Is it too late to get in your big buck contest??  Just kidding. 

Anyway I just returned from the AZ Strip hunt after 15 years of applying. Conditions were tough, two snowstorms, rain, full moon, and alot of wind. The deer were starting to rut a little but it was spotty.

I passed on a couple of 200" bucks on opening day then it got really tough with the weather. This buck quit hitting the water catchment two weeks before the hunt started. We finally found him on the last day of the hunt.

He was sneaking down into a deep canyon where it looked like he'd been living for a while. I shot him going through the brush when my guide doe called him and he looked up at us.  He was in the bottom and we were 360yds away at the top of the canyon head. 

He scores 239 6/8"  34" wide with a 221" frame and 44 4/8" of mass. And he has only a 4 1/2" G4 on the left side and 1" of G1's (eye guards) If he had normal length on those things he'd be close to 260". The right side horn scores 116 4/8" by itself. We worked pretty hard to get this buck and I couldn't be happier. The strip is a pretty tough place to hunt under good conditions so this year was extremely tough.

Take care,

John

This story came to me and I'm posting it, but at the same time I have some real concerns given the fact that in the one picture below it looks like the cougar is wearing a collar and not a tracking collar.

Bow season Cougar & Elk

From my friend Rick

So a cougar will attack an elk that is bigger, stronger, and faster than any human, a big dog and sidearm for outdoor walks may be good company.

These were taken by a friend of a guy I work with up near Waldo lake (above Oakridge about an hour and a half from Elkton) last Saturday.  They were calling this Bull to them when out of nowhere this cat comes in and jumps on the Bulls ass!  While the bull was busy trying to get the cat off his backside, Sam's buddy sticks the cat with an arrow.  The cat rolled off the bull, ran about 30 yards and piled up.

The bull, obviously shaken, stands there wondering what has just happened,
as Sam's buddy puts an arrow through him next!  True story!!  The bull runs about 75 yards and falls over.  Double lung on the bull, and right through the ticker on the cat.  Now that's a braggin' rights story if I've ever heard one.

It was a nice bull, and Sam said it was a HUGE cat (you can see this from
the picture).  His buddy who is holding the cat in the photo, stands about
6' 4" tall.  They guessed the cat was pushing 200 lbs.  For a cat to take on a mature Bull elk, you know he had to be a big one! Makes you kinda feel sorry for the bull. After just escaping a near death experience, he gets whacked by an archer, but I guess that was the original plan anyway.

This is a real good way to get shot during hunting season.  Wearing camo and carrying antlers on your back.  Ok, I'm starting to question intelligence here.

Nice chompers.

Sure looks like that cat is wearing a large "dog collar".

Well, I certainly didn't see this deer when I was back in Illinois two weeks ago.  David was hunting the same farm as I was, but he got a even more lucky than I did.

This guy from Texas fishing this week on the Big Thompson outside of Estes Park.  It was his first ever fly-fishing venture. A crowd gathered on the highway to take pictures, including a Denver Post guy. One of the pics is on the front page of the Denver post.

Whoaa!!....How cool is that, go fly-fishing and catch a bull Elk.

 

Got to Illinois a day early and went and sat in a box stand that evening.  About a half hour before the end of the day a good sized buck came out about 90 yards behind me and stayed along the ridge line in the corn field.  A very impressive sight with the sun setting behind him and illuminating his antlers and profile.  Waited until after dark to climb down out of the tree so as not to spook him and then walked back to the house.

The next morning I hunted a box blind in another field, but saw nothing worth trying to shoot so about 9 went back to the house.

During the day the wind picked up quite a bit and I wasn't really looking forward to climbing up in the tree stand again.  25 feet off the ground in a swaying tree just wasn't something I was looking forward to, but eventually Bill helped convince me that I needed to climb back up that tree and wait for my deer.



So I put my bow harness back on and climbed back up the tree.  At times the wind was really howling and while I wasn't excessively worried about the tree falling down, it was an interesting sensation, sort of like being up in a ship's mast.  I was also very worried about how I'd get off a good shot since I would be shooting from an unstable platform.

Nothing happened for the longest time until about 30 minutes before end of hunting when three does came out of the woods and started to eat in the field. Another 15 minutes went by and I was starting to think about climbing down when I looked up and there he was in the field, but behind a scraggly tree.  I could see him well, but there were a lot of branches in the way so a clear shot would be tough.

Gave it another 5 minutes and he stepped into a spot that was somewhat clear through the tree and I decided to take the shot.  Well, just as I went to shoot a gust of wind moved my tree and the tree in front of me and I hit a branch with my shot.  Strangely enough, none of the deer moved.  Guess they'd heard so many shots during the day already that one more didn't bother them.



So now began a frantic exercise in reloading a black powder rifle, yes I was shooting black powder, while swaying in a tree and hoping the whole time that my deer would stay put.  Well I got the gun reloaded in record time, the buck had actually moved about 10 feet into the clear and my next shot went through both shoulders with the results shown below. Very pleased with myself that I was able to get off that shot standing in a swaying tree.

Fun story... 

I hunted this wooded spot Sunday evening and forgot my grunt call.  No biggy I thought, calls have never worked for me anyway.  The spot is a wooded patch between a creek and an open field. A 10pt came to the creek edge at 60 yards but would not cross to my side which would put him within shooting range, less than 40 yards.  I watched helpless as he walked back into the woods same way he came. Gone.

 

Two days later, I climbed up the same tree only this time I brought the grunt call.  Sure enough, 7:30am, this 10pt came out on the other side of the creek and I watched as he made two scrapes.  However, he would not cross the creek.  As he headed back into the woods at 70 yards I hit him with a light grunt call.  Nothing.  Second try,  I hit him with a quick series of loud grunts and he stopped, turned around and started heading back toward me and the creek!  Every 5 yards or so he would stop, look nervously around, and act like he was going to bolt out the same way he came. So, at every hesitation, I hit him with another call or series of grunt calls.  Just like on TV, every time I called, he would head toward me.  Then, finally, he crossed the creek.  The buck popped up on my side stopping behind some bushes at 35 yards... no shot.  One more grunt made him re-focus in my direction and he took another 5 or 6 steps. I drew back right before he hit the shooting lane, and.... whack!, arrowed him at 22 yards.  He ran 60 or 70 yards and crashed!  The total event took about 5 minutes to play out but it seemed like an hour.  And, I was shaking uncontrollably the whole time   But isn't that what it's all about.

 

Happy Hunting --Sam

First saw him at 60 yards, called in with a grunt call to 20 yards, shot with bow by Sam Casto!