Becker

The draw was good to our crew this year!!!! We drew a couple good elk tags too start. Jody was up first. We had an AWESOME hunt. It seemed that reports were bad for the rut and general elk activity but that wasn't the case for us. We were seeing BIG bulls and making stalks everyday. On day 9 everything fell into place and Jody connected on her biggest bull to date!!!! Jason was up next. Having a muzzleloader in hand we were feeling pretty confident. After a few failed attempts due to swirling winds we were finally able to get into range on this massive bull and Jason made it count. Two personal bests in the elk woods have us on cloud nine!!!! Time to get back to the Coues though!!!!! Excited for what's to come!!!! Special thanks to All of our family for the help and support!!! We wouldn't have been able to pull off what we did without them!

I did not. My wife had the unit 1 archery tag and my hunting buddy had the muzzy 27 tag. I posted their results already 😊

Hahahaha. Dude eating dinner when I read your response just now and almost spit my drink out in Jody's face!!!! That was awesome.

Coues79. I also appreciate what people have to say when they spend countless hours in the hills. My major problem is having the actual facts behind the claims. I have seen countless posts about the elk numbers being so dismal and have asked alpinebullwinkle for the proof. Like "hard evidence". Surveys. Actual counts. What if he doesn't even have binoculars???? People have been complaining about the deer numbers, amount of hunters, etc. in the unit I like to hunt deer in and I have had some of the best deer hunting of my life finding more and bigger deer than ever before. There is constant change in the hills. Look at what the fire has done to those units. So just because you don't see 100 elk out in the meadow in the evening anymore doesn't mean there isn't 100 elk up on the hillside. I have been approached by hunters on these early hunts who haven't seen a single elk while I am looking at 50 spread out on the ridge across from us while we are chatting. We killed on the third day of the muzzleloader hunt this year in 27 and in my opinion the rut was just getting going, while mentioned above some think it was over already??? A year or so ago I sat on a little knob that has country laid out in front of it with my hunting buddy and we glassed up 23 coues bucks in a matter of 3 hours. 23!!! We have been back there many times and the most I think I have ever seen again is 5. I am sure there are still the 23 and then some more that we missed but I am not seeing them from that particular vantage point. My case is.....even myself, doing the same thing, I experience different results in numbers seen. Sure, over long periods of time you are going to come up with an average or feel for what is there. I have seen "spots" peak and decline and peak again. What happens if over the next 5 years a group of guys stumbles on the spot and hunts it hard shooting 3 to 5 bucks out of there a year. Am I going to see the same results as I did before they moved in. Or perhaps someone is already hunting it hard and then they decide to move spots or units. What will I see the next few years. What if those elk hunters that struggled only spent one day in a particular area that had the elk bumped, and the day after they left, those bulls fired back up. And what if that happened to them over and over through the course of the entire hunt. I have been there and done that although I didn't leave. I have seen elk get bumped and get quiet for a day or two and then get so fired up you can't decide which bugle to chase. Now I don't pay much attention to what our actual elk numbers are. But based on some general knowledge and seeing some of the tag numbers it seems to me that "YES" our Game and Fish is bumping the numbers back. Good or bad whatever we could argue all day about that. Based on who draws tags, weather conditions, food, ???wolf activity???, fires, you name it, things are going to change. Does that mean that the rut was terrible and elk numbers are dismal......NO. IMHO without a solid scientific method and hard numbers with the proper equipment to do it I have a hard time believing "one opinion" on some of the above to be true based on what I did/saw this early elk season and those in the previous 8 years.

Whats wrong with my super lightweight bullets Casey?

This was one of the best years I have had for hunting elk. I saw more 350 plus Bulls than I have ever seen. We hunted in unit 1 for archery 9 days and then rolled into 27 to scout for and hunt the muzzleloader hunt. There were elk everywhere I looked. Bugling seemed normal to good for us. Just talked to a buddy of mine yesterday and he said the Bulls were still being pretty vocal!!! I always like the sob story from alpinebullwinkle. Sounds like to him the elk herd is about on the verge of dissapearing and the Rut is non existent........where as my crew sees and has some of the best elk hunts of their lives?????

We have shot 6 Coues with my edge. 300 grn sierras. All one shot kills. Farthest travel after shot was about 20 yards most likely because I shot a buck on the run at 200 yards. Hit him just a little back. Mid body. I should have taken a picture for you. Devastation has been unreal. We have shot them from 80 yards to 876. Couple of neck shots. Couple perfect broadside shots through the ribs. Couple quartering to shots. Most of the time bullet hole entry and about a 2 to 3 inch exit hole. One broadside shot took the top of the heart out and then actually sucked the heart out of the exit hole. Found the bottom 3/4 of the heart in the top of the bush behind where the buck stood. Closest shot at 80 yards was quartering to hard (only one without a big exit hole). Bullet hit in front of shoulder and exited between hind legs. Actually it just poked out the skin. Wasn't really an exit I guess. Entire length of inside body cavity was jello. That's been my experience so far. Most devastating was the 876. Quartering to shot. Hit shoulder a little above point. Every rib was detached from backbone. After skin was pulled off could put a softball through bullet path. I have actually switched to the 300 grn bergers this season. We will see what happens. But my initial tests are.........hit them in the body or neck with 300 grns and they are DRT.

More details on the scope plz. HD? Angled or straight. Thx

I use both. The outdoor edge is good for general hard labor. Removing legs etc. the havalon is not a bulky heavy duty knife. Doesn't need to be. With the sharpness of it there is no need to be applying pressure. Hence if you are breaking blades you are doing it wrong. If you know your joints properly and how to manipulate a knife you should be able to perform the necessary processes with a havalon and be able to use one blade on multiple animals. That being said I am impatient and wanna get animal out as soon as possible. With the outdoor edge you can slam through joints with ease. Lol

^^^^^. I agree.

Personally knowing Matt that you Averagejoe put a USO logo on his hat is completely insulting. "YOU" have a lot of growing up to do. You have zero respect in my book and I'll leave it at that.

Obviously all you guys hating on the little water marks have no idea how cut throat the businesses around hunting are. I am sad to see all the negative comments on such an awesome accomplishment. Look at "ANY" outfitter picture of successful clients. They all have water marks. Didn't see any negative comments on sirroyals pictures???? what's up with that. If you really felt that way you would comment on every post with a picture that had a logo. Give it a break and enjoy one the biggest Coues ever killed.

FYI the no seem them things tend to be little black flies. They are small and you don't really notice them biting you. It doesn't usually hurt like a mosquito bite. Then you have a reaction. However they show up on exposed skin since they are flying insects.

Sounds like chiggers to me as well. I have a few bites on my legs right now. If I touch them.......yikes they start burning and tingling. On me chigger bites take a long time to heal. Usually don't notice I've got them till the next morning after being out all day. Or maybe evening right before bed if I went out in the morning. Mine get good red little welt. I itch them. They puss a little. Then they turn into small looking hickies after they quite itching and go away. Everyone reacts different to their siliva or whatever they put in you. I don't welt up from mosquito bites where as my wife gets huge blobby reactions. I am really reactive to the chiggers though. Some anti itch cream and don't touch the flare up should go down quick.

Here you go Pine Donkey Some real vs fake stuff from my shop.

I've never used any of it. By the time I hike 1/4 mile I'm sweated up good and stink. Not sure anything is going to help me out there. I think back east where they leave the garage in an electric buggy and sneak into a stand without much physical effort I could see it being productive if you cover everything to be scent free. But that's covering everything. I have a hard time believing you can be exactly scent free especially in my style of hunting. getting coffe at circle k, chewing gum and sunflower seeds, long marches in the dark with my pack that sits in my truck all season full of who knows what anymore. Lol

I just took a golf ball and drilled a hole 3/4 of the way through just slightly bigger than my push rod. Makes a great handle to push and fits in your pocket nice. I like it better than the power rod t handle one. Beats buying a whole new rod if you don't want to.

I completely under stand the whole velocity and BC querks. Also understand the chronograph error. Just was curious as to how much difference you guys were having to enter (if any) based on chrono readings or shooter apps. My first load for my gun I had to adjust slightly than what my chronograph said. Haven't got my new load tested out to 1000 for verification just yet. Although I did take a shot at my 12" gong at 1086 yards the other day with initial values entered and hit it. Soooo I'm close.

How bout this one?

Have you guys noticed any discrepancies for the G7 and your actual muzzle velocity? Meaning are you having to put a different muzzle velocity than you have actually Measured?

I'm not close to there but we like velvet deer!!! Arizona Wildlife Designs

Str8shot. I've been looking for those. Thx for the link. I have a cheek pad like pelapapas but I don't have the exterior bullet holder. I always have two down in my gun clip and usually three in that little side pouch. And extra in the back pack just in case.

I don't believe they calculate for that. Simply calculate your bullet drop. They will calculate holds for wind in 5 mph increments. So far my G7 has been extremely awesome. As a side note some of your drift was probably spin drift and corialis. I know some people that actually split the difference over 1000 yards. Up close they will be shooting a hair left and closer to 1000 slightly right. And It could also have been just simple air movement. Although the "wind" may not be blowing. The air can be shifting. If that makes sense. Watch dust particles/floaties and what not on seeming dead calm days. They tend to be going in some direction. Perhaps not enough to correct for but at 1000 yards little things CAN make differences.

I like Casey's idea. Might have to try that.

Do any of you guys or have you used the mirror technique or something similar to truly zero your rifle scopes before sighting in? It's a new technique my dad led me onto that I didn't know about before.