elkhunter

No 34b lope tags! Ouch!

Congrats!

I forgot to mention, the pig was blind in one of his eyes and that eye was the one facing my pops, pops was literally standing in the wide open

Lmao !

When I drew this tag I came up with a goal that I wanted to harvest a buck that had age to him, big bodied and billy goat lookin. I had plenty of time for this hunt and was willing to go home empty handed if I didn't find a mature buck over 5 yrs old. First day I took my 2 yr old son out with me and only turned up an 85 inch buck at 3 yrs old, not what I wanted. 2nd day of hunt I got fogged in at the top of the mountain so pops and I moved lower, glassed up a rutting buck, young body and great rack right at 93-94, not what I wanted. Later in the day found a group of of 3 bucks and one of em was a decent 100 inch buck, problem was he had no gut and looked perky and young. Looked him over for an hour and decided to pass, at this point my dad is wondering what is going on. Yesterday headed out again before sunup, began glassing and spotted bucks and does everywhere. a lot of bucks in 80's and 1 buck about 95-97 but still no age. I caught a glimpse of a buck moving through thick cover downhill and saw his old body and his rack looked to be a 2x2, pops stayed behind as I moved up the mtn to see if I can find him again and get a better look at him. Once at the top, I glassed for an hour and 40 minutes and can't find the buck but found 2 other bucks and 8 does all bedded within 200 yds of me. I was ready to head down the mtn back to the truck when I decided to do one last thing, I pulled out a mule deer grunt tube from the bottom of my pack that I have never used before and started grunting, only once or twice per minute, no need to scare the deer just wanted them to stand up, 5 minutes later I found him at 158 yards! I looked him over through the 15's and thought he still looked young but had sign of age, maybe 5-6 yrs old. At this point it's midday and I had hiked 1600 ft in elevation to check him out, I decided I would be ecstatic to have this buck, knowing he waaaa slightly above 100 and has age to him. At the shot he dropped and rolled down the mtn a good distance and got hung up good. I really enjoyed this hunt, no pressure, plenty of free time (Christmas break for teachers) and got to see about 30 bucks in only 3 days of hunting and for the first time in my life I passed up 100 and 90 inch bucks! enjoy the pics!

Good work! Good to see more 3x3 coming from fort!

Here's more dark antlers, I didn't think he was that dark until I compared him to my other two large and older bucks, wow what a difference! Habitat is the main change between dark and light antlers (my best guess)

I just bought this rifle 3 months ago for my dec hunt and shoots awesome for out of the box, I got a remington 700 in 270 wsm topped with vortex long range scope, 6.5 inch group at 500 yards. I shot my coues buck at 158 yards and saw him drop before the recoil, it shattered both shoulder blades and left heck of a blood trail down the mtn, no doubt it's an elk rifle, a 130 grn Hornady sst at 61.5 grn 4350 flies right at 3200 Fps, that's pretty deadly compared to 300 win mag 180 grn flying at 2800 Fps! When I draw an elk tag I am using my 270 wsm no doubt. Probably with a copper bullet or full jacket though

Awesome buck

Wow!

Thanks again!

Great buck, congrats!

Dark antlers!

Scooter- it sure is! All fall season I watched my students kill whoppers and finally my turn came

AZkiller- YES! Unit 32 how did you ever figure that out?!

Got the skull boiled down and meat cut up today, quite a bit of meat on this big bodied buck, aged him at 7 yrs old!

Sticker in the front windshield, has a headache rack

Yeah I saw that truck, you have a tag down here or just visiting?

Also used a 300 wsm with Hornady sst, 180 grn same thing

I used a 180 grn Barnes copper bullet, small exit wound but a bit of bruising

The wife is on a 3 week TDY and all babysitters are out of town so had to tow my 2 year old son with me. Total talley maybe 20 minutes of glassing in half a day of hunting, 1 buck about 75-80 inch and a doe Brought 2 sets of Swarovski 15's, one for me and one for Colby, most of the time the binos were backwards Lunch time On the way home Last week scouting trip As you can see at 2 years old he already spends a lot of time behind the glass!

I bought a remington 700 sps in 270 wsm from buds gunshop online for $569 and has no taxes and no shipping, get it delivered to a person nearby with an FFL license, took 5 days for me to get rifle and my neighbor has an FFL license!

Trout fishing is very good at the lake now in the Far East cove near the ramp, bring ur poles and pink power bait

Congrats Phil! You guys worked hard for those two!

Another one bites the dust, congrats is this #10 for ya?