Coach

That's awesome Pine Donkey. What a stud buck, and to have your sons out there working hard and putting to use all the things you've taught them is icing on one heck of a sweet cake. Huge congrats. We see a lot of dads helping out the kiddos, it's nice to see it come full circle.

That's a great hunt. Nice write up too. That's real hunting and getting it done with a well placed shot. Nicely done, and huge congrats.

Sowats Point, Indian Hollow, The gooseneck, bone hollow - off the roads two ridges further than where everyone is.

Nice, they all look good, but the Browning Buck looks really sharp. Great work.

Here's the *pumpkins* the boys turned out tonight. Pretty fun. Josh, my youngest loves the ducks. Nick and I did the Spartan Helmet. "Come and get them". Matt took on a more ambitious "punkin". The Jagerbomb. It's the Jagermeister deer with 2 bulls colliding.

goinhuntn, I feel your pain. I don't know what it is about AZ that people treat public land the way they do. Before I go on a graphic tirade about the horrible messes I find all over this state, I want to thank you for two things. First, for being that guy who cleans up the messes you didn't create, and secondly for bringing it up publicly. Between hunting and my family's love of hiking, canyoneering and exploring, I've been all over AZ, NM, CO and UT. Compared to our neighbor states AZ has a totally different culture when it comes to littering and respect for the land. I've been all over neighboring states and in Colorado and Utah, especially, people just don't throw beer cans out the window, dump whatever, wherever. NM is also noticeably cleaner. Any road that is easily accessible in AZ is littered on both sides. Two-track roads near any small town have full-on dumps where someone dumped couches, carpet, building materials, you name it. But the camp sites - just blow my mind. The mess left behind where people camp and fish and hunt - it's like they are going to be there once, and expect someone to come behind them and clean up when they are gone. The trash is awful, but the way they can't manage to handle the sanitary aspects, I just don't get it. Toilet paper, feminine products, diapers, I've seen where campers pulling out around Greens Peak and Big Lake literally dump their black tanks either in camp or driving out - raw sewage. I sure wish there was a way to fix it, but when people have that mentality that they are in some of the most beautiful country on earth and choose to trash it because they are too lazy, complacent or cheap to clean up after themselves, I don't see it getting better. I hope people will adopt the attitude that you leave each place better than you found it. Not only pack your mess out, clean up what the slob before you left, and maybe, finally, someone will not say, "heck there are beer cans all over the road, I may as well toss mine out too" or "it was already a mess when I got here, no sense in cleaning up before I leave." If we all make it as pristine as possible, maybe it will be harder for someone to be the first to disrespect it.

Nice job. Bucks like that take a lot of work and a lot of persistence. Huge congrats for putting in the time and energy to do it right.

Love it! Great job girls.

Sweet first buck, Orlando!

Awesome buck, Draysen! That will keep you coming back for more. Love these kids out there Getting it Done!

Nice job Scott. Every year it seems you push yourself a little and each time you come up with these great bucks, whether it's your hunt or your sons' hunt. Huge congrats - I know you work at it hard, you're always humble, passing along the art of the hunt, and always sharing some cool adventures.

Saw a nice one in Heber around $4k. Wish I could take it home.

Sweet double!

Nice - that's a beautiful buck. Great times with family and tagging that brute - that's awesome.

Bad a$$ buck right there. Nice job.

Very nice buck, and good shooting. Congrats!

Very awesome. tarandjr - you rock.

Prayers sent. He sounds like an amazing man, and I feel for your family for his loss. I hope it helps that he touched the lives of many others.

Kinda goes both ways, IMO. Young hunters typically have trouble staying on with heavier triggers, or ones with creep. On the other hand, it takes some experience to shoot something under 2#. I like the accu-trigger and similar type triggers for kids because they get to feel the pull right to where it breaks, but they are safer (IMO) than just a straight light trigger.

I'm a big fan of the .300 WSM. It's just a great all-around rifle. Mine is a Savage 14 American Classic in dark stained walnut with a medium contour matte-finish barrel. I haven't seen another one like it, but it's my go-to rifle. I have a friend who is an eye doctor and really likes putting together nice rifles - he does a lot of custom wood work and is meticulous when it comes to putting together a great shooting gun. He's also a Zeiss dealer so no rifle goes without a good scope. He let me borrow his .300 WSM for my 2 sons' youth deer hunt, and I have to say it was one of the sweetest setups I've shot. The gun was a Tikka T3 light in stainless that he had a muzzle break put on by a guy in Heber that matched the barrel perfectly. The same guy did a cerakote coating on the barrel and action in a light gray. It's got a DNZ one-piece scope mount, Zeiss conquest scope with the Rapid Z 800 reticle. I think he paid around $200 for the break and another $100 for the cerakote and simm's recoil pad - but got a little break on the scope, being a dealer. Overall I'd guess he has around $1300 into this gun and it is just about everything you could want in a gun. Light, accurate, crisp trigger, moderate to light recoil, especially for a .300 magnum and all the benefits of the high BC of 30 caliber bullets.

I hunted the Whetstones about 10 years ago with a buddy from work who grew up in Tucson and had hunted there his whole life. On the way in, BP had 3 or 4 guys in cuffs along the road. We set up camp an the next morning saw smoke where we had driven in. We found out later it was a fire intentionally started near the guy's ranch that had turned in the ones we saw being arrested. Later in the hunt we glassed up several strings of illegals and spent most of our time coordinating BP. The ones we spotted were glad to be found as they were out of water and desperately in need of help. Not how I like to spend my time out hunting, so I haven't been back since. It was nice country though. I've done some backpack hunts close to the border in some areas that are known for smuggling and had a lot of BP presence - the old "smuggler's route" area. Never saw an illegal while in that area but didn't get much sleep either. It's kind of weird when you are out there alone miles from the closest road but smuggling trails around you. Especially when some coati are rustling around your camp in the middle of the night.

Man, that is a great looking buck. Huge congrats! You definitely know how to hunt big bucks.

Prayers sent. Best wishes to your Grandmother and your family.

Happy Birthday, Amanda. I hope you are out celebrating with good friends and great food tonight.

That freakin' rocks! Good eating too! Thanks for sharing.