Hiker

Yummy! Those walleye are great eating fish.

Nice looking cat.

We named our sons.. Luke & Levi How about ....Dakota Buck

Excellent job!

Bret, You are right, it does seem as if we were everywhere. I usually only hunt a couple of states per year but with my kids getting old enough to get into the draw, hopefully this will be more of a common thing, LOL! Thanks for the kudos.

We finished up 08 with an elk hunt for my 14 year old daughter. She is also our counties rodeo princess this year. Here is a photo of her helping out in the Professional Rodeo that came to our town. God blessed us so much this year, Thank you Lord!

I then headed to Kansas and had a great time hunting whitetails. It took me 3 or 4 points to finally draw this tag.

Over Thanksgiving my 10 year old son & I headed to NM for his first big game hunt.

Then I had my Colorado deer hunt.

We had a great 2008 hunting season....... It started off with my daughters and I in Wyoming antelope hunting.

Excellent stories and photos. Thanks for sharing.

I'm looking forward to seeing it. Great job!

That's a good one alright, great mass. Good job!

Way to go!

I'm back from my Colorado muley hunt. Mike & Cort have only killed one other muley buck and Mark had not killed one yet. We passed on 10-15 decent 4 pointers, ones that I would have whacked in a heartbeat in any other area. Cort passed on over 7-8 good bucks, that were a lot larger than the one he ended up killing. We were on a really good 5x5, maybe 6x6 with brow tines. He got set up to take the shot, the sun was in his eyes, he mistaked a smaller 4 point for the larger one and killed it. That was a wonderful buck that escaped. I didn't realize he only thought there was only one buck and didn't see the smaller one until afterwards. Mark killed his buck at last light on Friday. We spotted him all the way on top of the mountain. We kept hunting and looking for another buck, but low and behold he turns and starts coming down the mountain right to us. Mark made a 75 yard shot. Rick killed his buck the last day of the hunt. My buck came out just before dark, on Wednesday, and I wasn't sure he was a shooter until we got a good side view of him, he was 3-4" beyond each ear. I got set up on my backpack and shot, he ran 150 yards and piled up. When I got down there, I went over to where the buck was standing and I had Mike range me with my rangefinder. The first one was 396 and the second one was 402 yards, so I figure he was around 400 yards. We were watching for a legal bull that I had seen from the night before down there. I didn't have a bull elk tag but Mike did, so I had him go with me, maybe he'd be back and Mike could get him. We were watching this burn area at sunset, deer started to appear all over, including some bucks, but nothing worthy of a bullet, until this buck climbed up from the bottom. I am very thankful he was at a 25% downhill angle as I didn't hold very high but the 180 hornady innerbond out of my .300 Win. Mag blew right through his heart. 4 inches lower and I would have shot under him. God blessed me so much with this buck, I was overwhelmed.

Sorry, I forgot I posted this on here. Thanks guys for the kudos, I appreciate it very much.

Snares, conibers and drowning sets usually kill quickly.

I like snares, conibers and yes, legholds too. Many times a leghold works better for coyotes, fox and other predators, especially in a dirt hole or scent post set. Getting a yote or fox to stick their head through a snare can be challenging, to say the least. Snares and conibers do work well on cats, beaver, muskrats, etc.....

Sounds like a challenging & sanctifying time. But as you said, always nice to be with familia. You guys did good, way to stick with it. Couple of nice mulies to boot.

What an absolute Hawg!

My 10 year old son, Luke and I had a great time together in NM. Luke had been looking forward to his first big game hunt for many months. We hunted hard and hiked many miles. He made his Dad proud of his "stick to it ness" and didn't give up. We saw a lot of deer but couldn't find a legal buck to save our lives. We moved camp 26.2 miles and found this buck. We prayed and God guided us right to him. He was the herd buck and had a bunch of does. Luke made a great shot with his sister's 30-06. Here's Luke story....................... Hello, my name is Luke. I am 10 years old. This is my first post. My dad wanted me to share my hunt with you, plus my Mom said I can count it as a school project. So here it goes. Day 1 - We woke up the first day to rain. It rained for about 3 1\2 hours. So we ate breakfast in the tent. When it stopped raining. We got all our stuff on and walked down a river bed about a mile long. Then we started up a mountain. When a very thick fog set in, we were about half way up. When we got to the top, we sat on some rocks and waited for the fog to clear. While we waited, my dad showed me how to use a GPS. When the fog finally cleared, we went back to camp to eat lunch. When we got back, we cleaned out the tent because it had rained and everything was soaked. While we did that, my dad saw a herd of deer. So we went and began to stalk them from camp. They were about 1,000 yards away. So we went down the river bed and a doe saw us. But she didn’t move and kept bedded. When we got about 225 yards away from them, my dad looked to see if there was a legal buck. It looked like a forky but it was a spike. We watched them for a long time. Then it began to get dark so we went back to camp and ate dinner. We also played cards until to bed. Day 2 – Today we woke up and ate breakfast. We then prayed we would find a buck I could shoot. Next, we went up the river bed and reached a small mountain. We began to hike up, hoping to get the deer from behind. But the deer moved so we went back to camp and ate lunch and then we went hiking where the deer where and got about 100 yards away. When they saw us and ran, there was a spike and fourteen does. We watched the deer for a little while and glassed for other bucks. But we didn’t see anything… So we went back to camp and ate dinner. Day 3 – Today we took down camp and went shopping for a few supplies and went to check out a mountain. So we went up it and glassed for a long time. We went down a little ways and my dad said, “Let’s glass one more time.” So when my dad looked, he found a whole herd of deer and my dad said, “Let’s get ready and go hike and stalk them.” Well right now, the wind was blowing right at the deer so we went around the mountain and got close to the deer. But a doe was looking right at us so we went around another tree to stay hidden. And we were about 50 yards from the deer so my dad said, “Get your gun ready.” So I put my gun on the shooting sticks and a doe ran straight down the mountain and I thought the deer were gone but my dad said “Get ready... here comes the buck.” But I didn’t tell him when I was going to shoot. When the buck came, I thought it was a forky but my dad said it was a 4x4 or maybe a 5x5. My dad was looking through his binos when I shot. I thought I had missed. When we got over to where I had shot, a doe ran from the group and it got lost. So my dad said, “Luke, go look for some blood.” While he went down the mountain, he found my deer. But, I couldn’t find any blood so my dad said, “Luke, go follow the tracks.” So I followed the tracks and found a buck laying down and looking right at me. It scared me at first! I thought: “Wow! A sleeping buck!!” Then I saw a hole in his side and I said, “That’s my buck!” So we walked over to see it and we kneeled down and prayed, Thanking God for my buck. Then we pulled out the buck from the shade and took some pictures. Then we gutted it and dragged it for about a mile, up hill! My dad drug it all the way out while I carried the camelbak and more. When we got to the truck, I was ready to take a nap. I learned during this trip that being quiet is important, stalking is key, walking quietly is vital, and to listen makes all the difference, ohh and no sneezing. Thanks Dad for taking me!

Excellent photos. That trap must have been really well staked to hold that bugger in it.

schmalts, Nice job on your buck.

Great photos! Thanks for posting.

Thanks everyone. Mom said she will give Luke a A+ on the hunting story. Luke, that was Clam Chowder and I agree it sure beat "Balance Bars". Good to have you on here. You are becoming quite a tracker at your young age.