Leaderboard

I was fortunate to be able to help Cuco Del Cid of Rancho.Bonito.Trophy.Hunts in Sonora last week. Dr Michael Sisk killed a great buck. Only 15-4” of main beam and 12-2” inside spread, but 32-5” of mass. IMG_8355.MOV IMG_8664.MOV

Something different I tried with this year's archery javi.

I've had my fair share of kills with my compound but figured I would try something new this year and now I'm hooked. 45#pse tigershark Goldtip340 traditional arrows 125 grain montec fixed 3 blade

Last day buck after 13 days of looking for the big one. Super happy with the results and support from brother and friends! Saw hundreds of does and 50+ bucks. Early on 5 bucks in the 90-95 range, passed on them cuz we're lookinfor110. Been several years since I had a December hunt, forgot how great it can be.

I was lucky enough to draw a Wyoming bull bison tag last spring. I’ve put in for WY, AZ, and UT for a decade or so and pulled a AZ tag a few years back and was unsuccessful after sitting in a blind for 158 hours. I was really hoping for another chance as I really couldn’t bring myself to shoot a fenced one on a ranch or reservation (I’m 1hr from the Ft peck rez which has bison hunts but they are fenced). The season runs aug 15-dec31 and then they reopen it from jan1-31 if they haven’t had any buffalo migrate down from the park. They shut the hunt down as soon as they start feeding the elk in Jackson Hole which has traditionally been mid jan. I decided to go as late as I thought was comfortable without getting shut out. Turned out it was still early. These hunts used to be easy, the buffalo would show up in nov or dec and they’d be near 100% success. The last 5 years or so the buffalo just don’t come down. The snow was deep when we got there, so much so we needed horses just to get through it at all. The buffalo unfortunately still hadn’t come down. There was a rumor of one bull on the elk refuge, there were about 15 more on the park about 5 miles off and the rest were all way way off in the park and likely won’t be here before they close the season. Well my luck finally turned on wild bison. We picked up tracks in the river bottom first am and caught up to the lone old bull on horseback. I was able to get into about 125 yards. I tucked a 175 swift a frame into his heart with my 7mm STW, then another. He spun around and started heading out. Couldn’t believe it. I put the next two into his low shoulder to break him, which sort of worked. I had time to reload and put two more in the base of his skull before he finally tipped. All shots where lethal. Can’t believe how tough they are!!! We got him gutted and were able to get horses and a sled to him. They’ve got draft horses here to drag them out, I really didn’t think it was possible but they got him drug about a mile to the nearest retrieval road and loaded whole!!! He weighed 958# carcass weight! That puts him at about 1600-1700# on the hoof. Should make Boone and Crockett and we are gonna have a few years of great eating!! Super stoked to have finally ended this quest. We were able to get done early enough to get in a little skiing and are having him butchered and frozen right away so we can haul him home ready to go in the freezer (freezers!). Edit: Sorry about the sideway pics. They all looked the same on my phone.

with extra chokes , very nice wood, located in mesa ,2700.00 or trade. 480-392-9210 5.2 lbs

... all I see is homemade bratwurst!!!!!! 10.2 pounds of javelina, mixed with an equal amount of pork. 64 total bratwurst. And yes, they are incredible! Oh and 6 pounds of bacon from pork belly. Not pictured. Trying it for the first time.

I have a new, un-fired Remington 11-87 Sportsman Compact 20 gauge I would sell. It has synthetic youth model butt stock but includes the spacers to increase the LOP. IIRC the barrel is 21" and I have some new extra chokes to go with it. I have the lock, plug, manual etc. (in north Phoenix)

Interested if sale falls through

You are all probably right about Taylor. I really need to get on this though. Just so busy with work and side work.

I am still gonna send it.

Beautiful buck!!

Nice buck 👍

Asian short ribs for lunch today. Incredible!!

Looks like a person implanted it there

Now for the best part of all!! The top one is a ribeye my wife sousvide and then cast iron seared. The bottom one I just hit hot and fast on the grill. Both were exceptional!!

Good question! I debated a lot about what to use and I have a gorgeous pre 64 model 70 .375 H&H that is an absolute tack driver with 250gr TTSX. I set it up for my AZ bison hunt but never used it. The reason I went with the STW is two fold, one, my dad got it for me when I was 12 and I’ve killed around a dozen different big game species with it so I wanted to add another to the list. 2: I was concerned I may have to take a slightly longer shot (300-400) as the national elk refuge has some wide open sage flats. I ran the numbers on it and because of the higher case capacity and slimmer bullet, the STW actually passed up the H&H at about 175 yards on kinetic energy. This bull was dead from the first shot, the ground was painted in blood, but I always shoot till the critter isn’t moving, so I kept on him. I would say a maximum of 10-15 seconds elapsed from the first shot to the last.

Recovered two of the 175 aframes when skinning. They look just like their website says they should!! Pretty impressed!! I killed my muskox this year and a few other critters with 175 partitions with plans of using them for this hunt but they shed a ton of weight (40-50% loss) so I ordered some aframes just for buffalo as my rifle hates copper bullets. Reallly happy with them. Will weigh them when I get home.

2019 Late Whitetail Deer Hunt I got the AZGFD card today asking me if I got a deer this year. Well, I was able to say “yes” this year and I had to count up the days hunted in order to fill out the survey – 14 days! That’s a lot of time spent on this hunt and much of the weather was windy and cold. But it paid off. Having hunted this area for nearly 30 years on and off, we did not spend a lot of time scouting. After all, it was the late whitetail hunt. Should be a breeze! Yah, right. It was very breezy but that is a different issue! I do have to admit the first day was pretty amazing with seeing over 9 bucks on one hill and a lot of chasing activity. Second day was less interesting with the weather getting worse as the day wore on. I came home Sunday morning for Church and then back down. The wind was terrible so I ditched the afternoon hunt. The wind ushered in some cold temps and glassing from “John’s Hill” was miserable – as it would be for most of the rest of the hunt. Throughout the next 2 weeks, we got in several unsuccessful stalks which I cynically tallied up to “passing on that one” – the deer would just disappear during the stalk or just run like crazy in front of us. Rutting activity seemed to decrease as time passed with only spikes chasing the does, which was quite disappointing. I sat out one other horrendously windy day, the next Sunday morning, Christmas Eve Day, and the morning of Christmas, but was otherwise at it before sunup till after sundown. It got old. My buddy finally scored on a mishap -- shot a spike that came out from behind a juniper instead of the big one following it, just before the snows came in. I blew off that first snowy/windy day but was back at it the next day where it snowed on and off most of the day, ending up quitting after lunch and then went home Saturday evening for a shower, replenished supplies, and attended evening Church. That left only 3 days to hunt but the weather was supposed to be better – that is, less windy. My hunting partner, Ed, had gone to California to see his grandkid. His neighbor, Brian, continued to support by glassing for me -- he is really good. The winds were not all that low and Sunday was a bust. Brian had to work Monday morning so I called a friend of my son who was visiting family for Christmas. It appeases my wife and good common sense for me not to be out there all by my lonesome. He came down early Tuesday morning and we hit the hill early. Wind was bad and coupled with the cold temps, glassing was not fun. But it did work out as Ryan found and lost the little buck right at sunup. I had stalked him several days previous, chasing does in the exact same area. We did find him again down in the bottom chasing a doe about an hour later, so I stripped down a layer and headed out after him. The experience of the previous stalk paid off greatly as I knew where to go intercept/find him. He was the only buck in the area that was beyond a spike that seemed to be actively pursuing does those last few days. I recall kneeling to pray along the road down to the fence, recalling Pastor Robert’s sermon on perseverance – I hate perseverance! I had at least 5 strikes by my count, already. The wind was less frustrating down in the bottom and I even peeled off another layer of clothes as I hurried down to the fence line west and downwind of where all the chasing was going on. Much nicer conditions prevailed: constant but mild wind out of the east. I slowed greatly crossing the last little ridge before the big wash that was where the deer would probably be. I moved from bush to bush and stopped to glass. There were large open areas higher up and lots of cover in the bottom. Several horses and cows were in the area, also. Not seeing anything, I decided to cross the wash and get up to a high point that I found on the that previous stalk. Just as I rounded a bush, I encountered a doe coming out of the bottom and we proceeded to have a standoff where I did not move for at least 15 minutes. She finally turned and walked into the brush. However, she only took 3 or 4 steps to where I could not see her and must have turned and looked my way, as she blew and busted out of there when I moved forward. Well, that could not be a good thing! Visibility was pretty bad so I moved on to the ridge just out of the main wash where I could see the bottom of the wash and the several draws that snaked off to the east. I tried several spots and ended up sitting in the shade of this small juniper for a loonnngggg wait. Ryan meanwhile was freezing his rear off up on John’s Hill and had put on my heavy coat and then ended up finally in the truck. Time passed slowly! I started the “stalk” before 9am and it was well after lunch with nothing moving including the horses and the cows which had laid down. I played with my phone and GPS and found the “Best Times” for the day were between 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm. On cue, the cows stood up around 2:30 pm so I alerted Ryan by text about the cows and magic times. I walked out to the edge of my ridge where he could see me and then went back to my stand. He called me and said there was a doe 100 yards to the east, but I could not see it. Horizontal distance and angles have always been iffy for me and my normal hunting partner even after years together, so I took the info with a grain of salt. Anyway, I went back to my “stand” and waited. Suddenly, those crazy horses came running down the hill and crossed by my ridge about 10 yards behind me. I guess they were going down the wash to water. I thought they might be coming for carrots or sugar cubes and I was out. It scared the daylights out of me to have 3 @ 1000+ lb animals running towards me for no apparent reason. But it certainly got the adrenaline going. Now I was alert! Just a few moments later, the little buck came out of the big wash onto my ridge. My rifle was on the ground so when he went behind some brush, I slowly ducked down and picked it up very carefully. I shouldered the rifle as he crossed the peak of my ridge and just started down, where I squeezed off the first shot – OFF HAND. I generally avoid off hand but this was only 38 yards (later ranged). He humped up and bolted down the ridge and piled up in the brush about 20 yards from the initial hit. He was still moving so I shot again (recall that l really suck at off hand shots) just to make sure. I texted Ryan to pack up everything and drive the truck down to the gate. I was pumped! I again knelt to pray and thank God for his provision. He was a cute little 3 point. After a couple initial photos, I pulled the deer up to the shade of a mesquite tree for some more pictures and evaluated the hit. There was just a small entrance hole right above the sternum but a giant 4” crater on the exit. Lots of blood loss on ground, too. I could not find another hole so was not sure if I just missed (he was in the brush) or I hit near the 4” crater. I gathered my fanny pack and stuff over to where the deer was and awaited arrival of reinforcements. Ryan arrived with Brian (he just got there and did not even hear the shots), along with the son of the rancher who leases the area on his horse and his lucky dog. Lucky because he got lots of scraps with his excellent timing. Seeing a guy mounted on a horse coming through the wash, I thought Brian had wrangled one of those crazy horses to haul out my deer – NOT! We got some more pictures and then moved on to skinning (going gutless). It went pretty fast with Brian leading the charge as he had done about 4 or 5 deer just recently this way. I always seem to have trouble with the rear hip socket and not puncturing the pee tube. Overall, it came out pretty clean except for some mesquite beans that we found in the lower cavity. Now that I think about it, that second shot may have gone in right through the brisket and exploded the stomach but it did not exit. All four quarters and backstraps were pretty clean. I also retrieved the heart and tenderloins (where things weren’t so clean) from inside. We packed up and Brian ended up carrying out almost everything except the head, thanks to Ryan’s coyness. That slacker! Trip out was a piece of cake. The pack-out required only a pretty casual walk of only about a half mile but it was getting cold. Thank goodness it was only another half mile drive out. WOW, did that meat chill out quick. I let it set out overnight on the aluminum Diamondback bed cover of my little truck. Ryan left for home and I gave him one of those luscious backstraps. After spending the last night at Ed’s, I drove home the next day, well rested, and traded the cape for a Euro mount at a local taxidermist on the way home. It was quite a long hunt but quite satisfying. Got to spend a lot of time with great friends and got a nice little deer that is way bigger than my hunting partner’s – first time ever in our 3 decades together! 😉 The tenderloins and heart tasted great. I did flake out and take the four quarters to WGP for processing – too tired and cold and too much procrastination. BTW: I still hate perseverance, but do know that Providence had everything to do with this harvest for which I am very humbled and quite grateful.

My son took this bull last Friday (9/27) w .50 cal TC Omega 130 grn pyrodex and 250 grn TC shockwave. First shot was at 18 yards. Hit shoulder bone which exploded bullet and bone with no penetration into chest. All he could see was brown fur at 18 yards so I don’t blame him for placement. Bull walked then ran out to 100 yards. He placed a shot mid body directly behind front leg. Perfect double lung, 20 yard death sprint, dead elk down. We found bullet w tip pressed in but otherwise whole in the hide on the opposite side. We may have lost the bull if second shot not taken. Amazed that at 18 yards he could still walk/run although shoulder was gone there was no damage to vital organs. After this hunt, I decided to check out the Barnes to see if I can replicate good shot group.

A picture of the rest of him for you guys

Couestracker who made those mittens for you? I can’t find anyone to do this type of work!?

Sons blonde from a years ago

Here is a european mount we did of a javalina my son shot. He shot the javalina at 15 yards with a win. 308. The only shot he had was a head shot. We understand the ethics of shot placement but based on conditions and his experience we made the decision to take the shot.

Here is the underside of the base on the mount above. Kind of did it like it was the ceiling of a cave or something...