Bull Elk

A bull I came across while scouting the other day. He was a long way away when I took the video.  I took this video at well over a mile probably close to two miles away with the Vortex Razor HD spotting scope and digital camera adapter, which are both AWESOME.  The guys at Vortex have been more than friendly and helpful with anything I have needed.  If any of you are interested in a good pair of optics at very reasonable prices you should only be looking at Vortex Optics.  I have way more awesome elk and deer videos but due to not wanting to show to much of the area we have been scouting, you will just have to wait.

A Little About Myself

For those of you that don’t know me, I tend to spend a few days a year out in the southern Utah mountains, Northen Arizona’s famous "Strip" and eastern Nevada mountains and deserts looking for the one big buck that is roaming the hills. I have been lucky enough to take a photograph of a 322" in buck in the velvet that was over 40 inches wide, which later that same day we were able to harvest him. Last year I was able to help a good friend harvest a 268" buck that was also over 40 inches wide. Not many people can say they truly have seen a 40 incher but I have had the good fortune on my side as I have helped put 2 on the ground. I have made some good friends along the way from the clients I have had the pleasure of guiding or some of their friends or just people I have ran into from the few days a year I spend chasing the mythical giant bucks.


 

Live Picture of "houdini"

 

Alan Hamberlin and myself with Houdini

 

A couple blury pictures from some video I took of Lucky.

 

Me holding my second over 40 inch buck.



The last few years I have seen a bunch of nice bull elk while looking for bucks and I’ve thought to myself I should start getting interested in elk. Never being an elk guy I wondered how I would like it and let me tell you, after chasing elk around in the rut with the buggles and calling and the good times, I am hooked. I have the good opportunity this year to have a long time friend, Matt Messerly, from my home town with an archery elk tag in a premium unit right here in my home state of Utah. He is as crazy for elk as I am for deer so between the two of us I think there just might be something giant hit the ground this year. I want to thank him for the friendship he gives me and all the good techniques, values and hard work he teaches me. If you guys ever want to know about anything to do with hunting equipment of any kind or just good reviews on everything outdoors you really need to check out his blog at www.getyourassoutdoors.blogspot.com




As this year progresses closer to the hunting season I am looking forward to the new friends to come, getting together with old friends and the chance to see some of the great animals that inhabit the hills, mountains and deserts of this area we love to call home. I hope you guys enjoy reading the stories and seeing the awesome pictures from our travels into the great outdoors.

Bryan Allred's 212" Buck

Bryan Allred was sick after opening morning when I told him to pass on this buck I told him it was opening morning and we could find something better. I had totally misjudged and under estimated this buck. When I told Bryan to pass on him, I knew he had deep forks, long tines and some "trash" on the one side but his frame wasn’t very wide and that’s where it threw me off. We hunted hard the next couple days with no sightings of anything bigger or better than the opening day buck. Bryan kept asking if we had made a mistake and I kept assuring him that we had not and that it was still early in the hunt. However, I was starting to wonder myself if I had totally made a mistake as I started adding numbers in my head of what I thought that buck would score. We were able to glass the buck up again about 3 or 4 days later and Bryan said " I think I should shoot him". I looked the buck over again and wasn’t totally convinced yet but said ok go ahead. Our luck just wasn’t there that day as we watched the buck stand broadside at about 400 yards for ten minutes while we discussed it. Then just as we decided to shoot the buck walked into the trees and we hunted for him the next couple days with no luck. On the last day of the hunt we walked into a clearing where we had been seeing some other bucks. It was right at daylight and as it got a little lighter and we could see a little farther there stood a big buck with deep forks, long tines just standing there at 300 yards like a statue. I told Bryan he better shoot. He was just getting a good rest of his pack when the buck turned to run and I thought oh no this will be a long morning. BOOM! As I was just getting up to run up the hill to keep and eye on the buck Bryan shot as the deer had just started to run and as fast as it started it was over he had just whopped an awesome buck on the run at 300 yards. We ran the 300 yards and there in front of us lay the opening day buck that Bryan had thought about all week since we first spotted him and what an awesome buck he was. He had over a 200-inch frame with some extra points that put him with a score of 212". With his cheater on the one side he was over 30" wide also.
I was glad to have Larry Iverson along on this hunt as with most of my hunts he is fun to have around and does a good job helping.
Thanks to Bryan for an awesome hunt and what an amazing shot he made.

Glassing

There is not much more relaxing that sitting behind a good pair of optics and scanning the surrounding scenery for the flash of an antler or the twitch or an ear. I don’t have to patience to sit around and do anything really, but I can sit behind some binoculars and look over the same scenery for hours and not get bored. My kids think its pretty cool when I set them up with a tripod and binos and let them think they are looking for big bucks. My daughter went hunting with me last year and I got her all set up and she glassed right along side me the whole evening. I didn’t see anything but she on the other hand kept telling me she saw a big buck, an elk and a coyote that was smiling at her. I hope I can teach my kids the enjoyment of hunting and hope they will continue to love it as much as I do.

Trail Cam Pics

I have been out several times scouting for deer but all that has shown up on my trail cams or all that I have glassed and videoed have been elk.  I hope that the big bucks are just waiting a bit to make their appearance.

Colton and Megan Bracken's Utah bucks

I had a great time when I took my sister Megan and her husband Colton on the general hunt here in Utah. Colton had been diagnosed with the swine flu the day before the hunt and wasn’t even going to go. I’ll bet he is glad now that he suffered through opening morning. They were lucky enough to have their pictures and story published in the MuleyCrazy magazine. It was really cool that a husband and wife team got such nice bucks on the same hunt during the same year. Colton’s buck was an old regressing 4x4 buck that was 32" wide and Megan’s was an awesome 4x5 with a broken cheater that would have made him 30" wide. The story below is the one they had published in the magazine.

The Swine Flu and Déjà Vu

There is something to be said about commitment and persistence. These two things helped my wife Megan and I both take prize bucks in the hills of southern Utah in October 2009. We were fortunate enough to have Megan’s brother Trevor Hunt helping us. He taught us a lot about a commitment to hunting and the persistence it takes to do it well. With just a few days left before opening day Megan and I had everything ready and prepared for the long awaited rifle hunt in our home town. Our guns were sighted in and we had our plan all ready. However, the unexpected happened when Friday morning the Doctor diagnosed me with the swine flu. I was crushed. No hunt, no deer, no fun! I stayed in bed all day depressed that I was going to miss Megan’s first deer. Even though hunting runs deep in both of our families and we had both been hunting many times, Megan had not yet had the opportunity to shoot a deer. We were hoping this was her year.
When we woke up Saturday morning, I was feeling a little better, and was determined to go. So I decided to tag along, and at least sit in the truck so I could be there when she got one. After driving what seemed like forever to me, we arrived at our spot. No sooner had we hiked up to the little canyon we would be glassing, than Trevor immediately whispered those fateful words, ”There he is!” We quickly ran to the edge of the ridge to check out this buck. Unfortunately it was just a doe. Five minutes later, out walked a monster buck. It was only 8:06 AM opening morning, and we were already about 250 yards away from the biggest buck I had ever put my scope on. We waited cautiously as he weaved in and out of trees, and through his herd of does. Finally, after about 5 minutes of wandering to the top of the ridge he was out to about 340 yards, and was heading over the top. My wife couldn’t find him in her scope, and time was running out. I quickly whipped off a shot at him and just missed. This got him trotting and I fired a second shot. Again a miss! At this point he was at the top of the ridge just about to run over the edge. I took a deep breath, found him in the scope, and sqeezed off one more round. Thud! I had hit him.
After a few minutes we made the 367 yard trek over the hill to find the 32” 4 X 4 lying under a tree. Looking at the biggest buck I have ever shot I had some mixed emotions. I was pretty worn out from the flu, and sad that Megan wasn’t able to take him, but with a deer like that you can’t feel that bad. We excitedly took pictures and finished taking care of him. The best part was that the deer I had taken was not the deer we were going after. So we knew that there was still one left out there for Megan.
This is where the persistence came in. We went back out there that night, and didn’t see anything. We returned to that spot every single day for the next week never seeing a single deer. It was very tempting to give up and try another spot, but Trevor was wise enough to tell us to be patient and that the persistence would pay off. Boy did it ever! Exactly one week after I had shot my deer, we returned again to the appropriately named “swine flu canyon”. It was Saturday October 24^th. At 7:56 AM we went up to the same spot we had taken mine, and almost in the exact same spot stood a lone doe. I couldn’t believe it. We quickly ran to the same spot we had shot from earlier and set up. Again, out walked another monster buck. He walked across the top of the ridge and finally stopped. Megan fired her first shot at a live deer and just barely missed under its neck. She quickly reloaded and shot again. This time it just missed under its stomach. “A little higher”, Trevor whispered. After a few seconds, she fired off one more shot. This one landed perfectly in the kill zone. After a few minutes of stumbling around he finally collapsed behind some oak. I glanced at my watch, 8:06 AM. I couldn’t believe it. Trevor checked the range and it was 375 yards. I struggled to comprehend what had just happened. My wife had just shot a buck that was at least as big as mine, not even 50 yards from where I had taken mine, almost exactly one week to the minute from when I had shot mine, and she hit it on the third shot. It was Déjà vu. We hiked over to the spot where he had collapsed, and sure enough there lie the 26 inch 4 x 5 in all his glory. Not bad for a first deer.
Needless to say, I was a lot more excited this time. The flu wasn’t holding back my emotions anymore. I gave my wife a big hug, and thought about how awesome this moment was. It’s not every year that you get to hunt with your wife, let alone get a monster mule deer with her. The story that we just lived will be one we’ll tell our kids for years to come. This was truly a year to remember. And to think, I almost didn’t even go hunting because of a little sickness. We must thank Trevor for teaching us the value of commitment and persistence and for helping us have one of the best memories of our marriage.