GreyGhost85

According to this sites Tony Mandile...trail cams are huntings next perversion you don't need to run your own trail cams when you pay for guided hunts. people don't want them banned, they just don't like that people other than their high priced outfitter, have enough ambition to get out there and set up their own cameras

it was a weasel. nothing more, nothing less. i've seen a dozen or so, and they can vary quite a bit in color with really any mixture of brown/yellow, turning white in the winter.

Man, that last bull has got to have close to 60" main beams.

I'm pretty confident that all trail cam users, novice and seasoned, get a fait amount of pictures of themselves during setup. your camera should be able to take thousands of photos on a single SD card. unless it takes you half a day of tinkering to get it just right, don't worry about the few pics it might take of you in the process. personally I almost like that mine take photos of me setting them up. let's me know that they are working and taking photos before I walk away

I wish AZGFD would make expandable broadheads illegal for elk. stick with a standard, tough broadhead design. slick tricks are great. why shoot something that you cannot be 100% sure will do it's job on a tag that only comes around a few times in your lifetime? you have enough things working against you in the elk woods. you need to eliminate every potential problem that you CAN control. there are a million things that can go wrong that you do not have control over.

i picked up two of the stealth cam skout 7mp cameras and ran them. i could not be happier. they took great pictures and didn't seem to miss any animals. night pictures were good as well. one camera had 1500 pics, the other about 900. both still had full battery life. i picked them up on sportsmans guide for about $70 each. i'm going to have to pick up a few more

i have 3 covert cameras and have nothing but problems with them. i had all three of them out for about 8 weeks when i checked them this weekend. they took around 3000 pics each in the first day of nothing and died. i have been running trail cameras for 10+ years, and i am VERY particular about poining them to the north, shading them if possible, removing everything that could cause false triggers, etc. i have a couple stealth cams, wildviews and wildgame innovations and have zero problems with them. i will never use or purchase another covert cam. they are over priced and unreliable. my cameras are a 5 hour drive away and all a mile-plus hike in. nothing like wasting all that time and money to retrieve a camera with nothing useful on it. i have not tried to the trick about taping up the sensor, but when i spend $150 on a camera, i feel like i shouldn't have to modify it to make it work properly

I'm guessing he is not a cactus buck (male deer without testicles that never sheds it's antlers, or velvet) being that his right antler is hard horned. maybe he damaged his right pedicle so that he cannot shed that antler, or posssibly sustained a testi injury just in the last year or so? never seen anything quite like him. hopefully you get more pics downthe road to see if he sheds that right side, and see what that mess on the left turns into.

How long do they hit cards for? seems like it's been as long as a few days in the past? Is there any correlation to how early you get hit, to what choice you drew? It seems to me like the earlier i get hit, the higher the choice i get drawn for, and the ones that get hit in days to follow are 3rd, 4th, 5th choice tags? i got hit for deer very early yesterday.

Can you remove the head that comes on it? yes, there is some threadlock on it, but it comes off. i made a trail camera mount out of the ball head that came on it. the adapter is 1/4x20 and the head i use is 3/8, so i used a helicoil for the adapter. works great, and fits in the spotting scope tube on my eberlestock

i use a vortex summit SS. it is lighter than most carbon fiber tripods and packs down to a TINY size. i use it with my 15's and have not had any complaints whatsoever. it is also plenty sturdy. i use a manfrotto 700rc2 head with mine. the whole setup costs around $200 and weighs under 3lbs. could not be happier. many of my hunting buddies have switched from much more expensive setups to these

i agree with desert bull. deer will hit a salt as soon as they find it, but takes a year, or even more for the animal to make that salt lick part of it's routine. the longer they have been established, the better they seem to get. In my opinion, animals do hit them more after the salt has totally dissolved into the ground, as opposed to standing salt. you also need to maintain them. salt licks that i have made all get probably around 200lbs of salt a year for the first couple years at least

3 wounded elk in one year? should have burned the tag after the first one.

i videod my friend shooting a corsican ram in the shoulder with a rage broadhead, 2 blade older style. he shoots a fast bow, and was pushing a 400grn arrow around 320fps. sheep was 46 yards away, and the broadhead bounced off. it broke the shoulder just from the shock, but zero penetration. the video was on youtube and he got so many threats from Rage reps that he pulled it off when it had around 100k views.. i personally have never shot an expandable. there are enough things that can go wrong in that moment of truth, why shoot something that you cannot be 100% positive that it will do it's job?

i have been utilizing trail cameras for 10+ years. they are a lot of work, and cost a lot of money when you figure the time taken to maintain your camera areas, gas, time off, wear and tear on vehicles, batteries, memory cards etc., and there is nothing that hurts more than having a camera sitting on a new or much anticipated spot for months, only to retrieve it and discover that your camera took thousands of pictures of nothing in the first couple of days, and sat there dead for months, especially when your camera site is FULL of fresh game sign, and missed everything. i think that everyone that had spent much time using trail cameras has had this happen at some point, regardless of how much time is taken in making sure that everything is just right. i spend an hour or more setting up each camera making sure that i have everything to my liking, pointed in the right direction, grass knocked down, scent free etc. and i still get the occasional setup of useless photos. i would recommend that we start a thread on how to avoid false pictures with trail cameras, and ask Amanda to pin it. all of the veteran camera users can add their $.02 and maybe we can put an end to the false pictures. i like the electrical tape idea, and will have to try it out myself

it is possible that you're spending too much time shooting at 20 yards before you move out to further distances. your arm/shoulder could be getting fatigued. i would not think that sight color would have anything to do with it. i have shot a bow for 20+ years and the number one factor that makes me shoot good/bad on any given day is mental. if my mind is not in the right place, neither are my arrows

With all due respect Wardsoutfitters, i believe Gotcoues said it right. The reason that you are fighting this uphill battle is due to personal financial reasons. the reason the hunt dates have changed is because the G&F feels that the deer in unit 29 are being over harvested. Of those numbers that were read off, how many of the successful hunters were your clients? I remember hearing a similar discussion stemming from the G&F banning the use of baits other than straight salt. i know that the deer in unit 29 have been corn baited in your hunting areas for so long, that when someone would park near the feed sites and rattle a bucket that deer would start showing up out of the woodwork. this disrupts the natural habits of deer and they become dependent on human intervention. if the corn baiting was not so prevelant prior to the ban, i believe that the hunt dates would never have changed in the first place. what has honestly put a damper on success rates? is it the shorter seasons, or the ban of bait?

are the time stamps correct on these photos? that first one shows nov 13, and that buck is definitely starting to rut. just look at the size of the neck on him! that just seems a month or so early...

those are some big sheep for sure. what's up with that huge knot/growth on the bottom ram's nose?

well, it took a little while, but it was worth the wait. Colton Bagnoli at Bagnoli wildlife nailed it, like always. now i cant wait to get my 2010 bull back!

its gonna look funny with nearly 800" of elk on the wall and no vaulted ceilings! the form was a custom form and took quite a while to get, but i couldnt be happier with hoow it looks. my other one is gonna be the same, turned the opposite direction, no bugling, with a different head tilt. thanks for posting the link youngbuck. i think the secret is out with colton, have you seen the bone pile in his shop?

Chimi, thats a heck of a bull and something to be proud of. myself, and alot of the people on this site knows what it takes to get a bull like that. it takes a different sort of hunter to get back into the rough stuff away from roads, knock down a big ol' bull and still have the guts to haul it out. i personally have hauled out many elk in some real rough stuff. big ol bulls dont get that way from livin next to roads and dodgin' road bombers like MC. MC dont be jealous that chimmi shot a bigger elk than you have probably ever even laid eyes on. congrats on a great bull. MC, heres another couple bulls that you can lie about and make false roomers over.. Got lucky and had horses to haul out the meat on this one. carcass was picked so clean, buzzards were probably suprised 372" and 395" back to back years.

well, now that the cat's outta the bag, yeah, mine is a 19A bull...saw a lot of elk (60 or so) most cows, only one spike, and my bull

Well, i figure since it's my bull, i oughtta add a story for all of you. The main reason i put in for this hunt, is that i only had 2 bonus points (hunter ED, and loyalty) because i drew an archery tag last year and took a great bull that a lot of you probably remember. (he went a little over 370"), and it was fairly wasy to draw, the other reason is that while taking one of my friends on a hunt in the same unit 3 years ago, I saw a monster bull that never really left my mind. this is last year's bull After finding out i was drawn i was excited but also nervous because i knew how tough of a hunt this was going to be. I went through a job change around the end of september and wasnt able to scout nearly as much as i felt i needed to. Luckily i was able totake the whole hunt off and i was fairly confident that i would be able to fill my tag somehow or another. The first day of the hunt was very uneventful and humbling, only seeing one wild @$$ cow elk a mile or so away. the next morning i glassed a big heard of elk probably around 40, but they were to far to tell if any were bulls, much less a bull that i wanted to take. We spent the next about 6 hours trying to figure out how to get to where the heard was at. We found them later that evening, and they were all cows except for one spike. i went to bed that night pretty worried and the next day things only got worse. we woke up to bitter cold, howling wind and snow blowing sideways. needless to say i didnt see a thing that day, and i knew the next day i (thought) would be hunting alone for the duration. about 4:30 a.m. my friend suprised me at camp, and man was i happy to have someone else there. monday morning started out the same as the day before, about 15 degrees and really windy.. after another elk-less morning i decided to call it off around 10:00, and we ran into the closest town for a hot breakfast at and i got on the horn with some people and re-strategized for the evening. monday evening jake and myself hiked up a very steep and tall mountain that i figured would give us a good vantage point, and it did. right before dark i glassed up big bull a LOOOONNNGGG ways away, probably about 3 miles, i wasnt sure how big he was, just figured he was a heck of a bull. we watched him until dark, trying to figure out exactly where he was, and how we were going to get in there to where he was living. i was able to con another friend of mine, Forest Kirchner, into coming to help because his wife took a great bull a few days prior, and my old man, Lark, AKA .270, called and said he would be coming up the next day to help. needless to say i was excited for the next day with more help in camp and a great bull located. the next morning it took forest, jake and i quite a while to figure out exactly where the bull was and how to get in there without spooking him out. it was about 7:30 before we finally got set up glassing for the bull, much much later than i had hoped for. we sat there all day long without seeing anything but an occasional muley. my dad was giving words of encouragement whenever he could but i was gettin a little discouraged when we could'nt turn him up. the sun was starting to set, and i stood up to take my binos off my tripod and i noticed a white figure a ways across the basin that i didnt remember seeing earlier. It was my bull. jake was with me and forest was on another knoll across the way. i told jake "dont take your eyes off that bull, not even for a second! i'm gonna go try to get a bullet in him" . it was gettin' dark quick and i knew if i was gonna get him i had to make a move quick. i half hiked half sprinted for about a half mile through some of the nastiest oak brush and manzanita in the state to try to get somewhere that i could see over the brush and get a shot off. i made my way up a little ridge and finally found him again, he was just feeding and either didnt know i was there, or just wasnt very concerned about my presense. the only shot i had was a touch under 400 yards and would have to be off hand, because if i tried to lay down or sit i could see over the brush. After a couple warning shots, I was tired and nervous and I wanted to give him a fighting chance (my dad woulda shot him with his using a mirror and shooting over his shoulder trick) I connected. He was looking straight at me, and the .264 caught him just above the soft spot in his chest, and shot through his spine and into the chest. He didn’t even kick one time. It took a little while to get to the downed bull, and I wasn’t quite sure how big he was, I just knew he was big enough. When I finally got to him I let out a few hoops and hollers of elation. Forest met me at my bull where we got him dressed and snapped a few pictures. I had to leave him over night because he was a long ways back in there and we couldn’t possibly get him out at night. The next morning, Jason Rippey was gracious enough to act sick from work and bring in a few horses to haul him out. This was a great help. This hunt had about every emotion you could think of in it. The highest highs and the lowest lows. It all came together with the help of some GREAT friends and family members who were not only willing, but were glad to help. Id like to thank everyone involved, My dad Lark Hubbard, my brother Gunner Hubbard, Jason Rippey, Jake Watzke, Forest Kirchner, and Troy Burns. Without the help of these guys I would have lost my mind on this hunt. The kept me motivated and positive the whole time. When we got the elk back to camp, my dad reminded us that this was a REAL elk hunt! We hunted our tails off in the nastiest country day in, and day out, killed a great big bull in the back country on public land and hauled him out on horseback when it was all said and done. This was definitely the most rewarding hunt of my life and one that will probably always remain on the top of my all time best hunts list. Thanks to everyone once again, I hope I can repay you all for your time and hard work some day.

Nice bear! I am just curious, was it hard to get it to stop nursing before you shot it, and what did you use to clean the milk off it's lips for the picture?