Makin' The Most Of Leftovers!

To start, I've gotta say that this past hunt was simply an awesome time spent with great guys! The only pressure we had was the little bit of pressure Craig and I put on ourselves to hold out for 100" class bucks. I held out for almost a full day and found a buck I wanted opening evening.

The buck was buried in thick catclaw at around 600 yards. I could see enough of him to know that he "could" hit the 100" mark but I also knew that I don't have the patience to pass any high 90's class buck on a Oct. leftover tag! The gun was set up on the tripod with the new "Loc Jaw and Rifle Railz" adaptor and I just shot a 4" group the day before at 600 yards with this setup, so I was confident with the shot. There wasn't a angle to worry about but the wind was variable and I could see it wasn't windy where the buck was but was windy where I sat. I pulled out my phone, called my dad who was on an elk hunt and told him I was getting ready to whack a buck! He knew I wanted to hold out and also knows how trigger happy I am so he told me, "Don't do it!" I laughed and told em' it was big enough and to just listen then I set the phone on a rock. There were 2 canyons between us and I decided the wind was going to be a factor so I held into it considerably and just as the buck stopped mostly broadside, the crosshairs were rock solid and level...BOOM! Craig says, "He's hit and running left!", I reload expecting to hear Craig say he's down but instead he says "maybe he's not hit"!!!! WHAT! Now I'm back on the buck and through trees I can see him just standing there then he starts walking around normally and seemingly fine! I'm frantically trying to get a good range on him but with the brush I know I'm getting wrong readings. Finally, the buck clears the brush and I get a good range, hold tight..BOOM, "To the right, the winds pushing it"!! I'm now realizing that the wind is blowing very inconsistently in the canyons between the buck and I and 2 more failed shots ring out leaving me disgusted and frustrated!!! The buck trotted down into and out of sight in the bottom after my last shot and I didn't even have to tell my dad what happened, I basically just said "I'll call ya later" and hung up. Craig and I both replayed the events and Craig swears the buck "humped" up at the first shot but then appeared completely normal. I agreed, the buck seemed perfectly fine as I missed my last 3 shots and I could see where the wind had blown my shots each time except for the first.

As we sat there replaying and discussing what just happened, 3 bucks that were bedded near my buck had gotten up. We watched them feed directly towards the trail my buck walked down. Immediately as their noses hit that trail they all stopped feeding and started sniffing around! Then, 1 by 1, they walked down the trail where my buck went and after a while they came back up and resumed feeding. We both knew that wasn't normal and I planned to be on that spot first thing the following morning.

Bryan aka "Butters" came up that night and he hiked over to the spot with me in the morning (this part is on the video). We arrived at the exact location of my last shot and I trailed the tracks back up and around and couldn't find any sign of a hit. As I stopped on his tracks back at the spot where my last shot drifted just off his right shoulder I told Bryan that i must've missed the first shot too. Just then a buck blows and busts out of the brush below us! I swing my rifle up, jack a round in, find em' in the scope and notice he's walking stiff legged. I glance at his rack and it appears similar, then look again at his back end and notice he looks humped up so with all this going on in a fraction of a second I find his shoulder..BOOOM! He piles up like a potato sack and my emotions just poured out! I had said prayers that night hoping I was able to finish this deal if i had indeed connected on the buck and my prayers were answered! My thoughts were confirmed as I walked up to him I had indeed hit him the night before with my first shot but the wind had caused a huge drift carrying the bullet almost 2 feet from where I held. There obviously was more wind then was evident and this new 7mm is way more finicky than my .300wm when it comes to wind, next time the 7mm is stayin' in camp if it's windy!

The lesson here is "Always follow up on your shots and make sure you didn't wound the animal"!!! I would've swore that buck wasn't hit, he acted completely normal, never licked himself, never walked funny, and I never noticed him humped up at all. It was great when those 3 bucks gave me that clue but I still would've gone over to double check and I'm very glad I did!

Craig did an outstanding job holding out and it almost paid off on the 5th day of the hunt when he barely missed a buck that no doubt would've hit the 100" mark. The shot was 407 yards but I forgot my inclinometer and we guessed wrong on the angle so the buck got a hair cut and an education! We didn't see the numbers of quality bucks like usual but we did still find 5-10 bucks a day so it was an awesome hunt. I still haven't taped out my buck yet other than some rough measurements, but he's right around 96-97" and is gonna look great on the wall!


And now for the rest of the story, check out the video!



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First Time Elk Killer!

This year has been awesome with tons of great experiences and most importantly a bunch of firsts! We had the priviledge of helping 6 folks take their very first big game animals and that honestly is what i live for! I LOVE helping folks kill giant critters but nothing is better than watching somebody take their very first!

The first and one of my favorites from the 2010 season was a cow hunt with Grant Larson. He and his father Kurt hunted with us on a hunt that none of us will soon forget!

My plan for the hunt was to help Grant get a genuine "Elk" hunting experience which would be tough in a unit known for TONS of hunters and lots of roads. I found a spot that held a few elk and was far enough from the roads there hopefully would be very few if any hunters. To make the experience the best it could be our friend Glen was there to cook for us and my dad along with Bryan Waitman and Bryan Hurley were there to help with the hunt as well. The hunting was tough for a few days with only bulls up close and lots of walking and hiking in the mix. We even called in a nice bull right into Grant's lap one day and had a great "stare down" with him and that was a great experience for all of us! We made several long stalks and had some close calls in very thick country but it wasn't until the evening of the 3rd day when it all came together!

The elk were spotted and the stalk was on! We didn't have much daylight left but Grant and I made it to the elk only to realize we couldn't see the elk through the brush and the wind was swirling. They eventually got our wind and busted out but I was able to call one of the cows back and unfortunately for her, Grant was already on the shooting sticks and ready! She poked her head up over the brush long enough to look at Grant through his scope just as he sent a fatal bullet her way! The blood trail was insane and perfect for a first time hunter to follow and we found her piled up in no time! It was an amazing experience for us all and I'm very glad to have shared the experience with Grant and Kurt! Grant is a killer and we will definitely see more critters with his tags on them in the future! Congrats buddy! Jimmy>

To read a more in depth story and lots more photos click on the link to CWT.com

http://forums.coueswhitetail.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21470

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Another Hunt Goes The Distance!

Immediately following Bill Kelley's "Overtime Archery Hunt" we had the priviledge of hunting with another friend who's family has hunted with us over the past few years. Bob MacMillan and his family have been very fortunate drawing tags and we've shared many great hunts with them. This year was Bob's turn as he drew an early rifle bull tag and called us up! Knowing Bob's tag was dang near a once in a lifetime tag we put a great team together with Jeff, Manny, Mel and myself as the guides and Glen Dishmon as our chef! Bob is a dedicated trophy hunter and a person who enjoys all aspects of a hunt. He told us from the beginning that he would rather hunt the whole hunt for a giant bull and go home empty handed then shoot a big bull early on! Bob lived up to that promise and we hunted for our biggest bull which was the one and only King Henry but the rut was slow and he no longer bugled as much making it very difficult to locate him. We hit it hard every day, called in good bulls every day and chased King Henry several times but no shots were fired. On one day while realizing we had no chance of catching up to King Henry we heard a Lion take out one of his cows! The noise was unmistakeable and by the time we got to the cow she was dead and the lion was gone. I set up a camera and got some great pics of the Lion that same evening and over the next few days... Bob was very excited at the chance to take this Lion so we set up a blind and Bob put in quite a few hours hunting over the kill but the Lion would never show up while he was there. It was still a neat experience and made the hunt that much more special. Just like my archery hunt, we finally decided to give up on King Henry and go look for the big bull that Bill Kelley and I saw just before he killed his archery bull. My friends Manny Madrid and Mel Kincaid had been scouting that area for us and had several bulls up to 380" located but they still just weren't big enough, even halfway through the hunt! Bob, my other friend and guide Jeff Wright and I headed down to this new area and during our first morning there we found the bull most guys dream about! This was a bull I hadn't seen before, extremely long beams with tons of distance between each tine, wide and good on all of his tines, this bull would no doubt beat 390" and most likely was mid 390's! This was where I realized how dedicated Bob was when he told us he just didn't like that bull and we still had a couple days left so let's keep looking! Like Bob said earlier, he wanted to hunt the whole hunt for a true giant and only in the last few minutes he would downsize if the chance presented itself. We were in search of a certain bull that i only had a brief glimpse of on the archery hunt. The bull had a huge extra tine on one side and abnormally long G4's with a really good frame. Several other hunters had seen the same bull and figured his G4's were around 28" long! With what I saw and what the other hunters saw, this was definitely a bull we needed to see again. We named this bull "Kickstand" because of his abnormal tine that "kicked" out to the side like a kickstand on a bike.

We spent a ton of time looking for "Kickstand" and passed up opportunities at several bulls between 360-390" in hopes that Kickstand was around and not broken. It was on the very last day when Manny and Mel called stating they had found Kickstand but he had broken both of his G4's and a G3 and was a little smaller than we had hoped on the frame. This was the last minute of the hunt and Bob said "let's go look at em'"! We took off and as we ran up and over the last mountain we found his herd and snuck in. We never got a good look at the bull but as they finally winded us and started taking off I stopped Kickstand in an opening and Bob quickly and instinctively hammered em'! Bob had already made up his mind that he was going to shoot this bull regardless of the breakage simply because it was a bull we had hunted very hard for and it had a history. It wasn't any ordinary bull, this was the ghost that had eluded us for days and this was the last chance to take a bull on this hunt so it was a no-brainer! This bull had huge G4 tines before breaking and great character making him a special bull and a great bull with 7 full days of hard hunting behind em'! Congrats again Bob, it was a hunt we will always remember! Jimmy>

Bill Kelly Kills In Overtime!

I was fortunate to hunt with a friend this year on the 2010 early archery hunt and I was super excited for it because I know what a character Bill Kelly is! Bill has hunted with us before several years ago and took a great late season bull on a tough hunt. That hunt was filled with TONS of laughs and good times despite the tough conditions but just being around Bill we always had fun! Here's the bull he took on that first hunt....
Now that Bill drew a coveted archery bull tag he called me and the hunt was planned. We had been scouting extensively in his unit all summer long and although there were very few "giant" bulls this year, there were definitely plenty of great bulls to hunt! We planned on a 7 day hunt but figured we'd be done well before that because of all the great bulls and the good rut starting early! Little did we know the hunt would last for 12 days! We were on huge bulls daily, a couple were 370-380" and one bull in particular, named "King Henry" was a huge 6x6 bull and he teased us every day. We would chase King Henry daily but the country was flat and thick and he had his harem with no desire to add to it. To know we were hunting such an amazing animal was awesome and kept us going but in the end we realized he was simply untouchable and we had spent too much time on him. If it weren't for the fact we were chasing our dream bull the whole time Bill could've taken several other great bulls but he stayed vigilant and held out. Here's King Henry..
By now we were already into the 11th day and Bill decided to call it quits. He was very happy with the hunt and the bulls we passed up and called in, some to under 10 yards! I agreed it was an amazing hunt regardless of not killing but I haven't had an archery hunter go home empty handed so I told him to get back up before the hunt ends. Bill said he'd try and then headed home. Later that night he called and said he'd be back up the next day! Wore out but excited the game was still on I decided to hunt a different area and call it quits on King Henry. The new area had good bulls but our expectations for these last 2 days would be only for the first 6 point to give us a shot! The first day out was overcast with light sprinkles. The bulls were screaming and Bill and I were set up in some open country callin in bulls! The first bull was a raghorn and he veered around us. The second bull was pushed towards us by a much larger bull that we caught a quick glimpse of. This larger bull had some seriously long tines but was obviously only interested in his cows. The bull he pushed towards us was good enough and Bill and I both agreed, a bird in the hand is better so we got ready. The bull stopped behind brush at 60 yards as Bill drew and held on an opening at 50 yards and waited. In no time the bull came into veiw and stopped perfectly just as Bills arrow arched towards the bull! THWACK! The shot was perfect, the bull ran 20 yards and fell! I ran around the tree to get a visual just in time to see the bull get back up and run falling again shortly after!
Bill and I both were very excited and happy to still wrap a tag on a good bull after such a long hunt. We had opportunities at much larger bulls, seen a couple huge bulls, had tons of great experiences and still put down a good bull with a phenomenal shot in the last inning of the game! Thanks Bill for a great experience and congrats again! Jimmy>