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My neighbor wanted to take some pictures of their newborn and asked if he could borrow a European of one of my bucks to use. He didn't tell me his idea or anything but the set up and picture is one of the coolest I've seen.

I think this would be a better fit for Scott's son.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have harvested my 2018 spring (really summer) bear. This was the first time I've ever applied for, got drawn for, and hunted bear-- so I went into this with little knowledge, all your guys' advices, and God's good grace. I began hunting out of a blind but the bears tore it down after roughly a week and a half, which made me both amused and a bit nervous. Several encounters of bears coming in between 8 and 20 yards left me feeling blessed, and honestly would have been enough to satisfy my expectations and hopes for my first hunt. Despite the blessings that unfolded, there grew an insatiable curiosity in me: these bears would come in, stop, sniff, smell me, and then leave. I couldn't understand it. I'd used scent spray, avoided excess scents such as deodorant (yes I smelled pretty bad at the end of each day haha), lotion, detergents, etc, paid attention to the wind, and I doused myself in scent cover sprays-- yet my attempts were futile. It was so baffling and yet amazing. What really blew me away was an article that illuminated the following: humans have 6 million olfactory receptors, Blood Hounds 1.8 billion, and bears 12.6 billion. That left me wondering how it would ever be possible to stump their physiology. Additionally, I'd read about, and somehow forgotten on my own, the fact that bears can smell... are you ready to be transfixed... our sweat. Human sweat. My sweat. You guys, I don't know how this simple, simple fact eluded my common sense. I'd been re-wearing several of the same pieces because I thought that the clothes would adopt nature's aromas. Needless to say I learned a lesson. The very next day (July 4th), my dad and headed out with a few new tactics up our sleeves. At this point, my dad had come out with me twice but had yet to see a bear on this hunt, unlike the other company I'd taken, who had all seen bears... including my mom. My poor dad, I kept thinking, the guy who deserves to see these animals the most– for so many reasons– isn't seeing anything. He's going to start thinking I'm making everything I've seen up. Well we hiked our usual route but this time stopped roughly 150 yards before our spot. We took off our clothes, wiped ourselves down with a cold towel to remove the sweat, put on new clothes, sprayed our scent cover, and rubbed mint leaves over ourselves. We then slowly, so as not to begin sweating again, walked into our spot. The first two hours were quiet as far as bears went but screamed with the sounds of other small wildlife. I filled my time with reading my bible and conversation with God, often praying that my dad would get to at least see a bear. Around 8:10am, I swiveled my head to my right, looking to match a sound I thought I heard with the sight of an animal. Nothing was there. But to my left, a twig snapped, and my body rushed with excitement as I turned my head and saw the sun shine down on a beautiful cinnamon bear. She walked in to about 16 yards and stopped to smell around. Her head whirled from left to right and I though for sure she would catch my scent and take off as the others had done before. But that never happened. To my surprise, she lowered her head for a drink, and I drew my bow back as smoothly as I'd ever done. As the pin began to settle around the vitals I told myself just let go...don't wait...she'll run...just do it. The arrow left my bow, passed through her mass, and she took off. I sat there in disbelief. Looking up at my dad, who sat about 10 yards above me, I waited and waited for him to look down at me and... congratulate me, validate me, tell me everything went smoothly and that the deed was all but done? I'm not sure what I wanted, but a palpable sense of eagerness and nervousness overtook me only to disappear roughly a [long] minute later when he finally looked down and gave me a thumbs up. Gosh I love my dad. We spent the next two hours packing up our things, hiking back to the truck, hiking back in, tracking, and finding my girl laying under a tree about 60 yards away. I am very much hooked on bear hunting. There's nothing like getting close to animals of this caliber. I look forward to many more hunts with my dad, spending time with God, and learning just how special these animals are.

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.

I demand smoother roads!

Dibs for it if Tannert falls through. My son completed his hunter safety course field day last weekend. He's right handed but left eye dominant and found it much easier to shoot left handed. This would be a great starter rifle since all the guns we own are right handed. Scott (602)980-3483

Your premise is often true. But, it can get to the point where the reverse is true in some places. The more dedicated hunters there are that are convinced that further away from roads is better, the more company you will have further away from roads(unless you think you are truly in better shape or far more dedicated than the rest of the hard core hunter population and are willing to go in 6 miles instead of 3 etc). I have seen this trend more and more over the last 5 years through several states, hunts, and just last week shed hunting haha. When I was a kid, we never saw anyone away from the roads and now I seem to see more and more every year. If more and more people are willing to get away from roads, then we may need to flip around and start hunting closer to roads again to get away from people!

It's Mazatzal first of all and second read the regulations on Wilderness, learn why it's there and how to use it. It's designated wilderness for a reason. We spend more time in wilderness than any where else and it's frustrating to see people treating it like there personal back yard and ignoring the essence of these beautiful places. Like whiskey, enjoy responsibley and leave technology behind.

That coues tree is really cool. I usually just leave my sheds in boxes in the garage but sometimes when I am looking for a certain one I spread them out on the floor. Keven

Leatherman MUT with MOLLE Sheath New, unused https://www.leatherman.com/mut-29.html $100 local (These are $159.95 on Amazon, 159.95 list)

This has been talked about a lot on fb. What the website says for different people is all over the place. There are guys that have something on all 5 species that makes them believe they got a tag. They didn’t draw all 5. If you are believing what it says before results are officially released you will be disappointed. Plus they couldn’t run the draw before April 7th because that’s when reporting from prior years was due!!!

Thank you for all the suggestions. I am driving down on Friday to personally find and reserve something.

I'm down with improvING road hunting...lol

Any serious precision shooter worth his salt will tell you hand-loading your own ammo is the best way to ensure consistent performance – and he’d be right. That said, hand loads require three things I often find in short supply: time, money, and patience. For those fortunate enough to have an abundance of those things, […] The post Going Ballistic: Getting the most out of factory ammunition appeared first on Western Hunter. View the full article

Great job!! Congratulations to your wife on the successful hunt.

They only give out 2800+ tags for whitetail in unit 33 so you'll probably be ok...

Congrats. So let's hear about the hunt....

Sweet! Congrats it looks like it was cool. Burr

Did u get a giant??????

Expect all kinds of weather.......warm, dry, wet, snowy and cold! That unit can get freakishly cold sometimes. If it's dry sit tanks. Otherwise find country you can glass. We have taken several bulls out of there this way. And we hunted near the reservation.

TJ, We have the same hunt, take a look at the G&F website for areas to start in. I will PM you..

Thank you so much, CouesPursuit, Bucks N Bulls, and olmos1010! I appreciate your kind words.

Interesting topic, I'll start by saying I love sheds! The ones I don't have on display in one fashion or another are in a pile I move around on occasion till I find a use for them. Here's some I have. Framing my front door. Just Hanging Wall Hanging Lights Artsy Stuff Wind Chime Door bell and door handle And not sheds but what I call my Coues tree. Like I said at the start "I love sheds!"

I learned of a neat technique for displaying sheds the other day from taxidermist Dan Lee. He is creating very realistic fake rocks with lichens and pottery peices as a base for displaying sheds or racks. These are made to hang on a wall or sit on a table. He graciously made one for me as a sample and donated one to CouesWhitetail.com for me to give away in a contest of some sort. I think they look really neat! He is hoping to come up with a cost effective base that has a slot for putting in your own european skull into. that would be cool! Dan Lee has been supporting CouesWhitetail.com for years by donating gift certificates for his excellent taxidermy work. here are some pics of the shed art that he gave me. Sorry the pics aren't the best because my camera doesn't do well inside. I haven't yet put one up on the wall for a photo, but I think that's where I will put it eventually. i think a white background would show it off better.