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Got lucky and killed a good buck in NM this year with the drought. Was a very physical hunt and it was a true cat and mouse game with an old solo living stinky old troll buck. Very difficult country but was rewarded.

I have an option for you to consider, make your own, I'll teach you. This way you'll have not only a superior tool but an heirloom to hand down. I operate Arizonas oldest forge in Vulture City south of Wickenburg. In the last 3 years I've created at least a hundred forge welded axes in a 4 hour class. I have several steels to choose from but commonly use a proprietary Spanish made steel from Bellota. I still have the first one I ever made in my tool box. It's cut kindling to framing nails and I've yet to have to resharpen it. And while the axe heats up in the forge we can alternate heats and beats. Make a nice skinner or Bowie or forge a cross from a railroad spike. Blacksmith Experience in Vulture City | Vulture Mine Tours https://share.google/XNqYYHeSUDjnXJ5vY

The alarm went off extremely early (0230) and we were off to Wilcox..... Hes the best co-pilot. Met with everyone and headed out. Blind was set, as were the decoys. Birds were working really well. Levi stayed in the blind, I was in a layout in front of the blind and it AWESOME! Levi was shooting my buddy Steve's shotgun.... and shot it extremely well, likely resulting in me buying it from Steve. He tagged his limit and had a blast!

2700 tags for 10 straight years and 2 of the last 3 with bad fawn crops I would say has as much to do with it as anything.

Lunch today. Pan seared panko cilantro encrusted bluefin tuna with sesame oil, shichimi togarashi, miso furikake and toasted sesame seeds over steamed rice and green onions. Fish I caught off San Diego.

So after a month between when we found the bull and when I went back in and got a look . He had been cleaned up by the scavengers . Not much left of him at all . I did recover the head and give it my best at a euro . I do think it came out good but it's definitely not something I would do again. It's a chore and it's better for me to just pay to have it done . What do you think?

I made homemade shrimp gumbo for Thanksgiving this year from scratch including broth. Very, very good....

Pastrami, swiss, thousand island, coleslaw, lays chips and 3 pickle spears. Small salt infusion for lunch!

Savage model 99 in 250-3000 savage lever action for sale. $600 located East Valley Mesa.

Light dinner well, breakfast for dinner. 3 egg cheesey scramble with hatch green chillies and cilantro, sausage and prickly pear toast!

3 hunts a year with 750+ TAGS PER HUNT! for the last 20 plus years I'm surprise there's any deer there!

Went to my honey hole this morning. One small two point. Tough as of yet.

Day 2 Hunt Update Another before-5 a.m. wake-up call had us dragging a bit, but we pushed back into the same canyon we hunted opening morning. This time, no other hunters were in there—just us, yes! As the first light started creeping in, my buddy with the tag whispered that he had an elk spotted. Hard to tell in the grey light if it was a bull, but based on the size and the fact we haven’t seen many cows in there, I was pretty sure it was. A few seconds later, I spotted another elk the same time my brother whispered he had eyes on a second one. Things were getting good fast. About five minutes later the light got just good enough, and we could clearly tell they were both bulls and one of was definitely a shooter. They were feeding their way across the ridge to the south of us and heading up into a draw. We were really hoping they'd pop back out along the ridge directly in front of us instead of disappearing up the draw. Another few minutes passed and then a third elk stepped out on the far side of the draw. Bingo. Three bulls, all headed in a direction that would put them about 300 yards in front of us. The three of us quietly glassed them and then all agreed on which bull was the biggest. My buddy loaded his rifle. I gave him the yardage—255 yards. Perfect. The bull stepped out from behind a bush, standing perfectly broadside, and my buddy sent it. Looked like a hit, but the bull barely reacted. The bull walked maybe 20 yards and stopped broadside again. I told him to reload and hit him one more time to be sure. And then the worst happened. His gun jammed. Probably ran his bolt too softly in the excitement. As he tried to clear it, I scrambled to sort out his mag. Five seconds… ten seconds… felt like ten minutes. The bull was still somehow just standing there. Finally got the jam cleared, took aim, and sent another round. Again, not even a flinch. We were all thinking, what is going on? Then the bull suddenly tipped forward and started going down. Yes! He went down for good and we were all super excited! As we were high fiving and giving congratulations, five more bulls came out from nowhere. It’s always crazy how many elk can be right in front of you without ever being seen. My buddy asked if we should’ve waited and I told him absolutely not—250 yards, broadside, on a great bull? I would take that any day of the week, at least that’s my opinion. Then came the part every hunter loves: the pack out. Took two full trips to get him off the mountain. Long day, heavy loads, sore legs, but totally worth it. Could not be happier for my buddy—his first big-game animal with a darn nice bull. Thanks to everyone following along with this thread, and good luck to everyone still out hunting. After roughly 20 miles in the last three days, I’m honestly looking forward to “sleeping in” until the babies wake me up probably around 6:15 tomorrow haha.

I was talking to a buddy who recently killed a mountain lion about the patch I got in 2004 when I sent in the tooth from my lion. He sent me a picture of what he received. Slightly different.

I had the mid Nov hunt in 34a. Tons of does and two decent bucks that were gone in a flash. You've probably heard the saying, Couldn't grow horns on em." Well I did. Looked hard enough at a yearling still on mommy's hip at about 50 yards then looked again with my 12xs. Sure enough, little fellow had 1 small horn maybe 2" tall lol. As bad as I wanted to make jerky this fall, I gave the runt a pass. Wish I had taken his Pic.

The Winchester 20 rifle safe is on sale for $299 with additional 10% off if you buy online then pick it up. Out the door is $287

Smoked turkey, pepper jack, ritz

Thanks for the heads up, just snagged one. Great deal!

Don’t forget the youth and Dec hunts. More like 25-2700. That game manager only manages that unit to kill every 2pt every year.

I had the early hint and had the same difficulty. Headed down tomorrow to help my son for a couple days. Hopefully it turns out better

I sprung for the bruks. (Gransfors bruks) Love it. They are also sold under husqevarna sometimes. Or look at a stihl.

Surprise 🙂

Elk flank carne asada

We are trying to kill the deer, not pet it. respect as very little to do with it. Have you ever seen predators kill a deer or elk?? They eat it from the back end forward most of the times. We are better than animals but we are still trying to kill them. Every time I make stupid decisions (buck fever) it is at 50 yards and under. I'm a much more respectful person at 700 than 25 if the metric we we are talking about how, is howcalm we are and how well we can make a "good shot". I've seen plenty of wounded animals from people at 100-300 yards. I'm kind of sick of this holier than thou attitude that people have for other hunters. The real sign of respect and integrity come from WHAT YOU DO AFTER YOU HIT A DEER, do you chalk it up to miss, poor shot? Do you track it until you find it or do you give up after 5 minutes? Do you even go look for it? Do you check for it for multiple days? To me that is what shows the moral and ethical side of a person. That being said in todays world/internet its best to leave off yardage. I"ve never seen much good come from it. Congrats on a fine deer and a heck of a poke.