Up and Adam Adventures

Doe patrol is underway. I had two doe antelope tags this year in the same unit as my buck and was able to fill the first one. Antelope meat is not known as the best available and many people don’t care at all for it. I happen to think it’s delicious when prepared right, and this young doe is going to be ever-so-tender.

September has been good to me so far! Really thankful to fill the first pronghorn tag I’ve had in over 10 years. Also the first blood for the new Maven RS. riflescope. I’ve had the scope for a while but just got around to sighting it in on my rifle this past week. Very happy with its performance so far!

Finally notched a 2018 tag! A solid week of elk hunting didn’t produce any meat, but deer backstraps will do. I spent 7 days hunting elk and even though I got into some I couldn’t get a decent shot at a bull. Partly out of frustration and partly looking for an easier hunt, I left the mountains and went to a section of BLM land to look for a deer. The spot proved productive and there were three muley bucks bedded in a draw not far from the road. After a short but intense stalk I was able to put an arrow in this buck, making him the first muley I’ve taken with a bow in about 7 years.

This film is well worth watching! A great representation of the challenges we face as public land hunters, anglers and hikers. If you haven't checked out Tim Burnette's work, take a look at his YouTube channel. He does great work filming his own hunts and is a great representative for the hunting community.

Don't Get Cocky Of the three shots I had taken on animals in Africa so far, all the arrows had hit exactly where they needed to. I'd studied Brent's shot placement book over and over, and with a little bit of his coaching during the moment of the shot, had made three perfect shots. Granted they were all 16 yards or less, but the blood trails had been short and the tracking easy. I won't say I was getting overconfident or cocky, but sometimes I need a reminder not to. On day 5 we returned to the blind I had killed my zebra from, again planning to sit all day. An nyala was the first animal to come in after things had settled down, and soon some small warthogs appeared. Close to 10am, Brent heard the guttural grunt of an impala and signaled me to get ready. Two male impala began making their way in to the water and we agreed on which one I should take. I positioned myself to get ready to draw and Brent got the camera running. Now it was just a matter of waiting for ...

Black with White Stripes Brent and I had noticed that the animals weren't moving until later in the morning, so there was no need in beating the sunrise just to sit in the blind longer. We developed a routine of getting up just a little later for breakfast, after the other hunters in camp and still getting to the blinds well before the animals were moving. This time we went to yet another blind, a small tin shed built into the ground with shooting and viewing windows cut into it. We had quite a few animals come in: nyala, kudu, warthog, wildebeest and sable all wandered in and out throughout the day. Seeing so much activity kept us entertained and provided some filming opportunities but there was nothing to shoot at. Warthog was high on my list but the only males we saw were very small. Having packed a lunch, we sat all day. Just before dark, a herd of 8 wildebeest, a few warthogs, and a sable were all in range feeding and watering, when we saw a gemsbok carefully approachin...

New Favorite We arrived at the pop-up blind with our lunch of leftover pizza packed and plans to sit all day, or until we killed something. We had the usual quick breakfast in camp and Erisha took the truck back after dropping us off. We sat for a little while and both started reading after a while. A few blesbok came into the water, but way out of range. This was a big water hole, and the majority of it was out of bow range, but many animals had been approaching where we were set up, so we were still hopeful. Back to reading The Green Hills of Africa.  I looked up to see a kudu bull with his head down drinking water about 40 yards away but at a bad angle. I don't know much about kudu, but he looked like a pretty good one to me. There was another, smaller bull with him that was very cautious and never came out into the open. Up until then, I was still undecided if I wanted to take a kudu but seeing him in the flesh, his gray, deer-like hair, mane on his neck, the white ...