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Finally found one today. Been going out after work and on weekends looking for one. They are cool animals. Taking it to the taxidermist tomorrow.

This is a pretty unique story, A good friend's son drew a muzzy tag in NM and my buddy got called to do some LEO training in Washington DC and NY for 12 weeks so he called me and asked if I could help his son on his first tag. I only could commit the weekend but after a bunch of rain and couple missed opportunities Colter smoked this bull at 250 yards off his knee for his first bull.

Kid learned some great lessons on this hunt. Hard work payed off this time!

It's a story hard to write but my son killed his first bull after a whirlwind 6 days. He was very limited on time and it got the best of him but we had a great time and lots of memories made. Bull he passed after a tough day the day before. Bull that came in after he didn't have enough patience. This is the bull we were hunting but he had already shot another bull 5 minutes before. Having little experience and no time for a hunt really hurt him but in the end his goal was accomplished. He killed a bull, and we got to spend some good days hunting.

Here is the Coues deer I was able take with my statewide tag with the help of Kory and Bobby of A3 . There knowledge of the area and with the deer was truly amazing. Once we found this deer they spent hours breaking it down. It was decided that we would try and harvest this deer. We had to relocate to find him again and after 8 hours of waiting he finally reappeared just before dark . Now he was with another buck of similar size but was a typical 3x3 with amazing eye guards. To be able to have two 130 inch bucks standing next to each other I thought I was seeing things. Now I had to make a decision it was an easy one for me. I like em trashy . After we ranged him at 600 yards I let my Axis works 280 AI do the rest. It was now almost dark Kory and I hiked down to the deer When I put eyes on him I was speechless it was bigger than we had thought . I told Kory I was going to do a life size mount so he was very careful field dressing the deer. He then proceeded to load the deer into his pack whole it’s a pack that he has designed and just now starting to sale it was his smaller one about 3200 CI it was amazing all of the room it had not to mention it’s the best built pack I have ever seen I am getting one. His company name is Desert Mountain Outdoors Well after many miles of packing we got back to camp about midnight what an epic day. Still in shock of being able to take a deer like this thanks to A3 and there amazing guides Kory and Bobby.

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Finally after 6 days of tough hunting I dropped this bull at 60 yards. Was very lucky to get it on video. 5 hours to break it down and get it back to the truck. They are such big animals! No giants at the end of the rainbow but a good one just over the hill. Also saw a nice MD buck IMG_0326.mov

She did it again. After very little activity we finally found a shootable cow on day 3. Was on a NASTY road(swore before that I would NEVER drive that road again) I found a nice cow bedded at 490 across the canyon. We watched her for about an hour waiting for her to move to a better position as she was partially blocked. Finally WE moved and had a good opening. Just as we were resituating for the shot the elk chose to get up and start meandering. So began the clown car circus of scrambling to get everything set up. She held 1 moa for a little wind from right to left and let it fly. Cow took a few steps forward behind a tree and disappeared. We watched for awhile and she never came out but my brother said he saw some bushes shaking. So the niece and I got packed up and headed down. My brother has recent surgery and can't walk well so it was just the two of us. Perfect double lung shot. Pretty much DRT. That's her 2nd 500 yd DRT shot in 2 hunts. after a SEVEN HOUR marathon packout our day was done. And so were we. I couldn't even drive back to the cabin I was so tired. We are so proud of her for toughing it out. What an amazing accomplishment. and she never complained once. I am STILL complaining. I hate manzanita.... The ride home....

My son found one on his hunt:

6.5 creedmoor, Accutrigger, muzzle break. 60-80 rounds fired. Has Burris xtr2 8-40x50, sfp, not illuminated. $1250 or $500 bare rifle, $750 scope only.SOLD In Peoria 602-826-7517

(Edit): We ended up hunting for 6 days straight, 3 with my little one right by our side. On third day a forky ran right up on us at like 30 yards while we were talking to a game warden. He got spooked and darted off in the bushes and while we were trying to find him, a truck pulled up from the road and the father and son jumped out and shot him right in front of us. On the 4th night we spotted 2 forkies and a doe right at dusk at 460 yards, but we ran out of good shooting light and then they weren't there in the morning. But while looking for them ended up spotting a nice 3 x 3 bedded down on the side of a hill at 315 yards. All we could see was his big head and while attempting to get closer for a better shot he got spooked and ran over the hill. For the next two hours went all the way around the hill, directly through the cat claw bushes trying to find him, but never did. On the 6th morning we conquered just about the biggest hill in the area, to find this beautiful specimen. Ryder shot him in the lungs at 360 yards. All of the hard work payed off and it was a great lesson for Ryder. Hunting teaches so many valuable lessons and that's exactly why I wanted to teach my two sons to do it.

Hey guys, got this guy last Sunday on day 10 of a tough hunt. The rut was sporadic at best with some days having almost no bugles during daylight hours. I've been getting caught up at work so haven't done a full write-up, this guy came in screaming with about 10 cows at 7:15 am when it had been quiet all morning. I had to wait at full draw for what seemed like ever for his cows to clear out from between us, but managed to make a heart shot. He only went about 30-40 yards before tipping over. I'm super exited. He's my biggest bull to date, and broke my drought. It's been a few years since I've put anything bigger than an turkey or javi on the ground.

A buddy and I went out striper fishing down here in Yuma a couple days ago. We ended up with 9 solid ones and let some of the smaller ones go. We also caught a 12lb limit of smallies. Fun time on the water.

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That is a fantastic buck!! Congratulations to your son! Very happy you were able to tag out

Awesome buck!!! congrats!

that is such a clean truck!

Killed a pretty good one after waiting 29 years

Thanks. We really did have a great time. GroundPounders killed this bull the next day. I had him somewhere between 375-80. I heard he went quite a bit bigger.

Hunting 20C. Lots of does and one fork so far. I have two tags and my boys are loving it.

I will trade you 11 450.00 Christmas trees for it! Lol.. Just kidding.. But seriously, I would.

Like I said, if you follow him on Facebook you would understand.

I had some good luck on the early archery tag. Killed this bull opening morning at around 11am. He was the main bull we heard bugling and that turned out to be his downfall. My cousin - who also had a tag - was able to get a good chunk of time off work so he was out scouting 4 days before the hunt started. He saw this bull every single day prior to the hunt. I made it up late Wednesday and scouted with him on Thursday... and again, saw this bull and his cows in the morning and in the evening. Bugling as well. We saw another 10 bulls or so in this same drainage so we figured we'd start there opening day and give them heck. We hiked into the area in the morning and we were able to chase some bugles, but they weren't as vocal as they had been the couple of days prior. We ran into a good group of elk, but they spooked and we thought we might have boogered everything up too bad for the afternoon. My dad and uncle were on a ridge glassing above us and could hear elk below them bugling every so often - even after the bigger group spooked. For some reason - even though we were pretty close - we couldn't hear the bugles. The ridge we needed to climb was pretty steep and thick with overgrowth so I wasn't thrilled about the hike to get up it, but we sucked it up and made the short, but steep, hike. We finally got up to the same elevation as the elk and spotted them about 250 yards away. I saw a group of cows and had a feeling we were on the same bull we had seen all week prior. Sure enough it was him. We watched from a distance as he ran off a couple of raghorns that were nearby. He was one of the few bulls that seemed to be ready to rut. We continued working in closer, but didn't feel like we would have the shooting lanes available if we kept stalking straight at them. We were in some thick cover. At this point, the elk had been milling around in the same small area for more than an hour. We backed out and looped around to get on top of them. For the most part, the wind cooperated. It started to swirl a bit as we got close to the elk. They were in a thick stand of aspens and the cows knew something was up. They weren't quite sure where we were though, because the vegetation was so thick. They first trotted one way and then back another way. We could see them in the aspens less than 20 yards from us. The bull let's out a bugle to corral his cows and get everyone going the same direction. At that point my cousin gave a quick cow call and the elk stopped. I side stepped to an opening to my left and could see the cows going one by one up a trail into a small shooting window. Naturally, the bull was last. My cousin ranged the cows at 65 yards and I drew back. Right when the bull stepped out and showed his vitals, I shoot. Downhill, quartering away. I hit the spine and into his cavity. He was paralyzed. I quickly moved in closer and finished him off from 20 yards. (I would love to say that my first and only shot was the arrow shown in the picture - I'll be honest with you guys, but probably not my drinking buddies ) Needless to say, I am thrilled with this bull. Good mass, lots of character. It's also pretty cool that we were able to watch him for a few days in a row and put a plan together that got it done. This early archery elk stuff is awesome. Can't wait to do it again...... in twelve years.

Uhhhh I think this entire thread cared to begin with but then turned to the typical bs. Thanks.