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All right you buncha pervs, stop ogling boobies and make yourselves useful.

Is this what a big mule deer buck track looks like? Note the dew claw depression. It's much more splayed than I'm used to seeing with say blacktail; it looks more like an elk track. It's big enough to be a small elk track, but a small elk wouldn't have that dew claw like that.

This happened last night, right near where I'm sitting.

Big buck? Say it's so!

It's an UBER buck!

Well, that adds some spice!

He came up the little trail I've been using to get to this spot, sometime after I bailed at dusk but before it snowed last night.

Quit looking at girly pics and watch for the buck!

Jeff,

Do you ever check your PMs?

Dood, not yet, sorry. Will!

Get a move on young man and check your PMs!

Everybody is yelling at me! Shît! This calls for beer!

This was day 6 of an 11-day tag. The weather dynamic- and boy is that the right word for it- is flipping back to sunny and downright warm this weekend. I would also expect that there will be another, smaller than opening weekend, influx of hunters.... it's a primo tag, guys get pretty pumped up over it.

At the end of the day today there was a single shot about 1/2 - 3/4 mile up the canyon. That was with about 25 minutes of light left. I was picking up my gear to do a tromp up the hill, past camp, into the big sage flats to look around at last light; that track I posted the pic of was headed that way. Decided to stick to the plan. Ran into a guy and his daughter driving the road up there who were headed the other way down the canyon. They said they'd seen a couple bucks down there, I don't know when, and were gonna check it out at last light. No shots.

So............... things are picking up at this spot. Nonetheless, I think the plan is to hunt it till mid-afternoon then head to that other spot I mentioned where Jerry got his buck several years ago, just for a change of pace.

Managing the [bleep] foot as best I can...... it's barking at me tonight. It's a battle between desire and reality. I have a little gas in that tank but not a lot. Gotta be smart. It's killing me. I could go roust up a buck and kill the damn thing toot-sweet if my wheels worked, or at least my heart is telling me so. The head has to be smarter than that. I hate it when that happens.

1000 words from a coupla minutes ago and here's to the hilarity of the magnitude being missed...by miles.



Bless your "hard charging" hearts and "Outdoor" "photography".

Laughing!................

Catching fish is hard in AK?

"Who knew?"

Keep chargin'! '

'Stick, seems there's a bear in every pic! Keep 'em coming, I'm as vicarious as can be wishing to be doing the same.

Jeff, hurry up and shoot something already.

Funny.... 3rd time I drew this tag in 5 years, which is a statistical miracle, but this is the first time I've really put in much time because I tagged out opening day the first two times.

I'm having fun, and I made it through the big storm. A lot of people pulled out. Good weather coming, 5 days left if I need them... life is good!

Let me put it this way. I had NY steak and barbecued toast for dinner. The bread had some bacon fat spread on it before I toasted it on the BBQ. And good IPA. Got a live mule deer tag in my wallet tomorrow, Food in the cooler. Water. Beer. It's BLM land so I can cut firewood every day.

I'm in no hurry whatsoever.

Measure the track, and measure the stride. Best way to tell. Dew claws don't necessarily mean a whole lot.

3-3.5" long, 2.25-2.5" wide. Stride length will be 24" or more between prints. Its helpful to know the length of your rifle and just measure from the tracks on one side (left tracks or right tracks) since most rifles are in the low to mid 40's long.

Off of that pic with no measurements, I'd say that track isn't blocky enough to be a truly big buck. Might be a keeper in most guys' books though.

The stride length will separate the big deer tracks from the small elk. An elk's stride will be significantly longer than a deer's.

You guys need to pony up for some good stuff...



Tanner

LOL!!

Tanner,
You got a really nice goat, but you need some 'eddicashun' on good whiskey.

Should have had a Busch beer can in the picture. That mountain top background looks like it came right off the can.

It simply does not get any better than Windsor.

No JeffO update,WTH?