Leaderboard

So, my older daughter, Paige (28 w. Kids of her own), drew an early cow tag this year in 7W. She drew a 7W bull tag in 2016, but was 3 months pregnant, with morning sickness, sick as a dog with a cold, plus had a new job which meant she could not miss any time. Needless to say, she basically slept the entire hunt in the back seat while I looked to get her a shot in super snowy & cold conditions. Actually almost made it happen on day two, but first legal light, overcast, and snowing made determining which elk was the 5x5 against the deadfall impossible, so we let them walk at 160 yards. That was her first elk tag since she was 11 years old, 14 years earlier. It turned out to be one of the best elk hunts I have been on, with my son-in-law taking his first ever big game animal on the last day after passing or missing opportunities on 45 other bulls. Since my Father-in-law passed away in Jan 2016, and gave me his 7RM and asked me to build it up and kill an elk with it for him (something he had not done in the 25 years we hunted together), it was my goal to have the entire family do just that to honor him. Taylor was the first one to ever kill an elk with it in Oct 2016. A nice cow in 7W, my Father-in-law's favorite unit. Paige missed her opportunity in November on that bull. Then, I killed my bull in 7E in 2017 with it. So the pressure was on to get Paige an elk with it. Now, I knew I was going on the hunt to be chauffer and guide, but I expected my son-in-law to be with us the whole time as well. He went, but his role turned into camp beyotch/babysitter for my two granddaughters (2yo & 9mo) while just Paige and I were hunting. I love my son-in-law and granddaughters like my own life, but to have the opportunity to spend a hunt alone with Paige was truly a blessing, since the chances for just her and I to spend time together anymore are extremely rare. So, before the hunt started, I got Paige out to the range to zero the 7RM and my .280AI as a back up to her shooting. She shot a total of 24 rounds, 3 rounds from each rifle, from the bench, then 3 different shooting positions. All at 200 yards... Sitting with bipod front/rear. Sitting w. Bipod front, stool rear Prone Yeah, I think she is good. We loaded up Thursday and headed out. My son-in-law already went up with their big 5th wheel, so I borrowed a little trailer for myself. Got up there late, so we all crashed in the 5th wheel that fist night. Opening day broke a little chilly at 32°, and Paige took a page from Taylor's Playbook of Hunting w. Dad.... Day 1: 35 tanks checked, 4 w. water, seems like 40sq miles glassed, 0 elk seen. Day 2: Cold @ 19°. Checked another 25 tanks, 2 held water. Saw 4 cows in camps, which meant they were around, but scarce. We found a tank that had water, but no other tanks within about 4 miles that we checked had water. It was kind of close to a road, amd wide open in the middle of a big meadow. Very visible from the road. We decided to sit it anyway, in hopes elk would come to water during legal light. We got there about 4:00pm after glassing every hill on the way there. Got set up, and I really wasn't expecting to have anything come in during light. But I kept practicing saying "Here they come" in my head. Paige was reading a book. 5:00 on the dot....I whisper "Here they come!" From 200 yards out, at a trot to the tank which is 100 yards away from us. 7 cows and a nice, but still young, 7x7 bull. Paige spazzes out, throws her book and starts moving all around. I tell her "Slowly! Move slowly." "Get the gun up...slowly!" "Chamber a round....slowly!" "Shoot that lead cow.....as.soon as she stops." Within 30 seconds of making their appearance, they were literally diving in the tank at a trot. 6 cows were in, one left and the bull bringing up the rear. I said, "Shoot that last cow before she gets in the tank...you have to do it now!" Quartering on...Boom! I watched her hunch, turn to trot off. The other cows stayed drinking after looking around. She went 40 yards and tipped over. Less than 1 minute had transpired. I told Paige, "Stay still, let them drink as much as they can." The cows kept drinking. The bull waited for 10 minutes, then walked in and drank for 5 minutes straight. After 15 minutes, they walked back into the trees, looking at the down cow as they went. Sure would have been nice if it was a bull tag... So we completed they family quest to fulfill my Father-in-law's wishes to kill an elk for him. All 3 of us have helped with that. A few tears were shed as we discussed it. A few high fives were given as well. A lot of memories were made as well. For me at least....apparently, two kids under 3 years old takes its toll on your sleep habits.

My best buddy and I drew cow tags this year for an October hunt, and we were very excited to have the opportunity to try and put some meat in the freezer. We enlisted the help of a good buddy who knew our area well. He wasn't able to get up til Friday at about 3pm. We arrived in the area on Thursdays, set camp, and went for a scout. During our scout my buddy ran into a decent bull, and we could hear bulls bulging in the valley of the ridges we were over watching. I went on the scout with my hunting pack, but only had on my street clothes and arms because I wasn't hunting. I was glassing a clearing, and went to mark it on my OnX. As I look up and start to mark it I glanced up and saw this gem. I didn't think about this kind of situation, so the only gun I have with me is my 9mm Sig inside my waistband, under my shirt, and tucked nicely beneath my back's belt... I did get it out in record time though despite the "deep cover" carry spot. Friday morning we arrived in our spot and hiked in before dawn. We were setup over looking different parts of the same valley. We had put to bed a couple bulls in that valley the night before, and at first light they started up again yelling at each other. I butted in and started bugling back and forth and got them all fired up. It was pretty awesome. I got one bull to close from about 800 yards to 400 yards, but he never broke out of the timber. I spotted 1 elk in the valley that we thought was a cow so we decided to try and punch into the valley from the opposite side. That was a mistake. The thickets between the road and the meadow was NASTY. We paid the price for that one, and went back to camp and regrouped. We picked up our buddy who came to help and he got us setup on a meadow he knows and told us we were going to get a double. I thought it was crazy. We setup and glassed the valley. We watched quite a few deer move around, and about 4:45pm a small 6x6 moved into the valley. We glassed him for about 25 minutes until 2 cows moved into the valley with him. Game Time... We get setup. My buddy and I are working trying to get setup on the 2 different cows, and they are being skiddish. They were moving around a lot and moving back and forth near the bull which blocked many shots. I knew we wouldn't get a 1,2,3 shoot double so I told my buddy to take the shot when he got it. He had never gotten an elk before, so he had rights to the first shot. He took a shot...and missed... They spooked, but didn't run. They kept moving around and finally a cow presented another shot and he took it. It didn't go down so he shot again, and again. She finally went down. About that time my cow turned quartering away and I sent one. She jogged off and stumbled, and then went down. We pulled it off. We dropped a double. We were both shooting 6.5x55 rifles shooting my 135gr Berger Classic Hunters handloads. They did the job very well, and made a mess of the lungs on both elk. My buddies elk ended up taking 3 hits. A high neck shot, a shoulder shot, and a lung shot. She didn't go far. My shot was a clean double lung, and the lungs were shredded. The 6x6 bull took off running after the 2nd cow went down. He was not happy we shot his girlfriends. While I was getting the truck closer my two buddies said he ran back in on them bugling and pissed, then took off for good.

2019 continues to be a pretty fantastic year for our clan. Part 3 of our fall story brings us to my little girl’s (Kembria) unit 33 youth whitetail hunt. Some of you may recall that last year she shot a beautiful 170+ inch muley buck a couple weeks after turning 10. She then followed that up with a javelina in January. Little by little, my girl is getting better and better and having a blast doing it. I have found taking Kembria out and teaching her to be an entirely different experience than the first go around with Draysen. She loves the hunt and everything that goes along with it, but isn’t picking it up quite a quickly as Draysen. Her deer hunt last year may have been a little too easy, because javelina hunting with her was rough, but I learned some lessons in patience and being a good understanding dad that I hope to never forget. Kembria is a great shot and steady as a rock on the rifle. The challenge is getting her to that point. I think we have finally overcome her difficulties in properly shouldering the rifle and using the correct eye. Her biggest remaining obstacle is target acquisition in the scope. Like a lot of new hunters, finding the target in the scope is challenging for her. We have practiced shooting hundreds of rounds and she is improving, but she is impatient and gets flustered very quickly when things aren’t going her way. In the days leading up to the hunt it dawned on me to set up my Phone Skope “Skoped Vision”. This would allow me to see what she was looking at and give her a little extra help. This helped tremendously, and I highly recommend it if your youngsters are struggling with target acquisition. We were going to hunt an area in 33 that Draysen and I have hunted many times before. It tends to hold a lot of deer, but it is a transitional area where they are traveling at a decent pace, so you have to be fairly quick on the trigger. I knew this might be a challenge for us. Kembria is a bit of a social butterfly, so when I noticed that the Arizona Mule Deer Organization Region 5 was holding a youth camp in the unit, I decided that this would be a fun opportunity for her to get to meet and hang out with other youth hunters, and add to her overall experience. We headed out around 4:00 PM Thursday evening for the camp. Draysen had a football game that night, but I was anxious to get to camp and set up before dark. So my wife offered to drive him down to meet up with us on the mountain early the following morning. We arrived, set up camp, got Kembria checked in with AMDO and crashed. It was a cold night. We woke up the following morning around 4:30 to 42 degree temperatures. We were hunting on a full moon, so I knew the deer would be headed to their beds early after the sun was up, and wanted to be in position well before it got light. For Draysen and me, it is normally about a 25-30 minute hike into our area. Kembria’s little legs don’t move quite as quick. To date, this was probably her longest steepest trek. But we made the moonlight hike in about 45-50 minutes and managed to avoid the cactus and rattlesnakes that have been a problem for us in the past. We got into position with just a couple of minutes left before glassable light. Within our first 10 minutes we were watching a number of does sidehill the canyon across from us, and waited for a buck to show. Leading up to the hunt, I had talked with Kembria about deer expectations, knowing the shots she might have to take could be challenging. We both felt good that for her first Coues deer, she would shoot the first buck that gave her a good shot. About 30 minutes in I glassed up a spike side-hilling in the same direction the does had gone. Unfortunately, I also noticed a couple of other hunters (a dad and his son) on the same hill as the deer. They were working their way to the top of the mountain, were about 500 yards from our buck, and were slowly closing the distance. I knew they were oblivious to the buck. Having hunted this spot many times in that past, I have seen this play out in this very spot before. These other hunters had failed to get in position before it was light. They were headed up the hill in broad daylight on the east facing side of the hill. They obviously could not see the deer below them during their hike to the top. Worst of all, they were minutes away from blowing our buck out of the area. I knew we had had to move quick before our buck bolted, so I threw the rifle up on the tripod and had her jump in the rifle. She did well and found the buck pretty quickly at 350 yards. I adjusted her turret, and flipped the safety. We just needed a few more seconds, then it happened. The buck noticed the oncoming hunters and bolted down into the canyon bottom below and out of our lives. Flustered we watched the hunters blow the does out as well. Eventually they took up a position at the top of the adjacent hill from us skylining themselves. At this point, once they hunkered down to glass and stopped moving, I wasn’t overly concerned about them. They hadn’t done their homework, and they were out of position until much later that afternoon, if at all. As long as they didn’t make a ruckus, they wouldn’t be a problem. I was confident this buck was just the first of what would be multiple opportunities that morning. I made a quick call to my wife and Draysen. They were now about 30 minutes away. I instructed Draysen to head up to a different canyon several hundred yards away once my wife dropped him off and to keep me updated on what he saw. It wasn’t long (maybe 45 minute) before we had another opportunity. Kembria had decided to take a break from her binoculars and play on her tablet. At her age, I just want her to have fun, so don’t push her to stay in the binos. I had walked about 20 yard up the hill to get a different angle and spotted a buck moving almost straight down the hill across from us at about 300 yards. I rushed back and again got her in the rifle. But as expected the buck was traveling to his bed and dropped too far below us before she could acquire him in the scope. I gave Draysen a call. He had seen a couple of does, but no bucks and wanted to join us, so I told him to hike over and up the backside of the hill. I was also anxious for him to join us to have the second set of eyes watching the deer as I was working with Kembria on the rifle. About 20 minutes later, we found our third buck of the morning. This one was traveling sidehill, but moving VERY fast. As I was watching him Draysen showed up and got him in the binos. Unfortunately, this buck covered about 500 yards in a couple of minutes and despite our best efforts, Kembria couldn’t track him in the scope as fast as he was moving. Eventually, he dropped out of sight and I could tell Kembria was started to get upset. Draysen decided he would walk 100 yards down the ridge to watch a spot where we had killed a buck on a past hunt. I noticed a tear coming down Kembria’s cheek as he walked off and asked her what was the matter? She said, “Daddy, they are moving too fast, I don’t think I am going to be able to shoot one.” I put my arm around her and assured her there would be plenty of opportunities, we just needed the right one. After reassuring her and taking a couple of minutes to have a candy break with her, I got back into my binos. First thing I saw was two bucks walking up hill SLOWLY, directly across from us at 250 yards. Again, I threw the rifle on the tripod, got her in the rifle, and within seconds, could see on my phone screen through the “Skoped Vision” that she was on one of the bucks. I encouraged her to shoot as soon as she was ready, but after a few seconds, no shot. I asked why she wasn’t shooting. She said. “I am waiting for him to turn.” She has been taught to take broadside shots and the buck she was on was facing uphill straight away. But he was giving us the break we needed. He had paused momentarily to eat some fruit off the top of a barrel cactus. I said, don’t wait for him to turn, he may start moving fast and not give us a shot. His whole spine was exposed to us at the steep angle, so I told her to shoot for the middle of his back between the front shoulders. Seconds later “BANG”, followed shortly by the unmistakable thump of a bullet impacting flesh. Her buck flopped and rolled downhill till it stopped rolling at a bush. Draysen came running up as we were hugging and high fiving. We showed him where the buck had rolled. You could just make his head out to the side of the bush. He was still moving, but was clearly not going anywhere. We were going to have a pretty decent and steep hike down the mountain and up the next to the deer, only to be flowed by the reverse hike back. So we stashed all non-essential gear under a bush to pick up on the return trip and left Draysen to guide us into the deer if needed. As we hiked down we found a nice 3 point shed and eventually made it to the deer. Kembria had blown his spine out, but he was going to need another shot to finish him. She put a round in his chest at close range and it was over. As Draysen made the hike over to us, I tried to find a good spot for pictures, but everything was too steep, so I dragged him down to the bottom where hundreds of pictures where taken. Draysen, eager to learn, asked if he could quarter out and get all the meat off the buck himself. So with a little coaching, big brother broke down Kembria’s deer, I piled all the meat in my pack, and we headed back for the truck, stopping to pick up our gear on the way out. We had decided to stick around for the rest of that day and the next. Draysen has a unit 33 whitetail tag for the end of December, so we turned the rest of the trip into a scouting trip to expand our knowledge into additional areas of the unit. Poor Kembria wasn’t used to the level of hiking we were doing, so asked us to keep the long steep treks to a minimum. It was her hunt and making sure she had a great time was the top priority, so we never strayed to far from the truck and also managed to make lots of stops at convenience stores for treats. Saturday afternoon we broke camp so we could head home after dinner. Tim from AMDO told us that they were going to be raffling off some prizes for the kids after dinner, so of course Kembria and Draysen wanted to stick around. I am glad we did, both kids scored big time. Draysen took home a pair of Nikon binos and Kembria took home a camp chair, a rifle shoulder harness, and the grand prize, a new rifle! It was a pretty great weekend. I want to give a big thanks to the Arizona Mule Deer Organization group from region 5. They put on a great camp for the kids! They fed us excellent food, made sure that any kids needing help had mentors, and all the kids took home goodies. Stay tuned for part 4 of our fall adventure. I head up to 3A3C this weekend for my mule deer hunt!!! Here is a look at the "Skoped Vision" setup. It was a bit cumbersome, but helped a lot! Kembria's Coues Hunt Camp Setup Night 1, getting ready for bed. Who doesn't need a break from the binos at times. Post kill shot. Her buck is on the hill in the background, just before we hiked over. The victory shot! Kembria's crew. Big brother processing his sister's deer. Picture break on the hike out. Little afternoon nap after getting back to camp. Draysen wouldn't be happy about this picture being posted!!!😂 Bedtime on night 2. Scouting for new spots. As usual, dad does all the work!🙄 Time to break down camp. Dessert just before the raffle. Getting our money's worth out of the grinder this year. The new raffle rifle.

More like a Liberal tax. 70% more

3 girls 3 junior elk tags 3 days to hunt 3 shots fired 3 elk at the meat locker = Happy dude(dad) Once again we were blessed to get 3 junior elks tags for our daughters in 23. So we loaded up Thursday and headed up. I kept telling myself this was going to be a lot of work but we had Abbey(15) Becca (12) Elizabeth (12) (twins) Cousin, Nephew, Brother, son, wife so I felt the help was there but still a lot of work. Opening morning Abbey chose to go with Josh and my wife and I was to take the twins. Bottom line if Josh is guiding you will get opportunity guaranteed. Well it happened early Abbey Shot her cow 250 yards by 7 am. I was so excited when I got the text but just as sad that I was standing next to her when she shot. In the end I'm happy for her although I'm selfish in my thoughts. So we headed back to the ranch to celebrate and take the rest of the day off and enjoy the time. Saturday we took the twins out , I found the elk again but there was a lot of pressure although nobody was banging away in that area there was a lot of people driving the roads. So we opted to go to another spot and low and behold on the way over their 5 cows crossed the road in front of us and we were able to get ahead of them pull over and make are way out in front of them and Elizabeth made her shot and the party was over. 100 yards at 7 am, so we took the rest of the day off to celebrate and just relax we did look in the evening but as far as I was concerned the pressure was off we had 2 elk down until those puppy eyes came to me and said Dad I sure hope I get a chance at one. I said challenge accepted. Sunday morning Abbey found the elk right by the house so Becca and I slipped in to them and they had back doored us down a thick haired over canyon so I blew 1 soft cow call and the bull responded right away so we had to move around to get the shot and was able to get set up fast and Becca sent one , although I had ear protection on I heard the thump but it didn't look like a great shot so we backed out for about 1.5 hours and came back in with help. I looked long and hard and could not find blood and Becca was really taking it hard then all of a sudden I smelled the smell of elk and I pulled a lighter out lit it up started following the scent and there she laid about 60 yards from the shot. 6:45 am 265 yards. I let out a yell that would curl your hair. Becca was very proud of her first elk heck all my girls were happy. But I have to tell you honestly there is nothing better for me to see it in their eyes. Passion just like me. I'm far from mister kill everything maybe 30 years ago I was But now to be able to take the kids out and watch them light up like a Christmas tree when they harvest makes all of it worth it. My wife and I are truly blessed and thank are lucky stars for the blessing's bestowed upon us all 4 of them. Thanks for the read and good luck out there, Pete

I've seen this mentioned in a few replies to threads on here, but wanted to add my own 2 cents since I'm (a) new to hunting in general (b) have my first big game hunt coming up with my muzzleloader Coues in a few days and (c) couldn't have predicted how amazing it was to spend the morning with Duwane learning where and why to look. I met Mr Adams at 5a in Oracle and we meandered into the Catalinas. I brought my own tripod (too short) and bino's and we pulled up on to a road and started glassing. Duwane is constantly letting me know why this spot is good and, as we timed it for sunrise, we spotted a ton of deer. Does with their fawns and plenty of bucks. It was the first time I'd seen bucks tussling with my own eyes. We scanned and Duwane kept pulling me to his binos to see the detail he was noticing and slowly I started to be able to spot the deer first (not too often), and even saw a pack of coyotes working the hill side between two big deer groups. We went to a couple of other spots so that the I could see first hand what the angle of the dangle was all about and it was impressive. We never glassed the same ridges or sections of mountain, but the formula of when and where the deer move was reinforced every time we stopped. Mr Adams fundamentally changed everything I will do in the future with my binos. Admittedly I don't have the sort of experience most of the forums members do, so I'm still years behind most of y'all with equipment that is right at the beginning of the journey, but I feel a lot more comfortable heading into my first hunt. He's a gracious and generous man, and talking with him put so much of the info from books and podcasts either into context or allowed me to change how closely I adhered to it. Highly recommend it, and can't say enough positive things about my morning with him: It was incredible.

I had a few days off left after returning from Texas hunting hogs with my son so I flew to New Orleans to spend a few days with one of my brothers and catch up with old friends. We managed to fish on Saturday and Sunday targeting Speckled Trout. The water was unusually high after a storm pushed water into the marsh from the gulf and about 11:00 Sunday morning on our way back into Bayou Blue we saw a few gulls diving and shrimp jumping so we killed the motor and drifted closer. I lost one trout and my brother caught a nice one that was about 18" just before another boat came up on us and died. He kept cranking the motor and when it would start he revved it up and drifted into us which blew the fish out. After a few tries he managed to get it running and left. We continued to drift and cast and about 10 minutes my cork went under and this Redfish started the first of five runs. After about 3-5 minutes we were able to get him into the net. He measured 27 1/2" and I guessed his weight to be about 10 pounds and into the cooler he went. I was using a Ugly Stick with a spinning reel and 20# Floroclear and a Vudu Shrimp about 2' under a Four Horseman Popping Cork, https://www.cajunlures.com/products/four-horseman-popping-cork?variant=19840418840638 . I had a 6:50 flight to catch so we headed back to the boat ramp. Along the way we came across the same guy and his motor had died and he was using his trolling motor to get back to the ramp, which was about 3 miles away. We offered him a tow since there was no way he was going to get back on his trolling motor. Odd thing was he didn't attempt to flag us down, not sure what he was thinking since he had two other people in the boat with him.

Trying to clear some stuff out. Feel free to make contact/offer via PM. Thanks for looking. Located in Flagstaff. Still have the Weatherby! Thought it would be the 1st to go! Weatherby Vanguard 308. $350. $325 $300! Bought new last year and shot about 20-30 times by the wife. She accidentally scratched the barrel, otherwise basically brand new. Good shooting gun.

Recent mountain goat finished up. This is a November Alaska goat, hence the long hair. Clay Roberts of Big Wild Outfitters has a great area for these winter goats. View the full article

Opening morning 12A West we got a late start but she tagged out @ 7:50 AM. Kids hunts are so much more fun than my own!

I found a range finder while hunting in 33 over the weekend. If anyone lost one let me know. It probably wasn’t lost during the rifle hunt as we didn’t see anyone in this canyon but possibly during archery. Let me know what kind and area and I would be happy to get it back to its owner.   Andy

SOLD

Marsupial Bino Harness in Coyotes Brown, size small. $60 Both in excellent condition. Located in Scottsdale, Arizona

Great way to honor your FIL. I remember the post when your SOL killed I think. If I remember correctly they were way up in a knob. So is your wife in line next to use the 7mm? Great job dude and congrats to your daughter!

Good times! It goes by fast enjoy. Heck of a year you guys are having. I'm gonna miss the youth hunts with my kids.

Could both hold a 10x42eL? where in Scottsdale?

Very similar to snapper. Louisiana probably has the most liberal creel limit of 5 per day but they must be 15" and only one can be over 27". When they exceed 27" they are referred to as Bull Reds. The one in my avatar was about 37" and was released to fight another day. That one was caught on dead shrimp on the bottom and I fought it for 20 minutes before it rolled and I could identify what it was. We initially thought it might have been a Bull Shark.

I can't recommend Andy Szoke out of Nutrioso enough. He helped me this past muzzy bull hunt get a bull out. Great animals and prices. 928-339-1989 home 928-812-0873 cell

Haha thanks for the smile. Was never counter culture, I suppose it was weed and acid but never saw either till your generation came along.

might as well buy swarovski or leicas now. you will be eventually and youll lose as much value in 1 year on a pair of vortex as you will in 10 years with a pair of swarovskis

I know this is an old post but i agree...most goat mounts look horrible. Clay did mine the year before and it was awesome. Similar base.

Lets hear more about "excellent " condition. Missing eyecups, inside cover on the bridge, lenses look like they were cleaned with a piece of sandpaper.

The text below is an excerpt from the Foreword of our book. It happened sometime in the early 1990s on the road to the observatory in 34A. We had vehicles passing alongside of us while we were glassing. "... I don’t recall the exact year, but my oldest son and I drew Coues deer permits in a unit we had never hunted, and we hated going to a new area cold, so to speak. I called Duwane for some suggestions with the idea to head down to the area and scout on my own. Instead, he offered to meet me the weekend before the season opened. My momma didn't raise a dummy. Knowing Duwane’s reputation for finding big deer, I quickly accepted. Long before I talked to him, however, I had heard about his skill with a pair of binoculars. I wasn't too surprised when he asked me during our conversation if I had a pair of decent ones. He laughed when I told him I had 7x50 Nikons. "No, no. I mean REAL binoculars. Something with lots of magnification." I had recently acquired some inexpensive 8x to 24x zooms and mentioned them. Duwane said they would be perfect for our scouting trip and also recommended a tripod. I met him at a rest area, and we drove to a spot he had picked out. We parked the truck on a dirt road before daylight, and waited for sunrise. We hadn’t left the road but instead set our tripod-mounted binoculars high enough to peek over the metal guard rail bordering the edge of a steep canyon. During the first hour we spotted seven deer, and one was a real bruiser buck. By the time we had left, we saw 17 other deer in that canyon. I was shaking my head. Just that single experience convinced me that Duwane Adams knew his stuff."

Dude, you just shortened your learning curve by years! When I started hunting I was clueless. I spent weeks sitting in bottoms of canyons just waiting for a deer to come by me (archery guy). Although I was successful to some degree I wanted to be better. My first post here was about guide schools and someone mentioned Duwanes apprentice program. A couple years later I went for a glassing lesson like you did and man it was a game changer! Not only is Duwane a very good teacher he's just a great guy to be around. Not being savvy to the tripod and 15s after my lesson I came home and took the wife out glassing off 15s for the first time. We spotted 17 deer in about 1 hour of glassing. It was crazy to me that I spent literally months worth of days in canyons with my bow with little to show for it. Now I consider Duwane a mentor. Last year I joined him and his guys in camp for the early and late kaibab hunts and it was an amazing experience. I felt like a kid at disneyland glassing giant bucks. After my bison hunt and kids elk hunts next week I'm planning on being up there again for deer camp. Good luck on your hunt, you got this bro. Maybe someday our paths will eventually cross.