Caribou Gear

Average Joe's 2018

Thanks guys!

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Crossbowguys knife is doing work!
Thanks again!
 
The gnarl is strong with this one.

Love the picture with you drawing on him.

Congratulations
 
Thank you all!

I’m so excited to throw some elk steaks on the grill here soon.
Tonight I threw my ghillie suit on and I’m sitting a spot they exit the timber from and hit the wheat.
Maybe I can fill my doe tag.


Kansasdad, I was super happy the camera was able to catch that shot!
 
That's what I like to see is hard work ending up with a nice buck on the buck pole and my knives being put to work!!!!!
Great pics, awesome hunt, really good buck, and now meat in the freezer!
Now I hope you can find a vehicle so you can at least make it home.
Hopefully you can get back out west and fill those other tags!!!
Thanks again for the knife props!!!!

Thanks guys!
That's what I like to see!!!!
My knives being put to work!!!!
Great photos, awesome hunt, great buck!!!!
I hope you find a replacement vehicle now so you can at least make it back home.


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Crossbowguys knife is doing work!
Thanks again!
 
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I’ve got my rental car full and I’m Florida bound!

Deer hunting will resume shortly after I get in and take care of some much needed family time! There is still a lot of season left!
 
I was able to get out and stretch the legs this morning. Thanks to a tip from a buddy of mine, I was able to find a good buck not long after sunrise. I actually saw a few dozen deer right away, and had a couple does and a yearling forkie walk past me at about 30yds. But the nice buck was a long way off, so I focused on hiking instead of taking pics of everything.

When I last saw the buck, he was feeding about 30-50 yards below the top of a ridge with some decent sized boulders on it. The wind was good to go around the back of the ridge, and hopefully when I got to the boulders the buck would still be pretty close.

Well he was. I got to the rocks and the first deer I saw was him. I could just see the tops of his antlers whenever he'd pick his head up, but he was still feeding in my direction. I got ready and ranged his antlers the next time I could. 57yds... This is too easy. First day. I can't believe this is happening....

The wind was blowing steady and hard from left to right, the same direction the buck was walking. It was perfect.... Until it wasn't....

The wind did a 90 degree turn and blow straight into his face. He turned uphill a little bit and we just barely made eye contact before he locked up. He stood for what felt like an eternity (probably only 30 seconds or less) before bolting down the canyon.

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Luckily, the deer took off in the same direction I needed to go to get back to the truck. So I watched them as long as I could, and I was pretty sure I knew where they were going to settle down again. I decided to give them another go.

It took a little over an hour to get back on the herd, but I couldn't find the buck. All of the deer were bedded down and tucked into the very bottom of the drainage where they were out of the wind. I assumed the buck was somewhere in the middle of the group. I slowly worked my way amongst the ground of deer and boulders, and finally relocated the buck.

If he was all by himself it would have been an easy stalk with a 10yd shot opportunity, but he was surrounded by does. I ran out of real estate and cover 90yds from the bedded buck. So I sat and waited for him to hopefully stand up and give me a closer shot before the does noticed the stranger in their midst. I had 2 bedded does on the other side of a boulder maybe 15yds away, and 10 does and fawns on the opposite side of the drainage within clear site.

I sat for about 30 minutes before a tiny fawn decided it was hungry and walked straight up to me. She stopped at around 10 yards and realized something was not ok, she knew I did not belong. She hopped to the other side of the drainage with the rest of the does and herd stood up and moved away from me.

The buck stayed bedded until most of the does were almost out of site. He bounced away to 120 yes and in true mule deer fashion, stood there and looked at me for a half hour before walking up and over the ridge and out of my life.

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At least I didn't leave empty handed.

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Not a bad way to spend a morning. I have way too much work to do on my house to spend all weekend hunting, so I'm going cut myself off at just opening day. Once I get everything taken care of I'll be back out there.

We got official word that I'll be moving at the end of January with a possibility to extend that into February. So we have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time.
 
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Well tonight went well!
I have a buddy who is about to have some surgery and won’t be able to hunt the rest of the season. He hasn’t seen a deer yet so I took him to one of the ranges I hunt that always has lots of does.

I put him in my best spot. He saw 4, shot, and missed one.

I saw four, shot, and..
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It’s amazing the difference going from Kansas to Florida. It was hot and the deer are a lot smaller haha.

I had four coming in, two mature ones, but this one came into 18 yards, quartering away, and was about to walk into my wind.
So... a bird in hand.... is a deer in the freezer!


Great night!
 
Someone's trying to be a big help by moving the sheds back and forth to the most inconvenient spots in the house...

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Seriously though... Moving elk heads is a nightmare.

Anybody got any tips and tricks on how to move elk euro mounts without breaking them?
 
I wrap the snot out of my euro's with heavy-duty bubble wrap. Seems to do the job OK.

Wouldn't handle getting thrown around though. Might be able to tape up a cardboard 'shell' over the top of the wrap to improve impact resistance...
 
I wrap the snot out of my euro's with heavy-duty bubble wrap. Seems to do the job OK.

Wouldn't handle getting thrown around though. Might be able to tape up a cardboard 'shell' over the top of the wrap to improve impact resistance...

That's probably the route i'm going to take. I have all of my other misc. skulls and deer euros in boxes with packing paper and extra clothes in there to take up the space. All of my shoulder mounts are going to be screwed onto plywood which will then be fastened to the floor of a uhaul trailer pulled by my tacoma. I'm hoping the elk skulls fit in the back of my wife's forester which is going to be trailered behind the moving truck.

Moving is so much fun.... I don't know why more people aren't doing it? It gives you an opportunity to purge all of the unnecessary things from your life and really test the resolve of your marriage. ;) So much fun.
 
...Moving is so much fun....

Especially cross-state moves! We bounced between rentals in Boise for a few years before buying a house and that wasn't any kind of issue. This last move down to UT was a whole new level of grit and purge though...

But its like riding a bike right, once you've done it once you can do it again. Now its not always fun to have to saddle up though.
 
But its like riding a bike right, once you've done it once you can do it again.

It is. This is our 4th move in 7 years, so we kinda have a system down. But I am very much looking forward to moving for the last time and being able to settle into a community. It's crazy to think I'll most likely have 3-4 more moves before I separate from the military.
 

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