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Good start and a beautiful morning. FIL got it done. 1 down 3 to go.

my turn. 485 yds across same canyon as last night. almost a boring hunt. saw this guy at last light out in the valle and decided to check on him in the morning. walked to the edge of the trees and he was pushing his cows up to the other side to bed. be didnt make it. the little 3x trailer was ecstatic as he just got uograded. lol one of the prettiest places i have seen and i shoot this guy in the ugliest spot in the whole ranch. still tastes good though 3 down 1 to go

if you're gonna get it, getting it from Hope Hicks isn't a bad way to do it...;)

2 down 2 to go. not a bad opening day. 475 yds across a nasty canyon at last light. didnt get packed out until 1030. the vacation brochure didnt mention that part.

After seeing all the pics of fresh bone this afternoon, I started thinking about the extinct Merriam's elk and decided to do some library work (I work at The UofA). I Googled an old Mammal's of New Mexico text by Bailey (1931) and headed over to the Science Library to get my hands on it.Took these photos of the text and plates (thanks for cell phone cams huh!) Heavy horns, the text says the main beam was over 65 inches, with 7 3/4 first mass measurements!!

I've killed a few elk with my rifle, one being a nice bull that went on the wall. I've been apart of dozens of other rifle bulls killed, and cows killed. I've been apart of several archery bulls killed, and I've even had an archery bull tag myself about 10 years ago (Scouted 35 days, hunted 14, and went home with tag soup). Hunting elk with a bow is no easy feat. I scouted 15 weekends before my hunt this year. I also spent a full week scouting the week before my hunt. I then hunted hard for 13 days. On day 13 I finally was able to achieve the hardest thing I've ever done hunting........ Kill a bull with my bow. With all the scouting I did, finding elk was never a problem. I had plan A-Z, and then some. I was in elk every day of the hunt. The big problem was me. I was always able to screw it up some how. Lol. I've never been a super patient man. Well with every day that passed, I learned that patience is a very important tool to the elk hunter. I had opportunities every day of the hunt (most of which I blew), and opportunities at bulls much bigger than the one I ultimately killed. I had a standard of a mature 6x6 bull, score not being a factor. On day 6 of the hunt, I was able to make a shot on a very nice 315ish bull. He came in quartered to me, and I fought the urge to take the shot at 30 yards. He knew something was up, turned and started walking away. At the 40 yard mark, he was perfectly quartered away, and I took the shot. I hit exactly where I wanted. He took off like a bat out of heck, ran into a tree, and pulled the arrow. After tracking him for 400 yards, the blood was gone. My heart sunk. We backed out overnight, and began the search the next morning. After crawling on our hands and knees for another 200 yards, we lost all blood. We spent 2 and a half days searching for that bull, and I never found him. My only conclusion is, that I hit him a little too far forward, and only got one lung. I hope with all my heart, that bull made it. I spent the next half a day thinking about calling the hunt, or continuing on with it. I finally decided that I would continue hunting that area in hopes of finding that bull alive, or dead, and that I would only take another shot if it was a for sure thing. Once again I was on elk every day, and had more and more encounters. I had to stop myself from a few nice opportunities, on nice 6x6 bulls. I still wasn't over hitting the first bull. Fast forward to day 13. I get up a little bit late, but get into a spot that was close to camp, and had been abandoned by the rest of the other hunters. I hear 3 bulls going crazy, and I spent 2 hours shadowing the group, keeping the wind right, and the elk close. I finally get to where I can feel the bugles in my chest, and I can see elk feet. I let out a call, and my bull came running in like it was possessed. He ran in so fast, he actually over shot me by 9 yards. He was now quartered away, and only at 9 yards. I figured this was as good as it was going to get. I settled my pin 2 inches low, knowing my arrow would hit high at that distance, and sent one right through his heart. He ran less than 40 yards, got the shaky legs, and went over. 10 seconds later a 330 bull that I'd been after, comes walking right past me at a whopping 12 yards. He stops, he bugles, he pisses, he walks over to my bull, he barks at him a few times, and then he walks off like nothing happened. Every hair on my body was standing up!!! This will go down as one of my absolute favorite hunts!! It will go down as one of the hardest hunts (physically and emotionally) I've been apart of. It is also one of the proudest hunts I've ever been on. While I passed on bigger bulls, and saw much bigger bulls, I'm super pround of the little 5x5 I was able to harvest this year. I feel horrible about the one that got away, but I learned from it. ELk are big targets, but they're tough targets, and you have to be careful about your shot. While the kill zone is big, if you don't hit it right, you're doing yourself and the elk no favors. I could have left that bit out of my story, but it happened, and I wanted to be completely honest about my trip. I have a knew respect for how tough these animals are. Anyways, enough of my jabbering. Sorry for the photos, but I was solo, so I didn't have anyone to take them for me. I even had to do a selfie. Ugggg.

Last year, after getting frustrated with 24 BPs not getting me an AZ pronghorn tag, I bought a NM landowner pronghorn tag to get my feet wet. I had a blast, so this year, I bought two. One for my hunting buddy Taylor who would get first goat, and my second tag for me (only if Taylor killed early). What I didn't know at the time, was that NMGFD changed the way the landowner tags worked, and that the ranch owner's application to partner with NMGFD would get lost in the shuffle and not get approved, severely limiting the land access and hunting opportunities. Thank God for OnX Maps. We left on Friday morning @ 3:00am. Taylor could hardly contain her enthusiasm on the 11 hour drive out... We got to the ranch and got our written access paperwork by 2:30pm, and drove out to do some scouting to locate some good pronghorn. We covered quite a bit of ground, and glassed 10x more. Only locating 5 pronghorn by sunset, I was quite concerned. But right at sunset, I climbed a hill and glassed up a big herd to the south with a good buck, and a big herd to the north with a good buck. They were both about 2-3 miles away. But I could clearly make out decent horns on the two bucks. I stayed up.on that hill until full dark, checking back and forth for what the herds were doing. Both were active until I couldn't see anymore, and both had been moving about a mile each. We hatched a plan to go after one of the bucks first thing, and then the second if the morning didn't pan out, so as not to pressure either enough to spook them out of the state. Got to the house at 10:00pm, quick shower, and slept like the dead. Opening Day #1: Up at 3:30am, opening day excitement had me hopeful! Out to the parking spot by 5:15, leaving 30 minutes until legal shooting light. Grabbed the 15s, glassed up a bunch of does where we left them the night before. Grabbed the gear, and dropped.down in the wash that meandered through the huge valley the pronghorn were feeding through. We popped out about halfway out, right at legal shooting light, and see the buck walking to the does at 801 yards. A makable shot for Taylor, but not while he is moving. But he is moving towards the edge of the ranch property....and NM State land, which is off-limits to us. We drop back in the wash, and hurry to cut the distance, and hopefully catch the buck before he goes off ranch private property. Come out of the wash behind a low rise, and creep up to the top to see where they pronghorn are. 404 yards away....and on public land! Aargh. Feeding broadside. A chip shot....that we can't take. We stayed there, and eventually, the pronghorn started moving towards the public/private boundary. So we dropped back into the wash, and took off to close the distance again. When we peeked out again after about a half mile, we could see only a couple of the does. So we crept towards a small hill about 6' high that the pronghorn should be behind....peek over the top....there is the buck, bedded, at 390 yards! Yes! Still on public land, so safe for now, but the herd was slowly making their way to the private land. I told Taylor that we just needed to stay put as we were right on the boundary and knew exactly which direction the line was, and as soon as the buck stepped across it when he moved, she would have a decent shot. We waited for about 30 minutes, and some of the does were starting to move towards the boundary line very slowly.....then...we heard two shots at least 4 miles away....and the pronghorn were up and long gone onto a mesa and public land so fast. Well, that was fun and frustrating. Not expecting to see them again for a while, we head to check on goat #2 on our hit list. After hiking back about 2.5 miles and getting back to the truck, moving about 2 miles, we glassed him and his harem up about 3 miles away. So off we go, and lose them about a mile out. We glassed and could not relocate them again. So went and grabbed some lunch to rest and refuel. Opening afternoon, we went to a high point and glass up buck #1 and his herd about 4 miles to the west of where we left them in the morning. So we drove around to the other end of the valley and drive in a ways to try and locate them. We found them right on the top of the mesa, where private/public boundary stair-steps along the mesa. They kept staying about 1.5 miles head of us. I said if they got to a certain point, they would be on private land, and we might get a shot at him. Well, they had been hugging the edge for an hour, and went just up on top out of sight. We jumped out and closed the distance to the point on private land and waited...and waited...and waited some more. About 2 hours. Nothing of course. So hike back to the truck to check the high point and possibly locate buck #2. Drove out and around...and glass up buck #1 and herd exactly where we needed them to be! Aargh!!! Not enough time to get back, and probably wouldn't work anyway. We glassed up a bachelor herd of mule deer that rival some of the bucks on the Kaibab/Strip. We glassed up buck #2 as well. Possibly enough time to get to him. So off we go. Hiked in and was hoping to seal the deal with more cover to stay behind. Long story short, we got within 600ish yards, and his lookouts busted us. We were hugging a tree line, and those freaking pronghorns have amazing eyesight. They moved about 2 miles further in before they stopped. We tried to get close, but knew we were not going to make it after a mile, and would run out of light. Exhausted, we made it back to the truck right at sunset to head home. We put 14 miles on the boots through the day. On our way out, we saw a other bachelor herd of mule deer bucks that were jaw dropping. Back to the house by 10:30, shower, and fall into bed. Day #2: Up again at 3:30am. Out to the valley by 5:15. Glass up the herd of #1, but cannot locate the buck. He has to be there. Grab the gear, and book down the wash to close the 1.5 mile distance. Come out slowly and the herd is about 900 yards away. There was a small rise, and we kept low and crept up to within 330 yards of the nearest does, who were right on the boundary of private/public. We sat down to wait for buck #1 to show himself. An hour goes by, and the 22 does are all over. But still no buck #1. Then...I see 3 small bucks top the mesa rim and start heading down towards the does. I told Taylor, "Watch this..". We were in for an epic show. Out of literally nowhere, here comes buck #1 like a raging freight train. Ears back, flat out. The two smaller bucks were like, "We are OUT!" and booked it back up the mesa and gone. Little buck #3 must have been feeling lucky (or was trying to get lucky), and ran towards the ladies....and the chase was ON! For 30 minutes, Buck #1 chased little #3 at full speed. Mouths open, tongues out, up the ridge and down, a mile wide, in and out of the does. They even came within 330 yards onto private, but no chance for a shot. Finally, Buck #1 chased little #3 up and over they ridge and didn't return. They had riled up 6 or 7 does, and even they were running around chasing each other. Does chasing fawns, fawns chasing does, does chasing does. Itnwas amazing to watch. Eventually, 16 of the does followed them up and over. The 6 that were running went out in the valley. So we decided to get close to the base and wait for them to come back down. There was no water up top, and I was hoping Buck #1 needed a drink after the chase. We crept up to another small wash and got set up next to the only bush around...about 2' tall. We sat there for about 4 hours as the sun and temps rose. Taylor was set up for them to come back down. I set up tripods with sweatshirts for shade trying to stay cool. After 4 hours, me dozing 10 minutes at a time crawled up into the bush, mosquitos/flies/grasshoppers invading, Taylor was hot, hungry, and ready to get lunch. We stayed for another 30 minutes, hoping the goats.would come down. So we packed up, and headed back towards the truck 3 miles away. Got about 1/4 mile away, looked back....and 15 does are on the ridge watching us walk away. Are you serious? Well, we cannot go back now without spooking the pronghorn, so we wait right there until the does turn and walk away. Back to the truck and go check for buck #2 with no luck, chug some Gatorade, and head to grab some lunch. Just as we get back on the property, I got a call from Brandon who was out hunting too. He knew where we had been hunting, and had just seen our buck #2 we had been hunting and gave us the location, and a great plan for the stalk to get close. I told him to go shoot it, but he was gracious enough to decline since he knew we were chasing him, and we met to verify location. We stopped at the lookout point to glass for both herds. Buck #1 was nowhere to be found, but I glassed up buck #2's herd about 2 miles up a canyon, right where Brandon said they were. I couldn't find Buck #2, but knew he would not be far away. So we parked right off the main dirt road, grabbed our stuff, and set out to try and locate buck #2. Straight up a ridge and 1.5 miles along it, we kept an eye on the herd. We went as far as we could, and luckily the end had some trees on top. Got close to the edge and peeked over....buck #2 was bedded in the middle of his herd about 400 yards out. Brandon's suggestion had worked perfectly. So we dropped the pack, got everything ready, Shooter app up, rifle set up, and did the Army crawl the last 10 yards through the prickly pears and rocks and got set up for the shot. Buck #2 was bedded away from us, with no good shot available. We laid in the sun for 45 minutes waiting for a shot opportunity. Finally, the buck got up, turned broadside and started walking. Took about 5 steps amd bedded back down, but broadside this time. 391 yards, 2° downhill, 4mph L-R breeze. Taylor dialed, and was uncharacteristically shaking like a leaf. I told her where to hold, and take some breaths, and relax. Squeeze slowly, breath, squeeze. BOOM! That buck never even kicked. Flopped over, stone dead! The 130 Berger OTM @ 2888fps from the 6.5SLR worked like a charm. Taylor had her 1st pronghorn ever. A nice heavy buck with good prongs, and a beautiful heart shape. Got him quartered up and packed him back to the truck in an hour. I told Taylor I was pulling out all the stops for buck #1 the next day. Got back to the house by 6:00pm, grabbed a shower and some groceries so I could pull an all-day chasing buck #1. Put down another 12 miles for the day. In bed by 8:30pm. Day #3: Up at 3:30am, told Taylor she could stay at the truck if she wanted, or go with me. She opted to stay and relax at the truck...which would turn out to be a smart move and a huge help to me as well. Out in the valley by 5:15am. Glassed up 6 does, and figured buck #1 had to be around. Grabbed my gear and doubled timed it down the wash to close the 2 mile distance. At about 6:00am, I came out of the wash thinking I should be pretty close to the does, and hoping I had just not seen the rest of the herd in the dark. Buck #1 was coming out of the same wash 350 yards away! Of course I have my rifle in my pack scabbard. Took 2 steps back, grab the rifle, deploy the bipod, and creep back out of the wash....to NOTHING! No does, no buck. I really doubted they could have made a 1 mile dash in the 1 minute it took me to get my rifle out and not be seen, so I just KNEW they had to still be down in the valley somewhere. So I spent the next hour sneaking across the floor glassing over every little rise I came to...with no sightings. Now I figured they had to have either gone up top, or were hanging out in one of the fingers along the mesa edge. So I climbed to the top and started a long walk along the edge glassing and checking the fingers. Nothing. About 10:30, I texted Taylor and asked if she thought she could find the other road on the west end about 8 miles away. She said she could, so I told her to start heading over so I could cut my walk back to the truck from 6.5 miles to hopefully less than 2. 10:45am, I see two does walking out of the mirage about 400 yards ahead of me. We are right on the public/private boundary, and they are on the private side! I texted Taylor to pull over and wait. Then...more does....and more does. I am standing on a mesa, with grass about 6" tall and just a small 2' high slight rise between me and the herd of pronghorn we have been chasing for 3 days. Then.....I see him heading toward the does from my left....it was my turn to start the shakes. I figured I could get to two short yuccas about 10' away. I took 2 achingly imperceptible slow steps....and those first 2 does bust me cold. The rest of the does are heading towards them, but angling away. So I slowly dropped my pack and deployed my bipod. I kneeled down behind the rifle, but the two does started getting nervous. Well, my hat is tan on the front, with a white mesh back. So I slowly reached up and turned my hat around backwards with the white forward. Those 2 does seemed to really relax and get interested. They started towards me! The rest of the does angled my way, and so did buck #1.....I could only see the top of his back with the slight rise between us. I couldn't get a range on him! So I ranged a yucca he was behind @ 410. I figured he was at 430, so I dialed 1.2MIL on my 6 Creed. I knew it would have 19" of drop, and the bullet should clear the rise by 10-12" hopefully. When he stopped, I exhaled slowly, and touched off the shot.....I saw him spin, butt drop, and go over backwards in the scope! The does scrambled. I jumped up and glassed the pronghorn milling about....no horns anywhere. I knew he must still be down. 5 seconds later, I get a text from Taylor, "Was that you?" "Yep, he is down!" Grabbed my gear, got to the rise, and see him down. 3 days, plus 6 hours & 6.5 miles it took to get a shot at him. (Total of about 20 miles of stalking him) He must have been a bit further than I figured. Shot hit about 3" lower than I figured it should. But it broke the front leg, and liquified his heart. The 105 Hybrid stopped just under the offside hide, almost exiting. It blew the hair off, and started to rip the skin. And here he is... Taylor drove to the base of the mesa, hiked up, we took some.photos, tagged him out, cut him up and hiked own to the truck in about 90 minutes. Entrance side....who says match bullets shouldn't be used for hunting? Expansion seemed to be pretty good. Weight retention is about 49%. The trip back was pretty much like the trip out. I thank God every day I have my girl to share my love of hunting with, the beautiful and free country we live in, the magnificent game we have to opportunity to pursue, and the bounty He gives us to grace our dinner tables with. I thank my loving wife who puts up with my nonsense and childish antics, and my spending and time I put in with shooting throughout the year to make this all possible. I thank Brandon and Stan for helping out with info and sightings as well. My buck was green scored at 82 3/8" gross, 81 2/8" net. But either way, with the memories I made with Taylor this week, both pronghorn are true trophies.

I took the pup out for squirrels today. Saw 13 and killed 3 in 2 1/2 hours. They were all hanging near water! It's incredibly dry and dusty out there! Be safe out there and don't park your vehicles in any tall grass!

Hey, LOL, if Donna Brazile can be discovered passing debate questions to the Hillary camp pre-debate, and somehow get re-hired as a political pundit under Fox, anything's possible. She probably cooperated on it with Chris Wallace and the Biden camp 🙂

Yes you are. LOL

My son Dalton (affectionately called big D) drew an early rifle bull tag for the first time in his seventeen years on this earth. With a bear , cow elk, javelina , and coues buck under his belt he was ready for the big leagues according to him. I was able to get to camp 2 days prior to do some follow up scouting to lock a bull in be it being a limited opportunity hunt. My brother and I found some bulls that would push 310-320 so we sent him the pictures while he was in school and he's reply was dad I would shoot anything one of those. Thursday big d and his 2 cousin's 14-19 years old skipped school to be their early to scout the day and we found the one Thursday morning that he wanted to shoot. With the bull as far as we were concerned tied to a tree we were ready. Thursday evening we stayed out so we didn't bugger anything up in the mean time momma and my twins and one of the girl friends and another of Dalton's buddy showed up to help. That's right I had to figure out how to get this done with count them 7 teenagers um yikes. Opening morning came early for the kids as I rang the bell at 4am but to my surprise they all popped out of bed ready and willing. We all headed into to strategic positions with Dalton and Jacob with me and the rest to glass. My phone vibrates at 6:15 its my brother " I found him" And its a different bull one we hadn't seen before I look back tell the boys it's go time but the bull is on the other side of the fence by couple hundred yards not are unit. Well lets call so we did and brought him to within 10 yards of the fence but the bull I think knew what the fence represented. Finally he just turned around and walked off . According to some other hunters that were watching us they said the bull seen me when a was raking trees and calling. So we called the morning hunt with intentions that we would get him in the evening. Fast forward to the evening hunt my buddy (lionhunter on coues) showed up to help and we all went back to look for him with thousands of dollars worth of optics staring into the country were he was we saw nada and night fell with a long face Dalton was a little bummed. I said the morning hunt will prevail. Saturday morning back to the same spot with again alot of high dollar glass staring into the mountain's nothing. What the heck so Saturday midday during the heat we had some cameras on some water holes 4-5 miles south of the spot so we checked them and that bull was on one of them Friday night. Saturday evening hunt just changed up with relocating everyone into different locations again with lots of glass looking my wife calls and she found him and he was in unhunt able country thick and flat my dad would call it 30-30 hunting. Dalton and Jacob go after him while lionhunter and I stay back and the boys get within 15 yards with no shot so I told them to back out and we would get him in the morning in the meantime Lionhunter has a beautiful 6x6 320ish at 45 yards from him as he slipped off the backside of the hill to glass in which we had some pictures of that bull and Dalton said he would love to shoot that one. So onto Sunday morning everyone set up again we started calling and A bull responded not knowing which bull at this point we didn't care we ran right at him and ended up past him by about 100 yard so we started calling which he responded but I think he caught are wind and be boogied out of their. My phone vibrated and my my wife found him again within 5 minutes so we preceded to chase him around in the flat thick stuff for 2 hours with no luck and ended up calling of the morning hunt so we didn't spread to much scent in their. Sunday evening Lionhunter, the nephews and Trent had to get home for family so its just me and big D with the girls ,wife and brother on the glass for us. Again my phone vibrated and the wife has found the bull again this time he is close the some open country but in the same area. So Dalton and I slipped into the area with the wind in are face and the bull in front of us somewhere we started to call with no response I let out 2 or 3 bugles over a 5 minute span with nothing so switched to cow calls and the bull lit up and he was pretty close so I stayed on the cow call and set Big d up about 75 yards in front of me as the bull came in to are left I noticed that he couldn't see him and with ear protection in I couldn't get my boys attention so I started to chuck a pebble at him when I seen him lift he gun up and reposition it towards the bull. My view was impaired by trees but I could see the bull's legs as I'm watching the bull the gun goes off and the bull just walks off about 20 yards and stops so back to chucking pebbles so he could shoot again as I reared back throw I heard the gun eject and another bullet get loaded and when I looked back over at the bull he just tipped over. Dalton jumped up and threw his hand's in the air and ran for me for the biggest hug that a dad could get. I was so emotional at this point words can't explain. We had did it we hugged again and talked about the shot it only being 100 yards he said with the bipod he felt it was a perfect shot so we walked down the hill to look for the bull and there it was folded up like a lawn chair. He was so friggin excited and me too. So I called the wife and they couldn't' hear the shot and she's answer's "what up" my reply Turn out the light's the party is over. She holler's out he did it and I could hear the girls and my brother hooting and hollering. The best part was once i looked on my map on my phone to see how to get them to us we ended up being about 75 yards off another road so they came right to us. The end result was good family medicine for us spending time in the woods with the kids doing what we love enjoying the outdoors of America. Thanks for the read, Pete

.257 Wby, fluted barrel, muzzle break round count around 120. Burris Veracity 5-25x50, FFP, ballistic plex e1 reticle. Great shooting with very light recoil. Posted targets are at 100 yds with 2 different types of factory ammo. $1750, $1200 bare rifle.sold in Peoria Greg 602-826-7517

Good used gun with normal wear. $600 in south Tempe area.

I was at work on a Thursday when I got a call from game and fish saying someone gave their early archery bull tag back and I was next in line if I wanted it. The issue and in my opinion the part that makes the story better was that the hunt started the next day! I made some phone calls and talked it over with my dad and a few other people that knew the area pretty well and decided I'd take the tag. Due to work and the short notice, I was going to have three days the first week and four days the second to make it happen. Seven days total to kill a screaming bull sounds easy right? I was wrong. The rest of the day and the following two at work were the longest most anticipating days I've ever had. With my schedule I was zero help with getting the camping equipment together and buying last minute groceries and supplies. Not to mention I had to learn how to cow call on the clock as well. My dad took care of it all. I'm just glad I shoot my bow regularly so that was just about the only part of this hunt I had confidence in. Luckily my dad was able to get every day we needed off and he was just as motivated as I was. Finally after clocking out at 9pm Saturday I raced home, showered, grabbed any last minute supplies and my dad and I headed north to chase some elk. We were meeting my friend Colton (RackTracker) who had camp picked out. He went out the evening before and said the rutting activity was incredible and the this was going to be an epic hunt. The morning of my opening day came and we made a plan to climb a hill and glass and see what was out there and possibly hunt them the same way we hunt deer. The hill didn't offer the glassing opportunities we expected, luckily there were plenty of bugles to chase. The morning was great I just couldn't make it happen. I had already seen a few bulls that would make me more than happy to wrap my tag around. I specifically remember one bull that we snuck into with a heard of cows with him that winded us at 78 yards. When we watched him run away I turned and looked at Colton and he looked at me and said "shoot that one." I agreed. The evening presented a lot of distant bugles where the bulls were across the road in the neighboring unit, leaving us with no options. Day two started way different. There were minimal bugles in the same spot and we found ourselves wandering around praying for one to sound off. At one point a small bull came in at about 80 yards but I wasn't interested at the time. That was about all the action we got for the morning. Colton went home after the morning hunt and it was my dad I for the rest of week one. That evening my dad and I tried a different spot after assuming the elk felt pressured with lots of hunters in the same spot. This spot was in an area where I guessed elk might be getting out of bed and wandering around. We jumped a lone bull close to dark but that was about it. We were going into day three without a plan. I texted a friend who had killed his bull in the same unit earlier in the week and asked if he wouldn't mind sharing some spots. He sent me a pin and we had our spot for the following morning. Day three started off much better. My dad and I walked in just to turn right back around after hearing a bugle that sounded like the bull was standing in the bed of our truck. Next thing we know, this bull had us crossing the road three times before catching up with him. I walked into a small opening and caught a glimpse of a leg about 200 yards out. As i was looking at this elk my dad gets my attention and there was a small bull staring at us broadside. I nock an arrow and I'm convinced this bull is in range. My rangefinder reads 125 yards. My thought was cool I'll let him walk since he'll run as soon as I move closer anyway. We refocused on the other elk and at this point we could tell it was a bull. We sneak in closer and he responded but he wasn't completely bought in and wandered off without presenting a shot. We circled around and thought he was going to walk into our lap until the bull stopped bugling and disappeared. That was the end of our first week. Next I had 4 long days of work ahead of me but it gave my dad and I enough time to become YouTube experts and and convince ourselves we can kill a bull. My friend texted me saying his buddy had tagged out and he had some great spots for me to hunt the four days I had available. I couldn't be more thankful for his help. Day four started with me getting held over at work and being late to get home. We met Colton again in camp and went straight to a completely new morning spot. The forrest was silent. Late in the morning we spotted a bull on the opposite hillside but couldn't get close enough to make it matter. The evening hunt would set the tone for the rest of the hunt. We walked into a tank and decided to sit it for the last hour and a half of the day. We heard distant bugles and knew the elk were getting closer but by the time they came in it was too dark. At this point we knew the full moon was going to make the hunt tough. We had to stay at the tank for nearly an hour because we were covered in bulls and didn't want to spook anything. Day five started with nothing. Not a single sound in the forrest. We basically went on a nice little walk and that was it. Colton had to go back home and it was my dad and I again for the rest of the hunt. We could not wait for the evening hunt so we could go to the tank. We made a plan for my dad to sit where we did the day before and I would go to the far side so the elk would get to me faster= and maybe I would get a shot. The elk were a little late to the party that evening so I decided to chase the bugles while my dad stayed at the tank and called. I got about 100 yards from a big bull we later named Big Boy without being able to get closer for a shot. Day six had another uneventful morning. Never in my life had I looked forward more to evening hunts than this elk hunt. My dad and I had the same plan as the day before. Around 5:15 hits and my dad started with cow calls and bugles later and all we heard were distant chuckles and nothing else. We assumed the elk knew something was up. Maybe our calls were too distinct at this point or I pushed too hard the day before but the elk didn't want to come in for a drink. I now had one day left to get it done. That night we listened to bugles from a ton of elk in a field less than 200 yards from camp. We decided we'd chase them in the morning. Day seven came and after keeping us up all night the bulls went silent about an hour before light. We went to a spot hoping they'd be traveling to us with no luck. We bumped a small bull but that was all the action for the morning. We went back to camp, took a nap and packed up camp in anticipation for the last few hours of my elk hunt. My hunting history has shown that I'm no stranger to waiting till last minute to fill my tags and this hunt would be no different. My dad and I went in with the same plan except this time I brought my stalking shoes in case I had to sneak in on the chuckling bull from the day before that we cleverly named Chuckles. At 4:15 we hear a bugle go off close to me and shortly after my dad texted me saying well that was fast. On went my stalking shoes and I began inching closer to the sound of the bull. It felt like multiple times I was within range. I could hear his distinct chuckles and he was raking trees in response to another distant bull. I could never get close enough until about a quarter mile later I stepped into an opening to where I could finally put a face to a name. Chuckles had me pegged. I ranged him broadside. 128 yards. I backed out and tried to come around while my dad texted me saying a big bull had come into his view at the tank. I found myself in a standoff about 70 yards away from chuckles. I thought I needed him to walk out of either side of a tree and I'd have a shot. Next thing I hear is him bugling around 200 yards away with about 10 minutes left of shooting light. I left the cat and mouse game to try my hand at the bull back at the tank. I ran in my socks and thin shoes a few hundred yards in hopes of beating the dark. I get back to the general area and slowed down to sneak in. I see the bull that my dad confirmed was Big Boy go into the field toward the tank. I knew if i could get to a certain tree I'd have a shot. On the way there I discovered he had about 15 cows with him. I was sneaking through openings looking like one of the cartoons on their tippy toes going from tree to tree trying not to be seen. At this point I saw a different bull eating off a juniper and he looked like a great bull not that it mattered with 5 minutes left of light on my last day. I ranged him, 91 yards. I was in the open and drew. I decided I could get closer so I stayed at full draw trying to get to a tree for a 70 yard shot. Four steps later every elk in the unit except for my bull was staring at me. I took aim at 87 yards and let it fly. I didn't see or hear a hit and all I knew was elk scattered and I didn't see my bull leave with the rest of them. I go to where he was standing and there was zero blood and no arrow. I decided to go to my pack and get my dad and as I walked around a tree I saw my bull laying in the field taking his last breaths. What a sigh of relief. My dad saw me at full draw and walking looking like Elmer Fudd but he had no idea I shot. He got to me a minute later and gave me a giant hug after I told him there's a dead bull laying about 50 yards away from us. We snapped our pictures, started cutting him up and had the bull back to the truck and ready to go home by midnight. Just like we wrote it up.

Tessa drew a rifle bull tag in one of the block units we are leaving in the morning. She is hoping to shoot a bull bigger than my mine knowing her and how patient she is she will probably do it. Looking forward to seeing what these 28 nosler loads will do that Lance loaded for us .

Talk about down to the wire! Congrats!

It’s a cold he’ll be fine.

1894 25-35

Hate to be a total dick but the crossbow and now airbow thing is getting out of hand. It's one thing if you sustain an injury after a draw but putting in for archery knowing you can't shoot a bow.... I guess any advantage right? End justifies the means etc. 40 year old guys who can pack out an elk but can't draw a bow? Whatever

Taken care of. Thank you, cactusjack! Gotta love CWT!

i would be interested too i have a 6.5 cm

Better than finding the end of that black rainbow, look for leaks at connections. I know a few ranchers that won’t fix a small leak because it leaves a spot for wildlife to drink.

When it comes to finding live springs, tinajas, etc. there is no substitute for boot leather. Unfortunately, many springs that were live year round are now dry or perennial. Ground water pumping and a general drought have rendered an alarming number of natural water sources non existent. Do your groundwork and you'll be OK.

They both did not make it to their resting places because one set of the antlers remains in the hands of my brother in Springerville Az.