting up camp, then had dinner and relaxed by the campfire talking about the plans for the next morning. To be continued...

Thank you. It really hits home. You see it in the news and it breaks your heart to see innocent people taken from us in such selfless acts of violence. It really hits home when it's your home town and people you have known throughout tour life. It has already started with people saying "we need tougher gun laws" even talk of trying to make arizona a non-open carry state. Our society needs to understand guns don't kill people. People kill people with guns. Don't be ignorant!!! Someone has to load that gun and pull that trigger.. lay a gun on a bar table locked and loaded and it will never jump up and start shooting unless some coward piece of shoot grabs it!!!!!! We don't need tougher gun laws we need harsher consequences for the people who commit the crimes. Make prison tough not a dam vacation where you can get a college degree,free medical and free food all at he expense of the victims and rheir families...

Yes I am going to draw this out on you folks, no single sit down read thru and be done. You will get just enough to pique your interest but leave you wanting more with one post a day for each day of the hunt. I will give the 1st two in one big start post though. Each will be edited as it is easier to post pictures via tapatalk from my phone and text from my laptop... Photo's are not cooperating with my poor internet connection, i will get them added as soon as I have a real connection. Pre hunt Like anyone else that hunts out of their home state, the build up and prep is often longer than the actual hunt. Planning starts months in advance guessing at weather, gear needed, scanning maps for hunt locations and game plans. Working up a reliable accurate hunting load for your rifle. Changing options on the gun and verifying and re-verifying that they are good and how each change affects your point of impact. Making sure that your gun is dialed in and ready for the hunt. Packing, repacking, getting new gear from recommendations of others that have hunted the area and packing again. Realizing that there is no way on earth you are going to fit it into two checked and two carry on bags. Plus the fact that if you did you would have no room or ability to bring meat back without dropping serious coin on shipping meat overnight, or paying baggage fees ($75 with 50# limit). So that means finalizing the gear and shipping it early enough to get to your hunting partner in their hometown at least a week before the hunt begins so that they have time to load in their rigs for the drive to camp. It had everything in it except for one full set of hunting clothing, my primary glass and of course my weapon. Multiple sets of hunting clothes and options for expected weather, sleeping bag and pillow, kill kit, bags, backup bino's, spare rangefinder, radios, solar panel and batteries, etc, etc. With the hunt rapidly approaching I shipped my 45# box of gear down 3 weeks before the hunt. Whew, one thing done. Now on to pack the carry on's. T-2 Days to hunt I wake up at my normal 5am since it is a work day and realize the backpack with laptop and some gear in it is just too big to fit under an airline seat, and my hunting pack is already maxed out. I panic and try some reshuffling but to no avail. The only option is to ditch the second set of boots, I will have to hotlap the one pair on this desert hunt, Ohh goody! I arrive at SEA airport with my hunting pack, laptop backpack and rifle case @ 830am for the 11am flight to Phoenix. I go to the ticketing agent who gives me the proper firearm declaration forms and points me to the TSA area. TSA goes smooth, the agent was a nice guy who actually caught that the ticketing agent had not tagged my rifle case, so I had to boogy back over to get that done. The middle (biggest and busiest) security check point was closed with a line going all thru airport. I jammed down to A gate check point which was open and shorter line but still had a 45min wait to get thru. Waiting in the gate charging my phone and dreaming of Coues deer makes the time waiting to board fly by. We take off a few minutes late, but the flight was shorter than expected, either the pilot had a date tonight or the jetstream was in our favor We landed and I hustled off to baggage claim, then had to wait 30min for them to bring my case up a special elevator. I called Ben (step-dad) and he arrived shortly and we loaded my gear in the truck. I hopped in and we started heading south. After "quick" stops at In-n-out, his buddies house for a tent, and Sportsman's warehouse for my last tag, we left Tucson heading south! We get to camp around 8pm and have the privledge of setting up the tent by truck headlights before rolling out our sleeping bags a crashing out for the night. To be continued...

I was driving across town yesterday to get my son from school, when I received a call from AGFD. I saw the AGFD number on my caller ID and figured it was a trusted colleague down there who has permission to call me on my personal cell anytime there is an issue to deal with. Low and behold, it as the Draw Department letting me know that they had a 7W cow elk tag (Dec 7-13) surrendered and my daughter was next in line. It didn't take long to make a couple of phone calls to my daughter and wife and confirm what I thought would be the case. I called back, confirmed the interest, and paid for her tag. We get to go elk hunting, after all! I called a buddy who knows 7W way better than I do, and he has the bull tag right before Syd's. He's going to help us get it narrowed down since I won't have much time to scout anything. Lots of excitement in the house this weekend!

sure miss his posts

Ethan nailed it as usual. Three and a half hours hunting- I think that's a record for him. Anyone have the address to check the tag for CWD online with F&G? Also, whoever was using an RV on 462 and left your leveling jack, it's still there..

We had a great time on the 12aw youth hunt this past weekend. Got in around 11 PM Thursday night. Set up camp in 18 degree weather. Got it done in an hour opening morning. We saw 25-30 deer the first hour, and he made a nice one shot kill on this one at around 100 yards.

My dad and I were able to get out for a few days last weekend. After starting off with a couple missed shots by my dad on Friday morning then not being able to keep an eye on a couple bucks we were able to glass up Friday afternoon. We headed to a different area Saturday saw lots of deer but no bucks. Sunday morning we hunted around camp i glasses up a bachelor herd of 7 bucks. We made a plan and started the climb up the mountain. My dad said since i found the deer i could get first shot so we split up thinking the bucks would go over the top after the shot. So i snuck into place when i got over there i couldn’t find the deer thinking i had gone to low. As i was getting ready to grab my stuff to back out and go higher a spike steps out so i stay put and get ready. After 4 spikes and forkies step out my buck presents himself and i shot. I watch him go down the deer stay put i call my dad and tell him to get over the top right away there’s a bigger buck! After what seemed like a hour but more like 5 minutes his buck was getting ready to top over. My dad tops the ridge and shoots his buck at 200 yards! It was awesome watching both bucks drop within 50 yards of each other!

Had a great weekend watching my son take his first buck at 440 yards. We had a few other opportunities at some bigger bucks but we couldn't get it to work out. With just a couple days to hunt we decided to take the opportunity given to us. I am so proud of Thomas for working hard and staying positive through the ups and downs of this hunt!!! On a side note the game wardens down south dress a little strange 😀 YouCut_20181111_194353110~2.mp4

I'm not as active as I used to be on CWT. But I still linger and have always had a tremendous amount of respect for what Amanda built from the beginning. So if I can contribute to her and the rest of you Coues deer fanatics I will! I finally caught up with this buck after he eluded me last year. He's an old buck (and I'm not very smart) so I honestly couldn't be happier. It's always special when you can follow an animal this long. And for those who've done it, it can be very bitter/sweet also. I especially feel that way as I feel like I linger closer to my Coues deer hunting days being numbered. Enjoy.

Hi! Yes, yes I do. Stock truck. Went out to Redrock Tank and the trail got way to tight to go any further. Saw 15 does and 8 turkey down in Turkey Valley or Turkey Creek, I forgot the name. My dad and I drove about 400 miles without anything definitive. Any pointers or areas of interest would be super helpful.

Awesome... congrats, you guys did good. Seems that we have a mutual friend. Ed F

Great. Now that I'm an old retired guy we can fit that in. I'll bring my HD Past shoulder pad. .375 H&H's are never boring, for they have a long and wonderful history, and functionality.

This was my cost. We split it half way. 800 round trip air from San Diego to Kodiak Island. Alaska air. . A few lay overs in Seattle and Anchorage. 1200 for bush flight (that’s one way, buddy paid the other 1200) 300 dollars per tag (I had 3 of them). 160 for license. And then just food and chow. Around 3500 is for everything including incidentals during travel status. Totally do able hunt for under 4K. Youll need to grab a hotel for a night in and night out on kodiak main city. That was 150 a night. You go with a buddy or two or three the cost gets lower of course splitting it up. The main expense was the rental of the shack. However most guys camp it out in tents which cost nothing.

Awesome buck! Thanks for sharing!

Do you now have a 4WD?

Our Son graduated from Air Force BMT this morning. We are very proud of this Airman!

My typical day on a late bull hunt starts with glassing feeding areas and travel corridors in the AM, usually from distance. I am not necessarily in position to take a shot but more aligning myself for a mid morning pursuit of bedded elk. After opening day I expect elk to be out of the open areas and headed to bed by sun up. If I locate bulls I watch them until they bed and plan a pursuit. Either attempting to shoot them in their beds or ambush them at last light when they begin to move back towards feeding areas. If I am ambushing I set up on the same travel corridors I saw the museum the AM. If I haven’t located anything then once the sun is up I switch to glassing bedding areas and thick cover. Elk will move around some, and they’re big so they can be located at any time of the day. Sometimes they even water midday. In the evening I am setting up on areas where I expect to see elk emerge from their beds. Evening time is a challenging time to kill a bull, because recovery is a problem. Even in November leaving a bull overnight can lead to spoilage. So be aware of what you are signing up to when you pull that trigger. Good luck amigo! Be sure to report back and take lots of pics.

I can feel my retina detaching!

I got bored and wanted to try something different, my .416 RUM. It'll launch a 400 grain partition at 2,700 fps or better yet a 340 grain Cutting Edge MTH at nearly 3,000 fps. I just got done modifying my basic Montana left hand AVR by revising the lines on the factory OEM stock. A dangerous game rifle has no place for a monte carlo stock, because it just knocks off your Peltor electronic headsets and sends them flying back 10 feet. In addition the iron sights back up was impossible to use, so I modified the stock, rasping down the monte carlo, adding a blued steel grip cap, a solid ebony forend tip, and refinished the entire stock to enhance the grain. to that in the photos shown. It turned out to be a great rifle in the end.

Thanks guys I finally found some online from mile high shooting accessories they should be here today, I went with the 500rd box so that should last me quite a while.

After my little Kembria drew tag number 100 of 100 tags for her first choice deer hunt this fall, I felt that luck was on our side. We, her big brother Draysen and I, spent a fair amount of time with her over the past few months working on target acquisition in the scope, trigger control, etc. But I would be lying if I didn't admit to being a little nervous about her first big game hunt. Desire wasn't an issue, she has been chomping at the bit for years. But unlike her big brother, I just wasn't sure how she would do. Well, yesterday we loaded up the truck and headed up north. We had a good opening morning plan to head into an area where I have consistently found bucks over the years. For her first hunt I wasn't looking for a big buck, just a decent one that would be within her range. As we rolled into camp (actually my brother-in-law’s family cabin), I got a message from a new buddy letting me know he and a friend were on a tank of a buck, but with no tag themselves, they wanted a kid to shoot it. He sent me some pictures, and my jaw dropped! We made plans to meet up very early this morning to see if we could relocate him. Within the first minutes of glassable light, we got a glimps of him just as he and his buddies were topping out and disappearing over the ridge across from us. Draysen was the first to see why they were fleeing. A group of hunters were walking up the same ridge the bucks were on right in their direction. We made a quick plan to try and get ahead of the bucks, as they were still unaware of our presence. Within 30 minutes we were ahead of them and had them feeding out in front of us at 350 yards. I got Kembria set up on the Claw/Ruger Precision 6.5 Creedmoor combo (the Claw is the original version of the Triclawps) and we continued to watch them feeding in and out of the trees waiting for a good shot. There were five bucks in the group, all well above our original expectations for the hunt. The second biggest buck in the group stepped into the opening broadside, and all of a sudden a group of deer (estimate maybe ten) busted out of the thick trees about 30 yards to our right and bolted. This caught the attention of our bachelor group of deer and I quickly became concerned they were likewise going to bolt. I said to Kembria "See that big buck in the open?" She replied "Yes!" I said, "Shoot him!" Maybe one second later, BOOM!!! Perfect 350 yard lung shot. He wasn't the biggest boy of the group (the bigger one was similar in length to the one she shot, but more mass). Nonetheless, the five of us were beside ourselves with excitement. Not a half bad opening morning buck for a little girl who just turned 10 years old two weeks ago. Pretty great day for this proud pappa! Can't thank our friends G.R. and Tanner enough for the huge assist!

So I gathered up some buddies and we jumped on the Wyoming bandwagon this year! 5 tags between 4 guys-- we filled 4 in 24 hours and then I opted out of filling my doe tag because I wasn't going to be able to get the meat home. Originally I was supposed to drive up from Texas (12+ hours), link up with our Denver dude and then get the NC boys who were flying in. Unfortunately for me I couldn't break of the 5-6 days I had hoped from work. So I had Fri afternoon to Sunday afternoon and I booked a hasty ticket and as a group we split a rental car (truck- more on that later). Here's how things went down: Thursday had some things come up at work that resulted in a much later than preferred ride to the airport to fly from Dallas to Denver. Still made the flight, guns arrived with no issues and had plenty of time to go pick up the rental car and drive to my buddy's house in Denver to spend the night before driving up to WY on Friday. Until I got to the Budget rental car center at DIA... 60+ people at 11pm and only 3 folks checking cars out. So when I got to the window at 2am... they no longer had full size trucks... but they did have a 2018 Tacoma TRD so I snagged it, which ended up being a great vehicle on and off road. Get to Dave's at 3am and we drink beers and BS until who knows when. He has to work Friday and I have to get the other two from the airport. Friday: I pick up our NC boys from the airport and we head north towards the promised land of WY!! Except it is raining, foggy and generally crap weather, not the 50-60 degrees and sun that were forecast. But we make it into our hunting unit and head towards a chunk of public land to check our zero since we all were now 6,000+ ft above where we confirmed our data. Upon arriving at said chunk of land... there is a chunky pronghorn buck standing off the road about 500 yards and he dips over a rise. I had compared my actual data from Texas (hot, low altitude) to the WY forecasted data (cold, high altitude) and the ballistic calc had told me there wasn't going much difference (less than 1/4 moa out to 600y). Since this was for sure a shooter buck and I had a short hunt we bailed out and made the stalk. I got up to the rise and over the top, bedded down, was the buck and a group of does. I ranged at 289 yards, my rifle is zero'd at 250. I keep inching up to get my bipod up and rear rest set. The does saw me and they slowly stood and began to walk down and away from me. The buck stood, slightly quartered too and looking at the does that were now trotting. I held just a hair high and into the cross wind. The 7RUM barked and the 145gr LRX buried itself just in front of his shoulder and exited just behind his offside shoulder. He ran maybe 25 yards and expired!! We were on the board having been in the state of Wyoming for about an hour! We got him gutted and back to the truck and proceeded to get the other two rifles double checked for zero and then we headed off to some other spots we had google earth'd. At last light Dave texted and said he was headed up from Denver. We checked a last spot and found a nice herd on the border of public/private. We marked them and headed back towards camp... until we saw a really great buck dip into a small draw off the road. We bailed out again and began a several hundred yard stalk up to the draw. As the terrain thinned out we knew he was going to be just beneath us. Boom- horns! There he was- the next man up got settled as we saw the buck turn broadside and trot off. We heard him alarm wheeze or whistle (whatever you want to call it) and we knew the gig was up. He made a brief stop and got flattened by my friend, shooting a family heirloom .270. We admired his buck which, to us uninitiated pronghorn hunters seemed to be a good bit larger than the ones we had seen and definitely bigger than my buck. Well, he just got scored and before drying he netted 80 6/8"!!! Saturday picked up where Friday left off- We got on several bucks early but couldn't get good stalks set up. Finally, I glassed up a super tall buck who was narrow and unmistakeable. After a great (and long stalk) Dave connected on this superb goat. The length on this goat was awesome and he grossed out in the mid 70s! We were feeling good about ourselves but we knew we needed another buck. We were having a great time but we all wanted the guys who had traveled across country to fill their tags!! I headed out with my buddy while Dave skinned his buck. We found a great wide, forward leaning buck but he spooked across onto private before we could make a play. Then- as we drove over a crest, tucked behind a hillside, almost invisible from the road was a buck bedded with does. Knowing that this had been a recipe for success so far we stopped. Checked our topo and made a plan. I got to crawl in with my buddy as he navigated to this unseen herd. I expected us to pop up about 300 yards off... but he got to within 80 yards before cresting the hill!! The antelope were now milling around feeding and headed off to our right. At 156 yards my buddy got the shot profile he was looking for and absolutely stoned the buck. Making us 4/4 in less than 24 hours of hunting!! Just an amazing trip overall and something that I think we see ourselves doing again the future!!