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Thomas was able to harvest an unbelievable Buck this morning. Huge thanks to those who dropped everything and assisted this morning! Kevin, Shelvin, Blake and Cliff are first class! You guys are my heroes!!!!! Thanks for making Thomas's last day very special!

She had a blessed year drawing an unlikely tag her first try and then getting to take this bull with one shot of the 7MM at about 45 yards in self defense as he was coming to trample us:) This was 10/3 at 4pm in the afternoon. We never could find any rutting action and never saw a cow in the two days we hunted. We just had moved sides of the unit to try an old area for the evening and had hiked into a secluded area. My daughter is a good hiker and we were just cold cow calling every couple hundred yards and this guy let out a very faint quick half-a-second groan/sigh really, like the very very end sound portion of a bugle, at maybe 100 yards or so, I'm sure from his bed. I was pretty sure it was an elk, but expected it to be a spike or something, but within a matter of seconds we saw him coming, we jumped down prone and got her all set up. She is really good at finding things in the scope but this time wasn't much of a challenge haha. My father dropped back to continue cow calling during this time, and the bull never really stopped coming so I had to eventually tell her to just shoot him before he got too close. He went down in about 10 seconds, and she was a very happy hunter!

Awesome pic coming soon!!!! Great ending.

Classic thread on why good folks don't post on here or elsewhere much anymore. The guy who has likely helped more folks on this entire forum is getting flamed for asking for help by folks with nothing better to do.

Friday: We started hiking to an area just before sunrise. We sat on a small hillside and could hear a bull screaming a few hundred yards away. Ten minutes later one of the larger bulls that I've ever seen was standing 30 feet from my son, he busted us, screamed and ran off. We waited awhile and started to hike where he came from, but never found him or any ladies, so we left dropped a cam and left the area. We spent the rest of the day hitting a bunch of other solid areas and had a near miss with hitting a bull and a few cows that blasted just feet in front my bumper. That miss is a whole other story. Saturday: Once again, we started the morning with a nice hike just before sunrise. We got settled-in hillside, and things got loud quick. It sounded like multiple bulls in the draw around for us. We fought the urge to get up and go look to see if they were coming our direction. Minutes later, I could just barely see 4-5 cows moving in slowly at a few hundred yards out with a decent bull trailing them. The bull stayed back and the cows made it to about 70+ yards from us. My son was all in at this point, but the cows were moving all over this small area and the target kept changing. The bull that was with them was sounding off big time and looking in our general direction. I can’t imagine what it took for my kid to filter out everything and focus on one of the larger cows that had now stayed still. I could hear Carson say “I got it Dad, can I take the shot” and I responded “do it up son”. A few seconds later he says “I got it Dad, can I take the shot” and responded “yes, do it up…I said”. A few more seconds go by and now he turns around to me and says “I got it Dad, can I take the SHOT” and I responded “TAKE THE dang SHOT SON” followed by a smack on the back of his head. A few seconds later I hear the safety pop and he takes the shot. I just remember watching the cow take ten steps or so and was like did he miss… then I see a perfect lung shot for split second just before it dropped and expired a minute or so later. We put in all kinds of work camping, scouting, and hiking for my son's youth cow hunt. Outside of fresh sign we never turned up much besides a few random spots to sit and water littered with cameras. I started chatting with one of the members here and he gave us some solid leads. Out of complete respect for Beaton, I left out most of the detail. I can't thank you enough Beaton, very much appreciated man! This was Carson’s first big game hunt, so you made me look good and sure as crap set expectations high for his deer and pig tags down south in a few weeks… ha.

That is a proper mule deer! Well done Thomas

With cow elk season starting tomorrow one processor in Payson is taking this year off. Round Valley is working hard to meet their customers needs. If by chance they run short of room and you use them and they can't clear space before you head down the Hill, I can store your quartered elk in my meat fridge and take it in for you once they have room again saving you time. Once again texting is best 602 317 8084. There will not be an additional charge for this.

I've been using one for 5+ years. It's great and really just another kitchen tool. I've been using it for anything from pre-making camp meals, to 36 hour short ribs, infusing vodkas and bourbons, tomahawk steaks, etc. Camp meals typically include a couple tri tips at 132* for about 12 hours (at home), then leave the tri tips in the bag and back into the fridge/cooler until they're time to eat. Cut them very thin and a quick sear on a cast iron skillet. Makes for a good lunch with King's Hawaiian rolls and some horseradish sauce. Short ribs - use a Korean gochujang paste on the ribs. Vacuum seal and sous vide at 150* for 36 hours. Remove from the bath, refrigerate and when ready to eat, just sear on a skillet and good to go. Makes for good social bbq or camp meal. Vodka - Pour vodka in an empty glass beer growler until 3/4 way full. Dump in cut up fruit such as apple, pear, mango. Put the lid on the growler and into the bath at 150* for 4 hours. Makes for great infused booze. Works the same with bourbon or rum. Makes good for social get togethers. Chicks who booze love it. Elk backstraps - same as a steak, 132* with just salt/pepper and a tbsp of butter. Into the bath for 2 hours and sear on a skillet or screaming hot grill. Turns out great, as it's cooked medium-rare all the way thru, not just in the middle with well done outer edges. I could go on and on, but hope you get the idea. Kenji Lopez has a bunch of good tips on his website on sous vide.

Ditch school/work and give it one more chance. Those types of heck Mary last chance last ditch effort’s can be pretty dam lucky

FYI, the buck we are after is currently the ONLY buck we have found that we've been able to find again. Were 100% not trophy hunting!!!! Anything bigger than a spike is on the hit list! I'm only asking for help, because the deer are bedding before 7am. We need help locating a buck before they bed. I'll leave the "team hunting" comment alone!

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.

aaaaaand last minute Adam strikes again! Congrats to Thomas and well done with all the hard work!

Heck yes! Awesome deer!! Congratulations

Wow! That’s some last day magic! Big congrats:)

Wish I had seen this earlier, would have loved to have helped out. But looks like it ended perfectly. Congrats to Thomas on a GREAT buck!

Heluva Buck! Looks like Thomas is hooked on hunting now! Great work Thomas and men! None of us hunt alone, even when out solo, we have the voices of our mentors and forefathers That help guide our next move.

Way to go guys. The big smile on Thomas' face says it all! Congratulations to all and a huge THANK YOU to everyone that answered the call to help get this youngster a buck!

His dad will be posting a story very soon.

I feel like I'm holding 8s, looking through 12s, with a 95 obj. They're great!

great buck

last update, my buddy finally got insurance to do total out the trailer and even pushed them to do so and asked for a complete drug screening test, mold test and feline allergen testing. Insurance said the will total the camper and got him a check real quick. He said insurance would not do anything with the meth testing etc.... as those are too expensive and to ensure no toxins, they would have to take it to the skin and rebuild everything new from wiring to plumbing and all furniture.

Hope you have a wide angle lens for all the village people . . . 😉

Keep up the good work. Remember, a hunt isn't defined by what you did or didn't shoot, it's all about the experiences, bonding with your son is a successful hunt. LOVE the fact that you got out and walked. We had a youth hunt last weekend and it made me sick seeing so many youth sitting in the back of a utv driving roads. Getting out and walking and glassing is the way to do it.

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.