TC's

Coyote Hunting

2010-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

2009 Deer Hunting

2009-12-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

2009 Cow Moose Hunt

2009-10-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

Elk hunting '09

2009-10-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

These are a lot of random pictures from this past elk season.

Little brookie that lives in a mtn stream.

Del's elk from this year. His second bull in a row with a longbow.
Dale found this skull during the season.
Danny killed this bull this year. His 4th bull in 5 years.
No matter what I do, this pictures is coming in sidways! I QUIT TRYING! Anyways, big bloodtrail from a narrow two blade broadhead.
Danny's elk as he found it.
I went hunting with Del and his Dad this year. I had a rough trip, but it was an absolute blast. Here is an evening in camp.
A view from camp.
My tent and gear tarp. I really enjoyed that tent.
Another view of my camping spot.
The llamas packing all of our gear up the mountain. That was nice!
Getting the llamas loaded.
An elk skull that me and Danny found. We kept the ivories from this skull, we both had one of the teeth in our pocket when we killed our bulls this year. Gonna hold on to that thing until I lose it now...

Another view of the bull.
Neat view of the sun peaking through a hole in the trees.

That's it until next year, dang it!

My CO Elk

2009-09-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

I got a spike this year elk hunting with my Mohawk longbow. Here a few pictures of the hunt.

Scouting Elk

2009-08-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Danny did some elk scouting and took these pictures. He found this huge moose about 5 miles from the nearest road.

Old Pictures

2009-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Found these old pics the other day. This was during my first elk hunting season. I was 13 years old, and I made a 40+ yard shot on this grouse. I would love to have back some of the opportunities that I blew that season. At one point I thought that an elk was going to step on and break my bow, which was laying at my feet...what a fun year of learning that was!

Danny shot this cow when we were in high school. I think we skipped our last few classes of the day and went elk hunting instead. If I remember right, he killed this elk when we were supposed to be in gym class...

'09 Colorado Turkey Outing

2009-05-26T15:12:00.000-07:00

I should have titled this post Colorado Stump Shooting, because that's we ended up doing. The turkeys had moved into higher parts of the mountains. Saw lots of deer, elk tracks, and bear tracks. Had a great time nonetheless.

Derrick's Colorado Turkey

2009-05-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

I ran up to the lower mountains in Colorado to hunt with Derrick. He had never been turkey hunting before and didn't know how, or when, or how often to call. He told me about hearing turkeys and even seeing some. I was pretty confident that if they were there we would get one.

Sure enough, they were there. Unfortunately they were on another hillside and across a creek. I've seen turkeys not want to cross under a fence in the past, let alone fly across a creek. I felt like we had nothing to lose, so I let the turkeys dictate the frequency of my calling. When they got fired up, I got fired up. When they calmed down, I calmed down. I ended up calling much more than I usually like to, but like I said, I truly felt like the turkeys would not come and that we had nothing to lose.

After several hours of listening to them gobbling like crazy we managed to call one away from the flock. This beautiful tom came down the other side of the mountain and flew across the creek to come to our calling.

Derrick made a great 35 yard shot with his compound. We managed to call in another, larger tom from the same location. I had not bought a Colorado turkey license yet, and I was kicking myself. The second tom came in to 7 yards.

We had good luck on this trip just hiding behind some rocks in the mountains. We had no blind on this hunt.

'09 Nebraska Turkeys

2009-05-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well I had a disappointing and frustrating turkey season. Although I had chances to kill turkeys I did not come home with any game. I am going to strongly look into what kind of broadheads I shoot next season. Danny had some luck, as you can see above. He shot this turkey from the ground, no blind. We slid underneath a thick cedar tree and gave a few soft yelps. Two jakes came right in to seven yards and Danny shot the first one.

Danny recently had surgery on his left shoulder. Drawing even a super light bow was too painful for him. He could not support the weight. But drawing a left handed bow, as long as it was light, did not bother him. So Danny switched to left handed about three weeks before this trip. I'm pretty proud of the fact that Danny killed this bird from the ground, no blind, and with a left handed bow he'd only shot for a few weeks.

This porcupine was sleeping when we walked up to him, and really could care less about us. We saw a lot of porcupines on this trip, more than in previous trips.

Overlooking some of the public land that we were hunting. It would be possible to walk most of the day and stay on public land.

Another couple of pictures of Danny's turkey.

From a few weeks earlier. Andy made a great shot to get this bird.

Winter Trout

2009-01-27T12:43:00.000-08:00

Danny and I got out the other day for a fishing trip. The weather was so nice we couldn't pass up on the chance. The fishing was real tough. Danny caught a half dozen or so, I just managed one little guy. We had a great time nonetheless.

New Years Coyote Hunting

2009-01-02T13:48:00.000-08:00

Danny brought Kelly out for his first time coyote hunting. During the second set-up on a bitterly cold morning they called in two coyotes, Kelly shooting the first and Danny the second.

One of the nicer bucks they saw that morning.

This is one of the little guys roaming around the town of Saratoga.

Froze in Nebraska

2008-12-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Had a COOOOLD hunt in Nebraska. Normally the drop in temperature concentrates the deer and keeps them moving for a big part of the day. The hunting can be fantastic with those sort of conditions. However, the temperatures on this hunt were so cold, and the wind was blowing so bad, that even the deer just hunkered down to wait this one out.

We didn't really have the option to wait it out though, we only had two days to hunt. With ZERO deer movement and wind that hurt we decided to put a ground blind in a deep ravine. We wanted to both shield ourselves from the wind and (hopefully) increase our chance thinking that the deer were probably in those ravines as well.

We set up on a ravine that led to a wheat field. A group of four does made their way past us and I got a shot at this small button buck from about 15 yards. The temperature was -3 when I shot, but windchill was pushing -30.

Wisconsin Whitetail Hunting

2008-11-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Here is the result of a week-long whitetail hunt in Wisconsin. Danny killed this huge buck early in the hunt.

We are lucky. Our good friends in Wisconsin hooked us up with a great farm to hunt. Only a few other people have permission to hunt this farm and they are gun hunters. They killed a few does off of this property during an early gun season, but we got to hunt relatively untouched deer.

Danny got to Wisconsin about four days before my Dad and I arrived. The deer action was spectacular. Danny saw the deer he eventually killed three separate times, including two other bucks who were both bigger. But Danny wasn't really "hunting", not yet. He was sitting in areas where he had a great vantage point to watch. Since none of us had ever hunted this property before Danny decided that he would do some scouting before Dad and I arrived. He unselfishly decided to wait to sit the "prime spots" until we could all hunt together.

We had spent quite a bit of time studying aerial photographs of the property and we pre-determined a couple of placed that we thought would be good stand locations. Below I marked in blue our stand locations, and I marked in red the different places where Danny saw the buck that he killed.
From his treestand, Danny got great pictures of the deer he eventually killed. The buck was with a doe out in this CRP field. A little guy was running around bucking and jumping and acting like, well...a teenager in rut.

So here is the story. The morning after I arrived we all set out to treestands that Danny hung before we arrived. We got a bit of a late start. Since my stand was the closest I was in my tree in plenty of time.

At 6:08am Danny sent me a text message to let me know he was settled in. A little late, I was thinking. I had already seen 5 or 6 deer by then. At 6:15am my phone buzzed again, I was never expecting what I got. "I just drilled a monster!" That's all it said. I was dying to know more! I told him that I was seeing a lot of deer and I wanted him to wait for me before going after the deer.

I have never wanted a morning hunt to end quicker. I was out of the tree much sooner that I would have liked to be. By 9:30am we were on the trail.

Danny told us that he saw the huge buck through the trees and immediately turned over his can call. The buck looked but did not act. Danny tipped over the call again which brought the buck running directly to him, breaking anything in his way and grunting the whole 75 yards.

Walking parallell to the tree line, and perfectly broadside at 15 yards, Danny let out a voice grunt to stop the buck. At the shot, Danny said that he hit the deer perfectly behind the shoulder, with a complete pass through, and that it shouldn't be far.

We found exactly what we expected from the shot description. The blood trail was fantastic. It was among the best blood trails I had ever been on. We all expected to see the deer at any moment. 200 yards down the trail we're starting to wonder how this deer was still alive.

As we're crawling on our knees through a nasty, brushy hillside Danny spots a large buck bedded down...and looking at him. Danny tried, but there was no way he could have gotten an arrow out in time. That buck sounded like a train as he busted through the thick brush.

We were all heartbroken. It's three hours after the shot, the blood trail is amazing, how could this deer still be alive? We decided to see how much he bled in his bed. To our relief, we found that the buck was actually bedded several yards off of the blood trail. There was no blood in the bed. We concluded (more like "hoped" at this point) that the bedded buck was a different deer.

Another couple hundred yards of following the blood trail at a walking pace we heard some thrashing in the leaves and a long groan. At the time we thought that the deer must have still been alive. We sat down for quite a while just to be sure. When we thought for certain that the deer had expired we continued to sneak along.

While Danny and Dad slowly crept up on the deer I circled below the trees in case he ran that way. I spotted him from below and whistled to signal that he was dead.

As you can see the shot was exactly where Danny described it to be. The arrow, to Danny's amazement, exited pretty far back of the ribcage on the opposite side. Danny concluded that when he grunted to stop the walking deer it must have taken a step towards him. The shot was obviously more of a quartering-to angle than he had originally thought.

At the time we thought that this deer was still alive three hours later. From looking at the deer it was apparant that he had been dead for some time. But we heard a groan, and thought that the only explanation for that was that the deer had been alive. I have since read that deer can emit "groans" after death, a result from gasses building and being released inside the body cavity.
Here is the path that the buck took after he had been hit. The red circle is where Danny first saw the deer. The blue spot is his treestand.

Unfortunately the hunting dramatically shut down after this morning. We hardly saw another deer for the next few days. It didn't help our cause that the temperatures were in the mid 70's. Towards the end of the week Dad and I both ended up seeing some great bucks. Dad had a close encounter with a beautiful ten point. Distant sightings were the best I had.

Either way, to take home one deer like this was an accomplishment that we will cherish. It was so nice, so fun, and so fulfilling for the three of us to be able to scout and hunt a new property together.

More Wisconsin Pictures

2008-11-03T16:02:00.000-08:00

Danny snapped a few more pictures after he killed his big buck. Here are a couple of the better ones.

Danny killed this little doe a few days after his buck.

This was a gnarly looking little guy.

A friend of ours killed this buck across the road from where we were hunting. He had two other bucks of this size walk within ten yards of him after he shot this one.

Nick's First Buck

2008-11-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

I asked my good friend Nick to write a story about his first buck. Nick's family has some of the best whitetail hunting I know of, and they have been extremely generous in letting Danny and me hunt with them. I have not found that to be a common thing in the midwest, where quality hunting land is hard to come by. However, Nick, his Uncle Donny, and his grandparents have treated Danny and me like we were part of their family. And when I killed a huge buck they were all as happy as if they themselves had killed it.

Nick is the kind of hunting partner anybody would look for. We've had a lot of fun debatin...well, fighting about hunting tactics. No doubt we've both learned a lot about hunting whitetails the past three seasons. Here is his story.

It’s been a long time coming since I filled a buck tag. I still vividly remember shooting my first (and until this year, only) buck with my Dad during my first day of gun hunting. I was a little too young to fully grasp why I was able to stay warm every time I saw deer on that cold day. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about the ins and outs of hunting and the adrenaline rush that comes with the presence of watching these beautiful animals go about their natural habits. At first, I started off as only a gun hunter, and I never really had any influences pushing me to start bowhunting. At the age of 16 with a driver’s license in hand, I decided I was going to begin bowhunting. I bought a used but nice High Country bow from a friend.

Looking back, that first couple of years of bowhunting was a pretty sad effort at hunting big game. I finally started to become serious about bowhunting freshman year in college, and I made many trips home from college at Minnesota to chase whitetails back in Mt Horeb, WI. I started to gain experience seeing big bucks, but I never really understood just how GOOD the land I hunted was. I had let many good bucks go without fully understanding that Pope & Young IS a record book with the bow (although sometimes they had to legally be let go due to Earn-A-Buck, but that’s a different story).

I didn’t harvest my first deer with a bow until this past year, but that exhilarating experience led me to leave the shotgun at home and reach for the bow everytime. I still don’t fully understand expert ways of hunting whitetails, but I made a full-fledged effort to tweak my hunting style for this year. Scent control became a concern, as did being open to trying new stand locations when other spots weren’t producing. It did not take long looking back to realize the effectiveness of keeping spots fresh and trying new spots. Danny and Jake both killed does out of stands they hung that very afternoon in 2007. Utilizing this idea, I decided to hunt a new stand on the morning of November 2, 2008.

Some relatives had previously hung stands near this fenceline on my Grandparent’s land just a couple of hundred yards over the hill along the same fence that Tommy killed his giant 8 pointer on. I had decided the night before that this spot should be hunted, especially due to past rut movement having occurred pretty heavily in this area. In the early morning darkness I was able to pretty quietly hang a stand in a solid tree just 5 yards off the fenceline. This tree overlooked the newly sewn winter wheat field on my grandparents, as well as a picked cornfield on the property to the south.

(view from the treestand)

Early rattling proved fruitless, and by 7:45am I still had not laid eyes on a deer. I had convinced myself that I must stay put until at least 9 a.m. due to the high volume of buck movement we had been seeing in our area. A few times I thought I had heard some rustling that sounded like a buck chasing a doe to my south in the draw about 200 yards away. I scrutinized every movement, but no deer seemed to materialize. By 8 a.m. I was growing quite fidgety, but I reminded myself of the promise to stay put until at least 9.

All of a sudden I looked up and a dark bodied, good sized deer was trotting along the edge of the woods and the cornfield to the south. One quick glance through the binoculars showed me a beautiful 8 point buck that I quickly realized I should shoot without hesitating. Now, I’ve let bigger bucks go in my time, but reality has started to catch up to me this year. I realized I have to walk before I can run, and I needed some experience under my belt. It also helped that my freezer was currently void of any backstraps!

(Nick's buck a few days earlier)

As the buck made his way toward the fenceline I was sitting, I quickly grabbed my bow and played out scenarios in my mind. As he came within 15 yards on the other side of the fence, he turned broadside and started feeding on some corn. Although we are on close terms with the neighboring landowner, I had decided I was going to wait for this beautiful buck to cross on to our land. I picked out the trail I thought he would take, which is less than 10 yards in front of me. He started to feed heading diagonally away from me, and I had had all I could take of watching him walk away. I turned over my Primos can call twice and he came in on a string! He actually came to the base of my tree before heading straight out from me. As he turned broadside, I drew back. My first shot stopped him in his tracks, and buck fever began to set in immediately!

Although he wasn’t a monster, I felt some tremors begin to creep into my legs. I began shooting text messages out to any friends that would want to hear the good news, and some immediate answers flew in. I was just trying to pass the time until I knew I’d be able to climb down without any issues. I was elated to finally strike gold with the bow, and this is an experience I’ll never forget. As excited as I was, I think Jake might’ve been even more excited as he pulled up in his Jeep to give me a hand in pictures! The highlight of my first two bow kills has undoubtedly been the presence of good friends there to share in my joy. It is this very reason why I’ve grown to obsess over hunting. Friends and family are there for every moment, and the memories stand as clear as a mountain lake.

Danny's Nebraska Doe

2008-10-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

Danny got this doe the other night. He stopped in Nebraska as he headed out to Wisconsin.

A little guy checking out the arrow that Danny dropped from his stand.

A neat looking buck

Braden's First Deer Hunt

2008-10-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Braden got to go on his first hunt with Todd (his Dad), Danny and me. We had a lot of fun and Braden got to see some deer. Braden did great on a stalk and along with Danny and his Dad they got to within 15 yards of some feeding does. Todd got his first shot at a big game animal that night, and shot high. We all had a lot of fun.

Cow Moose Hunt in Canada

2008-10-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

Dad and Danny got to go on a cow moose hunt in Canada. Neither of them had any shots, though they were both close several times. They both could have have shot bulls, of course! They did get to have some excellent fishing while they were there as you can see in the pictures below.

This is the cabin they got to stay in while they were there.

These native paintings were barely visible on the rock walls around the lake.

Danny's 08 Bull

2008-10-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Danny made a pack in trip with some good friends. He had only mediocre elk hunting and saw as many people as he saw elk. On the final day of the season he called this bull up from his bed. The bull ran up the hill using his antlers to push a cow along with him. Danny made a perfect 25 yard shot.

My 2008 Elk Hunt

2008-10-01T23:05:00.000-07:00

Well...what can I say about this elk season? I ran through every emotion from the frustration of not being able to hunt often, to the dispair of not finding any elk, the high of getting a shot on a nice bull, and the low of watching him run away, unharmed. But now, that the season is over, I don't have the usual dissapointment that comes with knowing I have to wait a full year to do it all again. I saw more country and a wider array of animals than ever before. And I got to do it all with friends.

Our good friend Jake made the trip from Wisconsin this year to spend four evenings and three mornings elk hunting with Danny and me. Elk sightings were few and far between but that had little effect on our mood. Our enjoyment had more to do with eachothers company as we drove over a hundred miles trying our various (not so honey) honey-holes in search of elk.

We chose to hunt the opening week of the muzzleloader season. The first place we visited had 17 different camps of hunters, and very little fresh elk sign. It didn't take long before we decided we needed to go somewhere else.

On the second day of our hunt we changed locations to a place where Danny had several encounters with big bulls on opening weekend. The reason this is a good elk area became evident to us shortly into our hike up the mountain. After over an hour of climbing straight up we finally reached two breath taking parks at 11,500ft. Nobody in their right mind would have crawled up that mountain. I have to admit that the excitement of pulling the bow back on an elk up there would have been coupled with the reluctancy to take on the chore of packing it out!

The tormenting hike however, was well worth it. Though the elk weren't there, the scenery alone kept our spirits up at camp that night. We went over the awesomeness of the place we had just seen and we wondered how elk could not have been in such a haven. But the beauty of this place was not enough to keep us there. Little sign and only a brief sighting of one lone bull caused us to try our luck in a new area the next day.

Here are several pictures of our hike (not hunt, hike).

As we sat and glassed this bowl we had the pleasure of watching a sow bear and two cubs. They were climbing this steep hill straight towards us before a swirl in the wind caused their quick retreat. We laughed as the sow clumsily ran across a boulder field, tripping and slamming her face into the rocks. After a few seconds of regaining her composure she continued her withdrawl and dissapeared into the trees.

On our final day of a frustrating hunt we made our way to one last spot we hadn't checked. Thanks to GPS coordinates from our cousin Jake got to see what elk hunting was all about. The elk really gave us a show. We called three bulls to within shooting range, two of them being too small to be legal. One of the small bulls stood infront of us for ten minutes and made every elk vocalization in the book.

I continued my yearly tradition of getting a good shooting opportunity on an elk. True to form, I fell in line with that tradition and missed a beautiful 5X5 bull. Easily a P&Y book animal.

Though, this time the miss really didn't bother me. We watched that great bull run several hundred yards to our calls, bugling the entire way. At 30 yards he hung up and turned, giving me a perfect broadside shot. I picked a spot, loosed an arrow, and felt my heart sink as the arrows sailed only inches under his brisket. But how could I be upset? I got close enough for a shot, witnessed some great elk action, and got to do it with my brother and a good friend. That's a successful season for me.
Danny and Jake above 11,000ft.
We saw many moose while hunting this season. This cow and her calf (not visible) didn't have a single care in the world. She hardly looked our way and we had no problem enjoying the view and leaving her be.
As often as I walk through these danged spider webs while wandering the woods and as much as they can be annoying, I've always been fascinated with them. They are one of natures works of art.

My cousin shot this magnificent bull, his Dad called it in for him. I had to post it because of what a great bull it is, and what an accomplishment it was for him to take it with a longbow.

Leaving Wisconsin

2008-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Danny's mission to catch a musky before he left Wisconsin has finally been accomplished. You can read about it below in the Fish Of 10,000 Casts post.

On the final day before Danny had to leave Wisconsin he caught this 44 inch musky on Lake Waubesa. The evening before this one he caught his first musky, a 33 incher on Lake Wingra (pics below).

Dad came out to help Danny pack and move his things. We decided to hit Lake Wingra for Danny's second to last evening of fishing. Not ten casts in I caught this 35 incher.
The very next cast Danny had a strike and missed. He counted that his 48th strike or follow. But on the 49th fish to either strike his lure or follow it to the boat he finally got one- this 33 inch musky.

Tom's Corner

2008-05-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

For the fourth year in a row I returned to "Tom's corner" to fill my tag. I haven't decided if Tom's corner is named after the turkeys or me, either way it's a fitting name for the corner of woods that has been very good to me over the past four seasons.

The previous three seasons I have showed up to Tom's Corner and found turkey's waiting for me. The turkeys like to roost from 40 to 70 yards of the Corner. Every year it has worked out the just about the same (2007, 2006, 2005). I show up, call a little bit depending on what I hear, and the toms come by.

This season was a little different because we were not able to hunt until the afternoon. We didn't plan on going to Tom's corner right away but gobbling toms convinced us otherwise (we had planned on saving it for the morning). Two hot toms were in a place where setting up on them would be difficult. So me and Danny made a big circle through the woods and around a pond to get into a good position. We now had a small hill between the gobbling turkeys and us.

Danny gave a soft yelp so we could locate them and they gobbled immediately. Ten seconds later they gobbled again and they were definitely closer. We decided to just sit right where we were. The toms came up to the top of the hill but they wouldn't crest it for a couple of minutes. They just stood up there drumming. Finally, after a few minutes of Danny's convincing purrs, soft yelps, and their non-stop gobbling, they peeked their heads over the hill. One shot and that was that. The turkey had a beard just over ten inches, and spurs just under 1 inch.

Tom's corner produced again. Danny and I had a great, although short, hunt.

The Fish of 10,000 Casts

2008-05-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

They call it the fish of 10,000 casts. I recently read that in Wisconsin it's more like the fish of 3,000 casts. That sounds about right.

We're pretty simple fishermen. We learned how to fish on Tumblesome lake, which is on a Boy Scout camp in Colorado (Camp Tahosa) where our grandpa was the ranger for almost 20 years. We got excited about 12 inch brookies, and still do.

Danny has a real love for fishing. I do it mostly because I enjoy being outside, but given the choice, I would have went squirrel hunting instead. Things have changed, I do like fishing quite a bit more than I used to, but nothing like Danny.

In the past few years we have spent quite a bit of time just pan-fishing around Madison, WI. We've heard the buzz about muskies but never understood it. Every evening we'd see 5-10 boats, almost every one of which said something on the side like "Musky Hunter"...we'd laugh. Their license plates were even more amusing. These guys were casting lures that were the size of the fish we used to get excited to catch as kids. 10,000 casts to catch just one!? I didn't get it...

I don't know exactly why, but Danny has made it his mission to catch a musky, even though neither of us have ever fished for them before. He guides fly-fisherman at Stoney Creek in Saratoga, WY during the summers and he only has a two-week window to catch a musky. He has spent at least 30 hours so far trying to hook one. At this point he has had 37 muskies follow his lure to the boat. He has had two strikes but hasn't managed to hook one.

Seeing those monsters up close really got my blood flowing. I'm not the type to get excited about a fish, but I began to understand why these guys are so crazy about musky. They're so huge and mean looking. I had to try.

Then, last night, I caught two! It was one of the most exciting evenings of fishing I've had. The first one did not hit the lure that hard and didn't put up much of a fight either. He was 39 inches. (The blood on the fish is mine, I got a little excited and stuck my finger too close to his mouth...I'm an idiot)
The second musky looked like a shark attacking a seal. He jumped straight out of the water, at least two feet. I honestly did not know they did that. He put up a great fight. He measured just under 35 inches. Our friend Steve, in the background, was along to share such a fun night.
Our good buddy Jake, who pretty much got us into musky fishing, caught this one about a week ago. It was 35 inches. Seeing this thing, which they say is a small one, really got my blood going. I'm the guy who grew up catching 10 inch trout and enjoying it. A "small" 35inch musky was very cool to a guy like me.

I understand now why these "musky hunters" are so into it. I'll be posting more pics in the future, guaranteed.

Turkey Season

2008-04-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Had a fun three days of turkey hunting last weekend. I ended up with this jake on the last day. We had a lot of turkeys around us all weekend. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Turkey taken with a cedar arrow and Wapiti bow.

From the previous week.
My new background. These guys were fighting all morning.
This turkey dodged my arrow faster than any deer. You can see my arrow going through his feathers and over his back. He was strutting and facing the opposite direction when I shot. It was pretty funny, he was a nice tom.

Shed Hunting

2008-03-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

Well we have been out a few times to do some shed hunting lately. The snow has finally started to melt in this never ending winter. Here are the results.

I have included sheds that close friends of ours have found as well.

This is one of the most impressive sheds I have seen. It was found by friends of ours.Another impressive deer. The pictures just don't do either of these sheds justice.
Here are two years of a droptine buck.Both sides from his younger years.
I have not seen a shed like this before. I can imagine it would have had to hurt!
Looking forward to seeing what this one will look like next year!
This wasn't a huge deer but the way those two tines grew was pretty neat looking.Two more good looking 8s.

Smokepole Doe

2008-01-01T18:33:00.001-08:00

Well, I have this hunt on video and that video will be posted soon. This was a late season hunt on a landowner tag in Wisconsin. We could use the meat, and I had yet to take an animal with my muzzleloader so I just had to give it a try. Not quite as exciting or challenging as with a bow but it was still a fun evening out with Danny.

Video of the hunt:

Danny's 07 WI Doe

2007-10-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Danny got this doe from a tree stand he hung that night.

Dad's Moose

2007-10-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from Dad's moose hunt. In order to get a shot at this moose he had to wade out into this lake about waste deep, it is a neat story that I will try and get him to tell on here.

Dad with his moose . Killed with a Gotshalk recurve and cedar arrows with a STOS broadhead.
A view from the camp
Heading out to hunt

Dad's Bear Hunt

2007-10-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

Well he didn't get a bear but he got some neat pictures of a couple of bears!

Here's our real good friend Dale
The boat going in

Almost...

2007-10-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well Nick almost had a chance at a great buck. He was filming a little guy when a much bigger one walked into the camera. In the process of putting the camera down and grabbing his bow the opportunity for a shot had passed. If you look at the post directly below this one (pictures of the little buck), you'll see how close of a shot he could have had. So close...

Little Buck

2007-09-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Had this little guy come up and bed down right behind me not ten yards, a little later he came in front of me at about five yards. I saw 5 bucks this size tonight and a handful of does. No shots at the does however. Danny and Nick also both had small bucks within 20 yards.

Nick's first deer

2007-09-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

Maybe the dumbest deer that I have ever seen. Here's how it happened. I got a shot around 6pm, and Nick got a shot around 6:10pm. Since we were sitting near each other and both shot deer he got down to come to me so we could look for our deer. On his way over a button buck and a doe fawn had come to stand directly under my tree. Of course, they ran away when Nick walked up.

After I was on the ground I learned that Nick found his arrow and had missed his deer. As I was telling Nick my story the same button buck and doe fawn that he scared on his way to me started to come back. I was trying to pick up Nick's bow and hand it to him they saw me and ran away. I handed Nick his bow and the deer came back yet again. This time Nick had his bow in hand and when the first deer stepped into a clearing Nick made perfect shot.

I found my arrow sticking in the ground with a little hair on it, and a very little streak of blood. I guess what happened is that I just skimmed the skin right underneath her brisket. But as it all worked out we still had a successful evening.

Nick with his first bow kill.

Me and Nick with his deer. I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Go Go Gadget...Bow

2007-09-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Me and Derrick had so many close calls this season where a big bull would be at 35 yards, or we just couldn't sneak an arrow through a small shooting window that he finally gave in and bought a compound. He decided that enough was enough and he needed to kill an elk.

Not one hour into the first morning with his new gadget and the two of us are cow calling back and forth when this spike comes running in. Sure enough, Derrick gets a 30 yard shot, which he sneaks an arrow between and underneath and over the top and straight through the trees (never a question with a recurve...no shot!), and double lungs this elk. I'm glad he did it but he's going to get his fair share of shit for the next year.

We called in three more bulls after this one. I almost got a shot but they were just a little to far, if I only had a...naaaahhh!!!!

Derrick and his Dad

Me and Derrick
The three of us

2007 Colorado Elk Hunting

2007-09-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Yet another elkless year for myself. But it was not because I didn't have a chance. I just realize that I need to practice A LOT more before the season. I missed a cow (or two) and had some close calls with a couple of very nice bulls. Wish I could have gotten a picture of one of the nice elk I saw but just didn't have the camera ready. Here are some of the pictures I did get though.

This was the first mountain lion that I have ever seen in the wild. He was just cruising through the woods when he walked near us. It was VERY cool!
The bears have climbed this tree a time or two.

Overlooking a pond where I had my first...(gulp) miss.

This thing was definitely picture worthy

Summer Fishing Pictures

2007-09-18T09:22:00.001-07:00

Did a lot of running around this summer and didn't have time to update the blog. Here are some pictures of the few tiems we got to get out and do some fishing.

Some Wisconsin bass

Some Flyfishing
Natalie's first ever fish on a fly rod. She probably caught 20 fish or so.

Me Danny and Josh with the Tetons in the background.

More Wisconsin Turkeys

2007-05-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

I got to go out with a good friend and try to get him another gobbler for the year. It was real tough hunting though. The toms were not gobbling at all. We had no less than ten hens within bow range, but not a single jake or tom. Still got a few decent pics and had a great time being in the woods. Saw a couple of very good looking, big bodied bucks, with 7 inches of antler growing straight out. They could be some very nice bucks, no pics of them though.

Wisconsin Turkeys

2007-05-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

Me and Danny just had our turkey season here in Wisconsin. We were both swamped with school and other stuff so we didn't have a whole lot of time to hunt. We decided that we were going to shoot the first birds that gave us a chance.

In the past I have sat at a log between a field and a roosting area and been able to call in birds as soon as they flew down. I have killed two turkeys in two days of hunting at that log. We got in there real early and set up, and as soon as it started getting light the turkeys started yapping up a storm. I gave a few soft yelps to let the them know where we were and just waited. It wasn't long before a string of five jakes came walking right up. I had to re-adjust a little bit to shoot so I was sitting at a weird angle and very unstable, the gun about knocked me over, and we had a bird down withing 20 minutes of shooting light.

After we got the bird tagged and took some pictures we moved to the other end of the property and set up a blind. Our plan was to just hang out and call real light every once in a while. With so many turkeys in the area we figured that eventually something would come check us out.

After about an hour Danny was dead asleep, and a few jakes walked up to the blind. I smacked his leg to wake him up, good thing one of us was awake! ;) It took him a second to realize where he was but he got his bird.

I would have liked to have some more time to try and get a nice tom with the bow, but being limited on time we had to make a short season of it. The birds did not talk at all after they were on the ground, walking back to the truck we saw four toms, all birds that we could have shot. Really made me wish we had more time to hunt but it worked out well anyways and we had a great time.

Nebraska Turkey Hunting

2007-04-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

We had an excellent time in Nebraska this past weekend turkey hunting. Like always we got to see all kinds of turkey behavior, and we were into the birds for the entire trip. Danny shot a big mature tom and a little jake. Dad shot a little jake and should have got a big tom, but that's what he gets for switching bows in the middle of a hunt.

I took a ton of pictures of turkeys this weekend. Here are some of the better ones.

This big tom bred two hens within ten minutes up on this hillside. He wouldn't even think about coming into the decoys. We only had luck calling in the hens, and the toms and jakes would follow. To call a mature tom away from the hens this time of the year was near impossible.

Three jakes coming into the decoy. There was four total, the jake not in this picture had a double beard, he will be quite a trophy in years to come.

This is one of the roost trees that the turkeys have been using. You can probably only see about a quarter of the turkeys that are in this tree and the surrounding trees. It is pretty neat.

This is how far Dad's turkey traveled from being shot. He shot it while it was standing at the decoy. Having that turkey there scared away the other turkeys that were coming into the decoys or he could have gotten a chance at another nice tom that was coming in.

Dad with his jake.

Me and Danny and Dad with his jake.

Danny's jake

Danny's big tom with a deer shed that lay right where the turkey died.

Forgotten Coyotes

2007-01-16T15:57:00.000-08:00

Here are a few miscellaneous coyote pictures from 2007. The first two are coyotes that we shot in Wisconsin. The last two are Texas coyotes that my Dad got on a trip down there.

This dog came in within minutes of calling.

We spotted this coyote out mousing in a field in the middle of the day. A short stalk over a hill into a good shooting position was all it took.

Texas Coyote Hunting

2007-01-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

Right after Christmas we headed to Texas to do some coyote hunting. Here are some of the pictures.

Our buddy from Texas, Kirk, shot these next two dogs.

I didn't really care to shoot a coyote all that bad, but I thought it would be really neat to get one with a muzzleloader, so that was all that I hunted with. On one of the set-ups we called in this bobcat. He crouched behind a bush and squatted low, facing us at 40-50 yards. I didn't think he would come any closer so I shot. After I shot he was stumbling around some and Kirk had to finish him off since I couldn't reload my muzzleloader quick enough. It was still pretty amazing to see one of these up close.

Me and my Dad with the bobcat

While we were there we decided to hunt these Spanish goat things that they had in Texas. I didn't care to shoot any except for the big black one these guys were talking about, they say he's a trophy Spanish goat...I think his horns will make some sweet knife handles! ;)

Wyoming Coyote

2006-12-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

Me and Danny had a chance to hunt some coyotes this weekend. On our first stand we spotted this guy right away. It only took a few lip squeaks to bring him in to 20 yards. The rest of the day was really slow. Hopefully get to go out again this weekend, with all the snow it should be better.

The Big 8

2006-11-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

I got this buck last week before the gun season started. I was watching a group of does and a few nice bucks behind me. I would have shot either of the bucks in the field but they didn't show any interest in coming my way. I tried a few grunts but to no avail. As I sat and watched them I heard several grunts from a different direction. I looked hard but didn't initially see anything. I heard a few more grunts which allowed me to zone in on where they were coming from when he appears! This guy was walking the edge of a CRP field right towards me. He got to about 15 yards and started tearing up a tree and making a scrape. But he was facing me and behind some branches.

For the fear of falling out of the tree, I had to look away. I started to pick the lane I would shoot him if he continued on the trail, which he did. When he stepped into my lane I was already at full draw. I stopped him with a soft grunt. I picked a spot, let go, and knew I had made a good shot. He tore off into that CRP field as only fatally injured deer run. Within 50 yards he dissappeared in the grass. I listened hard and faintly heard some thrashing around. YES!

I got out of my tree and made my way to the house to meet Danny, who was hunting about 2 miles away. Danny, Nick and I impatiently went out to look for the deer. We found him right where I saw him dissapear in the grass. The shot pierced the top of the heart.

I had seen this buck in late October working a scrape line in early afternoon. It was the first time I had seen a real trophy and I could not believe my eyes.

I got him with a Chastain Recurve, STOS broadhead, and cedar self nocked arrows.

Me and Danny with the buck

Me and Danny with Nick and Donny. Those guys passed up on this buck quite a few times last season because he had a few broken tines. I owe those guys a lot. They hunted this deer pretty hard. I ended up shooting him about 2 miles from the only place anybody has ever seen him. At the time I shot I had no idea it was this particular deer.

My arrow was still in the heart when I gutted him.

This is the best trail cam pic we had of him, cruising around at around 1am

This is the first trail cam pic Nick got of him. It's a little after 11pm right now.

Good Weekend of Hunting

2006-11-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a good one for me and Danny. The bucks were chasing real hard, and deer were everywhere. We saw some big ones but unfortunately didn't get a shot at any of them. Here are the deer we did manage to get shots at. Danny got this little one antlered buck on Saturday night, and I got mine on Sunday morning. Dad was able to make it up to hunt with us this weekend but he had to leave a little early.

Danny saw this buck passing on a hill beneath him so he turned over his can call. The buck loooked up his direction and noticed a decoy that Danny set up. The buck walked right up to the decoy, nose to nose, and Danny shot him.

Danny and I with his buck.

My little deer. As a good friend of mine would say, "Anybody can hit the big ones."

Dad was able to make it up for the trip for a few days. Last year I got a deer the first day he was up here, and this year Danny and I both got deer within a day of him getting here. Dad should come hunt with us more often!

Danny's Wisconsin Deer

2006-10-03T00:14:00.000-07:00

Danny shot this deer at about 6:15 on Saturday night. He made a great shot on her, we fully expected to find the deer within minutes. But to our surprise she didn't bleed a single drop. We searched for a long time that night without finding anything. The next morning we found her in a CRP field about 70-80 yards from where she was shot. We backtracked her a little bit and still found very little blood within ten yards of where she died, but none further back than that. Weird...

Danny's deer. Shot with a Gottshalk bow, carbon arrows, and a Grizzley broadhead.

Me and Danny with his deer. We brought Barry along to help find her, which he did. In a CRP field, we had walked by this deer ten yards away no less than five times.

I got to sit in a platform stand with Danny to film. We flipped a coin to see who would shoot...he won. He always wins! Oh well, I would have just got us great film of a missed shot ;)

This was stuck between the spine and the backstrap of the deer. It was a huge hard lump of this hard white scar tissue. I thought initially that it could have been an old broadhead or something. I couldn't believe it when I saw that it was a stick. It still had the bark on it. I guess that maybe she ran into a tree which jammed the stick in her back. Can't figure out what else could have got this in her back. There was no scar on her skin.

A full view of the stick stuck in her back.

Wisconsin deer season is underway

2006-09-25T10:55:00.000-07:00

Well the first weekend that me and Danny were able to hunt was alright. We saw plenty of deer, just didn't have any quite close enough for a shot. I had a buck, similar to the 8 pointer in the pictures below, almost give me a nice shot.

Here is a few pics of a ten and an eight pointer we saw on Saturday. I was told that this ten pointer usually runs with an eight that bigger than he is. I didn't see the bigger one. Anyways, here's to the start of another deer season! I can't wait.

Trail Cam bull

2006-09-14T20:11:00.000-07:00

We went out and set this trail cam at a wallow that was very active last year. Looks like we got the first bull to use the wallow on camera. A bear tore it down (we got a pic of him too) right after this bull hit the wallow. But it's back up now so hopefully we can get some more good pics before the season is over.

Big bull taking a drink before he rolls in the mud

Wyoming Elk Hunting

2006-09-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well we had a semi disappointing trip to Wyoming this year only because we didn't shoot any elk. But the scenery and the experience were unbelievable. I've never been on such a cool trip. We went into a new area that we had no clue about and didn't see any elk the first three days of the trip. But once we found them we had some incredible days of hunting.

I was about to shoot a small bull when I saw the biggest elk I've ever seen, while hunting, coming right at me. I held out and waited to see if he'd give me a shot but he never did. I also got busted pulling back on a real nice 6x6 but when he saw me he booked it quick. Had plenty of chances to shoot some small bulls and cows, and I regret it now. But because of the size of a few of the bulls that we saw we just had to wait and see if we could get one of them. Overall, it was an amazing time and we saw some of the most incredible country.

Driving past the Tetons on the way in.

Leading the horse down some nasty steep stuff.

Hardy looking down on some neat country at dusk.

Danny overlooking some cool country.

Sleeping Indian. I missed the shot where you could see his mouth.

Here is the pack train leaving.

More neat country.

Sittin on the horse looking at what should have been good elk country

I'm glad we didn't run into this grizzly. Gross, I know. But it was worth taking a picture of because of the SIZE of this thing.

This is how we caught fish, Wyoming style. These brookies would swim into the undercuts of the bank, all we had to do was reach our hand up under there and grab them, it was pretty cool! But the water was freezing.

Me and Chad leading our horses up a real steep rocky hill

This is the view from camp to the top of the mountain. The top of the mountain here is where we were taking pictures looking back down onto camp.

A bit closer of a view of our tents from the top of the mountain

A view from the top of the mountain looking down on to camp. The white dots are our tents.

An elk skull where it lay, and right next to it were a set of elk tracks.

The pack in to Wyoming

Overlooking some neat country in Colorado

This leaf was in the shade and the dew stayed on it all morning.

The last two weeks of fun

2006-06-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks we've been pretty busy getting ready for Carrie's wedding and finding time to play in between ;) Here are some pictures from the last few fishing trips

An old coyote skull

Got this coyote while shooting Pdogs

One of the rivers we've fished lately

Some nice scenery near the river

Todd catching a fish

Kelly's brown

A little rainbow that I caught

Kelly

A nice brown that Danny caught

Me and Todd fishing

A nice view

Kelly's first fly rod trout

Kelly playing with one of his many knots

Some more turkey hunting videos

2006-06-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

Watch your mouth!

2006-06-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

!Warning! This video contains a few words which might be offensive. Sorry! I can't seem to figure out the editing program to fix the problem. But it's neat video of a perfect shot.

Some Colorado fishin

2006-05-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

Got a few days to fish here in Colorado. We had a good day of bass fishing, Danny is below with the two biggest ones of the day. And had a great day of carp shooting also. I should have held this fish infront of me instead of behind because he was a hog. Not the biggest out there but fun to shoot!

The biggest carp of the day, a 15 pounder!

The nicest one of the day

A little guy

Turkey Hunt Tag-Along

2006-05-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

I got to tag along on some turkey hunting this past weekend. We saw some birds and had some real close calls but didn't manage to get one. All the does in the area had fawns, and it was impossible to keep away from them the whole time. We found this one while crossing a grass field. He was a feisty one, he charged me and headbutted my shin. So we got out of there and left him alone.

A fawn we happened to stumble across as we walked through a grass field towards a turkey set up.

We decided to sit near this log to call in some turkeys. As we got closer we noticed something behind it...they are damn cute little guys.

Cute little guy

The bird slayer, just not always turkeys! ;)

How long ago were these steps nailed to this tree? Sure was neat lookin

A closer look at one of the steps

Danny Fly Fishing

2006-05-18T14:26:00.000-07:00

Danny went and did some fly fishing this past weekend. He sent me a few pictures of some nice fish.

Shed Hunting

2006-05-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Danny found a few decent sheds from last weekend shed hunting.

As it lay

A days find

The biggest shed of the day

Wisconsin Turkey

2006-05-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Had a short lived season this year. About 7:45am I was walking a tree making my way to a field that I knew turkeys liked to be at. As I was cresting a small hill I seen the tail feathers of a fanned out Tom sticking above the grass. I knelt down and made my way into the trees. I gave a couple of yelps. A few minutes later 4 hens filed past me. I got my gun up knowing he'd be right behind. I could hear him drumming before I could see him, ahh it's hard to describe how neat that is. He came into opening all fanned out at 30-35 yards and that was that. Woulda been nice to get him with a bow, but it's just to fun to chase them with a gun.

Fanned out

He had a 10 3/4 inch beard, and NO SPURS! Not even little nubs. Oh well

Turkey Hunting

2006-04-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well I had a great time this past weekend turkey hunting. All in all we saw more turkeys and turkey behavior than you could shake a stick at. I will be posting video of all of it soon. I got to be the camera man for this trip, which was fine by me because I just enjoy to be there. We saw tons of deer as well.

The BB strikes again ;)

The crew with my Dad's bird.

Me and pops with his turkey. 22 lbs 8 inch beard, taken with a Gotshalk recurve.

A nice 20 lb tom with a 7 inch beard.

A spot and stalk jake. Any turkey taken on a spot and stalk is a trophy!

Turkey Shot

2006-04-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

This turkey wasn't shot on this trip but I figured I'd post the older footage anyways.

Turkey Fight

2006-04-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

We got to watch these two toms fight it out over some hens that were in the field. It was pretty cool to see. We saw another fight between two jakes that I will be adding to the end of this video sometime...maybe.

Turkey's Breeding

2006-04-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

We got to watch these turkeys breed...I thought that it was odd the way that this tom stood on the hen's back for so long before breeding. I've seen them breed before but I had never seen that display before.

A Winter fishin trip

2006-02-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

Danny was able to get out and do some shed hunting and some fishing last weekend. Here are a few pictures from his time out.

Beautiful rainbow

Beautiful day of shed hunting

A long brown

My time at home in CO/WY

2006-01-04T21:39:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics of some of the animals that me and Danny saw this weekend playing around. The wind was so bad that most everything was just holed up, especially the coyotes. We still had fun tearin around lookin at animals.

A neat looking little doe.

Looking good going away

Going away angle

A looking left shot with the group of bucks

A looking right shot with the group of bucks

A little bull that we found out on the plains.

A little muley buck.

A little antelope that posed long enough for a picture

Danny's Nebraska deer

2005-12-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Danny got to go hunting for a few days this weekend. He managed to tag this little whitetail at 30 yards. She went down within 30 yards of the shot. Overall they saw tons of deer, over 15 different bucks and a couple of real nice ones. Danny also got this shot on video, if I can get my hands on the tape I'll try to upload it so I can put a link to it on here.

Danny's doe. Shot with a Gottshalk bow, carbon arrows fletched with turkey feathers from two turkeys he killed last year and a Grizzley broadhead.

Danny's whitetail doe.

The shot

WY Coyote Hunting

2005-12-16T20:20:00.000-08:00

Danny got to go out on a few coyote hunts the last three days. Here are todays pictures, along with the truck full of the last few days of dog hunting. They had perfect weather conditions, bite ass cold and still wind!

A double that came in together this morning.

Danny with todays yotes

Here are the results of three days hunting, there's 8 dogs there.

Not bad for a morning hunt.

A sweet whitetail that Danny saw this weekend

More Danny Duck Hunting

2005-12-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

Danny's been hunting every free day that he has and has been doin pretty well too. Here are a few ducks from this past weekend.

Two man limit of ducks

A couple ducks

Good day duck huntin

Danny- Thanksgiving in Wyoming

2005-11-27T17:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a few ducks and a few dogs that Danny and his buds from Wyoming shot the last few days in Wyoming.

Danny with a limit of greenheads from today.

Here's a decent buck Danny saw while duck hunting.

The third dog of the day.

Another of friend with a coyote.

One of Danny's buddies with a coyote they shot this morning.

Danny and his buddy with a few ducks from a good morning.

These ducks are ones Danny shot from a few weeks ago.

Wisconsin Rifle Hunting

2005-11-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well I have never been gun hunting before, but a good friend from the East coast wanted to see what hunting was about so I told him I'd take him out. Another friend had an great property to hunt at so he took us, hoping that we could get a deer for the first timer. He also brought his little brother to try and get his first deer.

Well me and my East coast buddy had a few real close calls but no shots. The little guy got this nice doe Friday morning. He's a serious trooper, it was cold as hell but he never complained, and field dressed the deer himself. It was a blast.

Here is my buddy and his little brother. This was the little guys first deer, a nice doe he got with a single shot shotgun big bro bought for him this year. It was real neat to be there for that.

Here's me and another buddy posing with the deer. This was his first time ever hunting. We had some really close calls but no luck, we could have shot this morning but it was too early, not yet shooting hours.

Two first timers, one doing the holding and one doing the gutting.

No deer this weekend

2005-11-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

Well I only got to hunt the evenings this weekend. Saturday night I can-called a little buck right in. I've never heard a deer grunt so loud, he sounded a lot more like a pig than a deer. Tonight- no deer, just five big ol' toms across the field. Might be my last weekend out, I hope not.

A nice sunset from tonight. Saw a ton of turkeys, but no deer.

The view from my ground blind. I got to watch a few does go right underneath my Dad, who was in a treestand in the corner of this field. He's right behind that dang cornstalk at the tip of my arrow.

The trees sure are colorful this time of the year

Danny's Wyoming weekend

2005-10-31T07:13:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of pictures of Danny's fishing trip this weekend, by himself! The kid is crazy.

A great Wyoming scenery pic

This brown was just barely over 20inches

Another good lookin rainbow

A nice fat rainbow

A great weekend of Wisconsin deer hunting

2005-10-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well Dad made the trip to WI to hunt for about a week or so. I sat in his stand on Friday night before he came and shot a small button buck, I guess he wasn't quick enough getting here ;) The next evening I sat the stand where I got my first doe and got a decent little 7 point. Nothing special, but for the limited time I get to spend hunting I am pretty happy with the little guy.

I got this buck out of the same stand as I got the first doe. He came in on the trail I was on and walked right under me, I didn't think he was ever going to give me a good angle for a shot, he walked straight in and it looked like he was going to walk straight away. At 15 yards he turned and gave me a quartering away shot, I hit right where I was aiming and he hardly traveled 100 yards. I think now I'll just hold out for a big buck. Taken with a Chastain Wapiti Recurve, cedar shaft, and a Grizzly broadhead.

Dad was hunting down the hill from me, he didn't see any that night but I'm real glad he was here when I got this buck.

I got this little button buck Friday evening at 5:15pm. He fed directly beneath me for a few minutes before venturing into the field and offering a 20 yard broadside shot. Taken with a Chastain Wapiti recurve, cedar shaft, and Grizzly broadhead.

Danny's Weekend- Fishing in Wyoming

2005-10-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Danny got to spend the weekend flyfishing and shooting some ducks and geese. The weather in Wyoming is just awesome this time of year, so is the fishing!

A beatiful fall evening in Wyoming.

A view of the river as the sun sets.

A perfect rainbow.

To me, this is a beautiful looking brown!

A couple of birds that Danny got this weekend.

Boy, I could catch fish that size all day long (if I could catch fish).

MMmmmmmm, now that looks good, dinner on the river!

Wisconsin Whitetail

2005-10-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

This is my first deer of the season. And she was the biggest doe that I have ever seen. She came feeding down along a path by the corn at 6:15pm (a pic of my stand is below). She walked through my shooting window at about 20 yards, and I shot right where I was looking. She only ran about 80 yards. It worked out perfect.

Taken with a Chastain Wapiti recurve, cedar arrow shaft, and STOS broadhead.

The bow...

Dad and Danny fishing in Wyoming

2005-10-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

Dad and Danny took a float trip in Wyo this weekend. Danny rowed the whole time but Dad caught 15 or so. Here are a few.

Dad with another rainbow

A good lookin rainbow that Danny caught.

Dad with a rainbow

I really like the background, what a pretty time of year.

2005-10-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

Saw TONS of deer this weekend, over 15 Saturday night. Had two does within spitting distance but they never offered a good shot. No bucks yet...
Click To Enlarge

Danny's Weekend trip

2005-10-01T08:33:00.001-07:00

Danny spent some time duck hunting and fishing this weekend. Here are a few pictures of the fish he caught. I should rename this blog since it's mostly about Danny! :)

SanJuan rainbow
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Danny with a decent rainbow.
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

Here's just a little guy
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

I thought that this was just a neat view of the river.
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:31:00.001-07:00

This picture does this fish absolutely no justice. It was a nicer fish than you can tell.
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:31:00.000-07:00

Danny displaying a rare humback brown. What a freak!
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a limit of some ugly ducks that they got.
Click To Enlarge

2005-10-01T07:29:00.000-07:00

A few grouse they got that day.

WY Elk Hunt

2005-09-25T17:33:00.000-07:00

Danny's buddy shot this elk. They were hunting a drainage that holds a ton of elk but on the first morning of the hunt they got harrassed by two grizzly bears. They decided to get the hell out of that area and go to another spot.

The weather was so bad that the elk were not very active. Later in the morning after the weather calmed down a little bit this bull came into some cow calling. Danny's buddy made a perfect double lung shot and the elk fell within site.

Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Danny and his buddy
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

Where he lay
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

The meadow where the elk died. The elk is the dark spot in the middle of the picture.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:27:00.001-07:00

Some Wyoming scenery
Click To Enlarge

Random Colorado pictures from the season

2005-09-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

This is our cousin Adam and Danny. The shot I got opening day was on the side of the hill behind them.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:25:00.002-07:00

This is one of the drainages that where we hunt.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:25:00.001-07:00

A foggy day above timberline.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here's Derrick just jacking around on the road up to the trailhead where we hunt in Colorado.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

A Colorado sunset
Click To Enlarge

Danny 2005 Colorado Elk

2005-09-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here is Danny's elk. That kid is the luckiest SOB I know of. Or the best, one of those. Danny and Derrick found this huge wallow, in the process jumping a herd with a huge bull. The herd didn't go far and the bull never stopped bugling, and this was a little after midday. So they go back later in the evening and set up near the wallow. Not long after they started calling a bull skirts them but doesn't come in. Minutes later two bulls come in and another hangs back a little ways. Danny got a shot at one of those bulls but deflected his arrow on an invisible twig and misses.

Not long after that this spike comes in. Wise beyond his years, the spike hangs out on the top of a small ridge just looking around for five minutes. Finally he sneaks in to look for the elk that were making all the noise. Danny takes a 15 yard shot and hits the elk a little low and a little forward from where he was aiming. But he couldn't have missed more perfect because he got both lungs AND the heart. The spike ran off 40 yards, stopped to look back at what the heck just happened, and fell right there.

Called in 5 bulls in one night in one spot. Damn, I can't wait to go home to CO. I sat in a treestand that night and missed a squirrel. Danny called in 5 elk. Wisconsin...Colorado...Wisconsin...COLORADO! Next year...

Here is Danny's 2005 Colorado elk.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here is Derrick and Danny with his elk.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

This wallow is as big as a truck. You really can't tell how big it is from this picture.
Click To Enlarge

My 2005 Elk Season

2005-09-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

Well all I got this year elk hunting was two sunrise pictures. There were just no elk around for the first week of the season. After that it was back to Wisconsin for me. I managed to get a shot at a decent 5X6 on opening morning but I got a deflection on my arrow and missed 'em. Oh well...just add another elkless year onto my resume.

Although I did get to see two huge bulls sizing eachother up in this meadow right at dark. As me and Danny slipped away in the cover of night we heard these two bulls have a hell of a fight. Antlers crashed for several minutes, cows were mewing like crazy, and the bulls gave off grunts as they pushed eachother just like a weighlifter exerts lifting weights. That was worth the season right there.

Anyway, here's my two sunrise pics, and one of Danny on a rock.

I really needed a tripod for this picture, but even though it's blurry as hell it came out alright. This is Danny.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-02T05:10:00.000-07:00

Another sunrise, once the sun came up the colors really faded away...this was the best one I got that morning.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

A Colorado sunrise, I've never managed to take a picture that came even close to capturing how neat a sunrise really is.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-01T01:03:00.001-07:00

We only see these mini frogs once every few years in a string of ponds in our elk area. There were many this year.
Click To Enlarge

2005-09-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

Great Horned Owl that we saw while elk hunting. We saw GHO's in this spot several times.
Click To Enlarge