Family Fun!

Muley_73

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As the draw results have started to roll in this year our family excitement have grown.

Dad-UT-Cache Moose

Brother-UT-Willard Peak Nanny

Son-UT-Northern Rifle Deer
UT-Spike Elk

Me-UT-Northern Rifle Deer
UT-Spike Elk
NM-Barbary Sheep

Pending WY draw for pronghorn.

Can not wait to get out scouting in a couple weeks. This year should be full of lifetime memories as usually.
 
The seasons are now winding down and maybe I will now have some time to post some pics and few comments on this seasons adventures. Decided to pass on the spike elk hunt this year and stuck out on WY pronghorn. But added a week on the Paunsy with a buddy and was able to pick up a couple CO tags late in the game so I will add them into the mix also.

I guess I will also start my year with a few pics if fishing in Cabo. I will say this, fishing for marlin is a lot more like hunting than I would have ever dreamed!!! It was something that I will try and do again someday without question.

With a sunrise on the ocean like this I hoped our luck would contiue with the fish!!!
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Started the morning off with a few dorado. Great fighters and even better eating!!!
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Lots of this, which really is not a bad thing..... I think.
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With 30 mins left before we head back in for the day, we finally hook a striped marlin. Absolutely one of the top adrenaline rushes of the year for me!!!
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Important side note. A spring trip to Cabo sure makes fall hunting trips a lot smoother with my favorite scouting partner!!!
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After returning from Mexico and finishing up baseball season (which never really ends). My first priority was finding a moose for dad.

Dad drew a Cache moose tag after 16 years of applying and we were all excited for him. Living 20 mins from the unit and everybody else living 4 hrs away meant most scouting trips would fall to me, which I thought was great. Over the years I have decided that the "hunt" is not just the day your season opens but rather the day you decide you want to hunt a species. I do research about certain areas, look at draw odds, access, trophy potenial, herd numbers. I scout and talk to others that are out doing the same. To me this is all part of the "hunting process" and I dont have to have a personal tag to enjoy it.

Well after doing all of these things I was a little concerned about dads moose hunt. The Cache is down in recent years as far as trophy potenial, however dad said he was not getting any younger and really wanted to draw a tag. So the Cache it was knowing I could spend the most time on this unit pre season scouting. When opening morning arrived I believe the total number of days spent scouting was over 20. In that time we had found 14 bulls in the areas that I had spent time in. Not a bad number of the bulls, but most where younger 2 to 3 yr old bulls from what I could tell. We had found one really good bull and one other bull that was maybe a first day shooter.

Well opening morning arrived and Mother Nature made the decision easy on whether to go after Mr. Big or look at other options. After a night of monsoon rain there was no way we were getting the horse anywhere near the trail head where Mr. Big had been seen. I really was not that concerned as I had not seen him for 3 weeks and never did end up seeing him again the rest of the fall. With the rain continuing we decided to drive out to a look out point I felt we could glass from if the weather ever broke. Well around 8:30 the clouds shut off and we set up to glass. Not long into glassing several cows and one lone bull were spotted. After watching him for several minutes in the spotting scope it was decided that we need to at least get a better look at this bull. There was a road that would take us with in about 1000 yards of the draw he was feeding in and we felt we could close the distance fairly easy. We hiked in and set up in the draw where we knew the bull had been, but after setting in the pouring rain for 2 hrs without a sign of him we decided to get a little more aggresive. We felt the bull was still in the draw but probably just holed up in the trees trying to stay dryer than the idiots looking for him. My brother and I dropped into the draw and made and attempt to push the bull out of the cover and give dad a better look. Well the plan worked perfect and two shots later dad had his moose. Although not a monster he was still a very nice bull compared to the bulls that I had been scouting. With a spread over 40" and 7 points aside, dad was happy, and thats what counts!!!


The whole crew of drowned rats!!! Great day when two grandsons get to see grandpa knock down a OIL!!!!

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Few more pics from Dads moose hunt. One thing I think Dad has dreamed about is packing out a moose with the horses, as much as he dreamed about actually shooting one.

We were actually able to ride the horses right from camp to the kill site.
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Two great old school wranglers, and even better friends. Thanks so much for helping make one of Dads dreams come true!!!
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Garrett has been in on some great hunts the past few years. LE Elk, Two Paunsy bucks and numurous other kills. Always with eyes glued to the glasses watching the shot. Grandpa says he is a good luck charm. Guess who was right on Grandpas arm watching through his rain soaked Minox when the shooting went down on this OIL!!! SPOILED!!!!
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Well Dads moose hunt was not the only OIL that we had as family this year. My brother was also lucky enough to draw a Mountain Goat Nanny tag for the Willard Peak unit. This unit was also only 15 mins from my front door. So inbetween moose scouting trips my spare time was spent learning the Willard Peak area. I started scouting scouting for goats the first week of Augs and was able to make over 10 trips up the mountain before the hunt ever opened. What a neat place that unit is, absolutley amazing in the summer with all of the wild flowers and scenery.

Here are a few pics from our first scouting trip.


The road into the trail head.
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View from the trail head.

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A few of the goats we saw on the first trip.
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As the scouting trips continued I could see how the word on this units was an easy non physical mountain goat hunt. We saw goats on literally every single scouting trip we took. They were usually on the trail or very close to the top. As the billy hunt opened on Sept 10th we were still seeing a fair number of goats in very accessible places. We would learn soon enough that after close to 30 days of pressure this trend would not continue!!!

Some more scouting pics along the trail.
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There are actually 57 goats in this picture. ***Note, there were zero goats in this area when the hunt opened.
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My scouting partner for the goats. After spending all summer scouting with me she is pretty sure she needs to draw a goat tag now. Knowing my luck and her luck, she will draw before I do with 7 less points!!!
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