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I was only going to be able to hunt opening weekend due to work and other things going on. I had planned on sitting a tank since the monsoon has been pretty lackluster and then like clockwork a big storm rolls through the area on Wed evening. I get to camp on Thurs and there are puddles of water everywhere, I decide to sit water anyway and see what happens. Friday opening day comes, sit all day and only 2 does come to water. The weather was heating up friday and the puddles were starting to dry out, higher hopes for Saturday sit. Morning comes get to tank, I hear someone in the distance yelling at his dogs, some Turkey sound off gobbling after that. The hours go by, have people coming to tank mid day to check tracks, Have a drone flying overhead, more people coming to check tank. Im hot and irritated, its 1pm and I decide Im going to leave. I get up to stretch and look around and see a body of a deer, cant see the head. I get ready, a doe comes to water. I knew there were more than 1 deer so I stay ready. Second deer comes in and its a buck, looks like a decent buck. I decide I will take him. He drinks and I think maybe I wont take him, a little smaller than my original thoughts. He messes with the doe for a little while and starts to walk off, it was then that I decided to shoot him at 43 yds. He took a tumble right away, got up junped the fence and almost fell there. I lose him in the trees. I wait 30 mins and start to track, short blood trail as he was piled up only 30-40 yds from shot.

I'm not too surprised but it is certainly interesting discussion. Mule are easier to kill than coues deer. Deer are easier to kill when it's dry. I suspect more 1-2 year-old deer were killed near a road or water than any other situation. I believe mule deer are in trouble for a variety of reasons and unchecked OTC harvest hasn't been helping. If units can't stay open for a week, they cannot stay OTC. Perhaps coues stay OTC and mule deer go all draw in years to come? Unfortunately many people's suspicions were true. I'm glad heads are no longer in the sand and the numbers are here.

Cameras were fun and a great reason to get out in the woods even in units we weren’t hunting. It made us want to go out and check them. Without them i don’t have much of a reason to go out there without tags to scout with. It wasn’t just about scouting, it was just good old fashioned fun. And yes we’d fix stuff pretty often as well, the best we could.

Saw tons of antelope today but this one made the mistake of coming into my decoy at 30 yards! Added story! Was in a valley just north and way of the highway 82/83 intersection. Saw probably 50+lope running in a circle around the valley. They would let me get to about 70 yards and then push the does off. About 10:00 in the morning I moved to one of the few trees to get out of the sun and put up my decoy. I saw this buck and a doe about 200 yards up the hill running towards another hunter at the top of the hill. The doe spooked and ran and this guy turned, saw my decoy and slowly made his way to me. Took about 30 min to cover those 200 yards. He stopped at 60 and started to go the other way so I drew. At that point he started to come back again so I let down. He went down into the wash and popped up behind my decoy at 30 yards. Two steps to the left and I had a solid quartering towards shot. Put it in right in front of the shoulder and came out the opposite hind quarter. Took out lung, liver and femoral. He ran about 20 yards and went down. Was a ton of fun.

Remington youth 870 20 gauge with Rem chokes 2 3/4 and 3 inch mag.. (Imp, mod, and Full chokes) This little workhorse has served my 3 boys, and my wife well... Has harvested countless dove, and quail. Screw in the full choke and add a #4 3 inch mag and has smoked turkey and many coyotes! At any rate, boys are grown, and time for another youth to get some use out of it. will take $350 picked up in Peoria.. (no I will not travel, or ship) first "take" gets it and will only hold for 2 days... Whitey

Because a couple dudes didn’t agree with your post? That’s Charmin soft

You are correct. I certainly could have gone up to see if the tank was holding water.. However, the fact of the matter is, me being able to place a camera would have resulted in me finding the problem. I didn't go because of the ban so the problem wasn't discovered.

So, if you had been able to put a camera there, you would have noticed it how? By going out to check the camera, correct? What is the difference between that and live scouting? If you had gone scouting in the flesh the old fashioned way, you'd have noticed it as well. I am missing the blame game point myself. Not to mention the old fashioned way of scouting would tend to require a few more trips, so you'd have been able to return with materials to repair it sooner in the summer.......JMO

Look at all this friction over trail cams. Ban em!

100% agree and was thinking the same. Just a way to blame the camera ban for something that has likely been happening for years, before the OP started going only 4 years ago........

In today's hunting world you have to put ballistic in front of silvertip to make it acceptable.

"Sold" I am selling a Browning Cynergy Max 5 12 gauge O/U , 3 1/2" chamber, 26" barrel, comes with factory box and choke Not interested in any trades. Shotgun is now located in Gilbert Thanks for looking Marc

Today is the last day to enter the youth giveaway . 1st place savage 7-08 rifle package 2nd is the 20 gauge package 3rd is the 22lr package Enter at youthgungiveaway@outlook.com See the contests and giveaway section for rules!! Make sure to include your name ,your kids name ,age,and a contact # ALL ELIGIBLE KIDS MUST BE ENTERED BY MIDNIGHT 12 PM TO BE ENTERED THE DRAWING WILL TAKE PLACE SATURDAY WITH MY YOUNG CO- HOST DRAWING THE WINNERS.

Couple guys disagree with this guy and he wants his account deleted. Exactly what is wrong with world. People have become so soft it's unreal. If you criticize anything or anyone, you are painted as the villain. Delete it Stanley

Stupid comment but hey, I'll take the blame for not checking it but if that's the way it works, NOBODY else found and repaired it either. I'll also take credit for the repairs I made in the past which resulted in hundreds of visits by animals for a drink of water. Hey Stanley.. delete my account please.. Thanks.

I guess I just can’t understand why you are blaming the camera ban on this. Couldn’t you have went and checked the area at any point during the year to see if there was an issue? Not trying to be a smart butt on this but it really feels like a stretch.

Sincere, best wishes.

Any sharp pointy bullet and it probably wouldn't have been questioned. Congrats!

Well my turn finally came and I drew a bonus pass tag on the second hunt for a Gould's tag. I was dieing to get in the woods after all the Gould's photos were posted last week. Finally got to the woods yesterday afternoon set up camp and had a few hours to do some scouting. First thing this morning I had another hunter move in on the birds I was calling in off the roost and it was game over for both of us. The scouting from the day before really paid off and we hurried to our plan B spot. We were able to locate and call in this strutting tom and his 7 hens. It was a short hunt and we were done by 6:45 this morning. I look forward to putting in for Merriam's again and getting to hunt for myself more often.

You obviously haven't killed very many animals. The last two years I have been part of 10 successful elk hunts and everyone of them had varying degrees of desire to live. This one was very tough. . Do you really think for a second my intent wasn't to humanly dispatch the animal? That's why I was shooting. My first two shots would have been fatal but I wanted to humanly dispatch the animal. And while you irritated me enough to go on a rant. I don't think your form of hunting is ethical. Shooting an animal at a distance where he can't use is defenses is not hunting.

I have to say with candid honesty, I’ve taken a break from this forum due to the cat like retorts between members. I am glad I had a couple minutes during a burrito break and chose the Elk Hunting chapter to flick through, finding your recent post success. It was refreshing, funny, and a good read. Congrats on a hot weather elk hunt! Especially DIY. Nicely done! Thank you for sharing, with pics too!

Shooting a bull when it's 90 degrees outside is a lot of work. I've been hunting close to home for the most part with the occasional excursion to the greatest unit. Seeing more than a few elk. Until today, i had my standards pretty high and passed up maybe 20 spikes and small bulls. The area I liked themost got hit hard by a couple of professional hunters and you may have seen the bulls they took on ig or Facebook. That being said my normal area was devoid of elk the last couple of days. Mostly from insomnia and little from curiosity I went to the greatest unit ever this morning with determination of shooting the first branch bull I see. My dog gave me a guilt trip so he came along for the ride. We get to our spot maybe 30 minutes after first light and start walking. 10 or twenty minutes after leaving the truck I spot a calf and few other non bulls. We get closer and for the first time ever my dog is not growling at rocks he's picking fights with. Then all of sudden an antlered bull sticks his head out for a moment 65 yards away and disappears just as quickly. I wait maybe 10 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, honestly idk, he comes out broadside at 60 yards. I am shooting a 1948 marlin off handed that I picked up from cwt member. (Apologies I forgot your handle) My first shot, no reaction, second shot no reaction, chambering of third shot he starts to cantor off and I go full.john Wayne shooting everything he's in an opening. I go to where my first 3 shots were and I find blood instantly. The herd climbs the hill opposite of me without my target in tow. i start following the blood trail thinking hes within a few dozen yards. Not the case, at all , I follow and the blood trail actually gets bigger for once. After an unknown distance and time, I catch up. He stumbles up and I put two more rounds into him, one behind the shoulder and the ending shot in the neck. I think this is my 10th elk and first with a rifle.

Getting my Gould's completed my Royal slam so I thought I would share a photo of each. Posted in the order I took them. Merriam's Rio's Eastern's Osceola's Gould's

Here's my biggest... And here's my prettiest - not a very good pic though - back before digital cameras.