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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.

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!

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

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.

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

Elk flank carne asada

Potentially an attempt to correct the misprinted hunt dates for unit 30a archery mule deer which for some reason was printed showing an end date of December 23rd rather than the end of the year like normal. This was a misprint from my understanding.

FPP (Free Pending Pickup). 😁 Eddie

Mesquite grilled stuffed portabellas with all the toppings....

I'll take it please.

Looks good, but dont share the secret potato magic bag LOL

I nailed thanksgiving tbh.

Use this. But it still doesn't melt fast enough, usually forget to put it on sooner. The real secret, torch it use the small butane torches and it helps melt it. This steak was torched.

Lunch today, spinach salad with bacon, fresh mozzarella, cucumbers, yams, and croutons, with a balsamic ranch reduction!

Retargeting ads put forth by the image webhosting site (postimg.cc). Run an adblocker and they will not appear. Or click on them and see what arrives in the Lladmo Bag. Your call.

try Maven or a VX-3

All the pics were taken with my cousins IPhone so it’s just the angle not a fish eye lense. The barrel does look long thought. The rifle is a ruger 300wm with an axisworks brake and has been pretty lucky the last few hunts.

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.

Good deal on Black Friday right now. Just ordered one 2 days ago and saved $200

Is the rifle still for sale?

I just made this decision a few weeks ago after seeing the small colorful Rascals at Scheel. Savage sells the Target XP variant that comes with a cheap scope, bipod, and more importantly, a threaded barrel for under $400 (got mine for $372 shipped at guns2u.com). https://savagearms.com/firearms/sku/13824 https://gun.deals/search/apachesolr_search/13824

Nice job! It sounds like you were by yourself, which can definitely make things more challenging. Sometimes, sharing too much information can open up an ethical debate, but I appreciate the honesty. You practiced and at some point everyone shoots a deer beyond what they practiced. I’ve seen a professional shooter—someone who competes in intense courses with varying distances, running from one target to the next and demonstrating exceptional skill—miss an animal after going through a long setup for the shot. It just goes to show how unpredictable things can be, even for the pros.

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.

Do you know how often we all agree on something? NOT OFTEN. :D Must mean something. Benson is the hard part -- you gotta come into town for shopping once in a while! I have never been to the equestrian trading post but one of these days ...