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Well, I was able to tag out Saturday afternoon. I was walking down a wash into the wind and kicked this buck up at about 50 yards. He went north and into a finger and stopped at about 200 yards. I was able to position myself for a clear shot and dropped him. I hadn't seen a deer all day and when he jumped from his bed, he looked bigger than he was and I just couldn't pass him up. I had a slight shooter's remorse hit me realizing my hunt was over but after looking him over and realizing I had tons of trail camera photos and videos of him, I was happy to have him. I can't wait to get out for the rut in January. Here are a couple hero shots with him and a velvet video from September. mybuck.MOV

Thought this one was going a different direction...

Thanks to everyone who shared advice and insight. Got it done Saturday after hunting hard for two days! Likely wouldn’t have been able to put meat in the freezer without y’all’s help.

A handy trick I found on You Tube is to get long lag screws with washers and use your battery powered impact wrench to screw in and out of the ground in replace of hammering the stakes in. Saves a lot of time, particularly with hard ground.

I am not a boss or supervisor but just the fact that you came on here seeking advice makes me think you’ll do great.

I recently got my Kodiak Canvas 10x14 tent after a pretty long back order. Today I set it up so I could spray it down with water per the manufacturers instructions to “season” it. Setup was a breeze. I love canvas tents and had a Davis 12x14 for a while. I have owned so many tents I can’t count... backpacking, hunting, family camping, 1 man, 6 man, shower tent.... This thing is a pleasure to set up! It is truly a 1 man operation and a piece of cake. Quality! The quality is probably the best i’ve seen in a tent. Even better than my Davis. Little details like rigid frames on the vent flap to keep it up off the outside of the tent for air flow. The floor is really heavy duty and should last a lifetime with care. Waterproofing - Whatever they do to treat the canvas for waterproofing is amazing (see video). It came like that out of the box. No addition. treatment needed. I plan on heating it with my buddy heater, 30lb tank and a battery operated CO detector. Although I have no real world experience in it yet, I have been in enough tents to know this thing will easily last me 20 years. If anyone is on the fence about one of these tents, just buy it. You won’t regret the purchase. Now I just need to get drawn for early archery bull in 2021. IMG_1547.MOV

For the early Nov hunts I like to go help my buddy Nate, we always have a great time chasing bucks in the hills. We looked over and passed up 19 bucks and got soaked on Saturday. When the rain cleared at dusk this buck was located and we quickly closed the distance from 1100 yards to 185 yards. Nice tall, long tined buck

Want trophy stuff. Holding out.

Well I got my buck. It's dry as a bone up there. We didn't see much green for them to eat and thought they may have moved out the juniper. Didn't see many bucks other than a spindly little guy on private land. Saw a buck two mornings in a row near a tank but couldn't get a shot one morning and it was too dark the next to put horns on him. The third morning I went in early in the dark where I figured he was moving to bed. I waited. I started hearing a clack in the dark. Just one. Then again, one. As light came up I spotted a buck, then another and another. I look around and there are 5 bucks. I watch them all for a few minutes identifying the biggest one. I shoot, I miss or think I miss. They come running right at me. As they come by me less than 7 yards away I pick my target and shoot. Down he goes. I look around as walk toward the truck to meet up with my dad wh was waiting and see blood, ends up I gut shot him. We really thought with it being so dry the animals would be hurting. He had a ton of fat on him as we skinned him. He had good mass in the antlers too. Would have been a nice 4X4 if wasn't broken but I'm pleased. We saw 25 Antelope, 2 bulls a cow and calf, and about 63 does. All the animals looked really good and healthy. I hunted the north side of Sitgreives mnt. This hunt has changed my ideas of how the deer handle the dry and lack of food or our ideas about what they eat. Always learning.

Praise in public... punish in private. The good ones will know who got a talking too because the bad ones will either improve or talk crap about you when they leave your office. The good ones will respect you more and the bad ones will grow up or leave. You make more money than they do and they know that. Reward good behavior with something that comes from your pay check, not the procurement card. Randomly thank them by getting them Coffee, bagels, cook breakfast burros, small gift cards. Every once in awhile do the dirty jobs that the rookies normally do. Have fun!

Hey everyone. I started a YouTube series on how I place trail cameras. With the coues seasons upon us, I released my first video about coues deer. I hope you enjoy.

2 boxes (40 rounds) of 7mm Mauser. Winchester Super X PowerPoint 145 grain $60. Will trade for 2 boxes of 7mm-08 or 7mm Rem Mag Located in Peoria, No shipping

Congrats! Nice Buck.👍

Wife was shaking so bad and couldn’t let one fly on this guy. He was nice.

Here's one of my covers with Jim "Earnest" Varney.

I figured Craig had likely highlighted his hunt(s) with Duwane, who has taken quite a few writers on their first Coues hunts. Probably one of the most interesting characters I've shared a "camp" with was the late Jim "you know what I mean, Vern'" Varney. The man was a literal hoot in person. At my first Buckmaster's, one morning Varney, Steve Bartkowski (ex. GreenBay Packer QB), our driver/guide and I were driving out to our stands. I didn't even have a clue who Varney was at that point., but we were in tears from laughing so hard. Like an idiot, I said, "You're a funny guy. What do you do for a living?" He told me he made commercials and played in a few movies geared to younger folks. So that night, I called home as is my routine when traveling, and my daughter answered. I asked her if she knew who Jim Varney was. Without a second of hesitation, she says, "Of course. He plays Earnest in the movies." Right then, I really felt embarassed. Now here's the cool part. Varney hunted with a traditional straight wooden bow and cedar arrows., and he was an excellent shot with it, too. At every Buckmaster's, they had a skills contest with teams made up of four people. It was usually one of the local guides, two celebs & an outdoor writer. Then they would compete in all sorts of firearms & archery disciplines, ATV course, canoeing, axe/knife throwing and more. The archery was generally at pop-up deer targets at various distance. That's what Varney did and usually hung right in there with the compound guys. I did the rifle portion twice, which involved shooting from a treestand at pop-up deer from 40 to 200 yards away. Sometimes a doe would come up in front of a buck. Thus a shot would become a deduction. I won it one year and came in 2nd behind Jody Davis, the Atlantic Braves' catcher, one year. Another neat Buckmaster regular was NASCAR great, the late Davey Allison. One year, we bunked together and did a lot of talking. The late Dale Earnhardt and team owner Richard Childress also attended, but Dale was kind of cool with people. The biggest a$$ was, IMO of course, Wade Boggs. He was a heavy drinker and got pretty obnoxious at times. One night he was in a high stakes poker game with a couple other baseball guys and a pro golfer, and they nearly went to the mat with Boggs because of his attitude. I do still have an autographed baseball from him, however. Lastly, being an outdoor writer ceratinly had its perks, but even the best never got filty rich. Most of the magazines are paying the same rates now that they were when I first got into the business in the early 1970s. But some of the benefits were immeasurable. For several years, the Canadian consulate in LA comped all my airfare, licenses, etc. for hunting & fishing forays into Canada. I also had a good relationship with Alaska Airlines for comped flights, usually in first class. That was the first and only time I sampled goose liver pate. YUCK!

Boddington has another book out with Bob Robb, Deer Hunting from Coast to Coast, that I thought was a good read.

Donuts/Bagels a couple times a month especially if they are busting butt and working OT. Maybe pizza after a great quarter. Document the slackers and like someone said "praise in public". Make everyne feel included.

This is my setup and we are heading up in a few days for my sons 6A ML bull hunt. I’m packing a heater buddy also. Unless things have changed the Coconini NF is not allowing fires, charcoal, wood burning stoves right now. Maybe this storm changed things.

Good luck today and each day going forward! Congrats on the added responsibility.

Recognize that each person under you has their own set of problems in their personal life. You'll soon spot the one's that can't keep the two separate. Mentor the one's you feel you can get through to and get rid of the bullchitters as soon as possible, before they pee in the pool. Watch for "that guy" who comes down with what my old boss called "the Budweiser flu" and leaves you hanging at the worst possible time. You are now a role model-accept that and lead by example without being arrogant. Congrats on the new position and I hope it gives you more time in the woods.

Looks like you are getting plenty of advice here. I won’t add a whole lot but emphasize the difference between leader and manager. A couple practical things. Your job is to A) Provide direction B ) Remove roadblocks. It doesn’t matter how technically sound your work is, now your job is to help people figure out how to be effective in their own way. So just telling people is not nearly as effective as helping people figure out how to figure things out their own way. If you need more reading material I would suggest The First 90 Days. Great book for new managers and leaders. I still reference it often.

At times you’ll wanna go back to being just a worker lol.

So whats next after legalizing Marijuana? Most of the same arguments can be made about heroin, meth, cocaine, etc. These drugs destroy peoples lives and their families lives as well. Colorado used to be a beautiful state with low crime and you could tell a big difference as soon as you crossed the NM border. Now I go up to visit family there and it looks like my home state of NM, which is not a good thing. Beat up, junky cars with smoke rolling out the windows. Speak to any long time resident there and they will tell you about the effects of marijuana legalization.