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After striking out last year, I put in for and drew Wyoming again. This year I gave myself 5 days to hunt and arriving 2 days early to scout. The hunt again aligned with my son's fall break and he accompanied me on the hunt. I learned last year that you need to know where you want to be at sunup opening day and that anything easy access will have a ton of hunters. I found a spot on the map that was a peninsula of public land of about 2 square miles but required a brutal 3-4 mile hike to reach. I was worried about my son being able to do that hike, let alone day after day. Well on the first day of scouting we hiked in there an hour and a half before the sun rose and got there right at first light. Right off the bat we started seeing antelope. Within half an hour we saw about 50 in 5 different groups spread out across the public land. I knew this was where we wanted to be. No need to scout more so we spent the rest of the day and the next fishing. We hiked into that area Saturday, Sunday and finally connected on this buck on Monday, having this tough to reach spot all to ourselves. We had plenty of antelope at about 400-600 yards but I was shooting a pistol and my max range was 300 that I was comfortable with. I glassed him up bedded and snuck into 324 yards. I built up the dirt so my pistol was rock solid, aimed right where I wanted it. 1 shot and he never got up. About 34 miles total hiking in the trip. One of the hardest pack outs I've done but my son wanted to help so he carried the skull out. When we arrived back at the truck there was another group parked by us loading up a buck they killed. They asked asked how old my son was and said they watched us from a high ridge for most of our pack out and wanted to treat him to ice cream in town, to which we obliged . They said none of them wanted to hike that far and a 6 year old showed them up. Another great hunting trip with my son by my side.

Go have fun, don't worry about cameras on your truck or camp or anti hunters trashing stuff. I spend 45-55 days a year on the strip, never seen or heard of any of that. We leave our camps alone, unlocked, 100 gallons plus of gas/water and never have had anything happen in fact never ran into anyone up there that wouldn't stop and help if stuck, broke down, lost or drive you back to your truck or town. Most 13A is not that remote and you can be to a paved road/gas in an hour. Bring some extra fuel, water and a spare. The archery hunt was awesome, reminds me of how it used to be in pre camera days. We killed an amazing buck and only saw one other hunter drive by our camp. The rifle hunt will be good but don't expect giant bucks everywhere, antler growth is well below average and age class because of cameras is even worse. Give it 2-3 years and expect that place to be off the charts again. Next year should be great with 2 wet summers in a row, if we get a decent winter it'll be the tag to have. Best thing to happen for the Strip is the elimination of cameras, expect a fun hunt, tags reduced, hunters will be more spread out than the last 15 years, there are a couple true giants in 13A this year so best of luck. If you hit that true 190" mark as a DIY guy this year you did amazing. Good Luck

Well now that my daughter can no longer put in as jr, she and I put in for cow elk in 6A together. The draw gods were on our side and we got drawn. I used my oldest sons archery 6A bull hunt as a pre-scouting trip for our hunt. Well needless to say, everywhere we saw cow elk a month earlier these spots were empty. Opening day turned up nothing, Saturday in a new spot heard some bugles, high tailed it up the mountain in chase. While trying to get ahead of the bull I notice movement about 60 yds away. It was a black bear lumbering our way. I did buy an OTC bear tag because during my sons hunt we came across 2 different bears. I asked my daughter, should I shoot this bear and then hunt elk later, she said yes. I take a knee and squeeze the trigger. The bear buckles, does a summersault and is rolling around. I’m just completely beside my self that I just shot a bear. I look up and the bear gets up and runs down hill. Now I’m wondering…. Uh oh, where did I hit this bear and how pissed off is this bear if it’s not dead. We both unholster our sidearms and cautiously walk up. We find blood, bits of bone and the ground is all torn up where the bear was rolling around. Reading and hearing stories about bears, especially hurt bears I wasn’t going to put my daughters life in danger rummaging around the thick brush. We backed out and we’re going to give it a day to possibly bleed out. Obviously after that gun shot the bulls quit bugling. We went to a new spot where I was able to tag a very small cow elk…..aka calf. Yesterday after miles and miles of hill climbing my daughter was able to tag her 3rd cow elk. She was completely exhausted and of course the $hit talking hasn’t stopped since hers was so much bigger. We did end up going back to where I shot the bear, but with the amount of rain we received all the blood was washed away and we both still were very wary about looking through the brush. Take away…..shoot again and again if uncertain!!! Great trip all around, county was absolutely beautiful with the leaves changing and memories that will last a lifetime!!! sorry for the sideways pics.

I hate seeing this thing sit in my garage all season. Just got back from the Kaibab and it kept us warm and dry. If anyone is interested in renting, I’ve got all the stakes, poles, ropes, stove, and even an 8x10 rug for a great hunting setup. $100 for the week. If interested in buying outright, I’ll sell everything but the stove for $900. The canvas is pretty well used with a few pinholes near the stove Jack and a rip along the door (vertical - about 18 inches) that I repaired. Also, it’s dirty with a few small mildew spots. Located near I17 and Glendale in PHX.

Not going to lie this spot and stalk otc bear has it in for me.past few years i have had great luck finding bears and this year was not any different and I finally got some shots off but missed my mark. Saw eight bears and two cubs in a day and a half but every time i tried to get close i could never pic them up again. Finally i spotted one well over a mile away and decided to haul butt over to it. Bear country is no joke and i got my butt kicked getting there. I set up and got my cross hairs on the bear. But had to pull off and dry heave a few times from exhaustion and adrenaline and try and regroup. With the adrenaline and up and down a few ridges and a big canyon i was not ready i guess. Tried to get steady best i can and I squeezed off a few. All three shots over the bears back and he was gone. Learning experience for sure. It got the best of me this time but i am dialing in my bear skills and locations and hopefully next year it will happen. Few pics to share. All from august

Yeah, but for now he can still buy, sell or transfer a handgun.

Swear to god he looks exactly like Castro.

Thanks. Happy to talk on the phone or FaceTime with it. Can provide credentials and references as well.

After twenty years of watching me leave to hunt and fifteen of me taking my three boys hunting, she was finally ready to go. Our last headed to college this fall and I guess she felt this was her time. She’s a lefty which meant new rifle. She got her Christensen Arms 7mm mag dialed in and I had her shooting to 500 fairly quickly. She drew a tough unit with only 15 tags but I’d seen elk in one canyon pretty often in Jan OTC deer so I was hoping they’d be their when is was warmer. Pre scouting showed they were there but bear hunters and early hunts had them holding in deeper canyons. After four days of hiking and glassing our work paid off we picked them up mid day but they pegged us and pushed a mile back. I sent my boy after them to keeps eyes on from a distance and we circled around behind them but they didn’t flop over to where I thought they would. My son watched them bed in thick juniper at three so we backed out again and circled back to where we thought they’d pop out at sun down and move across a ridge. At 4:30 two hunters we didn’t know were right below decided they’d had enough and packed out to their truck and left. Good luck for us. At 5:00 they popped out like we thought and moved across an open ridge. We cut the distance to 600 yards by 5:45 and got her setup. So funny because game time was much more stressful then practice shooting but she held it together First shot was back a little and the elk just stood there as the Barnes passed right through (I’m on the fence on this bullet performance). She was at a steep angle so my bad for not adjusting her point of aim. I adjusted her turret down a bit and next shot punched through the shoulder and back into the boiler room. Elk fell back and was done. Nice steep climb to the elk but easy pack down. She did great. So proud of her. Never complained and carried her own gear and rifle. Thanks to my son who works at GoHunt for some new gear for us and for his work on the spotter. She’s hooked and still has a grin on her face.

Yup!

Moving away from the rifling can produce higher velocity. This was Roy Weatherby's approach with long freebore producing higher velocity. Finding your relation of bullet to lands is best done by removing the firing pin assembly from the bolt and seating a bullet incrementally longer till it touches the lands. This is for bolt action firearms of course. Finding the "touch" for your rifle chamber is important from the standpoint of safety. Getting a bullet stuck while shooting a match or on a hunt can have drastic results and ruin that shooting experience! And no. Adding a suppressor is not plausible! Your bullet to lands measurement is not accurate or your load is too hot to begin with.

Super cool!! Congrats!

Well done- Love it its why we do what we do!

Way to go! That is fantastic.

"Case in point"

This is the Waterport Weekender, rebadged/sold by CaliRaised. I have the little WaterPort and love it for camp showers. Great deal! GLWS.

After

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.

That's Awesome!!!!! Congrats on the harvest and teaching your son how to be a man!

The original Bushnell Legends were incredible glass for the $$. They made 10x42 and 12x50, both tripod adaptable. Can’t speak to current models, I’m talking about the ones from 10+ years ago, Like this- https://www.ebay.com/itm/125537707984?hash=item1d3aa167d0:g:aAoAAOSwQs5i2GqZ&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4A%2B6tU5QfLPeffplNWizETi0ZYYsBQ8D8eYHDrWwtYzFZ5AXIJ4Ft1KFkkb3Y9DSfYchhO5gj773%2BX%2FTQJl27Q4DKCimkwjGtFr5a22euwvAWVbB%2FSONOvQeqrDOEJqTtBT%2FZMfvcr%2BJaMtmO87%2FYE41WWDRRTHVHBAYa8F6NOr%2BD3rCt9rKMWEtBVJrgycMG6AUr5KTmNuKA9Uud6IbLXxD%2BezfXRQTxnp%2F6mLexiyp3e8Yfd3Inle%2BXaT45ofPPrzSTSUiNw5jQCU7eeHTSNyk2uW4J6th0tgsY3V7aRed|tkp%3ABFBMtNvZ4f1g

Go big or go home, BTX 115's, teach them to be gansta from the get go.

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.

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

Killed a pretty good one after waiting 29 years

I hope this .mov file works. This guy was munching acorns in my backyard right next to my archery target. IMG_0264.MOV