Also this doesn't suck for lunch and a nap

Tag soup this year. Got pushed out early due to the weather. Enjoyed the walk in the woods and learned a lot for my first go at this elk thing. Now to surprise the kids by being home early and take the boys teal hunting

Beautiful country

Going to brag on my hunter a little bit. Mandy Cotten has been hunting bears for the last several days on our place. Last night she finally connected with this dry sow. She made a perfect heart shot and the bear only went about 30 yards. She was hunting by herself. Her husband is an outfitter and was busy with clients. I was on standby to help if she killed. We found her pretty quick, but in an ugly spot. Decided to go find more help and a better photographer for her fist bear. These are shots Jerad Cotten took.

My wife drew a buck pronghorn tag for 49, 50, 500, and 501 this year. Basically South Park. Family used to own a ranch there, so this was my old stomping grounds. I knew where all the BLM was before OnX.

Opening morning another hunter was already on the buck we had decided to go after, so we went looking. We found a really good buck on some BLM. Made a move and got in range and we're getting set up when something spooked his does. Pretty sure it was a fox.

Back to the drawing board. Found several other bucks, on public, but real close to the private line, so we were not comfortable with the set up.

The scenery was pretty decent.



Rain moved in so we decided to call it a little early and hit it in the morning. Just about to head out when the rain returned.

Found a tiny buck, we call them squibs, first thing. Passed. Ran into some other hunters that took a pass on a buck, so we gave it a try. Used some cows to hide our approach, made it to about 250 and decided to try.

He was nervous, and not staying still much. Swing and a miss. Clean miss. I glassed him for another for about 400 yards and he was fine.

Pretty dejected, we were trying to form a plan. Looked in on the squib, still there but not ready to settle. As we turned around I saw something. Glassed a good buck on private, but headed towards the BLM the squib was on. So we got out there a bit and he just kept coming. We had to move on him a little. He was not bothered by us, but seemed to have somewhere to go. Finally got him stopped and my wife made a decent shot. A touch low, but should've done the trick. He stayed up, facing dead away, for longer than I liked, so she put another one in him. As small as they are, they can be tough.




He was better than I thought. Both horns measured right at 14 inches. Good buck anywhere.


Borrowed my buddy's tent. The stove came in handy.

Meat pole we put up at camp.

What a fantastic post.

Dead Animal, Wall Tent, Great Scenery, Rule # 1 followed.