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Live free or die. Almost stepped on 5 ft western diamond back the other day that was hiding behind my trash can. There is all kinds of stuff out there that can kill you everyday. heck driving on I-10 is a risk in itself. You can’t be in lockdown and wear masks in perpetuity.

Meopta. Hands down, best bang for your $. The bx5s are good glass wise but imo felt too heavy and i didnt like the ergonomics.

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Personally I would save for some Swaro HDs.

We got our red heeler pup (Ripley) on here about a year ago. Outstanding part of the family. There are a few people that have puppies on here from time to time but it has been a while. Good luck in your search.

I got one

I have a blue.... she is the best thing that ever happen to me 😄 really though

I got one buddy in SV that got it. His mom gave it to the whole family. Thats the only one i know personally. I dont think that masks are neccesarily effective or unaffective, but what i think they actually do is stop people from touching their face. Most people touch their face more then they think and what i think the mask does is just stop people from doing so.

I agree I’ve seen plenty of that on the web, but it all depends on where you look. If you look at the infection rates in country’s with strict mask mandates vs country’s without the difference is night and day. There’s tons of stuff out there that’ll say that they don’t filter particles small enough to catch aerosols and they are true, but they are finding that it’s more droplets then aerosols that are causing it. Anything over your mouth will catch droplets.

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.

I'm sorry to hear about anyone's losses. It affects everyone differently. Stats show that 99% of people under the age of 65 are fine. I'm in my mid 40's. I had it, and it was the least sick I've ever been in my life. I was only sick 4 days and took only 1 day off at work. Test results didn't even come back until 19 days later and I wasn't sure whether to believe it so I went and got antibody tests. In fact I climbed Mt. Whitney (22 miles, 6500 feet of elevation gain, in 1 day) and was driving home from Cali when I found out I had a positive test. I was very sick in March with the flu, and thought that was Covid but it came up negative. I had multiple tests b/c work requires me to travel a lot and this sickness was so light on me that the only reason I got tested was b/c another guy at work had tested positive. In fact training for Mt. Whitney I hiked 15 miles the weekend before and 15 miles the weekend after I had covid (all in one week). That said, my Uncle had it. He is 77 with both heart trouble and lung trouble (existing comorbidities). He barely made it in the hospital but he is fine now 3 months later with no fallout. My aunt had it and it barely phased her, maybe sick for a week max. Three other guys at work had it. All 3 are in their 60's. Two were out for a month, mostly b/c they were concerned about spreading the virus. Another guy at work was completely asymptomatic. My wife had it, and was maybe sick for going on 2 weeks, but nothing where a hospital visit was required. My 11 year old son had it and he was totally fine hopping around like any normal kid. A friend of mine also had it who is in his 50's and he was sick for a week but no hospital. All of us are as healthy as we were before. My mom was in the hospital for 11 days for other problems and we were glad she didn't catch it from anyone at the hospital. I've had a couple of friends lose their fathers. They were in the hospital for other conditions when they caught it. In the majority of cases, most people will be fine. Stats show that. Don't live a life full of fear unless you have a reason to be fearful, like an underlying health condition. And in that case the flu should scare also.

Hunter continued his quest to complete his AZ Big 10 last night. We hunted this bull for a couple days. He was a gladiator and kept injuring and running off bigger bulls. We were on him twice before without being able to complete a shot. To his credit he just wouldn’t shoot unless he was perfectly steady. When the moment came just before dark he made it count taking out the bulls front shoulder on the first shot. He went 30 yds and piled up. I have to say what an awesome experience from the great friends who made it possible when I couldn’t be there to start, and some others who came out to help late last night. You only get so many firsts and this one was awesome. Watching Hunter and his brother fist pump and high five was priceless. There are great lessons to be learned in the outdoors about persistence and strength and effort. So proud that he stuck with it and didn’t give up.

Waiting for another to come in

Congrats on your bull! Sounds like you had a great hunt

Not much to the story, but my son drew a unit 8 muzzy cow tag this year. Made 3 scouting trips during the summer to learn the area. Brandon (gunsmith 25-06 on cwt) was very helpful in giving some areas to check out -he lives in 8. When the season came, we came close opening morning, but were messed up by someone out walking their dog!!! The following evening and morning were pretty uneventful. The almost full moon and hot weather ...86 degrees, didn’t help. Saturday evening it all came together when we had 10 cows come through on their way to a trick tank. He picked a fully mature one and dropped her just before dark. We worked till 10:30 skinning, quartering, and hanging to cool. Picked her up next morning and back to camp , got meat on ice . What made this most special is 3 generations were involved-Dad, son, and grandson got to share the experience. Sorry picture a little fuzzy, but darkness was coming fast.

Congratulations again, and great shooting...

Congrats on sticking it out! It’s definitely a shame on that first bull, but you did all you could to recover it. Awesome job getting it done!

Sounds like some great hunt memories were made. Looks like pretty elk country too.

If you find any gold I'll trade you for silver

Southern AZ is a magical place. Get a 4x4 and start driving around. Go out to a hillside at dawn and just watch the sun come up. You will feel like you are truly in GODS country. Join the Tucson Chapter Safari Club or Tucson Chapter of Elk Unlimited. 😷

4 for 4. BIL got some sweet redemption after 2 hard years of bad luck and bad mistakes. lost an average bull earlier in the day and was bummed. went out for the evening hunt and absolutely laced the biggest elk to come out of here in many years. not great genetics in here but lots of elk. makes for a fun hunt. now we need to teach him to get down low and long arm so his elk looks bigger......lol dude is 6'5" so everything looks small and they finally fed us a decnt meal. off to coyote hunt in the morning and wrap this trip up

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.

As others have said, glass, glass, and glass, and then just when you can’t stare through those binos for another minute... you glass some more. Some days I would swear that coues aren’t really deer at all but rather gophers with antlers. They seem to tunnel under ground, appear out of no where and then disappear. One day I witnessed a doe pull the disappearing act right in front of me, and fortunately I was close enough (150 yards) that I got to see how she pulled her trick. She literally got down on her belly and crawled up inside a low growing juniper. Had I not known she was there, I probably never would have been able to see her bedded inside that tree. As it was all I could see of her was her nose and ears depending on which way she was facing. I’ve since found several bedded down inside of nasty thick bushes or drainages where you can only see part of their head. You have to learn to look for parts of the deer. I usually see the ears first. They’ll bed down and hide out just about anywhere. You have to look every where. I also like to try to glass from good ambush points, like a knob above a good saddle with some trails in it. I’ve had deer walk out in the open right below me quite a few times while glassing. Also, if you’re changing glassing locations, make sure you glass as thoroughly as you can in front of you as you’re moving. There’s a basin where I’ve killed a couple little bucks by sitting ambushes, that I have a few predetermined glassing spots along the way.

Tracy and I are going camping this weekend with the intent to hunt bear and squirrels. I'll let you know how it goes.

My little brother got it done!