Hello fellow HuntAddicts!

I am putting together a story and video from the Alaska hunt. But I thought you might like to see a few pictures, as I have had several people ask me when I was going to put them up. This spring has been a busy one for me, so I will at least put a few pics up so you can see how the trip was. We were hunting in SE Alaska. We saw a lot of bears, most of them just passing through, and we were unable to get a stalk. But we got it done for the most part. It was a hunt I will never forget!

It is application time! For those of you applying in Arizona, it is a week away. So get your applications in by February 9th. Other states now have open applications, like Utah and Wyoming, with others coming up soon. So get out your calendars, tally up your points, and start applying! Good Luck to all. All I ask is for a few pictures of your harvests.

Happy Hunting!

After spending the thanksgiving holiday in Texas chasing whitetails, hogs, and whatever exotic might come my way, I returned home buck-less. Despite having a fantastic trip and getting things set up for future hunts on the property I was hunting, my two buck tags still remained unpunched. There seems to be something about unpunched tags and open hunting seasons that don’t get along too well. So as a remedy I did the only thing I could think of — go back to Texas.

Dad and I, along with a friend, Ken, left Western Wyoming early December 27th. The temperature was hovering somewhere near -16 F. 1300 miles and 75 degrees later, we were traveling south of Sonora, in T-shirt weather. When we arrived at the Ranch, we stopped by the south gate and retrieved the memory card from the trail camera that was placed in a high traffic area (feeder) on that end of the property. I promptly plugged it into my laptop and began to view the first of 497 photos.  The pictures were of many does, yearling bucks, we got excited when the first 8 point starred in a few consecutive photos. I was only a couple dozen pictures in when we reached the Cabin, and with the light getting lower, we were anxious to get out and and do a little hunting.  So, I skipped forward to the most recent ten pictures and was excited to see what appeared on my laptop screen.

We were pretty excited to see a picture of a pretty decent 10 point buck. The property we were hunting (Double Draw Ranch) is a half section surrounded by several other properties. Historically, the Double Draw was part of a larger ranch, that has recently been divided into smaller parcels. With the property division, hunting pressure has changed, and is pretty high on several adjacent parcels. Most of the bucks seen are yearlings and two year old deer. Needless to say, these bucks exceeded our expectations.

We grabbed our gear and guns and headed out for the evening. Dad and Ken took a tour through the middle of the property, as I headed down the east boundary to a high traffic area closer to where the trail camera pics were taken.

Typical Texas hunting in this area is done from elevated stands and blinds, placed over feeders and food plots. The Double Draw is still under development, and none of these features are in place, so I picked a likely spot between some shin oak and cedars to sit down and see if any deer would move past me. I did jump several deer as I walked through part of the property, including a small eight point.

I sat for what I would estimate to be about 30 minutes. I am typically not one to sit in one place for long periods when hunting, but discovered during my hunt earlier in the year that still hunting whitetails is more difficult than I had anticipated. So I thought it best to sit it out, and it payed off.

I had a great shooting lane right in front of me, and a decent one to my left. To my right I could see through the scrub oak, but leafless branches didn’t allow for a good lane to shoot through. I anticipated the deer to move through my shooting lanes, but as always, animals do unexpected things. As expected, I caught movement to my right through the scrub pines, where I didn’t have a shooting lane. A good 10 point was quartering away from me at about 40 yards. I couldn’t shoot due to the scrubby shin oaks, and was afraid if I stood I would startle the deer and it would be the end of it. I only had moments to decide what to do, and decided stay seated, and hoped he would move to his left and into a large opening. He didn’t. The buck turned straight away and walked behind a large juniper. One six inch opening in this juniper which was about half way between the deer and me caught my eye as I expected the buck to possibly move through it. Luck shined my way as the bucks shoulder moved through the opening. He had even quartered back towards me a little and was almost broadside. I realized my time was short, and fired through the openingin the tree.  The buck whirled and ran back the way it came. I jumped to my feet in hopes of seeing where the buck was headed. He bounded through an opening twice, looking healthy as ever, and disappeared into the trees. I heard his hooves clamoring on the rocky ground as he ran, and then a large crash of broken branches.

Hoping the crash meant he was down, I followed and quickly spotted him laying down, head up in a bush and facing the opposite direction. While he looked alive and alert from behind, he had actually expired, falling into the tree which held his head up and ears alert. I had bagged my first Texas Whitetail, and a dark horned 10 point at that!

The next morning Ken took this 8 point near the cabin. He made a great neck shot and dropped the buck in his tracks.

Overall we had a great trip. We saw a lot of deer every day. Dad ended up passing on a few smaller bucks and did not take a buck. As is hunting I guess. I did have a chance to look over the rest of the trail camera pictures and look who showed up:

It was neat to have live photos of both bucks, taken a few days before we arrived. While neither of the bucks were consistent on the trail camera, they still stayed close by, and with their cooperation — made for a great hunt!

I’m working on the blog a bit, trying to make it more user friendly and added new image viewing software. Let me know if you like it. Again, here are the weekly fix photos from the year so far.

We were all loaded up, just leaving for the Manti on Friday when my buddy got a call on his cell phone. His face went solemn and serious. He kept asking “What’s wrong? Is this a joke?” When he hung up the phone we knew something serious had happened. He and his wife rushed to the hospital as they were told that his mother was in poor health. I, along with a few other good friends, stayed at his house awaiting the news of whether or not the hunt would still happen. After several hours we suspected something bad had happened, but I was caught completely off guard when he called and told us that his Mother had passed away. It was totally unexpected.

I returned home that night, after a long drive full of reflection. Sometimes it is easy, especially this time of year, to get caught up in life that you forget the most important things. This experience got me thinking about life, divinity, and the Creator’s plan on our behalf. I feel so blessed to have such great friends, both in my family and outside of blood relations. The reason I love the fall so much is because I have an opportunity to spend time with them — enjoying the wild lands and building life-long friendships. That is what is really important.

I received a text from my buddy yesterday. He wants to give it another try sometime later this week. Hopefully it will be therapeutic him…well, for both of us.

Cole, I’ll miss your Mom, she was such a strong and wonderful lady who raised a great son and family. You should be very proud!

We’re geared up and ready to go chase some elk on the Central Mountains Manti unit of Utah. We’re hoping for a 350 class bull for my buddy. I’ll post updates when I get back.

Happy Hunting!

The rumors are true…there are some proposed hunt date changes for Utah. It seems to cater primarily to the archery hunters by moving dates a little later in September. It appears there are two different options being considered. Of the two I like option 2 better. Option one, it seems, advoctates running the archery and muzzleloader LE elk hunts at the same time. If I am reading this correctly, I think that hurts archery hunters. The other significant change is splitting the general elk and deer rifle hunts into two hunts. I’m interested in this as it may reduce pressure. Could Dedicated hunters hunt both seasons?

We’ll see what happens at the RAC meetings. I guess it falls on the Utahn’s to attend the RAC meetings and voice opinions on what the future hunt dates will be.

For anyone interested here is the .pdf file: (Click to view)

Proposed Hunt dates 2010-2014

If you read about the bow hunt below, Dad finally put a bull down on the opening day of the rifle. He looked this bull over for a long time, and after already investing so much time during the bow hunt decided to fill his tag. It looks like he made a pretty good decision by taking this beautiful Wyoming Bull!

I thought I would jump on and post an update of the past couple of weeks. I spent thurs – sun of last week in area 31 with my Dad trying to find an elk for him to call in. The elk were pretty quiet, but we saw quite a few bulls. We have a few pictures and video, but the camera is still with Dad. I will post some more pictures when I get a hold of it. The first morning we jumped a heard out of a meadow just as it was getting light enough to see. Unfortunately, we were on the four wheeler. The herd moved off, and the bull bugled. It was tough to see just how big he was. A decent six point at least. His bugle was the only one heard that day.

The rest of the day was spent sneaking cedars and glassing for elk. We jumped several other bulls, but always off the road. That evening we went to the other end of the unit. We got there early and slipped down a ridge, looking for sign. There were fresh tracks everywhere. We sat down several hundred yards from the bottom and waited for the sun to get a bit lower, hoping to hear a bugle. We suddenly heard footsteps and crunching brush, I looked up to see antlers coming out from behind a large cedar, Dad reached for his bow, and as he did the bull’s head came out from behind the tree. The bull was already moving fast, and when his rump came out from behind the cedar, we knew why. There was blood all over his flank, he kept his fast pace and before we could do anything, he ran over the next ridge.

We sat for a few minutes, talking about what we could have done, and what to do. The bull was a mere 9 yards from us. We decided to track the bull backwards to see what the cause of his bleeding was. Sure enough, about 200 yards back we found an arrow, it looked to have been broken off at the broadhead. About 20 yards past that, there were tracks of the hunters who had been following him. They had marked their spot and left. I backtracked, hoping to find them and give them an update on their bull. But they had already left. I wish them the best, and assume they returned to follow the bull, as they had marked where they last found blood.

Later that evening we saw 3 smaller bulls, small fives and a raghorn. One of the five points had a club growing for one of his antlers.

The next morning we returned to the same area, and heard a bugle, about a half mile away across a large burn. We worked towards the bull, using a ridge line as a shield so he wouldn’t see us. He was a decent 6 point, and had 20 cows with him. Another herd of 8 followed, a spike behind them. (Lucky spike I guess). We snuck in on the bull, and watched him bed at about 300 yards. Dad tried to sneak on him, but the cows busted him and took off. I stayed put and watched the show-down. As the bull ran off. I cow called. He let all of his cows run off and turned around and started coming back to me. Dad made his way back towards the bull, but was ultimately winded and the bull snuck out on him.

That evening we tried another area, where Dad has seen a pretty nice bull early in the week. While the elk were much more vocal, and we had a bull come in to about 50 yards, he was in some pretty thick stuff, and didn’t want to come see what we were. After about a half hour, we made our way into the trees and spotted a bull, out about 120 yards. He was a very unique looking bull. His fronts were extremely long (mid twenties) but he was only a four by five. If Dad was given an opportunity, he said he would probably take the bull, because he was so unique. But he moved off, and it got dark.

So, we both had to get back to real life for a few days and left the unit. While we didn’t end up with bull, Dad will be back, and hopefully will be able to seal the deal on a nice bull with his bow – or rifle.

We also ran into this feisty little guy.