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Any body remember Ann Landers?

I didn’t get a tag and neither did my brother so we turned our attention to two of my nephews. I wasn’t able to be out opening day but my brother and his step son got to 150 yards of a heavier antlered 4x4 and he took one shot and dropped him. This was his step son’s first buck. On Sunday, we watched another 4x4 bed down and walked my brother in law and nephew into his bed and my nephew was able to make a great shot and filled his tag. Now, we have 5 adults with tags left to fill. 3 of them are able to hunt the whole time so hopefully they are successful this week. I can’t wait to get back out Friday afternoon and help out. I absolutely love the desert.

I'm still processing so much from the last several days and there is so much to celebrate and honor. First and foremost, I'm still so thrilled to be able to hunt with my daughter, Sydney, again and to have both Syd and my son, Jacob, with me. We couldn’t get Sydney’s tag filled before she had to go back to UofA and that’s my one sadness. However, after her taking several years away to find herself in life, I was beyond thrilled that she wanted to deer hunt again and I got to be with her. It was a very strange feeling to be the center of attention for filling a tag after Syd left back for school. My buddy tagged out on a nice Coues buck Sunday morning, and we shifted focus Sunday night and Monday morning to finding me a buck I'd be happy with. We traveled deeper into a spot Sunday afternoon, and we weren't disappointed. I knew where I wanted to be Monday morning, if we didn't find something Sunday night. I ended up glassing up a young-ish 2x2 with about 30 minutes of shooting light left. It was a legal buck, and I could fill my tag on a Coues buck for the first time since 2005. He just didn't make my heart sing and I didn't really want to kill a young buck just to fill a tag, no matter how much I wanted meat in the freezer. I hem-hawed enough to waste shooting light and the sunset decided for me for the night, anyway. As we were packing up and heading back to camp, I got a text from another dear friend who reminded me the next day was Veteran's Day. That kicked a dust storm of emotions I wasn't expecting. I knew I had to do something to honor dad and his buddies, so I knew if I saw that buck again, it was my sign from God, dad, and Goose. It was hard to get up Monday morning, but we got up and hit our spot early to make sure nobody beat us there. We finally glassed up my 2x2 from the night before, but I realized in the daylight, he just wasn't what I wanted. Right around 0815, I glassed up a buck, but couldn't make out any detail. Christian told me I needed to shoot that buck, so we got everything set up for a longer shot. Jacob was amazing at calling out scope adjustments for me while Christian was ranging. It was a group effort keeping me calm and steady and I appreciate everyone involved. It turns out my scope, rifle, and I have some issues we need to resolve, and I missed more than I want to admit, but I finally connected. It also took more shots than I want to admit, but I finally put him out of his misery and took my biggest Coues buck to date (76-7/8"). There was absolutely nothing flat about where he was and one of my shots was prone laying uphill. I'll let you figure out how many times I kept sliding downhill. We had work to do, and I appreciate everyone's help in getting great photos and the deer field dressed on a steep hill. I managed to keep all my emotions in when I recovered and tagged my buck. Back at the UTV was a different story. I had finally met my last post-surgery recovery goal from two years ago. Challenge Accepted Day ~800 and I packed out most of my own deer down a crazy steep, loose-rocky hillside and I felt strong and steady doing it. I sent a text to one of my dad's buddies that I'm close to and that's when the emotions overtook me, and I had to step away. I did my best to honor my dad and the rest of Task Force Black from Nov 11, 1967 on Nov 11, 2024. Sorry for the sideways pics, I never can get them rotated correctly.

I have a spot a few miles north of Morristown. Just need dry ground, set up a dry washer. I'll trade you labor for knowledge and 1/3 of the gold. Anyone is welcome.

Had a great hunt this year. On the drive down Thursday I was telling the wife how much I really wanted to kill a buck. The last several years I have been helping more than hunting. When I glassed up this buck she refused to shoot first. One shot and he was down. A few minutes later I got on the 15s to make sure he was still down and a bigger buck was standing 10ft away. She missed but it was still a great time with family and friends.

That's about as random of a subject as I could make it, but here is the background. We have a group of 5 dads (myself included) that are doing monthly meetings on "man training" with our 5 sons, whereby we teach them some practical skill (electrical wiring, car maintenance, how to field dress an elk, overnight forest survival, etc). We also have a spiritual element to it, where we work on something like patience, kindness, self control, etc. All of the boys are high school sophomores and cityslickers. We'd love to find an opportunity to come out to a ranch and learn how to rope a calf, because that would be completely new and out of their element...which is the point. As men, we are routinely thrown into situations that are new and we need to find a way out. Its a great confidence builder! If there is anyone that has a ranch, we'd love to come out for a little demonstration and some practical work. Heck, if you have some chores around the ranch for the boys to do, even better! Feel free to DM me with any ideas. Thanks for reading!

Appreciate the help gents!

What Lucafu1 said… I just went through this and couldn’t find an outdoorsman stud anywhere. I can confirm the MUTNT works with the outdoorsman stuff. sorry for the sideways pics.

Ross Outdoors carries their stuff but not sure about the stud. I’d call first.

Pm sent

I'll take some. DM sent

Changing and mounting a tire is probably the most underrated skill you can learn. IMO It has gotten me out of many sketchy situations. great thread

Well apparently we need to start a new thread and have a CWT prospecting outing. I agree with the above post about learning to rope first on a dummy.

I will be taking a Dec mule deer to Clay. Top notch, great all around.

Clay, you are accurate, and correct except on you did say you would do everything you could to tare it. My interpretation anyway. The Hunter was my son and respect the honesty over arrogance comment. Never said or ment to sound like you were nothing but to notch. It thru me. Anyway best wishes.

This is Clay Goldman at Mogollon Taxidermy. I normally don't post but I feel the need to present the facts about the post from wildwoody, Dennis Wood, from above. Dennis and another individual brought a sheep cape and horns to me to have mounted. The cape was tanned and did not appear to be a fresh tan from my experience. I explained to the hunter that the cape might have what is called acid rot and that it might fall apart when we soaked it up to work on it. I didn't feel I could uphold my high standards with the lack of information on the tan so I declined the job and they took their sheep cape and horns with them. I did not "promise" to destroy your son's cape. You have mistaken arrogance with honesty and being straight forward with you about the sheep skin. I am glad your son found someone willing to take on his sheep mount and that it came out good for him. Please don't bash me on a public forum like this again without giving all of the facts.

The Athlon Ares is a great spotter for the money. Great bang for the buck

Who cares

Hey sir, I know that unit and hunt very well. Text me and I will give you some info Mark 989-615-8953

Wife and I had a few fun days in the heat filling some deer tags to start the season off. Wife killed her buck at 469 yards one shot and dropped him in his tracks. Shot my buck at 250 yards. Nice to have some coues meat in the freezer. We have our 10 year old daughter’s first deer tag to look forward to in 3 weeks which is the one we are truly excited about to get her her first buck

It was a hot one this year! At one time our trucks recorded 98 degrees on Saturday. We only glassed up 24 bucks this season, way less than our usual 50 bucks. After the first 4 days of struggling and passing up bucks, my wife decided to turn her hunt into a meat hunt. At first light she saw this buck 1300 yards away and we watched him while waiting for the heat to kick in. Once it got warm enough, he bedded and we were off. We snuck in to 309 yards and had to wait a couple of hours for him to stand up. As soon as the buck got up, she was all ready and dropped him. I got a feeling this next Nov hunt is gonna be a real good one with the cooler temperatures and a lot more bucks in the field.

I marked this sold a few days ago but the buyer backed out, still for sale.

Here’s my first coues. Shot in 2003 in unit 32. I wish we would have known how to hunt coues like we do now. We used to just walk around until we jumped one up. I remember we thought that the bigger one my brother killed was huge!