Jay Scott

The photos keep piling up from Brian's epic hunt in Unit 6A for Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. The live pics are from my new setup, Swarovski ATX 95mm and the Swarovski TLS APO adapter. The guys at the Outdoorsmans finally got me to take the leap and it is the best spotting scope I have ever used (much more to come on that in future posts). Brian's ram is 8.5 years old and has a long horn of over 39 inches. Our camp score of the ram is right around 178. I hope you guys are enjoying the pics because there are many more coming when I get home. View the full article

The photos keep piling up from Brian's epic hunt in Unit 6A for Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. The live pics are from my new setup, Swarovski ATX 95mm and the Swarovski TLS APO adapter. The guys at the Outdoorsmans finally got me to take the leap and it is the best spotting scope I have ever used (much more to come on that in future posts). Brian's ram is 8.5 years old and has a long horn of over 39 inches. Our camp score of the ram is right around 178. I hope you guys are enjoying the pics because there are many more coming when I get home. View the full article

The Arizona Unit 6A Rocky Mountain Sheep hunt came to a conclusion yesterday on opening day when Brian shot this awesome ram at 25 yards with his Elite bow. The whole hunt was captured on video. It was an honor to share this hunt with Brian and his friends and family. I am constantly reminded of how awesome Gods creation is and yesterday was no different. We have tons of video and photos to share from this hunt when we get home. We also have a bunch of people to thank for their help with this hunt and we will be recognizing them soon. View the full article

We have too many good photos of Brian's Rocky Mtn Sheep hunt so I figured I would just start posting them up. Lots more to come on this epic adventure! View the full article

Use a sled and friends for easy elk retrieval! Posted by: Janis Putelis The two best things to have on hand when you need to get an elk out of a non-motorized area are friends with backpacks and an Otter sled (though not necessary, a little snow helps). The elk was 3 miles in as the crow flies. Luckily we had an old snow covered road for 80% of the pack job. We only "packed" meat on our backs for about 15 minutes; the rest was all downhill in the sled. On top of elk steaks, my friends were rewarded with magnificent views for helping me retrieve my bull. As always, the Outdoorsman's Pack carried a load of meat and antlers without flaw. One of my favorite features is how the internal sack flips out for an easy cleaning after a bloody pack job. We use the Otter Sport sled in the small size. At 6 lbs. it's a breeze to get uphill. We've added a few holes and enlarged a couple others for our contact points. Here we are only packing 3 quarters and the antlers, but I think the sled would have tracked better if we had loaded the 4th quarter as well. Four quarters would also fill more space, snugging up the load for less shifting. We did not lash the load, but I will have a strap dedicated for that next time. It is important to have a rope connected to the rear; on the way down the brake-man is working harder than the lead. We eventually ran out of snow, but the Otter sled still slid along nicely on the grass, leaves, and dirt, but started to lose glide on the gravel. Thanks again boys! View the full article

In the previous post, I mentioned the two hunters that had the 1st hunt ( Dec. 1-15th) in Unit 6A for Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, that had harvested two very nice rams. Below are photos and video of the ram Brian and I had nicknamed "Heavy Boy". He was a really cool ram with a 39 inch left horn and a 35 4/8 inch right horn. His bases were 15 6/8. The gross AZGFD checkout score was 181 4/8. Brian had seen this ram on and off during his different scouting trips. We both captured many photographs and videos of this ram. Congrats to the hunter and his guides for such a fine trophy. The other awesome ram that was harvested had an ear tag #26. We think he was 9+ years old upon harvest. I have not seen the official checkout score but my bet is his horns are around 38 with just over 15 inch bases. Brian had some great encounters with this ram and captured some fabulous photos and video. Again congrats to the hunter and his son for sticking with it through the cold temps and getting an awesome ram. View the full article

It has been an awesome journey so far getting to experience and share in the preparation and scouting for my friend, Brian Rimsza's, Unit 6A Rocky Mtn sheep hunt in our home state of Arizona. Brian has been putting in a serious amount of work scouring the unit photographing, filming and evaluating rams. I have been able to make it up a few times as well and the hunt is coming up quick. Brian has the second hunt (Dec 16th-31st) and the first two hunters have already harvested two incredible rams. Actually both rams are bigger than what has ever been harvested in Unit 6A. Both rams are ones that we have some good history with and hours of video footage and countless photos. These rams were definitely towards the top of our list for potential candidates. As hunters, we are extremely excited for the other two hunters who have been able to share with their guides and families their hunt of a lifetime. They were both able to take home magnificent trophies and memories that will be forever etched in their minds. We are hoping to turn up a ram worthy of Brian's tag and are looking forward to the challenges that we will face along our journey. It should make for an awesome couple of weeks with a good friends. Photos below by Brian Rimsza and Jay Scott  Brian and Nicole Rimsza glassing for sheep View the full article

Janis has already weighed in on the Super Down Gear from KUIU but I thought I would throw in my two cents as well. I have been wearing the KUIU Super Down Jacket since just before the January 2013 Coues deer hunts in Sonora, Mexico. This jacket has amazed me over the last 12 months. It has an incredible warmth to weight ratio and is one of my most reliable pieces of gear. I have worn this jacket on turkey, coues, sheep, elk and mule deer hunts and even gone fly fishing with me on some of the colder mornings. This incredible little jacket only weighs 10 ounces! It goes in my backpack virtually every time I go into the hills. It is not made to be worn as an outer layer but I do it all of the time. I usually wear it while glassing once I have cooled down from the hike up to my point. This handy little jacket has a hood which I use a lot and has a left chest pocket that is great for a camera, gps or radio. The chest pocket actually turns into a stuff sack and it turns into the size of a softball. I have gotten a ton of use out of this jacket in many applications over the last year. This jacket has 2.5 ounces of 850+ Toray Quix Down. The Toray Stunner®Stretch fabric is treated at the individual fiber level with Toray’s Industry Leading Kudos DWR treatment. I love this jacket so much I will be quickly be adding the Super Down Vest and Super Down Zip T to my KUIU arsenal for those extremely cold quad rides while hunting deer in this winter. I also have to make a disclaimer: Being a desert rat I have often been known to wear an extra layer when the temps get below 60! I can't recommend the Super Down Jacket from KUIU enough. View the full article

Darr and I have been using the Outdoorsmans Binocular Adapter system now for many years. It amazes me though how many people have never heard of the handy little system. I will go as far as saying any hunter who is serious about glassing and doesn't use the system is missing the boat. It is by far the best system I have run across to attach your binoculars to your tripod. It can be used with the Outdoorsmans tripod or without. This Outdoorsmans Binocular Stud (pictured above) is one of the key ingredients that make this system work so slick. The Outdoorsmans Bino Adpater (pictured above) slips right onto the stud and can be twisted snug for a tight fit. There is actually a double locking system to insure your binoculars will not come loose. Here is a picture of the adapter attached to the stud which is apart of the binoculars. I have this system on all of my Swarovski Binoculars including the 10X42 EL Range. This system will work with almost every single major binocular on the market. If you don't use this system yet it deserves a close look. Another product that is new to my program this year is the Outdoorsmans Glassing Pad. I have been using this since elk season and love it. Not only is it great for the sitting on but the rubber type coating has some grab and is great for using it as a rifle rest. The key is it wont slide. If you have any gear questions feel free to email us or call the guys at the Outdoorsmans for more info 1-800-291-8065 We have a lot of new gear to tell you about in some future posts. We are right in the middle of our fall season and are excited about the upcoming hunts over the next couple of months. Thanks for all of the positive encouraging emails and phone calls over the last couple of months in regards to hunting and gear stuff. Good Huntin' to you guys! View the full article

Darr and I just got back from Desert Bighorn Sheep hunting in Arizona's Unit 15D with Terry Lancaster from Wisconsin. Terry harvested a sweet ram that we had seen while scouting for the 2013 AZ Raffle sheep hunt. We saw the ram several times and have lots of photos and videos of him. We had lots of rain during the hunt and was a great time to do some serious gear testing. We would like to thank Fred and Mary Ashurst, The Russ Jacoby family, Terry Lancaster and the Good Lord above for a phenomenal hunt with great friends! We have many photos to go through and will be following up this post with many more of this awesome hunt. View the full article

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Terry's ram has a 37 inch horn on the left and a broomed horn on the right of 33 4/8 inches. The AZGFD checkout score was 165 4/8 NET. Terry's ram was aged at 7 1/2 years old. This ram was a traveler for sure! We spotted him in many different parts of the unit. He seemed to wander even more than most rams while looking for hot ewes. We had a pleasure hunting with Terry because he had a go for it attitude and was ready for an adventure from the start. Terry has already completed his Grand Slam and now just needs three more for a double slam! We were joined by good friends Jacob and Russ Jacoby on this hunt and their friend Ross Reinoso. Russ had his new camera and took a lot of these great photos! Thanks Russ. The KUIU Gear once again performed like a champ and we will be giving some highlights in future posts. We will be working on the video of the hunt in the next couple of days. View the full article

Here is the video of Terry's Unit 15D Desert Sheep hunt with Colburn and Scott Outfitters View the full article

Yes it is bigger than his other desert and its another species, Nelsoni.

Thanks for all of the kind comments! Terry is truly a blue collar guy that scrimped and saved to go on every single sheep hunt. It was a reminder to me that if you want something bad enough it can happen.

Claude Warren's AZ Super Big Game Raffle Desert Sheep hunt with Colburn and Scott Outfitters View the full article

This really can't be called a gear review as much as a "Gear Praise." After stuffing the hooded Super Down jacket in and out of packs since April and just about living in the Super Down pants while spending time in camp this fall I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this set up. It's certainly not the most durable outer fabric out there (I patched my pants twice in the butt) but it's not supposed to be. It's supposed to be light, water resistant, and most importantly, warm. Even if I have to baby these two pieces a bit, it is well worth the never ending cozy feeling I get when, as darkness settles in and the first shiver crosses my mind, I'm slipping in to my Super Down. It's akin to putting on a warm hoody just plucked from a hot dryer. I first wore the jacket on a POW island black bear hunt. It performed as expected under my shell; a great insulating mid layer. But I decided to see what this waterproof down was all about. So on a drizzly 30 minute run out to some fishing grounds, I left the Super Down jacket uncovered. Almost amazing: the DWR kept the water droplets rolling off the entire run, but eventually from messing around in the boat and rubbing against wet stuff, the fabric on my forearms soaked through and the jacket looked a bit sad. So no, you can't wear it alone in a driving rain storm and stay dry. But what happened next shows how this gear and the ingredients in it really shine. I put my rain shell back on, rode out the storm and when the sun poked out, took off my rain shell to discover that my forearms were darn near dry and puffy again. The Quix down and the outer fabric had nearly dried just from the heat inside my own rain shell. With the sun now beaming, it was just ten minutes and my DOWN jacket was completely dry and puffy again. I was sold. The jacket being so light and so small when compressed, it should never be left behind on any outing. It sure came in handy on my turkey hunt in Nebraska this past spring as we chased gobblers through 6 inches of fresh snow. As a last minute thought I stuffed my Super Down jacket into the cargo pocket of my Guide pants. At sun up, the temperature was 6 deg. Not ideal for hunting toms, but hunting none the less. Adding the Super Down between two layers of wool and my Guide jacket kept me in the game, and I followed a trail of three-toed tracks right to a nice two year old gobbler. The real testing of the whole Super Down jacket/pant combo came when I traveled to interior British Columbia for work with the MeatEater crew. Over a span of 14 days, wet conditions were guaranteed. We spent a total of 9 days in the alpine, two on the river and the rest at the main camp. Of 9 alpine days, two were complete tent days due to weather, two others should have been, but the will to hunt forced us out into the crap. We did enjoy a couple magnificent blue bird days and the rest were tweeners. Overall, it was wet and my Super Down kit was dry. Enough said. Daily, both my jacket and pants were donned first thing, right out of the sleeping bag. Taken off for the mornings ascent, back on again for any glassing session over an hour (usually on some windy, rocky ledge). Off for more hiking and back on for the evening ritual of Jetboil stoves and Mountain House. Oh, and they make a great pillow stuffed inside one of KUIU's wool base layers. The ease with which the pants are put on and removed (without removing your boots) is one of their greatest features, making for quick transitions from stationary hunting/glassing to mobile hunting/hiking. Once cloaked in the hood of the Super Down jacket, one can glass comfortably in all kinds of wind and cold. Couple the Super Down jacket and pants with KUIU's Chugach rain gear and merino base layers, and you've got the finest, lightest backcountry hunting gear in the world. I've at least tested it across a little bit of North America. View the full article

I was able to spend four days on the Arizona Strip in Unit 13B with my friend Daniel Franco, from Heber, AZ, who owns and operates Burnt Timber Outfitters. Daniel drew the Holy Grail of deer tags and made the most of it! Daniel hunted with Brec Bundy of MDA Outfitters. What an awesome camp and great group of guys! Keep checking their sites for more pics and the story of Daniel's awesome AZ Strip Buck. Congrats to Daniel and Brec for their success. View the full article

By Darr Colburn Parker and I joined our good friend Dan Bright for some shooting this weekend. Parker and I needed to try out a couple new loads for the Weatherby 30-378, 257 Weatherby and 240 Weatherby. Dan needed to make sure his Weatherby 257 was ready for his Mexico coues deer hunt. We got an early start hoping to get some shooting in before the wind picked up. We all took a few shots at 100 and 300 yards to make sure the rifles were still sighted in. Dan has a steel gong that we put out at 700 yards. It is really a lot of fun shooting at the gong and listening for the "ding". Long range shooting is great practice and makes 300-500 yard shots seem close. I look forward to doing more shooting this spring after hunting season is over. 257 Weatherby on the left and 30-378 Weatherby on the right View the full article

Posted by Jay ScottThe Swarovski 12X50 EL Binoculars have been a piece of gear that I have been pondering over for some time. Once I got them in my hand the excitement grew exponentially. I used them over the weekend while scouting for Arizona Desert bighorn sheep and was very impressed with the clarity around the edges and the crisp bright image that I have grown to love with Swarovski Optik. I have been using Swarovski Optiks for years so it wasn't like I was shocked with how good they were but they seemed impressive for my initial testing. The images through the 12's definitely seemed brighter, the field of view was great and the shortest focal point on the 12's is about 10 feet. A couple of important comparisons to point out between the 15X SLC (which I love) and the new 12X50 EL; First, field of view on the 12's is 300 feet at 1000 yards compared to the 15's at 231 feet at 1000 yards. Second, weight on the 12's is 35.5 ounces compared to the 15's at 45.5 ounces. Third, length of binoculars, 12's are 6.8 inches compared to the 15's at 8.47 inches. One of the most important things that I look for in a binocular is low light performance. I have not been able to test that out yet but will in the very near future. I did not get a chance to hand hold the 12's enough to make an accurate assessment as to how practical that will be. For now I have to say the 12X50's might be bumped up into the starting rotation. I will keep you informed as I do more testing. Thanks to the guys at the Outdoorsmans in PHX for all of their help on these binoculars. View the full article

Here are some more photos of Claude Warren's awesome Desert Bighorn sheep hunt. The "Flathead Ram" is truly a very special sheep. Once the 60 day drying period is up, he could likely tie for the 2nd largest Nelsoni ram ever harvested in Arizona. I have been wearing the Zamberlan KUIU Pamir boots lately. They are a very stiff technical boot but every time I wear them I like them better and better. I am still in the breaking in process but these boots are quickly growing on me. The guys at KUIU and Zamberlan have really come up with a great design for maximum performance and foot support. View the full article

Great bucks as always from the Ground Pounder crew! People don't realize how much time you guys put in to your trade. Keep it up fellas and keep pounding them!

sorry I forgot to answer the unit question. Believe it or not this ram was harvested in Unit 15D. It is the largest ram to ever be harvested out of there. Quite the needle in the haystack for sure.

Sorry guys I had to choose between getting video of the shot or helping spot the ram and ranging him etc. I chose to get the ram and miss the kill shot. I need to start carrying two tripods. One for video and one for binoculars. Most of the time we get the shot but not in this case. It happened to fast for my liking this time but you win some and lose some. Trust me, we were as disappointed as you guys for not getting the harvest on video. Had a great time with Claude and it was just a blessing to see a ram of this magnitude.

Here are some photos of Claude Warren's incredible Nelsoni Desert ram. Claude had drawn the coveted AZ Super Big Game Raffle Desert Sheep Tag. We found this ram 14 days before he was harvested and nicknamed him "The Flathead Ram". We were able to capture some decent video of him and knew that he was a ram very worthy of Claude's pursuit. The only problem was that Claude was over 3000 miles away in his home of Saco, Maine. He was able to adjust his plans and arrive about a week later. We had originally planned to start hunting on November 8th but with the Flathead sighting things were accelerated. The ram then gracefully disappeared and Darr and I were searching high and low for him. Many days we were joined by our good friend Fred Ashurst who has a great eye for spotting sheep. The sheep were sporadically rutting and the rams were moving around a great distance. We would see certain rams then see them miles away the next day. Darr and I had a fantastic time with Claude looking for this ram. We filmed and documented a bunch of rams over those days. It would be a lie to say that doubt didn't creep in our minds that he may be buried in some inaccessible country. We hoped he would show his face again and he fortunately did. This ram is certainly one of the largest Nelsoni rams ever harvested. We would like to thank Claude for having such a energetic youthful spirit during the hunt and putting his trust in Colburn and Scott Outfitters with this coveted tag. We have made a lifelong friend in Claude. I would like to thank Darr Colburn for his relentless diligence, persistence and tenacity. His spirited heart and hunting skill are what make him the best hunting partner and business partner I could ever ask for. Darr and I would like to thank Fred and Mary Ashurst for their continued friendship, support and hospitality. We have many more photos and video of this ram that we will be posting soon. Tale of the Tape- Score on a ram like this is for the birds anyway but here is the scoop because I have received many emails with people wanting to know. The Arizona Game and Fish Department scored the ram at 183 1/8 gross. His right horn measurements are 39 5/8, 15 7/8, 15 1/8, 10 3/8, 9 7/8=90 7/8 and his Left horn measurements are 38 1/8, 16, 15 1/8, 13 5/8, 9 3/8=92 2/8. The chip on his right horn just happens to fall right in the middle of his 2nd quarter measurement and he loses over 3 inches. Its amazing to think this ram would gross over 186 if the chip were in a different part of the horn. The reality though is that all sheep have chips and scars on their horns. I think the chip gives the ram some incredible character and is just part of this awesome story and adventure View the full article