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A few years ago we sold our home and our plan was to wait until prices came down up here on the mountain before we started to build. Well it didn’t happen so we built last year. Anyway during this time we had invested some money into my remodeling my parents “little” house (580 sqft) so they allowed us to live there rent free for the next 3 years. It was the first time I hadn’t had to pay rent or mortgage in our 25 years of marriage. My wife was ok if I invested some of that money saved into my personal and emotional well being. I was able to get CO vouchers the last couple of years. I shot a good buck my first year, but I hadn’t seen anything over 170” to shoot until this year. I’ve always been ok going home empty handed but when this deep forked buck gave me the opportunity I decided to take it. A couple of random bucks screenshots. My first CO buck a few years ago. this years buck.

I nearly wrecked my truck on the way to work when I checked my credit card statement in June. It seemed impossible, but somehow lightning had struck, again, and someone in our family had a bighorn tag for the second year in a row. In 2024 my 15 yo son became the first member of our family to harvest a sheep. And now, just 6 months later, we were starting the adventure all over again. I talked to all my contacts from the previous year. Lined up conversations for advice on the various units we may have drawn and agonized over the thought of how we were going to make the dates work. And, I pondered THE decision. Six members of our family had applied, including my son who had the tag the year before. Everyone except for him had applied for the same two choices, 37B and the Kofa’s. The lucky bum had to apply for Rocky so I was juggling that unlikely scenario in the mix. But of everyone, I was the only one in the family with any significant amount of bonus points. Well below max, but still double what anyone else had. If it was my tag, one thought echoed in my mind. How cool would it be to take a ram with my other son. Two rams, with my two sons, approximately 350 days apart. From the moment the thought occurred to me, there was never any hesitation. It would be his. And we would do it together, his senior year, the last year he could receive a donated tag and before he left for mission and college opportunities. It would be a senior trip for the ages. And so it was. The results came and there next to my name it said DRAWN for the Kofa’s. I made some calls and drove to the unit that weekend. It was absurdly hot. And desolate. And remote. And 180 degrees the opposite direction from all of our other hunts for the year (everyone in the family had a different tag). So I called a few trusted resources and @trphyhntr recommended I speak with Zack Doster. I knew it would take 12+ days of scouting plus the hunt to figure things out and I just couldn’t pull it off this year. So I did something I have never done and hired a guide. Zack was incredible and kept us posted on his monthly trips and sent lots of pictures. Hunter and I focused on staying ready physically and with the gun. By the time we headed out for sheep we had been on 4 other hunts and done 3 pack outs. The week of the hunt we did a final check of the gun and worked on prepping. The weather looked like it was going to take a turn and we were prepped to backpack into the interior if needed. Thursday night Zack sent an Inreach message and said he had located a good ram just before dark. Game on. We arrived at camp after dark and my buddy Ty was waiting for us. We burned some excited energy chatting for a while before settling into cots for a quick sleep. First light we had the bowl the ram from the night before had been in surrounded. From 4 different vantages we searched every crack and crevice. Nada. We disembarked and headed to camp to patch a couple tires and throw our tent up. Hunter ate a sandwich and I made one for later. It wasn’t long before the hum of the compressor stopped indicating it was time to hit plan b. Zack and his guiding partner Bo along with my son Hunter and our buddy Ty all split up to cover a large basin where other sheep had been seen early in the week. It was a quick mile jog out to our first glass post. Zack spotted a ewe on a bare slope in the full sun. It was almost 90 degrees and I was shocked. Another quick jaunt had us posted on a knob with a 360 view. Zack left Hunter and I to cover the sunny basin while he climbed up to a spine ridge to look into the next canyon. Forty five minutes later the radio cracked and Zack was whispering. Three rams had fed out below him and had him pegged behind a lone Palo verde. He told us to work up the canyon to a saddle where he would meet us once they fed out of site. I had to wake Hunter from his afternoon nap, and when I said we had rams he sprung to his feet. We worked our way up to the saddle and met with Zack. Slowly we dropped packs and crept to the edge to relocate the sheep. First a ewe, then a young 5 yr old ram. Zack started to explain they may have fed over, but it was too shady and too lush in that cut. We kept creeping and peering down low into the cut. And then, a big mature sway back climbed out of a creosote. His horns were thick and broomed. His belly was potted and his legs looked short. Definitely a mature ram. With the spotting scope on him and his partner at 180 yds Zack could easily count the rings and he let Hunter take a good look. Hunter said “I would love to shoot either of those rams.” And then hesitated, “but I don’t want it to be over. It just started.” I smiled and said it was his choice, but also reminded him of the reality. This was one of the top 5 rams they had located in 15 days in the unit. It was forecasted to rain 1/2” the next day. And although we could come back a week later, he did have to go back to school on Monday. The bird in the hand proved more than he could argue with. He asked if it was as big as his brothers, I confirmed it was, and also older. And he said “Let’s kill that ram.” The ram kept looking up our way, he knew something was up, but he kept feeding our way. He was getting close enough that now I was nervous. By the time we were done sizing him up and making the decision, he had closed to 130 yds. I laid the rifle on the edge of the bluff and Hunter slid in behind. He was shaking so much he jammed the feed. I crawled up and fixed it. And he leveled the rifle. The old ram looked up from his feeding and stared a hole in us. Hunter had to turn the magnification down on the scope because he couldn’t see what he was aiming at. I saw his hand move from the cat’s tail, down to the grip, his finger moving first to the safety and then inside the trigger guard. At the click of the safety I nodded at Zack. The crack of the suppressed rifle hadn’t even clapped before the thump of the Berger meeting shoulder hit my ears. The ram took a few steps, nearly reuniting with his band mate, before raising up and tipping backwards, resting with his broomed tips pointed up in the very spot he had stood to feed. And there it was. Once in a lifetime. We hugged. We fist bumped. We cheered. We called mom and then grandpa. We thanked God. And as I followed his steps up to his trophy I quickly wiped away tears before he could see them. It wasn’t just a once in a lifetime moment for him. It was the culmination of so many moments. From carrying him on my shoulders when he was still in diapers, and giving him some old bush bell field glasses to practice “glassing”, tying a parachord around his Red Ryder to sling over his shoulder as we wandered wash after wash searching for javelina that were never there. It was a 10 yr old boy who had faced surgery after surgery, first learning to crawl and drag his half body cast, then to walk and then to run first track, then cross country, then a half marathon. It was boy who earned the right to be called a young man. His future still remained uncertain, but he had learned to live for today. For the moments that could never be taken. Tomorrow is promised to no man.

Sitting in my elk camp now around the fire dealing with the last 3 days of being rained on chasing a few bulls around with my bow got me missing the warm southern weather. I started the season off with killing a solid buck on the opening morning. I found this buck on the 2024 late December hunt helping my dad. We opted to not shoot him last year as he had half an antler broken off. I kept tabs on the buck from February on. Opening morning I went to where he had been frequently spotted and never turned him up. About 9:30 with not seeing much I decided to change spots and go look for my backup buck. To my surprise the first buck I found in the new location was the buck I was initially looking for. I had never seen him in this area. After watching him bed I snuck in and shot him at 227 yards. Hit him mid body. Slightly panicked I scrambled to reload the muzzleloader. Shot again in a rush and made a bad follow-up shot knocking a chunk out of the top of his back. He went and laid down and I watched him expire about 5 minutes later. My apologies on sub par pictures as I’m not good at solo photography deal. Went over and quartered the buck packed him out and all was wrapped up before 1:00pm opening day. Following that 2 weeks later I took my Mom on her whitetail hunt who turned 66 on opening day. It was slow. Didn’t see any mature bucks. We hunted 3 more days until one of the bucks I was looking for finally showed up. Nice 100”ish type 3x4. We played cat and mouse with him but he unfortunately disappeared on us. A while later my mom found a nice little 3x3 across the canyon that she said she would be more than happy to take. We snuck in to position and set her up 290 yards from the bedded buck. After 3 1/2 hours the buck finally stood. She heart shot the buck and he dropped where he stood. She was extremely happy as this was the first coues she had taken in the last 10 years. She’s taken a lot of time off hunting to help take care of family and grandchildren so this ment a lot to her. Couldn’t of been more proud of my mom. it was a tough 4 days on her hiking the hills getting after it in the October sun. Currently still a busy season going on as I am on a late archery Bull elk hunt and my 10 and 12 year old kids have rifle bull hunts after thanksgiving. We have one late December whitetail tag left to fill this year and can’t be more excited for it.

Up for my dad's muzzleloader elk hunt in 6a. Dad has a cow tag and Nick from another site has a bull tag. I'm playing chauffeur and guide. I'm running 4 blinds as dad is 75 and Nick is in his 60's. So dad's in one spot Nick another and me another just to see what's going on. No point in me going back to camp . Saturday I had a group of elk at 730 and another at 830 am . It's just me and im already done hunting elk as I had the general cow hunt here a few weeks ago. Tagged out on my hunt on opening day. Dad had 9 bulls at his spot at 5 pm but has a cow tag . Nick hasn't seen a elk but has a bull tag. Raining like heck today so going to spot and stalk tomorrow there's water everywhere! The picture is the group infront of me at 730

Was able to connect on a decent little 3x3 175 yards with my CVA Optima this year. Of course after the shot a much larger buck ran out from behind cover, still happy with this guy.

It was a joke. Trust me, you didn't want that pipe.

Back at camp after a wet walk. Missed our road back to the sxs but came out on another road. I figured out where we were and had dad stay put and went to get the sxs . We are soaked! Caught something not right and found a spike bedded with some cows 100 yds from where we parked . She caught me out in the open . Off they went ! It wouldn't have made any difference because my dad wasn't with me and I still needed to get the sxs and pick him up . Wet and cold but warmer now in the trailer running the heater

When I grow up, I wanna be like you Houston!

https://www.eurooptic.com/tikka-t3x-lite-stainless-65-prc-243-1-8-bbl-rifle-jrtxb319

I was getting scared to open any new threads on here.

You know, buddy, I think the only real way to make amends is to send me your 6.5SS! BAHAHAHA! You're definitely one of the good ones!

I’m glad it got sorted out and fixed quickly. Definitely not the kind of stuff I want my kids seeing online. On that same note though, I know you have a lot of nice rifles and I think a “Rate My Rifle” thread would be a good one.

I am super impressed with performance and fit/finish of the bergara rifles.

I think Lance just posted about some pipe that would work.

Latest work another maple buttstock and cherry forearm

Thanks for sharing!!! I know too many people use this site to buy and sell things and I for one sure miss the days of sharing a few details and pictures. Some great bucks! and looks like a great time. Good luck with the rest of your season

I think that my area got wrecked by lions. I know people cope and say that a lot but when you go from seeing good bucks to nothing and finding deadheads and glassing lions. You’re gonna start thinking crazy

Nash is carrying a horseshoe that’s never seen daylight. After having a desert sheep tag last year he drew an antelope tag this year. Scouting was tougher than we expected. Not a ton of goats in the unit and we went out plenty of times and never saw a single lope. It was still fun. During my archery bull hunt we slipped out one midday to look around. We bumped I to a dude who told us where he had seen a few. We ended up finding a few right there. Lots of people shared ideas with us and local friends even went out and glassed a few times for us. It was fun to have a hunt where people were really open and wanted Nash to be successful. Nash had practice opening day, this kid is ridiculously committed to wrestling, so we headed up midday. By that night we had a decent buck spotted but we just couldn’t cut the distance down. These antelope were super spooky and would run for miles at the site of a truck. We pulled out after dark and nearly stepped on a baby prairie rattler walking back. The next AM we slipped right into where we saw him at dark and waited for it to get light. The group was right where we left them, except the big buck. He was somehow 1-1/2 miles away. We ended up walking a 7-1/2 mile loop and lost track of him somewhere in the rollers. Unreal. We tried a new spot real quick before running to town for lunch and had a super close encounter with a bit g cutter buck before he got a wild hair and ran into Colorado. For the evening we hit up one of the spots we had seen a decent buck scouting. Didn’t take long for me to find some a mile or two out. We went to loop around on them and bumped into a different buck before we got there. A little sneaking and Nash had a 325 yd shot with only the top 4” of his back exposed. Thats all he needed. After the shot I said you dumped him, and Nash say “Actually?!?!” Apparently he flinched so hard his eyes were closed when the gun went off. Thank goodness for that 2-1/2 lb trigger! Nash asked if he could do all the quartering himself and did a fine job. I’d say these boys have almost outgrown their old man. The buck wasn’t real big and Nash didn’t care. He has two from Wyoming that are curled and heavier. This time he said he wanted a tall one. This one is almost 16”, so I guess that qualifies. We had time the next morning to go scout for his sister’s cow hunt. They were going good and we saw a good bull to round out the trip. Then he took it home and did his own euro.

Beautiful buck, congratulations to the killer.

Great looking buck! Congrats on that in a tough year!

It was like eating a baseball glove.

Glassed this bull up Tuesday morning rutting hard above timberline. Spent the day figuring out how to get to him as Wednesday would be opening morning. Wednesday morning we headed out at 3:30 to make our 4.5 mile ascend to the bowl where we suspected the bull to be again. Camp was around 9,500ft and where the bull was running his cows was 11,800ft. The quarter moon was bright enough for us to hike in most of the way without headlamps and when we got closer up into the bowl we could hear multiple bulls bugling up high. We got to a spot where we could see into the bowl through the thick burned timber and i had the herd bull pushing his cows into a sparse patch of isolated timber. Gave me a great 500 yard 30 degree uphill broadside shot and put one in his lungs. The bull was wobbling side to side and bedded in a thick patch of timber where he would expire in less than a minute. Two days, 17 miles, 2,200ft ascend/descent each day. We finally go him packed out. Sore backs and heavy packs were all worth it. Best part was doing it with my family!

Are you still needing a Contender buttstock? I've been making them for my use and find I have a couple of extras my email is in my profile .......Buttstock with mounting bolt $150 TYD

just finished the second coues hunt in 36b. it was tough for sure but think it was more heat and moon related. that being said still had 30-40 deer days every day. almost everything was 1.5 year old spikes/forkies. think our total count was about 35 bucks over the 7 days. deer were really up feeding and moving about 9-1030 in the morning and the last hour of light and it was getting better later into the hunt as the moon was rising later. Still think we are struggling from the 21 drought for a missing age class of bucks.