Coach

Nice job. Bucks like that take a lot of work and a lot of persistence. Huge congrats for putting in the time and energy to do it right.

Love it! Great job girls.

Sweet first buck, Orlando!

Awesome buck, Draysen! That will keep you coming back for more. Love these kids out there Getting it Done!

Nice job Scott. Every year it seems you push yourself a little and each time you come up with these great bucks, whether it's your hunt or your sons' hunt. Huge congrats - I know you work at it hard, you're always humble, passing along the art of the hunt, and always sharing some cool adventures.

Saw a nice one in Heber around $4k. Wish I could take it home.

Sweet double!

Nice - that's a beautiful buck. Great times with family and tagging that brute - that's awesome.

Bad a$$ buck right there. Nice job.

Very nice buck, and good shooting. Congrats!

Very awesome. tarandjr - you rock.

Prayers sent. He sounds like an amazing man, and I feel for your family for his loss. I hope it helps that he touched the lives of many others.

Kinda goes both ways, IMO. Young hunters typically have trouble staying on with heavier triggers, or ones with creep. On the other hand, it takes some experience to shoot something under 2#. I like the accu-trigger and similar type triggers for kids because they get to feel the pull right to where it breaks, but they are safer (IMO) than just a straight light trigger.

I'm a big fan of the .300 WSM. It's just a great all-around rifle. Mine is a Savage 14 American Classic in dark stained walnut with a medium contour matte-finish barrel. I haven't seen another one like it, but it's my go-to rifle. I have a friend who is an eye doctor and really likes putting together nice rifles - he does a lot of custom wood work and is meticulous when it comes to putting together a great shooting gun. He's also a Zeiss dealer so no rifle goes without a good scope. He let me borrow his .300 WSM for my 2 sons' youth deer hunt, and I have to say it was one of the sweetest setups I've shot. The gun was a Tikka T3 light in stainless that he had a muzzle break put on by a guy in Heber that matched the barrel perfectly. The same guy did a cerakote coating on the barrel and action in a light gray. It's got a DNZ one-piece scope mount, Zeiss conquest scope with the Rapid Z 800 reticle. I think he paid around $200 for the break and another $100 for the cerakote and simm's recoil pad - but got a little break on the scope, being a dealer. Overall I'd guess he has around $1300 into this gun and it is just about everything you could want in a gun. Light, accurate, crisp trigger, moderate to light recoil, especially for a .300 magnum and all the benefits of the high BC of 30 caliber bullets.

I hunted the Whetstones about 10 years ago with a buddy from work who grew up in Tucson and had hunted there his whole life. On the way in, BP had 3 or 4 guys in cuffs along the road. We set up camp an the next morning saw smoke where we had driven in. We found out later it was a fire intentionally started near the guy's ranch that had turned in the ones we saw being arrested. Later in the hunt we glassed up several strings of illegals and spent most of our time coordinating BP. The ones we spotted were glad to be found as they were out of water and desperately in need of help. Not how I like to spend my time out hunting, so I haven't been back since. It was nice country though. I've done some backpack hunts close to the border in some areas that are known for smuggling and had a lot of BP presence - the old "smuggler's route" area. Never saw an illegal while in that area but didn't get much sleep either. It's kind of weird when you are out there alone miles from the closest road but smuggling trails around you. Especially when some coati are rustling around your camp in the middle of the night.

Man, that is a great looking buck. Huge congrats! You definitely know how to hunt big bucks.

Prayers sent. Best wishes to your Grandmother and your family.

Happy Birthday, Amanda. I hope you are out celebrating with good friends and great food tonight.

That freakin' rocks! Good eating too! Thanks for sharing.

Once again - WOW!~ Huge congrats to Shelby! But Lance, we need the story!

Just had the pleasure of shooting one very close to that - one fine gun! Good luck on the sale.

Spot on, Gino. Well said, my friend. And that's exactly how I approached it with my sons. One a little disappointed, two wanting to create a "long walk out" for our interlopers, and a wife who isn't really into hunting but still able to recognize there was a clear breach of ethics, without even much outside perspective. We focused on what we could have done differently. For example, Josh, being my youngest doesn't load his gun until I tell him it's time to. In that situation, I should have prepared him to take a shot in case we bumped a deer on our way in. Secondly, we heard the quads come in after us. Instead of assuming they would turn around, we could have used their hike in to our advantage, and maybe gotten a second chance that we normally wouldn't have. Thirdly, with 2 upper-teens boys full of testosterone and a little eager to escalate the issue - it was a great lesson in patience and perspective. The immediate response sometimes is to retaliate - to fix a perceived wrong. The level-headed approach is to reflect on your own actions first, gain perspective of others, assume the best, and loop back around to what positives can come out of it, versus the negative outcomes of acting on impulse. I'll call it a win, albeit a frustrating one.

Man - just WOW! Where to start? Awesome job to your grandpa all the way around. From his legacy to out there getting it done at 92 better than many do in their prime, just amazing. Huge congrats. Definitely an inspiring story. Thanks for sharing.

I'm enjoying all the responses here, and Edge's pictures definitely take the "edge" off. I also get the whole public land thing, and realize that each situation is different. Sometimes we end up in closer quarters than we would like to and have to make the best of it. In other situations when there is plenty of great, unoccupied country all around and someone still chooses to hunt exactly where they know you are - it's frustrating. Especially frustrating when your 12 yr. old son is super upset because of a deer getting shot right out from under him. Anyway, good to hear everyone's opinions and everyone keeping it civil.

Good responses so far. Clearly, it's all public land. Some areas, there's a limited amount of space we share and get along. But there's also an unwritten code of ethics, as many have pointed out, and I abide by. We had certain, specific places in mind and someone got there minutes before us. We backed out and found other areas because I think that's the right thing to do, and that's what I teach my boys. Others chose not to do so. This spot was way in some back country, and the road just keeps on going. It's not like they couldn't have gone another mile or two or five back and had lots of country all to themselves. They had a spot in mind, got there late, and found someone was there, but made the decision to hunt right in the middle of the guys who got up earlier. That's the part that I'm pissed about.