Did anyone draw any big game tags?  I was lucky enough to draw a muzzle loader tag for Elk, Deer and a rifle tag for Barbary Sheep.  Hope everyone drew some good tags.

FAD Deer Unit 22 and Antler-less Elk Unit 53.

First time Drawing.

MAHA

I drew unit 47 for deer rifle hunt in October and F-IM Ibex in the Florida Mountains in February 2019.  This is my first time in 15 years of putting in for the draw and drawing anything...and I got two units I know nothing about.  According to open source research there is still a herd of Barbary Sheep in Mills Canyon area (Unit 47) so I'll get the over the counter tag for Barbary too; just in case I see one of them.  I plan on camping in the Mills Canyon (U47) area as much as possible this summer to go exploring since it looks like about 90% of the unit is private property. If anyone has any insight on either hunts I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

I am not familiar with Unit 47, but it looks like a patchwork of public and private land.  I use the Onx app on my phone to keep track of where the boundary lines are located.  That looks like a unit where Onx, or something similar, would be a big help.  Sounds like you have a good plan to spend some time there this summer and learn where and how to access public land.

I've hunted Ibex twice.  There are a lot of F/IM Ibex on the mountain.  Toughest hunt I have been on, as far as the toll on my body.  Something about that rock just makes my feet and ankles hurt.

Any one have any luck. I stuck out at deer and elk this year.

MAHA

I struck out on my deer hunt. Saw a bunch of doe and a spike.

Hunting season so far has been a mixed bag.  I drew the muzzy hunt this year, so no bow hunt for elk in September.  And I really missed being out in the mountains in September.  Went on my muzzy hunt the first weekend in October.  Had a great hunt but it was difficult.  Snowed off and on from the first evening until we left the last day of the hunt.  Had several chances but just couldn't get it done.  On the second to last day, my nephew and I had snuck in on a bull that was bugling.  Was just about to shoot him when someone else shot him.  Turns out there were three bulls together and they all took off.  Waited until I could see the other hunter move over to his bull and we approached him to congratulate him on the kill.  Got to chatting and we offered to field dress the bull and help pack the bull out for half the meat.  It was only a 3.5 mile hike out of the wilderness area, so it was a relatively easy way to get half an elk in the freezer.  Overall it was a fun hunt, but the constant snow fall and then melting snow made it difficult.  That and all the standing dead trees in the forest decided to fall down over this past summer.  The deadfall was insane.  What used to be a 30 minute hike in the dark has turned into a 90 minute slog over nothing but dead tree after dead tree.  My gps track through that area looks like I had lost all sanity and sense of direction.

I was then scheduled to go on my muzzy deer hunt the weekend before Halloween, but got a call from a client with about 1300 acres of private land.  He had previously offered one of his cow elk tags to my daughter and was calling to see if she could come out that weekend to do her hunt.  So instead of going deer hunting, I got to go with my daughter on her elk hunt.  We got there the first evening and got into the blind about 4:30.  By 5:15, we could hear 3 bulls bugling off to the east of us.  As time went by it was clear they were headed towards us.  We started hearing some cow elk talk and some movement in the brush about 50 yards off.  Moved my daughter to the side of the blind where it sounded like the elk would come out, but very quickly noticed a cow elk coming towards us from the south about 250 yards away.  So we shifted her over to the south side of the blind.  Two minutes later two cow elk showed up right where we had her set up previously, but we decided to leave her where she was and not risk spooking all the elk by moving her back.  The first cow elk turned out to have another cow and a small bull with her.  The cow slowly made her way closer and when she stopped at 80 yards, my daughter shot her with her Savage Youth 7mm-08 handloaded with 139 gr Hornady interlock bullets and the cow dropped where she stood.  The elk were not really disturbed that much after the shot and not even after we got out of the blind and were taking pics with the elk.  The small bull hung around in sight of us for quite a while and the three other bulls kept bugling about 150 yards back in the brush.  Pretty big cow elk that weighed 350 pounds when we dropped her off at the processor the next morning.

So I have a very full freezer and still have a javelina and a barbary sheep hunt in February.  I will probably head out for some quail this weekend.  I plan on taking the boat to the Butte a couple of times for a combo quail/duck shoot.  We have always done very well on quail on the east side of the lake.  I have a new Boyds stock on my T/C Compass in 6.5 Creedmoor and I took it out this weekend to test some loads.  It shoots pretty well and I am really looking forward to using it for my Barbary Sheep hunt.

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