1-10-16

I came to visit my family here near Iowa City. Long story short I ended up on a 40 acre place that's pretty awesome! I was dragging my feet out the door to hunt, wind chills in the -10 range? Wasn't really looking forward to my last day sit to be honest. We get to the place and I've never hunted it before. I found a large crossing and sat down, about 10 minutes after sitting down 7 does and 1 decent buck come out that was around 3:10.

I sat there, my face into the wind. I couldn't feel my face at all by around 4:10. I decided to get up, I was walking around looking to see if I could find a shed or two and I saw a large bodied deer with what I thought were antlers run across the neighbors field on the other side of the road. I decided it was time to make my move. I ran over to the other end of the 40 acres and snuck up over a hill were I thought he would cross. I pop the hill and look into the field I thought he was in...all that was there was a giant doe. I sat there watching the doe for 20 more minutes and decided it was time to call it a night. I was on my knees and then down about 50 yards from the road on the place I was hunting this buck was standing there. I got down FAST and got ready for my shot, I didn't have time to even look at his antlers. I could only tell he was a big mature buck that was wide. I put the cross hairs on him and squeezed the trigger for 150yards He dropped and didn't even move, I didn't even know how big he really was until I watched his head fold back.









I scored him at 148.5" Gross, he's a super symmetrical 10pt!

2-27-16

Wyoming has been a blast so far, walked 27 miles yesterday and ended up with 5 mule deer sheds. Walked about 10 the day before and only found 1! I've been trying to find moose paddles but where they are the snow is super deep! (60-70") Luckily my University has snowshoe rentals and I'm renting some for tomorrow

Here's a couple I found early Feb. back home...

#1 on the year! (I have trail camera pictures of him somewhere)






#4 I have trail camera pictures of this buck from 2014 too! Forgot to save the ATL...




#6 Forgot to take an ATL, but I took a video!







Match set #9 and #10

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4-30-16

If you're EVER wanting to go hunt out of state for turkeys...you might think Kansas would be good but I recommend South Dakota/Wyoming's black hills.

Lots of birds, elk, mule deer, coyotes, antelope, and whitetail. It's just a flat out neat place to go! I had three bull elk at 40 yards at one point while hunting. It was a neat experience! It's dead week and I'm busy working on projects, but soon I'll be in Idaho for a spring black bear hunt I'm just living the dream boys!





Left one is from Lawrence County, South Dakota weighed 16.5lbs 4" Beard 1/3" Spurs

Right one is from Crook Coutny, Wyoming weighed 18lbs 6" Beard 1/2" Spurs

5-6-16

Had a blast today! Found 7 elk and 2 mule deer antlers, they're a lot heavier than I thought they'd be!

5-9-16

I just walked 14 miles (24 miles total) with 50lbs of elk sheds on my back...but I'm not complaining I haven't been this tired or sore in a LONG time. You want something challenging? Hike two 300" elk sets out of the mountains! It downpoured on me for 20 minutes too, it wasn't shaping up to be a fun trip until I picked up a mule deer antler and spotted a giant elk shed sticking out of the sage 100 yards away.

Awful pictures don't do these sheds justice!





Total finds here in Wyoming...

5-17-16

I decided to book a spring black bear hunt in Central Idaho this winter, I went with Ace Outfitters. I ended up a couple hours north of Boise and we headed out to Nez Perce National Forest which was beautiful after all the rain they've received.

The first day I met the guide in small town and we headed up the mountains, the drop off's were crazy! 500-1000ft drops, it was nerve racking. We got to camp which was a simple style, there were three other hunters in camp.



The first day was wet and I didn't bring my camera out and only saw one bear. A 6+ foot black with a big white patch, he was giant compared to the bear I ended up shooting.


Our guide set the baits an interesting way frying the grease with a small fire. Bear seemed to love it.



The bear I had come in I didn't get a shot because he came in quick and just grabbed a piece of bread and got out of there fast. The guide said this was because more than likely there was a bigger bear in the area than the one there! Even though it was rainy and pretty miserable one guy in camp shot a decent black bear.



This country was just beautiful!





The second day was little more interesting, I had a bear come in an poke around and run away. Still assumming there was going to be a bigger bear, I waited.

I fell asleep in the stand and when I woke up I saw a bear looking right at me about 80 yards away. He circled around me and the bait to about 10 yards and I drew back and he took off. He stood at 30 yards and I shot and hit a limb with my arrow. He went to 45 yards and was quartering away. I shot and drilled him. I called my guide and gave him about 20 minutes. We headed up and found my arrow soaked in blood, then it started raining. I swear we tracked for only 100 yards but my guide said it was more like 400. Anyway, we found him and he ran up a tree and I shot him again PERFECT. He fell out of the tree and died on the spot! It was a blast, might have to go again next year

I'll post a video later but here's my bear.



Thanks for reading!

5-22-16

Today my alarm sounded at 4:30am...shut it off and as I was getting up a fell back asleep on the ground while getting ready. Woke up at 6am and I was upset. I was mad at myself for falling asleep, but it happens. I knew I'd regret it not heading out, with that I went out to my Jeep and packed my gun and ammo up and left the camera at home. I finally got to the farm at 6:15 and started walking. Walked out and sat under my normal evergreen and called, at 6:35 I heard a gobble to my west. I knew where he was as I've killed many birds in this area. I kept calling and he never moved.

7am rolls around and I decide I'm not going to wait for this bird because it was going to get windy. I kept calling and found myself 80 yards away from this bird in the grass after belly crawling 300 yards. He wasn't interested in me at all once he poked his head around some trees and headed right toward the growing corn field. This made me completely frustrated and I said once he gets over a little hill I'm running across this field and shooting him. I saw his tail fan over the grass and ran 70 yards to this grass patch and counted to three and stood up. There was the tom with two hens at 10 YARDS. He fan was to me and then hens ran and he turned around and saw me and I shot his head. He dropped and I had the biggest butterball I've ever shot on the ground.

Dad even came up and saw him and said "Wow, that's your biggest bodied turkey, right?" and he doesn't even hunt! Our scale had him at 31lbs on the dot! I actually took a couple pictures of it and didn't realize my shutter speed and settings were wrong until after I gutted him...even gutted he looked HUGE in the pictures.

31lbs 10.5" beard and NO SPURS.









Was expecting the camera to go off sooner, sorry for the smug look

June/July 2016

Most of you don't know but this summer I decided to take a job being a hunting guide on a low fence/high fence ranch in Southern Texas. I've never hunted a high fence myself and doubt I ever will, but this has been a very neat opportunity. I'll be here for two months this summer and then I head to a well known hunting outfitter in Northwest Wyoming to guide Elk and Mule Deer hunts.

I haven't had much free time but it's my lunch break right now and figured I'd toss up a few pictures and make a thread showcasing all of my hunts this summer. I'll make a new one for this fall.

I've been so busy I didn't notice I was drawn for mule deer in Colorado and thankfully it's the later season so I'll be pretty well done with guiding in Wyoming.

My first guided hunt was a young man Wes, who was 7 years old. We had a bunch of fun and by the end of the hunt he didn't want to leave! He shot a beautiful Corsican Ram and two Hogs.






His grandfather, father, and family friend all shot animals. Parker, a family friend harvested his first animal that wasn't a coyote. A nice boar meat hog.


His grandfather shot a few hogs as well.


I had the owner of Hedogarchery come with his two sons and arrowed their first animals as well. It was a tough hunt with lots of fun memories.




I'll be sure to keep the posts rolling.




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(6-13-16)

Shot my first Axis deer tonight! 250 yard shot, 27.5" and 28" beams. Great buck! Hunted this morning with no luck and I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of this Axis half a mile away and sneak within 250 yards of him before he noticed me there.

I think some hog hunting is in order! Saw a bunch of piggies running around everywhere.

I found another rattlesnake too! While walking through some thick grass he started throwing a fit. Luckily we both kept a pretty good distance from each other.








Piggy went bye-bye, .22 in one ear and out the other will get 'em.

Found a Red Deer antler too

7-28-16

I left on Monday to drop my bear hide off in Minnesota at the taxi. Once I left Minnesota I headed west toward South Dakota to visit a friend and see Rushmore and Crazy horse quick before scouting my elk and antelope areas here in Wyoming.

I was able to see a couple Mountain Goats in the Black Hills! There were signs for bighorn, but I never saw any! Found some turkey on the Wyoming side too I arrived Tuesday in my Antelope unit and was surprised by how many there were! [URL=http://s1373.photobucket.com/user/sunbergjo/media/177A5865_zpsiqveeqca.jpg.html][/URL

Seemed like everything out there was looking for a place to die! More antelope pictures... Same antelope from two hours earlier in the day, love the wide look!

This one was about 200 yards from where I was camped and stuck around a while!

[/URL] A couple pictures of the local wildlife. Whitetail Prairie Dog [img]http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag381/sunbergjo/177A5962_zpsrbwa45uh.jpg[/img]

I went to my elk unit this morning and saw a group of over 300 elk! My camera battery died after I spotted a few cow elk and I only had my iPhone. But here's some of the cow elk I saw this morning. I woke up to bulls bugling, that was the coolest thing I've ever heard! I had never heard a bull bugled in the mountains like that. I tried to spot them out but never found them. I happened to shoot a fox before I left my antelope area too! He was chasing a mule deer fawn around and I plinked him at 75 yards with the .22. It was a perfect shot, dropped him in his tracks. I never knew fox would go after mule deer fawn.

Rabbit trails were insane! I've never seen so many cottontails in my life!

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

8-23-16

Ended up not going through with being a hunting guide and enrolled back into school. I decided to make a hunting trip out of it since Antelope season opened the 15th of August in Wyoming. Even though I was in Wyoming Saturday I couldn't hunt until Sunday afternoon because of a few things.

I did a few spot and stalks and had a miss at 55 yards. I was able to stalk up on a couple of antelope that afternoon but no luck! Put out the blind and sat out until dark and had two bucks come within 40 yards but it was too windy to make the shot and I let them go. Monday I pretty much sat in the blind and watch a group of 30 antelope go in a circle and come within 70 yards but never any closer. This morning I figured they had to come drink! I didn't see anything besides a few grey fox and I didn't want to make any noise so I didn't shoot them. Around 7:45am I spotted a couple coming my way. They went right around the blind! I waited for them to go over the little dam and put a stalk on. They were feeding right over it at 30 yards and the buck broke off and headed my way. He stood perfectly broadside at 10 yards and he walked three feet and fell over. It was a perfect heart shot!

Had a lot of fun and can't wait for elk to open up Sept. 1st!

This rattlesnake decided to bite my pant leg, I have holes in those jeans to prove it.



I decided to get too close to a cow with my Jeep luckily for me the cow and more importantly myself were fine!



We happened to save the Sheriff too!

9/18/16

We (my buddy Brandon and I) started hunting on Friday and I had seen some bulls bugling and sparing on Thursday. We headed up the mountain and found a group of black bear (a sow and three cups) that I had seen before. We saw lots of mule deer, antelope, two moose, and a few elk one giant bull.

We went to a different spot on Saturday and I woke up to a bugle. Sure enough we went right over this BLM hill and spotted a few. I called a bull and a few cows into 15 yards and let him have it with a straight on shot. The bull ran onto private that we didn't have permission to access and I thought I knew we wouldn't get access to go after him. Little did I know I was wrong!

The Game Warden stopped by and issued me an interstate tag for a dead head I found on private ground and we talked. He called a few people and we got permission to go after him!

Brandon helped look for a while and then decided to leave early to get back home on Sunday. I kept looking for blood and went 150 yards more into the timber. I gave up and started back down the mountain to grab my phone and head back up to GPS my last blood location. I ran into the Game Warden and let him know I didn't find anything. I finally got to where my last bloods was and low and behold I saw him at 75 yards laying there! I was able to get to 30 yards of him, cow call a little and he got up. I shot him again and he ran about 75 yards down a trail and fell right over! I had a complete stranger lend me a hand and we finished packing him out by noon today. After three weekends of hunting I'm worn out and ready for a nice relaxing weekend!

Thanks for diary reads. Awesome elk

Great bull, congrats!

nice posts and great pics...live it up while you can

Great pics. Good job, keep it up!