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Hey guys, got this guy last Sunday on day 10 of a tough hunt. The rut was sporadic at best with some days having almost no bugles during daylight hours. I've been getting caught up at work so haven't done a full write-up, this guy came in screaming with about 10 cows at 7:15 am when it had been quiet all morning. I had to wait at full draw for what seemed like ever for his cows to clear out from between us, but managed to make a heart shot. He only went about 30-40 yards before tipping over. I'm super exited. He's my biggest bull to date, and broke my drought. It's been a few years since I've put anything bigger than an turkey or javi on the ground.

So this year I found out I had drawn a tag like everyone else after the 3rd round of card hits. I was already making plans for other things in September because no one I knew drew a tag. But come to find out, not only did I draw, but so did my work partner for the same hunt. So the planning began. Over the last 10 years I have done everything I could to help friends and family on their hunts and to learn as much I could. And it definitely paid off. Opening morning we were able to call in this dink for my buddy. At 25 yards he was able to knock the wind right out of him. He ran maybe 80 yards and piled up. That night we hiked his elk out and I went back in Saturday morning. I had several close calls, but couldn't seal the deal. One was my target bull that will probably haunt my dreams. I had him at 37 yards but couldn't get him to step out from behind a tree. He decided I wasn't sexy enough and returned to his cows and out of my life. Sunday morning came, and now I had 2 buddies to help. It was a fun day with several passes and almosts. One stand we had a small 6 come in, when a wolf about 200 yards behind us starts howling. That bull cleared the country. But I was going to pass on him anyways. Later that evening we set up on higher ground when an elk bugled below us. We gave a couple soft calls and he came in hot on a run. When he got to 22 yards I made my shot. He ran down hill where he took his final breaths. I had a lot of folks give me solid advice before this hunt and thanks to them we had an amazing time. I definitely would not have got it done without them.

Not much to write, other than I sat on my glassing nob this morning, wondering why I even came hunting with this nasty winter storm on top of me. Windy, cold, and rainy. About 20 min into glassing I heard rocks crashing underneath me and this buck was running around the nob looking for a doe 100 yards beneath me. I went down the hill and to my surprise the buck was still there coming out of the cut he had no idea I was even there and gave me a 40 yard shot.I made a great shot and he expired within 40 yards. Being in the right place at the right time was the truth this morning and luck was on my side. I have never had a buck run up on me like that when I am glassing but I guess anything is possible during the rut!

I was truly blessed again this year being able to take this buck. I had actually passed this buck up 2 years ago waiting for something bigger ( still kicking myself). He is actually not much bigger than 2 years ago, but did add a small point off his G2. I sat in my stand for 35 hours before this guy made his appearance. That is the only good thing that will come out of the trail cam ban... not knowing what's coming in, I wasn't waiting for a "bigger buck".

This year continues to be one for the books. My 12 year old son Max drew a muzzleloader bull tag in a unit many consider to be sub par for elk. I have assisted on 3 archery bull kills in the unit, so I knew that although trophy elk were tough to find they were there. The opener found us calling our way into a major dark timber bedding area that I had seen multiple large bulls on previous hunts. It was dead quiet. No bugles and after one calling sequence a satellite 5 point came sneaking in but never game Max an ethical shot. Yesterday, day 2, I decided to slip in to the edge of the bedding just after first light and wait. No bugles at all, so I decided to do a few soft cow calls. Less than a minute later this giant snuck in silent 52 yards below us and Max made a perfect shot. We had no idea how truly magnificent he was until we walked up on him 30 minutes later. Bull is an 8 by 7 with a 14” flyer point. Didn’t get to fully score him but a few quick measurements indicate 370-380”. 42” inside spread and total width with flyer 58”. Best hunting day of my life and one I will never forget!

Here is the Coues deer I was able take with my statewide tag with the help of Kory and Bobby of A3 . There knowledge of the area and with the deer was truly amazing. Once we found this deer they spent hours breaking it down. It was decided that we would try and harvest this deer. We had to relocate to find him again and after 8 hours of waiting he finally reappeared just before dark . Now he was with another buck of similar size but was a typical 3x3 with amazing eye guards. To be able to have two 130 inch bucks standing next to each other I thought I was seeing things. Now I had to make a decision it was an easy one for me. I like em trashy . After we ranged him at 600 yards I let my Axis works 280 AI do the rest. It was now almost dark Kory and I hiked down to the deer When I put eyes on him I was speechless it was bigger than we had thought . I told Kory I was going to do a life size mount so he was very careful field dressing the deer. He then proceeded to load the deer into his pack whole it’s a pack that he has designed and just now starting to sale it was his smaller one about 3200 CI it was amazing all of the room it had not to mention it’s the best built pack I have ever seen I am getting one. His company name is Desert Mountain Outdoors Well after many miles of packing we got back to camp about midnight what an epic day. Still in shock of being able to take a deer like this thanks to A3 and there amazing guides Kory and Bobby.

I’ve spent a lot of time and money the last 5-10 years hoping to kill a big coues deer with my bow.. with the camera ban it seemed like it definitely wasn’t going to happen. The heat wave the last week I figured sitting water would pay off so I spent 5 days on tank with the most sign in the area hoping it would pay off and it did. This buck came in completely silent and by himself at 38 yards. He started broadside when I shot and nearly turned 90 degrees by the time the arrow reached him but it went in at a good angle and caught his vitals and ended in his spine. I knew he was big but couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how heavy he was..

4 days before the start of this hunt, Eddie Corona at OE4A contacted me about donating this hunt to me from a very generous person who was unable to hunt. I'm a double amputee combat vet and a diehard bowhunter. Immediately I got to planning. I knew nothing about bison and about bison hunting. Luckily I got connected with Russ and Laura Jacoby. They are bison whisperers. I can truly tell you that I would not have been successful on this hunt without them. Their logistical expertise is on par with extremely complex military deployments that I've been a part of. It's amazing to see what they do. The conditions this year were tough. There is still a ton of snow on the Kaibab. 4'-7' drifts are still present up there. Without a snowmobile or UTV with tracks, it was impossible to reach the blinds and salt. And the road leading in to the north rim is closed until June 2nd. I'm not convinced that the snow will be fully melted in time to get access with a truck. My hunt ended June 6th, so I definitely hired Russ/Laura or else I wouldn't have been able to access the hunt area. As most people know, this particular hunt means you have to sit in a blind, 14 hrs a day for an average of 14 days before you harvest a bison. You have to wait for them to come off the park. I mentally prepared myself for this. And I knew I was going to take the risk and try with my bow. It took us many hours just to reach the spike camp deep in the Kaibab using UTVs with snow tracks. It was slow going, like 9mph for 12 miles slow. After we finally arrived at the camp, Russ sent us 3 hunters out to hunt half a day while he set up the camp. Myself, Randy and Dave set out on the 90 minute ride to the hunt area. Randy and I dropped off Dave and then parked the UTV to begin our mile long walk into the blind. We hunted our way to the blind and as we approached the blind Randy spotted bison already at the water source. We quickly set down our gear. I grabbed my bow and Randy grabbed his rifle. Randy was able to take a quick couple shots and down went one of the bison. One bison ran away into the Grand Canyon park and the other waited by the bison that was laying on the ground. At that point I was able to slip in to 28yds and put an absolutely perfect arrow in the last bison. I shot another arrow and hit low in the sternum, but it wasn't necessary because the first arrow was a kill shot through both lungs. He fell and was dead in 30 seconds. We were ecstatic. We celebrated, hugged, cried and shared our viewpoints on what had happened. It was absolutely amazing! I couldn't believe I had snuck in with a bow, on the rim of the Grand Canyon and perfectly shot a bison!!! It took us long into the night to cut up the two bison and load them on to the snow machines. We used Russ's winches on the UTVs and portable winches to hoist the two bison into trees to make the work easier. Another 24 hrs later we were finally back at the main camp. After our goodbyes I drove home and got to contemplate what had just happened. I think I'm luckier than I should be. I never even stepped foot in that blind. I can't wait to try the bison meat from this harvest and sharing it with friends and family! Other than that...all I can say is that I am so blessed and thankful for OE4A for what they do.

Day 4 Update: TAG FILLED! My wife decided she wanted to head back up to the northern part of the unit to hunt today since we just couldn’t seem to make anything happen in the areas we had scouted pre-season. So we made the hour drive north in the dark and parked the truck, hoping that the early morning light might finally get us into some elk. We settled on doing a 4 mile loop out and back to the car since the area wasn’t too steep and it was a nice break away from the canyons we’d been hiking in and out of the last 3 days. About an hour into shooting light, after not having seen anything, a decent mule buck ran across our path about 30 yards in front of us. If only it was a bull instead of a buck haha. At least we had finally seen some signs of life. Another hour went by and we still hadn’t seen anything. We were starting to get a little discouraged that another morning had gone by with minimal activity but tried to stay positive. I found an antelope “shed” which was super cool cause I’ve never seen one and I’m pretty sure they fall apart quickly after falling off. That got us a bit excited for a while. As we approached a tank about 3/4 mile away from the truck, I looked at my map and realized there was a nice little bench just up ahead. From past experiences I’ve seen elk bed on little benches like these even though they’re only 30 feet tall, so I told my wife to keep an eye out. We hadn’t gone more than 15 yards when I spotted four oval looking things. I immediately thought how out of place they looked amongst all the jagged edges that are natural in the forest (branches, logs, etc)so I knelt down. My wife whispers “do you see one”? And I reply “I don’t know I thought I saw something weird but it’s probably nothing”. I pull out my binos and sure enough, there are two pairs of ears and I see two cows bedded in grass that’s almost blocking their entire bodies. I let my wife and father in law know and we slowly start glassing. The next cow I see was 80 yards directly in front of me bedded under a tree with a completely unobstructed view of me. How she didn’t spot us walking surprises me, but I have had that happen several times where I’m close to elk and they don’t know you’re there. I’m just glad I spotted them so quickly or they likely would have seen us walking and spooked. The longer we sit there we start finding more elk, maybe 10 total, but several of them are blocked by trees. I asked my wife if it’d be ok if I backed out slowly to try to glass them from another angle to see if there are any bulls. She agrees, and I move as slowly as I can but one cow spots me and stands up. Luckily the elk slowly start getting up one by one but none spook. I finally get a good look at some elk that were out to our right and there was a bigger spike in that group of elk. Then I look over to the elk that had stood up on the left and there was a spike there too. I try to look at the rest of the group and don’t see any other bulls so I tell my wife, 2 spikes and the one on the right is the bigger one. Thankfully they slowly start feeding down into a more open area off the knoll and I tell my wife to get ready. I lose the bigger spike between the trees but I know he’s coming out and will step out soon. Second later, I see him come out and my wife’s gun goes off! Perfect lung shot at 130 yards, slightly quartered away. I know people have reservations about spikes, but this bull was the best of them all for us. Not only was it my wife’s first elk tag, it was her first big game tag ever! Sure we were slightly disappointed we werent able to turn up/make a play on any larger bulls we had scouted earlier this month, but that’s ok. The look on her face and her excitement after her shot is something I’ll always remember. I wanted this so bad for her since she’s put in so much work practicing shooting, scouting, getting the right gear, and finally being drawn after 7 years. I’m so so proud of her and our family and friends that participated in the hunt couldn’t be more stoked! I’m glad I was able to end this “semi-live” thread with a success story! Thanks again for all the well wishes and following along! Until next hunt, John

I was only going to be able to hunt opening weekend due to work and other things going on. I had planned on sitting a tank since the monsoon has been pretty lackluster and then like clockwork a big storm rolls through the area on Wed evening. I get to camp on Thurs and there are puddles of water everywhere, I decide to sit water anyway and see what happens. Friday opening day comes, sit all day and only 2 does come to water. The weather was heating up friday and the puddles were starting to dry out, higher hopes for Saturday sit. Morning comes get to tank, I hear someone in the distance yelling at his dogs, some Turkey sound off gobbling after that. The hours go by, have people coming to tank mid day to check tracks, Have a drone flying overhead, more people coming to check tank. Im hot and irritated, its 1pm and I decide Im going to leave. I get up to stretch and look around and see a body of a deer, cant see the head. I get ready, a doe comes to water. I knew there were more than 1 deer so I stay ready. Second deer comes in and its a buck, looks like a decent buck. I decide I will take him. He drinks and I think maybe I wont take him, a little smaller than my original thoughts. He messes with the doe for a little while and starts to walk off, it was then that I decided to shoot him at 43 yds. He took a tumble right away, got up junped the fence and almost fell there. I lose him in the trees. I wait 30 mins and start to track, short blood trail as he was piled up only 30-40 yds from shot.

After 2 years of preparation everything came together to harvest the ram of a lifetime in Alaska an 11 year old monarch! Hardest hunt I have ever done both physically and mentally. My pack was 60 lbs for the first 6 days sleeping bivvy style wherever we ended up each night. Out of 9 days it rained, sleeted, or snowed 6 of them. Ram down morning of day 7 and my pack went to 100+ pounds hiking 27 hours over 3 days to get out of the mountains. Truly an incredible adventure!

I had some good luck on the early archery tag. Killed this bull opening morning at around 11am. He was the main bull we heard bugling and that turned out to be his downfall. My cousin - who also had a tag - was able to get a good chunk of time off work so he was out scouting 4 days before the hunt started. He saw this bull every single day prior to the hunt. I made it up late Wednesday and scouted with him on Thursday... and again, saw this bull and his cows in the morning and in the evening. Bugling as well. We saw another 10 bulls or so in this same drainage so we figured we'd start there opening day and give them heck. We hiked into the area in the morning and we were able to chase some bugles, but they weren't as vocal as they had been the couple of days prior. We ran into a good group of elk, but they spooked and we thought we might have boogered everything up too bad for the afternoon. My dad and uncle were on a ridge glassing above us and could hear elk below them bugling every so often - even after the bigger group spooked. For some reason - even though we were pretty close - we couldn't hear the bugles. The ridge we needed to climb was pretty steep and thick with overgrowth so I wasn't thrilled about the hike to get up it, but we sucked it up and made the short, but steep, hike. We finally got up to the same elevation as the elk and spotted them about 250 yards away. I saw a group of cows and had a feeling we were on the same bull we had seen all week prior. Sure enough it was him. We watched from a distance as he ran off a couple of raghorns that were nearby. He was one of the few bulls that seemed to be ready to rut. We continued working in closer, but didn't feel like we would have the shooting lanes available if we kept stalking straight at them. We were in some thick cover. At this point, the elk had been milling around in the same small area for more than an hour. We backed out and looped around to get on top of them. For the most part, the wind cooperated. It started to swirl a bit as we got close to the elk. They were in a thick stand of aspens and the cows knew something was up. They weren't quite sure where we were though, because the vegetation was so thick. They first trotted one way and then back another way. We could see them in the aspens less than 20 yards from us. The bull let's out a bugle to corral his cows and get everyone going the same direction. At that point my cousin gave a quick cow call and the elk stopped. I side stepped to an opening to my left and could see the cows going one by one up a trail into a small shooting window. Naturally, the bull was last. My cousin ranged the cows at 65 yards and I drew back. Right when the bull stepped out and showed his vitals, I shoot. Downhill, quartering away. I hit the spine and into his cavity. He was paralyzed. I quickly moved in closer and finished him off from 20 yards. (I would love to say that my first and only shot was the arrow shown in the picture - I'll be honest with you guys, but probably not my drinking buddies ) Needless to say, I am thrilled with this bull. Good mass, lots of character. It's also pretty cool that we were able to watch him for a few days in a row and put a plan together that got it done. This early archery elk stuff is awesome. Can't wait to do it again...... in twelve years.

Today will be a grateful chore of deboning my first elk, & done with a bow. Lots of time spent prepping for this hunt: Road knowledge, locating concentrated areas of bugles at wee hours of AM, water holes, benches, & how bulls use the line of No Return (Rez border) to evade pursuit. This was a TUFF hunt; mostly due to my learning curve, but locals tell me this was the slowest they have seen in yrs. Seemed like all 125 tag holders brought 5 buddies in the forest, so many dudes buzzing around and sitting water! It was hot, smokey, high winds, & no cows to be seen/heard. I only saw 1 bull killed in the back of a truck. No real rutting activity until day 12!?! Bulls actively bugles from day 1 & called back to challenge bugles… but no interest in cow calls. I don’t call often. I actually don’t like to call until the last 150yrd—for any game. It was obvious when other hunters were near due to cow calls & the over frequency of use. I had my share of “could have been done”, like the 6x6 on Day 2 (narrow shooting lane and killed a tree at 63yrd). My caller granted me 8 days, then returned to the real world. I kept grinding. Hunt sun up to sun down. Trying different areas, different times of AM, different approaches. Even though bugles occurred every day, some days went by without seeing a bull. Then, things changed on day 12. Responsive bulls, yet still no cows (I guess I never found them). Bulls engaging to challenge calls & kept around with soft cow calls. I had activity all day long. I bumped a bull 5:30pm when pursuing his bugle. It ran 73yrd up hill. A scraggly tree 8’ in front of me partially broke up my figure. Quickly counted left side: G4, G5, G6=thinking this was a 6x6. Face to face we stared for “eternity”. He barked several times. Calmed him with meek cow calls. His caution factor overrode desire to breed and he slowly turned to walk away. Ranged at 83yrd, pulled back, broadside, WHACK, punched him with 100gr G5 Montec. Then heard a crash, but not sure of what was really happening due to topo incline changes. Found blood at impact site. Found bull 30yrd away, face down into a rotting tree on a steep slope. Ecstatic rush of achievement! Antlers were actually 5x6 with an earlier broken right G1, but I didn’t care! It was a late night. Had an awesome friend drive up to help pack out. While not a monster, he will be just fine as a memory to the hunt’s high/lows resting over the cabin’s fireplace. Took him to Authentic Taxidermy/Troy Smith yesterday; it was a haul & I passed several taxidermist en route, but Troy did great work on my pronghorn. History has shown me—go with the proven & you won’t regret it. Troy asked if I wanted G1 tine fixed… “Nope, keep him just as I found him”.🏹

I killed this buck with my 4 year old son by my side during the opening morning of the general rifle hunt. We were late getting out of the cabin by about an hour but it all worked out. As we were working our way to our glassing spot we found this guy hanging out near the road. Having my son with me during this hunt was by far my best experience in the field.

So after chasing mule deer in Dec/Jan archery my wife decided she wanted to try her luck on a desert mule deer during the general hunt. We’ve chased these deer only during archery and had decided to keep tabs through the years. We finally felt we had a solid plan so off we went. We got to her u it the afternoon before and set up camp then went out to glass. On our way to our glassing spot we came across a groups of 4 bucks hanging out in the area we were goi g to focus on. We got up early Opening morning and my wife and son got ready and headed to the area we had chosen to be at sunrise. I went to the glassing spot. At about 0611 I glasses up a group of 5 bucks, one of which was a definite shooter. Once they had formulated and approach everything just worked out perfect. I was bummed I couldn’t be with her when she shot but having just had hernia surgery a week earlier I was relegated to glass duty. 312 yard offhand shot with her 300WSM and the rest is history. Super proud of her!

So the past year has been a real roller coaster. Last year my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and it has been super tough on my daughter and family in general. We struck out on all youth tags, but picked up a 3rd choice general hunt coues tag. I wasn't sure my daughter was ready or could handle the challenge. Long story short, I'd like to thank Kev for his help. He found this buck for us opening morning, in a location my daughter would be capable to make a decent shot, and we were able to make it happen. Seeing my daughter being herself again made this one of the most memorable hunts I'll have.

Fourm needs some hunting content so I thought I'd post my January archery buck. Opener I missed him in his bed at 58 after a crawl. Arrow deflected on a piece of grass in front of him that I didn't see. Clean miss. Next AM before light an epic battle occurred below me. Couldn't wait to see what they were. The guy I missed the previous day got whooped and was being escorted out of the area. He bedded on the top of small ridge. Guy who kicked his butt was a big old guy with crabs all around. He got a pass. Solo stalks are fun with no spotter but I had a hunch he'd stay for a bit after his whooping. I started crawling up the slope stalking the bush he laid under. Stalk took 2 hours to get to 30. I got to 30 from the bush and no deer or sight of him. Figured he'd left but I've been burned before thinking I was done. So I stood up slowly and still nothing visible. Crept up standing. At 22 yards a big rack was now visible from a bedded deer. I couldn't see him as his face was in the dirt. I only saw him after he woke. So he's at 22 yards bedded, doesn't know I'm there. No play. He's gonna have to stand and walk left or right three yards for a window. 4 hours later after I watched nothing but his rack move, and listening to him groom himself, he stood, stretched, and started feeding. Shot was 28 yards. He went about 150 and bedded. Found him dead in his bed an hour later. Sorry for crappy photos. He's only 17+" inside but he's tall and forky and heavy and scores well.

The Boys had a great day out Sunday. Only day we had with high school wrestling in full swing. First archery kill for one and second for another. First time I have every seen three taking on first stock, same herd and no blood trailing. All dropped insight. Middle pig is a hoss.

I haven’t shared a story in a while, been trying to find the time to write this one up and finally taking the time today. I didn’t draw a tag this year but my 2 youngest boys did. My 16 year old, Rusten found a spot he wanted to hunt and made a couple trips in there and scouted it pretty well. He found where we could get water and got a good lay of the the land but never found any big bucks. The first few days of the hunt we decided to go to an area we were already familiar with. After a pretty brutal hike we set up a quick camp and started glassing. We quickly found a cool 2x3 buck bedded at 600 yards but while we were trying to decide if one of the boys wanted to shoot him, he got up and disappeared into the brush. By then it was mid-day so we decided to drop into the canyon and filter some water to get us through the next couple days. After filling up we made our way back to our glassing point. At around 2pm, Rusten glassed up two bucks bedded at 800 yards. We took a good look at them and thought the bigger one might be close to 100”. My 14 year old Camm, decided he wanted to shoot the bigger of the two bucks so we made a plan. Rusten stayed on the hill while Camm and I moved closer. While we were getting into position the bucks got up and started feeding. We got to 415 yards and found a big boulder to get into a semi-prone position. He was able to make a great shot and put down his 3rd coues deer and his biggest buck yet at around 97”. By the time we got him broke down and back to camp it was 830 and we were pretty exhausted. We got Camm’s meat cooled off and hanging in the shade and we were back at it the next morning looking for a buck for Rusten. He had his sights set pretty high on an only shooting a big buck. He has been lucky enough to kill two bucks around the 100” mark already. One of them was on the same hill that camm just killed his buck on so we were hopeful of finding another good buck. Unfortunately, the next 2 days the wind picked up big time and we only turned up some small bucks and a bear. We decided to pack Camm’s deer out and move camp to the area Rusten scouted After a few hours at home we were back at it the next morning in a new area with high hopes Monday we found around 10 bucks, nothing big, but that evening we saw a couple that were too far out that looked promising. Tuesday morning we glassed close to camp at first light but by mid-day we were over were we saw the bucks the previous evening. We were on top of a the biggest hill in the area looking down into some shaded cuts. At around 2pm, I found a buck up feeding about 600 yards below us. As I was trying to point him out to the boys, he disappeared behind some trees. We were waiting for him to come out and another buck appears that was noticeably bigger. I wasn’t sure how big but I could see he had long beams and decent point length. Rusten decided pretty quickly he wanted to shoot him. Normally, I would help my boys find a place to shoot from and get the rifle set up for them but this time I just told Rusten to make it happen. We weren’t able to get any closer because of a big bluff below us so I gave him the dope for 613 yards and he knocked him down. I was pretty surprised when I walked up to him to see that he was a better buck than I thought. This is Rusten’s 5th coues deer and also his best at close 106” We were beyond blessed on this hunt. My boys impress me so much with their willingness to put in the hard work chasing these deer in the backcountry. We had a lot of laughs especially trying to stuff the 3 of us into a 2 man backpacking tent. Good memories for sure.

Have 3 tags for my kids. 2 in 5bsouth 1 in 6a. Bugles have shut off by 7am in both units. All the big herd bulls we are seeing have 20 to 40 cows with them. We got lucky with one small 6x6 so far that split from the herd bull and his cows and called him into 46yds and he made his arrow count on his 1st archery bull. Bull went 15yds and was down. 2 more tags to fill. Hopefully its kicks in a litter better. Good luck everyone

Finally harvested one.

It's a story hard to write but my son killed his first bull after a whirlwind 6 days. He was very limited on time and it got the best of him but we had a great time and lots of memories made. Bull he passed after a tough day the day before. Bull that came in after he didn't have enough patience. This is the bull we were hunting but he had already shot another bull 5 minutes before. Having little experience and no time for a hunt really hurt him but in the end his goal was accomplished. He killed a bull, and we got to spend some good days hunting.

Had a chance to catch up to this tall goat. 16 6/8ths

After Googling the name on the dog tag I found, I was given several phone numbers, addresses and possible family members. I sent a photo of the dog tag to the cell numbers associated with the veterans name. About a week later, I got a response simply asking "Who is this?" After an explanation I was told that I had indeed located the next of kin. The vets widow, son and daughter in law were living in the same home. When I asked the daughter in law how the tag might have ended up out there in Morristown where I unearthed it. Back 60 years ago, the hotel there was also a general store, post office and had a Texaco garage. Sp4 Jarvis and wife were living in Sun City. He loved trains and since the old hotel was only a few hundred feet from the railroad tracks, he could take photos of the trains while having his car serviced. The tag arrived at his sons and widows home yesterday, this Memorial day weekend. Y'all have a good weekend and remember the reason we have a 3 day weekend.

Wow! God is great! I am still in shock! I found this buck 4 days ago. The very brief encounter sparked my interest and I could not get him out of my head. I knew he was a good one and continued to look for him for next 4 days. Finally, I found him again, put a stalk on him, and got very luck considering the country was so thick. He was actually with 2 other bucks. I almost shot the wrong buck because the other one was a 105ish! I thought it was him at first. Don’t get me wrong, I would have been tickled with the 105, but then he stepped out from an oak and I realized I was on the wrong buck. It all happened so fast. I set my sight to 65 yards and made a great shot and he expired within 100 yards. I still can’t believe buckfever didn’t bite me, but I was very calm until I walked up on him! I didn’t realize how big he really was. He ended going 121 gross and 117 net.