Friday, June 21, 2013
Summertime bowfishing fun!
We've been spending a lot of time on the water this summer fulfilling our latest addiction to bow fishing. Here's a video of the last couple trips we've taken.
Spring Bowfishing
Here's a real quick clip of us bowfishing a river channel that was loaded with spawning carp. This was actually the day after we bought our bowfishing boat and the last time we've fished from shore.
Monday, March 4, 2013
The Sweep is Complete!!
Well we did it!!
We survived 2 inches of snow and brutally cold, windy conditions to fill our last 2 rifle javelina tags!
Check out the video recap of our amazing 2013 javelina season!
We survived 2 inches of snow and brutally cold, windy conditions to fill our last 2 rifle javelina tags!
Check out the video recap of our amazing 2013 javelina season!
Saturday, February 16, 2013
More 2013 Javelina Fun!
Check out this short video that my good friend Kevin put together. It showcases some of the amazing success we have all had this year chasing pigs with our bows. Our group of family and friends still have 4 more tags to fill this upcoming weekend on the rifle hunt. Could we possibly go 11 for 11??
Stay tuned for the results!!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Blake's 2013 Archery Pig
"Hey man, we are looking at waking up to 2-3 inches of snow tomorrow morning for my pig hunt....It's going to be cold as hell with heavy gusting winds too. I'm still headed out, but I'm not expecting much action."
"No worries man. I'm still up for going. Worst case scenario if the weather doesn't break we can just hike until we cut some tracks and try to track them."
"Sounds like a good plan to me. See you in the morning"
That was the conversation between my good friend, Kevin, and I the night before we were to go on my pig hunt. The weather was just down right shitty!! Anyone who has ever hunted javelina knows that when the weather is super cold and wet the pigs bury themselves deep into the nasty thick stuff and are nearly impossible to find. Even with the horrible conditions, I was still going to at least give it a shot. There's always a chance when I am in the field and there is always ZERO chance when I'm sitting at home!
I picked Kevin up bright and early and we headed out. We planned on glassing a big open faced mountain the first couple hours of the day, but the snow rolled in fast and the clouds completely engulfed the mountain. No worries though. In the hunting world if you can't improvise quickly you won't be very successful! We decided to bite the bullet and make a long hike into an area where we could glass into a big creek bottom full of thick oak brush. We knew in this weather that the pigs would be held up tight trying to stay warm.
A quick ground shot of the snow depth. Not really that bad and perfect for tracking.
We hiked to the top of the ridge and did our best to glass in the brutally cold and snow filled wind. I'm not going to lie. It flat out sucked.
The scenery was amazing, but it was miserable. We followed the top of the ridge, while glassing into the bottoms. There was enough snow on the ground that all we were really doing was glassing for tracks. We knew if they were there we would see some tracks and then make a game plan from there. Unfortunately for us not a track was spotted.
I finally told Kevin we should just hike back to the truck and regroup. My new plan was to hit some thicker oak brush country and just call for foxes until the weather broke.
We made the 45 minute or so drive into some amazing country. Found a spot that we figured would be just as good as any other and made our first set. I grabbed my bow, Kevin grabbed his shotgun and off we went. Again, we battled the snow and wind and our set was a bust. Rather than head straight back, we decided to do a big loop and make another set. About 100 yards away we were hiking and BAM!! FRESH PIG TRACKS!!
We both looked at each other sort of shocked and then smiled because we knew the pig hunt was back on! It was at this moment that we made our one and only mistake. We had brought Kevin's big video camera to film my hunt for a little project we are working on for this year's worth of pig tags in our group of family and friends. So far we are 5 for 5 tags with all 5 hunts on film. It was here that we got so excited at the site of pig tracks that it never entered either of our minds to run back to the truck real quick and grab the camera.
We started following the tracks with great anticipation. I know for the first part of the tracking I still wasn't convinced that this was even going to work. I mean these tracks could be hours old and the pigs could be anywhere in this thick stuff. To top it off the first part of the tracking we had the wind blowing 15+ mph right at our back. It was tough to stay quiet in the oak brush and manzanita and impossible to keep the wind right. Nevertheless, we continued on.
When we first started, the snow was still pretty thick but started melting quickly making tracking in the mud pretty easy!
As we continued on the tracks became a little harder to follow in the hard rocky ground and we lost them. It was pretty disheartening. This country was so thick it was impossible to glass. Hell, it was nearly impossible to walk through in some spots! We decided to split up and search the ground for tracks as if we were searching for a spotty blood trail. Finally, I cut one single little track and called Kevin over. We quickly picked them back up and the track was back on!! With our renewed anticipation we powered through. We were soaked from busting through the snow covered waist high brush but it didn't matter. We were determined to find these little suckers!
We finally made it to a spot where it looked like 50 or more pigs congregated in the bottom where three little cuts met up into a bigger cut. The tracks were everywhere!! Kevin went high on one side and I went up the other side. Just then we hear some quads coming down an old two track that was up on top of the ridge above us. Great! All this tracking and we end up next to a road and these quads could ruin the whole thing! The quads left and I looked up at Kevin with my arms spread wide in my "what now?" pose. He looks ahead and pauses. Then his head snaps back at me and he frantically starts waving me over. I ran back as fast as I could knowing that he had the pigs. Sure enough when I get over to him he says "I can hear them fighting right there!" He was just below the top of another little cut that I couldn't see and the sounds were coming from in the cut.
We sneaked up and there they were!! Finally after all that tracking we found what we were looking for. Two problems though. The wind was dangerously close to blowing the whole thing and it was so thick where we were that I had no way to shoot. We could see pigs walking through the manzanita 5 or 6 feet in front of us! No way I'm slipping an arrow through that crap though. After a few minutes we decided to back out and loop around on them, getting the wind right. It worked perfectly! We crawled to within 40 yards but we got pinned quick! They had no idea we were there, but one of them had fed up the side we were now on and he was only 10 feet away! Again, I couldn't shoot because it was so thick, but now we couldn't even move cause he was so close! Eventually he fed off far enough that we were safe again.
At 40 yards, all these pigs are well within my range but I was nervous about the wind. I didn't want to risk a shot that long when the wind was blowing 15-20mph. I needed to get closer. 10 minutes later we had gone a mere 10 yards but that was enough. Kevin was behind me calling ranges at various pigs. 35, 37, 40, 30 but all of them were hanging tight in the thick stuff. I attempted to draw 4 different times only to stop because the pigs wouldn't stand still long enough. Finally at 35 an average sized pig stepped out. I drew, settled the pin and once again he stepped back into the brush! I let down as slow as I could. Luckily the didn't catch any movement. The biggest pig was now at 30 and playing cat and mouse with me and my only shooting lane. After a few minutes it finally stepped out. I knew I had to be quick. I drew, Kevin confirmed 30 yards. Just as I was settling my pin it turned broadside and I touched off my release. THWACK!!! It was the loudest impact I've ever heard on a pig! It hunched backwards onto it's hind legs and fell over instantly! We looked at each other like "That just happened!!!" and slapped a big high five!
We stood there for a few minutes in serious disbelief to what just went down. Not only did we find pig tracks in the snow, but we followed them in some of the nastiest weather for pig hunting and it actually worked! Here is when we realized the reality of the mistake of not going back for the camera. From the moment we first saw the pigs to when I shot mine was some of the craziest and intense hunting I've ever been involved with. The footage that we would have had would have been awesome!!!! Oh well though. We won't make that mistake again! haha
A quick shot of the arrow as she lay. The thwack we heard was the sound of my arrow blasting right through both shoulder blades! The Slick Tricks did the deed yet again! The arrow actually went into the ground as it went through her and she snapped it in half when she fell over backwards.
And finally here she is! This pig was far and away the biggest in the herd and I though for sure it would be a boar but it wasn't. I've never shot a female this big before!! We didn't weigh her on a scale, but we both estimated her to be around 55-60 pounds on the hoof. Figure you only take 5-8 pounds of guts out of them and that's one big piggie!! No photo trickery here either. I'm only sitting about 4 inches behind her!
Hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoy writing it. It gives me an excuse to relive the hunt over and over again!!
"No worries man. I'm still up for going. Worst case scenario if the weather doesn't break we can just hike until we cut some tracks and try to track them."
"Sounds like a good plan to me. See you in the morning"
That was the conversation between my good friend, Kevin, and I the night before we were to go on my pig hunt. The weather was just down right shitty!! Anyone who has ever hunted javelina knows that when the weather is super cold and wet the pigs bury themselves deep into the nasty thick stuff and are nearly impossible to find. Even with the horrible conditions, I was still going to at least give it a shot. There's always a chance when I am in the field and there is always ZERO chance when I'm sitting at home!
I picked Kevin up bright and early and we headed out. We planned on glassing a big open faced mountain the first couple hours of the day, but the snow rolled in fast and the clouds completely engulfed the mountain. No worries though. In the hunting world if you can't improvise quickly you won't be very successful! We decided to bite the bullet and make a long hike into an area where we could glass into a big creek bottom full of thick oak brush. We knew in this weather that the pigs would be held up tight trying to stay warm.
A quick ground shot of the snow depth. Not really that bad and perfect for tracking.
We hiked to the top of the ridge and did our best to glass in the brutally cold and snow filled wind. I'm not going to lie. It flat out sucked.
The scenery was amazing, but it was miserable. We followed the top of the ridge, while glassing into the bottoms. There was enough snow on the ground that all we were really doing was glassing for tracks. We knew if they were there we would see some tracks and then make a game plan from there. Unfortunately for us not a track was spotted.
I finally told Kevin we should just hike back to the truck and regroup. My new plan was to hit some thicker oak brush country and just call for foxes until the weather broke.
We made the 45 minute or so drive into some amazing country. Found a spot that we figured would be just as good as any other and made our first set. I grabbed my bow, Kevin grabbed his shotgun and off we went. Again, we battled the snow and wind and our set was a bust. Rather than head straight back, we decided to do a big loop and make another set. About 100 yards away we were hiking and BAM!! FRESH PIG TRACKS!!
We both looked at each other sort of shocked and then smiled because we knew the pig hunt was back on! It was at this moment that we made our one and only mistake. We had brought Kevin's big video camera to film my hunt for a little project we are working on for this year's worth of pig tags in our group of family and friends. So far we are 5 for 5 tags with all 5 hunts on film. It was here that we got so excited at the site of pig tracks that it never entered either of our minds to run back to the truck real quick and grab the camera.
We started following the tracks with great anticipation. I know for the first part of the tracking I still wasn't convinced that this was even going to work. I mean these tracks could be hours old and the pigs could be anywhere in this thick stuff. To top it off the first part of the tracking we had the wind blowing 15+ mph right at our back. It was tough to stay quiet in the oak brush and manzanita and impossible to keep the wind right. Nevertheless, we continued on.
When we first started, the snow was still pretty thick but started melting quickly making tracking in the mud pretty easy!
As we continued on the tracks became a little harder to follow in the hard rocky ground and we lost them. It was pretty disheartening. This country was so thick it was impossible to glass. Hell, it was nearly impossible to walk through in some spots! We decided to split up and search the ground for tracks as if we were searching for a spotty blood trail. Finally, I cut one single little track and called Kevin over. We quickly picked them back up and the track was back on!! With our renewed anticipation we powered through. We were soaked from busting through the snow covered waist high brush but it didn't matter. We were determined to find these little suckers!
We finally made it to a spot where it looked like 50 or more pigs congregated in the bottom where three little cuts met up into a bigger cut. The tracks were everywhere!! Kevin went high on one side and I went up the other side. Just then we hear some quads coming down an old two track that was up on top of the ridge above us. Great! All this tracking and we end up next to a road and these quads could ruin the whole thing! The quads left and I looked up at Kevin with my arms spread wide in my "what now?" pose. He looks ahead and pauses. Then his head snaps back at me and he frantically starts waving me over. I ran back as fast as I could knowing that he had the pigs. Sure enough when I get over to him he says "I can hear them fighting right there!" He was just below the top of another little cut that I couldn't see and the sounds were coming from in the cut.
We sneaked up and there they were!! Finally after all that tracking we found what we were looking for. Two problems though. The wind was dangerously close to blowing the whole thing and it was so thick where we were that I had no way to shoot. We could see pigs walking through the manzanita 5 or 6 feet in front of us! No way I'm slipping an arrow through that crap though. After a few minutes we decided to back out and loop around on them, getting the wind right. It worked perfectly! We crawled to within 40 yards but we got pinned quick! They had no idea we were there, but one of them had fed up the side we were now on and he was only 10 feet away! Again, I couldn't shoot because it was so thick, but now we couldn't even move cause he was so close! Eventually he fed off far enough that we were safe again.
At 40 yards, all these pigs are well within my range but I was nervous about the wind. I didn't want to risk a shot that long when the wind was blowing 15-20mph. I needed to get closer. 10 minutes later we had gone a mere 10 yards but that was enough. Kevin was behind me calling ranges at various pigs. 35, 37, 40, 30 but all of them were hanging tight in the thick stuff. I attempted to draw 4 different times only to stop because the pigs wouldn't stand still long enough. Finally at 35 an average sized pig stepped out. I drew, settled the pin and once again he stepped back into the brush! I let down as slow as I could. Luckily the didn't catch any movement. The biggest pig was now at 30 and playing cat and mouse with me and my only shooting lane. After a few minutes it finally stepped out. I knew I had to be quick. I drew, Kevin confirmed 30 yards. Just as I was settling my pin it turned broadside and I touched off my release. THWACK!!! It was the loudest impact I've ever heard on a pig! It hunched backwards onto it's hind legs and fell over instantly! We looked at each other like "That just happened!!!" and slapped a big high five!
We stood there for a few minutes in serious disbelief to what just went down. Not only did we find pig tracks in the snow, but we followed them in some of the nastiest weather for pig hunting and it actually worked! Here is when we realized the reality of the mistake of not going back for the camera. From the moment we first saw the pigs to when I shot mine was some of the craziest and intense hunting I've ever been involved with. The footage that we would have had would have been awesome!!!! Oh well though. We won't make that mistake again! haha
A quick shot of the arrow as she lay. The thwack we heard was the sound of my arrow blasting right through both shoulder blades! The Slick Tricks did the deed yet again! The arrow actually went into the ground as it went through her and she snapped it in half when she fell over backwards.
And finally here she is! This pig was far and away the biggest in the herd and I though for sure it would be a boar but it wasn't. I've never shot a female this big before!! We didn't weigh her on a scale, but we both estimated her to be around 55-60 pounds on the hoof. Figure you only take 5-8 pounds of guts out of them and that's one big piggie!! No photo trickery here either. I'm only sitting about 4 inches behind her!
Hope you enjoyed the story as much as I enjoy writing it. It gives me an excuse to relive the hunt over and over again!!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Mexico Coues!
After a few years of convincing from my good friend Tim, I finally decided to join him on a coues deer hunt in Mexico. Also joining us would be Tim's good buddy Craig. I planned for this hunt all year long with high hopes. Mexico is famous for it's world class coues deer and mule deer hunting. We would be on a ranch this year that Tim has never hunted, so our expectations were a little up in the air. We were told the ranch had the potential to produce 100+ inch bucks with the occasional 110 or better buck not out of the question. You just never know what you are going to get, though.
After a long 13 hour trip we finally made it to our ranch around 7PM. Dinner was served and a sleepless night followed. Opening morning for us was January 5, and it found us up at the highest point of the ranch glassing down into the low country. Immediately we started seeing deer. I've never been down to Mexico for deer hunting and it was very quickly becoming my favorite place!! The deer were just everywhere. It doesn't even compare to hunting up here in AZ. Here's a coupe pics of our first glassing spot.
I glassed up my first lion ever and it just so happened it was the very first animal I saw on the trip! Unfortunately, he didn't stick around long and I never had a chance to take him. We sorted through close to 80 deer that day from this same glassing spot, but nothing really sparked our interest. We did, though, get enough of a look to be able to make a solid game plan for the next day.
On day 2 Tim and Craig both filled their tags with nice bucks. I was happy with being very patient as I knew we had 7 full days to find a buck worth shooting.
On Day 3 I finally had my chance. I glassed up a bedded buck at 910 yards on a wide open hillside. The grass was crazy tall and this buck was almost completely invisible even as open as the hillside was.
Here he is through the spotter. The sun was at our back so the pic isn't all that great.
This buck would not get out of his bed to give us a better look, so we left him alone and continued to glass. We glassed up a couple dozen more deer and a handful of bucks that just weren't big enough. Finally this buck got up with his doe almost 2 hours later and started to feed. Through my 15's I kept seeing a giant left eyeguard that got me really excited. Tim had the spotter on him and he kept telling me his eyeguard was just a 3 incher or so. We argued over and over until Tim finally figured out what I was seeing. This buck has a giant inline point on his left side!! What I thought was a huge eyeguard was actually this buck's G2 since I didn't realize the big 7+ inch point was an inline. Once I saw that inline I knew it was the buck I wanted to take.
We left Craig behind to watch through the binos while Tim and I started our stalk. We made our way to what we figured would be around 500 yards away or so. I spent the entire previous summer dialing in my load for my Savage 6.5x284 and with my turrets I was comfortable out to 800 yards. We picked a spot to shoot from and I laid prone while Tim called the range for me. "425" he said. I dialed the turret and settled in. "No Wait! It's 479" I dialed again and checked my level. Everything was good. I put the crosshairs on his shoulder and slowly squeezed. BOOM! Tim called the shot. "He's hit good! Get another one in just in case!" Just as I chambered another round Tim yells out, "He's down! You drilled him right through the shoulder"
I had just killed my first Mexico buck and my biggest coues ever!
We killed 4 bucks on this trip between Tim, Craig and I. There were also 2 other guys on our ranch that killed 2 deer. Our ranch didn't produce the giants that we had all hoped but that's just how it goes sometimes. We had a blast and hopefully I'll be able to head south of the border again next year!
After a long 13 hour trip we finally made it to our ranch around 7PM. Dinner was served and a sleepless night followed. Opening morning for us was January 5, and it found us up at the highest point of the ranch glassing down into the low country. Immediately we started seeing deer. I've never been down to Mexico for deer hunting and it was very quickly becoming my favorite place!! The deer were just everywhere. It doesn't even compare to hunting up here in AZ. Here's a coupe pics of our first glassing spot.
I glassed up my first lion ever and it just so happened it was the very first animal I saw on the trip! Unfortunately, he didn't stick around long and I never had a chance to take him. We sorted through close to 80 deer that day from this same glassing spot, but nothing really sparked our interest. We did, though, get enough of a look to be able to make a solid game plan for the next day.
On day 2 Tim and Craig both filled their tags with nice bucks. I was happy with being very patient as I knew we had 7 full days to find a buck worth shooting.
On Day 3 I finally had my chance. I glassed up a bedded buck at 910 yards on a wide open hillside. The grass was crazy tall and this buck was almost completely invisible even as open as the hillside was.
Here he is through the spotter. The sun was at our back so the pic isn't all that great.
We left Craig behind to watch through the binos while Tim and I started our stalk. We made our way to what we figured would be around 500 yards away or so. I spent the entire previous summer dialing in my load for my Savage 6.5x284 and with my turrets I was comfortable out to 800 yards. We picked a spot to shoot from and I laid prone while Tim called the range for me. "425" he said. I dialed the turret and settled in. "No Wait! It's 479" I dialed again and checked my level. Everything was good. I put the crosshairs on his shoulder and slowly squeezed. BOOM! Tim called the shot. "He's hit good! Get another one in just in case!" Just as I chambered another round Tim yells out, "He's down! You drilled him right through the shoulder"
I had just killed my first Mexico buck and my biggest coues ever!
We killed 4 bucks on this trip between Tim, Craig and I. There were also 2 other guys on our ranch that killed 2 deer. Our ranch didn't produce the giants that we had all hoped but that's just how it goes sometimes. We had a blast and hopefully I'll be able to head south of the border again next year!
Kaela's First!
Last year Kaela drew her first big game tag for javelina. We hunted hard for countless days over the month long hunt but never connected on a pig. She was a little disappointed, but that just made her more determined to get it done!
This past January 1st marked her second opening day pig hunt and we were up in the hills at day break. We glassed for an hour or so and froze our butts off! We decided to head up the ridge a little farther to get into the sun and warm up. After glassing for another hour or so I finally spotted some pigs feeding in the sun below us. The game plan was made and off we went!
About 100 yards from the pigs, we dropped all our gear and put on our ninja shoes. For those that don't know ninja shoes are basically lightweight tennis shoes with carpet glued to the bottom. It's amazing how quiet they are when stalking animals!! We headed in the last 100 yards or so, with Kaela in front and me pulling up the rear with the video camera and range finder. We were able to get to within 30 yards of all the pigs feeding. Kaela was ready as I ranged a small bush at 30 yards and told her whenever a pig got to that bush she needed to draw her bow and shoot. Finally after watching several different pigs feed at 40 yards one stepped into the 30 yard range. She drew her bow and settled in on the pig. Miss!! The pig jumped up and stood there, but she wasn't able to get another arrow away.
When we started up the hill to relocate the herd, she found her first shed. She coined it as her lucky shed and put it in my pack. As we headed up the hill I glassed up a giant 3x3 mule deer that I had put a stalk on a couple weeks prior. He bedded in a perfect position for a stalk so we changed plans and made the mile long hike over to try to get him. Long story short, I miss judged the yardage and missed him. After that, the plan was to hike back out to the Rhino and go to a new area. We got about half way and Kaela says "Hey I just saw something move by that weird shaped cedar tree!" I threw up the binos and there was another herd of pigs!!
The plan was made and the stalk was on. This time we had to fight the wind a little, but we were able to get in position for a shot. By this time, Kaela was a little amped up and her first shot at 30 yards was another miss!! I quickly told her to nock another arrow and get ready. I started "woofing" at the pigs and they started running everywhere! One big boar came up a trail to 10 yards but made an immediate u-turn when he saw us. I kept woofing and a big sow started coming up the same trail right at us. This time she stopped at 10 yards and Kaela was already at full draw. She took one step and Kaela let her have it!
Finally she had her very first big game tag filled!
Here's a short clip of the day's worth of footage I took. The end is amazing! Kaela busted her ass for a whole year preparing for this harvest and the emotions overflowed!
She wasn't excited or anything!
This past January 1st marked her second opening day pig hunt and we were up in the hills at day break. We glassed for an hour or so and froze our butts off! We decided to head up the ridge a little farther to get into the sun and warm up. After glassing for another hour or so I finally spotted some pigs feeding in the sun below us. The game plan was made and off we went!
About 100 yards from the pigs, we dropped all our gear and put on our ninja shoes. For those that don't know ninja shoes are basically lightweight tennis shoes with carpet glued to the bottom. It's amazing how quiet they are when stalking animals!! We headed in the last 100 yards or so, with Kaela in front and me pulling up the rear with the video camera and range finder. We were able to get to within 30 yards of all the pigs feeding. Kaela was ready as I ranged a small bush at 30 yards and told her whenever a pig got to that bush she needed to draw her bow and shoot. Finally after watching several different pigs feed at 40 yards one stepped into the 30 yard range. She drew her bow and settled in on the pig. Miss!! The pig jumped up and stood there, but she wasn't able to get another arrow away.
When we started up the hill to relocate the herd, she found her first shed. She coined it as her lucky shed and put it in my pack. As we headed up the hill I glassed up a giant 3x3 mule deer that I had put a stalk on a couple weeks prior. He bedded in a perfect position for a stalk so we changed plans and made the mile long hike over to try to get him. Long story short, I miss judged the yardage and missed him. After that, the plan was to hike back out to the Rhino and go to a new area. We got about half way and Kaela says "Hey I just saw something move by that weird shaped cedar tree!" I threw up the binos and there was another herd of pigs!!
The plan was made and the stalk was on. This time we had to fight the wind a little, but we were able to get in position for a shot. By this time, Kaela was a little amped up and her first shot at 30 yards was another miss!! I quickly told her to nock another arrow and get ready. I started "woofing" at the pigs and they started running everywhere! One big boar came up a trail to 10 yards but made an immediate u-turn when he saw us. I kept woofing and a big sow started coming up the same trail right at us. This time she stopped at 10 yards and Kaela was already at full draw. She took one step and Kaela let her have it!
Finally she had her very first big game tag filled!
Here's a short clip of the day's worth of footage I took. The end is amazing! Kaela busted her ass for a whole year preparing for this harvest and the emotions overflowed!
She wasn't excited or anything!
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