second shot

Found this on Saturday. Not to far from it was a gutpile that I'm guessing was from Friday. Wonder if this guy is still around.

33/37b archery Jav. 27 turkey.

Semper Fi! Tell mom not to send him any cookies when she misses him. I don't think my mom intended me to eat the whole box in front of the platoon before going to PT. Good times.

Went out looking for the other side of that 3pt shed I posted last week. Didn't find it but I did pick up this little guy.

33 Oct wt

I'll take any shed I can get my hands on. It is from this year. I'm pretty sure it's from a buck I saw back in May, found the shed about 100 yards from where it was feeding.

Found the shed this morning. I think it was from last year. .

Thanks for the comments. The shed measures 42". I'm going to try and find the other side this weekend. My trip got cut short last week when some guys parked by my truck and set up a shooting range in my direction.

I'd wanted to check a spot all week and I'm glad I did. Found the shed in a small clearing I must have walked by five times in the last year. Don't know how I missed it before. The pick-up I found in a small cut under a juniper. When I walked up to the tree I saw leg bones and the skull was under the tree near the trunk. It was so shaded there's no bleaching. Besides the eye guards being different sizes this is one of the most symmetrical and neatest little bucks I've found.

The man who got me into hunting recently handed me down boxes of treasures he's accrued over the past 40 years. Among them was this buck. He couldn't remember where he got it (found or given to him) but he seemed positive it was from Arizona. There was only one thing in all the boxes he knew was from another state, the rest he thought all came from AZ. Even the other pick'ups in this particular box were all distinctively coues, this one is just so gnarly I can't tell. It's an impressive buck regardless but I'd like to hear what you all think, coues or no. If his memory comes back and he can confirm it's a coues it'll be one for the books because I measured it at 130 3/8 gross.

Done. Thanks.

Found these on my last few outings.

Definately a lion in the area where I found the pick-ups. All were found in the same canyon bottom. I found the big one first, walked about 50 yards and found the second and another 50 yards and found the third. One of the spikes has a large tooth imprint just below the antler, not to mention the skull is chewed to bits.

First off thanks to my friend who hunted with me on Saturday and helped me listen to that little voice that said not to shoot a smaller buck. This hunt was special because it was my dad's first time hunting any big game. He always goes and the past two trips he has been by my side as I took a deer and javalina. I drug him around the hills in terrain I even had trouble with and he was a trooper. Monday all we saw were doe with fawns, lots of twins this year. Tuesday I had shots at two running bucks but it was so fast that I hurried the shots and missed. My dad also took his first shot at the second buck on Tuesday but missed. By Wednesday morning I figured we were done since we'd blown the shots the day before. We chose a spot for Wednesday but someone was already there. We had no plan B so we just picked a spot where we'd seen some bucks before and decided to walk around. At about 8:30 we went to check one last spot before working our way back to the truck. It was a very small, steep cut that looked like a good bedding area. We were about fifteen yards apart when we crested the hill. I said something to my dad and then heard crashing in the trees below us. Two bucks took off running away from us up the other side of the cut. I saw mass on the first one and yelled "Bucks" to my dad. Using the lesson I learned the day before about not rushing shots I actually said out loud "Slow down" before aiming. I put mine down first and glanced at the other buck just as my dad shot it. WOW, father and son get two great bucks about 20 yards apart. What an experience! This is by far my biggest buck and my dad's is a dandy with matching forked G-2's and kickers on the G-3's (unfortunately one broke off but I'm going to look for it tomorrow). I keep telling my dad it's not often that a son is there for his father's first deer. It truly does not get any better than that.

Thanks for the comments. When I get him scored I will post it. There were some features on my buck that looked familiar so I checked my shed bin and sure enough I have a matched set of his sheds from two years ago. I found them about a half mile from where I shot him.

It was a good outing for sure. No fresh sheds yet though. All of these were found in the same area. The mulie does have about a one inch nub growing off the base of the right antler.

My dad and I found these this morning.

I just finsihed this mount for a friend. It was busted in half so I dressed it up a bit to cover the damage. It's kind of a hobby of mine to decorate skulls with stones. I'd appreciate any feedback on what you all think. Thanks in advance.

I glued the skull cap together as best I could. Used bakeable clay to make a new base that looked as much like a skull as possible. After the clay was baked and hardened I drilled holes in the antler bases and clay and attached them with dowel pins and glue.

I was able to keep the head. G&F officer came by this morning to look at it. Next time I'll call first.

Found this guy while shed hunting this morning.

Sundevil-I cheated on this head and painted it. I usually use peroxide but last time I did it absorbed into the bases of the antlers and bleached them too. Amanda-thanks for the heads up. I called G&F and sure enough it is illegal.

Here it is all cleaned up. I only kept the skull cap because the rest of the head was mangled. I assume it was a lion kill becasue of all the damage. I didn't realize it when I found it but I have a shed from this deer from two years ago. That's the first time I found the head of a deer that I had a shed from. Pretty cool.

found this last weekend.

thanks coueswhitetail. The lack of claws made threw me off too.