Lance

Here are a few of the pictures from our last elk season. Hope you enjoy them! There's no WiFi out here. But we promise you won't find a better connection anywhere! Timberland Outfitters Elk Season 2013. Making Memories! View the full article

Family is Everything!!! I Love Our Kids! Like so many of you, I am a very proud parent and have to brag on my precious children! This year has been busy and I haven't kept up on pictures. But I,d like to share some of our 4 kids pictures from this year. They were very blessed to be able to draw some fun tags and we had some very fun hunts. Some included the whole family and some they did on their own! First off this year was Javelina season! My oldest son Ty, 16 at the time, took another archery javelina! He has taken 4-5 others with a bow but this time he and his little brother Weston, 14 at the time, went down to 6A by their selves and glassed up and stalked and killed this pig and brought it home and skinned it and quartered it and everything all by their selves. How many 16 year olds can you trust to take your truck and his little brother by their selves to go on a successful archery hunt hours from home? If you know Ty and Weston, or have ever hunted with them, its not a big deal. but Im very proud of them just the same! Next was Our just barely 10 year old daughter Rachel on her very first big game hunt! She used the 7mm-08 to take her pig on the Junior hunt in 6A. So proud of her! Just her and I in the field that day. Next was our 12 year old daughter Aimee with her second 6A jr hunt pig! She shot it across a canyon with the 7mm-08. Her Brother Weston was there helping us that day. Pretty proud of her too! The last kid with a tag was our 14 year old Weston with a 6A Ham tag. He wanted to use a pistol and did! his older brother Ty was with us that day. Weston used his voice to call a herd of javelina out of the rocks and he shot this one on the run with the revolver in a blinding snow storm! Lethal boy! Next was archery deer! My to boys Ty now age 17 and Weston age 15 went to the Kaibab by their selves cause I was busy guiding clients. They camped with their cousins. They have both hunted and helped me guide in the Kaibab many times and while Weston was out hunting with Ty Weston was able to take his first Archery deer. Way to go boys and way to get it done on a great buck! Next up was Ty. Ty actually missed his big bucks in the Kaibab, and found out his sight had gotten loose and moved. but by then they had to come home and go to school. So Ty sighted in his bow again and went out around Flagstaff with us and shot the first buck that gave him a shot. This is Ty's second archery deer in a row! Next was 10 year old Rachel with her unit 7 jr deer tag. I got to hunt with all the kids and our friend Melissa. Aimee had a deer tag also and Weston had an elk tag the same week! We had a great adventurous opening day covering lots of country and seeing 40 bucks and over 100 elk! Rachel took this, her first buck, on the evening of opening day with everyone there to help us pack it out! She shot it after a spot and stalk at 50 yards with the 7mm-08. Next was now 13 year old Aimee with her 7jr tag on the second day of the hunt! Aimee Had shot at this buck the day before with the 243 and hit it in the horn. she was only using the 243 cause our other guns were being used by her siblings but still, it was very unlike her to miss like that. The next day she took our 7mm RUM and her brother Ty and hiked back in there 3 miles and they glassed up the same buck and this time she hammered him down! They cut it up and packed it out with the help of Melissa who hiked in, all while I was hunting elsewhere. So Proud of them! Again, How many teen age kids can you trust to back pack 3 miles back into the mountains with guns and knives and find, kill and pack out their own deer? Again, if you've ever met them you'd understand. Next up that week was Weston with his "Peaks Only" bull tag! We hunted realy hard and passed on lots of little bulls. We were able to hunt with my son Ty and my Brother Blair on the day that Weston got his bull. Weston made a 537 yard heart shot with the 7mm RUM to take his cool bull at 10420 ft elivation! I thought I would brag on Weston a little more as he recently called in (with his voice) and took this nice bobcat with a open sight lever action 22! Way to go son! I'll say it again... I Love My Lethal Kids! The Family That Hunts Together Stays Together! Lance

Do you have a break on your 7mm RUM? I think your process is excellent, but I also have to think there have been times where a follow up shot was needed. If hearing protection is used, this can start to get tricky. So maybe what I'm hoping for is a "part 2" of your process on how you handle follow up shots. My daughter has her first javelina hunt in Jan., and I want to have these type of situations well thought through and planned for. I do not have a muzzle break on it. I actually dislike muzzle breaks for a lot of reasons. As far as follow up shots go, they are just like the first. They won't feel any of the shots because of the excitement. The only time I have ever had a problem with the noise is once my 10 year old daughter shot a Javelina while we were sitting in a big rock pile and it echoed off the rocks. Luckily there was no follow up shot needed. Lance

Be not mistaken, I have them learn the gun inside and out. Loading, unloading scope, safety first and all that. I'm just saying there is no need to let them have a chance to develope bad habits and only good habits. Works great! I've seen dozens upon dozens of animals killed with big bore rifles and tiny little lethal kids. And I've seen dozens of little kids who had bad habits from practicing with live rounds. But anyway, just another way of thinking about it.

Kids and big game guns.... Here are my thoughts that come from quite a bit of experience over many years hunting with literally hundreds of kids. First off, My own kids. we own a 243 and a 7mm08. these are for when they are like 10-11 years. Once they are passed 12 they all start shooting my 7MM RUM. its a big gun for even a big man, but they prefer it and want it. Cause its deadly. Its accurate, it has long range capabilities, and things die when the trigger is pulled!! But wait.......! What about the recoil??? Here is the trick.... do not ever EVER let the kids shoot the big game guns for practice!!!! Never!!! They are only aloud to practice with the big game guns by DRY FIRING. NO Live Rounds!!!! Only Let Them Dry Fire for practice!!! They can shoot small guns like 22s for live round practice. This way, when they, or anyone shoots at an animal they will never feel the kick of the gun and will never be afraid of it and wont develop bad shooting habits. By dry firing they will only develop good and proper shooting habits. I make sure the gun is sighted in for them and they practice with dry fires and we inter the field with a big deadly gun and a deadly accurate kid who isn't going to miss! I've seen it time and time again and the little kids can handle the big guns as long as this is how its done. But once you let them practice with a big gun by shooting live rounds for practice stile or target shooting then you just ruin them and develop bad shooting habits. This way you enter the western woods with the right gun for the job and your not worried about your little girl shooting an elk too far or a bad hit cause you have a small gun. Think about it. Do your kids already have bad shooting habits? Are they afraid or nervous to shoot a big gun? Stop what your doing and retrain them. It may take some time but why inter the western woods with an inferior rifle and a kid that is afraid to shoot it or has bad shooting habits....? Its hard enough to fill a western big game tag as it is. Make your kids lethal! Don't limit yourselves. Oh believe me, I've seen loads of elk shot and killed with a 243. But I'll Never Ever say that I would rather be hunting big game with our 243 than with our 7MM RUM! Thats just silly. Don't limit yourselves, just train them the right way and all is well. I put the LocJaw/Rifle Railz system on my guns and this eliminates any weight problems with holding the gun up for small kids. Only let them fire a big game rifle when they are shooting at an animal. Just my 2 bits... Lance

Right on!! Congrats!! Those pictures are all very nice, professional and very priceless! Good job !Way to capture the memories! Lance

Beautiful Buck! Check her out, She is a natural! Love it! Congrats to all involved! Lance

I've been very blessed to have taken another great Kaibab Buck. A fUn spot and stalk ended with a 50-yard heart shot! The big Kaibab Buck went 40 yards, stopped to look back, and dropped dead. he never knew what hit him. Lance Crowther Timberland Outfitters

Toby. Please text me. You clearly have heard a misled one sided story and have jumped to conclusions and have acted on them. There were many other Hunters watching us hunt that buck including your lady hunter and her friends. The other Hunters all know that that buck wasn't hit and will testify to it. WE were after it first and shot and missed first. Then our Hunters bumped it to other Hunters and they shot at it and missed. It ran several more miles because it was not wounded!so they continued to hunt the buck they were hunting before the lady started missing it. It ran unharmed for many more miles. And when they shot it there was only one bullet hole! Lee claimed the lady shot it in the shoulder. Clearly she missed. Myself and our hunter wish she wouldn't have missed because it would serve our hunter right for missing the first time. Maybe who told you truly sees it that way in his mind. But, If anything, they cut in the middle of our hunt. But what ever, no big deal.We wish she would have shot straight and killed it right out from in front of our hunter. However, Your slander and your threat on this public forum has been noted. Please remove them. Thank you.

Wow bud. That's some kind of accusation... Maybe you should get your story straight before you go bashing some one on the internet..... People here know who we are, maybe you should get to know us also. Please call me and lets talk nicely instead of this useless internet bashing. 928-607-9380. Thank you. Lance. like the antelope hunt in 7 where you could of let that woman finish off her goat instead putting your client in front of her. money before ethics i guess. going elk hunting up there tomorrow. That won't happen to me I GUARANTEE!

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! I love helping others hunt and so I don't hunt for myself very often and I keep forgetting that this buck is mine! lol! Thanks again! Lance

Here are a few pictures from this Aug Archery Deer Season! AZ Kaibab and OTC tag deer! We were very blessed to be a part of so many great hunts! Rifle antelope is next! View the full article

We were very blessed to be able to be a part of so many Mule deer hunts in 2012! What is really neat is that these are nice bucks from all over the state with all different kinds of tags! Some had difficult draw odds and some had easy draw odds and others were Over The Counter Tags! I hope you enjoy the pictures!!! We sure enjoyed taking them! Our TLO year started out in January with Archery bucks in the RUT! First up was 15 year old TLO Hunter, Chase with this nice P&Y 4x4! This was his first archery buck! Way to go bud! Next up was TLO Guide, Jake with his awesome archery 4x4 desert mule deer from Southern AZ! Over The Counter archery tags!! That finished up our January and we began scouting for the next season. Check out this young trashy 3 horned velvet buck! I took this picture while doing some early summer scouting in the North Kaibab! More scouting. First up For the Aug/Sep Archery hunt was my 16 year old son, TLO's Ty Crowther, with his first archery buck that he took near Flagstaff on opening morning! OTC Archery tag! A nice buck with double cheaters. Next up was TLO's Ben with his great P&Y 4x5 archey buck from here in Northern AZ! OTC Archery tag! Misty Kaibab Meadows full of deer. And a bachelor herd of bucks in the timber. Next up My wife, Carrie and I had Drawn Archery deer tags for the Kaibab. The hunt was rough this year when it came to mature bucks. But we worked extra hard at it and we found several. Carrie passed up a dozen or more bucks holding out for something big. She missed a shot on a big 4x4 but was still passing up bucks on her last day. Late in the hunt on the last day she decided to fill her tag and redeemed herself with a perfect shot on this young buck. This is Carrie's second archery mule deer and we had a great time on the hunt! After Carrie was done it was my turn to try to get a nice buck with the remainder of the hunt. The bladed 3x4 buck below is a buck I videoed after I drew my bow on him at 28 yards and elected to pass. The buck he was hanging out with was a beast and I had two close encounters with him during my hunt but never loosed an arrrow. I passed up all three of these bucks below at different times during my hunt. This is a pre-season trail camera picture. I think I passed up 11 bucks the first day and 9 the second. Every day after that I passed on 4-5 bucks a day. Mostly -2 year old buck with the ocasional 3-4 year old buck like the three in the picture below. The tall buck below was a buck we hunted for but never had a good chance at. During my hunt I drew my bow on a handful of big bucks that I wanted to shoot, but for one reason or another I was never able to loose an arrow. The trail camera picture of the buck above is a heavy 5x4. The last evening of my hunt I went looking for him and his much bigger buddy. I found the 4x5 and he came by me at 45 yards and was getting closer but never presented a shot before he winded me. I watched and passed a couple of other small bucks as they fed past within easy bow range right at dark but I ended the Kaibab hunt without filling my tag. But it was a great time as usual! Then it was back to Flagstaff to help the crew hunt for the Big 5x buck we called "Cinco"! These are pictures off of some video that Ben got of Cinco before the season. We hunted him last year and several people came close. We were very excited to see him show up again this year!! This year he was bigger and had a little extra 6th point on one side. With the help of the TLO crew, TLO's Ryan Sandall was able to tag this great 200+" archery buck! Above is a picture off of video that I took of Cinco not long before Ryan was able to get an arrow into him! Below is a picture of Ryan and the whole crew that came out to celebrate. Over The Counter Arizona archery tag!! After the archery hunts the bucks turned hard horned and the smell of rifle season was in the air! First up for rifle season was TLO hunter, Larry for his "Champ Hunt" in the Kaibab! I pushed a herd of bucks by Larry and he took this nice tall 4x4 on his first day with a 20 yard shot! Then we headed back to Flagstaff where we helped Larry's granddaughter, 10 year old Elise, take her first deer on the unit 7 Junior hunt. Way to get it done girl! Then it was back to the Kaibab for the General Oct rifle hunt with my 14 year old son Weston and TLO hunter Scott! Scott wasn't holding out for a monster and we were ok with that because it was an off year for the Kaibab. We had him pass up a few dozen bucks anyway and then let him take this great buck! We had to run about a half mile around a mountain to get in front of some bucks that we had jumped. I knew their escape route and we cut them off just in time. Way to get it done Scott! This is Scott's 13th big game animal with TLO! After Scott it was Weston's turn. But first Weston and I picked up another hunter. Young Jeffery had a tag and only had one day to hunt with us So the first decent buck we could find was going down! We split up and covered some country. After a while Weston called me on the radio and said he had a tall crab clawed 4pt. I mentioned to Jeffery and he was all for it! So we made the trip over to the canyon across from Weston and found the buck in his bed. Jeffery made a great shot and finished his one day hunt with TLO. After that it was finally Weston's turn! The full moon was out all week and making the hunting even tougher. But it did make for some nice pictures. We worked hard and Weston passed up lots of nice bucks during his time. But he was needing to get back to school so we lowered our standards. After another morning of passing several little bucks and a couple of nice young 3 and 4pt bucks we jumped this buck out of a draw and Weston let him have it with the 7mmRUM to take his first mule deer! We had a great time and in just a few short days Weston was able to help 2 other hunters fill their tags and then take his own buck! How fun is that! Next up was young hunter Josh. TLO's Ty and Weston Crowther were able to help Josh take this great buck on Josh's General Rifle Hunt in unit 7! Josh made a great shot as the buck tried to get away up the mountain. Next up was Becky Crowther. Her husband TLO guide Blair took her on her first deer hunt in unit 13! She drew the tag on her first time applying for deer!! It was a tough year on the Strip and when they found this massive old unique buck, Becky just couldn't pass him up! "Couldn't pass the mass" is what she said. With a basic 3pt frame this buck still scored in the mid 160's and had over 43" of mass! Not bad for a first buck Becky! Some of those mass measurements are over 7"! Pictures just don't do this unique buck justice. Next up was TLO hunter Ron with his Muzzleloader hunt in Southern AZ's unit 35! Ron was wanting to take a nice Desert Mule deer to complete his personal deer slam! We had a lot of great helpers on this hunt and after a few days of hard hunting TLO guide Jake found this awesome old 4x6 non typical! They hunted him down and Ron got the job done! Congrats on finishing your deer slam with a great desert buck Ron! Next up we had hunters Dan and Ron on their December hunt in unit 7. First up was Ron. We found, glassed up and passed several bucks with Ron looking for that upper age class of buck. These pictures are of some of the ones we saw during that hunt. We got some pictures and video of Ron's buck before he made a great shot to kill the buck in his bed at 642 yards! Rons buck was heavy, tall, had great eye guards and a huge body all swollen up for the rut! After Ron, next up was hunter Dan with the same tag. These are pictures of other bucks I found during the hunt. Dan made it up for his hunt a few days after Ron had filled his tag with the big 3pt. These are pictures of Dan's buck before we got him. The above picture is just before the shot on Dan's buck in the middle of a nasty snow storm! And last but not least we have Dan with his great 4x5 buck! A heavy pack in the middle of a blizzard! Blessed indeed! Here is a link for the video on the last two hunts! Thanks for checking out our 2012 mule deer season! We feel blessed to have been a part of making so many awesome memories! Lance Crowther Timberland Outfitters. View the full article

Did anyone draw the Dec mule deer tag for 6A? Or know anyone who did? Thanks. Lance

Its still pretty wide open. There is a FS Ranger station at Jacob Lake if you want more info. Lance

The Fall Archery Deer Season is just around the corner!!! The velvet bucks are really starting to put on some antler and I'm getting excited!!

In light of the recent draw results being processed, I thought I would share a handful of unit 12 Kaibab bucks from recent years TLO hunts. These are just a few of them. For more Kaibab bucks (and buffalo!)and bucks from all around Arizona check out our Website Mule Deer Photo Gallery at http://www.tlohunting.com/gallery/cat.php?cat=2 Its full of fun and priceless memories! We are looking forward to making some more memories with you all real soon! Good luck in getting the tags you want! I hope you enjoy the pictures. Lance Crowther Timberland Outfitters http://www.timberlandoutfitters.blogspot.com/2013/06/tlo-interactive-seminar-and-class-by.html

Thank You For All The Kind Comments Everyone. Truly A Lot Of Wonderful Memories Made With Great People. Lance.

I Though i would Share This Teaser Picture From One Of Our Resent Spring Hunts On The Kaibab TLO Was Blessed To Be Able To Hunt With Brent Morrison Of Hunters Headquarters In Flagstaff. We Had An Awesome Hunt Full Of Adventure And On The 13th Day Brent Sent An Arrow Through This Awesome Old P&Y Bull While I Vedeoed Over His Shoulder! Keep A Look Out FOr The Story And Video!

ThiS Buck Used To Be A Lot Bigger. And He Is 7-8 Years Old. Eli Found Some Pictures Of Him From Way Back. I Think A Lot Of You Made Some Great Guesses! TJ You Crack Me Up! I Have Him GuessEd Now At 80-82" And A Very Impressive Looking Buck At That!

What do you think this buck gross scores? I have seen this buck for three years now. We call him "Private Spread". He can fit his own piece of personal real estate between those wide horns! lol! I have my ideas of what I think he scores but thought you all would enjoy looking at a cool buck and have fun making some guesses. So what do ya think? Lance http://www.timberlandoutfitters.blogspot.com/2013/06/tlo-interactive-seminar-and-class-by.html http://www.timberlandoutfitters.blogspot.com/2013/06/tlo-interactive-seminar-and-class-by.html

In those pictures there is a good mixture of both East and West side bucks and a couple from 12B. Most of those pictures are from the October hunts. Lance

Thanks for the nice comments Dave. We are looking forward to having you and your friend there. Amanda said I should put this back to the top so here is a another picture to share. This is a picture my son Weston took recently of nice bull during a downpour of rain.

TLO Outdoor Interactive Seminar and class by Lance Crowther on... LETHAL HUNTING AND SHOOTING TACTICS FOR THE WESTERN STYLE BIG GAME HUNTER! This is a day long interactive seminar and class (BBQ lunch include!) given by Lance Crowther, owner of Arizona's Timberland Outfitters. This interactive seminar will be full of personal insight and hands-on learning. It will cover everything a western hunter needs to know from the big game application process to delicious meat on the table and how to be lethal everywhere in between. Lance will share personal experience and knowledge of what does and does not work that he has learned from a life of hunting and literally hundreds of successful big game hunts! For more information and details click on the blog link below. Thank you. http://www.timberlandoutfitters.blogspot.com/2013/06/tlo-interactive-seminar-and-class-by.html http://www.timberlandoutfitters.blogspot.com/2013/06/tlo-interactive-seminar-and-class-by.html

If I Had Your Deer Tag I Would Be Looking Forward To Shooting A Big Buck And A Big Buffalo! But Thats Just Me...