mattys281

I say go for it. You'll make more money, probably a couple million in your lifetime. Maybe several million, depending on what you do. Those dollars you spend on that trip won't mean crap in the great scheme of things when compared to the memories of time spent adventuring with a good friend, and the lower the odds of success the greater the magnitude of the adventure. Some of my favorite hunting memories are of hunts just like that. My older brother, who just retired from the corp this year, was stationed at Edwards in Cali several years ago. He'd been over seas for several years leading up to that point, so I made it a point to go see him while he was state side & he'd come out to Az to visit us too. Him and I went on a backpacking trip into the Ventana Wilderness area along the coast of cali chasing rumors of public land wild pigs one spring. Miserable hike in, we got snowed on and froze, never even laid eyes on anything that resembled a pig. But it was gorgeous country hills covered with waist high grass and dotted with oak trees 70 feet tall and some of them seemed like they must be up to 6 foot diameter at the base. We saw a bunch of blacktail deer (first time for me), and it was a great road trip with one of my best friends. Still some of my favorite pictures to look at. Last year I skipped the AZ draw and bailed on a Nebraska whitetail hunt to go and hunt the October OTC elk hunt in Colorado with another good friend. He's a former boss/mentor. We'd been talking about doing it for years & finally just said to heck with it, bought the tags & went. We only had 4 days and never laid eyes on a bull elk, but I had a pine marten dang near run me over on the first night and a coyote skirt the treeline around a meadow I was sitting and come up to about 6 feet away from me before she saw me sitting under that tree and hit the brakes. Saw a bunch of mule deer and some cow elk. Good company, good conversation, beautiful country. Great trip!

Very cool looking rack. Congrats on your buck.

I don't know too many that would've passed him up. Awesome bull, congrats!

Way to go heat! Congrats.

Unique to say the least. Congrats on a great bull!

congrats on your first bull! Nice work.

+1 It only takes a minute for a tough hunt to turn into one of the best days of your life. And the more minutes you spend in the field the better your chances of finding that one lucky moment. If you'll take some advice from a stranger, I say skip that night at home and get your butt back out there.

Congrats on a great bull. 8 yards... wow! Any closer you'll get stepped on. Nicely done.

Awesome bull! Congrats to him.

Nicely done! You guys have some pretty good discipline letting all these smaller bulls walk. I'd be so excited I'd probably let fly at the first spike bull I saw. Congrats!

Congrats! Way to get it done!

Awesome bull! Congrats to him.

Nice work Edge! Congrats to him and all involved. Love seeing stories like this!

Awesome! Congrats to him.

Eric is a very talented guy, a hard worker and an honest business man. You'll receive nothing but 'top shelf' from his company.

Congrats on two awesome bucks!

That may be the luckiest yote on the planet.

Good shooting & awesome buck! Congrats.

I don't know this guy at all, and could frankly care less what happens to him. I think you'd pretty much have to be the stupidest individual on the planet to shoot an animal inside any national park and then actually send out pictures of it to people. In fact that's beyond stupid. That's the 'parent who are first cousins and the mother lived on cheap whiskey and a crack pipe for the entire pregnancy, and then they dropped you a couple times before your skull firmed up' kind of stupid. Add to that the fact that it takes the LEO's over 4 years to get enough evidence to press charges.... smells like a pretty weak case to me. If there was any kind of decent evidence, it would not have taken this long. Sounds like they had to interview hundreds & hundreds of people to get a half dozen or so BS statements they could stitch together into something good enough to finally get a search warrant. If the guy has any money at all for a half way decent lawyer, he'll get off free and clear. I'd bet he found some spot of that knocked down fence where they were going in and out of the park and picked one off and now he's getting railroaded for it. Cecil the lion.... you don't have to actually break a law to piss off a whole bunch of people, just kill a fluffy thing that tree huggers like taking pictures of. In fact all you have to do to piss off a lot of hunters is shoot a big deer. If he's guilty, I hope he pays a steep price for it, but this thing just doesn't smell right to me.

I saw one in 20a too about 15 years ago. Cool pics thanks for sharing.

Just an amazing desert muley! Man that guy looks like he's almost bald. Congrats on your deer!

After looking at the pics of this guy on the original thread, I have to say that I'm not really convinced here. I present as evidence: a.) he wears a hat with a nice curve to it, not even the slightest bit of 'straight-billing' going on. 2.) He has a nice big smile indicating that he is happy and proud over his harvest. IV.) He also hold his hand forward displaying his prominent thumb in an bold erect position, further indicating his joy over the kill and positive attitude. These are all things that are required on this site of any kind of decent hunter. No douche could possibly duplicate this behavior. Add to that the fact that the only people in the world that the Forest Circus & NP Service hate more than hunters are guess who.... wait for it.................. GUIDES! This guy's getting railroaded hard by the Fed and the state agencies are playing along just like the dirty tax gobbling whores they are to keep Big Brother happy. I tell you, it's Edward Snowden, version 2017!!!

Congrats on a couple of great bulls. Nice work guys!

Sad day for sure. I enjoyed both artists music. Rip gentlemen.

Awesome buck! Congrats.