2022 Hunting Adventures

I brought in the new year while guiding down in Mexico. Between the end of November and the end of May I spent 130-150 days South of the border. I guided some awesome hunts for mule deer, desert sheep, and a few Coues. While on a combo hunt for mule deer and Coues I was able to take my first Coues after my clients had tagged out. We had about 10 minutes before we were going to be back at the ranch house and heading to Hermosillo when we found this buck. I included a bonus pic of a mount that was in the bunk house for your viewing pleasure…

In early May I headed to Montana for my annual bear hunt. This is the 7th year we’ve been going and we have it fairly dialed in now. On the second day of the hunt I spotted a bear 3 miles away feeding in an old clear cut. I didn’t think it was that big of a bear, but I decided it was worth a closer look.

After an 8 mile round trip in the pouring rain, I didn’t turn up the bear, and I was questioning my sanity of even going after it. Over the course of the next 5 days I saw 11 other bears. This includes sows with cubs and bears that were too far to get to. On the 7th day of the hunt my cousin and I decided to head back to where I saw the bear the second day and see if he was still around.

I found a much easier way in on OnX that was still about 3.5 miles, but it was mostly closed off logging roads. Just as we were getting to where we could see the clear cut I had seen him feeding on, my cousin spotted him running down the hill before he was quickly out of sight. We split up to try to get better vantage points, but just couldn’t turn him up again.

After glassing for a couple hours I caught a patch of black fur moving behind a pine about 800 yards up the mountain. It was getting close to dark so I sprinted up the mountain in a attempt to get a shot. I was able to get to a higher logging road that was about 400 yards from where I last saw him. I caught my breath, set up my rifle, and waited.

No more than 10 minutes before the end of legal shooting hours I was able to pick him up again. I ranged him at 415 and dialed my scope. It took around 5 minutes for him to clear before I finally had a shot. I touched it off and was able to watch the impact through the scope, and watched him run less than 10 yards before he was done. I ran up the mountain so I could locate him before it got dark.

When I walked up to him, he just continued to grow. At 6.5’ he was my best bear, and a very solid bear for the area we hunt. I would guess him around 10 years old. He was all scarred up on his face, missing a good chunk of an ear, and his right eye. I gutted him, made my skinning cuts to make our job easier in the morning, and hiked out of there to meet back up with my cousin. After looking at OnX again, I was able to find a drivable road 500 yards from where I left him making for an easy pack out in the morning.

A couple days later, my cousin was able to take a bear that was almost identical to mine other than he carried a little more fat through the winter, and his skull was a bit smaller. In the end, we both took home our biggest bears to date.

Shortly after I was done bear hunting in Montana, I headed back to Mexico for Goulds turkeys. I had already guided a couple hunts for them in early May, but wasn’t able to find any time to hunt for myself on that trip.

After a grueling 24 hour drive with multiple truck issues, we arrived at camp. We gathered up our gear, and made a plan for the following morning. I wanted hunt an area I had guided a client on a couple birds previously.

Early the next morning I snuck into the spot and setup a hen, and a strutted. While I was setting up, the birds started gobbling on the roost. I quickly tucked into my spot, and within 20 minutes or so, I had hens coming in to check out the spread. I could hear the Toms gobbling 100 yards away or so, but they weren’t coming any closer. I worked them with a pot call for a while, and could eventually tell they were coming closer.

Just as I saw a red head emerge from the brush, the 2 toms came at a dead run to the decoys. They started bumping the decoy, and I waited for them to line up. As their 2 heads came within a couple inches, I touched the shot off and they both dropped.

Now that I have my Goulds, I only need an Eastern and an Ocellated to complete my world slam!

A couple weeks after returning from my turkey trip, I was offered a last minute opportunity to join in on a bear hunt with Cody Robbins/L2H Outfitters in Saskatchewan. This is Cody’s first year running his outfit, but we felt confident that the hunt would go well.

They had big bears hitting every bait, but there was a bear they had named the heart bear that caught my eye. They knew he was a giant 400-500 pound bear and they had been trying to kill him all season. He had been showing up every few days on one of 2 baits. One of the other hunters and his son picked one of the baits, so I took the other.

I got into the blind around 4:50 and began getting everything situated. I drew my bow a couple times, and propped it up with an arrow knocked. I looked at my phone and the time was 5:01. I started going through some emails, and glanced up a few minutes later. There was a giant bear broadside at 20 yards already at the bait!

I couldn’t see the white blaze on his chest to confirm it was him, but I knew he was big enough. I drew back, settled my pin, and started putting tension on my release. As the shot broke, I heard a noise and watched the arrow hit about 10” further back than I intended. He took off like a shot, and I could see what I thought at the time was lungs coming out of the entrance wound. After investigating I realized my arrow had clipped the blind causing the noise I heard, and deflecting my shot.

I sat quietly, and thought I heard a faint death moan about 15 seconds after the shot. I walked to the bait and could see blood on a sapling he ran past. Being unsure about the shot, I backed out and called the guide to let him know I had shot a bear. I was so amped up I couldn’t sit still, and ended up walking 3 miles back and forth on the trail into the bait.

When my guide, Richy, showed up we began tracking. The bear didn’t leave one drop of blood on the ground by we could see palm sized smears of blood on trees 50 ft ahead of us. 80 yards into the track the bear came to the edge of a swamp, and we feared he had gone into there, but after a little looking we found blood paralleling the water. About 20 yards later we found him piled up.

When I walked up on him I was in disbelief. He was so much bigger than any bear I’ve killed that he didn’t even seem real. As I rolled him over and saw that big blaze on his chest, I immediately knew it was the heart bear. My previous personal best bear had been beaten within a month. He’s close to 7’6” and easily over 400 pounds.

The rest of the week was filled with the other hunters also tagging out on very nice bears, and some of the best like fishing we could’ve hoped for. One day I caught between 20-30 pike in just a few hours. It was one of the funnest hunts I’ve been on, and I will likely be back next year.

I forgot to add this in as well, but somewhere in the middle of all the hunts I was able to get away for some shed hunting with some buddies. We ended up picking up 50 something in a couple days.

I’m just finishing up my latest hunt of the year where I was able to take a couple great caribou. Next up is archery deer in Utah.

My brother and I were able to get away for a couple days and hunt the general muzzleloader hunt in Utah. He’s previously killed 2 yearling bucks, and wanted something better. He passed a half dozen spikes and 2 points the first day and a half, and shot this 4x5 the evening before we had to leave.

I knew the hit was slightly back, but with heavy rains forecasted that night I decided to go look for him right away. We jumped the buck, and we’re unable to get another round in him. I then decided to back out and come back in the morning.

After not sleeping much that night listening to the storm blow through, we finally headed out around 8:30 when the weather cleared. I was not extremely confident about finding this buck, but he was dead about 60 yards down the hill from where we last saw him.

I just copied this write up from my other post about this trip so present/past tense might be a little weird, but you’ll get the gist.

As I’m writing this I’m just about to leave my hotel in Bishkek for the airport.

When I arrived I used the VIP service at the airport which made collecting baggage, and getting guns through extremely easy. After getting everything sorted out at the airport I had a 5 hour drive to Karakol. We ate lunch in Karakol where I met up with the camp manager and taxidermist and then drove the remaining 5 hours with them.

Upon arrival to camp I ate a quick meal, and headed to bed. The next morning the guide showed up and we checked my rifles zero. Im glad we did because it was way off and required a handful or rounds to get it back where it needed to be.

After my rifle was sorted, we loaded up and drove an hour to an old mining town that had been mostly abandoned upon the fall of the Soviet Union. We began glassing from town and immediately started picking up Ibex on the mountain faces above. We decided there was no point in packing in and freezing in tents when we could stay in a house in town and hunt from there.

We spent most of the first day watching the ibex and coming up with a plan for the next morning. That evening we went to a hot spring next to the river, and soaked in that before heading back to town and going to bed.

We were up at 4 the next morning. After a short drive we began hiking. Over the next several hours we climbed close to 3,000 vertical ft topping out near 13,000 ft. We got to a rock spine, in the dark, that had Ibex on either side of it the day before. As it got light we began picking out Ibex on the faces above. The first herd was nannies and kids. We watched them for a while before my guide started indicating he had found the billies.

The billies were close to 800 yards away, but three of them broke off and started coming our way. As they spread out single file on the face in front of me at 545 yards, I picked out the billy in the lead, and prepared for the shot. When he stopped I touched off the shot and he immediately stumbled down the hill, but remained on his feet.

I could tell he was hit hard, but he wasn’t dying. I prepared for another shot and was just about to touch it off when he bedded to where I could just see his horns. I was then able to work around above him, and put another shot into him at 200 yards. Upon the second shot he began tumbling and sliding down the mountain. He went over 700 yards before coming to his final resting place.

As we worked our way down to him, I cut a set of snow leopard tracks, which my Kyrgyz companion referred to as “ice kitty.” When we got down to him, we took some pictures, and began processing him. While we were processing him, another guide brought the horses up to us. We loaded up on the horses, and made it back to “town” around 3 in the afternoon.

I’ve spent the last couple days in Bishkek waiting for my permits to be complete so I can take my Ibex home with me. It’s been a great trip, but I’m ready to be back in the US. I went solo on this trip, and it’s been a bit lonely at times not really having anyone to talk to due to the language barrier.

After getting back from Kyrgyzstan I had a couple days to hunt the extended before Thanksgiving and having to leave for Mexico. I was able to find the buck the first morning, and watch him most of the day, but he never got into a spot I could make a stalk. I found him again the next morning, and was able to get it done. A big archery mule deer has been a struggle for me for so long. To kill a buck of this caliber on the front still doesn’t seem real. He’s by far my biggest buck. I tried to take some field photos, but I was by myself so they didn’t turn out that well.