46rkl

If you’re looking for a guided, private land (no points or drawing) elk hunt, I’ve hunted at Fishtail Ranch in Chama NM. It is right on the northern border of NM near the San Juan mountains in CO. Lee Weiss is the owner and guide and he is a real pro. Much of the hunting is at 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation so you need to be in decent shape but they drive trucks or four wheelers to different hunting areas. That said, private land hunting is great. No competition from other hunters and no packing out after a kill. The lodge is absolutely great in terms of comfort and food. You can contact me if you have any questions but if this is the hunt you’re interested in, give them a call and talk to Lee. Good luck on picking your hunt. Nothing more exciting in my mind than hunting elk in the Rockies.

Took a walk out back with my wife today. Collected two of my cameras and the ground blind before it ices up tonite. Now it’s beer thirty. Grabbed a Something Secret IPA from Common Roots. Hoppy New Beers Day, all. Time for some football.

You said that she headed towards a creek..... that, to me, is an indication that she is hit. They will often lay in cool water when something doesn’t feel right in them. Search the creek bed would be my strategy. Best of luck in the search.

Lock-in’ back on a day of rest with a Nirvana by Ommegang. Football and beer. Where’s the pizza?

Christmas happy hour. Off the Books NEIPA from Rising Storm. Getting ready to cook some dry aged ribeyes. Mmmm-mmmm.

A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Bring on 2021!

Wishing for a safe, healthy and happy holidays and a very Merry Christmas to all the hunting clan, their families and friends. 2020 is all but over.

Picked up my euro mount and did two last minute shopping stops. Both stops at local breweries for more beer. Now I’m kicking back and having a afternoon beer and likely a nap. My wife is recovering well and is making a pumpkin pie for tomorrow. Life is good. Have a Merry Christmas all! DDH Juice Bomb northeast special edition IPA by Sloop Brewing

All muzzleloader are fairly soft shooting. Just don’t buy into the high powder load idea. 100 grains is usually fine for any projectile you are using. Get a good scopes and you will be very happy with the range you can get with any decent muzzleloader. Enjoy and welcome to the club.

Those late 70’s pics bring back such great memories. Our “camp” was all red plaid and we had to have four people for a doe tag. So many memories.

Nice big doe, where is that, a rock quarry?

Celebrating the end of deer season with a roaring fire and a Jade Black IPA from Foothills Brewing in Winston Salem, NC. A good friend of mine is the lead brewer there. My wonderful wife had the fire and the beer waiting for me as I came off the porch. Life is good.

My wife and seven others typically have a Hunting Widows Happy Hour on the last Saturday of gun season. The guys all meet up with them after hunting hours and cleaning up. The ladies can be well into the holiday spirit by the time we meet up with them somewhere in Geneseo. Always a great time but, of course, it only happened over Zoom this year. Still, the ladies had a great time and there was a lot of sharing of post season honey do lists. They are all great in their support of our pursuit.

Way to go for all those who scored today and way to hang in there to the rest of us who put in one final effort. Great to come home to a roaring fire and a cold beer. Foothills Brewing out of Winston Salem, NC. Jade black IPA.

The end is near....

Went for a long walk to try and stir things up (definitely did) and got to my “last stand” stand, climbed up the ladder and found a casing sitting in the seat. It was a .280 and no one that hunts here uses that caliber. Hmmmmm. Whatta ya gonna do? Hunt on for the final few hours. Good luck to all the diehards!

Saw one walking away at the far end of the path when I first got in the shooting shack. Likely it saw or heard me climbing up and opening the door. Wrong direction to be moving but at least something’s moving.

What a difference some snow makes in the sight lines. I can see all the way to the top of the ridge in front of me. This is probably how the deer can see all of the time

Tree has lights but no decorations yet. Still looks great. My wife always thinks it’s funny to hang ornaments on the mounts.

As soon as the sun went behind the ridge, the temp plummeted. 16 degrees at 4:00, 9 degrees when I walked in the house at 5:00. It even looks cold. Down to 3 now. How low can it go? And why weren’t the deer moving? Four more days....

I’ve become the bionic man! Heated socks, heated vest and chemical hand warmers. Isn’t science great? Anyhow, I’m back in the shooting shack but now with 6” of snow on the ground and 20 degrees with a light breeze from the north. Tracks everywhere, especially under my bird feeders but also in my food plot. Hoping the group I saw yesterday comes back, just a bit closer.

Close, but no luck. Just had 8 doe filter past just out of my clear shot lane. About 60 yards away but I’m pretty thick brush. The snow picked up so I moved to my shooting shack an ten minutes later they moved past. Close.

I’ve been out since noon hoping to catch some pre-snowfall movements. Nothing sighted yet but a light snow is falling. Come on out for an early dinner, deer.

As usual, I just couldn’t pass up the last couple of hours of gun. Sitting in the stand I shot my buck from over a week ago. Buck master, I was shooting Hornaday Superformance 117 grain in 25-06. Entrance through the left shoulder and no exit. After Friday’s warmth he was starting to gas up so no autopsy but I’m assuming that it stuck in the right shoulder/leg. I did take the head and tag it. Gonna do a European mount with it. Best of luck to all that are in it to the end! Tomorrow’s a new start with the TC Omega.

Yeah, the coyotes around here have had so many gut piles to feast on they’ve gotten picky. I’ve seen gut piles where the heart, liver and kidneys have been eaten and the rest left behind. A fox got ahold of the rear of the buck but no coyotes. I spent the morning after shooting him sitting in my tower blind looking for crows gathering but it seems even they are living high on the hog this time of the year. I can hear the coyotes howling every night around here but they are very careful to avoid much movement during the day.