Leaderboard

Nobody asked for your .02. If you dont want to help it’s pretty easy to scroll on by.

When it comes to kids I will take the help of the whole friggin village if that is what it takes. They can learn solo success/failure later. No judgement whatsoever for those that disagree though.

Interesting coincidence; day of the draw deadline my ol lady out of the blue says she wants to start hunting. Of course that affirmation came with a list of what she would not shoot; ie bunnies, cow elk, bear, etc. But hey what an improvement, she'll be in the draw next year for bull elk and deer. And I'm certain I can convince her that to get us and the horses out there in the sticks we'll need a new Dodge Cummins 4x4.

Come sight in with us and skip all the hoo haw at the main range, the silhouette range is just west of the 1000 yard range, come by and sign in with us. Hassayampa Rod and gun club is holding final two days of sight in service at Ben Avery Silhouette range THUR OCT 15 and FRI OCT 16. We are open at 7AM and done at 3PM both days. We can get your 100 yard zero verified and if you like you can try out shooting steel at 218y, 328y, 421y and 546 yards to verify your longer range dope. Cost is $10 each for first two rifles and $5 for all others after.

Sean's son (Draysen) once again did some AMAZING work!!! Kudos on a job well done! (He is also a pretty cool young man, respectful with a firm handshake! Being raised right, I believe! ) So happy with the way it turned-out. S. BIG head!!!!! Chair is not it's final resting place. Ordering a hook/hanger for the wall. Here is a link to a pic from the field. -->

Pretty easy to keep that to yourself. All the dude asked was if anyone wanted to help. You could have simply done nothing and contributed more than being a critical naysayer.

I’ve had a great couple of weekends hunting with my son- 15 and my cousins son- 10. My son drew his first ever bull elk tag, an early muzzleloader tag. We scouted and practiced shooting several times leading up to the hunt. My cousins son drew a youth javelina tag that would start 2 weeks after. With my truck loaded with camp and gear my son and I left home around 11pm the night before the hunt. Arriving to our hunt spot about 3am, I listened for bugles in the dark while my son slept. 45 minutes before light, I woke him up and he got dressed, we geared up and headed out. After glassing, walking and calling for about an hour we finally got a response. Soon we saw an elk coming from the valley below us. We set up the shooting sticks and waited, cow calling some to keep him interested. After a few minutes he came into an opening and we could finally tell he was a branch antlered bull, our goal. One look through the scope and my son said he wanted to take him. With the muzzleloader sighted in at 200 yards, I tried to stop him around that distance but couldn’t. He kept coming straight to us. Finally at 125yards, after trying bugles, cow calls, etc, I let out an awful squeal/howl/sound and that stopped him. Reading the script he turned broadside for us. Guessing he would be around 10” high at that yardage he held the crosshairs at the bottom of his belly and behind the front leg. Smoke clouded our view at the shot and when it dissipated we could still see him standing there, although hunched up a bit. I frantically reloaded the rifle as my son kept watch. Reloaded, I put the gun back on the sticks and told him to aim for the heart. I moved a bit to the side so I could watch without the smoke. At the shot, a high shoulder hit, the bull went down. After yells, screams, hugs and High fives we went down to the bull. His first shot was a perfect heart shot. We tagged him, took pics and started the hard work. After breaking him down and hanging him up in the shade of a tree we hiked back to the truck so he could start his online school (lucky we had service). By the end of the day we had homework finished and the bull in the truck. A truly amazing hunt. 2 weeks later my son and I are joined by my cousin and his son. This will be his first ever hunt. Opening day found us helping a stranger get his vehicle unstuck, which took a few hours. Afterwards we decided to take a quick look at where we wanted to hunt before lunch. We jumped a single javelina but he was too quick for a shot. The rest of the day was uneventful. Day 2, we went back to the same area and got into a decent group of 8-10. We got him and the youth .243 rifle onto the shooting sticks. After several minutes of trying to “find javelina in the scope” he finally sees them as they bust and go over the next ridge, ignoring my calling tries to bring them back. We let him drive the side x side and shoot BB guns for the rest of the day as per his wishes. As long as he had fun I didn’t care what we did. Day three was uneventful except for a few nice bucks we saw. Day 4, Monday we are back in the same spot glassing early. We spot 2 javelina and slowly move into shooting range, just over 100 yards. We get him set up on the sticks again and he finds one in the scope. After a few heart pounding moments he says he is ready and touches one off. A perfect hit and the collard peccary rolls down the hill. Some hooting and hollering are followed by the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. After an easy recovery and pack out, we headed back to camp all smiling and fist pumping. At the end, just before they left for home the young hunter told me he couldn’t wait to do it again. Music to my ears.

Thanks mom

A few hours of digging into the 500 judges on the ballot got us hungry.

You might catch more than fish there....

Uggh. Team hunting. No thanks

Yeah let's hope it goes better than when she decided she wanted to start fishing....lol.

Nice! Congrats!!! From hunting with my kids, I may have learned more about patience than from any other single activity I have even done.

But thats how I can justify to my wife that I "need" a 45-70.

Lost a Nikon Action Series Bino case with a single two-eye cover and two objective lens caps/covers inside. My son dropped it on the north side of the FR300 in 3C between 51 intersection to Heber and Gentry Lookout, likely closer to the 51 intersection. Went back, couldn't find it. If you find it, please PM me. Will throw in some buck for a reward. Thanks!

Hunt Video My kids tease me because I turn everything into a video. Why not her hunt too?

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.

I had the opportunity to go help my niece and 2 nephews hunt last weekend. My 22 year old son went along also. We had a blast. Glassing, hiking, roasting in the sun, camping out, laughing and we even got lucky enough to pack out some deer. A couple of take aways. Practice, practice, practice shooting, suppressed if possible. Dont wait until the day before you are leaving to see if the clothes you bought them last year still fit, they probably wont. Kids need gaiters, socks full of stickers make hiking and sitting and glassing unbearable Carry extra headlamps, kids lose them. Carry extra batteries, some adults forget to check those too. Carry sunscreen and extra lip balm, kids lose their hats and moms get upset when they see pics of red faced kids. Carry extra water, kids and adults sometimes forget to check their packs prior to leaving camp. Treking poles save knees, more for old guys than kids. A lightweight tarp makes glassing nicer, another use for those treking poles So does a can of bug repellent. Tripods and binos for all, kids involved in finding their deer feel like they are part of the hunt. Buy all the snacks and soda their mom's do not let them have at home. Pack more ice and ice chests than you think you might need. Relax and let them have fun and send pictures of them having fun to their moms. Now some pics...... I have handed down my kids old hunting clothes to them. It makes me happy to see them wearing them and takes me back to the days my kids went with me on youth hunts. Really the best of times.

I guess I'd be willing for my kid to lower his standards and for us to find another deer before I called in the village. In fact have many times but that's just me. And as you said to each his own.

Well, that could be said of most wildlife. Probably a few rocks as well!😂 Wish you were close enough for me to get to after work or to get back to work in time in the morning. Sorry buddy, but good luck.

I did a test yesterday with arrow straightness. Small test so surely not something to live by. I had some arrows I spun on my jig and they were bent about .010 or more towards the front end. I separated 4 arrows from the good ones but built them the same as the rest and marked them as squirrel or rabbit arrows. I shot about 9 arrows at a time and decided to see if there was noticeable inaccuracies with the tweaked arrows vs the straight. Shooting both field points and 2 blade fixed heads after 6 sets of shots I couldn’t see any difference at all out to 40 yards. I figured as much but just wanted to really look at it. Like me most people can’t out shoot their equipment.

Great job with these kids In the last few weeks I killed a bull during the archery season, my daughter killed a cow during the jr season but Immost exited to go coues deer hunting with my daughter next month!!

Update, we had a 4th tag. My nephew that recently tore his ACL, and has surgery next week opted out of the hunt until he saw the results of his brother's, sister's and cousin's deer. It is his last year to hunt as a youth. Im glad he changed his mind. I wasn't able to go out with them but they changed tactics and chased mulies. Success, although his choice of headgear is suspect. I'm proud of how hard all these kids worked. I was talking to my oldest son about hunting Coues in Az compared to my hunting Nebraska Whitetail in my Air Force days, and how different the hunts are. The hardest part in tree stand hunting for me was getting permission, picking a good spot, and sitting still for hours on end without falling asleep or falling out of the tree. In my opinion you don't hunt Coues as a meat hunter, a desert Coues hunt tests your mettle. Sure it's delicious and we enjoy it, but the price per pound is ridiculous. We talked about the quote by JFK about going to the moon, and as cheesy as it sounds I feel it applies. Switch Moon with Hunt Coues.... “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”

The DOT will not allow you to have gasoline in tanks like this. I’m not sure the exact reasoning though. I’m guessing flammability, evap issues, etc.

What does Cameron Hanes use?