GRONG

Right on guys that is too cool. Why would someone waste ammo just by shooting the water. Maybe he was practicing on a big target? I get more satisfaction out of seeing if I can hit a pop can at 25 yards not a dang water hole. Oh well, to each his own I guess.

Give me an email any time you want. antlerboy@commspeed.net

Well you got to start them young you know. Hiked for about an hour and a half this afternoon and only found two old pieces of elk antler. On the drive out I stopped and ran up to a draw that I knew had an old washed out tank in it and there was a gorgeous antler laying right in the bottom of it. It was sure nice to have my wife Jennifer and my 11 month old son Isaac there with me!! I'll remember that forever!!!!!!!!

Last Saturday morning I hiked up a big hill to glass for elk and check for lion sign. Glassed up 9 bulls in one bunch, all antlered and all couldn't have had 500" of total antler among them. Fun to watch though. About 5 minutes later a group of 6 spikes ran below me and down into a drainage. It was then that I figured that I HAD to be in the wrong area for some fresh antler. I panned across some openings in the junipers and BAM!!!!! There in the open about 500 yards away was a gorgeous 6pt antler! I got down to it and took some video and pics then spent about an hour looking for the match. Never picked it up.... as usual. Gorgeous antler though, about 150" worth anyway. A couple days later I spotted this beauty while following a lion's tracks. Dogman picked this one up yesterday. A real heavy 320ish 7 pointer

I HOPE HE DOES!!!!!!

I haven't heard of that particular story but it doesn't suprise me. Dad had his receiver on all the way through Wllms and Flag on the way home and nothing. Maybe he should try Prescott I guess.

Thanks for all the comments fellas, even the sarcastic ones.... I love it! Gino, you ought to see the horns from 10, talk about weak bottoms and giant tops.... JEEZ! Did you see that set I bought off of Don L. from Payson a week or so ago? HUGE fronts and weak beams and tops, set still goes 365ish though. If not I'll try and get a picture of them when I get back from NM. See ya

No dude, no luck on finding the pup. Someone just loaded her up an took off with her. dang!!! Dad is seriously bummed too! Today he rode for 7 hours on his mule and lost the transmitter for his shockin collar.... not a good week for Dad! Poor guy.

RIGHT ON GINO!!!!!!!!

Dan we'd love to take you on a lion hunt one of these days. The dogfood deal though is one that I think we'd have to pass on. It'd take you about 13 yrs to pay for a lion hunt at that rate. Might as well take out a loan and get it over with before we're all to old.... HA HA HA!!

WHAT?!?!?!?!

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

You guys crack me up! Anyone is more than welcome to come see my antlers anytime you want. I don't offer that as a "look what I got" kinda thing but rather as one antler crazy guy to another that would like to see some other antlers. I'd have to say that you had to be in Mexico to find anything like that though. Too many hunters in AZ for that to happen here.

I wish I had a couple dogs that would do that but I don't. I'm sure it'd be totally legal also.

Any of you hunters happen to find any sheds while you were walking the hills? Most of my time Coues hunting is spent on my rear looking through my binocs but when I am walking to a glassing spot or back to camp I'm always on the lookout. On Saturday morning while walking back to camp I found a nice set of 3x3 sheds laying about 5' apart, just the way I like them to be. They've layed there for a few years I'd guess and are around 75". I found a fresh, lion killed fawn in a ditch buried in oak leaves and a road killed 2x2 in velvet. Anyone else? Josh Epperson

For those of you who have been outdoors in the past several days know that we got a BUNCH of snow. Although not our hunt style of choice for lion hunting it's hard to pass it up. Dad picked up Andy "Littlebear" Knowlton around 3AM on Saturday and found a lion track way quickly! I got there at daylight and our hunter arrived shortly there after and we let the dogs loose. Since our dogs aren't used to snow hunting it took a while to get it going. Andy and I basically followed the tracks while hollering at the dogs to stay in close. This went on for an hour or so. It's amazing how much a lion zigzags and wanders all over the place.... JEEZ! We trudged through about 6-8" of snow for about 3 miles when the dogs finally got seriously interested even though the snow was piling into the tracks. We crossed a big draw and the dogs bolted across and within a couple of minutes they were barking treed. Andy and I hauled butt over there and snuck in the final 50 yards. There was a beautiful lion treed up high in a dead pinyon tree. We took tons of video and pictures as the falling snow continued. At one point it must have snowed over an inch in about a 15-20 minutes, it was a freakin blizzard. Dad and Franco got there just after the blizzard and he harvested the lion with his bow. We had a blast and walked our tails off in the snow! Here's Andy and I and his dog Bonnie who is a great "treed" dog. Thought I was done eh? The storm was just getting started so we headed up north. It snowed for the next day and when it finished there was a foot and a half to 2' of the white stuff. Dad got out on Sunday morning and found where a nice tom had crossed the road right where he did about a week before, walking right by a cow elk he'd killed a couple weeks ago (the same one that we killed the huge female off of 8 days ago). The storm was still crankin so we couldn't do to much with it. Our hunter got to Tusayan about 11:30PM and we hit the roads about 12:30AM. Randy Bryant and the hunter Shawn Mays led the way in the truck. Luckily nobody had been on the roads yet and after about a half hour and 50 yards from where the big tom had crossed the day before, here he was again crossing the road just an hour or so ahead of us!!!!! What are the chances of that? We slept there on the side of the road in our trucks for hours. At 3AM another lion hunter drove by and saw us there and also spotted the tracks. I'm sure he was bummed to see us there. Soon as nighttime faded we had the dogs out and were ready to roll. This time the snow was knee deep which made walking TOUGH!!! Andy and I hit the trail again while the hunter Randy and the hunter drove ahead to see if the lion crossed in another place. We had a really tough time staying on the track cause of all the dogs but after about a mile and a half ol' Hap hit the scent finally and within about a 1/3 mile had the tom lion in a big ponderosa. It took us a while to get there. Andy and I were both dripping with sweat when we got there but were happy to see the lion up for sure. Once again we took a lot of pictures and video and Shawn finally got him with a perfect shot from his Hoyt bow. Thanks to Andy for coming up and sharing in the hunt with us. I had a blast with you as well as my Dad. You're welcome to hunt with us anytime!

Aw now!! That's pretty awesome Dad. It goes both ways for sure! You and I are some of the lucky ones that get to spend about 5 days a week together. I hope my little guy grows up to feel the same way about you and I.

Ronnie you crack me up! I guess I can see why there is a little confusion. Here in AZ we HAVE to know the diff, if you don't and you pull the trigger on the wrong specie you could get in a heap of unwanted trouble.

AZNMaddict dude, hey man go to www.photobucket.com and upload your pics on there, once they're no there click on the IMG button above where you write your text on this forum then cut and paste the link into it, it's pretty easy and it doesn't eat up space on Amanda's site. Good luck and find some biggins.

All of your guys' comments are very much appreciated but we are no where near the "kings" of lion hunting. We just bust our asses and try to be successful at it. Anyone could do the same if they had the time and the dogpower invested. Anytime we're successful I'm more than happy to share our hunts and fun with all y'all since this time of year is pretty slow for other hunt stories. Thanks again though, Josh

Ronnie, I think you need to take a class in deerology 101, that picture of that deer on the ground reeks of carp. If it didn't even have antlers on it's head I could tell the difference. TONS of muleys don't branch on the G2's and some of them even have short G2's but that doesn't make them a coues or even a hybrid for that matter. Some coues bucks have forked G2's, but again that doesn't mean they're part carp. You should be able to instantly tell the difference between a carp and coues just by the body color, ear size and size. I thought you'd hung around this site long enough to tell the difference.

Well then just video it! HA HA!

You know Bill I've given 4 articles away so far to magazines like Hunting Illustrated, Eastman's Bowhunter, Bugle and B&C. I've had one other guy tell me exactly what you've said but I just don't know how to go about it since so many magazines are based on reader's stories like Trophy Hunter and Eastman's. Email me if you want and I'd like to talk about it some more. antlerboy@commspeed.net az4life, they either jumped out and hauled butt or we just gathered our dogs and let them go. Headache, I give all the credit to my Dad and how he has masterfully trained his dogs. According to Dad, the dogs he has right now are the best he's ever had in over 35 years of hound hunting. But it does take about 40% effort from us to keep the dogs going in the right direction most of the time I'd guess. Thanks again for all your comments

You guys are all too nice. Andy was an absolute blast to hang out with and I could easily tell he's got a passion for lion hunting and I'm proud to call him a friend of mine. Redbeard, you're lucky to have him as such a good friend, he's a classy dude that's for sure! Bill I've never sold any stories but I've had a couple published over the years. I do enjoy it. Yes I'd say we do 99% of our hunts on foot. We use the mules occasionally but not to often. Dad uses the mules a lot when he goes out trailing by himself. Jim, Total brain fart there about his name being Shane, my bad. az4life, I think we've caught 10 so far and have killed 7 of them.

NICE!!!!!!!!