motoxno53

Whats the project? ... Bump for ya!

Red Jeep Cherokee? if so It was me lol! Chris

That about sums it up!

188 1/8 Nice buck

Thank you for taking the time to post.... It is great to see you taking an active role to help shed some light on things. Do you know if the talks have been had regarding an antler restriction and if so do you see that in the future(I hope so)? Chris

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/12/florida_woman_beats_ex_with_de.php

I have my DVR set to record all Coues and Mule Deer hunts. So last night I was watching American Huntress for the first time as she hunted MD in New Mexico. On an evening hunt she shot a nice buck that she called "Mr Big" She ran out of daylight and did not recover the buck. Yes that happens and not to abnormal right? Well the next day rather then going to look for "Mr Big" she goes on a management hunt. REALLY? How in the heck does she have a show and sponsors when she cant even take the time to look for a deer that she shot? I was discussed by this wanted to see if any of you saw the show to see if you felt the same... Chris

Well ya it was 7AM show her after a few drinks!

Know what you are shooting at!

Ya I agree with you on that but on this hunt she makes a point to say that she is hunting while they look for her buck. She did not even come back the next AM.

Okay Chris, Larry, here it is!!! I will start off by saying that this was the most challenging hunt I have ever been on and I could not have asked for it to have ended any better. The hard work, miles of hiking, thousands of feet I climbed was well worth the effort it took. This was my first trip to Colorado and I have a buddy that was going to hunt with me, but work kept him from being able to. Rather than putting it off, I did it solo. I would be lying if I did not say I would have loved the company, but I must say it was an amazing experience being by myself! Before the hunt I spent many hours on Google Earth scouting, narrowing down areas that I felt would give me the best chance at getting away from people and roads. I saw lots of hunters, which I expected, so I just did what most of us do; get up earlier and hike further. As you all know that does not always work but, in this case it paid off. Like I always do I at the beginning of each hunt I set goals for myself and no matter how hard it is, I try to stick to the plan. Right now in my life I am of the mindset that I will not pass on a buck the first day of a hunt if I would take him on the last day. I am not a hunter that has countless mounts in my house, but rather I take many photos and hours of video footage as trophies. Now this may sound odd but I don't consider myself a "Trophy Hunter" rather a hunter that does not feel the need to fill a tag each and every hunt. I just hunt until I find a deer that meets my goal or that I feel is old and that I would be proud to take. Sorry if you don't agree; this is just me and my way of thinking. Back to the story!!!! The first 6 days were in the high 20s/low 30s at night and high 40s/low 50s during the day. I would head out about 2 hours before sun up and stay out until I could not glass anymore. During my 8 days I saw 18 bucks and my goal for this hunt was a 160" buck. During this hunt I saw 3 shooter bucks that would score 180" or above. I made a stalk on one that would push the 190”-195” mark and was a typical 4x4, after almost killing myself I could not get it done. I tried to find him a few more days and then on day 7 the weatherman called for 2-3" of snow low and behold I woke up to a solid 12". I am glad to see that Arizona is not the only state that you can’t count on the weather forecast! It was more snow that I wanted, but I was still stoked as I knew it would really help me find deer. Day 7 was very uneventful, long and cold. The temps were in single digits to low teens at night and low 20s during the day. Day 8 turned out to be the day. I got up 3 hours before sun up and headed out. With the snow I knew I needed more time to hike in to where I glassed up the big typical. It was 7 degrees when I left my camp and where I was hiking the snow was 12" to 18" where it drifted. I got to my glassing spot with 20 minutes to spare, so I stomped out an area to set my gear down and get my tripod set up. I could not find the big typical, but I saw a buck, a good buck. I knew he was a shooter, but I still wanted to get the scope out and see what he was. He was a 5x6 and I was guessing him to be a 184"-187" buck again he was a shooter. I ranged him and it read 472 and with the angel I dialed my turrets to 450. I then checked wind and it was 3mph, but really pretty straight on so I did not dial any wind. I ratcheted my bolt and loaded a spent shell and test fired it to calm myself. It was 8:00 AM and I had all the time in the world; so I took my time to make sure I was good to go before making the shot. After I was sure I was calm and I rechecked wind and distance before I let it fly! I heard the report and he spun and bedded down next to a tree. I chambered another round and he was lying there almost facing me dead on, but his head was still up. This is where being by myself sucked. I felt the shot was good, I heard a report, but I did not have any way to know if I hit him or if he just bedded to hide. I hate the thought of an animal suffering so I got off my gun and put the spotter up and I saw some blood in the snow. Now I know I got him...so now I worry if I pulled the shot or make an error, but all I know is that need to get another one in him. Knowing he was hit I got back down on my gun. I had a very small window as he was still quartering toward me. This was going to be a tough shot so I took time to think about what my best option would be for a clean shot. After deciding, I let my second round fly. Again I hear the report. While chambering another round I got back on him and he was moving, but wait, he was not running. He was sliding down the mountain as it was so steep. He came to rest against a log. After watching and waiting I was sure he was down. It took me 45 minutes to get down to him and that was when I realized how dang big he was… and not just his rack; his body was huge, he was a toad of a deer! I am 5'9" 160 lbs so I know he had to be well over 200 lbs, pushing 250lbs. WOW this is going to suck.......but hey I don't care as I was lucky enough to have taken a stud of a buck... He was definitely bigger than what I was hoping for so I was glad to take the butt kicking I had coming in regards to packing him out. It took me 14 hours and 3 trips to pack him out, and every step was worth it. That night I got to my friend’s house and he put a tape to him. Little did I know he would turn out to be 191" and some change! No way did I think I took a 191" buck, so we checked the numbers again and yeah we were right. His body was so big I was underestimating him... I definitely need to say thank you to my wife and daughter for letting me be gone for 10 days and my buddy Steve and his wife Lisa for helping make this trip a possibility. My wife has a bull elk hunt in unit 10 over Thanksgiving and I still have a bow tag for AZ, so we still have some hunting to do this year, but those two hunts are icing on the cake for me. I have reached one of my life long goals and that is all I could have asked for! Oh man I am already stoked for next year!!!!! Chris

Wow, Thank you all for the nice comments. I do feel pretty lucky to have harvested such a great buck! Chris

I love my tripod and it has been worth the cost!

I carry 20: 4 in mag, 6 in butstock pouch and 10 in my pack

Its ture, I have pics but not my place to post.... Come on Johnny lets see them!

Chris, Congrats to you and Larry. You guys had a good hunt and took some great bucks. Now you can come out and help me find a great buck in Dec.... Chris

Best of luck to you. I hope CO is as good to you as it was to me. I just got back on Friday. What Unit are you hunting... Just glass your butt off and you will find Bulls. Be ready for show as you never can tell, I got 12" in one night!. Chris

Shoot sounds like you had a pretty good hunt except for the Flu. Shooting sticks or Bipod and more time at the range and you will be set for what ever you hunt for next year. Chris

I may have one. I need to check with the boss. PM me what GPS you have. Chris

Happy Birthday Larry.

I know this one was for Amanda but I have both and prefer the Spot 2 if I was to choose only one because it will work without the smart phone. I do like the Connect because I can communicate better. Amanda, what do you think. That was what I was thinking... the icing on the cake would be if you could use the connect with your phone when you wanted to but if you phone was dead or you were saving batteries then you could use is as a normal spot. But hey this is still a great option that we did not have just a short time ago... I am thinking this will become a mandatory part of my gear each time I go out.

Amanda what device do you see your self using more? I am getting ready for my solo back country hunt in CO and was thinking about getting one of these. I have started to do some research and I like the idea of the connect but because you use your smart phone, I worry the cell phone battery being a limiting factor to the device being useful for more then a day. I know when I hunt in places where i don't have service or poor service my phone searches for service and dies pretty fast. In that case can you still use the connect as a spot device or is it useless without the phone? If not only works with a phone I may just do the SPOT2 and not have to rely on a phone.

I agree the drop has a lot to do with the economy. I like that this article points out that the G&F's approach "just pump more tags out" does not mean that more people putting in. This is the same mentality the reset of our government is using and all that does is cause more debt(in our case less animals, too many hunters running animals ragged) and in reality it does not mean more people will hunt, only that the dedicated hunters will get more opportunity. We need to focus on better quality hunts; bigger population, older age class, less hunts which mean deer have time to rest and calm down and lastly putting the draw back online will allow people to put in for a tag and pay for it over time rather then one lump sum. I also believe we need an antler restriction. Anyway this is just my .02 cents. Have a great weekend all!

Welcome back to hunting. I have tried many tripods and really feel the best tripod that I have had is my Outdoorsmans. Best of luck..

Be nice Johnny, I believe there are at least 1 maybe 2 deer left in the 36's... Are you making the trip back to AZ this year? PM me. Chris I forgot to mention crazed hunters wandering aimless in the pitch black dark while talking on a cell phone ! Hey that will always be a nice story to tell...But hey you got out safe.