MT_Sourdough

you either have small hands or that is one healthy cat

I'll be like Tim.

This lawsuit doesn't have a snowballs chance in a Wallmart's parking lot. With that said, it should still is seen as some hand writing on the wall.

Part of scouting is being an investigator, Any investigator should be able to make simple observations, connect them to other data to draw theories on things like habitual behavior.. For example, somebody posts a pic of them with an animal and you grow curious as to the unit, Just go back in this forum to the days when those tag results are released. Just saying.

I go out and walk over the same areas week after week for many months. I do the same thing in other units over the last few years. Funny thing I notice is there are no other footprints but mine. Lots of fresh tire tracks on the roads, but no human tracks. Of course, the units I am spending most my time are lousy no good units with only a few meager critters that are so small and pathetic that they are not worth the time for most self respecting hunters.

One of my life long frustrations with hunting publications, stories, tv shows, articles, etc., is that nobody seems to acknowledge that wind directions change. Just about everything I've seen, heard or read about hunting seems to talk about wind direction as if it is consistently reliable. That was part of your video that was uniquely relatable. Thanks for sharing.

OK, so the antlers are scraped clean. The wallows are getting throttled. At 2 in the afternoon, a bull bugled at me. It seems to me that the rut could start whenever some cold autumn fronts roll in. I am NO expert about the subject, so I ask those who know - Am I right by saying the rut could be kicked off at this point if a cold front rolls in or is there something else that kicks off the rut? This bull has been chasing a small group of cows the last few days. (cam date is incorrect- this pic is from a couple of days ago.)

On another note, if I was back in Montana, there's not much of a probability to see a 7x7 bull on public land. Heck, I'd spend lots of time in roadless wilderness areas and still only dream of seeing a 7x7. Arizona is truly blessed with some big bulls and the average Joe has an honest opportunity to drop amazing bulls.

Turkey foot buck as of 9/20

Actually, here is a better pic of broken tines I still have 44 days left till my season starts, but if this guy survives through tomorrow, there are no other bull hunts in this area until my hunt.

Do broken tines count for evidence of rut? This guy already broke two tines. Actual date for pic is 9/18. I haven't been out in the night hours, but they aren't sounding off in the daylight hours. No doubt, by looking at this guy, it's on!

Wait till I get a hold of your home owners association and complain about the loud noise coming from your residence. "They're playing dueling banjos and somebodies squealing like a pig. Just look at their landscaping. Plus, they got high power guns and the thought of it is ruining my yoga session."

In a "world according to me", most roads would be closed during hunting season. There are so many friggin roads that it is a road hunters paradise. Walk-in would be part of the idea of fair chase in my imaginary world. . If you took assisted travel out of the hunting equation, so many people would quit hunting that most tags could be over the counter. But it isn't the "world according to me" in which I live, so I try to focus my attention on those things I appreciate and try not to waste too much time thinking about those things that i do not appreciate. For each their own. Happy hunting.

Not in 20c, but in a nearby unit, I have observed that the mule deer have started frequenting the tops of Mesas after avoiding those areas all summer. Through the summer, tracks across the tops of mesas were few and far between. Once the temps started to cool, the mule deer have started spending a lot more time around the top rims and regularly cross over the top. For what it's worth anyways. Might be helpful.

Still is like that in some places. Heck, Sholo is probably that way except for the implications of a huge metropolis in this state. The ethics and values of the big city spill out over the rest of the state. In Montana, outside of the bigger towns -Missoula, Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls and Helena- most hunters still show off their bull outside the bars. Those bigger towns have the more Modern ethics, but everywhere else in the state outside the big cities, it's still the old school. Montana doesn't have a city bigger than a little over 100,000 people, so the citi folk/values do not sprawl all over the rest of the state like the way it does here.

Right-on! Congratulations to the young man.

I haven't been in 27 and I am not the expert on "what is" and "what is not" official rutting behavior, but in the 3 different districts that I have been spending time in, the bulls were sounding off right up to opening archery, but have quieted back down since the start of archery bull. I wasn't out there on Thursday or over the weekend, but Monday and Tuesday have been dead quiet. Lot's of vultures out there, so I am guessing some people got lucky.

OOHH.... Dang! Sorry bro. Those cows came into my bait trap and my group tagged out on those cows. Those elk really love oats with molasses. I actually took two of them myself because my girlfriend had a tag but she doen't like to hunt. That's all right, she doesn't know how to use a bow anyways. Her tag was filled while she shopped at the mall. Don't tell anybody.

Could be an issue with the crown. Sometimes a barrel crown will get buggered up a little. The crown damage might not be visible, but can make a barrel shoot everything horribly. I have an old 30-30 that's my childhood deer rifle. I passed it on to other family members and it took a beating over the years. A few years ago I got it back and reconditioned the rifle I had carried for so many hours in the field. When I started to shoot it after reconditioning the rifle, it was shooting everything I put in it like dudu. A local gunsmith spent about two minutes with some tool on the crown and it made all the difference in the world. Went from barely can hit target at 100 to 1" - 1 1/2" groups at 100.

Aww heck, that bull is just restin. It carried the jeep for the first half the trip. . My last deer in MT before I moved to AZ a few years ago. Most harvested bulls in Montana can be seen outside the bar/s.

that's a great looking buck right there

How that wolf ended up in the Grande Canyon is extremely suspicious. Wolf reintroduction folk were outspoken about how they wanted a reintroduction of wolves into the Grande Canyon. Then whammo, all of a sudden a female wolf appears in the Grande Canyon. The wolf reintroduction folk said their biggest concern was that if the wolf escaped the park, it might get shot. So a wolf supposedly travels almost a thousand miles across an unlikely path and is never seen, yet the reintroduction folk biggest concern is it leaving the sanctuary of the park. Plus it has a collar on it, but they never fallowed its progress. Sorry, I do no buy it. Well, the wolf left the park and got shot. Good riddance.

Very impressive.

All I can say is - WOW!

Lots to be proud of, right there.