I hope everyone had a great 2011! Each year, after the calendar changes, I put together a review of all the bucks, bears, bulls, birds, and more, that everyone has taken and post them together. Click on the “Read the rest of the entry” below and scroll through the 2011 season on the Weekend Bowhunter website.
Personally, this was a great year for me. But there were some great animals taken this year by friends and family: Troy Elam’s 367″ elk, Dad’s 342″ elk, Shawn Wood’s 170″ mule deer, Paul Schultheis’ and Darin Ball’s 160+” California muleys, just to name a few. Thanks everyone for sending your photos and making this a wonderful year! Enjoy the Pics below…
Read the rest of this entry »
Troy Elam Elk 2011
Congratulations to Photo of the Month winner for October 2011 Troy Elam. Troy took this great bull in his home state of Arizona with a premium-unit tag. Troy is a great hunting buddy and a very good hunter. Congrats on another great bull Troy!
Anyone can enter the Photo of the Month Contest. Simply send your hunting-, archer- or outdoor-related photo to zwalton5@hotmail.com. Each month a photo is chosen and at the end of the year, a Photo of the Year will be announced. Good luck!
For most of my life, I have been a big supporter of several conservation organizations. Pope & Young Club, Safari Club International, Mule Deer Foundation, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and CA Wild Sheep Foundation are a few I donate to on an annual basis. Next month, one of the Central Valley chapters of the Rocky Mountain Elk Fountain is having its annual dinner. The dinner will be held on November 12 in Los Banos. Calif. My parents attend every year and this year they are on the committee. I received the following message from Mom:
“We are on the committee this year for the RMEF fund raiser here in Los Banos. On November 12th, we are having a prime rib dinner with all the trimmings, silent auction, live auction and gun drawings/safe drawing/general drawing at the Sportsman’s hall. There are 26 guns and many other prizes; yet the ticket sales are limited to 175 due to the size of the hall so the chances of winning are pretty high compared to most dinners. (And the more you bid the better your chances of “WINNING” the live auction items!) 
Again, given the size of the audience, chances of good deals in the live auction are also good. I know there are a few hunts in the live auction as well.
I have tickets for the dinner as well as two different tickets for gun drawings. ($10 for chance to win Remington Model 700 SPS .300 Ultra Mag FMV: $754) ($20 for chance to win either a Kimber 84L Elk Country Classic FMV:$1500, 30.06 or Howa M1500 Thumbhole Sproter, .243 Win FMV:$649)
Dinner tickets: Single $65 (includes RMEF membership), Couple $95 (includes one RMEF membership), Single Sponsor $330 (membership and ticket package), Couple Sponsor $360 (membership and ticket package), Spike (age 17 and under) $20.
Doors open at 5 p.m. and Dinner served at 7 p.m. Auction starts when dinner is served to get folks home as early as possible. Prizes for all kids.”
RMEF does an excellent job protecting and enhancing habitat for elk and other wildlife species. To date, it has enhanced more than 6,000,000 acres through the contributions of sportsman. For more information, or to order tickets, please e-mail Rhonda Walton at quikvette00@hotmail.com. Or contact me at zwalton5@hotmail.com and I will forward your information. Also, check out the RMEF website at http://www.rmef.org/.
Richard Sawaske Tule Elk 2011
Richard Sawaske Mule Deer 2011
Good hunting buddy and excellent taxidermist Richard Sawaske has just finished up a heck of a bowhunting season. Richard must have filled out his draw applications with a lucky rabbit’s foot this spring because he drew a mule deer tag in Nevada and a Tule elk tag here in California. And Richard laid down great animals on both hunts. Here are some of Richard’s words about his bowhunting adventures this summer:
“I got lucky this year with a couple of good tags in the draws, a Nevada archery Mule Deer, and a Calif. Tule Elk in Owens Valley. Got me so fired up I had to go out & get a new bow! What the heck, the old Q2 was 10 years old, so I shelled out for a new Z7, which proved to be a good choice. The Nevada hunt went well with some smaller bucks passed up, a couple of blown chances on some bigger bucks, and ended with a successful 40-yard shot on day 5 at a 24” 150-class 4×3. He was one of 12 bucks inside of 40 yards @ the same time! They made quite a cloud of dust getting out of there after the shot & darn near gave me a heart attack!
As for the Elk Hunt, it stretched out to 2 weeks & 10 days of hunting that was just about as good as it gets.To anyone lucky enough to draw any elk tag in the Owens Valley, better lace up your sneakers, because you’ll be in for one heck of a hunt! On this hunt I saw about 150 elk, 75 of which were bulls, & over 30 of which were shooters! Into elk just about every day, I had several bulls anywhere from 25 to 50 yards that I either passed on or they made a good escape.
Finally, on day 10, I was able to work into 70 yards on a herd of about 20 bedded elk that included a good 6×6 herd bull, a few smaller bulls, & about 15 or 16 cows & calves. After a 1 ½ hour stalk & an hour of sitting tight, the action started, with the big bull running the smaller ones off, & then starting to harass the cows. He finally ended up slightly quartering away @ 52 yards, a shot I was glad to get.
My shooting luck was as good as my drawing luck because the bull, like the Nevada buck, went down in view. The bull was a 6×6, 40” beams, 42 wide & right @ 250” green score. I had seen this bull twice before but 100 yards was the best I closest I could get. I think he was the 2nd best bull I saw & I still find myself grinning like a jackass every time I think about this hunt, as it was one of my all-time greats!
Guess that’s it for this year’s bowhunting, except maybe some hog hunts. I do have a 3rdseason Colorado hunt coming up and will be assisting on a Ca. Desert Sheep hunt, so I hope the good luck holds up. And last, but not least, a big thanks to Justin Sawaske, Paul Schulthies, Shawn Wood, Bill Arbuckle and Dan Zimmerman, who lent their valuable time & expertise to assist me in glassing, spotting, packing & most importantly, having a great time on this fantastic hunt.”
Congratulations Richard and thanks for sharing your story! If you get a chance to hear it from Richard first-hand, I highly recommend it. He is a great story teller.
Bruce Elam Elk 2011
Troy Elam (right) Elk 2011
A big congratulations goes out to Bruce and Troy Elam of Arizona for their recent archery elk hunt in their home state. This father and son were a couple of the lucky ones who drew elk tags out of one of the premium units in Northern Arizona. And as you can see from the pictures, they made the most of it!
With erratic weather and slow rut conditions, it took about a week for Bruce to arrow his bull. And Troy didn’t punch his tag until the last evening. Nevertheless, the both made the trip home with great bulls in the back of the pickup.
Bruce’s 6×6 green scored around 356″ and Troy’s heavy six-point had a rough score of 367″. That is a lot of antler for one trip and a great example of what Arizona has to offer!
Congratulations to both of you guys and if I happen to draw that tag next year, I could really use some guides!
Loading ...