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I drew a tag in a unit that some of my friends are pretty familiar with and we've been spending time in there regularly. I'm not the pickiest of guys but I had 2 big exams coming up the following week so that left little time for me to hunt once again.... not to mention the hot weather and full moon. Opening day came and I was still in class while Steven was out with his father, Steve. Steve had the same tag as I and he got tagged out early Friday morning. I raced out after my Ochem lecture and was in the unit by 1pm. Steven picked me up and took me into camp, where we hung out until it was time to hunt the evening. Around 3:30 we head out to the evening spot and start glassing. As the evening progressed, more deer started to show. I walked back across the hill after checking the backside and Steven said he found a nice 3x3. I looked at him and let him walk. As Im looking through the BTX, I see two other nice bucks start to come over the hill. I saw that one had good height and some bladed tines before they walked back into the trees. I got Steve's new 28 Nosler ready to go while Steven tried to reacquire the buck. After a few minutes, the bucks all reappear at last light, Steven gives me the range, 480. Once I was able to place the 180 berger correctly, the buck dropped like a sack of potatoes. I'm very happy with him and we were thankful that we didn't have to hunt in the heat of the next day. Big thank you to Steven for hunting with me and Steve for letting me use his brand new Christensen Arms 28 Nosler! Also passed those exams so it all worked out perfectly

Sharing for a buddy “HOSS” he was able to get his client on this bull during his hunt in September. Check out Hoss Guide Service if your in need of an Outfitter on the San Carlos.

I did pretty good at big lake a couple weeks ago. The big one is 21”. All 16”+. Caught all cut throats

Yea, I had a chance to talk with him for a few minutes. That's where my info came from. The bottom line from what I gathered, the feds activities in the park are not likely to effect the late bison hunt much. The biggest factor now is the weather. Cooling temps and continued precipitation isn't helping, but that's the biggest factor. I'll be heading up there next Tuesday or Wednesday. Russ is a guide that usually plays a central role in each of the Kaibab Bison hunts. Basically he has blinds, salt licks and cameras set up that he shares with hunters even if they are not paying clients. Generally, he designates hunters to particular blind sites based on his knowledge of where the buffalo are. It works to his favor, because by having an organizing role, he can keep individuals from screwing things up for everybody else. Everybody has a greater chance for success when they work together with these particular hunts. People are amazed that he offers as much of his time and energy to help people, sometimes purely out of the kindness of his heart. On my hunt Russ was not present, but he still allows bison hunters to use his blinds. To help understanding, you gotta know that what happens in Grand Canyon Park borders is the National Park/Feds business and is totally disconnected with the State. Management outside the park on national forest is a states authority, but on the Park it's the Feds. You can almost go as far as to say that the State and Feds are often at odds with each other. The issue here, is the bison we hunt on the Kaibab are living in the boundary of Grand Canyon National Park. The hunt for the bison happens on the National Forest when the bison leave the park's boundary. The fact is, bison have overpopulated the caring capacity of the the North Rim area of the Park, plus lack of water and salt force the bison to leave the park. The Feds objective is to bring the population down to somewhere under 200 total bison. Right now, estimates on total number of bison on the park vary from 500 to 1000. Obviously the Feds want to eliminate hundreds of bison. The problem with federal management, is at a national level, there are many more "stakeholders" and is open to many more levels of litigation. At this point it appears efforts to allow volunteer hunters to play a role is population reduction by allowing hunting in the Park have come to a screeching halt. A corral capture effort will now be used to capture and relocate those bison, but I have not heard much about the destination of relocated bison. Now, if you got all of that, there is a whole 'nuther thing happening with the state in regards to bison. The state is actively forming a new and totally independent herd. Up in the HouseRock Wilderness, the state is introducing pure genetics bison from South Dakota (I think that's where they are coming from). The notion I get, the state wants to offer a bison population that is not under Federal management. There were 6 bison tag holders up there on the start of the current hunt on Friday. By Monday evening, 4 of the 6 tags were filled. I kinda wish it lasted longer as I filled my tag Monday evening.

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

I want to say thanks to all the guys that take part in this forum. You guys made researching this hunt easy. Coues Whitetail was everything it was supposed to be and more. I scouted this buck in July and found him on the second day of my hunt. I was able to get close (150 yards) and seal the deal with one well placed shot. I'm very proud of this buck. The warden was able to age him between 6 - 8 years which makes it all the better. Thanks for the conversation as always and enjoy the pictures! Reece

Throwing up my Kimber hunter 6.5cm, have more projects and animals to mount than money. Its never been in the field, but i do have load data for it and it shoots darn good. Ill sell the rings with it. $700 obo. The pic with the calipers is shooting a 129 and the other is a 143 both @100yrds , have all the load data.

Nicely done! Now you get to spend years trying to top it. All kidding aside, super buck. DYI is extra special.

I generally do not think of unit 8 as a great unit for glassing, but I am an old fat guy who doesn't want to drop an elk in a bottom of a deep canyon. If you are willing to haul an elk out of a canyon, then the canyon rims have lots of viewing points. If you choose to scope from rims into canyons I would recommend you think of moving along rims to cover a big area and getaway from other hunters. Get away from easy access points to which most hunters congregate. As an old fat guy, I am developing a fondness for blinds. If it is dry during the hunt, a blind on a water hole is a good option. I will be up there as I have the same tag. I will be sitting my fat butt in a "Goldie Locks" blind chair. One more thing. The elk have finally, since the end of the drought, found their way back to the lower flats in the south side of the unit, so the elk are scattered around every bit of the unit again.

Got to get that schooling in. Pretty nice buck for not being too picky. Way to go. Congratulations Keven

If you're going to be hunting with him, why not be in the unit you have a tag for?

Dont overlook these.

Looks like a $30,000 bull

Awesome buck...congrats! I like that last pic too.

For what it is worth, if you are a new handloader or one with little experience, you might want to get a little seasoning before you start going over the max load in any manual. Some will say that the max listed are no more than "Lawyer Loads", but do yourself a favor take the bolt out of your action and realize that those lugs on your bolt are the only thing that is going to stop that bolt from penetrating your skull if something goes south. I have seen three guns blow up, one I was standing next to and got powder burns on my arm. A 30-06 case filled with pistol powder, looked like rifle powder in the hopper to the shooter, another using Lake City brass .308 necking it down to .264, didn't check the chamber neck diameter, too much pressure, another was a warm load built up in East Texas, came here with the temps 30 degrees warmer, too much pressure. The thing that all three had in common was they didn't think it would happen to them. There is a shooter from Missouri that was a good shot, had the potential to be real good, his gun blew up on him, bolt came back bopped him in the bean, he hasn't shot a decent score since. He says he still gets headaches from it.

No, keeping the old big one for photography

The sportsmans warehouse has Savage model 11 youth 7-08 as does J&G in Prescott. PM sent https://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/sportsmans/Savage-11-Trophy-Hunter-XP-Compact-Rifle/productDetail/Rifles/prod99999047807/cat100003

Just switched to the .264 caliber 142 grain ABLR this year. Shot a MD in Colorado and was happy with the results. Sounds like your bullet did a great job too.

I frequently see the charts off by 50-100 FPS all the time. Plus, normally I'm always shooting well past the "published" max loads. Currently I'm shooting 54 grains of H4350 out of my 6.5 X 284 at 3005 FPS with a 142 grain bullet. That is 8 grains above suggested max and 275 FPS above Hodgdon's max speed. I hit pressure signs at 3100 FPS and 55.5 grains of powder. In my .243 with H4831 I shoot 46 grains of powder at 3100 FPS with a 90 grain pill. We ran the grains up to 49 or 50 grains but couldn't gain any velocity after 46 grains of powder but the groups did start to open up pretty good as we went up the ladder. If you want to shoot tight groups at distances over 400-500 yards a chrono is a must. Your speeds have to be really, really consistent or you will not hold a good water line. Plus, you need to know your speed for your drops/chart too. I guess you could do a bunch of load testing at 1000 yards and see how it prints but I think it is much faster and easier to do with a chrono just to see if you are close. I've just had to many loads that were 30-50 FPS different that printed great at 100 yards that I didn't even care about shooting anymore because I knew they wouldn't produce good results at longer distances. You will literally learn more about your rifle and loads with a chrono than any other piece of gear. It doesn't need to be the first piece of gear but it is a needed for good long range results.

My wife and pops drew oct tags together. Last year both were able to tag out and were excited for this year. Opening day my wife had passed up 7 bucks til I spotted a shooter for her. Took us an hour and half to cut it from 2300 yards to 500 yards. We looked him over again and made plans for a stalk. Worked our way up to 154 yards, after a few practice squeezes she felt comfortable enough and let her bullet fly. It’s her second buck almost a twin to last years buck. on Sat we couldn’t locate any shooters for pop, Sunday morning same deal, around noon pops decided he’ll take one of the smaller bucks we found in the morning. So we hiked in bout 2 pm in the heat and circled around to view the north facing slopes. Turned out the small buck had a buddy that’s a little cooler. We set up at 208 yards and his bullet hit the mark, fun hunt this season. Warm and really put the boot to the ground!

Don't let me leave out my favorite picture! I did this hunt solo and am super happy with the pictures I got out there hoofing it on my own.

Regardless of legality, do you really want to start your daughters hunting career off with the idea that animals or animal parts are a commodity? R12-4-305. Possessing, Transporting, Importing, Exporting, and Selling Carcasses or Parts of Wildlife

Happy Birthday, Amanda. I hope it's a great one!

Your not getting older, Your getting Smarter. Wish some on here would realize that. Hope for Many more..............BOB

Hate to admit it, and with all due respect to Amanda for creating this awesome place that has been a part of my daily life for decades, it just doesn't feel and look the same. Every morning I get my cup of coffee and come on CWT. I've shared countless hunts and stories, and even personal struggles. It just felt like a second home. I'm trying to adjust to the change but it just doesn't seem like the same place anymore. I just want to thank Amanda for what she created, The community of people who would never have met without this forum. I'll support it and keep trying to post, but it really feels like you went on vacation and came home to find your home was remodeled without being involved or even part of the process. But in reality, as much time as I spend here, I'm a guest, and as a guest I respect the wishes of those running the site and will do my best to adjust.