OpticNerd

It's also legal for a guy using archery equipment to shoot at a deer running strait away from him at 200 yards so according to the ethical=legal logic then said action would be defined as being ethical. (Ethical=legal)=false.

Not much more to say that hasn't been said already. Congrats man! Any coues with a bow is a tough task but a 130+... That's just insane!!! Did you happen to get any video of him alive?

Heck of a buck to get with your bow! Congrats! I agree with a few others in saying that your buck has some muley characteristics to it. I'm surprised to see no one has yet to call it a hybrid. If there was a time for one to call a deer a hybrid I would think this would be that time. Have you had the chance to do any measurements on the rack? I'd be curious to know how wide he is. Congrats again!

I remember watching this back when you first posted it. Love this bull! Great width with big tops. I have a feeling this is one of those bulls where his score won't do him justice at least in my mind. One of my favorite bulls I've seen in a while that's for sure. Sweet video thanks!

Heard the same thing while I was up there yesterday. Biologist told me that unfortunately the fungus has now spread from the antlers down into the trachea. The fungus has muted the elks vocal cords so bulls physically can't bugle and won't be able to bugle for at least the next 2 months maybe longer.

Say what now? Why do you think that? I'm all about posing the animal in favorable lighting, and with a nice scenic backdrop for the trophy shot. However, using an ultra wide camera lens to distort the relative size of the antlers and/or "long arming" the trophy shot looks so far unnatural looks tacky. Going extreme like this tends to take away from the glory of the animal rather than add to it. It draws attention to the tackiness of the photographer or whoever set the shot up and makes it more about them than hunting and conservation. Sorry to derail a discussion but its my belief that if certain behavior isn't called out that you'll get more of it and it gets legitimized over time. And that's "Just my opinion." Ok cool. I misunderstood your original post. When you mentioned editing I thought you were referring that the photo had been photoshopped to make it look bigger. Heck of a buck even if the pic is a bit deceiving.

Say what now? Why do you think that?

Thanks for the suggestion Desert Muley. Will do Prdatr.

Thinking about buying half a cow. Currently have a guy offering me half a cow for $6/lbs butchered and fully packaged. Is this a fair price? Any of you that are familiar with the ins and outs of buying half cow` that are willing to share some info please feel free in doing so. Thanks!

Thanks for the info guys. I don't know much about the cow/cows this guy is selling. I'll have to ask him more questions about it tomorrow but sound like I might have to pass at $6/lbs. All I know right now is that he's getting it butchered somewhere in Wilcox. Thanks again!

Shane is the real deal. The guy has tagged some absolute giant animals. It's going to be extremely hard for him to top this buck. Congrats on a buck of many lifetimes! Can't wait to see the video.

14 hours! You stand guys are hardasses! No way I could sit a stand that long when I know I could be glassing coues. If I ever did sit a stand for any long periods of time I'd probably listen to Jay Scott's podcast if anything.

With only 1800-1900 deer tags there's a good chance I won't be getting a tag this year. Over 4000 apps! Dang! I remember back when I started putting in for lefties there would be tags available all the way into October. At least there's still the OTC archery tags to fall back on if need be.

Man this is a tough question to answer because opinions can/will vary from person to person depending on the individuals hunting style. From what you've described it sounds like 12s might go well with your hunting style especially if your looking for more of a minimalist kind of glassing set up. For my hunting style I felt 12x was too much magnification for hand held close glassing but not enough mag for long range and glassing bedded deer. Although initially I loved the 12x I eventually became dissatisfied with that magnification. One of my biggest problems I had with the 12s is I couldn't free hand them steady enough for my liking. If you do a lot of free hand glassing this might be something to think about.

Does anyone know the amount raised from the auction tags vs the raffle tags? Never mind found it.

I agree with pretty much everything yotebuster said above. I've been helping family members on the late Dec hunt there for the past 4 years and it seems that year after year the buck numbers have been on the decline especially the big bucks. I don't mean to get you down just want you to be prepared. Maybe it's just me but IMO as of now hunting on the base is just about as good as hunting on state land maybe a tad better and just like hunting state land you'll really have to work to find a buck over 100. Should still be an great hunt just not as good as it use to be. I'll be on the Fort helping again this year if you run into any trouble finding deer during the hunt shoot me a PM and I might be able to help. Good luck!

Cool looking buck congrats. Thanks for posting and helping pass the time until the result are out. Hopefully a few others will do the same.

Nice hope it works. I got a 9 year old daughter that really wants to know what unit she drew for her first ever deer hunt. She's more excited than I am about the draw results. I'm just waiting for the leftovers.

How's the low light performance with these? A 66mm scope at 30x has an exit pupil of only 2.2mm so far anything lower than 3mm I find to be too dark at first/last light.

Under the right circumstances I'm a big fan of the full frontal shots but I wouldn't consider this shot being a frontal instead it looks like a quartering to you shot. When it comes to elk a quartering to you shot seems like a pretty risky shot imo. After re-watching the video a couple times over it looks as if he hit too high and to the right to hit any major organs. I can't imagine the kid was trying to hit the bull where he did but for all I know maybe he did. When it comes to archery elk all I ever heard was to only to take quartering away or broadside shots so anytime I see otherwise my natural reaction is to cringe. I use to feel this way about the head on shot as well but after seeing first hand how effective it was on multiple occasions I changed my mind. Who knows maybe one day I'll change my mind about the shot in this video but for now I'm not convinced this a shot that hunters should be considering. As far as the questions on ethics without knowing what the kid was thinking at the time of making this shot one can't properly determine whether or not on this shot is ethical. The shot was definitely effective no doubt about that but just because a shot is effective does that mean it's ethical? I hear a lot of guys falsely state that "legal=ethical" if this logic were true than yes this shot would be ethical but in reality this logic is flawed and shouldn't be the basis on how one determines ethics. Ethics are far too complicated to be determined by laws. An action that is ethical for one hunter may not be ethical for another. The way I see it the only person who can truly determine if this was an ethical shot is the kid who took the shot.

Got it. Normally when I hear the term tunnel vision used to describe binos or spotters it is in reference to the optic having a narrow apparent field of view hence my confusion because technically all the 12x50s being discussed should have at least the same or even a slightly wider AFOV when compared to the Minox 15x58. With the Minox having an estimated AFOV advertised at 61.42 degrees while the Cabelas/Meotpa 12x50s estimates are listed just a bit wider with the Cabelas at 62.85 degrees and the Meotpa at 63.08 degrees and lastly the Vortex 12x50 being advertised as the widest at 65.14 degrees. Advertised numbers have been known to be wrong from time to time but if these advertised numbers are in fact correct or even somewhat close a guy would be very hard pressed to notice a difference between all these binos in terms of AFOV. When it comes down to FOV in ft/1000 yards the 12s are listed between 275-285 ft while the Minox 15s are listed at only 215 ft so with the 12s you'll obviously be seeing quite a bit more country at any giving time while viewing through them.

I'm a bit confused with the second part of this post. What are you referring to when you say tunnel visioned?

If saving weight is your main concern then you should be happy with the 12s. I think the difference is just over a pound between your Minox and the 12s your looking at. Pretty good weight savings by going to the 12s. On the other hand if you will be doing majority of your glassing at long distances combined with a lot of slow methodical glassing taking apart every piece of cover you can find then you might be a bit disappointed going from 15x to 12x but I feel this assumption probably applies more to coues than elk IMO. For a deep wilderness elk hunt I think you should be happier with the 12s. Just a guess but some of it might have to do with heat waves. There's times when I feel my lower powered glass appears clearer when compared to my higher powered glass due to the higher powered glass magnifying the atmospheric disturbances more.

Any of guys think this will effect the draw odds at all? I've never put in for the trophy bull hunts because I liked the idea of getting first crack at the big boys. Also by the time the rifle hunts started a lot of the bigger bulls are all busted up. If the G&F decides to put the rifle hunt first I'll be very tempted to hang up the bow and put in for these earlier trophy hunts.

Great idea! Turned out really nice.