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This past weekend was Jacob's last youth elk hunt. Any antlerless elk is the mark. We were camped with a great group of folks and saw elk every day. Unfortunately, they were all too far away and moving fast, or there was the one cow who ran across the road in front of us and kept on trucking. We finally got into a shootable group Saturday night; however, they were being pursued by another group of hunters on the other side of the valley. As much as I wanted it to work out for him, he says "All these young kids filling their first tags is a great thing. I have a lifetime of chasing elk in front of me." He's wise beyond his years, that's for sure. We woke up yesterday morning with the intention of relocating the rest of the herd from Saturday night. A good friend was with us this time. We found the bull and a lone cow in an area that we couldn't hunt, but watched their movement. Figuring on where they were going, we hatched a plan. Jacob took off and staged himself while we kept an eye out from our hilltop. Jacob has been wanting to do more solo hunting. Who am I to say no considering how much I was turkey and pheasant hunting on my own by the time I was his age. I trust him explicitly to stay calm and know how to react, even when there is no cell service. Will took over guiding him and they formulated a solid plan. I was texting Jacob that I can't see the elk and have no clue where they are. I was about to suggest that he work his way back to the truck. That's when it happened. We heard a series of shots ring out in rapid sucession. I gave it a few minutes and started texting Jacob. Nothing. No service. That's when I saw him in the opening. He walked out to where he could give me hand signals. Even from that far away, I could see his excitement and read his reactions. He'd done it! He filled his last youth elk tag on the last morning of the time we had to hunt. He did it on his own, too. We (mostly Will) gave him general guidance on how to approach the situation and Jacob took off to find success. As he told us, he was weaving through the thick junipers and, as he popped out around one, there was the cow standing broadside at 10 yards. Jacob jumped in to help field dress his trophy, realizing he needs to learn. I was sitting back beaming with pride at the young man he's become. Selfless, hard working, altruistic, compassionate, determined, and building integrity. I already know how badly I will miss these days, but I also know how little I will have to worry in less than a year. For now, though, its time to regroup and get ready for his upcoming last youth deer hunt this coming weekend. Sideways pics on my phone drive me nuts. Sorry!

My boy and I leave tomorrow for his first elk hunt. I read this with a giant grin on my face. My absolute favorite part was "All these young kids filling their first tags is a great thing. I have a lifetime of chasing elk in front of me." There are plenty of full grown, very experienced adults that could learn a lesson from that sentence alone. I also commend you for letting him go alone. I don't know that I could do that, then again my boy is only 12, maybe when he is older....

Sold

What we think is the end of the world, is the beginning of there's.

I've been hiking the AZ Trail with a couple of buddies, and we just hiked sections 40 & 41 on the Kiabab last weekend. Section 40 goes right through the East side of the Kiabab where the Bravo fire burned. The section we hiked just opened back-up last Thursday, and we were the first to hike that section of the AZT post-opening. The fire scar intensity through the portion we hiked was anywhere from severe in portions, to mild/spotty in others. We saw lots of deer and sign all over the burned areas (plus lots of fresh bison sign in the burned area closer to the southern end....). We also saw turkeys and grouse in the spotty burned areas. Pretty amazing how fast the wildlife will move back into burned areas. S.

Here's a video, she was able to get about 200 yards from the bull for the shot. VID_20251001_053208.mp4

You’re probably still sore then.

Lost my virginity there last weekend

I got a lfty browning 7mm

I have a left hand atlas tactical action. It's has a trigger tech special trigger on it and it's in a porksword chassis. Pm me for pics if interested.

dang I’m tired but sticking too it. I’m sure u guys by now know where im hunting and there is just no full rut at all. Making this so tough. It’s pretty much a glass and get in front of game. I’m so close but just can’t seal it. These elk r is where private property is and just elude me. I glassed that big 5 again and knew I had a great chance. Got 100 and my spotter said he just got up and pushed his cows out of nowhere. I was 150 the whole time but he just kept moving. I played the wind perfect. Not 1 bugle in the whole time with hIm. Pretty frustrated and tired but dang I’m close. Must not be a rut here this year. Last year they were screaming for hours daily. Oh well back at it. 3E148733-FEE5-46A7-AC07-5B48D0164B36.mov

Nice congrats! Good looking cow. These youth cow hunts have been some of our favorite hunts over the years. Thanks for sharing 👍

This is great. I can relate. Congratulations all around!

Awesome! Congrats.

Congrats on a great hunt. Lifetime memories

So awesome! Congratulations to you both!

Awesome, can't wait until the grandkids to start.

LOVE IT!! Outstanding!!

Stellar write up! Congratulations on the success and documentation of what a fine young man Jacob has turned into. You guys did good on your last hoorah of a Jr hunt.

Congratulations! I cannot believe this young man has outgrown youth tags already. How fast the years fly by.

Incredible!!! What a beautiful cow and a great cap on the youth hunting experience!

Great job! Teaching them right!

Congrats to you both!

I just got back from the greatest hunting experience of my life up until this point, maybe ever, though hopefully there are more adventures like this to come. Newfoundland moose with my grandfather, uncle, and younger brother. My uncle and brother and I were all fortunate to bag great bulls. The rut hadn’t kicked in yet so we weren’t able to call as much as we were anticipating, a lot of hiking through swampy bogs and tundra thickets, glassing from the tops of rolling hills and ridges. The first day we glassed up a small bull at first light and watched him move across the opposite canyon side for a while. Then we hiked a few miles further from camp and came to the edge of a cliff where there was a bear on a rock directly below us, and another young bull with 4 cows a few hundred yards further out below us. We watched the bull for a bit, it would have been a super easy shot as he was bedded 250 yards below us with no clue we were there, but he just wasn’t big enough for the first day. My uncle got his bull that morning though. The next day was cloudy and the fog rolled in while my grandpa and his guide were stalking a big bull a couple miles away, ruining their stalk. Then it poured rain most of the rest of the day so we stayed at the same little glassing knob the rest of the day. Funny enough, we had a small forky bull walk through a bog just 400 yards below us in about the only spot you could see with the fog. Adam (my guide) made a quick cow call to him and he turned on a dime making his way toward us. We lost him in the steel thicket at the bottom of the hill below us but probably 45 minutes later he showed up 100 yards behind us. That was the only bull we saw that day. The next day we headed back straight to the spot where we’d seen the bear the 1st day, and then about a mile further out to a big open valley. It took us about 4 hours to get there but after 10 minutes of glassing Adam glassed up a bull about 2 miles away with a few cows. You could barely see his paddles from that far away, they were like white specks, but we know if we could see them from that far away he had to be a decent bull. ‘well after about 3 hours of plowing through tuckerbrush, sinking through bogs and crossing streams we got to where we thought the bull had been. Of course with it being so much later in the day I had just about given up on finding the bull, especially because once we got to the general area we realized the ‘hill’ he had been on was such a gentle slope and so thick and flat you really couldn’t see more than 100 yards in front of you. Well that was just when Adam whispered, ‘there he is! Get your gun on my shoulder!’ All you could see was his antlers sticking up in the brush about 100 yards in front of us. Adam made a bunch of cow calls at him but could not get him to stand up, finally he just started yelling “moose! Get up!” And that got him up. I emptied my gun at him and he didn’t go anywhere but just stood there, finally falling over for me to run over to him after 4 shots. I was ecstatic. My brother got his bull that same day about 10 miles in the other direction from camp. We both had to spend the night out on the bogs before we could make it back to camp since we had shot our bulls so far from camp and so late in the day. It wasn't too cold but my clothes were wet from sweating and sinking in bogs all day so it was a pretty miserable night, though I probably saw more stars that night than I’ll ever see again in my life. Huge thanks to my guide Adam for filming the shot while letting me shoot off his shoulder. I’m still amazed he did that for me; I didn’t even ask him to film it, he just whipped out his phone right before I started blowing out his eardrums. And of course thank you to my grandfather for the hunt of a lifetime.

Nelson Group got it done opening day! Thanks guys