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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 tried glassing with an angled spotter and I got tired of bending my head down the whole time. I've glassed with a straight spotter and my eyes just got tired. I've talked to guys who use both and it comes down to preference. I ended up carrying to do just what oz says. I would pull out my spotter to get a closer look. Then I got a pair of 15s and quit carrying my spotter because of the extra weight. Then my wife used a set of BTXs at the condor release back in September and now she's scheming on how we can get a set up! Who am I to argue with her??

I don’t know any one who glasses (main mode) with a spotter. Most pull out the spotter to take a look at something they saw in their binos.

Just wanted to share with you guys how I have prepared for taking the once in a lifetime shot at the next world record coues on my up coming hunt! I went out for a final practice round this last thurs. to build up the confidence and prove to myself what my limitations are going into this hunt. THATS STEP ONE: GET OUT AND PROVE WHAT YOU CAN DO BEFORE TAKING SHOTS ON GAME! I have made several trips before this making sure the rifle was sighted in out to 800 yds. I actually shot all the ranges out to 800 (I did not rely on ballistic tables). Here is how I set up for the final one shot one kill practice (groups mean nothing the day of final practice). I also set up this howling coyote statue. I've been wanting to shoot this thing for years... The circles on the target are 5'' in diameter and the deer sillouette (sp?) is the actual size of a mature coues buck (12'' chest). I did my best to manage the swirling winds and later in the day the winds would prove my limitations! Here's a pic of my Browning 300 wsm. Here is the first few shots... The numbers written in the circles are yds. For the third circle I needed to shoot a group first without holding for any wind to see what adjustments I needed. I then shot a second group holding for the wind from the last group BUT FAILED TO DOUBLE CHECK TO MAKE SURE THE WIND WAS EXACTLY THE SAME BEFORE SHOOTING THE SECOND GROUP! This was at 500yds. Having understood the error I just made I knew I was ready to attempt a one shot one kill on the deer at 500 yds. I hit the deer in the chest within 4 1/2'' of my aiming point which is under MOA so I was happy with that shot. But did I just get lucky? I needed to know so I ranged the much smaller howling coyote at 468 yds and let one fly... Now to answer the MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: WHAT ARE MY LIMITATIONS? I attempted a one shot one kill on the deer at 760 yds. 3 different times in constantly changing winds. These were not terrible wind conditions (2mph-8mph). That doesn't seem all that bad right? Well I missed both right and left of the deer due to the unpredictability of the wind. This was a valuable lesson for me and definitely told me I'm not ready to take this shot on live game! I didn't take pictures of the last 3 shots but here's the view I had at 760 yds. Just wanted to share what works for me. I'm no expert just a guy who enjoys shooting and hunting. I'd love to here what works for you. That world record buck better not get within 500yds. of me or he's goin down! Good luck on your hunts and shoot straight!

Alex drew her first elk tag and was able to take a nice Muzzle Loader bull. Maggie drew her first deer tag and took a nice coues.

"basic bitch" things.

I'm shocked at how quick they processed those apps and updated the portal... Wow! I think I dropped ours in the mail just last Thurs. Very cool.

I think Southernexpress needs to chime in here, he took this elk on a cold bore shot at 1300 yards. Incase you all missed it

If you've never stopped by Western Drug when near Springerville, you've missed out ...

While WT hunting in 36B (California Gulch area) I was glassing this deep canyon when I see a Mt Lion emerge from a bush, then a 2nd lion follows. Being that this was my 1st lion(s) sighting I was mesmerized. I couldn't take my eyes off them, then in my field of view of my Binos about 10 o'clock I see more movement and its 5 yotes in a train. The lead lion starts to head up hill while the 2nd one follows the ravine. The yotes see the 1st lion and circle it, after that it was the wildest National Geographic dog and cat fight ever. The dogs would dive in and nip at the lion and then haul butt when the lion would swat and chase em. The noises that the lion was making was so erie and loud coming through this canyon. This happened for about 20 minutes. I completely stopped looking for deer and just watched. As for the 2nd lion, I lost sight of it and actually started to get scared because I had no idea where it was at. The yotes lost the battle and took off up the hill. Never thought about sending lead down range, but the more I think about it I probably should have filled my lion tag that year. In 2010, I did end up killing my 1st lion at 10 yds. I was able to sneak up to it without it knowing I was there. Too close for comfort in my books, but at the time I had know idea what I was sneaking up too. I just saw something move and I was curious as to what it was.

Glassed up a coues buck once. My mind almost exploded

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!

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.

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!!

So we are 1600 miles in to the trip so far four for four with Wyoming goats. Have two more tags to fill hopefully Saturday in Montana. Just at camp here in Montana weather is gorgeous today looks like we’re gonna have some changes coming forward looking at 48 and rain next couple days. We are just east of Broadus on some BLM land, have four groups of goats glassed up

😎

I am on week 3 now and really enjoying training BJJ. I am doing no-gi 2-3 times a week. I am digging it. Blackflag BJJ has been a fun place to train so far.

This is kind of a late post but better late than never right?.... Last September(2017) I was able to hunt two days for myself. I had decided that I was going to sit water in search of my first coues with a bow. I invited my buddy along to sit with me that way we could take turns napping and not miss anything. Since I had located the spot and created the set up I told my buddy Kyle that he could take any of the smaller bucks that come in and I would only target the big boy, since Kyle was in search for his first big game animal in general he was in on the deal. Day 1 When I first arrived the first morning I could hunt I noticed my camera had been stolen. I was so worried that the thief had not only stolen my camera but ruined my spot as well. The first morning was very slow and VERY COLD!!! It was an overcast rainy morning and the sun did not shine onto the blind until 1 o'clock or so. Needless to say we were way underprepared! However around 2:30 a spike had magically appeared out of the foliage and was drinking at the water. Kyle was quick on the spot and even quicker to get his bow in his hand. We had previously ranged the other side of the tank at 50 and Kyle waited for his shot and let her rip....low. Dangit! The buck is still standing there and presents him another shot at 60. Kyle re-drew his bow took his time on the second shot and the arrow flew true.... however the little buck was on edge and did a full 360 before the arrow even cleared the tank. Darn another miss and the buck took off, however now I am confident that this water was still being used, and not just by deer because about 30 minutes after the spike a very large bear decided it wanted to take a drink as well. Day 2 Kyle and I had only gotten about two hours of sleep in between day 1 and day 2 because it was about a 3 mile hike in and out of the spot and an hour and a half drive from home. Due to our lack of sleep we got out late on day two. The sun was up well before we got to our blind but the best deer activity was mid day anyway. Again the morning was slow, so Kyle decided it was his turn for a nap. Meanwhile I was thinkin are you crazy this is prime time! At about 10:30 I was farting around on my phone while Kyle was snorin away when all of a sudden I heard sneeze and not a human sneeze. I look up to my right and there's a buck on his way with two does following right behind him. I quickly wake kyle up and ask him if he wants to shoot the buck (meanwhile I have no idea the size of him because I only saw profile view of his weaker side. The buck was behind a juniper while Kyle was still wiping the drool off his mouth and when it stepped out and gave me a good view I realized that it was a better buck and decided I was gonna take him (good thing because Kyle was not ready haha). I swiftly drew my bow put my 20 pin on its mark and let it fly. My arrow smacked the buck square in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground, he got up walked up the ridge slowly and disappeared over the top. Alright!!! The Chase isn't over... Kyle and I waited 45 minutes before we even got out of the blind to retrieve my arrow. Once we got to the site of the shot our attitudes really started to change. We had thought there was gonna be a dead buck just over the ridge but the evidence from the arrow and the blood was proving different. The arrow was only covered half way up the shaft and was broken in half however both pieces were still there??? I had no idea what had happened I knew I hit him in the shoulder but passed through so where was all my blood??? (Later I would find my first shot just passed through one shoulder and his briscuit but missed all vitals). We proceeded on the blood trail with extreme caution, one drop at a time expecting the buck to leap out of the scrub oak at any moment. After another 2 hours of slowly tracking we followed the trail to the bottom of a canyon where there was a thick patch of Gambel Oaks. I told kyle he's either in there dead or alive but hes in there. We started creeping towards the oaks when I heard a cough come out of the oaks. Then I could see grey patches slowly crawling through the overgrown draw. I quickly ranged a lone juniper across the draw at 70 yards and told Kyle when he steps out i'm gonna shoot him again. Kyle didn't miss a beat and whipped out his phone to video the shot. The buck stepped out just a little lower than the juniper I had ranged so I put him in between my 60 and my 70 and made the most confident shot on an animal I have ever made. My arrow hit directly on its mark as the buck blew from jumping my string and he took off only to disappear again. Unsure yet again of how the second shot was we let the buck rest for another hour and a half when a monsoon started to roll in. It was time to go fetch him. Kyle stayed behind to keep eyes for him to jump up and bugger out as I crept in. The blood was a lot stronger after the second shot and roughly 100 yards after the second hit I could see my buck laying in the bottom of a wash tipped over. Tears started to burst out of my eyes as I called Kyle over, I realized I had just harvested my first coues deer with a bow and the 75-80 inch buck I first thought I shot was actually a 100+ inch deer laying right in front of me! What a day it was and one heck of a packout! I can't thank Kyle enough for all of his help and sharing the experience with me. Its his turn next! VIDEO of the shot <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M7W9oUowEzU?rel=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thanks guy, here's another photo of him. I finally got my camera cord going to try and get it uploaded ad edited real quick and ill try and post it up.

This is my first time elk hunting. I'm shooting a Rossi .270 single shot, the loads I'm using are Remington Core-lokt 130gr.

J.C. Higgins 30.06 with FN action and Barrel. Bought out of the AZ Republic classifieds in 1991. Leopold VX3 3x9,180 gr failsafes in front of 60 grains of H4831sc. Sub MOA accuracy.

pre '64s. .30/06 and .270.

Thompson Center .54 cal Renegade. 110 grains of Pyrodex with Mag-Spark 209 primer conversion shooting a 430 gr. TC Maxi Ball. Shot my first 2 bulls and 1 cow with this setup. Also have a .50 cal barrel which I shoot 250 gr .45 cal Barnes Expander Sabots with 2 50 gr Pyrodex pellets. Haven't shot anything since switching to this setup yet. Love shooting the old school smoke poles!

While I have not had nearly the time to practice with my 257 wby this year as I did last year (new career, and I bought a house a month ago) I still know I am ready for a 600 yard shot. Jason, I have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. I will PM ya right now and let ya know where we are camping if you want to camp with us.