shanehamblin

sounds like ur in unit 13 not 15.

to me this is just a joke. one of my biggest problems with the whole situation is that everyone is basically aware of how much money is spent on these stupid things and then they write an article about it where everyone who is losing their jobs here and there can read it and wonder hmmm is the government that much more worried about these wolves than a whole bunch of american men and women feeding their families. seems like they could put this money to better use

It doesnt sound like your doing much wrong... Thats hunting. My dad has told me a million times on blown stalks... "Thats why they call it hunting and not killing." I am a spot and stalk guy and occasional ground blind or tree stand. I have had better success in august but have also done well in January also.

really?

Congrats Payne. Long time no see. Good to see your still alive and kickin.

Mathews.. I shoot the Monster and i love it. would never shoot anything different.

My buddy had his truck broken into at bass pro about 3 days ago and his christmas was stolen from him. this makes me so mad to hear about stuff like this i hope you find whoever it was... i wonder if we could all have a few things here and there and get you a bow to hunt with this winter at least. i have sights and a rest if u r interested pm me.

yes i'm going to mount him but my big issue is i only have 8 foot ceilings. i will probably just do a european mount for now until i have somewhere else to hang him. unless u guys have some better ideas... i've been thinking a pedistal mount just have to find a good spot for that too. i smell a game room addition in the works but dont tell my wife yet i'll break it to her slow

Sorry guys i havent been on in a long time... well here is the story...... Opening day I hunted a bunch of different bulls. Over 30 bulls running together, not all shooters but about 5 or 6 of them were definate shooters. Well opening morning the bulls just got out in front of me and i had no luck catching up with them and didnt want to push them so I backed out. That evening I glassed up a different bunch 8 of bulls. I knew they were headed for a pond just down the ridge so i ran a good 3/4 mile and got into position and it wasnt 30 seconds after sitting down that i spotted the first bull feeding out of a thicket 60 yards to my left. the first bull to feed out was about a 330" six point and knew that for this tag that is a good bull. so i drew back settled my pin and released and as soon as my arrow left i knew i shot high. the bull was at a slight down hill angle and it all happened so quick i didnt adjust. well disappointed i headed back out with a buddy saturday morning to the same spot. when we got there it seemed like everyone else with an elk tag showed up too, so we hurried to a spot to glass where my brother had seem a big bull with a few small bulls and as soon as we got there and threw up the binos there they were. but the bad thing was they were in the middle of a sage flat as we were glassing we noticed a deep wash that ran through the flat that if we could get in we would have a shot at these bulls. well after along belly crawl and finally making it to the wash safely we started making our way to where we thought they were going to leave the flat. well we got all set up and could see the bulls coming...coming...coming and for some reason decided to feed around that ridge and past us but we felt confident that we could get on these bulls that evening. well wouldnt u know it that a storm blew in and it began to rain with heavy winds so they never moved during light but i knew i wanted to hunt this bull till he was dead or till he was gone. so that night i talked to my brother and he told me that the way these bulls had left the flat that morning was not the way they ever have before since he had been seeing them for about 2 weeks and he told me what they had been doing. so sunday morning i found myself on a ridge glassing as it was begining to get light and just about as it was getting to be good shooting light there they were and not 150 yards from me headed my way the big bull in the front. so i positioned myself and ranged a few different spots where i thought they might walk thru and just as i thought they would they finally made there way to an opening 60 yards away just before the big bull fed into the opening i drew my bow and took a deep breath as he finally had fed all the way into the opening i settled my 60 yard pin and released and saw my fletchings bury right behind his should. A quick jump in the air and the bull turned and headed straight downhill and down to the only spot were i couldnt see from where i was sitting. the two other bulls came out but not the big bull. the two little one kept hanging around and looking in the direction the bull had went which was no more than 75 yards from where i was still sitting trying to keep my cool. finally the other 2 bulls walked off still not spooked and i made my way down the hill and couldnt see anything at first so i slowly kept inching forward but slowly cuz i didnt want to bump him if he wasnt dead yet. i started to sit down and wait a bit longer as i glassed down the hill one more time to see a big rack sticking out of the sage brush and i could no longer keep my cool and began to celebrate... well as much as you can by yourself. i made it down to him and could hardly hold back the tears, (i think true hunters understand) im 25 years old lived in this unit all my life hunted it all my life guided here killed a lot of deer here but this was the first elk tag in this unit since putting in for in since i was 11, and just killed a bull of a lifetime. gotta thank my brother for all the scouting and time he put into helping me. no better hunting buddies than brothers..

ultramag you say "I know that even under the best circumstance you could have a bad outcome to a shot. why would you want to chance it?" any shot you take is a chance. things arent dying if the arrows arent flying. i would never shoot those distances if i believed i could close the distance but if i'm as close as i can get... i'm going to "chance" it.

As far as I'm concerned skill ends when your confidence in taking the shot ends. If you've practiced enough and are confident i see no problem and i am with you that if you normally would never or never have shot at those distances then you would obviously not be confident... but like i've said practice practice practice. i have never or would never take a shot i wasn't confident in taking.

Both posts look like your trying to bait someone into a fight. I'm not interested in arguing I will just give you my opinion. Speed, gravity etc... is only a small part of the equation and is easier controlled/compensated for than buck fever or a buck jumping the string. I'm not interested in getting into a debate about ethics as everyone is different and I feel that I have as much or more respect for the animals I hunt than others, but one thing I find interesting is that a lion doesn't sit there and think, "lets see if I drop off this ledge on that buck, I might not be able to effectively kill it because of that little kicker antler that is going to hinder me catching it by the throat, I guess I will have to pass until that little fawn comes along." IMO a real test of ethics is not how far the shot is, because I can and have missed at under 30 yards, but ethics to me comes into play after you have made a poor shot. What do you do? Look for 5 min and then move on, do you spend time on hands and knees, do you wait a day then come back? What is it that you do? Have you ever seen a deer killed by a lion, or coyotes, a bunch less ethical than a poor shot IMO For me I shoot regularly at 80+ yards Longest kill mule deer 81 yards closest is bull elk at 7 yards not trying to start a fight. It just seems the realism for archery equipment is extended to the outer limits. then you have the animal factor. What do you think if the animal takes a step. what would the outcome be on a deer or elk at 30 yards compaired to 80 100 yards, well at 30 yards you could still possibly be in vitals but at 100 yards you hit the butt. I doubt that most guys that take these type shots have no idea what they are doing. they just fling the arrow and hope for the best. this is very real and completely unacceptable. some get lucky and that is all it is. Still laughing at your comment on the coyote and lion comment. can the lion and coyote shoot bows do they have to buy a tag, put in for the draw, no. can they reason. a real test of ethics IMO is do you take the chance of wounding the animal? sure you do everytime you hunt. sh!t happens but when someone asks for it by taking a shot that is questionable. a 100 yard shoot is questionable by about 95% of the archers out there even if they claim that they can do it. you are hoping for lots of luck becuase thats what it is luck. Why is it all luck? because you havent done it? There is a huge element of luck in hunting in general but shooting really doesnt have to be one of those things. it seems someone calls this luck because he hasnt done it so it must not have anything to do with skill. there is always someone who has done it all and seen it all, anything they havent done must not be real.

i practice as much at 70 plus than i do at 30 or 40. practice practice practice. i really dont see what the difference is from guys hot loading rifles and shooting out to 800+ yards with a rifle. technology with a bow gets better and better every year. still have good penitration at 100 yards ur still deadly. thats not unethical.

i actually have a 110 pin... longest kill 102 and another at 86... both big mule deer.... both complete pass throughs.

I think I'll keep putting in for this hunt... 360 3/8

dont really remember what magazine it was in but it was talking the spider bull and how big of a deal it was to everyone in utah and how much money was spent and how much bad it actually ended up bringing out in a lot of people and how many people have forgot why they like to go hunt and be in the mountains and spend time with family and friends. it talked about how we find ourselves saying " man i hope i can kill opening day or opening weekend," as if hunting is all the sudden a burden on us instead of a way of life and a past time. i know i do get caught up in numbers and different things a lot but i have lived in unit 1 all my life and im now 24 and this is my first elk tag in unit 1 so im just looking forward to having fun and spending time with family. dont get me wrong im gonna scout my butt off for a good bull but hope i dont lose sight of what i really enjoy out there.

oh no doubt 340 is a great bull. i have a archery elk tag this year too but my hunt is in november. a little bit tougher hunt but still a hunt u can kill a great bull on. i'd actually be very happy with a 340 bull. good luck this year tho.

my dad just had a kidney/ pancreas transplant... he was on the list for a year and 4 months. it has changed his life so much he was on dialisis for about a year he had been diabetic since he was 17 and he is doing great now. he was having to drive 45 minutes every other day for dialisis. he can now eat just about anything he wants. so please all of u that are against donating organs, think hard about it. my wife is pregnant with our first child right now and im happy my kid is gonna have a good grandpa. my dad taught me everything i know about the mountains, hunting, fishing, and just life. hope i can pass down those things to our children too.

i'll second that!! it was really funny me and my brother were guiding probably four years ago and his hunter was one of the big wigs from cabelas and he brought a magazine with him that had a little fun game thing on it where on like page 20 they have about 5 pictures of different bulls and it said guess the score and the answers are on page 50 or whatever ya know? i bet almost every hunter in camp was off at least 30 points and on some a lot more than that. just my opinion i dont think people realize how big even a 350 bull is.

My son and I had unit 10 tags last September and we both drew tags the year before- we had only our hunter ed point. I personally saw 5 bulls over 400" DURING the hunt. I called one in for my son that hung up at 50 yds that was well over 420. I saw more than 20 bulls over 370. i don't think unit 10 is overrated. I saw all these bulls within a 5 sq mile area with the exception of one, which was on the other side of the unit. There were more BIG bulls in 10 last year than 9- fact. Where unit 10 lets you down is that it is very open in most of it without your typical cover for making setups and blinds. There is NO permanent water in the north half of the unit except that which the ranches provide. It is quite different than any other unit in the state. There are really no "bad" units in the state except possibly 6A, which is a slaughter unit with few bulls reaching maturity. I would prefer 1,7, 8, 9, 10, 23, and 27 over 5A or 5B. You can draw any archery tag in the state with 9 points with the possible exception of 9 due to the % cap on non-residents. Apply accordingly. Not everyone in 9 kills a huge bull. I saw a lot of 320 and under bulls killed in 9 last year. hmmmmmmm.....

the thing u guys wont believe is we didnt feel like we could get a good picture of this buck to do it justice. this is the best picture we could take. holding them will honestly blow u away my wife is about to kill me cuz i cant shut up about them. unreal!