Coach

That is awesome! Great job and awesome play-by-play. Looking forward to pictures of your bull!

If it doesn't fit Dave's phone, I'd like to have it as a backup. Is AC or DC? Lemme know if it doesn't work out with Dave and I'll make arrangements to pick up or pay for shipping. BTW - while we're talking - I tried to send you a PM, but your inbox is full. Is there a way to check remaining battery levels on a Covert II? Thanks, Jason

Don't know what unit you are in, but in Unit 1 the rut is starting off pretty strong. Lots of bugling in the early morning. Not much mid day or evenings. Best of luck to you. It will get better.

Wow, what a beautiful buck, and great taxidermy. Congrats on an amazing trophy. I am sure that you will be able to reflect on taking such a beatuiful buck each time you look at him.

Kudos - nice job trying to find the owner. I hope someone on here knows who lost it and you can get it back to him. Stand-up guy, you are, being proactive to find the owner.

Very nice pictures - thank you for sharing them.

Thank you, Mark. I'll make sure to keep it fun, and I'm sticking a video camera in my pocket to try and make the whole hunt accessible to family, friends and this forum. Regardless of whether I find the bull I'm looking for, I'm certain that it will be a hunt to remember for a long time.

These are a little blurry - I'm working out the kinks with my digiscope setup - not to mention, these are cropped out of much larger photos, as they were taken pretty far away. Anyway, a really cool bull I watched for a while yesterday. He had a pretty big herd, and 5-7 smaller bulls trying to steal them. Lots of bugling and rut activity. Not a huge bull, but fun to watch.

So there's this group of 4 kids called the Gregory Brothers that use a technique called "Auto-Tune" to put actual news footage to music, and create some really funny videos. I got a kick out of them, so I thought I'd share them here. First up, is the actual news footage of an eye-witness to a convenience store robbery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcpx8O82KLM Here's the same story put to music... Pretty funny, but here's an even better one. Actual news story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54yESyq6Io And the musical version here: Hope you enjoyed those. And if you want to see more, here's a link to their site. Click the "Video" link at the top to see them spoofing the news and interviews with Obama, Ron Paul and more: http://thegregorybrothers.com/ Hope you get a laugh out of these - I sure did.

Kudos to you for trying to find the owner. You're a stand-up guy in my book.

Hey, thanks everyone - so far this guy is the closest I've personally seen to what I'm hoping to find. Right now I'm trying to help out several archery hunters in the unit (unit 1, btw). They've agreed to keep me in the loop with what they're seeing. Seems like a win-win, with such a big unit - no way to be everywhere at once. I help them out by scouting and glassing certain areas that I know they are not in, tell them what I'm seeing, and the'll tell me where the big one that got away was hanging out when their hunt is done. Got a couple places in mind I haven't even seen yet this year, but Thursday I at least got to drive a huge chunk of the unit, just seeing what's new from place-to-place. Some areas have been recenently thinned, so that's good to know, the entire West side of the unit is soaking wet, where the biggest concentrations of camps are, etc. It should be a great hunt. I can't remember a greener, wetter Fall, and the cows are definately coming into heat. Lots of early rut activity and I don't have to get to 40 yards - lol. I've just got to play the mental game - keep it fun, don't try to be in more than one place at a time, or second guess myself constantly (should I be in the punch-bowl today or in the cedars around Vernon, or maybe the res line up by Greens, or here or there...). Hunting elk can be a lot of fun, but it can also be stressful. I'm trying to get myself in the right mindset so that whether or not I find what I'm looking for, it's a fun experience. This is a tag I'll probably never have again, so I just want to make it enjoyable. (anecdote) The last bull tag I had was Unit 1 archery, and it turned into a nightmare of stress. I lost my bull due to bad shot placement. I was heartbroken and spent the rest of the hunt looking for him - couldn't even bring myself to carry a bow knowing I had lost him. At one point while trying to find him, I had a much bigger bull, maybe 370 class 7x7 within 20 yards and didn't even have my bow with me - I just couldn't bring myself to shoot another. Near the end of the hunt, while going out once again to look for birds or coyotes - anything to find my bull - I was flagged down by some campers who had found a 320-330 bull beaten half-to-death by another bull during the night lying out in a meadow. He could hardly walk more than 15 yards without falling back over. Knowing he was going to die also, I decided end his misery and put my tag on him to keep him from going to waste, as my bull had. Point being, the hunt I had waited so long for, worked so hard scouting for, and had such high hopes for, turned into stress, anger (at myself) and just a bad experience. Now that I have a chance to get back out there, I just want it to be fun. I have high expectations, but if I come home empty, I won't care as long as I know I worked hard, didn't compromise my goals, and have a good time. Whew - venting over. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Thanks - there should be more to come. The rut is just starting! Some new optics on order, so maybe better pix in the next week or so. Good luck to all you archery hunters out there. I'm just waiting for "left-overs" once ML season starts. Not much sleep in store for the next few weeks I'm guessing. LOL.

Nice bucks, and good pix.

Got pix of one pretty nice bull this morning pushing a bunch of cows, bugling chasing off other bulls - definately hot rut action.

I've used the Rhinos, and I like the convenience of the combo GPS/radio, but I have to say the range is really not that good on the ones I used. Even compared to some older el-cheapo cobras. The Cobras had a much longer range.

I don't think the comparison in this case is on track. If you need a range-finding biocular, Leica Geovid is the best range-finder/binoc on the market, despite the button being in the wrong place for archers and most hunters. If you are looking at a "glassing" bino, Swarovski 15x56 are the BEST glassing binocs available. Here's where I see the difference. The Geovids, by design, aren't meant for mounting on a tripod. The center tripod mount is where they chose to put the lazer range finder, so you have to buy some kind of plate with a velcro strap to even adapt them to a tripod. Geovids are designed specifically to be worn around the neck, to quickly look at an animal and have the capability to acquire the range. They just happen to have glass that is superior to that kind of usage - and better suited to glassing off a tripod. Swarovski 15x56 SCL, on the other hand are not a very handy "around the neck" pair of binocs. They are heavy, big, IMO too magnified for a hand-held bicoc, and don't incorporate any kind of range finding. They are meant for a certain job, and that job is glassing in extreme detail, from a tripod. I'd love to have a pair of Geovids, simply because it's a pain to switch from bino's to range-finder. But I'm not forking out 3 grand for that convenience. I'd rather sit between my Swaro 10x42s, and 15x56 to find out what I'm going after, then rely on my range finder to play it's specific role when the time comes. One of these optics companies *might* finally get it all right at some point. A compact, variable 8-15x (on the same level as a Leica Duovid) with built in, angle compensating, laser range finder, that can still be mounted on a tripod for extended long range glassing with super high quality glass -would be the ONE single piece of optics any Western hunter needs. It's not out there yet, and it might not ever be. Western US hunters aren't exactly dictating to German optics providers where to allocate their annual R&D budget. They make way more money on consumer and prosumer grade cameras than they ever will off of all-in-one optics designed specifically for Western US hunters. It's just a matter of "consumer base". As it stands now, no one offers that "holy grail". You need a quality 8-10x around your neck, a bigger 15x type for digging into details and a quality stand-alone range finder. I've got 8x42 Swaro SLCs around my neck, with a Jim White tripod adapter so I can glass by hand or quickly off of a Slik Sprint Pro, In my pack are the Swaro 15x16 SLC for getting in tight, with the same adapter so I can just plop them up for a more detailed look without going to a bigger tripod. In the front-left pocket of my fanny pack is a Nicon 800 yard lazer range finder. 3 three tools can handle pretty much any job. If I fail, it's not because the equipment didn't do it's job.

Forgot to mention this earlier. My top 2 shooting rifles have Cabela's Alaskan Guide scopes on them. One in 4-14 and the other in 6-20. The guns (both Savage) with these scopes will outshoot me any day. I'd love to see how these "economic" setups would perform against the pricier alternatives. My guess, is not 3 hunters out of 10 would shoot tighter groups out of a custom rifle. Only because I've seen super tight groups when I do my job and match the right load to the rifle. My Savage 10 American Classic in .300 WSM, shoots lazers with store-bought ammo. I'd love to see that rifle in the hands of a skilled long range shooter.

Mt Cat - met you last Fall chasing bear. What tags do you have this year?

The bulls are talking in the high country, but so far it's looking like more pre-rut activity.

If I got word from my doctor tomorrow that I had 6 months to live, I'd start planning my WMAT coues hunt - lol - tounge in cheek of course. Funny thing is, the guys on the rez that know where these guys are generally aren't that exited by them. They're more into the big muleys and huge bull elk, it seems. The WMAT reservation encompasses all of the open slopes leading into the black and salt rivers. Across the rivers, you have the San Carlos, which is available to non members, but it is MUCH thicker and much harder to hunt. Bucks like this live on both sides of the river, but most of them will live their entire lives without being hunted. Hey, it gives us all something to dream about!

Nice buck! Congrats! That's really cool - nice write up and pix to boot!

Nice "drive-by", newbie - congrats, you probably won for the most idiotic post of all time. Bragging about stealing and trashing other people's property. Here's some friendly advice - take up golf, and keep your sorry can out of the woods. We don't need more dumb-a$$es out there messing things up.

Wowzer!!! That is one heck of a buck!!! Gettin' close to him?

Very nice - my new favorite poem (as if I had one before now - lol). I've always thought there is something magical about a camp fire, the way it brings everyone together and provides a warm place to recoup and reflect. Nice to see it celebrated in such a thoughtful way. Thanks for sharing.

I thought it was a wax job??? OUCH!