Blast and Cast- Oregon Style

Dave has a funny kind of luck. Like where he can draw a tag that takes 13-15 years of applying in just one year. This year he drew an Antelope tag in central Oregon and asked me if I would come hunt with him. I agreed almost instantly and got my plane tickets the next week and I was flying to Portland just two weeks after that.
The hunt started on Saturday and I flew out of PHX late Thursday night; this gave us Friday to pack, drive 5 hours, pitch camp and find our opening morning target buck.

Dave had made a few quick trips to learn the lay of the unit and try to scout as much as he could in the weeks before the hunt. He pointed out right away that there were plenty of antelope to look at, but most were on private land. I was excited to try out the On X Hunt maps to help us stay on the public land find the honey holes.

Our opening morning plans were fouled by shifty winds and about 40 other hunters that had a similar plan to ours. We shifted gears and  headed south to some country that looked promising. Being from AZ, we thought the dirt roads were decent enough, but  some Oregonians apparently are deterred by slightly rocky roads. Just like we wanted, we had almost the whole area to our selves.  We made a really good stalk on a bedded buck that night but didn't get him killed. Dave says it was the guy with the range finder's fault... After a very long walk back to the truck that night we figured our our plan for the morning to come back to the same area and try again from a different angle.

First light on day 2 we spotted our group of goats and we took off trying to make good time across the open sage flats before the sun showed us off. We only made it half way across the flat when I spotted a buck running, full-tilt right at us. We sat down and realized it was a mature buck chasing a renegade youngster out of the country. They ran at about 45MPH right by us without even flinching. Once they past us I whistled and the bigger buck circled around us out of curiosity. In this case, curiosity killed the antelope.  20 minutes after day break and we were taking pictures and ready to pack meat back to the truck! Then, Dave says, "lets go fishing tomorrow!"

We drove back the 5 hours to Portland and had a feast of a dinner with Dave's wife, Stef and some of their friends. We unpacked the camp gear and loaded the fishing gear and left at 3am the next morning to drive to Astoria to meet Travis at the boat ramp by 5:30.  We were on the water for about an hour before we caught the first salmon, then it was ON! We proceeded to catch more salmon than I could have dreamed of. We fish with Travis because he is a nice guy with a nice boat, but mostly because he helps us understand all the rules and regulations that are constantly changing. He also knows how to get tons of fish on the boat! We each got to catch and release at least 5 fish a piece and then we got to keep and bring home one King and one Chinook each. What a day! What a weekend!
Four days in OR, we drove an 800 mile loop around Oregon, shot a great Antelope and had the best day of fishing I have ever had.
Thanks Dave!


Sam

Adventures in Panama

Our trip to Panama last month was EPIC. We had very little planned and it all worked out just peachy. We spent 9 days with our great friends, The McDonald's. The slideshow below documents it better than my story telling ability.
Enjoy.

Living large for the 4th of July

Give the opportunity to have 3 plus days of nothing better to do than go exploring, you better bet I am packing the truck and heading north. Leah, Kona and I made our way towards Utah Thursday afternoon with very few plans other to explore, relax and fish.
Check, Check and Check!
We made a big circle through some awesome country. We revisited some old favorite places and explored several places that we will go back to see more of for sure. We even managed to rendezvous with some great friends while escaping the rain on the later part of the trip.
Here's to another great adventure and many more like it.
Enjoy.

Cool stuff over at ORGhunt.com

Some times you meet people and you cant quite make up your mind about them. Some times you meet someone and you instantly tell yourself, "this is a good guy". Craig Steele is the latter for sure! Craig runs a really cool media company based around passionate,wholesome and awesome hunting content. You may recognize some of his work with names like Outdoorsman's Resource Guide, CEI Outdoors and now ORGhunt.com.
He is one of those guys you can just get carried away for hours talking about hunting strategies and stories.  A few weeks ago Craig paid me a huge complement and asked me to be a contributor to his site. I was honored to be enlisted to a team of folks who really share the same passions as my family and I. I will continue to try and keep posts trickling in here on our blog, but I encourage anyone who loves reading about western hunting adventures to follow ORGhunt.com. You can also find Craig on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/ORGhunt or on Instagram @ORGhunt.

Catching up and looking forward

Keeping on top of relevant post, blogging and sharing the stories of all the adventures we go on is not my strong suite... Going on the adventures, now that is a different story! My last post was on the tip of the hunting season last fall; where did the rest of the fall, winter and now spring go? This was a question I had to think of for a while. I did not draw any tags in 2013, but that dang sure doesn't mean I didn't go hunting!

As a hunter, especially in a state where tags are largely based on luck of the draw, its easy to feel bummed out and defeated. Looking back at the last 6 years, I have had only three big game tags in Arizona and one in Utah (albeit they were pretty dang good tags!). Plenty of hunters would love to have been as fortunate as I have in drawing tags. But where I feel the most fortunate is when I look back at all the hunts I have gotten to go on. I love being the guy with the tag, but  also I love being the guy with out the tag. Some of the best memories I have, were on hunts were I was just there to help!

This last fall was one for the books. I got to go on a ton of great adventures with a ton of great people. I know I tend to dwell on this subject but I really feel passionate about the reason I love hunting. I love matching wits with the biggest oldest bull on the mountain but just as much, I love sharing that chase and adventures with people who matter to me.  Before I proceed with my next photo dump from the second part of the 2013 hunts I was on, I have a challenge for you all. Don't be the guy who sulks in your bonus point count but rather go out of your way to help a friend on a hunt. Make it your priority to go on that hunt. Its easy when you are the tag holder to take off work and put your life of hold. Try putting that same level of excitement in to someone ease's adventures. You won't regret it.

 Now here is a real challenge, get your mother in-law to try hunting!

Weston's first elk. We got the whole dang family down that canyon to help with the packout!

 This is what a man looks like after he has just found the ram he has been chasing his whole life.

Draw results are just around the corner for the 2014 elk and antelope season in Arizona. I'm not holding my breath for tags that I might (not) draw, but I am waiting for all the phone calls from really excited friends who drew the tag of their dreams.

Fall is Flying By!

It feels like last week we were scouting for archery deer and dreaming about elk hunting and now we are half way through fall! I have been fortunate enough to hunt with a lot of friends and family this year and even though I did not have any tags for myself, I still feel blessed to have been part of so many adventures.
I won't bore you with a long tale of all these hunts; after all its the pictures that are worth the most words.

Hunting season is far from over (sorry Leah) so stay tuned for more pictures and adventures and stories.
Thanks for reading.

Sam