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Elton Bingham was born on February 19, 1904 in Milton Wisconsin. The son of hard working dairy and hog farmers, he grew up with a love of the land and the soil and the bounties that it could provide. Today it would be hard to imagine but until the late 1960's very few deer could be found in that part of the state and as a boy and into his adult life he always cherished the annual trips to deer camp in northern Wisconsin. When old enough my father accompanied him and I grew up listening to the stories of deer camp. kangaroo court was held each evening and punishment was dealt out accordingly. If you missed a doe the tail of your hunting shirt was cut off, a buck and you lost a sleeve. Bad shots, forgetting your knife and a myriad of other events were also punishable offenses and it was not uncommon for some participants to be wearing only a collar by the end of the hunt. Elton Bingham carried a model 14, .30 Remington pump gun that he traded farm work for in 1920. Basically a rimless 30-30 that was Remington's answer to the lever guns so common of that time period. In Elton's hands it was the nemesis of many, many deer in the Wisconsin woods. I remember as a grade schooler getting to shoot it once at a fence post with a corn field back drop, admiring the spiral magazine and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. Eventually it made it's way to Arizona when my father brought it back after a visit. At 9500 feet the air was thin and I stopped on the incline to catch my breath and look for awhile. I thought of my Grandpa rushing into the barn and driving out the cows and horse teams as they succumbed to silo gas. He suffered severe lung damage but men were men and to lose the farm was unacceptable, to claim bankruptcy would be worse. Looking down at his rifle and the worn bluing at it's balance point and knowing that because of him my hands were now where his had been was almost surreal. In the thick aspens I knew that this was as close as I would ever come to hunting whitetails in a Wisconsin cranberry swamp. As close to my Grandpa as I had ever felt. Elton and Constance Bingham 1930

Most of you know that I have hunted unit 22 for the last 16 years or so. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the unit and having some great success. After last years hunt, my brother and I decided we would try another unit that we have never hunted before. We were both extremely busy with work and life but we made sure to study the maps, find a trail to backpack in on and do as much scouting as we could. Our efforts yeilded a buck that I wanted to go after. A wide, symmetrical, heavy 4x4 that we thought would go between 102-108” range. We hunted this buck almost exclusively for 5 days. We had some close calls but we’re unable to make it happen. On the morning of day 5, we located the buck and 6 others. They finally cooperated and came out into the open. Except the big one, he continued into thick brush and disappeared. It had taken us 3 days to find him the last time he went into that brush. I had some commitments at home that I needed to return to. I decided to shoot one of the other bucks. My consolation buck. I am very happy with him and will be back after the one that got away next year. By brother shot his buck earlier in the hunt. We had a great time and will definitely be back. My brothers buck: .270 win. 150 grain Nosler LRAB 200 yards, scores right at 84 1/2” My buck: .270 win. 150 grain Nosler LRAB 630 yards, scores right at 90”

300rum, you hit them in the toe and they die..

Killing a nice coues has always been something that has eluded me. I’ve killed a bunch of them over the years but never one that i would consider nice, or big. I have been fortunate enough to take some real good elk, mulies, antelope, bear, etc. but coues have always kicked my butt. Having killed 3 between 95-98” my goal is always to take a 100” buck. This year was no different. I’ve been chasing one particular buck for 3 years now but i have never seen him hard-horned. My goal was simple this year, kill that buck. I have hunted him endlessly through archery and rifle season with no luck. I spend a LOT of time scouting and running cameras so i know most of the deer that are in the area i hunt. As soon as the bucks shed their velvet this year, i lost track of all the “shooter” bucks i have been watching. I can’t for the life of me figure out where they go. Well, the opening morning of my rifle hunt rolled around and Jason, my brother and myself found ourself at our glassing point. Jason had a tag with me and my brother was there to help out. We started seeing deer right away but nothing special. After covering all the country in our immediate vicinity, my eyes started to wander to the country I’m sure we all look at with the thought of “why am i glassing so far away?” I mentioned to my brother that i could see a couple deer waaaaayyy out there and he told me pretty much what i was thinking to myself. Why the he!! was i looking over there. I figured i was looking at a couple does anyways, so i got back to glassing the more approachable country around us. A few minutes later my brother told me he spotted some more deer waaaay out there where i was looking and one looked like a decent buck. Not getting too excited, i pulled out the big eye and looked him over. He was a decent buck, but not what i was after. We kind of forgot about him and got back to business. A little while later someone was looking over him again and he seemed a lot bigger than we thought. Another look through the big eye confirmed there were two bucks. We could tell they were both at least decent with one being larger than the other. We watched the bucks bed and made a plan. Jason and i would make a very long and what should have been “low percentage” stalk to see how the bucks looked from much closer. The stalk worked out great. We found ourselves 450ish yards from the bedded bucks. After a quick look, i decided to try to shoot the bigger buck. A few minutes later he stood up and walked through a narrow shooting lane. I fired and the shot found it’s mark. Buck down. After the celebration ended we noticed the other buck was still standing there and Jason decided he was big enough. A few minutes and one shot later we had two bucks dead within feet of eachother. I never got a great look at the buck i shot i just knew had a good frame and could tell he had a bit of funk on his rack. When we got to the bucks, i was pleasantly surprised. He was not the buck i was after but he is one i could not pass. Jason’s buck was also a little better than we thought. Nothing like an opening morning double-down on a couple good bucks.

Perseverance always pays off!

Amanda, most of my free time is spent in the hills or fabricating boxes, or Portable Shooter Stations.....mostly in the hills.

No hardware here, they opted not to do surgery.

Hope your recovery is way shorter than mine, still got along way to go!

Gents- Thanks for the positive words and encouragement!! Couldn't be more excited to have the little one join us and really looking forward to sharing some of the memories that I watch guys post here often with their kids' successes. I've been viewing the reloading bench as an opportunity cost in time and money- could it be better spent on experiences with the family and experiences outside. Several of you put it into good perspective- it should be an enjoyable enterprise... and it isn't going anywhere. I might just have to slow down and just work with one rifle and load at a time and just not as frequently. I always loved time behind the bench and learning the minute details of handloading- I kind of lost sight of that part with all the life changes that has been the whirlwind of 2018. Once we get everything moved into the house (and the nursery built) I am going to get the bench set up-- as long as I still find it a good release and enjoyable it will have a place in my garage and in my safe!

One of the best stories/ write ups on this site in a long time. Thanks

Keep the reloading gear and your hobbies. Kids never stopped my wife and I from doing what we liked to do., we took them with us. our second kid has some major health issues and also has down syndrome. we adjusted around it. still didnt stop us from doing what we did. we took him everywhere with us. he couldnt walk till he was 4 or 5 just carried him everywhere. deer hunting duck hunting etc etc. he enjoyed the crap out of it. at 4 months out 1st daughter spent 2 weeks out in 12awest with us camping under a tarp and bow hunting with me. wife read a book at camp. when I wasnt working I would be at home reloading with the kids in the garage. they loved that stuff. Wife and I had different shifts when I worked days she went to nights and went I went to nights she went to days. one of us always was with out kids 24/7. I never understood why people get all worried about having kids and not being able to do the things they like to do. you can still do them you just bring them along. kid and I used to duck quail and yote hunt all the time. either by me carrying her in her carseat or in a pack. she was like 6-8 months old and called in her 1st fox sitting in her car seat on the big burm off the side of bell road toward the whitetanks. yelling kitty kitty, she called in a bobcat when she was around 3 or 4 Gave her the call and let her make noise. The boy was a little more difficult but we still managed. once we got over that stage of" is it safe" you gotta live , when you have kids you live through there eyes and tahts the coolest part. you will find time to do things you like. luckly my wife is cool and didnt mind, have friends that once they had kids there wifes changed everything. all those guys are divorced, mostly the guys fault the wifes are still cool. . I'm still married 35+ years later with 3 awsum kids that have done everything I have done. I wont fish hunt, reload shooting or go out scouting with at least one of them. Besides taking the kid out hunting with you will give your wife break Delw

Buy a bow... you'll never look back. Ed F

Plenty of hunting and camping off of the 212 road. The burn from the warm fire has alot of deer in it right now. We were 20's and 50s Thursday through Tuesday.

This post says it all! Nice buck, I love to see kids getting bit by the hunting bug, well done!

How did you do on your hunt? Did you find your spike or better?

I can't believe the immaturity level that this website is getting to. If you don't agree with the OP's post then don't reply, meaning just STFU! I will guarantee its computer cowards like you that hide behind your computer talking crap but in the real world you are just a little b*tch. Sandy, I hope you are able to sell her cape and not let this moron get under your skin!!

Right on! Congratulations!! Story was a good read and really like the lessons learned. I agree! Thanks!

Just re-read your post. You can pretty much shove your hunt up your a$$ as far as I'm concerned. Some people just don't make sense.

Do what ever it takes. If i had to give up a hunt for border security so be it.

Do you think 5000 troops are going to disrupt your hunt more that 14000 illegal immigrants trotting through?

Nothing is better than a Garmin GPS with the On X land ownership chip but I also use the Topo Maps iPhone app too.

Avenza PDF works good, download maps prior Gaia gps is another app I use, works good. I've downloaded all of Arizona to my phone

Why not to replace the GPS? I have on x, in reach explorer, and GPS. The one feature I hate to lose is range where I shot an animal, point and click and the GPS will tell me when I get to that spot. But other then that im not sure what the benifit is to keep it when i have two other devices.

I have shot more with a .270 than anything else. That said, my current Coues rifle is a custom .257 AI built on a Mexican Mauser action. As has been said, it's more important to have a rifle that you can carry and shoot accurately. My minimum caliber would be .243 Winchester, although I have friends that get their deer every year with a .223 of some persuasion. FWIW, I have never shot a Coues whitetail much beyond 200 yards, and most were about half that distance. YMMV.