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Since I was recently in Estes Park, Colorado for an art show, a few days before and after the show were spent in Rocky Mountain National Park photographing the rutting elk. Sometimes the elk cooperated and were close, and other times the bulls and their harems were too far away in the middle of Moraine Park. The Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 adapted to the Fuji GFX 100s was used. Many of the images suffered from often having to use a high ISO of 6400, but the Denoise in ACR did a reasonable job on mitigation. More images may be seen on the website. https://www.plateaulightphotography.com/New-Work/Rocky-Mountain-National-Park

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 .

So we hopped back in my blind for the night hoping to see the mtn lion . No luck ! Did have more turkey come in right where they should have earlier for me . We had birds at 10 to 20 yds . It was some great practice trying to mimic there sounds .They hung around for awhile. Then we had a few cow elk and a small 4x4 come in. I was finally able to get yardage on my shot and was surprised it was over 65 yds . I'm shooting a sx3 12 gage and heavy shot bismuth mixed loads there on the hot side 1450 fps.

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.

My 2024 Bull. I waited 13 years for this tag. I shot this bull solo a few days into the Hunt. I’m very thankful I had some luck come my way during the whole Hunt. I really hope I don’t have to wait another 13 years for a tag. Cheer and happy Hunting.

Old Town Discovery 158. Classic canoe, but still made today. Weighs 85 pounds and is 15’ 8” long. I can carry this myself. We used this on the trout lakes up north. Mainly used our aluminum fishing boat, so this never saw too much use. No leaks or deep scratches. Some surface scuff marks that can easily be buffed out. Comes with 3 sets of oars, motor mount, wicker seat and fold up anchor. Asking $450. Bell and 56th street.

Saddle is in great shape. Lightly used. Asking $200. Crossroads 56th street and Bell.

Healeys had some precision hunter I think they were 150's the last time I was in there.

I might have some. Whereabouts are you located?

Return it to AZGFD. While some of these tag donation organizations get tags to great people, too many give tags to the same people year after year. Seems like it gets abused more and more to me.

Stud buck! Congrats

Had some early company at 30 yds this morning

Well after many years of holding out for a good archery bull elk hunt this was the year to finally draw a tag. My son will be 10 in February and already itching to go out in the woods and hunt. So this was the year to spend the time to try and go out and shoot a good bull. The hunt came quick and was glad to have a great group of friends to help me for the majority of the hunt. I have hunted with them for many many years and been with them when they were able fill there first archery bull tags. Day 1 started early and out well before sun up. The weather was not helping much as it was warmer than usual and very windy, made hearing bugles difficult. We heard some bugles and set off after them but were not able to get in close enough and see if they what they were. We headed back to the cabin around 11 for some lunch and a nap and made the decision to sit water in the afternoon. I felt with the weather being unseasonably warm that would be our best bet. I sat a tank we have had good success on from 2 till dark but nothing made its way to water. heard a few faint bugles in the distance as the sun set on day one. Day 2 was basically the same result and was not very productive. Moon was bright and up most of the night, temps were warm and elk movement and bugling was very minimal. Day 3 we were able to get on a group of 5 different bulls screaming their heads off. Shooting like came and they continued to bugle but were moving away up the ridge to the area they wanted to bed. I was able to circle around in front of them and get the wind right. Gave out a few meek cow calls and had a calf come running in to my position. She finally moved off and I was able to move up another 100 yards and get to where I thought they might pass by. Shortly after a small young 6x6 stepped out of the think jack pines at 15 yards. We had a good staring match before he decided something wasn't right and walked off. Sat water the rest of the day only to see some turkeys and a whitetail doe. Day 4 we were greeted with cooler temps but socked in fog and rain for most of the morning and then heavy winds all afternoon. Elk were not very active and ended day without much to be excited about. Days 5-7 were very similar, on elk early but couldn't find the right bull I was looking for. I passed a few opportunities in the mornings and sat water in the evenings to with no luck. Days 7-9 we made a pivot to another area in the northern part of the unit. We were on elk in the morning and chased bugles until late hours of the morning. The bulls were smart and always seemed to be in an area you could not get in close to them. Between the topography and thermals it was almost impossible to get on them without blowing the out of the country. Day 10 started out in the same area as the past few days. We were on them early and able to get in a position that the wind was in our favor and elk moving towards us. Unfortunately the only bull we got a glimpse of was the small 5x5 raghorn my buddy called into 7 yards. We had a good laugh at how tough he thought he was hiked the several miles back to the vehicle to get some much needed breakfast and rest. For the evening hunt we decided to go back to the tank I sat the first night and have my buddy go check an area not to far away for bugles. As luck would have it the bulls in that area started screaming about an hour before sunset. he sent me a message and we hightailed it over to where he was stopped. As son as we got out there were 5-6 bulls absolutely screaming, I believe there had to be a hot cow in the area because it was chaos. We got the wind in our face and slowly started sneaking in on the bull we thought sounded the meanest. We were closing the ground but light was fading fast. The bull was glunking and decided to give out a few subtle cow calls and that did the trick. He came walking right in quartering slightly to me and stopped to bugle at for 45 yards. I let the arrow go and connected just behind his shoulder. The bull trotted up the ridge a little bit and bedded down just in sight. Just like that the hunt was over, he wasn't the monster bull I had hoped and dreamt about. But he was a cool old bull that had been in his fair share of skirmishes and thorough many ruts. His front teeth were worn to the gums and had some scares to show his age. we got him taken care of in a timely manner and the meat to the processor to fill the freezer for the family and close friends. Look forward to hunting with my boy in the years to come and hope it doe not take another 17 years to draw an archery bull tag IMG_4804.MOV

Awesome buck congratulations!

Congrats buddy! What a buck! I drew a unit 26 tag in NM for Jan. Hoping to fill my tag with a Cours buck. Good luck on your future hunts!

Awesome buck! Congrats!!!

NICE

wow! Great looking buck!!! job well done!

Nicely done! Beautiful animal. Thanks for sharing your hunt.

I can help you a new one for $2250 out the door.

Awesome deer! congrats on your success

Stud back, love the mass. Awesome write up, thank you

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

Found a solid dead head while enjoying some time in the woods. Elk were bugling at night and well into the morning.

You guy's are something else. Can someone spit out a bear spot so this kid can shoot a 14 month old bear. We need to get back to the classified adds.