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Well, not much of a story on this buck. Didn’t have time to scout much this year and didn’t really see anything when i did. My brother took a friend on the youth hunt a couple weeks ago and kicked this buck up in one of our old honeyholes. Went in this morning and killed him at first light then spent the next several hours packing him out. Lots of mass, blades and stickers on this one. He was an old dude

Got drawn for the 1st general WT hunt in 33, had two locations I was tossing back and forth that hold deer. Well I went to the Redington location and it paid off. Started glassing at 0600 and by 7:15 had 3 bucks at 792 yds. Closed the distance to 438 yds and tag filled. Kind of sad that it’s over so quickly, but looking forward to WGP’s chorizo and snack sticks!!!!

I was fortunate enough to draw back to back late bull tags in 2019 and 2020 but this year, no one from our group was fortunate enough to get drawn for elk. Luckily somehow I, once again, got drawn and this year it was for the Late October Coues hunt. The past few years I’ve done a semi-live hunt thread, where I try to post once or twice a day how the hunts been going. Figured I’d do it again for this hunt! It’s my first time getting to chase the Grey Ghost, but between all the research and scouting we’ve been doing hopefully we can tag out! We are hunting the northern half of the unit and got in late Wednesday night. After a long day of glassing on Thursday, we were able to locate two Coues bucks and tons of does. We headed into this morning with a game plan to hike into a canyon and then head up a ridge to glass. On our hike in to the glassing spot, my wife located a group of mule does that were heading to where we wanted to set up. In an effort not to spook them, we went up and around the hillside to make our way to the glass spot. As I was hiking down a small game trail I noticed a mule doe that was likely part of the group my wife spotted. She was about 50 yards ahead of me and I also could see the body of another deer, but it was hidden behind a bush. Even though it was a mule doe, I decided to take a knee to watch her and see if I could make out any other deer in the group. As I took a knee, all of a sudden a buck’s head popped up about 5 yards behind the doe and he started raking a downed tree. Unfortunately all I could see were his head and neck. As I was trying to crane my head to see if I could get a look at his tail, the doe behind the bush spooked and sure enough, up went the white tail! She took the mule doe with her, and then the buck turned and up went his white tail! I couldn’t believe that I was able to get that close to a Coues buck just by walking up on them. I went to where they were standing and saw them take off down the hill and over the ridge. Definitely bummed that didn’t work out, but it was a great way to start the hunt! The rest of the morning went by without as much excitement. We saw a lone whitetail doe on a ridge about 500 yards away, a group of mulies 800 yards away, and another group of does about 3/4 miles away. The rest of the day brought more of the same. As it was hitting dark, on our walk out we bumped a few groups of mule does, which was cool to see. One ran right in front of us about 30 yards out. The cherry on top was seeing a group of elk with a massive bull on a ridge not too far from where we were hiking. So, Day 1 down without the tag filled but looking forward to another day of hunting tomorrow!

#270gate

Had one in our backyard a couple days ago! That was a first time getting one in the yard and we have lived here about 30 years! Probably a young male wandering and attracted to some of the water and fruit we had in the yard. PXL_20211017_164543849~2.mp4

We had a great hunt. We had 4 tags and were able to fill 3 of them. We had alot of hard work to reach the elk grounds, and then had hard but successfully hunts. My buddy and I took 2 adult onset hunters out on a cow tag. One was on his first big game hunt. We were able to get my buddy on his first hunt a great opportunity, and he closed the deal with a nice clean shot. His cow went DRT. My long time hunting buddy was able to close the deal too on a nice one too. Tuesday evening I decided to make a final push as I had to leave Wednesday. We hiked in over 2 miles to get to our spot all uphill. I with about 20 minutes of light left I heard a bull chuckle behind me. I didn't know if he was a single or had a herd. About 10 minutes later the herd made it way into the meadow. The first 5 were a mix of cows and calves. They stayed grouped up so I didn't have a shot. A couple more straggled in, and 1 presented a clean shot so I took it. We packed her out in 1 trip. I am a big dude, but that sucked. I decided it sucked less than hiking another 4 miles round trip though. I took the cut meat and 2 hind quarters. My buddy took the 2 fronts and my rifle. It SUCKED, but we made it and have many awesome experiences and stories from the past week or so. Pic 1 is the first timer. Pic 2 is my long time buddy who got the biggest cow Pic 3 is upside down, but is mine.

Just got my ram back from Harlow's. Chris did a great job. Thought I would show off his work. Not sure if these pictures really do this thirteen year old ram justice, but here there are. Good luck to this years tag holders.

I can't ever get a photo of this buck head on, he's always got his head sideways. It's by far the widest and tallest. I'm guessing it is pushing 25-26" wide. This photo was from September 3 so he's grown quite a bit since then. I don't have hardly any photos of him in focus. Everything is blurred or I've got half a rack with nothing to judge against. I know that he will look great in my scope though.

What's gasoline?

Great radios, honestly can cover a lot of distance unlike some of these other advertised "radios". Good luck on your sell I own three of these and love em!

I don’t need to find any more on cam. That’s how I ended up in this position to begin with.

Paid $3.49 today for gasoline. Disgusting

Yeah, I should just go hunt likely areas. But I knew before the season I was gonna find giants on cam and make my life miserable. And now here I am. Fuk joe biden and his gas prices

The "not even considered" part is a huge understatement. 😉

Depends on if you want FFP or SFP. That will be the determining factor. If you want FFP, the NX8 is the only scope on your list that fits the bill. I am a FFP MIL guy, so the ONLY one that would get my consideration. If you want SFP, I would go, in order: NF NX8 (tracking, mechanics, build quality, glass is still very good, parallax is a slight bit touchy, but not bad) Zeiss V6 (glass is the best of the bunch, turrets are decent but not as crisp as the NF, I have only shot behind a few, so not sure how the tracking and durability compare to the NF) A distant third would be Leupold VX6 HD (actually not even considered) The glass on the Leupold is great, weight is nice, but I have seen WAY too many tracking issues with Leupold to consider one for my own use. Even if you went Mk 5, Mk 6, Mk 8.

Great, whatever works for you is all that matters! I have enjoyed 200 yard zeros on my hunting rifles knowing that there is no more than 2.4" of variance out to 250. For hunting purposes, I've avoided dialing unless I have to, but that is definitely just a personal preference. Good luck on your hunts!

Support your local houndsman!!!

Nice one! All I found this weekend was a bobcat skull.

I got a golden eagle on a different waterhole...it likes to go hop into the water and take a bath and then sit on the cement and dry off.

Shed I found a year ago and buck I had on cam last month

Hard horned is 2019 and the velvet photo is back in early September. Not much growth but has gained mass.

You pass on that deer to see what he turns into next year, you’re an idiot that being said I’m prepared to be an idiot to get one of the bucks I want

Well I went and checked a camera and sadly, two of our bigger bucks haven’t watered at this drinker since I changed the batteries last. I did get a new buck on camera though that got my attention. Not the best photos because I just snapped a shot of my computer screen but you get the idea. Solid 4x4 with a small point on one side that isn’t big enough to count as a kicker.

My buddy found this set today. Did 8 miles

I did 10 miles today, not a single shed was found. Placed one cam. saw this guy