ultra300mag

Amanda, I hope you are bringing some stickers to the show. I got one from you last year at the show and then I sold my truck and of course the sticker remained on it. Now I have a new one and need to get a new sticker on it. We will look for you at the show.

Very nice deer all around. I love the closeness of the tips on your buck. I thoght the one I shot last year in Mexico was close at an inch and a half but that is very cool. Congrats on a great hunt!!

Congratulations on a very nice buck!!

Ernesto we hunted south of Caborca. We crossed in Sonoyta/Lukeville and had absolutely no problems on either side of the border. One of the easiest crossings we have had yet.

98 6/8

Three of my daughters have drawn antelope tags on Deseret and one daughter drew a cow elk hunt there. It is a great deal if one can draw. They all shot nice animals and had a great time. The ranch skinned the animals, caped them weighed them etc so that they can keep good data on what is killed each year.

No that photo is not near Jackson Hole. They are photos from near Evanston Wyoming. The elk are part of the herd from Deseret, which is in Utah. They cross back and forth on the border this time of year. They have a feeding site on Deseret where you can go to see them. Great fun. There were several other photos in this group which actually shows the entering Evanston Wyoming sign.

Wow great buck. Those are some very very good eye guards!!! A buck to be proud of for sure especially with a bow. Congrats on the start to a new year!!

Good luck to you!! I am also still going. We will be going the end of January and hopefully can find a good one or two. Since I am in law enforcement I figure I can get killed anytime on the job or running an errand to the grocery store for my wife so I am going and hopefully will have no bad contact south of the border. Again good luck!

WTG Houston. Looks like a nice season so far. I guess Matthew left today to come down your way for his hunt. I hope your luck continues south of the border. Congrats.

Not sure about AZ but in Utah in order to be considered loaded it takes less than two actions to shoot. If you have to open the bolt then close it, it is not considered loaded. Magazine full is not loaded but one in the tube is definately loaded. If the mag is full even if you are road hunting it is legal as long as you leave the roadway far enough.

Well there is only my sheep tag left now. My daughter's hunt started a little slow with only seeing a 3x5 on the first day when Mark and Remington were with us. We did help a guy score on a nice moose later that day but that is a whole different story. On day two I stayed home while Mark, Remington, Corey (son in law) and Jodie went to see what they could find. At some point Jodie spotted a large bull in a clearing and that set things in motion. The bull spotted is what elk dreams are made of. When I later saw some video footage I figured him to have about 24" thirds and a great frame/points to go along with that. Jodie decided at that point that she really wanted to try to kill that bull. The next couple of days were spent trying to make that happen. He was spotted again on Monday in the same meadow by John a nephew and he was able to video through his 15x Swaro's. The bull was where he could not be seen by Jodie and he was 1000 yards from where we were glassing. We had found a vantage point that I thought would help get within 400 yards of where the bull had been spotted two mornings in a row. While on this point Jodie stuck to her resolve to shoot the big bull or possibly eat tag soup and passed several bulls that I am not sure I would have recommended her to pass. One was a nice looking 330 + bull and another that I think was closer to 340+. Tuesday evening I had some things I needed to take care of so the hunters tried to find him to no avail. On Wednesday morning Jodie and Corey were on the spot and set up before daylight with John and I spotting from our 1000 yard location. After hearing some bugling several cows entered the clearing with a large framed bull following moving pretty fast. Corey sounded off with his bugle and the bull stopped. Jodie took aim and shot from about 440 yards away hitting the bull low in the brisket and exiting through the left front leg breaking the bone. The bull moved forward slowly and she attempted a couple more shots but we could not see any visible signs of a hit. The bull entered some pines and now we had to decide how to complete this task. Some phone calls were made to get some help there so that we could possibly make a slow controlled push through the pines and hopefully find the bull dead or move him for her to get a finishing shot into the bull. While waiting for the helpers to arrive the bull walked out of the pines heading uphill to the next patch of pines and really made me wonder how hard he was hit. After helpers arrived we came up with a plan and five of us entered the pines from above while several others were posted along the ridgeline and Jodie and Corey took a position to see him exit. When we reached the end the top three pushers were a ways ahead of the other two of us and the bull went out of the pines where the top guy had been a few minutes earlier. Jodie tried a shot at him moving fast but the bull cut back into the pines running right into Jeff who was still in the pines along with me. We were able to find blood and the chase was on. It had already rained hard following the hit but now with blood spotted it was back on. To make a long story short we tracked this bull during several more, heavy rain/hail storms and kept him moving enough to keep bleeding. After what seemed like about 20 miles but was more likely 1 to 2 miles we finally jumped him and I actually thought we might be able to get it done. We followed him a couple hundred more yards and she was able to make the killing shot at about 40 yards. We had sent a couple of guys around the mountain with a truck and ended up walking about a mile and a half further out the bottom of the canyon to get picked up. This ordeal had begun at daylight and ended just at dark. It was a pretty long day but very well worth it. Looking at the GPS and maps we decided it would be easier to drop in from the top and take him back up. It ended up being about 450 yards steep up hill but beat the mile and a half through all the deadfall. The bull ended up grossing 349 even with a couple inches broken from his g-2 and short fifth's. It was a good thing she decided to shoot this one because a while after she had hit him we found out the other bull we were after had been killed the night before down lower in the canyon.

And now there are none. We have filled all of our tags for this year with the exception of my wife's moose tag which we turned back to the Fish and Game due to construction issues in the unit. Last Monday I filled my Desert Sheep tag in southern Utah. It was a great hunt even though weather became a huge factor. I shot a nice ram, not the biggest ram in the unit but at least he is home with me now and I won't eat tag soup like I did on my Dall Sheep hunt years ago. The memories cannot be put into a score anyway and there were some great memories at that. The small red object in one of the photo's is my lucky bean from Arizona. I carry on all my hunts. I am working on a story but here are some photos that are always more interesting than the story anyway.

WTG Houston. Congrats on finishing the task. Sorry you could not come up on the sheep hunt. We scored on Monday and I will post some photos and story soon. Let me know if you found the big Coues again? Bob

Houston you are always invited. I am going down this weekend for five days then I will be there the last week of October and the first week of November if necessary. If you really want to go and are available the more the better. Always need more video people/glassers ya know. Later Bob

Well my daughter shot her pronghorn yesterday and we had a great hunt. She was very excited with her first speed goat. Now I hope the elk hunt, moose hunt and Desert sheep hunt go as well. Only time will tell

The Pronghorn was on the Deseret CWMU unit, my wife's Moose was on the Middle Ridge CWMU unit, my other daughter's Elk is on the Wasatch unit, and my sheep is on kaiparowits East unit. Yes I would have to say that this year has been a one in a lifetime of drawing. Usually unsuccessful letters for all.

Panasonic makes a very nice, very small compact camera with a 70x optical lens. It records on a SD card so there are not really any moving parts inside. It has an image stabilization feature and it works quite well. This camera was less than $300 at Best Buy when I bought it this spring. If a person is concerned with HD it also comes that way for about $100 more. I recently used it on my daughter's Antelope hunt and it works great! I videoed a nice buck at over 800 yards and I could still see pretty good detail even at that range. She ended up shooting her buck at a little over 150 yards and I zoomed the buck in close enough that it fills the entire screen and could have zoomed even closer. Take a look at one in the store and see what you think. It is small enough that I can fit it in my t-shirt pocket. I just looke it up and one of the models is the SDR S50 and one site has it on sale for $204.00. They also have models with a built in memory but I chose the one with the SD card so that I could easily change for different hunts etc. Good luck.

Well I guess this could now be called two down and two to go. Not that the moose is dead but due to the construction that is going on in the unit my wife and I decided that she would turn in her tag and get her points back and hopefully draw when the problem is over. They are putting a major gas line right through the middle of the unit. They promised the property owner they would not be in there during the hunts but when I talked to one of the construction workers he assured me they would not be done there for about two months. Digging, blasting rock etc. Kind of a bummer but I think the best alternative at this point. I guess that will give me one more week that I can hunt my sheep.

Early in the morning we saw a buck that looked good but we decided to pass due to it being first thing first day. We went to an area that two of my other daughter's have shot nice bucks in years past and looked at about six or seven small bucks then I spotted one that needed a closer look. I set up the Swarovski spotting scope and told her to pack up he was a definate shooter. We got to the end of our cover/hill and he was still 844 yards away. He was a buck that would score over 80 inches and worth waiting for. We sat there for about half an hour and he finally fed over a small ridge. We picked up and moved to the ridge and topped over about 200 yards to the side of where he went over. We glassed for a bit to try to located him but could not find him. We then started to follow the ridgeline toward where he went over. As we walked and glassed we looked in all directions but could not find him. there was one small ridge that dropped off our ridge and it had a small knoll at the end. I glassed it very carefully (I thought) and moved slowly forward. The next thing ya know we heard that infamous sound fo rht buck blowing and saying "duh, I can see you". I turned and looke and he must have been at the base of the knoll where we could not see him. He then took off for parts unknown and the score was now, Antelope 1 hunters 0. We moved along the ridgeline further and looked over some more smaller bucks then watched a Badger in his search for a new prarie dog mound to dig up. Jennifer actually spotted him and enjoyed watching him in his hunt. After seeing and glassing about 30 more small bucks Jen spotted "her' buck and at first I could not see his cutters and wondered if he was big enough. When he finally turned his head and I could see his prongs I told her that he was a nice buck that she might be interested in. Due to the fact this was the first day of her youngest son's kindergarten and she was a little sad to have missed it she decided this buck would be a definate candidate to end the hunt and then she could get home and relieve her husband who had stayed home to take care of her four children during the hunt. She got set up on the bipod and I started the camera rolling. The buck was walking from right to left and when he stopped I told her there is your shot. The buck was only 150 yards away and I had him zoomed in with the 70 power lens and he filled the entire screen. I am not sure if it was adrenaline or what but she managed to pull the shot a little right and with the angle the exit hole was just in front of the ham on the off side. The buck went straight down and only kicked one or two times and was done. Needless to say she was very excited and the closer we got the better he looked. When we got home and viewed the kill shot on the big screen I was shocked to see the blow out on the screen. I am not sure where the white cloud of dust or moisture came from but it became a backdrop for the blood and flesh that exited the buck. It is definatley not a video that a person would put on screen for anyone except a hunter, due to the blood etc. I now wish I had not zoomed in quite as close but it is what it is. I can say the Barnes Triple Shock did it's job and the buck did not move a foot from point of impact. Now it is on to my wife's moose hunt and see if we can make it happen again. Jen is one happy camper and I was able to get the skull boiled and whitened up yesterday and it looks great. Good luck to all with their hunting adventures this year!!!

My guess would be 122 6/8 now and 125 4/8 after finished.

I don't know that I would call myself her guide, but I guess so. It was just she and I. It is a Utah goat.

You guys need to remember that if there are not 2 tags available then the bonus point really does you no good. If there are two tags then one goes to max bonus points and the other goes to the random draw. So many of the units really don't count as far as the points go. You are however correct with the Beaver being number one for most. One of the hardest parts of the hunt is to score the Billy. Especially when you don't look at a lot of Goats. Even when you do there is not a lot of things to compare to. Very fun hunt and usually a person will see a lot of Goats. Another problem is making sure where you shoot it the Billy will not dive off a high cliff. Many people think they will just anchor it where it is and that won't be a problem but they are pretty tough and usually manage to move enough to make the big drop. My nephew's billy was in a long grassy chute and didn't move more than about five feet. Very fun hunt for sure.

I just checked the draw odds for the goat for non resident and there are only a couple of units that bonus points make a difference. One is the Lone Peak unit which I can see from my office and the other is Willard Peak. If you had 9 points going into this years it looks like it would take about 7 years for Lone Peak and only about 2 years for Willard Peak Billy tag. Of course that would be if all non res stay in their same units for application.

What unit are you looking at. I know that it is not necessarily a hard thing to find a nanny but living here in Utah would be willing to try to help out. If you decide to hold out for the Billy tag how many are ahead of you? My nephew shot a nice 50 inch goat on Box Elder Peak a few years back. It was a great hunt and we saw a lot of goats.