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Had some early company at 30 yds this morning

What a day this was. Went out for a solo hunt. shortly after day light I had glassed up a group of 6 mule deer bucks. I watched them for almost 2 hours waiting for the right opportunity to make my move. I snuck in from just over a mile away and watched/studied from 300 yards out trying to figure the best way to make this opportunity work in my favor. The wind was in my favor, and I had very little cover to close the distance. I ended up at the last juniper tree between me and the 6 bedded bucks. I peeked around the shaded side of the tree just to get caught by the small 2x2 in the group at 91 yards. All the deer got up and were on edge and ended up busting out. I watched them go over the next ridge and then hiked back to my jeep. I sat there contemplating if I wanted to try again and locate these bucks or push farther up the road and hike into a water hole I had found on onx. I said screw it drove farther up and then hiked in 1.5 miles to the water hole I had never seen before. Lucky for me it had water and quite a bit of deer tracks. I brushed myself in a blind and sat down at about 11. It was pretty warm out and I was hot from the hike in. But by 215 this buck showed up and was on water drinking out of nowhere. I ranged it at 41 yards while he was facing me head down drinking. I got up on my knees and drew back. He lifted his head after drinking and looked over to his right while elbow deep in the mud. I debated for a second to let him turn or just send it head on into his chest. I felt super confident in the shot, so I let it rip. The arrow smacked the deer with the loudest thud I have ever herd shooting an animal with my bow. He dropped in his tracks and flopped for a few seconds, and it was all over. I packed up my gear and hiked around to check out what I had just shot. I knew he was a solid buck but definitely wasn't expecting to shoot my biggest coues yet off a random water hole in an area I never hunted before. My gut was telling me he might break 100" mark, but I didn't spend a lot of time admiring him as I had to get to work taking care of the meat and getting it all packed out. After just over a 2mile hike back to the jeep with very little water left i was beat, but it was all completely worth it. The next morning I took the head out of the freezer and taped him at 111 7/8" I was shocked beating my old record of 104" with my bow.

Called and had a group skirt the water no shot. Gave it a few and called again and birds on there way back . I took the first bird in to water . All done ! Not the Tom from before but a good Jake. Lots of birds this year .

I've seen more turkeys in the last 2 years than I have in the previous 10 years combined. They seem to be everywhere.

Good luck to all the youth hunters tomorrow!! Enjoy the shared time afield! Son has his first deer hunt and I can’t tell which one of us is more excited

Stevens 20ga. The Shotgun will come with 2 box's of ammo and turkey choke. I am located in Surprise near Greenway and Reems. Link for the Shotgun https://www.sportsmans.com/shooting-gear-gun-supplies/shotguns/savage-arms-stevens-320-field-compact-bluedmatte-black-20-gauge-3in-pump-shotgun-22in/p/1477446

Sit down and call them back as they try to regroup

Well the moo cows pushed the turkey out to 70 plus . I was hoping they would make a loop around the water and be right in front of me but nope . They made the far side and a quad was coming . Two shots later the birds were split up and going two different directions. Nice old guy in his mid 70's . Missed twice so we will see what comes in

Being the gunner on a pronghorn hunt is way, way different than being the spotter. Especially after you've waited half your life to pull the tag. Here's a quick recap of my 2024 pronghorn hunt Scouted all summer looking for something to really focus my efforts on. Although we did find a few decent bucks, it took until the beginning of August to find the one that really got my heart rate up. We first spotted him a little over a mile away with heatwaves making it tough to really know what he was. The next morning we walked in before sunup in hopes of at least being close enough to get better pics to review. Found him that morning at about 700yds. Something piqued his curiosity and he made our morning way easier: IMG_5745_2.mov He was probably prettiest speed goat I had ever seen, plus he seemed to like me back, so my mind was made up. We named him Heart for obvious reasons. We continued to scout other areas but always made one more pass through to 1) see if we could relocate him 2) see if there were any archery hunters on him and 3) see how many rifle hunters were scouting in that area. As it turns out, we never saw a single vehicle until day two of the hunt. way less stressful that way. As hot as it is, big props to the archery guys... trying to close to bow range with buzz worms crawling around is a ballsy proposition IMG_5433.MOV Sadly, this one died of lead poisoning not long after this video was taken... Fast forward to the day before the opener: I am fortunate that my brother Curt has the ability to work remote thanks to Elon Musk and Star Link so he was in camp early. I wasn't able to get out of work until about noon. Just as I was pointing the Bronco north I get a message from him. He hasn't moved a half mile from the weekend prior. IMG_5982.mov Opening morning: Here we go!!! I had a lot of help from friends and family on this one. had two sets of spotters with Curt and I on the ground the area we had last seen him. As the sun rises we get a call that the buck is in a pasture. We make the half mile walk to get into shooting position only we missed our mark and the buck spotted us before we spotted him. things got real frantic, real fast and I ended up sending a shot across his bow. I lost a little piece of my soul when he kicked that extra gear and was leaving a dust wake across the prairie. We played hide and seek with him for a little under 5 miles. He finally bed and we were able to get to 450yds before we ran out of cover. Its way easier when they don't know you're there- was able to get a comfortable rest, in the shade, and waited for him get up to stretch. Results below: Helluva thing these pronghorn... Hope everyone gets to experience it at least once. Thanks for looking Dave

The screen shot is of the annual harvest click on the fall harvest tracking tab

Just hit a bird and nothing but a few feathers. Good Tom with a beard I could see. Got back to my blind and called and another dozen went by but didn't come in to water. There here it's just a matter of time..

Weatherby Vanguard is basically a rebranded Howa 1500. That is a great quality platform that doesn't get enough love. This is a steal for someone.

Bend over and I’ll show ya.

5B south for me! I’ll be up Sunday. Thinking about being the rifle for the otc bear opener too as I ran into some last year there

Sold

Hey thanks for the info I found some Norma brass. Many thanks to all.

Trike, tripod, triplets, trifecta, trilogy... All these words have something in common

One more than your MOM.

6.5 PRCs call this rifle “Daddy” I’ll sell my vote to the democratic party to buy this bad boy.