naturegirl

Not everyone wants to put a shot gun load in the belly of a mama bear. Yelling did not work, warning shots didn't seem to do much to deter her. She followed them down one side of a canyon, up the other side, and then most of the way back to their vehicle. I suppose for people who get chased regularly by bears, then it may not be such a big deal

Happy Happy Birthday!

He is a GREAT BULL! Congratulations Casey! Your papa is smiling down on you

Don't give up!

You are a cool dad! Love the gun! Congrats to your daughter and you. Happy hunting!

Of course bears can be dangerous, but you are doing the right thing by researching it. I've spent a lot of time outdoors and only have seen bears in person a couple times. Like someone else said the chances of actually seeing a bear are super slim. My ex and our hunting buddy were chased BIG TIME by a mama bear with a cub one spring. It was very scarey for both of them and she didn't want to adhere to any warnings that were given either by voice or shotgun. Eventually they managed to get away, but only with one man walking forward and the other walking backwards keeping an eye behind them. She was very aggressive even when they were quickly retreating. It all started with them calling for turkey. It seemed the box call set her off. I have faithfully carried bear mace (along with my normal sidearm) ever since their close encounter. Their experience was enough of a lesson for me.

Now that I'm looking at the pic of your bull every time I sign into CWT, I must tell you he is quite a beauty! Very nice looking bull - CONGRATS!

If you really like the outdoors, I'd strongly recommend thinking about that now if you are making a career move (i.e. office job versus natural sunlight).

I've been self-employed for about 13 years now. In my opinion, it's the only way to go. First I was a medical transcriptionist and then in the construction business. I understand all the goods and bads and I'd still take self-employed over working for someone else any day. The flexibility of being self-employed is the main reason I do it. Being self-employed has let me always be there for my kids. Then I picked up hunting and the self-employed schedule works very well with that too If you can find something you really like, then your life will be easier.

I started planning this August’s archery hunt quite some time ago with plans of going after a group of bucks that in past years held a drop tine mule deer buck. To be perfectly honest, I would’ve taken any of the bunch, but that drop tine kept me dreaming. I dusted off the cameras with the intent on patterning these bucks in an area I’ve seen them multiple times. We ended up with four cameras on trails in this one specific area. My to be ex-husband went up to check the cameras about a month before season opened and he was kindly greeted by a hot shot crew that was preparing to burn the entire area that I was going to hunt. On a good note, he did manage to get the weasel camera I had set up, but the other cameras still sit in a burned area with their status unknown. Reenacting mother nature. This was a good spot with little burn. Because of the “to be ex-husband” part mentioned above, I now knew it was time for me to put on my big girl panties so I could carry out a hunt from start to finish on my own. When I posted for help on CWT, I received loads of great advice and help and believe me this really did help me move forward in a difficult time and continue on towards my hunt. Between the pointers from CWT members, the field dressing class at Cabela’s, and having 6ANut on standby, I 100% went in with the confidence that I could and would be able to pull this off. I came up a day early to get a better look at the burned area, although at this point I had thrown out all plans that I had to hunt where the burn was. My new goal was to only hunt areas where I’ve seen bucks more than once in the past. I completely threw everything else out the window and I strictly wanted to put myself where I’ve seen them before, do my thing, and play the wind. On my scouting day, I saw 6 bucks in two different groups. Now that is a great day any day and I was praying I hadn’t used up all of my buck luck. I also made it to the knoll where the weasel was and I was very relieved to see that the only oak tree the hot shots didn’t burn was the one I believe hovers over the weasel’s rock den. I plan on going back to spend a day trying to get a photo of that thing, but now wasn’t the time. I decided to start opening morning in the area where I saw the group of 4 bucks the day before. I’ve seen groups of 3 bucks many times in this area, so this was a great place to start. It was a very quiet morning with me only seeing one doe. I was not seeing tracks like I would’ve liked either considering the downpour I was stuck in the day before. I moved on foot to another close by area where I shot my bull (and unfortunately lost it) a couple years ago, but that area was quiet too. I decided to sit a water hole midday in an old ground blind, but all I did was sit and wonder “Why would someone start a salt lick within a couple feet of the tank and then put a camera there?” We had a camera on that tank years ago and got great footage with no salt because the tank is not accessible by roads in anyway, which is rare. Regardless, this was a bust and more of a rest than anything. I made my way back to the trail to check it out again. I didn’t see a thing and still no good tracks. Time to move on. I moved to an entirely new area and right away I lucked out. I saw a 3x, but he saw me first and I had no opportunity. He ran up a steep hill so I ran down a ways and up the hill I went. What I found at the top was amazing. There was a cow with two calves feeding and the area had deer written all over it. I worked my way to where I thought would be a good place to watch the area until the cow moved off. There were well-used trails everywhere. After she left, I still hunted my way across this flat area trying my best to locate deer and keep the wind in my favor. I went as far as I could and started making my way back repositioning myself with the wind. About halfway back, I noticed a couple deer coming my way. I moved down the edge of the hill so I could move quicker to get into position, climbed back up, and then I waited. They were coming right to me walking and grazing and they were bucks! They looked small, but I positioned myself behind the side of a short bushy oak tree and reached down for my range finder. It was gone! I thought a few choice words and then guessed the distance of where they were headed at about 40 yards. I was getting ready and as they got closer I had to decide if I would shoot or not because now I could clearly see one was a big fork and one a small fork. I was ready, but let them walk. I’ve done this before and quite often question myself throughout the hunt if I did the right thing, but for me I can say without a doubt today that I’m 100% okay with letting them continue on their way. Me and my son My son came up Friday night to hunt with me the next morning. I told him about the area I was in the night before and he was ready to go. We get up early at 3:30 am, which did not thrill the boy at all, and head up to the spot. We had decided ahead of time if we were together anything 3x or over was mine and anything 2x or under was his. For either one of us it would be our first deer. When we get to the top, I go right and he stays put. I’m a firm believer that one person moving through the forest is better than two. As I make my way right, I see a doe and my son ends up having a 3x walk within 80 yards of him, but he didn’t get close enough for a shot. I then had the two forkies down at the bottom of the hill, but this time feeding away. We meet up about an hour or so later and take off in different directions. I have a GPS. He does not. He’s been in the area only once or twice before, but I let him go as he is now 21 years old. The plan is to meet at the rhino at 11 am. To make a long story short, he got lost. To conserve my battery, I keep my phone off so when I finally spoke to him around 11:30 am, he was in a bit of a panic because he was all kinds of lost. I’ve learned this lesson before the hard way and since have always carried a GPS. Because he wanted to be found quickly, he asked me to fire off gun shots to find him. My suggestion is first to drive the rhino around to see if he can hear me. I do this, call him back, and he didn’t hear a thing. Hmmm. Normally I can hear ATVs from pretty far away and he can’t hear me. Then I ask for any landmarks. He really became a smarty pants at this point and said “Mom, what did the road look like when we came in?” I said “It was brown and rocky.” He said, “Well just like that everything looks exactly the same to me.” I tried asking him to pick out tall mountains or hills, but I was getting nowhere until finally he said he saw a tank not long ago when he had crossed a road. I immediately tell him to go back to the area of the tank, find a high spot to get better phone reception and to google his location. He manages to locate the tank he’s by and calls me with the info. He’s about a mile or so from me as a crow flies. I said “Great. I’ll be there in about 30 minutes to get you.” He had been chasing a second group of bucks and got carried away because these deer encounters with his bow were his first stalk opportunities ever. He totally got into the moment and off he went. I took this opportunity to talk about the importance of a GPS if only to mark your starting location, staying on roads if you are lost, staying by a tank, etc. If he would’ve crossed the road he was at and kept going, it would’ve been a lot more difficult for me to find him. Before I hung up the phone, I asked “Do you want to hunt still?” and he said “Yes!” I knew exactly where he was. I gave him specific instructions to stay on the road, but when you get to the top of this little hill go slow as there are often does in there and sometimes there is a spike or fork. So, when I get to him about 20 or so minutes later he is dripping with sweat because he had been chasing yet another group of bucks. I will say my son came out of this totally loving bow hunting The rest of my hunting days consisted of seeing lots of does and lots of young bucks. Morning #3 I climbed the steep hill only to be face-to-face with a big bull feeding right toward me and I also heard a turkey gobble at the top of the same hill. The gobble totally threw me off because it is the fall, but I know what I heard and it was a turkey gobble. I didn’t go the direction of the gobble even though I had a tag because my first priority was a deer. I took a couple hunting breaks. I took the picture above of two does bedded together butt to head. Now you all may have seen things like this before, but I haven’t so I took a picture. I was about 80ish yards from these deer. One doe you can see her head and the other doe’s head is behind the tree on the left. I watched these does (there were actually four) for a couple hours as they bedded and grazed. Their personal safety was very impressive so I was completely surprised when the doe in the picture (the doe you can see her head) actually stretched out her neck and laid her head straight down on the ground in front of her kinda like a dog does chin down. She only did it for a few minutes, but I’ve never seen any deer or elk lay their head down to rest. She must’ve felt pretty comfortable. My son’s words made me pretty happy. Toward the end of his hunt he said “You really do know what you are doing out here Mom.” I'll take that as a compliment! My quest continues…. Illinois here I come. Here's a few things I learned this trip. Make it fun for the new guy. We somewhat lucked out because luck is a big part of hunting, but him having 3 different opportunities in one morning is a good day any day in my book. I love learning to call, but I can’t share everything I learn. Noise isn’t necessarily the end all. I have a funny story with a doe on this one when I was throwing together a blind, but I’ve already typed forever. I need to rig a better system for my GPS. I did end up finding it, but only after I had given up any hope that I would. I went back and ranged where the two bucks were. They were 35 yards. If you read this far, thank you because it’s been very therapeutic for me This frog was really trying to hide from me This is the third time I've seen antelope this year. He was trailing the herd. A young buck digging

I still have a couple weeks in December to finish out the 2014 archery season and then I'll be ready for 2015 Last year was my first time ever hunting the rut in January. It was a blast and I'll be back for sure. I've always avoided it because I didn't want to tag out and not be able to hunt the rest of the year, but since I've consistently learned that big bucks kick my butt year round I'm going to lean the table my way all I can.

Since I've learned more about field dressing, it has me going back over the years and remembering the various kills or cleaning sites that I've come across. I personally do not like seeing this when it is on the side of a road or in an empty campsite. It doesn't take much to walk a little ways off the road or from your campsite to dispose of parts. I remember a couple years ago coming across what I now know is a gutless method deer. I didn't realize until recently that what they did was a lazy version of the gutless method and then left it about 15 feet from a well-used road. I've come across more than one stomach laying in the road and even a spike bull's head left at someone's empty camp. Please take the extra time to move stuff where people are less apt to see it. It helps gives hunters a better name This is how a tarantula did it below last night. I was photographing the caterpillars that were everywhere when I hear a noise that grabbed my attention and it was this big guy (or gal). He then hauled it back into the dead prickly pear pile where I could no longer see it.

Oh my. I was just talking about guts and parts. Transport the way that is best for the meat since that is why we hunt. There is nothing you can do about certain situations and I wouldn't cover antlers in my truck bed. heck no, but I wouldn't have parts that were considered "gross" showing if I could help it.

I'm very sorry for your loss Casey. Go get em on your elk hunt!

I second the notion that you need to rest at some point if you plan on a long hunt. I took one midday off during my 9-day elk hunt to do laundry. The other 8 days I sat and rested in the woods when I felt the need. Good things can happen when you are still and alert.

As for deer and jeeps.....I would never recommend traveling with them INSIDE your jeep. Been there, done that, and it leaves a stink that stays for awhile. Yep, definitely would not recommend that at all. I'd say to the lady looking at you with your deer strapped on your back that it's all about the meat. They can't argue that one especially if you go into how much healthier it is, etc, and then it might even turn into an educational lesson for the non-hunter. I have yet to have a non-hunter challenge me in anyway because I know and understand what it's like to be on both sides of the fence. It's the hunters I have struggled the most with. Kinda interesting actually when I think about it.

You guys are crazy. Don't leave the field to go rest midday. Still hunt and move slow. See them before they see you. You miss a ton of hunting time if you go back to rest. Elk do not just move in the morning and at night. They move periodically throughout the day all on their own. I personally would all but forget glassing most of the unit. Instead use your binos to glass way out in front of you when you still hunt. 6anut knows the unit and I know a bit of it from Camp Verde up to the top of the unit. PM me if you need anything. Run your butt off and chase the bugles whenever you can. I'm so jealous. You've got yourself a great tag!

skill building

Very fun hunt and wonderful pics! Would've been that much better if the fish were biting too!

#1 That is 100% why I find it tortuous to hunt where I have to sit still for more than a couple hours. I used to carry a book, but then I'd get so caught up in the book that I'd miss stuff. Last winter I stopped carrying a book and I've gotten a lot better at seeing stuff. I HAVE to leave the book at camp or I will read it. #2 GOOD JOB! I take my little one fishing and we end up doing all kinds of stuff that have nothing to do with fishing. It's the all-around experience that counts and exposing them to the outdoors. The other stuff comes together with time.

Here ya go.

6 possibly 7. Can't quite tell on the 7th for sure.

The camera is a Canon EOS Rebel T3 1100. Total entry-level camera, but I really appreciate that it did not cost thousands of dollars because then I would be afraid to actually use it. I think it was about $600 online somewhere for the kit. You have to get pretty close to your subject. My decent animal pics are for sure under 100 yards with the best under about 60 yards I'd say. It does have a loud shutter, but so far it has not interfered with the animals.

Great story and CONGRATS on your first bear! The video of you after is priceless! It all worked out in the end

She was big! It was a little close for comfort, but she was pre-occupied. Wish I would've seen the capture. I heard it, but didn't see it. She retreated so watching her eat wasn't an option. I was more worried about being crouched over in mountain lion looking territory at sundown photographing stuff on the ground. I still have yet to clearly see a cat in the wild, but I'm 100% sure they've seen me.