Ron G.

Congats on the nice buck and thanks for posting the great write up and pictures! Sounds like an awesome, hardcore hunt. Great job!

Very nice! A big congrats to your mom!

Congratulations Ashley on a great buck! Thanks for posting the story and pics!

A big congratulations goes out to Tyler and Tanner! Way to go guys! Great story and pictures, as always.

Awesome buck and great story! I think it is great that you used your bow!

Great video and congrats on an awesome buck!

Congratulations Josh! Awesome pictures and story. Heck of a season for you this year! The history you have with this buck is very cool! Ron

Very cool pics! I wonder if it's lion friends think it is being unethical by sitting water to hunt???

One of mine also broke after about 6 months. I called Leica and they sent me two new ones, free of charge... Ron

Outdoorsmans has a mount that will do this, but at close to $300 it seems an expensive way to do it... I have no personal experience with the adaptor, have only seen it online...

Come on GH, as long as it is from swaro, it will probably be at least $100. They have a reputation to uphold! This does look interesting. I'm currently researching cameras as my current digital camera seems to be faltering. I'm looking at a couple of the new ultra zooms (18x optical) that are out there. I figured I could hold off on a spotting scope and digiscoping setup if I went with an 18x optical zoom camera. Find something in the 15's I want to take a picture of, and then swap out the binos for the camera. No more taking pictures through the binos. Probably wouldn't get me as close up a view as a digiscoping setup, but will be better than what I have now. This may change my thinking as my main concern with the 12-18x digital cameras is the size. I like my little pocket digital camera's size.

Someone out there makes a product you can put on your ground blind that is supposed to keep rodents from chewing it up. I can't remember where I saw it though... Maybe the double bull site? I know I wasn't much help, but there is supposed to be something out there for this.

Thanks for the update David! Good luck this weekend! Ron

Congrats on a great bull! Hunting with friends and the excitement is what it is all about!

What a great elk! Congrats to all. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome bull! Great job guys!

My buddy had one of those on his elk hunt. It worked slick for taking off the hide and made it easy for swapping out blades when one got dull. Wasn't the best for de-boning the meat, but for the basic task of field dressing and quartering it worked well. Those hook blades would probably make it better... I use a Case Mako folding lock blade knife I got when I was 9 or 10. It has worked well for me and can get through 1-1.5 deer before getting dull... Ron

Was up helping out a couple of buddies on their hunt this past weekend. Fri am they were bugling all morning, and even heard some throughout the day. Fri evening they were bugling pretty good too. Sat am they were screaming, and Sat evening was quiet until about 10 mins before dark, then they fired up pretty good. Sunday am they were really fired up and seemed to be rutting pretty good. Heard some fights while we were hanging out on the outskirts. I had to leave Sunday pm to come back home. It actually surprised me with how warm it was that they were so fired up. The general thought for the weekend was if they were cowed up they would scream back at you, but wouldn't leave the cows to come find you. Lone bulls came running in to the cow call...

Congratulations on a great bull, Josh! You made it sound way too easy!

Amanda, it was good to meet you last night and the clinic was a lot of fun. Good job to all who put in time and effort on it. Ron

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

Good luck Christian! Can't wait to see the pics! Have fun and take lots of pictures and video! Ron

It is my understanding the whole reason they chose the 20% ratio of archery success to rifle success is because 20% of the hunters are archery hunters, and the other 80% are rifle hunters. The archery hunters were harvesting too many deer, thus rifle tags would have to be cut, but since there is more of a demand for rifle hunters, they needed to reduce the archery take. Increased archery success means there needs to be a way to manage the archery success in certain units, thus the moving towards the draw for archery deer in some units. Not saying I agree, just saying. If additional rifle hunts meant more rifle harvests, that would help archers keep opportunity by reducing the % harvest to below the 20% ratio. I haven't reviewed the numbers, but it sounds like the G&F was able to add rifle tags (opportunity) without increasing the overall rifle harvest. Once again, the archery harvest has increased, so the need was perceived to limit archers (archery success).

I guess by stretching #7, trail cameras could fall under #7. Hopefully the lawyers will never have to argue it, although all of us armchair lawyers have and probably will for a long time. I personally don't feel that trail cameras fall under #7 above. Trail cameras allow me to see what is in the area, usually day or night. I still have to decide where to put a camera, and where and how to hunt the area. Seeing animals on a camera only really allows you to know what is in the area and what your quarry looks like. I personally don't have time (due to work, family, and other obligations) to sit and either glass an area or sit and observe a water hole or salt* for days on end to see what animals are in the area. Believe me, I wish I did! Trail cameras are actually a lot more work than I originally expected. I find myself going up and scouting the area and checking the cameras a lot more than I ever did before I had cameras. The anticipation of seeing what is on the camera is almost as exciting as the hunt itself. Do trail cameras give someone an advantage by being able to put several in different areas and monitor them vs one person only being able to glass or sit a single area? Maybe, but when it comes down to it, the single person can only hunt a single area. They are effective in helping decide where a person will hunt and determining the 'trophy' quality of the area. I personally don't feel using cameras doesn't violate fair chase as described by Pope and Young. That is my interpretation. In reading #7 above, using a range finder or bino/range finder combo seems to violate fair chase chase 'rule' #7. Baiting or hunting over water seems (to me) less fair chase than trail cams, but I didn't see that listed unless it falls under #8. I think if legal in an area, it is solely personal preference, and nothing wrong with it. I'm still up in the air with radios, so I won't really touch on that. I can see it both ways in regards to fair chase. That is my 2 cents, and is solely personal opinion. I reserve the right to change my opinion at any time...

Awesome job! Great story and pictures!