2020 definitely a year to remember

Well 2020 has been an amazing year for myself it started off with archery antelope, deer. And elk in Utah. As some of you have seen my antelope post i wont spend much time on it. But hunt ended on day two with a great buck.


Next brought on general archery elk and deer. Spent most of my time hunting elk, without much luck, but did have a couple close calls with some good bucks but never could seal the deal.

Next up was an Archery deer hunt in New Mexico, I had 7 days to hunt before heading to Arizona for an Archery Elk hunt.
After driving all day to get to my area I only seen one doe and a 2 point buck that first evening, so i decided to head to some higher country and try my luck, spent 4 days up in the higher stuff and never could turn up a decent sized buck. I decided I would go check the lower country one more time for the evening and if i didn't find anything I would head out for Arizona and start scouting for my elk hunt. That evening right at dark i found a group of 7 bucks about 2 miles away and could tell that two of them were studs.

I watched them until dark and then decided to drive closer and camp out in my truck so i could take off at first light.
The next morning i woke up and hiked over the ridge to try and spot the bucks to find that they had actually moved significantly closer and were only a few hundred yards away.
I spent the rest of the day trying to kill either of the two bigger bucks, i made many stalks had a couple opertunity but was not able to get an arrow into them.
The next morning i found the group again made another stalk and was not able to get a shot. But i was able to watch where they bedded down and had a pretty good idea where they would go that evening and if i could get into position without being seen knew i would have a great opportunity.
So around 2:00 i made my move to get in below them, i was able to sneek into 140 yards of the bucks. I was able see several of the bucks over the next 5 hours as they would sporadically get up and change beds and finally they started moving in my direction. Only the big buck never joined them i watched as the rest of the buck fed past me one by one. I knew the big boy had been up there i seen him get up and change beds. Finally 10 minutes after the rest of them fed by i seen movement up on the hill and sure enough the big guy was headed in my direction.
I watch him make his way down well within range i drew back my bow and settled my pins and cut loose. I could tell from the sound that I had hit the buck. He immediately dropped into a wash after the shot and when he came out i could see the shot was not a great shot as it was a bit high and a bit back.
I was able to take this picture before he really took off.


I could see lots of really dark blood pumping out of him as he ran away, but then watched as the buck ran over a mile before i lost site of him in some taller sage. I decided my best bet would be to immediately head to where I last seen him as i was able to watch where he jumped a fence and knew i could get right on his tracks there.

I got in the area and set up on a hill and started searching for the buck with my binoculars until nightfall. I decided my best bet would be to leave him overnight and get right on his trail first thing that morning.

I started on his tracks at first light about a mile from where i shot him, and was finally able to find the buck about 1/2 mile further not far from where lost sight of him the night before. unfortunately the coyotes had found him first had eaten about half of him.

I was still able to salvage a good portion of what was left including both front quarters, one back strap and his neck meat. And luckily they stopped eating right at his cape line so i will be able to get him mounted.

He is my largest archery deer at 188.5 green gross, and also my widest buck at 29.5 outside. I was very pleased lol.

As soon as I got my New Mexico buck taken care of I headed to Arizona for my elk hunt. The drought was making things very difficult I have never seen it so dry, and could not find water anywhere. Finally I decided to try out a new area and found some elk, i hunted hard for a week and a half and had one opportunity at a bull but i missed the bull low. I went home with an unfilled tag.

I had been away from home for 3 weeks and was ready to go home to my family, really missed these two munchkins.

Next Up I had purchased a 3 season elk tag for utah and would only have a few days to hunt with my work schedule. And would miss the first few days of the season. After an unsuccessful first morning i decided to go check the area i was archery hunting in and check some trail cameras i had set up. It was a bit of a bust during archery so I was mostly going to go pick up my cameras.
I drove my atv into the first camera set up and was surprised at the amount of elk sign i was seeing, I decided to do some cow calls while i looked through the pictures. A little while into checking pictures i looked up on the hill and there was a bull standing there 250 yards away. Catching me off guard i kinda panicked a bit lol. Gun was still strapped onto the atv, i quickly pulled it off pulled up and fired 3 quick rounds into the bull, the bull went down behind some trees. I hiked over to find a nice 5x6 general season bull, my biggest utah bull to date.
After a few photos i started breaking the bull down, it was late into the night and into the early morning before i got off the mountain that night, but it was still an awesome hunt.


Next hunt to come was the Utah rifle deer hunt, I did not have a tag but had several family members with tags. I was only able to help the last 3 days of the season but we made the most of it
My brother killed a cool catus buck.

The last day of season was bitter cold and crazy windy, with a wind chill of below 0 I'm sure. We still had two tags to fill and my dad and cousin got it done with two nice bucks.

What a fun hunt.

Next up is my Colorado 3rd season hunt.

I still had a Colorado 3rd season tag, as well as my utah general archery deer tag that allows me to hunt the Extended Archery areas.

First up was my Colorado hunt, with snow and cold weather on the horizon hopes were high for some great hunting.

Hunting was tough and it was proving difficult to find a mature buck, i was finding lots of little bucks and most were rutting does but just couldn't find anything with some age.

Finally on the 5th day of season i found this guy at first light pushing does. I wasted no time and put him down.
He is 26 inches wide and a good buck for the hunt I was on.
I quartered him up and was able to get him out in one trip, luckily it wasn't a very far pack job lol. Would have been an easy drag out with two people but being solo dragging him out wasn't an option. Lol

I packed up camp and headed home, and with a few days left before i had to go back to work i decided to go look for a deer on the utah extended archery.
Well right off the bat i found a stud mature 4x4 buck and decided to run to my parents house to pick up my dad to come help me and watch.

After getting dad we drove back and found the buck and his does, they were heading from some fields up to a sage brush ridge, we quickly drove around and i had my fad drop me off on top so i could hopefully move into position to ambush them as they came up the hill.

It worked perfectly and soon enough the buck was 50 yards away chasing a doe. I was able to kill him and have my dad there to watch it all go down.

This buck was a mature old warrior buck, was 26 inches wide and scored 160 gross. And is my second largest buck with a bow.

I killed both my Colorado deer and my utah deer 3 days apart, it was an awesome week of hunting.


While capping out my utah deer i found his jaw was all jacked up and he was missing some teeth as well, also while my meat processor was cutting him up they found a .22 slug in his shoulder. Someone tried to poach him and i think they tried a head shot first knocking out the teeth in his jaw, they then shot him in the shoulder. Both were old wounds likely from the year before or longer.

He was an older buck. Here are both my Colorado and utah deers jaws, the utah deer is the closer more wore down jaw.

While on the topic here is the jaw of my newmexico buck, he was and old deer as well.

So my 2020 hunting season was definitely one i will remember for a long time to come. And i hope you all had as good of a season as I have.

Well 2020 wasn't finished with me yet.

Went out for some predator hunting yesterday and on the first stand of the day called in this awesome bobber. Glad i picked up a couple bobcat tags before they sold out.

Well even though its 2021, I'm still gonna add this to this post since its still the 2020 season.

Have been doing some more predator hunting and was able to fill my last bobcat tag. I only bought two tags because i figured I would be lucky if i called in 1 cat lol.
Called this cat in late in the stand and almost didn't see it, caught it watching from cover from about 70 yards out straight left of my set up.


I have also put the hurt on a few coyotes as well, sure is fun watching these guys come to the call.

And I got my first ever shotgun dog as well.
This is a Good day of calling for Utah.