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My 14-year-old son, Ryder, got it done on Sunday morning during his youth antlerless elk hunt. He and I stalked and bumped the herd of 20 or so that she was in for nearly 2 hours and 1.5 miles through the forest before he dropped to a prone position and shot through a thicket while they were trying to get away again and hit this girl in both lungs with his .308 Weatherby using a 165 grain Nosler Accubond, in what was likely his last chance at them that morning. I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried! Now we'll let the meat age for a few weeks, then butcher it up and head on out to our father-and-son deer hunt on the 24th. I can hardly wait! Special thanks to my 8-year-old son, Gatlin, for tagging along!

The weather held out for us up north. Jase got his first deer right before dark.

I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. Works better at my house and surprisingly well everywhere I go. Saved a bunch of money too with their internet.

I have used them for the last 20 years. $65 a month but I don't live on my phone.

I had a few beers and thought I was being funny. And I had a traumatic experience once with a spider.

2025 rut elk hunters

Those look great! Keeping that nasal cavity in tact shows attention to detail!

I am taking orders again. I have shipped all orders to date. I am completely sold out of the Maple pecans and Pawnees Plenty of time before Thanksgiving. If you are coming down this way to hunt you can save on shipping and pick up at my home Thanks Phil I am offering once again a special deal for Friends here on the CWT Forum. I have packaged these pecans in a way to reduce labor and shipping and are being sold at cost. My labor as well as my wife Pat’s is free.😀 Here is what I put together No fancy box, bags or tins. I use Ziplock freezer bags I order to reduce cost. You can break these into smaller quantities that can be stored in the freezer or better yet use them up and share them with others for the holiday's. I WILL START SHIPPING THE FIRST ORDERS NEXT WEEK AND WILL DO WEEKLY SHIPMENTS UNTIL THE PECANS I HAVE ALLOCATED ARE GONE. I am using UPS ground through Pirate ship to reduce cost, I am also packaging in smaller quantities so unlike past years you do not need to buy a minimum of 8 lbs. In order for you to get your pecans without any additional delay, I will ship the pecans each Thursday and let the payment catch up. In an effort to reduce our labor I am offering only 2 size boxes, a 2 1/2 pound box and a 5 pound box to start with. I am offering a little more variety this year and you can mix or match in the 5 pond boxes. ( For example 2 1/2 LBS of Maple Glazed pecans and 2 1/2 LBS of Native pecans) The shipping for 2 1/2 LB. Box is $7.00. 5 LB. Box is $10.00. Example if you wanted 2 .5 lbs of Maple and 2.5 lbs of Natives it would be $17.50 + $14.00 plus shipping $10.00 total of $41.50 shipped by UPS to your door. No shipping cost if picked up at my home. See pricing and description of the pecans below. Each bag is 2 1/2 LBS PAWNEE FANCY JR MAMMOTH HALVES 2.5 LBS. $17.50 The Pawnee pecans are rated excellent for flavor large size. MAPLE GLAZED PECAN HALVES. 2.5 LBS $14.00 High quality pecan halves glazed with real maple syrup. TOPPER NATIVE PECANS. 2.5 LBS. $17.50 Small flavorful pecan halves as they come from wild native trees. MAMMOTH PECAN HALVES AND PIECES. 2.5 LBS. $14.00 Extra large pieces and halves great flavor and price. JR MAMMOTH ORGANIC/KOSHER HALVES. 2.5 LBS. $25.00 Sorry Limited quantities at a super price. If you or your friends want a box just send an email your order to: Newepco@gmail.com with your name, delivery address and what you wish to order. Send a check ( personal checks ok) to: Phil Carr NEWEPCO LLC 8502 E Calle Bolivar Tucson AZ 85715. I ALSO EXCEPT ZELLE. Thanks Phil

SOLD Mossberg 500 Turkey 20Ga 22” Camo. Includes Holosun 407k from the factory. Patterned shotgun and has been sitting in the safe for a year. Needs a new home.

My Sister-in-law shot a nice bull. Unfortunately I had other commitments (kids hunts) and couldn't get the time off to tag along. My brother would send me pics and videos every day of the hunt. They found a huge unique bull and they spent 4 days playing cat and mouse with it. They passed on a few nice bulls trying to be patient to find this unique bull. Getting close to the end of the hunt they found this awesome bull. They had alot of friends and family helping out on this once and lifetime hunt. She made a great shot! Wish I could have been there.

She’s a tank. We packed her out in one trip. Two hind quarters in my pack. Two fronts in Hunter’s. We carried the trim meat bags in our hands. Damnear killed me.

It's now officially an annual tradition! Sisters, daughter, GF and even ex are getting accustomed to me acquiring and sharing a big supply of holiday baking pecans! Email on the way, Phil! S. PS: My son killed yet another pronghorn this year, with that sweet M77 we bought from you all those years ago!

What’s up with the spider comment?

Those are happy moments

Got it done before the storm came in today. Found a rut fest mid morning and the action was hot. Daughter got it done with 1 shot from 25 SST at 360 yds. Hunter was there helping, it’s hard to believe he’s nearly grown. Seems like yesterday he was following me around these same hills begging for snacks. This one got me a feeling a little sentimental.

Congrats to your son and way to teach him how to not waste meat!

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

I know this rut has been tough this year but wanted to share a successful harvest from my Az archery hunt. Day 11 it came together. Now onto sons youth deer hunt

Here are some recent skulls I've finished.

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.

How about $500?

Was able to get it done with my cousin. Called this bull in. Also ran into greenhorn walking down the road I was camped on. Got to talk to him for a little bit. Was wondering what kind of bull he was going to kill but looks like he killed a great bull. This is my first elk ever and I'm happy I got him with a bow. Not a 23N giant but a mature bull

It was a very slow start and hot. Maybe that’s normal - I don’t know. The last week was real good and there were nice bulls around. I passed this bull earlier in the hunt because of a couple others I’d seen. But on the last day - I figured I’d better shoot if I wanted to take an elk home with me. The other non resident from Oregon got a real monster. I met a lot of nice people here and made some new friends - stayed in AZ from 8/30 through the whole hunt. My elk is all on ice and I’ll be working my way home today. It was a really great hunting experience. Thanks to everyone who had given me tips and advice. I was hiking back to my truck one day and met Vincent - while he was cutting up his elk meat at his camp.

Still available

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.