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"I just want to fill my tag, put tasty meat in the freezer for us, and get out of this stupid heat." That's what Jacob said to me when he decided to go after a smaller deer than planned on the opening day of his deer hunt Friday. We both love chasing Coues whitetail in SE Arizona, but hunting in 87 degrees in November is horrible, especially when shade is limited. Shortly after a post-lunch nap in a small piece of shade, I glassed up a group of deer going to water across the valley. I got Jacob's attention and let him know there was a fork and a goofy-looking spike in the group of 5-6 deer. That's when he said the above quote, referring to the fork. They came down to 350 yds, but circled back up to 400 yds. Jacob got lined up, adjusted his scope accordingly, and missed slightly right. It happens. We attributed it to buck fever/operator error. The bucks kept walking uphill away from us and bedded behind two rocks just under 500 yds from us. We kept an eye on them and our friend joined us to glass, bringing much-appreciated ice-cold drinks. We watched the bucks fidget and twitch for a couple of hours and then realized the one rock was actually the spike's body behind some grass. Jacob asked, Carl encouraged, and I gave Jacob the thumbs up for a 500-yd shot. He's put the time in behind his rifle and I know how comfortable he is. He took the shot, and missed wide right again. The fork eventually stood up and walked to the left of the spike, standing perfectly broadside. That's when we found out his scope got bumped off somewhere between his last practice session and his hunt. He shot at the fork at 5:05pm and dropped the bedded spike cleanly. We celebrated and laughed at what just happened. Somedays, I'll take luck over skill, although I know Jacob has the skill. He's a way better shooter than I am. We hustled across the valley, tagged Jacob's deer, took a few quick pics, field dressed the deer, and hiked back to camp by headlamp. As I was carrying all of the meat, I realized I was glad he harvested the smaller buck. My pack was somewhere between 60-70lbs, including meat and all my gear. Then Jacob cooked us Coues tacos for dinner! Friendships were solidified, and the love of chasing Coues whitetail in SE Arizona grew stronger. What an adventure. Now to give the new grinder its first workout and work on a scope before Jacob's next hunt. It turns out that, between his last practice session and his hunt, two ring scews had come almost a full turn loose. It made me realize just how lucky we were and it taught me a valuable lesson about checking all aspects of all gear much more regularly. \

Push the thumbs up icon if you're old enough to have been in Dealy Plaza (or the grassy knoll).

Welcome to the site! Think you forgot to bring the lube with you.

So much negativity lately and this is the month of hunting and to give thanks. I for one am grateful for this site, friends that I met on here and our CW hunting community. #givethanks

Concentrate on the north facing ridges. Also find the nastiest country you can find, that is where the bulls go after the rut. If snow is in the forecast get into your area before it snows. Bulls will go out of there way to bed (north facing ridges) in the snow if the weather starts to warm up after a storm. GLASS GLASS GLASS I shot this bull in last years late rifle snow storm.

You were 12 when you were in 3rd grade

The last great democrat and classic liberal. The CIA killed him because he wouldnt authorize a false flag operation to start a war with Cuba. The CIA wanted to blow up a US commercial airliner filed with Americans and blame it on Cuba. JFK said no and he was murdered for it. No, I am not a crazy conspiracy theorist. Look it up all declassified. OPERATION NORTHWOODS. Yes, the CIA will kill Americans if it is in their best interest. They also conducted human mind control experiments on Americans and Canadians. Ted kaczynski aka the unibomber was a subject of those experiments and went crazy after them. PROJECT MK ULTRA.

I was was able to connect on a nice buck the last day of the Nov. hunt. The best part was having my son w me behind the glass giving a play by play of were the buck was as I was getting ready for the shot and after the shot. He even helped pack out two quarters.

*EDIT* FYI, I was contacted by AZGFD and they were awesome about the whole thing, I really appreciate the time and explanation given to me by the officer. A few key points for any of you interested: 1. If you find a bighorn skull this fresh or fresher, please do not move it and call them to see if they need to come check it out before you remove it from the field. They need to investigate any animal that might be a poaching incident or other unlawful circumstance. This would also apply to a deer skull or other dead game animal that you might come across in the same or fresher condition. 2. AZ law does let you keep bighorn skulls after they determine nothing illegal happened, but there are many other states that do not. AZ does not plug or mark natural death skulls the same way they would for an animal taken by permit, so you may get in trouble if you take one to another state with different laws. 3. So after all that, I get to keep my find. Awesome! *Original Post*: So my hunt this year in unit 28 was a bust, but I did fine a nice skull. Pretty sure it was a lion kill since a leg was close by also and it was right near a big cliff. Just a few miles out of San Simon, in the BLM wilderness I found this on Monday afternoon. Kind of made up for the skunked hunting trip around Woods Canyon & Doubtful Canyon. I saw some deer there, but the hunting pressure was high and the only buck I saw Friday morning was gone after a crew of weekend hunters showed up and started hanging out 50 yards from the water sources in the area (I was watching them from 500-750 yards off). Anyway, getting it cleaned soon to keep in the collection, saw some other bighorn sign in the area so was really surprised. Posting up here since I probably won't hunt there again, but definitely don't hunt anything other than deer.

Canyons and north facing is a good rule of thumb. But just a rule of thumb. I took these pictures a couple of hours ago on a south facing slope in 60 degree temps with no canyons close

Wait, you’re younger than me? I thought you were like 60

Contact Nelson Ford, his shop is called "The Gunsmith". If he is unwilling to work on your Colt revolver he will tell you who will.

Years ago I was given a bag of geese decoys. Mostly Canadian and a couple snows. I've stored them, but never hunted with them. I think there are close to 25 total, some in better condition than others. If someone here wants them and would use them, send me a message telling me how you would use them. I will have my kids pick a winner..

It’s like 50 degrees at night. Hope you don’t turn your tent into a sweat lodge. Better yet, I hope it cools down!

There is no chance this gun is shot out. I have been a gunsmith for 16 years working on ruger revolvers solely. I do minor work from action jobs all the way to 5 shot conversions and probably handle 5 -10 a day. That's 30-60 thousand in my career. I have never seen one shot out. Anyone who wants to buy this revolver should rest assured knowing that this gun will out last you.

I wanted to share something I thought some of you might find this interesting. Check out the cool color differences between these two bucks. The main difference that immediately stood out to me was the difference in velvet color then after watching the video a bit more I noticed the color differences in their fur as well. One buck is mostly grey while the other has quite a bit more color to him. He's got a reddish orange color on the back of his legs, tail and armpits. I never gave much thought to velvet color before but I must say I'm quite intrigued now after seeing this. I did a quick Google search but couldn't find anything on a bucks velvet color. I wonder if there's a correlation between velvet color and the color of a bucks fur? What have you guys noticed? Is this just a coincident?

Tomorrow we ride . . . I won't be posting any field updates on this one. I want to leave the phone put away and soak up the time with my dad and two boys. We have the whole hunt available. Hopefully when we get back we have plenty to share. I am a giddy like a kid at Christmas right now.

As a matter of fact, you are correct. "Dad, I told you I was dead on him, calm and steady! My heart was racing like crazy, but the rifle was steady!"

That’s the most disturbing part of the video, Jackie is reaching back as a reaction to grab the part of his skull that flys off

He's a slow learner. Short bus kinda slow.

Hopefully the Gov. will NOT choose her. But, the fact that she was chosen by the secret committee should raise the hackles of a right thinking hunter. 😷

Awsum pics as usual idgaf

both Grandma's would flush out big vein, then soak in salt water brine for about 24 hrs, change water a time or two, then marinate in milk before frying in bacon grease with s & p & flour

I was finally able to recover a couple of cameras that have been trapped inside the Bighorn Fire burn area since June. The cameras didn't survive, but many photos on the memory cards did. I converted the stills to videos.