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Got lucky and killed a good buck in NM this year with the drought. Was a very physical hunt and it was a true cat and mouse game with an old solo living stinky old troll buck. Very difficult country but was rewarded.

Day 2 Hunt Update Another before-5 a.m. wake-up call had us dragging a bit, but we pushed back into the same canyon we hunted opening morning. This time, no other hunters were in there—just us, yes! As the first light started creeping in, my buddy with the tag whispered that he had an elk spotted. Hard to tell in the grey light if it was a bull, but based on the size and the fact we haven’t seen many cows in there, I was pretty sure it was. A few seconds later, I spotted another elk the same time my brother whispered he had eyes on a second one. Things were getting good fast. About five minutes later the light got just good enough, and we could clearly tell they were both bulls and one of was definitely a shooter. They were feeding their way across the ridge to the south of us and heading up into a draw. We were really hoping they'd pop back out along the ridge directly in front of us instead of disappearing up the draw. Another few minutes passed and then a third elk stepped out on the far side of the draw. Bingo. Three bulls, all headed in a direction that would put them about 300 yards in front of us. The three of us quietly glassed them and then all agreed on which bull was the biggest. My buddy loaded his rifle. I gave him the yardage—255 yards. Perfect. The bull stepped out from behind a bush, standing perfectly broadside, and my buddy sent it. Looked like a hit, but the bull barely reacted. The bull walked maybe 20 yards and stopped broadside again. I told him to reload and hit him one more time to be sure. And then the worst happened. His gun jammed. Probably ran his bolt too softly in the excitement. As he tried to clear it, I scrambled to sort out his mag. Five seconds… ten seconds… felt like ten minutes. The bull was still somehow just standing there. Finally got the jam cleared, took aim, and sent another round. Again, not even a flinch. We were all thinking, what is going on? Then the bull suddenly tipped forward and started going down. Yes! He went down for good and we were all super excited! As we were high fiving and giving congratulations, five more bulls came out from nowhere. It’s always crazy how many elk can be right in front of you without ever being seen. My buddy asked if we should’ve waited and I told him absolutely not—250 yards, broadside, on a great bull? I would take that any day of the week, at least that’s my opinion. Then came the part every hunter loves: the pack out. Took two full trips to get him off the mountain. Long day, heavy loads, sore legs, but totally worth it. Could not be happier for my buddy—his first big-game animal with a darn nice bull. Thanks to everyone following along with this thread, and good luck to everyone still out hunting. After roughly 20 miles in the last three days, I’m honestly looking forward to “sleeping in” until the babies wake me up probably around 6:15 tomorrow haha.

The alarm went off extremely early (0230) and we were off to Wilcox..... Hes the best co-pilot. Met with everyone and headed out. Blind was set, as were the decoys. Birds were working really well. Levi stayed in the blind, I was in a layout in front of the blind and it AWESOME! Levi was shooting my buddy Steve's shotgun.... and shot it extremely well, likely resulting in me buying it from Steve. He tagged his limit and had a blast!

2700 tags for 10 straight years and 2 of the last 3 with bad fawn crops I would say has as much to do with it as anything.

Opening morning started off about 4:15. Had to load up on the coffee before heading out into the woods. My one year old son is fighting off a cold and some pretty bad congestion so he was up a few times throughout the night. Between checking on him and thinking about the opening morning sunrise, sleep was a bit hard to come by. We left about 4:45 so we could hike and get into place about well before sunrise. We did the hike with our headlights on dim and got right into the spot we wanted. About 30 minutes before sunrise it was light enough to start glassing the ridges. We still had a rough time seeing well but we ended up seeing headlights making their way through the dark about 1000 yards away. Darn. Public land hunting. We just hoped they would stay a couple ridges over and thankfully it looked like they settled in a good distance from us. I glassed a ridge to the north about 900 yards away and spotted a big tan patch. It was still a little hard to make out but as soon as the patch moved I knew—bull elk. He was walking slowly so I made a note of where he was and figured I would find him once the ridge was a little more lit from sunrise. And usually where there is one there are more, so I started getting excited. I went back and told my buddy and brother I saw one. Unfortunately it wasn’t looking like the bachelor group we’ve often seen in this canyon was around. We glassed three ridges and no sign of elk on any of them. So I started looking for the lone bull on the far side of the canyon. One pass through the binos: nothing. A second pass, nothing. A third, also nothing. Same result for my buddy and brother. I was confused. I knew the bull was walking but I figured he was slowly grazing. My brother went up ahead and came back with some bad news. Another group of hunters was posted up opposite that ridge. They must have come in right at daylight and pushed them out. Double darn. Well with two other groups in there and being two hours after sunrise, we decided to head out and check out a new area just to kill some time before lunch. The newer area seemed nice but we did more driving than hiking since the road was bad getting in there so wasn’t a whole lot of hunting for us at that spot. Overall, a nice first morning and as always just happy to be out in God’s creation. We’ll see what the afternoon/evening hunt turns up!

Cancer took a friend at a young age leaving behind a wife and two daughters. His widow posted this to Facebook yesterday 12/6. Next time you go to the store, grab a birthday card or two and drop them in the mail. Peyton’s 14th birthday is a month from today. She’s having a lot of feelings about her first birthday without her dad. He passed away 2 weeks after her birthday and was sick and couldn’t stay away on her birthday. I want to Surprise her with a bunch of birthday cards from as many people who can send her a card. I know it would put a smile on her face. You can send them to 24 e Caribbean lane Phoenix, AZ 85022 Thank you in advance

The patch looks to have TAMs lion.

So after a month between when we found the bull and when I went back in and got a look . He had been cleaned up by the scavengers . Not much left of him at all . I did recover the head and give it my best at a euro . I do think it came out good but it's definitely not something I would do again. It's a chore and it's better for me to just pay to have it done . What do you think?

I have an option for you to consider, make your own, I'll teach you. This way you'll have not only a superior tool but an heirloom to hand down. I operate Arizonas oldest forge in Vulture City south of Wickenburg. In the last 3 years I've created at least a hundred forge welded axes in a 4 hour class. I have several steels to choose from but commonly use a proprietary Spanish made steel from Bellota. I still have the first one I ever made in my tool box. It's cut kindling to framing nails and I've yet to have to resharpen it. And while the axe heats up in the forge we can alternate heats and beats. Make a nice skinner or Bowie or forge a cross from a railroad spike. Blacksmith Experience in Vulture City | Vulture Mine Tours https://share.google/XNqYYHeSUDjnXJ5vY

The wife and I moved to Colorado a couple of years ago now, but we are back in Arizona—and for a pretty special reason. My buddy drew his first elk tag! It’s something we’ve both been looking forward to for a long time. We packed up the little ones and made the trip south over the past few days to help him out. We spent last night talking strategy and catching up with his family. As we celebrate Thanksgiving, its times like these that I am very thankful for. It’s nice to be “home”. This morning we were out early to finalize some scouting before the holiday cooking began. We checked out a few new spots, glassed some ridges, and got a feel for how the elk are moving. It was nice being back in a familiar unit, getting boots on the ground before opening day tomorrow. For those who have seen me post over the years, it’s been somewhat of a tradition for me to do a semi-live hunting thread whenever we’ve gotten drawn. I’m excited to do another and share our experiences as we get started on this year’s late hunt! Happy Thanksgiving to all, and I’ll be updating this thread daily. Thanks for following along!

Evening hunt update: We put some miles on the boots tonight—ended up doing about a 5-mile loop through a mix of thick pines and open pockets. Afternoon action started pretty early when we glassed a group of cows with a spike and a little raghorn hanging back. It was nice to get eyes on some elk, even if it wasn’t quite what we were looks for. We pushed deeper in and ended up bumping another group of cows. They caught our wind right as we crested a bench and slipped out before we could get a solid look at what was with them. The wind was terrible tonight, it was constantly swirling so we really couldn’t even work with it to get into any one specific area. Near the end of the loop we saw our last group of the night. Two cows traveling with roughly six spikes. We’ve got an unspoken opening-day rule: no punching a tag on a spike. So no tag filled yet, but the way the elk were moving tonight was good. And it was nice to lay some eyes on. If we can’t find anything over the next few days I know where we’ll be on our last day out. It’ll be another early morning tomorrow back after it. Elk are around—we’ve just got to get our eyes on the right one. I’ll keep you all updated!

If you're lucky enough to draw a tag, just enjoy your ramburgers.

I ate 2 full turkey meals today, breakfast and lunch. Decided a change was needed. Grilled a ribeye with blue cheese crumbles paired with grilled garlic and parmesan asparagus and mashed potatoe with some cheddar cheese.

Woke up a little early. Had the desire for a decadent dish. Loco Moco, classic Hawaii dish with wite rice topped with a 1/2 lb burger with a rich thick brown gravy with mushrooms and onions, topped with an egg and green onions!

Just killed a small coues buck yesterday evening and my last day to hunt. Shot and killed at 513. This is my personal best at an extended range. Before was 343...

Lunch today. Pan seared panko cilantro encrusted bluefin tuna with sesame oil, shichimi togarashi, miso furikake and toasted sesame seeds over steamed rice and green onions. Fish I caught off San Diego.

3 hunts a year with 750+ TAGS PER HUNT! for the last 20 plus years I'm surprise there's any deer there!

Went out this morning for a quail hunt with a buddy out in 37A, Beautiful morning, went to my usual honey hole spot for quail and while walking to my spot I always try and go to this vertical 30’ mine shaft where (2) large barn owls like to hang out in. As I’m getting close to the opening, I see a bunch of little bones, then I see more bones/skulls. I gather up all the skulls and place them on a rock. These owls eating good!!!! Needless to say, the owls were not in there, so I proceeded to quail hunt. Knocked down 2. The drought this past year really did a number on the covey’s. Then came across this bench. May have to bring my wife and a bottle of vino and enjoy the sunset in the near future!!!!

Steve, I am local here. 2nd week of this hunt is best as training activities will be low, thus more open areas. Download Fort Huachuca off Avenza maps (isportsman) if you haven’t already. Call or shoot a text tomorrow and we can discuss some of the areas that produce decent deer. 520-two six six-1312. bill

Just needed to be revisited. Looks exactly like the picture. Majestic

Not tonight's dinner but lasts nights. Rack of grilled baby back ribs, rotisserie chicken and a pot of fried potatoes with bacon and onion. Didn't get pic's of it plated up. Had a great time with my son and his friend on a one night trip.

I made homemade shrimp gumbo for Thanksgiving this year from scratch including broth. Very, very good....

Elk flank carne asada

Buffalo tomahawk steak, over charcoal and applewood, whatever dry rub seasoning we had laying around. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had.