Joe Kauffman

Swweeettt! I knew you guys would tear it up. And not only is it a double but a double species double! Very cool! Congrats on a successful trip.

I blame Dom quit crashing the site

That's what I want to know. Mine was early this morning...I had nothing as of 9pm last night.

Sweet....just saw we got hit for $228 which should equal 2 elk tags . Now which of the four of us got it? Hopefully it will be my 10 year old daughter and 14 year old son!

Jim, we were just there...have a blast! Fishing is pretty good, most of the bites came from slow presentations. They're definately spawning so you should have some fun. Actually slow rolled some spinner baits like we used to years ago at Pleasant and caught several, reminded me of some good times! Good luck!

gunsmith, Perfect timing! Alamo is actually doing very well on catfish right now. I have several friends that have caught a bunch of smaller, 2-5 pound cats in the past couple of weeks. If you take any of the roads that are east of the main boat launch you'll get into good cat country. They cruise the whole bank right through there so you really can't go wrong. Although I've never tried them, they used the soaked sponges the last trip and had some luck. But from what they said, just about anything they threw was working. Good luck!

Hi all, I've been bowfishing most of my life but have never been a part of any type of actual tournament. With my 14 year old son beating me most of the time I thought it would be fun to see if there are some fellow forum members that would be interested in putting on our own friendly tourney sometime in the Spring. Although daytime would be good, my son and I usually like going out at night with lights as the water is usually calmer and you don't have the daytime activity around the lakes. Thought I'd throw the idea out there...anyone interested? Joe Kauffman

Awesome job guys! I'm excited to see some more tourney's turning up. I'm working on a couple of other opportunities and hope to have details soon. On a side note, I may have to miss the first few outings . I was at Sag this past Saturday and my Merc 150 with only 150 hours on it decided to trash the #2 cylinder. Plenty of oil and water were pumping through so I'm not sure what caused it. Needless to say I'm looking into either fixing it or getting a reman power head...either way talk about crappy timing! Joe Kauffman

I'm still working out the details for a couple tourneys late Spring and Summer. We have another sponsor interested that can help out with permits and insurance so it can be a real tournament. I'll keep everyone posted.

Dom, My son and I took 1st place Sunday...the storm hit us pretty hard Saturday night so the water was tough Sunday morning. Only a couple teams stuck it out. We had a pretty sad weigh in of 5 fish for 30 pounds but it was enough to take the 3 classes so we were happy. Got your text about the tourney at Rosie. Count us in, we'll be there.

My 10 year old daughter drew her first big game tag this year, general javelina, and needless to say my family was pretty stoked to finally see her be able to go after a big game animal for herself. She's spent plenty of time in the field with my wife, son and I and has been counting the years since she was 5 and old enough to understand how the legal hunting process works. Being that this was a hunt and she's an excellent student I offered to let her miss school on Friday so we could head up Thursday afternoon to get setup and do some glassing before the hunt started Friday morning and wouldn't you know it....she was very willing! We got camp setup in time Thursday to spent some time glassing some areas not far from camp and although we glassed up a few deer, there were no stink pigs out and about. The wind was fairly bad so we hoped this was just keeping them down and out a bit and that Friday morning would be better. We headed out early the next morning and spent the day hiking, glassing and talking about all the important things a young hunter wonders about and it made me appreciate finally having her old enough to experience this for herself. After the morning hunt, I knew stink pig or no stink pig, this weekend will be one we'll never forget. After a bit of lunch (and an hour of beauty sleep for Allison ) we headed out for the afternoon hunt, focusing on some slopes adjacent several nice draws with a water tank close by. We had spotted quite a bit of fresh sign that morning and knew they were in there somewhere. Mother nature wasn't on our side and the wind picked up about the time we setup the glasses and besides a few deer there wasn't much moving. We decided to head back to camp and give us about an hour of shooting light to glass some of the draws leading away from the mountain we were camped on in hopes to spot some pigs hanging out towards the bottom. As soon as we got back to camp I set up the binos and immediately spotted some deer about a mile out. About that time my brother pulled up with my son and nephew who were planning on spending the remainder of the weekend with us. I told him I had deer and he setup his binos and picked them up pretty quickly. Lucky for us he hadn't tightened his tripod completely so the binos drifted downward just a bit when he looked away to talk to me. When he looked back through them they had dropped to be looking at a ridge about 400 yards out and he immediately starting excitedly whispering that he had pigs close. My son, brother and nephew stayed back watching it all unfold through the binos as Allison and I put her first big game stalk on the 2 pigs we had seen. After about 30 minutes we rounded a juniper tree to find one broad side at about 60 yards! There wasn't much time for a steady setup but I knew from all the practicing we have done that she'd be able to make an off hand shot with the 22-250 she's come to love. The first shot smacked him good and I think would have done him in but since he was still on his feet she wanted to shoot him again. The second shot fell perfect and he walked just a few feet and expired in a thicket of brush. After a quick phone call to Mom and some adrenaline filled tears, her brother gladly carried our her first stink pig on one shoulder while holding her hand the entire way out with the other. We had an amazing family weekend and I'm glad my brother and nephew were able to join us. We spent the rest of the weekend hiking and varmint calling and enjoying the outdoors.

Thanks guys, it was an amazing trip and a memory that will last a lifetime. My son was 10 four years ago when he shot his first javi and I remember it like it was yesterday. He's the adventurous one of the family and, after skinning it for his sister, cut out the perfect backstraps and we season and roasted them in small pieces over the campfire about 2 hours after she shot it. It took a long time but being up until 2am with my brother and the kids, enjoying the outdoors and fresh meat was the icing on the cake.

March 29th @ 1:53pm...do the rules of insider trading apply here .

Thanks Amanda! I'll handle the organization and will let you know when we have some details planned. I'm not sure of the legals behind doing an actual tournament with entry fees and payouts but maybe we could do some small fun donations for the first few places. It's all about the fun anyhow!

Awesome! Sounds like we could get enough people for a decent turnout. I'll work on the details and post something when we get closer to the date. You guys done much at Alamo? We had a blast there last Fall. The water clarity in the deeper water was crazy at night which allowed us for some more challenging deep water shoots. The shallow areas were a bit difficult at night because of the mud churned up but was decent during the day.

I agree 100%. I know the post was asking about the peak of the rut but as far as the archery hunt goes, I love the early season when the first doe has gone into heat. The bucks get that first scent and they're all focused on her. I always see a lot more bucks early to mid January, but the ones I chase in mid to late December are more aggressive and tend to let their guards down a bit more when they are chasing after those first does. Either way mid-December through early-February in the deserts of Az are an awesome time!

PM sent. Great versatile unit with a variety of country...should be fun! Joe Kauffman

Thanks all. There's just nothing like being out chasin' game with the family. My brother came down to 21 with me this past weekend to help glass on my mulie hunt and, besides the bone chilling weather Friday night, we had a great time. Thanks again for driving all this way to hoof the mountains we tackled. Had a blast! Jade, I was wondering what happened to you, good hearing from you again. Hope all is well with you and the family. Joe

For the second year in a row my wife and son drew rifle deer tags together and this past weekend we headed out for a few days of hunting to see if we could locate some quality bucks. Friday morning we focused on the big buck country that is extremely thick with both juniper and manzanita but were able to catch a look at a buck I would put in the 30" wide range....but he's that big for a reason. Shortly after seeing him he snuck away into the thick, never to be seen again. We finished of the rest of the morning and evening hunts cussing all the Coues deer and smaller bucks hoping Saturday would bring a couple big boys into range. We decided to head to another spot that was a bit more open but required about 3 miles of hiking to reach. Our hopes were the rugged terrain would substitute the thick vegetation and still hold a couple shooter bucks. We immediately glassed up about a 380 bull and a couple in the 340-360 range (guess where I'm putting in for elk next year!) but saw nothing but a few Coues does and 2 nice Coues bucks. Sunday was the last day we would have to hunt so we headed to our third spot and were immediately into the Mulies. Even though they were only does it was nice to see Mulies instead of Coues for a change. The wind had picked up a bit shortly after daylight so we headed to one of my favorite mountains to glass the draws and canyons leading off of it hoping to find some deer moving into the wind protected areas to finish feeding before the mid day bedding. Within 20 minutes I glassed up this shooter at about 600 yards and the stalk was on. Moving through the think manzanita again, we made our way around the hillside we were on to stay hidden and drop lower to eventually come up hill towards the buck. We would pause around each tree that exposed new country so I could glass and see if we were upon them yet and about the 10th time I picked the buck and doe up at 297 yards. Although Garrett has practiced shooting long range at the range, he hasn't taken a field shot over 225 yards so I left the decision up to him as to whether he was confident he could make a clean shot at that distance and the look on his face said it all. I set up the shooting sticks, took a step back and let him control his shot without the pressure of Dad look over his shoulder. He squeezed the trigger and made a perfect double lung shot on this beauty buck. The buck crumbled where he stood....now was the fun of getting this massive bodied buck back to the Ranger. At 14 years old, he's become an incredible hunter and really showed great patience and ethics on this hunt. Great shot Bud, I had a blast hunting with you again this year! Joe Kauffman

My 13 year old has proved himself with a couple pigs, deer and even his first archery elk kill this past September, but turkeys have been a thorn in his side for the past 2 years. This is our third year hunting the beasty birds in 23 and have had a bit of action but this past weekend was dead quiet. I know there was a juniors camp up higher but unfortunately we didn't have time to stop in to see how everyone else was doing. Was anyone else up in 23 this past weekend that had any success? He's itchin to get back after it so we'll be back up there the for the second part of the hunt. Joe Kauffman

I'll let Garrett fill you in on the story & details ('cause he's written up a great story I'd hate to spoil ) but here's a picture and a quick video I threw together. Garrett had an archery cow tag and my wife an archery bull tag so it was an awesome family outing. You'll have to excuse the poor positioning of the camera during the shot, it happened extremely quick and this dad was seriously excited! One down & one to go! The Video Garrett's Elk Video Joe Kauffman

Hey Andy, Always nice to put fellow forum members faces with names! Thanks for the congrats....Garrett is definately looking forward to getting a monster mulie in a couple weeks. It would be an awesome end to a fun hunting year. Best of luck to you guys as well. Joe Kauffman

That's a lot to brag about! As most hunters on here will agree with, any animal with a bow is a trophy. Congrats on the sucessful hunt!

Ya another successful archery hunt! Nice bull, congrats on your first elk!

Wooohooo! Congrats on your first elk and an archery kill to boot! Great story, I love hearing those first timer tales. Good luck on the rest of your tags! Joe Kauffman