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Keep it all

Just finished cleaning my dad’s cast iron. He passed away a few months ago and loved cooking on trips, sometimes more than actually hunting. All USA pieces by Wagner, Chicago Hardware Foundry and Lodge. I already have an equal amount or more in my garage. Can a guy have too much cast iron? The wife thinks I need to sell some off.

So, my wife’s is from the south , and that comes with a bunch of tradition, like Xmas lights have to be down by New Years or it’s bad luck. And the New Year’s Day supper that affects the upcoming year… you have to have rice for luck, greens for greenbacks, aka $, and black eyed peas for the pennys . I can’t argue, seems to have mostly worked for us over the 37 years together . Never like collared greens before I met her, but now I have seconds. Meat can be of choice.

Nice! Keep your dad's stuff and sell the other

Drew an early rifle tag this year! Had written and tried to post but it kept fighting me trying to post pics. My first rifle kill. Only my 2nd elk tag. My brother in law Scott and my wife came up to help me. Went to a spot we know on opening day. Bulls beat us there. We tried to follow but they can cover a lot of ground when just walking. Hit another spot on the backside of the hill. Heard some bugles going away and getting distant. Back to camp for lunch and then took a drive to check out some canyons and possibly glass some. No luck glassing up any bulls. Decided to just chase bugles. That afternoon we went to a spot hoping to hear some bugles. None heard. Got lost on the way back to the truck. I had forgotten my gps in the truck and google map sucks butt. Sent a pin to a buddy and he was trying to help out. Then a couple dudes out getting wood stopped. “You see a white F250?” They laugh and said yes. Gave us a beer and a ride! They were young dudes, I was thankful for the ride and being handed a beer that wasn’t bud light 🙃 Back to camp in bed around 11:30. Saturday woke up a bit late. Bulls were on the mountain already. Bugle up a different bull. They moved thru a draw below about 137yds. Nice 6x6. We passed and moved on. Been windy both days. My wife felt ill with altitude like sickness. She tried to stick it out but had to run her home Saturday evening. In bed after 11 again. Scott said some chick was coming up Thought he was kidding. Got to camp and there was a Nissan Sentra!!?? How the heck she drove in there without tearing off and oil pan or something?! I get up a bit late don’t wake Scott. Coffee, heat up the burritos and boogie. Back to where we seen the 6x6 because I lost my cow elk call. Took 15 minutes and finally found it. Walk down in the draw a bit and sit to listen for bugles. Blow my bugler(Phelps easy metal bugler awesome call for people that can’t use mouth reeds), a cow comes from my left moving down towards the draw we spotted them in before. A couple minutes later another. A few minutes and another. Then nothing. I decided to move down around a little finger where they came from. Catch a glimpse of elk color in the shadows to my left. Like under 60 yds but can’t see antlers. 15 minute stand off. Even through the scope I still can’t see. He’s feeding and I move to my left. He turns but still can’t see antlers. A minute goes by and he puts it in overdrive and I see a giant bull running away…gone. Sickening! Hit up another spot where I killed my first bull Walking in I heard a bugle but sounds far. I quickly move towards it. Slow down and scan the forest. Spot a cow, then a few more at like 40 yds. It’s really windy. He bugles then beds down. 6x6 with a broken #2 on the right side. I back out and head to camp. No more encounters that day. A cold front was supposed to hit on Monday with a high of 62 deg. And moderate winds. I had rented a room for a couple days for my wife and I. Left Scott with his skank after dinner and said I’ll see ya in the morning. She was supposed to be leaving in early am. Showed up to camp she was leaving. Scott had coffee ready and we headed out. With the full moon the elk were up on the mountain early every morning. Today there are a few bulls bugling we drive to a spot to cut them off. Hiking up the mountain we bump a heard and they spook. Make a big loop following. The bugles were strong this morning! Back to the truck as the bugles are really faint. Drive a couple miles to the west. Head into the hills chasing bugles. After a mile or so we get into some. Wind is swirling changing directions. I thought for sure they would bust but the kept doing there thing. We flanked them seeing several small bulls and a herd bull. Never get a great look at him. It seemed as a few small herds joined because there were a lot of elk running around! We flanked them for a long time bumping them occasionally but not spooking them. They bed down 40-50 yds from us. We sit and wait. Herd bull bugling like crazy from his bed. Across the draw up on a ridge another bull starts screaming! Bugling and chuckling! He sounds big! The other bull is bugling back but gets up and takes his herd with him. We follow. We get to the road and the elk were way in front of us. Still bugling! I am getting discouraged and not thinking we can catch up. I am sore, tired and everything hurts! I tell Scott we’re not catching them, we blew it. He ignores me and pushes on! I follow begrudgingly. Bump a muley doe. Spot a spike! A little boost for my mind. We get to a little hill with a good saddle and the bull we followed was just over the hill still bugling! It’s just after noon. We been on them since 9 or so. Scott says shooter bull! I see 2 bulls! I look at one bull and don’t think it is. “Dude that’s a shooter all day!” The other bull was shreading a tree and started walking towards the other bull! I thought they were going to fight, but he slowly walks by him. I look through the scope and see how long he is with an extra on the left side! I had forgotten my shooting sticks in the truck rushing to go after the bugles! He stopped broadside! I was afraid to move! Thinking I will blow it! I decided to shoot offhand! Put the gun to my shoulder, put the cross hairs on his shoulder. Take up the slack on my trigger, let out a long breath and boom! He flinches, but starts slowly walking. Scott says “you hit ‘em”. I put the cross hairs again on his shoulder. Heart rate is out of control! Rush the shot and hit his stomach! Rack another quickly as he is still walking slowly! This time tried not to rush, good breath squeezed and boom he was down! Having doubts he was as big as I thought! Gave him a couple minutes and walked over to him. I could not believe he was as big as he was! It was like a dream! Somewhere along our expedition I took my game bags out of my pack for god only knows why??!! Quarter him up andwe pack out 2 quarters and the head. Haul but back to camp grab extra bags and pillowcases lol. Found a closer road and the last part wasn’t too bad. Really surpassed my expectations! I was not really hunting a number but wanted a mature bull. 372 1/8 Sorry for sideways pics james

A buddy wanted a big 19th century looking hand forged knife for our reenactment troupe. Measures 15" with 1040 steel, bolsters, copper S guard and elk scales from a shed I picked up in unit 9. No edge ground yet but it's gonna be a razor. Thanks for looking.

Not sure what everyone’s gripe is but I use a iPhone with this simple quick Home Screen tab and have no issues scrolling or browsing. Kinda think it my responsibility to know what’s open by looking it up every Wednesday without a notification. Try it hopefully it works for you. Copy it,look it up and Home Screen it https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1Cx1a40_mywVd8rv1IvsOoG4tQwoTWvXM4LHn31721Hw/htmlembed/sheet?gid=412778987

They are up on the website

My dad passed away in July and this was my first outing since his passing. He and I started hunting together in the late 1970s. Like most of us, our dad’s taught us the skills needed to be successful, the appreciation for everything we harvest and how to take care of the meat from field to table. In his memory I used his favorite rifle and I was able to hunt our favorite unit. Over the years, we have harvested many deer, bulls and cows from this unit. I am thankful to have had a successful hunt and relive over 40 years of memories.

Love my cast iron. Cooked a 7# Pork Butt in a Dutch Oven on Wednesday for five hours. Cooked two chicken thighs in a smaller one yesterday and cooked Italian sausage tonight in a skillet.

Update, he got a position at Chapman Chevrolet. They are going to start him off hourly until he is comfortable to go flat rate. He's already looking at craigslist, garage and estate sales for specialty tools. He's got some starter stuff to get him going, but he at least has his foot in the door. Thank you all for your input and advice.

with point creep, I’ll likely be disappointed again.

The issue is with apple. Not gf. Get rid of the terrible iPhone

Sold..

Opening day took us a while to find some pigs. We spent most of the morning looking over deer, the muleys were rutting while the coues were not. The first two herds we spotted were no where to be found when we got to where we last saw them. We regrouped after the two failed stalks and hit the spotter for long range glassing. It didn't take long til we spotted a third herd. The third herd stayed around long enough for my 72 year old pops to get within range. His shot was 27 yards and the sow didn't go too far.

i hope im hunting on friday the 13th this year.

Ive been going down through Douglas for 16 or 17 years to hunt deer and occasionally some Goulds. The ONLY problem we have ever had is being extorted for $40 or $50 bucks occasionally, and the dang knuckleheads on the US side coming back in. Sure is funny how much grief they give hunters over some ticks that can't get over the border any other way than on a dead deer cape. Sure wish they had something else to worry about, oh wait....... To be fair, we travel in the daylight and we don't hang out in the towns or cities. Once we cross we head straight to the ranch. I know its different than Rocky Point, but it sure isn't much of a risk if you ask me. A lot more dangerous in parts of the US. JUST TO BE CLEAR, I'm not knocking our border patrol, I know they have a thankless job and their hands are tied sometimes. My beef is with the Fish and Wildlife

I got a late start to hunting. I moved to AZ from Sarasota in 2003. I've fished AZ quite a bit but only started to hunt in 2019. The main reason I decided to start was I wanted my two son's to practice some of the numerous skills and traits that hunting teaches like patience, persistence and discipline. And to have them spend as much time outside enjoying nature as possible. I did draw an early antler-less tag in a good unit my first year applying and I was successful on that hunt. And even though I did my pre-scouting and camped in the unit before hand that season, I basically shot a fish in a barrel, on morning three. I've been applying for a late, antler-less hunt closer to home the past two years and drew tags. Both of those hunts ended with my tags still in hand but I learned tons about the unit and elk scouting and hunting in general. Now, it seems to me like maybe old dad's the one out there learning some of the lessons I wanted my son's to practice while hunting and scouting. Because after two years, a lot of patience, persistence, discipline and disappointment, I think I may have a good grasp of this unit and antler-less elk hunting. Because after scouting, camping and spending countless hours on OnX I came up with a good plan A, B and C and was finally able to fill the freezer with elk meat this season, on opening morning! I'm looking forward to many more years of spending time out in nature with my boys and coming home with tasty, healthy food.

Since most of us are on our phones, both at home and in the field, they really need to optimize that page for mobile devices. Should be able to access the link and see everything pertaining to a specific unit without having to scroll left/right.

Completing the circle of a unit post, just because I feel like it is the right thing to do, especially for us non residents. To sum up our hunt, in over our heads and not enough time. About 2-3 weeks prior to the hunt my dad’s cancer doctor notified him about some concerning findings in his levels/bloodwork and told him that he needed to get in before the first of the year. Well they scheduled that appointment for mid week of this first week of the season, it was the only available time for his doctor. That might seem crazy to some of you, but this doctor is the reason my dad is still alive and he travels a lot as he is an expert in his treatment of myeloma cancer. Anyway, we were cut short before we even started and because of where we live and the holidays this first week was our only chance. I didn’t really have any information but my own, and I never had any specific spots or anything, just general information. I don’t know anyone down here and don’t have any inside info or experience with hunting desert whitetails. So I just had areas that I had pinned on my maps that looked good for glassing. We sold out in those areas and I really thought we would see some coues through the glass. The information I read online eluded to the fact that coues deer were everywhere in this unit in high numbers and that mule deer were dwindling and maybe they are, but that’s not what we found. We found mule deer, and lots of them. We found mule deer in every spot I pinned and we found some really good bucks. We couldn’t get away from mule deer it seemed. The first coues deer we saw was two days in after we hiked out of this bowl that I thought looked good, it was, there was a stellar mature 4x4 hanging with some does and another young buck at the bottom of it. Leaving that area and heading to another glassing spot we saw a coues doe and fawn off the road. That felt like a small win! We finally had some validation that coues deer existed. All the OTC guys we ran into stated they were having troubles finding bucks, so I tried trading info on the mule deer we were seeing for info on coues. Not a lot knew or wanted to share where the coues were or what type of elevation band or terrain we should focus on to find them, but since we couldn’t hunt muley’s we tried to line everyone we could on where the bucks were. The day before we left I glassed up a young forky Coues with a doe, my dad passed. That would be the last Coues deer we saw. On our last evening of our hunt, just before dark we were heading back to camp… lo and behold, I saw a big bodied deer leaving a tank. I pulled over and took some film, another mule deer buck, cruising by himself. Anyway, 4 coues to 40-50 mule deer, that’s what we were able to turn up. It’s clear to me, I don’t know what the heck I am doing on these whitetails and I wish I had more time to figure them out. Not sure if I would have been able to anyway in a full week, but I definitely didn’t in a half week of hunting. If I had any advice for a non resident in my similar situation, with no experience or a friend who hunts them, I’d say don’t put in for this hunt unless you book with a guide or have solid reliable info on where to start and what to look for. This is a tough hunt for sure and coues ain’t like any other deer species that I have ever hunted. The terrain is nasty and mean. All in all, dad and I had a great time together and we made some memories together that are worth a lot more than a tag filled.

Once upon a time I did ok.

Took this guy in 24A

I did manage to fill my tag on the 5th day right before i had to head home. i found several bucks opening day, missed one at 450 yards and didn't see another buck for 2 days, then i stumbled upon one walking back to my RZR and missed him at probably 50 yards off hand, that was a surprise as i expected him to drop when i pulled the trigger but no he looked around for a second and ran off, all i could do was laugh. The last day i set out for the same mountainside that i had missed the first buck on, this time i was packing a different rifle since i had missed twice with the other one, around 11:00 AM a small buck with a doe walked out onto the hillside, one shot from my new 6.5 PRC and i had filled my first Coues tag, i didn't get back to camp until almost dark as i was a ways in there but a super fun solo hunt for sure.

115 and change....