Pretty pup

Thats awesome

@ludder093

Not sure.

I haven’t seen that same injured doe since.


The coyotes look well fed though.  

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That's a huge coyote.

The hunt unit is AZ 5B. Takes about 5-6 points as a resident to draw this late bull hunt.

I drew this tag with seven points back in 2017 when I got out of the Army but due to work, I could only hunt the weekend. Tag soup. I've been fortunate to have buddies draw this tag almost every year since. Collectively, we have plenty of spots and sightings of good elk but no one has killed anything bigger than a spike.

I did not have the chance to do any scouting this year but knew from the past few years, I was going to hunt the nasty canyons leading off of the higher elevations. The bull elk come down from the high stuff in the evening, water and feed, then slip back up the canyons in the morning.

Opening morning didn't produce much. I glassed two small bulls 950 yards away in the thick cedar/juniper hillside but they never stopped moving. On Saturday, I hunted a different spot at a lower elevation where you can glass the rolling hills and a burn area with my buddies. We only saw cows at sunset. Extremely frustrating because last year we had multiple bulls down low in this spot.

On Sunday morning, I decided to go solo to the hill I hunted opening day. It was 22 degrees and very quiet. Five minutes into my glassing session, I heard the rattling on antlers to my left. I glassed the opposite hillside for a few minutes but didn't see anything. I decided to get my rifle setup anyway because I knew if I spotted something, I would not have much time to shoot. I kept hearing the fighting below me and after what felt like an eternity, I glassed the unmistakable yellow body and yellow antler tips of a bull elk. There were at least two in the group with the first one I saw being larger. The larger elk was feeding and hidden by the cedar; his large frame only visible. The only spot where I would have a shot if he left his cover was 250 yards away.

I got behind my rifle and told myself I'd shoot the first bull that stepped into this lane. A moment later, my bull stepped out into the open and I put a round behind his shoulder as he stood broadside. I saw him stumble through my scope but he continued to walk uphill and out of sight. I gave it a few minutes then threw on my pack and hiked down the hill, crossed a dry creekbed, then back up the opposite hill to look for blood. Despite shooting an azimuth to where I last saw him, it still took me about thirty minutes of walking in circles to locate the bull. He ran 15 yards at most but left zero blood trail. The Hornady .30cal 200gr ELD-X had hit slightly farther back than I thought on his left side but it clipped a lung and buried itself under the right shoulder. Retained weight was approximately 108gr.

Luckily, I had my two buddies already on the way to help with the field dressing and packout. It took us three trips each to the truck and I ended up dropping off 200lbs of meat at the processor on Monday morning and taking 20lbs+ of heart and backstrap home.

I couldn't have asked for a more impressive bull elk as my first.

Got some shooting in this morning.

Nice!  Specs on the rifle?

I got out last weekend and was able to get one pheasant. Should have gotten a mallard but wasn’t quick enough when the jumped out of the creek.

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Bushmaster LR308 ORC. Factory barrel and upper, Apex gator grip FF tube, adjustable gas block, Cav A1 stock with rifle tube and buffer, PA 4-14 FFP, CMC trigger. Shoots well, kinda not light but no tracking required.

.450 Bushmaster, bang/flop. Attached File

Ellie retrieving a giant honker yesterday, and relaxing in the bow of the boat after a hard days work, on the way to the ramp.

And, not retrieving this one, Dad

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Looks like a dog that loves the hunt though!

She is a machine at 3

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Daughter’s at 183 yards. 16” AR. Have it on video so just IM and I’ll send it to you. Lots of snowplowing and acrobats.

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100 yard with 10.5”. 60gr NBT.

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271 yds. 450Bushmaster

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Nice buck, and a great shot!

The brow tines look like they have a bit of a forward hook to them, the one I put on the wall a few years ago had similar.

Mine was no monster, but he was a nice 8, my first antlered deer, shot the first hour of the first season IA allowed rifles in over 50 years. So many firsts in one deer he had to go on the wall. Your daughter's looks like he has a bit wider spread.

Seems like a long-ish shot for a .450. Well done.

It shoots really good,rangefinder was the key.

Tagged out opening day of IL gun season.

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damn. Got the mom and the baby

My first bow kill on Halloween weekend

Lot of mass in that rack! Great first.

Thank You, I started saddle hunting this year and I'm hooked.

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13 year old son got his first deer this weekend. He made a near perfect shot at 60 yards with a Ruger PC Carbine and Buffalo Bore 115 gr +p+. I think he's hooked, and I think I lost this carbine.

It kind of is.  I've got a VX5 with a Leupold Custom Shop elevation dial that I've played with out to 300 yards.  Furthest I've shot a deer was in the 270 range I think.  Still flipped him down a hill and stone dead at the bottom of it.

I have a VX6 but haven't put in for the CDS. Does it seem to work pretty well?

Yeah, if you can hit your target, it's a hammer. I gave my .45-70 the season off this year and used .450 myself. Both of the deer I shot came in within bow range though.

Lol. Hard to tell, but one is a nice size 9pt, the other a doe.

You're an asian woman who talks about herself in the 3rd person?

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No trophies this year but I filled my freezer and proved an Outback can haul three deer.  

With pics of the patented one-man-loading technique I learned on ARF, and the results of the white-knuckle drive home through whiteout conditions.

eta:  I got the little one with my single shot Henry brass receiver 44mag, irons at 75yards, perfect double-lung.  I already had two hanging so decided to take the Henry out - my first kill with it.

Beautiful buck

Added #4, I don’t have a big enough freezer for 4 deer so I’m going to split this one with my old man and can the whole thing.

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Looks like a monster of a doe!

Love seeing kids this early in the process too.

Got this 6 pointer today. Attached File

I saw a big 6 point like that in early bow season but it passed about 45 yards on a beeline to some other deer, I haven’t been practicing as much so was really wanting them 30 or less so I just watched it walk past. Pretty gnarly 6 though

Nice, I love canned venison. I gave my buddy who owns the land a whole deer since he’s raising a baby and can’t hunt and he have me back a ton of canned meat. So good.

This was the first buck I've seen hunting on my property this year.   Think the rut was pretty much over at start of the rifle season and that the 2nd rut just started up.

Got into deer camp real late last night, after midnight. I'm with two of my kids, daughter going for her first deer. Second official weekend of hunting as a legal hunter after doing safety Ed and getting her license.

Agreed last night we'd sleep in and head to the blind when we woke up. Of course we spooked three pigs on the way into the blind That's what we get for sleeping in.


Keep the pictures coming, I'll be in the blind and bored for the next 36 hours lol

Shot this little guy back in September. I need to get back in the woods before the seasons out. Some of you guys hunt some pretty places!

Gnarly buck! Congrats

Went this morning for a few hours.  Didn’t see a thing. Walked back to the house and there was a deer maybe 30yds outside my bedroom window that blew at me .  Here I am back in the wood and the deer are at the house

Very well.  Go to their custom shop website and fill out all of the questions (you'll need your receipt and box UPC code i think).  They have testing data on most all popular name brand loads (Hornady in my case).  The 1st custom turret on VX5 and VX6 scopes is free so why not.  

The buck I shot last year was at 267 yards or so if memory serves.  Turned the dial to 250 (or 2.5) from zero and sent it.  Only reason he made it 40 yards is because he rolled down into the creek bottom.

I'm not the typical MI hunter that sends 3 rounds downrange before season.  My lower also has better parts including a Midwest Industries 3.5 lb single stage trigger, and I hunt from elevated box blinds which provide a pretty damn solid rest.  

I do get what you're saying though.  I've heard a few stories of guys buying a 450 bolt gun with the magical (to them) scope with the yardage lines in it.  All of a sudden they think it's a 300 yard + gun without even testing.  Not much different than the guys that watch the Raven crossbow commercials showing it grouping like a rifle at 100 yards.  They proceed to take ridiculous ranged shots on game and wonder why they can't find them.

The guy that every 'Karen' hated while driving South on I-75 from 'up north'.  Well done!!  Enjoy the good eats!

Nice!  Tall one there.

I'd never even heard of it before you guys mentioned canning venison.  We always just had it processed and froze it.  Would love to hear your canning recipes and how you go about it.  Assuming you don't cook it after?  Kinda like open the can and eat it?  I'm admittedly ignorant in this respect.

Got 5 does this year. 2 in PA and 3 in AR.

Still have late winter big animal hunt to go. Toss up between another Nilgai hunt in South Texas or maybe a cow elk hunt somewhere in Texas.

Am heavily leaning toward nilgai

"little guy".  That's a nice one!!  Score?

Ain't that the way it goes sometimes?  

I could throw a baseball and hit my house from my best blind so it doesn't really happen to me all that often.  The torture of watching a big buck from my house while hosting a holiday get together from my living room window is probably worse.