Flatlander

Happy Birthday to one of the nicest guys around! You do it the right way TJ.

Seriously. I have seen some awesome muley's just yards from the golf course. Great archery spot.

Well this weekend was another week of bench and map work. I was able to get out and shoot the muzzy at 200 yds this week. While at the range I learned the importance of checking and double checking equipment when dealing with a muzzleloader. After getting set up on the bench I got two pellets and a sabot down the tube, when I went for my priming tool I couldn't find it. I rmeembered using my spare at the range last time and must have left it in the pocket of my pants. Try as I might I could not get that 209 into the breech with my bare hands. Well crap, now what do I do? Down the line aways was another black powder shooter. I inquired of him if he had anythign that would work. I was amazed as he opened up a rolling toolbox of possibles and dug through it drawer by drawer. He didn't have a priming tool so I was relegated to using a pair of surgical tongs to insert and remove the primer before and after each shot. I was happy he was the re to save my bacon. My time was reduced due to the unexpected delays but i was happy with the results. I did a little more tweaking with the scope and feel like I now have it right where I want it to be. One more trip to the range ought to do the trick, but first a trip to the supply house for two new priming tool is in order.

Next week guys. How come nobody ever listens to me.

This is not what I took away fromy discussions with them a couple weeks ago. My understanding is that they are now free to hire their own contractor to do the work but are not performing the work in house. I could be wrong but I'm usually not Regardless it does appear to be operating smoother now than in the past. I am still guessing Tuesday. Sounds like someone needs to set up a contest.

Game and fish is not doing the draw in house yet.

No

Coach, I think these guys were referring to deer tags. From the sounds of it you drew a late rifle bull elk tag. Don't feel too bad, that's still going to be a fun hunt, especially with your boys along.

Wishing this was a LA . . . Bummer

Classy move! This site is fantastic. That good karma may not be a good sign for the Devils this year.

This is the number one piece of advise all draw consultants give, you can't win if you don't play. I am the person you described to a tee. But with such poor odds for sheep there is just no room to not have your name in the hat every go around. Think of it this way, if your odds are 1% and you apply 35x in your life, there is a 1 in 3 chance you will draw at some point. If half those years you only buy a point, those odds become 1 in 6. The bonus points don't do a lot to help you until you hit the bonus pass which is not achievable at this point for you and I. For example a person with one off max points has no better than 3% odds for any sheep tag in the state. Whereas someone with only 10 points has closer to 1%. Long story short, you need to apply every year possible if you want a shot at getting the hard tags whether it be lope, early bull tags, the strip, kaibab, dec whitetail, etc

A lifetime license would have fixed that problem. I didn't buy one when I left for college and it was a dumb decision. If I ever leave the state again it will be a no brainer.

Bear

What size?

And it's just one loyalty point per species. You do not receive a loyalty point for each 5 consecutive year period you apply for.

No, I enjoy hunting no matter what it is. But I don't get excited for mule deer hunting the way I do for whitetail hunts. But this fall I am looking forward to anxious comversations anticipating the possibilities of our hunt. It's been a long time since we had that. And I have never in 20 years of hunting been with my Dad when he killed an animal. I can hardly wait.

They must not be done, I haven't been hit for a sheep tag yet.

My old man drew a tag and his points haven't changed. They typically don't update those till after the draw results are posted. Not that I would know, I don't think I have ever had a single bonus point for deer other than loyalty and Hunter Ed.

For the first time in 10 years my Dad, brother and I will all have the same hunt. It's the only thing that could make me excited about hunting carp.

Alaskan guide 6 man. Not the easiest to set up but I have done it many times by myself.

Looking forward to seeing folks there tonight.

The only thing I know about coues deer is that they are where you find them. Last year I found wt bucks down in the flats while I was hunting Muley's. It was august. I had never seen them there before but they just sort of seem to show up when you don't expect it.

Hunt harder must have some kind of sixth sense for judging horn. The intact side went 82.5" (including the 3" extra). So if left matched right, which it doesn't, that much I can see, but if it did and we added a 24" spread it would put the total at 189". By far my best pickup.

A little bit of everything. Cool pics.

This hunt is providing me with a countless number of new opportunities. This is the first antelope hunt I have participated in since 2001 when I had an archery tag, its in a new unit, and I am hoping it will be my first muzzleloader harvest. I have been learning the ropes of smoke pole hunting since 2012 when I traded a backpack I won in a "Guess the Draw Date and Time" contest for a CVA Magbolt 150. I swapped out the straight 2x tasco scope with a Leupold Ultimate Slam 3-9 SABR reticle. Last week I took the rig out to the range to start dialing in the ballistics reticle with the recommended loads. It took me over 3 hours at Rio Salado to send 28 rounds down range, and get dialed in at 100 yards. It was a long hot afternoon and I am pretty sure my palm is permanently scarred from pushing ttsx sabots down the tube, but I couldn't be happier with the end results: After some long nights studying maps, Google Earth and two pages of notes gathered from cwt members advice I was prepared to head back up the mountain with my two little helpers. As we arrived in the unit we were treated to a high country downpour. There is nothing like the smell in the mountains after a good shower. Our first stop was to check into a new vantage point over looking some of the country we had looked at on our last trip. Before we could even get out of the truck we were greeted by this buck feeding near the road: After letting the boys watch this buck for a few minutes we set up the glass and watched several more groups of antelope feeding between rain showers. There were plenty of bucks, in fact it seems like does are hard to find. We found several mature bucks int this group: When we drove out we found this brute hanging out in another group of 6-8 bucks. We made a few more stops with nothing more to show for it than a few does and an endless string of orange fence posts. After driving 40 miles on a FS road we made our way to a section of grassland surrounded by juniper mountains all around. This is my favorite country to hunt so I was excited when we turned up a couple of bucks after just a few minutes behind the Gold Rings: The highlight of the day came when we headed across the valley to a nearby hill to see if we could locate anymore lope, as we started walking I thought to myself that I should keep my eyes peeled for sheds because this looked like horn country. 30 yards later I stumbled onto the biggest mule deer shed I have ever picked up. With a storm closing in I told the boys to keep moving while I looked for the other side. No sooner were the words out of my mouth when I heard my 5 yr old son Hunter shout "Daddy I found one too!" The other side was only about 10 yards away. Hunter was so excited to pick up his own antler, he packed it around the rest of the day. I am the world's worst shed hunter, with my lack of achievements in this redneck endeavor only being rivaled by my lackluster pig hunting record (don't ask, its too embarrassing to speak of), so I was coming out of my shoes excited about my first matched pair being a father/son effort, the set being such an awesome pair was icing on the cake. Unfortunately the left side had its fronts licked off by other critters. Later this week I will put a tape to the in tact right side and come up with a good faith estimate of what he would score, any one venture a guess? Our plan was to travel a FS road from this location into the next valley over and loop back to the highway. Unfortunately 4 miles down the road we ran into a familiar fence marked with orange posts and had to turn back. This turned our return trip home into a 6 hour affair. But fortunately we were able to make the most of the trip and get a look at portions of the unit we had not yet put eyes on. It ended up paying dividends as we were able to find lots of country to scout on future trips, and if the pressure gets hot on the bucks we already have located, we know we have somewhere to go during the hunt. I can hardly wait to get out again. But between now and then I have some additional range work to do to get comfortable out to extended distances. Thanks to all the members who have provided insight and information in relation to this hunt. There is no way I could have gotten up to speed without you guys.