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Anyone else going Elk hunting next week??? My last tag was two years ago, and there was a BIG snowstorm on Thanksgiving night that effectively shut me out of my unit for the first three days. That's all the time I had to hunt, so it was basically a bust. Was fortunate to get another tag this year. I'm taking the entire hunt off work this time and will be living in my Alaknak for the week, starting Thanksgiving day. Though I wouldn't mind a little snow, I'm sort of hoping the weather will just stay as it has been for the duration of the hunt. One more scouting trip this weekend! Good luck, all! S.

If things like that keep you awake, you aren’t drinking enough beer after a long days hunt. 😛

This is my Son, Aaron Altaha Jr., 11 years old, this past weekend was the last weekend of his rifle hunt for deer and he tagged out his 1st deer the day before the last day on 10/30/21. And he was blessed to harvest a Awesome 7x8 Coues buck from the San Carlos Apache Reservation in AZ.

I have sheep. Goats are too hard to keep in and destroy things. I also have 2 two year old steers that are almost ready for finishing out/butchering. Hay will go through the roof and has already started to. The fuel/fertilizer/equipment cost has doubled. Watch what meat prices do next year. Maybe nearly double unless everyone sells, and then the year after will soar instead. Get ready for the ride.

I have hunted an area in unit 23 on and off for years and have seen fighter jets come roaring just above the tree tops and following some of the canyons that are in the area. There are usually two, or sometimes three of them doing practice runs, following each other. Always cool to see and hear as it sounds like a freight train is just about to hit you. This past week I was walking on one of the open grass covered mesas next to a long canyon. I looked up and saw , then heard, a fighter jet coming my direction, low and fast. I guess he was about 200 to 300 yards above the tree tops. (It's hard to judge the actual distance of something moving that fast, but he was low) I started waving my arrow above my head at him to say "Hi". He must have noticed me because, in one swift movement he turned sideways for a split second, then as he was over top of me , he went inverted for a split second and then he rolled upright again and then finished off with a little waggle of the wings , as if to say "how 'bout that". Then he was gone from sight. I was left standing there in amazement at what just happened. An F-22 fighter jet just flew over top of me, INVERTED, and shook his wings at me. Truly one of the most awesome experiences I have ever had while deer hunting. And , no I didn't get a deer on this trip, but I didn't really mind.

The week has finally arrived. It’s time to load up and make it happen.

Still one of the best days of my life.....Game 7 World Series, 2001.

I’ll start off by saying I don’t know if this is the proper “category” for my post, but I feel that it is as good as any. This is more of my journey as an archer than anything else. I am beyond blessed that I was born into a family that owns a large piece of land in Texas, in good deer country. I grew up hunting the place with my father, grandfather and cousins and have had many “firsts” there in the world of hunting. I started bow hunting when I was 12, exclusively here in Arizona and exclusively for deer. It was more of a way to spend more time afield with my father, I was never a very good archer as a child/young adult and the limited opportunities I had always failed to pan out due to lack of practice and nerves. I stopped bow hunting around the age of 15 and didn’t pick a bow up again for almost 10 years. When I did, all my childhood experiences and failures quickly caught up to me and I gave up within the year. Fast forward to mid 2020. Amidst a major career change and the pandemic, I knew that I needed a “new” hobby to occupy my time. My parents recognized this and my father who is an accomplished bow hunter generously offered birthday money in the amount to afford a modern economy type bow to get me back into archery. I ended up with a bare PSE BowMadness unleashed. I researched endlessly, watched videos, talked to pro shop employees, and came up with a solid setup. I practiced for a couple months and shot literally thousands of arrows and began to feel confident as an archer for the first time in my life. In early October 2020, I made the drive down to the ranch in Texas. Their archery season opens the first Saturday in October and I thought it would be a great opportunity in a target rich environment. I figured it would be easier to kill a deer there than in the desert, and even thought I may kill multiple deer during my week long hunt. I got a reality check. I missed 2 great bucks, and 3 does. Branches, string jumps, and nerves were to blame. I made an incredibly poor shot on a feral hog that was somehow lethal, and the glory of my first archery success was shadowed by failure just like all the years before. This time I didn’t give up. I took what I learned and started from scratch to build a “correct” arrow, properly tune my bow, and practiced consistently. I hunted all of the OTC season without a single shot opportunity. In March of this year, I drew an archery cow elk tag. I continued to practice and revised my setup as necessary in preparation for my upcoming elk hunt. In April of this year, my father and I traveled to the ranch in Texas to hunt turkeys and pigs and do some ranch work for the 2021 deer season. On that trip, I killed another feral hog with my bow - but this shot was far, difficult, and the arrow flew exactly as I had intended it to. I watched the hog expire a mere 32 yards from the point of impact. That was my first moment of pride as an archer. In September, I found myself in the elk woods on opening morning of my hunt. I had some good intel on the area and the elk showed up right on schedule. At 7:30 a large cow made her way in front of me at 35 yards and as I drew, she spooked. Simultaneously, I heard elk behind me. Knowing that the cow in front of me was gone, I turned 180 degrees to find 15 or so elk. I was already drawn, so I picked the biggest cow, estimated the range and let the arrow fly. I watched it sail 3” over her back. Discouraged yet again. I returned to the same location on day 2 of my hunt, and at 7:01am I watched as a bull pushed 2 cows directly to me. The bigger cow stopped at 22 yards and my arrow found its mark. After a 315 yard tracking job I had my first “game animal” with a bow. I still wanted that “first buck” with a bow. October 1st, I set out for the ranch in Texas. Opening morning found me in a new setup I had constructed solely for archery hunting. To say that things didn’t work out is an understatement. No shots fired, but plenty of frustration. The whole first day was spent working out the kinks. The second morning was foggy, and 30 minutes after sunrise I was looking at the largest buck I have personally seen on the ranch to date - a mere 120 yards away. He never came closer. The evening of day 2 and all of Day 3 were days of more frustration. No opportunities, poor weather etc. The morning of October 5th found me in the same blind where I had the encounter with the big buck on day 2. Before it was light enough to see, I could make out a deer about 70 yards in front of the blind. As the sun came up I realized that this deer was a good mature buck. I told myself if he came into range and offered me a shot I would take him. 10 minutes later he was 23 yards in front of me, oblivious to my presence. I drew, anchored, and let the arrow fly. The buck ducked at the sound of my bow, but not before my arrow reached him. Much to my surprise, the buck immediately hit the ground. I’ve watched enough hunting shows and videos to know that when deer drop from a bow shot, they have been hit in the spine and that is almost always a non lethal hit. I quickly got out of the blind, approached the buck and put another arrow in him. He expired quickly, and I watched it all from 10 feet away. The moments that followed were special in a way I will never be able to accurately describe. The light fog, the cool morning air, the sun rising behind me as I laid hands on my first buck with a bow. 16 years after I first tried my hand at being a bow hunter. All the failures, ducked arrows, twigs, straight up misses, all brought me to those moments and I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything. The buck is a mature 10 point that scores right at 120”. By no means a giant, almost enough to get into the Pope and young book. He will soon reside on the wall next to my first ever deer, which was taken less than 1/4 mile from him on the same property nearly 20 years earlier. If you’ve made it this far thanks for sticking with the long read. I hope that this post inspires those struggling to be successful as a hunter, and reminds others of the struggles it took to get where they are today. Good luck out there!

Consider this when deciding where to park the camper. Cold air sinks at night, not to say its not cold up higher but you can park where the sun hits early.

I've had 2 early hunts and 1 late hunt in 12AW and my trailer lines froze on all three hunts, but never broke a line.

Yep your pipes will freeze .we were up in 6a Nov last year and 17 degrees and snow .no running water for 4 days .My dad broke his toilet valve when he stepped on it to flush it.we ran mister heater to thaw THE lines out .the cold will kill your battery quick as s h it so plan on extra gas for generator.

I have used my outside shower hose to cycle hot water back into the fresh water holding tank, it will cost you some propane though. When mine has froze up it has been at the tank where the pump draws. A couple pots of hot water down the fresh water filler has thawed it out.

I recommend a boar goat if you can find one, if you looking for a butcher ready, you might not be saving much. Livestock prices are up also. If you kill and butcher yourself that will help. Call Jason Holiday, Holiday processing. He usually has some contacts.

Depends on temps…I’ve camped in the upper 20s overnight several times with no freezing. Friend of mine rigged up an apron out of tarps for his and runs a Buddy heater underneath to keep the pipes and tanks warm. Sometimes just the apron is enough unless it gets below 20.

thats the curse of being a light sleeper. Those that know me will probably chime in that its not a lack of beer at the end of the day, lol

The kaibab 18x56 are about as worthless as it gets.too much magnification for the glass quality.right side ocular focus needs to constantly be adjusted after moving the main focus just a fraction of an inch.eyecups are too big to get close to your eyes,allowing excess light to get to and reflect off of the lens.if you are already crosseyed they may not bother you too much.me, I cut my kaibabs in half and saved the left side with focus knob intact to make an 18x lite spotter.problem solved.

Usually will freeze, but rarely will burst. Ours would freeze overnight when it was dropping into the teens, but be thawing by noon. I would recommend running a Mr. Buddy on low with a window cracked if you have one of the noisy amp sucking furnaces like I do. I couldnt sleep with the furnace set. Had the Mr. Buddy thought after we had left. Or leave a faucet, slightly cracked to allow a slight drip to move water, but plan on listening to your pump cycle.

I got lucky and got a voucher for 3rd season CO last Saturday. Spent Saturday and part of Sunday scouting, drove thousands of miles learning a new unit, glassed a bunch and 20+ hours in maps and calls to acquaintances. I came home went to work and drove back up late Thursday night. I found this buck right away on a knob I had scouted via maps and Onx. Took some video and bailed looking at more country. In person I couldn't get him over 175" so I questioned if I wanted to pass him. After talking with a few people that had had the tag in the past, others that have hunted it and those who lived in CO and others giving me their opinion on score I decided to try and kill the buck. Being by myself I decided to get in as close as I could in the dark, well as luck would have it, someone walked by me after light and proceeded to push deer everywhere. For some reason he didn't see the buck and about 20 min later the hunter went one way and the buck went another way. I shot this buck around 7:10am and packed him out in 2 trips by 2 or 2:30 pm. Scored 178 2/8ths.

De-Escalation. Good training is always a good thing. However, some people just have rage issues. Police officers get some of the best training around and from time to time a few may lose their cool and it gets recorded. Some people just can't control themselves, with or without training. Its human nature. No law would have prevented what happened. If you carry a gun and never expect to use it, or let alone that you might have to take someone's life, you might want to rethink why you carry.

Maybe he didn’t know which end of the deer he was looking at.

He’s messing with us….right?

Think it's a mule buck deer.😎

Today was my 3rd day hunting, got to the deer stand late this morning at 10:45. Sat all day and didn't see any deer until sunset. Saw lots of other stuff,which broke up the boredom: a bald eagle flying around the meadow, a bluejay, a racoon, a pheasant, a red headed woodpecker and another woodpecker that I didn't know what kind until later, turned out to be a piliated woodpecker- same kind as woody! So, just after sunset, I saw a big buck walking very slowly, kind of in my direction, but it kept looking to its right and was sort of steering that way. I figured it was going toward a side meadow instead of to me, plus I figured I was running out of shooting light, so I made the decision to get out of the deer stand and try to "head it off at the pass". Well I got out there in thick grass and swampy ground about 100 yards from the stand, had a tree line in front of me, the other side of that was the meadow I thought he was headed up. So I stopped to scan the treeline with my 8 power rangefinder, went back and forth a few times to try and find him. On the 4th scan, I see him come to the edge of the trees and stop. OMG, there he is! He came right towards me! I pushed the button on the rangefinder to get the distance, it's 80 yards. I slowly bring up my muzzleloader, it took forever to find him in the scope (didn't even know what power it was set on) but I finally locate him. He's quartering towards me, staring my way. I can't believe this is all coming together! So I shoot and end up with a monster non-typical Minnesota buck! After getting him in the truck in the dark, we got it to the farms shop, cleaned the buck and got him hung in the walk in cooler. Turns out my friends family have been tracking this buck all summer and had him on their trail cams! They named him the crab buck because of the crab claw feature on its right antler. Too cool! My hat's off to Tony for his help in making this happen. Thanks guys, I feel like I'm part of your wonderful family.

I am a huge proponent of using sock liners. On big hunts, I would carry extras and give them to clients when they started hurting. They couldn't believe the difference either.

Went scouting for sheep again this weekend.