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Flew back to Kansas for a few days to do some work on the farm, set some stands, minerals, cameras, and the highlight of our spring............. Turkey hunting! Incredible as usual and Max bagged his biggest bird to date with an 11" beard. Sorry about the photo fails....ggrr.

No, your comment didn’t show flaw, only your own obsurd flaw. Most common sense people see an enormous difference between the use of trail cameras and hunting from helicopters. Staying on topic, current hunting freedoms are slowly being chipped away at and if your ok with that then fine. Most of us see this as not a camera debate but a larger issue of hunting rights being taken away. Eventually, it will be a right you enjoy and utilize in your hunting tactics. When that day comes you will wonder why a lot of fellow hunters are not on your side. It’s because we as hunters sit around b!tching about what others are doing instead of supporting each other regardless of personal opinions or preferences. Personally, I’d like long range hunting banned and I believe it will eventually come. Hunting period is under assault and will probably disappear too. I honestly don’t care if trail cameras are banned, just don’t like how easily we are allowing it to happen.

Its comments like this that are why we can't have honest conversation. Thank you for contributing to society.

A trip I'll never forget!! The season came fast and we spent the last few months preparing for her first spring gobbler hunt. We were shooting weekly and doing everything we could to get her dialed in. I started loading shot shells a few years ago and this past year I dove into the world of loading Tungsten(TSS) Shot. My daughter grew fond of measuring exact grains of powder and ounces of shot. She's a chip off the old block when it comes to attention to detail. Her favorite part was sealing the roll crimped shells with glitter nail polish. We tweaked things till we were satisfied with 50 yard patterns that would stone a turkey. From the very beginning I Involved her in every aspect of the hunt. Thursday mid day we were loaded up and headed for camp. Someone was excited to miss some school. We got camp setup with an hour or so left of light. I put out a target at 40 yards to make sure her shotgun was still on. She hit it dead nuts. We spent the rest of the evening trying to roost a bird for opener We were unsuccessful. So I was pretty stressed about opening morning. Friday morning came with a 3:45am alarm. We were out of camp an hour later. Our first stop to listen and shock call produced a gobble about a mile off. We looped around. By gray light we were in the strut zone. It was a morning we had been dreaming about. Multiple flocks going off. Hens cutting and yelping like I've never heard. Tom's gobbling over each other. We setup in the middle of the action. I began cutting on the box. Mimicking the hens around us. I called in a tom but he hung up above us at 80 yards. Boy, Did he put on a strut show!! At the same time a hen came running into our setup. She was pissed. She stuck around for about 15 minutes. We were pinned. All we could do was watch the tom strut over the ridge to flocks going off past him. We backed out and tried to cut them off. Ran into another youth hunter already getting setup. We backed out and tried a few more setups not too far away to see if we could call in a satellite tom. No dice. The rest of the day was some well earned naps and burritos. No bird roosted that evening. Saturday morning my alarm did not go off. I woke up to gray light. We scrambled and got to the same general area as opening day. Immediately Multiple gobbles. We were behind them. We pushed up. We had a satellite tom at 100 yards. I began the spring song. Again my daughter spots him strutting. Working his way towards us. Money in the bag! We got caught in a bad spot. We were lit up. He circled left and as my daughter moved to reposition the shotgun her jacket rubbed the tree loud enough to make the bird get nervous and stop. He started to putt. I purred to calm him down. He came in another 30 yards. But was behind a some small jack pines. The flock started sounding off again and he followed. Decending down into a canyon I wasn't wanting to carry my kid out of. We backed out to get infront of them. We found were they came through the canyon bottom. Fresh scratch and scat. We setup and called. We called in snow and sleet. The rest of the day we spent being tourist and taking pictures at one of my favorite Lookout points in the unit. Screaming and yelling in the canyon to hear our voices echo a dozen times from all directions. She sure did love that. She's a quiet kid so it was amazing to see her let loose and belt out across the giant limestone walls. That evening we spent time in the same area we hunted previously. No birds sounding off back to the roost. My buddy from work was up with us and spent the day at camp while we were shouting at the sky. On the drive back to camp I got a text that 3 gobblers were going off across the road from camp. We ended the night with some coues Backstrap, zucchini and smores on some oak coals. Sunday morning, our last stand. The 3 camp gobblers started shaking the skies around 5am. They sounded a little further than we thought they were the night before. We drove around to get in a good position once they flew down. We were setup above 2 of the toms. I yelped softly to get a location on them. They were in our lap but just out of sight. No time to put the decoys out. We hunkered down at the base of some pines. Here they come. Again, my eagle eye kid spot their colored up heads and fans doing the spring shuffle. They are gobbling their heads off!! They are about 120 yard when she spots them. They come in another 30 and start looking. We both were thinking they were gonna hang up since they didn't have a visual on a hen. I started to cluck & purr and softly yelping like I was a hen moving off and Oh man.... they came right on in. Putting on one heck of a show strutting and gobbling. They stayed pretty tight and we needed to wait for a good shot. Once they broke apart I gave one last yelp to stop them and my daughter let him have it!! 48 yards with a .410 tungsten shell we handloaded. He didn't even flop! He dropped like bag of concrete. She was so stoked! I was so relieved! She was so darn proud of herself! We made it happen. We worked our tails off. We prepared and it paid off. I can only hope that she carries all the lessons learned with her forever. Man, I balled like a baby on the drive home just thinking about the whole experience. I'll NEVER forget it!!! (posting from my phone. Couldn't figure out how to get the images right side up)

Awesome! Hold your phone horizontilly for pics. When you hold it vertcal thats why pics do that here.

I could not agree more. Knowing a guy is a rule breaker and keep on using him says everything you need to know about an outfitter.

I have a box of 20 gauge 6 pheasant if you can’t find any I’ll let go.

Yup and trout is now a 4 fish limit statewide, wonder how many people still think its 6.. Great catch I need to get down there at night..

Yeah, but do you see that plywood sheet? Appreciation on that has far exceeded crypto currency!!!

The few cameras that I used were never on water, they always got stolen, In the last 10 years I've had probably less than 5 maybe only 3 people show up on my cameras. To me personally a camera has never been part of my "real" scouting. I know a bunch of people that used them in that way just not me personally. I use them to take pictures and something to check in the summer before my scouting begins. I sure enjoy seeing what the animals look like in my area that year.

So back in the good ol days before trail cameras, spot lighting all night long was how a bunch of big critters got killed. Some legal and some not legal. But to me the argument that pressure will decrease if we ban cameras is invalid. I personally believe it and have seen just the opposite. But I digress, I love getting pictures and checking cameras during the summer but I'll be out as much as I can with or without cameras. I'm one of those on the side that it will hurt the "average" hunter more than anyone.

Closed for some remodeling during the winter. It should reopen soon

I believe the same, at least in the spots I have hunted over the past 6 years. Combination of drought, predators and the influx of hunters, it has become very challenging. Hate to say move it to a draw, but I think that would help the numbers improve.

To be honest, I am not sure if they are all even once fired. Might be some virgin in there. The 3 unloaded rounds took a good 3x3 old mule deer buck and a great coues back in the day. So you know they are lucky cases.

Caught 11 on Thursday morning... all on jerkbait or crankbait. Saw numerous beds out on shallow Rock points/reefs. Lost a big smallie at the boat😥

Not much different than raising game birds, putting them in a paint shaker and planting them in a field for guys to hunt. Hunting them is not the same as wild birds but its the only practical choice for many and many of us have done it and enjoy it. What about stocked trout? These animals are raised just so we can catch/shoot/consume them, Just saying, we have many examples of similar enough examples that many of us enjoy. Not going to look down at someone that does any hunt that is legal. IMO the antler hunts dredge up the same envy we see with auction tags, guided hunts, expensive reservation hunts, etc. To each his own - don't let the anti's divide us.

If i had $8500 burning a hole in my pocket right now id beg you to take just $7500 and id take the extra $1000 buy some blow and coordinate some hookers to party with me.

Come on man... we're talking about high fenced hunts... not Cardi B. Joe Biden stealing an election has nothing to do with guys farming big bucks. Theres nothing "immoral" about guys raising deer for guys to go shoot. Would I consider it "hunting"? Not by my personal definition. I hunt desert muleys for gawds sake.. totally on opposite end of the spectrum from high fenced hunts. But.. I'm not going to put any energy into worrying about it one way or the other. The gay marriage thing was a joke. Read my comment right after that one

I’m ok with meat hunts on a ranch but what your describing is not for me.

I think most if not all guys that fish lees ferry would rather catch a nice brown and release it to catch again, than get $30.

The only one around our little town in ND has personalized plates that say “DOES185”.

You apparently need a vocab lesson. I'll help you out. Definition of Minion: A servile follower or subordinate of a person in power. Now let me add to that. Minions are a dime a dozen as long as they can wear the flat brim hat with the outfitter logo and post on their Instagram that they guide for said outfitter. Throw them a little cash and they'll do just about anything.

On the topic of guides who would like to see trail cams reduced: 1) I really have a hard time buying that guides think DIY hunters are on equal ground with the cams. I'm guessing the average DIY hunter might have a few cameras, maybe borrows a couple more, and with the limited time they have might check them a couple times. It just doesn't hold water when compared to what the guides run. 2) I was actually hoping that there were guides who felt the technology was changing what guides traditionally were good at- knowing the country, knowing the habits, spending time in the hills, focusing on areas they chose, and being incredible hunters. Thought maybe some guides felt the cam technology was moving the trade from all that, to one of manpower checking cameras. I get that is a simplification and there are a 100 variations of the theme. But you have to admit that much more effort today is focused on the cameras, and that MUST reduce focus on other elements of the trade. It might also bring folks into the business with less traditional knowledge and more technology knowledge and thus the older school guides might be opposed. I'm no guide of course- was just surmising what some might believe.

Out of sheer boredom & frustration waiting for the current elk/antelope draw to happen, thought I’d share this muzzy buck I took in 2019

We received a gracious invite from our buddy in Texas to bring Max out for a 4 day youth hunt on his lease. Needless to say Max put the 6.5 PRC and crossbow to work. Freezer is full and memories made to last a lifetime.