Markleo21377

Excellent! Hardship and trials are the building blocks of a resilient young man! Congrats!!!

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

Super awesome!!

Lots of rain in 5bs this morning so we just drove prime country til we cut tracks. Started out on the tracks and had a bull bugle up a head. We snuck in the herd of 10 cows, spike, and good herd bull. Set him up on BOGG and had this small cow feed to 60 yards offering the perfect shot for a brand new hunter! Such fun seeing how worked up he was but kept it together to make the shot.

Taking a brand new youth hunter up to 5bs/6a for junior elk! Can’t wait to see the emotion in this new experience!

Burned most of my vacation time in Alaska so had only 4 days to get it done. Covered in bulls everyday and this bull came on a string to some estrus cow calls. Shot him at 18 yards and again at 32. Magical morning in the elk woods. 30” dead pine he ran past after shots 👊

Our family made plans this year to go bear hunt on my buddies ranch South of Colorado Springs the first week of October. My boy and I were sitting on a couple antelope points so with a little research I found a unit close by we could draw and had decent harvest 50-60%. The kicker was the very limited public access. I talked to the G&F officer and he said the unit does not produce many bucks over 70” and on public we better shoot the first bucks we see over their ears. I decided to go for it. My boy is a Sophomore in high school and I want to experience as much as I can in the field with him before he grows up. Just hunt….reasonable expectations….work hard to capitalize on the opportunity. Oh, we also could only hunt opening day 😬. Fortunately, we were there a couple days before opener so I spent two days putting miles on the tires and boots looking at every piece of available ground, walking to every high nob I could to get every angle I could to not miss anything….this is where it got crazy. I could not believe my eyes as I found not one but three bucks over 75” one of which would go easily over 80”. Was I dreaming?! Nope I filmed all them….watched them over two hours each of the two days before season. I was so anxious the night before opener I could barely sleep. Opening day arrived and we put together a team of 6 of us to try and locate our top two bucks. As it broke light the hunters started rolling in, and they kept coming. Where are the bucks? I could not find them. Guys were now pursuing does, shots fired!!! Were they dead? Wait, we found buck number two…my buddies are watching him from 1300 yards away. I am still 3 miles away desperately glassing and moving trying to find buck 1. I am passing a couple small bucks as I can’t get him out of my mind….i edge around a large bowl to avoid being skylined and catch movement 800 yards away. I throw up the glass…..it’s HIM! I call my buddy who was about to take my boy after buck 2 and get them headed to me. They arrive 10 minutes later and I tell them how to approach. I am watching them belly crawl cactus to cactus. I range them..906…I range the herd 740. They still can’t see them bedded. Another 10 yards on their bellies…they see them. My buddy sets up the Bogg to get him above the 18” grass and he locks the gun in. A doe sees them and stands….he stands!! BOOM! The buck runs 40 yards and stops…I see blood on his side…BOOM!! He’s down!! I can’t believe it! I literally run for almost 750 yards and tackle my son! We are in tears! We stand over him in disbelief! Bucks this big are not supposed to be here said the expert! Hunters were everywhere, yet we out worked them! We take dozens of pictures! My buddy texts us….buck number 2 is still there! Time to go. We quickly gut him and carry him a couple hundred yards to an access road we can drive to. We load him and off to buck number 2. My buddy and I head in. Topography and brush allow us to cut the first 700 yards quickly, then it is 400 yards on our knees. We are almost out of cover…wind is howling 15-20 so we agree that 400 yards is the max I will shoot. We get to 285 and set up the Bogg to clear the brush. I lock my gun in and ease up to shoot. A doe sees us and starts moving. He follows her and they are running. My buddy ranges….370. I dial and tell him I’m taking the running shot. I swing with the buck and when I’m about 4’ in front I squeeze it off and he cartwheels!! Buck 2 is dead. I am in disbelief! We came out for an opportunity hunt in a subpar unit and kill two giant bucks. We get pictures, gut him and haul him to the road. We butcher back at the ranch and hit the road for home early this morning. I still have not taped them. I am quite certain my buck is between 77-80 and Max’s buck is low 80’s. His buck is over 15”, heaviest mass I have ever seen and cutters are 10” up beams. Truly unbelievable!!! I don’t think we could ever top this experience again…but we sure will try!! Sorry for the long read but it was to incredible to leave any details out. Scouting video buck #1 IMG_7420.mov Scouting video buck 2 IMG_7415.mov Max’s buck #1 My buck #2 Our bucks!!

Thx man!

Yessir! Exactly what we planned 👊

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

Best hunting day of my life! Thx sir

Thank you so much! I agree, somehow it was just meant to be 👊

I shoot a Christensen Ridge carbon fiber 308 with a dead air nomad suppressor. I know many have love hate for Christensen but mine shoots lights out with Barnes 168 TTSX bullets. About .4 moa.

Super awesome!! Congrats

Had the incredible privilege of helping my buddy fulfill his lifelong dream of killing a Dall Sheep. He absolutely crushed it at 3 months from his 71st Bday. Best part was his son had a tag to and killed a giant 11 year old ram. Northern lights were spectacular!!!

Finished him up yesterday before the storms 👍

My boy received an opportunity to hunt bison on a big ranch in Texas and it was to cheap to pass. Beautiful oak covered hill country, rich with big whitetails and all sorts of other exotics that cross between these large low fence ranches. Once we found the herd it was about an hour of cat and mouse until he got a clean shot on one of the bigger cows. Not a hard hunt but just a cool experience! Our friends from Texas joined us and helped with the butchering. Ranch house we stayed in was built in mid 1800’s and had been burned twice in conflicts with the Indians nearly 150 years ago. Can’t wait to try the meat. Left it with a processor out there and they are aging it 10 days for best flavor and tenderness. The coat on this cow was perfect! Should make a great rug.

We have had a bunch of it and it is awesome!

Thank you! Not sure but leaning towards euro. Have a few around this size.

Ah yeah, thank you sir!

The hunting community is truly filled with so many incredible people and it has afforded me the privilege of meeting so many people through random circumstances that have become some of my closest friends! Six years ago, I had filled my muzzleloader bull elk tag and stopped by a camp to inquire how they were doing. Met two gentlemen, and helped them kill a giant 366” bull the very next day. Bryan, originally from here and now residing in Colorado became a friend that I talk to a half dozen times a year swapping stories and talking about our next adventure. In April he reached out to me and mentioned his 71 year old buddy Gino had drawn an antelope tag after applying 27 years. He had a conflict so asked if I would help him on his hunt. I was thrilled for the opportunity, talked to Gino on the phone to understand his expectations, and told him I would meet him day before opener to put together a hit list. This is where it gets interesting…I found 3 bucks that would go between 74-78” and took lots of video of each. I showed Gino and we ranked them by his preference. 1st choice was a heavy old buck that had a busted back leg. Must have been hit by a car chasing does. He was in rough shape and I told Gino only way he will make it is if he could avoid the plentiful coyotes in the area. Opening morning as it became light I immediately saw 4 coyotes in the area and no buck. My suspicions were confirmed when I found a clean carcass with just the neck and head remaining in tact. Buck #1 IMG_6871.mov We quickly moved about 5 miles away to the location of buck #2. He was a beautiful buck with long cutters and good mass. We arrived just in time to witness a hunter anchoring him in his place 1/2 mile away. Buck #2 IMG_6897.mov We moved on confident that due to the rolling terrain where buck #3 was living he may have gone unnoticed. When we arrived it didn’t take long to find him with his 14 does. A deep drainage allowed us to sneak unnoticed into 200 yards and Gino anchored him! What an adrenaline filled morning and it ended with a buck of a lifetime for Gino and a new friendship for life! IMG_6938.mov

I have not spent much time in the Mazatzals but did have the tag twice and both when I could run cameras all over the unit. Shoot me a message and I’ll share all I know and learned. Mark

You are in for a super fun, super frustrating hunt! Lots of antelope and some great tanks still available on public or accessible land. For archery I’d definitely advise focusing on water and get yourself a good battery powered fan because it is like sitting in an oven that time of year in a ground blind. decoys can work but it’s about 50/50 in my experience. If you use one don’t walk straight at them. Walk at a 45 degree angle then switch directions doing the same. Sounds like you’ve done some great research, but I have helped on hunts up there a lot over the years so shoot me a message if you have any questions.

I have archery hunted Kansas for 15 years and Midwest most my life. I will tell you most definitely rubber boots are excellent for controlling scent on your way in and out. Of course choosing your route and stand location based on the wind is key to success but having the ability to tuck your pants into a boot just under the knee and spraying a scent killer on them once you have put them on is huge! Plus they help with ticks depending on time of year and the vegetation always has heavy dew in the morning and rubber boots keep you dry and warm. Good luck 👊

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