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Finally harvested one.

So after chasing mule deer in Dec/Jan archery my wife decided she wanted to try her luck on a desert mule deer during the general hunt. We’ve chased these deer only during archery and had decided to keep tabs through the years. We finally felt we had a solid plan so off we went. We got to her u it the afternoon before and set up camp then went out to glass. On our way to our glassing spot we came across a groups of 4 bucks hanging out in the area we were goi g to focus on. We got up early Opening morning and my wife and son got ready and headed to the area we had chosen to be at sunrise. I went to the glassing spot. At about 0611 I glasses up a group of 5 bucks, one of which was a definite shooter. Once they had formulated and approach everything just worked out perfect. I was bummed I couldn’t be with her when she shot but having just had hernia surgery a week earlier I was relegated to glass duty. 312 yard offhand shot with her 300WSM and the rest is history. Super proud of her!

Day 1 Update: Morning started at 4am to drive and hike back into our spot by 5:45 or so. As we were hiking in with our flashlights, a group of hunters comes in out of now where and passed us on the trail. Kinda a rough way to start before the sun was even up. We get into our spot with plenty of time left before sun comes up. As we wait for the hillside to lighten up, we’re just hoping that as the sun breaks we will see some bulls on the other side of the canyon. Unfortunately, all we see is another group of hunters 100 yards to our left glassing the same two ridges we are. After kind of just looking at each other back and forth I tell my wife as much as it stinks, we should pack up and move further in. We didn’t see any bulls that first little bit of light anyways. As we start packing up, I notice that the other group realizes we are packing up so they grab all their gear and hike further in. Rough haha. So we ended up staying put at that spot for the rest of the morning. We were rewarded 10 minutes later when my buddy spots a bull working his way across the top of the ridge in front of us. I range it at 440 yards, just out of my wife’s range (400 yds) but we get her set up in case he starts feeding down. Well he went into a little draw between ridges and never saw him come out. We didn’t think he bedded down so he must have worked his way up and over. A couple more hours pass and the only thing we spot are two more groups of hunters. Didn’t realize there would be so many about 2 miles in but oh well. As the morning turned to afternoon, my wife wanted to hike out and scout a canyon about 3 miles south. We ended up finding a great glassing spot and spend a couple hours there. My father in law spotted a bull at 670 yards but he was walking quick and went up and over a ridge before anyone else from our group was able to find him. We decided to go back to our morning spot for the evening hunt and it seemed like we had the place to ourselves since we didn’t see or hear any other groups. Unfortunately no bulls spotted during the evening hunt but we heard a pair of gunshots a ridge or two over so hopefully someone else was able to tag out. Our consolation prize for our hard day of hiking, glassing, and hunting was spotting a nice sized black bear right as the sun was going down. Amazingly, it was my first time coming across one of those in all my scouting/hunting trips! It was a long day but great being out in the woods enjoying time with my wife and the rest of our party. Fingers crossed tomorrow brings a tad more luck!

Thanks everyone for all the prayers and support you have a given to my mother and my family at this time. The power of prayer is absolutely amazing . Since Sunday morning my mom has been fighting for every breath she has taken and was unable to eat or drink.. She didn't recognize anyone . And actually thought I was her father who has been dead for 40 years.. When I left her last night at the hospital and came home to sleep..I really believed that I would never see my mom again alive.. I cried all the way home with my 28 year old son crying along with me. When I got home I was able to read all the responses from All of You.. then I hit my knees and thanked God for All of You and the love and support you all have shown.. Then asked him to give me more time with My mother.. This morning I went back to the hospital with my son and daughter.. this was at 8 am and I left the hospital at 1030 pm the night before.. when arriving at the hospital in the parking lot my son was physically sick throwing up and couldn't breath and I was so nervous of what I would see when I walked into my mom's room.. I myself could not breath either.. To everyone's surprise my Mom was up out of bed and sitting in a chair looking out the window.. Talking drinking eating and cracking jokes.. like she was never sick.. The only explanation for her recovery is All off you, and the prayers and love you have all shown for my mother.. Thank each and every one of you.. And thank you God..

Was an awesome hunt and awesome memories with my dad and my daughter

Hey Everyone My 83 year old mother was taken Monday morning to the hospital.. She has pneumonia in both lungs. And had a stroke yesterday afternoon.. she can knowlonger swallow or eat . She has lived with me the last 14 months and I've been talking care of her . Watching her slowly slip away and watching her dying has been torture to Me. but the time we have shared together has been very satisfying.. it has definitely been a rollercoaster or emotions.. but a experience I wouldn't trade for anything.. My mother is the most loving and giving person you would ever know.. So hers a big shout out to Mom /aka Joan Cornwell.. I love you Mom and praying fora speedy recovery and hope you will be home soon 😥. Please everyone if you have time and a extra prayer or two My mother and my family could all use one right now.. Thank you all Bill

The way things have gone over the last few years, I hate to throw info out on the Internet but I also don't want to be the guy that doesn't give an update. The guys that said they would be in the usual spots were kind of half right. There was a rain/ice/snow storm the Wednesday before the hunt. We didn't see an elk until Saturday afternoon. Sunday was a nice day with highs in the mid 40's and elk were everywhere in the morning. My brother-in-law scored on a 3x2, his first big game animal. You would have thought he shot a world record, it was awesome. We dropped him and the meat off at my mom's on Wednesday and my wife and I went back for the last day and a half. She was finally able to get it done on a 4x3 the last morning. That was the biggest bull we saw the whole hunt. Other than two days, it was windy and cold. The last day topped out at 50, but started at 19. I have discovered in 20+ years of hunting elk, that they are pretty soft for such a big animal. I have witnessed a bad rain storm(with some hail) drive them into the canyons to hide. This hunt was no different. The storm(and the snow storm the week prior) drove the elk lower. The big bulls never came back. I am not a biologist, but it makes sense to me that after expending so much energy during the rut, once they went lower, the big bulls weren't going to expend energy to travel back and/or to fight the cold. Everyone we talked to said/saw the same things we did. No elk, then cows and spikes/rag horns. In the end, I am glad we were able to give my brother-in-law a good experience and that we filled the freezer again. We want to shoot big elk as much as the next guy/gal but the meat and the opportunity to get in the woods is the most important. Definitely learned some lessons, as I do every elk season. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck to those that still have tags. I don't know what's going on with the pictures. I know this is a common problem, but not one I have ever had before. But, you get the idea. I

With permission from Amanda i am offering the following. I retired 10 years ago and started a small wholesale Pecan company ( NEWEPCO LLC) located in Tucson. I recently bought out the last of Green Valley Pecan Companies inventory. I normally sell pecans wholesale in batches of 1500 lbs. Part of the recent purchases was about 200 cases ( 12 lbs) 24 8 oz packages of shelled pieces. I was able to buy these at a great price and would like to give a little back to the great members here. Here is what I am offering. These pecans have a best by date of sept 2022 but have been in cold storage and I guarantee their freshness for 6 months. They are fresher than anything you find in the store. They can be stored in your freezer to be used as needed. I will sell a total of 40 cases to members. Each case has 24 8 oz cello package of pecans. For a total weight of 12 lbs. see pictures below. I am offering these pecans at my discounted cost of $45.00 per case if picked up at my home or a meeting place we can determine. I am willing to ship these anywhere in AZ for $25.00 per case, or for $30.00 anywhere else. I will take Venmo, personal checks, or money orders. If you are a member with history on this forum I will send pecans out immediately or pick up anytime. I wont need to wait for a check to clear. If you are a member with no history and just joined I will not send to you as there are too many scammers. If you would like a case just PM me with your shipping address or contact me and we will make arrangements to pick up. Happy Thanksgiving Phil.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you were all able to enjoy a nice day giving thanks with family and friends. As has become tradition for the past few years, I’ve posted a “semi live” thread for anyone who is interested in following our hunts. I know when I’m not out hunting, I enjoy hearing about how you all are out doing on your hunts. I was lucky to be drawn for two late bulls hunts in 2019 and 2020 and then an October whitetail hunt in 2021. Well this year, the one to finally get drawn was my wife! I was super excited when she finally drew, and she’s been getting more and more excited over the past few months. We’ve scouted our unit several times since July, and we have a good idea of the canyons and areas we want to be hunting in. Last weekend during our final scouting trip, we found a decent bachelor group with at least one shooter. Hopefully we can turn up those same bulls tomorrow morning. While I’m not sure anyone likes getting up before 4am, I know I’ll be looking forward to it as I hope my wife is able to fill her first ever tag!! If we can’t find that group of bulls tomorrow morning, that’s ok. We have 5 1/2 days to get it done, and lots of family and friends to share the experience with. I’ll post an update at least once per day (maybe twice) depending on service. Thanks for following along!

Told My Grandson JW if he didn’t get drawn and I did I’d transfer my tag over ! The hunt lasted 1 1/2 hr hope he don’t think that’s how easy hunting is lol !! I’m a Proud Grandpa ! His Great Grandpa got to be there to which made it extra special !

Had my boys first youth cow elk hunt in 22. Started good while scouting a couple days before the hunt saw a few but not alot. Hunt started with an almost full moon so elk were hard to locate. We had a lot of downs before my son made a great shot and got his first elk. I wanted to say thank you to some of the guys on here who helped provide some good information. Hope all the youth elk hunters have/had a great experience.

Back to the top for all the hunts that started yesterday. I’m still in need of a couple of capes!

The power of prayer is an amazing thing to witness when God answers our prayers. We will continue to lift your mother’s health up in prayer. May God bless you, your mother and your family.

Lets face it, ASU is ghetto team/school, probably started the fight, but shame on TV for not showing the fight and no replays of it. That was the 2nd best action after the last pickoff. Sports comes with fighting, that builds character and comradere.

Thanks Eddie . Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I will probably have pecans up until Christmas. I throw a cello pack in my backpack. Great snack. I need to post some recipe’s, I have a great cinnammon Honey pecan thats easy to bake and wont last long once they are pulled from the oven.

2 critters in the pic. Good luck.

Saying a prayer for your mother at this time.

Got my first duck limit this weekend, my second year getting into duck hunting. I'm convinced it must have been the new rig was the lucky ticket. 1 green wing, three ruddy ducks, 3 mallard.

Thats really awesome! These youth hunter topics hit different with my son being so close!

New ram 20221114_091149.mp4

This wall has been shown a few times on this website but it has evolved a little bit over the years. My first is the one right above the antelope. We sold the house and all the mounts in various forms of storage at this time...

I wish I knew how important good "in the field" pics were when I shot this one. My first buck in 1985.

My first, and ONLY Coues deer. I am a muley hunter. Applied for the wrong number and drew a Coues tag back a long time ago. 2001 or 2002 I think. Being a Mule deer hunter, I had no clue what a Coues was supposed to look like. I saw this buck for 5 days and passed on him hoping for something big. On my last day to hunt, he was the biggest I had seen, so I hiked out and popped him. I was quite disappointed at how small he was. If I had only known then what I know now....and if I would have had the money to get a shoulder mount.....

Never Vortex is the correct decision. Especially when it comes to the Viper series.

Just a little info for those of you who are not familiar with the 6tcu it is a 223 rem necked up to 6mm at around 2700 fps or less. I think the 80gr b tip would work well. I would also stay away from the v max . If you can find the discontinued hornady or seirra 80 gr single shot pistol bullet you would be set.