Just Along For The Ride

[dillon]

I moved from Utah to Nevada in November to take a great job working for the state. I attended Nevada Police Academy for 16 weeks this spring. My one year probationary period will end in November.

Moving caused me to be a non-resident for hunting in both Utah and Nevada during the 2013 main hunt draws. I decided to apply for bonus points only in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. I now have three deer points for Colorado; 12 limited entry elk, 1 limited entry deer, and 10 mountain goat for Utah; and one point for both deer and pronghorn in Nevada. I did not apply for Nevada points until the second draw when I was qualified as a resident. Next year I will start applying for elk and all three sub-species of bighorn sheep in Nevada.

This season I am going to be behind the camera and assist family members and friends with their hunts. I have been invited to tag along with a friend from Nevada on Area 6 for the early rifle deer hunt at the beginning of October. My dad, two brothers and a sister-in-law all have Zion rifle deer tags. My other brother drew dedicated hunter on Panguitch Lake. I am going to go hunting with my family in southern Utah toward the end of October.

My wife and I were blessed with a 9 pound 9 ounce baby boy this summer.

My daughter loves archery.

My wife enjoys that she can once again shoot her bow now that she is not pregnant any more.

I even get to shoot on occasion.

I am sure I will have some fun adventures this year and I am looking forward to sharing my adventures on Monster Muleys.

Dillon Hoyt
www.dillonhoyt.com

 

[dillon]

August 29th - Florida Trip

August 29, 2013:

I was taken back by the recent passing of my brother-in-law. He was such a good man and a great husband to my oldest sister and a great father to his four children (ages 19, 17, 12, and 7). I drove to Salt Lake City and flew to Florida for a week to support my sister and her family. While there I was unable to spend very much time outdoors due to the insane amount of rain they are receiving right now. Usually I chase hogs with my nephew when I visit Florida, but we were unable to get back into the hunting areas this trip due to all the rain. I was able to check out some alligators that some local hunters had taken. The one on my left is 12?7″ long and weighed 800 pounds. Someday I hope to do an alligator hunt, but not this year.

I was also able to visit a friends whitetail deer ranch. He has 260 acres fenced off and he has about 20 bucks on the property at the moment. It is fun to drive around and see how big he can grow the bucks in a controlled setting. The only buck that held still for pictures was Shorty. He is 3 years old.

I saw several snakes and hundreds of frogs.

Now I am scheduling my time so I can take a week off from work to hunt with my family in October in Southern Utah.

I was just going over the draw odds for Utah this year now that they are published on the wildlife website. I had a really good chance of getting my mountain goat tag, but not my elk. Looking back I am glad I did points this year rather than applying for hunts. I needed to take care of my family more than hunt all fall.

October can't come soon enough and I don't even have a tag.

 

[dillon]

Southern Utah General Season Deer Hunt - Video

I drove 10 hours with my wife, two kids and our dog to go hunting with my family in southern Utah during the general season deer hunt. We finally arrived at my parents house at dark on Friday night.

On opening morning my little brother called my dad and told him that he forgot his tag at the house so we were forced to drive it out to him early in the morning before the sun came up. On our way to his location I nearly ran over a buck with velvet antlers that was about 25 inches wide. It was 20 minutes before it was legal to shoot. He ran into a deep canyon and my dad and I elected to let him get away. My dad is limited to road hunting and sitting on migration trails due to a long history of back surgeries. That morning we saw hundreds of deer and several small bucks. We saw a few nice four point bucks on private land and a few more dead bucks in the backs of trucks. We hunted through Thursday before I had to drive back to Nevada. We saw roughly 30 bucks during the hunt, and hundreds of does. I drove my family home on Friday, 10 more long hours on the road.

The highlight of my trip was taking my two year old daughter hunting. She could have cared less if we shot a buck or even saw any deer. She kept telling us what roads to take and where to stop. Once when we had a small buck walking down the road toward us she put her finger to her lips and whispered ?shhhh Daddy, big buck.? It was a tiny spike, but to her it was monster. I love my little hunting buddy. I can't wait for her to get a little older so we can hike together.

My little boy is only a few month old, but he did pretty good hunting this year. By next year he should be okay, and the year after that he will be perfect to hunt with like his big sister is right now.

This is a movie of the hunt that I put together.

This year I was just along for the ride because I only applied for bonus points. My brothers both shot 2x3 bucks, but my dad has killed a lot of deer in his life and he refused to shoot a smaller buck. My other brother was on a different unit and went unsuccessful this year, but that works out great because it was his first year in the dedicated hunter program.

I collected some bonus points this year and I am sure I will have several hunts next year for my HAC. Luckily I have a job that allows me to hunt in the fall.

Thanks for following my 2013 HAC.

Dillon Hoyt
www.dillonhoyt.com

 

[dillon]

Just when I thought I was done...

Just when I thought I was done chasing bucks for 2013 I ended up filming a few bucks worth sharing. I made an unexpected one day trip to southern Utah just after Thanksgiving and I filmed these bucks right off the road. They are on a general season unit.

Enjoy!

Dillon Hoyt
www.dillonhoyt.com