The Claw

Sweet! Nicely done

Done! Good luck. I lived in NZ for while. AMAZING place. Really hope you win.

Very Nice Doug, Good bull, congrats. As usual your photos are second to none, thx for sharing your talent!

Nice deer, Amanda. Congrats

Great story and a BIG congrats. Beautiful buck. Nice job in staying calm with all those events. Can't wait till my first Whitey hunt in Kansas in December.

nice deer again, Colby. Did you get a load settled on for your RUM?

nice. good job.

Very nice, Stan. great pics. My oldest is ten this year and has 3 tags to fill in November. Looking forward to that. His brother is already hooked too. Now if I can get my daughter to hunt by the time she is ten then we will have some "primping" pics for sure. I wonder if they will have designer camo by then, lol. She is all girl as well.

Doug, Very beautiful goat. Overall fantastic buck but really nice cutters and mass. Big congrats. Sounds like a great vacation to me! Cade

You will get varying answers on this because it is a very subjective question (ie not a clear cut right/wrong question). Remember this is a RECREATIONAL sport. It is meant to be fun where positive memories enhance your life, not make it more stressful or worrisome. Are there advantages, like TAM mentioned, to establishing your own loads and reloading. Most certainly! Am I a control freak and like to be in control of my own success and failures.....Most certainly! I have been handloading exclusively for some time now because of that. Having said that, I enjoy reloading and the time that it takes to establish my loads for a rifle and the results it brings are very rewarding to me. Thus it is a time expense I am not just willing to make but WANT to make. However, I do not typically fletch my own arrows or tie my own flies. Are there advantages to doing this yourself? Yes. Do I enjoy doing it? NO. So I pay someone else, WHO IS CAPABLE AND UP TO MY STANDARDS, to do it. I have much more respect for someone who does not want to reload, due to many reasons not the least of which may be time priorities, but feels it important to get the benefits of a custom hand load and is willing to pay the extra money for it. The hunter will be more successful and there will be less animals wounded. If the alternative is over the counter ammo then by all means....feel very GOOD about paying someone else to load your bullets AS LONG AS THEY ARE QUALIFIED AND YOU TRUST THEM.

Smoker bull. Way to stick it out and get it done.

Beauty. Nice job on a great bull!

nice video, Eric.

I will have to dig through my pile of tapes from my GL2 (that was before I switched to the HD/SD). Had him at 15 yards playing peek a boo through the trees. It was in a heavy on/off rain storm so I was having to cover my camera, uncover it, etc. He came in quiet and I had my camera covered when we were on top of each other. Finally I risked it and just took the cover off to get some footage and luckily got some before he left town. I will look for it tomorrow night or this weekend (tomorrow night is little league game). He is an old, old bull though. Look at that Brahma Bull head, warrior head on him.

I have video of that bull from two years ago. His left side was still a real big seven two years ago. Actually just a bit bigger that year.

Thanks guys. It ended up being much more nerve racking than I anticipated but I was very grateful that we could come home with two bucks. Nothing better than hunting with friends in my opinion. Allen, that name sounds familiar but can't say I know him off hand. Congrats to you on your great bucks earlier on, by the way. Best of luck to everyone as the season gets kicked in to high gear shortly.

Well the season has begun. Had a chance to hunt NM for speed goats with my good friend Matt Woodward of Borderland Adventures (CW sponsor). I have another friend of mine from school, Tyler Robison, whose wife has been bugging him that he needs to get a hobby and so he has wanted to give hunting a try. I felt like this NM antelope hunt would be the perfect first hunt. In addition to that we each decided to take one of our boys to increase the fun and of course to get them out of Mom's hair for the weekend. Tyler had never shot hunting rifles before so we took a half day and I had him shooting balloons out in the desert at various yardages off The Claw. After that trip I felt much better as Tyler was a natural shot, not missing a one. The next weekend was the hunt and we set out for the long drive to central NM. Matt had gone a couple days early to scout. This ranch had some good genetics in the past but the rancher gave warning that not only was the quality the worst he had seen in 15+ years on his ranch but the numbers were way down as well. Matt did manage to locate a buck that he figured in the low 80's but he was the only buck at that 80" mark and unfortunately he lived in the thick juniper section of the ranch. Killing him would be tough especially with it only being a two day hunt. We located a buck we felt was a great buck and especially first big game animal for Tyler the night before the hunt and wanted to get Tyler on it first thing in the morning. Fortunately, at first light Saturday morning I glassed the buck and his does up and Matt and I made a stalking plan that would get us slightly above the herd with the wind in our face. Not only did the stalk work perfectly but the herd decided to turn around and walk our direction. I quickly got Tyler set up on The Claw and we waited. The boys were beside themselves waiting for the moment. The does appeared on the horizon and angled by us. The buck was not far behind. 275 yards. I made sure Tyler was calm and asked him if he was on the buck. He said he had the crosshairs right where we had instructed him the night before. He was able to maintain the crosshairs there as they walked. When the buck got to 200 yards Matt stopped the buck and Tyler made the shot followed by the unmistakable "whop". It was funny because being Tyler's first hunt he instantly said "He is getting away, what do I do". I told Tyler, don't worry he isn't going anywhere, you drilled that buck absolutely perfectly. The buck ran 20 yards and flopped over. I was very impressed by Tyler's shot placement, right in the crease as if he had done it a million times. Fortunately, we were able to film the whole event as our 7 year old boys jumped around and hooted and hollered. You should have seen all their joyful smiles. We headed back to the bunkhouse and took care of Tyler's buck, ate some lunch and let the boys shoot their airguns. The plan was to let some of the other bucks from the surrounding ranches work their way on to our ranch after the shooting started. Well, that never happened. So I decided to go try and shoot that big buck in the junipers. Long story short that buck which Matt had named "Oncho" because of his wide set. Well, long story short this buck eluded us for the rest of Saturday and the first part of Sunday. Not only did the hunt end Sunday but we both had to be back at work Monday morning with an 8 hour drive to get home. I thought no prob, I'll just go shoot one of the lesser bucks and real quick and we can head out. Well, not only did no other bucks move on the ranch but there were only 6-8 bucks on the ranch total. With 4 of the bucks being shot by other hunters already we could not even locate another antelope by the time we moved out of the Junipers. With it being 2PM and Tyler being nervous about getting back late I decided to head back to the bunkhouse and get packed up. I had Matt glassing for some more goats from the bunkhouse which actually was the best vantage point on the ranch with no luck. We were saying our goodbyes as Matt was staying in NM to guide an elk hunter when I decided to peek through the glass one last time, not believing I was going to go home empty handed. Luck was on my side as I managed to locate what looked like two antelope in the trees again, 3 miles away (I really hated those trees by now!). Not seeing a buck with them at that distance I decided to drive closer and have Matt signal me in. I was able to move in to 350 yards when the does I had glassed up stepped out into an opening. No buck. I watched the two does for a couple minutes with no other antelope appearing. With the wind good, I was prepared to wait until I knew for sure there were no other goats around. Tyler and the two boys were in the truck a mile away and with each second passing I was feeling nervous that we should get on the road. Just then, a buck ran out of the trees after those does but then back behind some more trees. I snapped into the tripod and waited. Just then the buck walked back out and as he turned to go back into the trees I was already tracking him. he was slowly walking and I had all the confidence in the world making that shot as I put the crosshair on the front of his chest with the MOA's already dialed in. Squeeze, boom, whop. At the recoil I quickly got back on where he would be with nothing to look at. All a sudden 5 antelope ran out of the trees. Fortunately no buck with them. Made the walk over and my last second antelope was proudly waiting for me. I went back and got the clan. Walking up to my antelope with my son all excited was a feeling I look forward to having many more times in the future. My 10 year old has 3 tags this fall so I am beaming with excitement. Well, 8 hours later, a couple Rockstars, and a near close encounter with a "Road Elk" and we finally made it home at 2:30 in the morning only to wake up for work at 5 AM. Only one thing would cause us to torture ourselves like that..........hunting!

Have a great time and shoot a biggun!

+1 on the Canon HF20. 15X optical zoom which is more than the standard 10X in that class. You can buy them in the 600's now. They also make a nice aftermarket tripler that you can get through B & H Photo. In the 300 range. Good quality footage. Only one sensor which is not as clear as the three sensor HD cams but the 3 sensor cams will set you back 3K and it is more cumbersome to carry so you have to factor that in.

Personally, I will never do without a rangefinding binocular. It has proved invaluable many times when time was of the essence, and yes seconds do count as you know. I have owned the 10 X 42 Geovids since they were available on the market. I love them (other than the button being on the left side of course which is a problem while bowhunting or if you have short fingers). The Zeiss have the button on the right side but they are more expensive. I also use and love the Duovids. I do my initial scanning from a spot in 10X and then if needed pick everything apart under 15X. Some will argue that the edge to edge clarity with the dual power is not the same as the Swaro's or even the Leica Ultravids which is true and light transmission is even a little less. However, this is minimal in both cases and in real life hunting situation it is negligible. The benefit of having both powers in one unit is much greater. Both products by Leica offer real advantages in hunting situations that are well worth their money if you plan on buying in that price range.

Scottyboy and some others asked me to post some pics so here you go. This was my first time to Africa. Honestly, before this year I never had the itch to experience Africa......always been a North American game nut. However, we are in the process of producing a "How To" and "In the Field" video and thought this was the best way to show The Claw in its many uses. The East Cape was everything I thought it would be and more. I don't know how many times I said, " I feel like I am hunting in Mexico for coues deer", or "I feel like I am coues deer hunting only the coues deer are Kudu!". Beautiful terrain. Home for 4 nights Friend, Jim Hamberlin joined me for a 5 day hunt (for your information I recommend longer if possible to make the 24 hr one way flight more bearable!) We hunted with Pierre Moulman of Sun-Africa Safaris. We had a high def camera, GL2 with doubler, and I was doing some T and E for Cast Fire Solutions Scope Cam. This is a slick set up. It mounts on the front lens of scope and captures live video through my scope. It sees what the shooter sees. This unit was a quick ship out so it is in black and white but color units are available. We captured all our hunts on film and got some amazing footage. Editing it now (slow process). Shot my Kudu 2 hrs into the first day at 880 yds across a large canyon (no way to get closer). There were larger bulls but the outfitter said it was a good bull and he wanted to experience some long range hunting. He was impressed but I was surprised to hear about the shooting he typically encounters with his typical hunter. He said a long shot for the average hunter is 200 yds and the hunter usually misses multiple shots at that distance before he connects. This concerned me because it most likely is a reflection on lack of preparedness and attention to equipment. Neither is good in my opinion if we want to be successful or more importantly ethical and responsible hunters. Here is a still shot from the Rifle Cam of my Kudu at 880 yds right before I pulled the trigger. Nightforce NP-R2 reticle, 22X power. Next was my Zebra. Nice Stallion shot at 803 yds. Very spooky animals + travel in herds + open country (old burn) + large canyon = long shot (ideally wanted to get closer on these very tough animals but had confidence could make it happen. This was at the max distance on these big boned, dense animals. Took 3 shots in the vitals at this distance to put him down for good. Here is a still photo that Jim took sitting next to me right before I shot. The stallion is on the left. Next was my Gemsbok (Oryx). This was my favorite hunt of the trip. He is my largest respective animal (right at 40"). I wanted a bull and this bull not only had length but really massive. Made a long stalk on him and a smaller cow. 30 MPH winds. got above at 371 yds and was doing commentary before shot. Luckily I had already calculated the windage hold off on my Exbal PDA because all of a sudden they were up and running. Wind swirled. I ran out to a open peice out from the trees and quickly sat and snapped into the tripod. I had the crosshairs on the bull steadily as he ran. They stopped and Jim whispered 490. I placed my 5 MOA (~25" at 500 yds) windage hash mark on his front shoulder and squeezed. The 200 grn Accubond found its mark perfectly, shattering his front shoulder and obliterating his vitals as he was facing slightly towards. He ran staggered maybe 20 yds and flipped over. I must admit this was one of my most proud kills, definitely more rewarding than the longer shots because of the wind factor. I am always amazed at how accurate the ballistic software is if the shooter has taken the time to get the variables correct......that Einstein fella was a smart cookie. Here is still from GL2 with doubler when he was bedded at 370 yds before winding us. The Shot Here is a sequence of frames of kill: Frame just before bullet hits just in front of left shoulder First frame as bullet penetrates in front of left shoulder (notice sudden crease over shoulder as it is being broken) Frame as bullet travels through chest and vitals and lodges into back region Flopping over after maybe 20 yds of adrenaline rush (notice left shoulder broken as he begins to fall over) Next was my warthog. Shot this warrior at 150 yds standing off The Claw. This was a fun hunt as we were stalking hogs in the thick river bottoms with intermittent clearings. Nice character as his left tusk is worn. Good size for that area. Next were bushbok. Shot this guy right at dusk as he barely stepped out of the river bush into an opening of our last evening there. We knew this guy was a buck as their coloring is dark brown compared to light brown of females but didn't know how big. Really wanted one so shot him at 370 yds, heart shot. Not big but they are pretty animals. Here are a couple more pics for fun. Was a great time and can see why it is addicting. Very happy that we did not miss nor wound or loose any animals and between Jim and I we shot about 20 animals. Will definitely try and get back someday. This really was like hunting in coues deer heaven for African game so if anyone is interested in this style of hunt just contact me and I can give you Pierre's (Sun Africa Safaris) contact info. You won't be sorry. Culling Springbok Glassing for Zebra Mountain Tortoise, He lived

Those are toads. Can you imagine how big they would look if those bucks were photographed with today's methods......u know the arms straight out or sitting behind the animal (guilty as charged) lol.

Good Job, Christian.

Great job on a great bull. Congrats to all involved!

Give Matt Woodward of Borderland Adventures a call. He is a sponsor of CouesWhitetail as well. Very good hunter, knows elk, very flexible in guide packaging, and truly the salt of the earth type guy. If you or your dad call him you will know what I mean. And he won't sub guide him out. His phone number is 520-820-4728. His web address is www.borderlandadventures.com