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Nash is carrying a horseshoe that’s never seen daylight. After having a desert sheep tag last year he drew an antelope tag this year. Scouting was tougher than we expected. Not a ton of goats in the unit and we went out plenty of times and never saw a single lope. It was still fun. During my archery bull hunt we slipped out one midday to look around. We bumped I to a dude who told us where he had seen a few. We ended up finding a few right there. Lots of people shared ideas with us and local friends even went out and glassed a few times for us. It was fun to have a hunt where people were really open and wanted Nash to be successful. Nash had practice opening day, this kid is ridiculously committed to wrestling, so we headed up midday. By that night we had a decent buck spotted but we just couldn’t cut the distance down. These antelope were super spooky and would run for miles at the site of a truck. We pulled out after dark and nearly stepped on a baby prairie rattler walking back. The next AM we slipped right into where we saw him at dark and waited for it to get light. The group was right where we left them, except the big buck. He was somehow 1-1/2 miles away. We ended up walking a 7-1/2 mile loop and lost track of him somewhere in the rollers. Unreal. We tried a new spot real quick before running to town for lunch and had a super close encounter with a bit g cutter buck before he got a wild hair and ran into Colorado. For the evening we hit up one of the spots we had seen a decent buck scouting. Didn’t take long for me to find some a mile or two out. We went to loop around on them and bumped into a different buck before we got there. A little sneaking and Nash had a 325 yd shot with only the top 4” of his back exposed. Thats all he needed. After the shot I said you dumped him, and Nash say “Actually?!?!” Apparently he flinched so hard his eyes were closed when the gun went off. Thank goodness for that 2-1/2 lb trigger! Nash asked if he could do all the quartering himself and did a fine job. I’d say these boys have almost outgrown their old man. The buck wasn’t real big and Nash didn’t care. He has two from Wyoming that are curled and heavier. This time he said he wanted a tall one. This one is almost 16”, so I guess that qualifies. We had time the next morning to go scout for his sister’s cow hunt. They were going good and we saw a good bull to round out the trip. Then he took it home and did his own euro.

We decided to give it a go in a true desert unit this fall. Never had hunted it before but a couple buddies have seen a fair amount of deer in January during OTC. We arrived Thursday evening with only two days to hunt and as we picked a camp spot the landscape blew me away…how do these things survive and thrive out here. Looked like the surface of the moon with the surface mostly volcanic rock, scattered creosote bushes, and the occasional palo verde washes sprinkled around. 4 of my buddies generously offered to help on Friday and as we all picked high spots to glass from the reports started coming in of bucks. Multiple bucks and some good ones were located in various locations. Max and I spent most of the day on stalk after stalk trying to close the gap to under 600 yards with not much available to hide our approach. We had a few opportunities on small bucks we passed on and a couple close calls on bigger ones but nothing just right. We totaled 19 bucks seen that day. Saturday morning we were down to Max and I and 2 buddies so we all went to the spot that the most deer were seen Friday. Almost immediately we found a group of 3 bucks at 1000 yards. We had some topography to work with this time and we closed the gap to 340 yards and Max anchored the biggest one. It was a fun hunt that I think with a few extra days could produce something pretty special! This was his best desert buck to date and another awesome father son hunt in the books! Now time to get packed for Colorado 4th season Deer 🤙🏻

Well you guessed it. Rob and I took off on another adventure. He invited me with a group to catch a few fish in Old Mexico. Again another great trip and awesome fish and memories.

Next up Rob and I took some of our family to NM for Oryx. my son and son in law had a great time shooting their first Oryx. Rob’s brothers shot some also I didn’t get pictures of them all

I've shared my family story of Veterans Day before on here. I won't go into the details again, but its searchable if you want to read about it. You can also look up "Task Force Black Vietnam November 11, 1967" or look up "Vietnman Soldiers' Story: The Invisible Enemy" documentary. My dad was interviewed for part of that. We all grew up fighing the war he brought home. Thank you to all the vets on here and out there. To you combat vets on here: I see you. I'll sit with you in the dark. Don't hesitate to reach out. Please.

Happy Veterans Day to my fellow Vets! Thanks for your service!

First trip of the year was our annual Mexico trip. I’ve been with Rob in old Mexico maybe 12-13 times. As always a great trip with friends. This year was tough in regards to big bucks but we had a great time regardless and still killed some solid bucks. I haven’t killed a buck for a few years now I’m hoping we can manage for older class bucks but who knows, it seems like we never see the same deer anyway.

I need to add a few adventures from this year. My dad and I went to POW island to catch a few silvers. We had a great time.

My younger son drew the general rifle hunt tag this year as his 1st deer tag. 2 weeks ago my older son was on the youth hunters in the same unit and the big storms really put a damper on that hunt. The weather for this hunt was much better thankfully. Friday morning was a dud, but Friday evening we sat a blind that we setup a few ago. About 445pm 6 deer walked in. 2 spikes and 4 doe. We were teying to get him settled and setup for a shot on a spike and they were moving and feeding. Either stopping in front of other deer, behind other deer, or at bad angles. After about 5-10 min something kinda spooked then and they went into cover and fed away. Bummer. About 530pm a few doe popped out of another area farther away, then came the 2 spikes. It was the same group. We started positioning on them and from the right 4 more deer fed in, this group had a Forkhorn in the mix, so we started to target him. Again. He wouldn't stop moving or stopped in bad positions. Eventually it got to dark and we had to let them go. Saturday was uneventful other than bumping some does here and there. Sunday morning went like Friday morning. Not alot. Sunday afternoon we set the blind again and the 4 does and 2 spikes fed back in around 5pm. We were able to get my son lined up on a shot at about 200yards. He sent a round and you could tell the buck was hurt bad, but he walked about 30yrds and lied down. We gave him some time, but he was still head up so I had my son send another round. He was hit again, walked about 10yrds and lied down again. After awhile we went over and he expired. It wasn't as clean as you pray for, but it was done. He was a pretty happy camper and I was a happy dad. We quarter him out and got him out of there after dark. You always want a trophy, but this will be his first of hopefully many. So this is trophy #1 with room to grow.

Thanks to all our Vets, past and present

Most of us have decent optics, 15X56 on a tripod work great. Discovered by our friends @ UofA, Easily seen from 6 - 7 pm, currently @ 250 degrees WSW. A really nice comet. Link gives precise location info, check it out. Should be visible for another week or two (till moonlight returns). https://theskylive.com/planetarium?obj=c2025a6&date=2025-11-11&h=01&m=33#ra|17.025795367594426|dec|-12.634475576887828|fov|57

Here area couple more photos from that trip. Jordan with the a bull and Josh with a cow from this hunt

Here is my son’s 2025 NM mule deer. 470 yards, 6.5 prc, 156 Berger EOL. We spotted this buck right at first light. He bedded without giving us an opportunity. We set up and waited, and as the sun started to shine on him he stood up to change beds and my son sent a Berger through his shoulder. Truly Blessed!!!!

Joel Etchen Signature special. 12 gauge 32" barrels. Negrini case with all accessories that came with it. Perfect condition, not a mark on it. About 250 rounds through it. $3650. Located in Globe but I go to the valley often. Not Interested in trades.

Oryx is by far one of the mildest of game animals. The backstraps and loins are as good as anything I've ever eaten. Very lean though

Elk pot roast, home made rolls.

True. I just like to fish and try to do one trip a year with my son out of state each year. I'm old and he has heart failure so we make the best of it.

You must not be eating carbs if that what intrigues you about the post. Lol

Yeah I like to fish, but it wasn't my dream trip. As I thought it about it I decided it didn't matter. I needed to do more with my dad. Who knows how long we each have on this earth

Here is my hunt recap. My Dad and I came up Wednesday and went out in the evening to see what we could find. Driving around we saw probably 30-40 deer, mostly does but a couple of very small bucks. Thursday we head out and don’t see much in the morning. Even after the rain we got ~3 weeks ago the area was back to being pretty dry so we head to a water catchment and glass from a high point in the road. We were able to glass up group of about 10-12 does. We go check out another water catchment and discover someone had constructed a blind. Friday morning we setup in some of the clear cut to glass. We see a couple groups of does and one single deer I could not determine if it was a buck or not prior to it going into cover. We move to another area but don’t see anything. For the evening we decided to sit in the blind we found at the second water catchment. After about an hour and a half a couple of does come in to drink. After about an hour my dad decided he has to stretch his legs and walks up the hill away from the catchment. While he is gone a deer comes in and it’s a buck! I text my Dad not to come back so he doesn’t scare it away. Of course there are 2 small trees that he drinks behind leaving no shot. It feels like forever that he is drinking behind the trees and my dad is texting what was going on. As he is leaving he finally presents me a shot at about 70 yards. After a long night of breaking it down and the long drive out we were both exhausted but thrilled that I was actually about to be successful and share the hunt together.

After spending 3 days in the desert heat looking for a shooter for my Dad, I was finally able to dig up this buck right as the sun was fading on Sunday. With not much time to make a move, I set him up to take a shot @ 665 yards. Luckily the buck was preoccupied with barrel cactus fruits and gave him plenty of time to squeeze off a shot. The hit was solid and the buck dropped out of sight into a nearby wash. We decided to head to his last location and found him piled up not 20 yards from where the shot took place. Anybody else see a lot of malnourished deer this year? A majority of the does in the area we hunted were showing how rough the summer was on them for sure.

I'm amused you think life is fair. Sovereign nation so they can do what they want, at least they didn't take the ops money.