Southwest Desert Weekend Scouting Trip: Bucks, Bulls, and Binos

Hey guys!

Welcome back to the work week. Lame, huh?

Fortunately for you I have some stories from my weekend to revive you from your afternoon coma! So run over to the coffee maker, pour yourself a cup of that cold joe, nuke that baby for 45 seconds and sit back down!

You know, another great part of hunting, fishing, and exploring the outdoors are the friends you make and the network you build along the way. It seems to me that people who enjoy the great outdoors in any capacity, can relate. Maybe it's just who I am, but it seems like if I run into any given person in Sportsman's Warehouse or a guy on a 4 wheeler in the middle of nowhere I'll always find myself having to drag myself away from a two hour conversation about that starts with what flies are working or the debate between mechanical or fixed broadheads and ends up with an open ended invitation to have a beer around a camp fire anytime. I love you people.


I made the trip down to Southern Utah once again and spent some time roaming the hills with my friend Trevor Hunt. If you grab a dictionary and look up "legendary mule deer man" you'll see a picture of Trevor. If the dictionary picture isn't enough to convince you, check his blog out:

The man himself, holding a 40" wide, 268" buck that he guided. On the reg, boys, on the reg.

http://www.trevorhuntoutfitting.blogspot.com/

Trevor is from my hometown and is every bit as crazy about the mountains as yours truly so it's really only a matter of time before every animal in the state catches a whiff of us at one point or another. . . but I digress. . . back to the story.

Being that I live six grueling hours from my elk unit, Trevor has been nice enough to share some trail camera pictures with me to keep my blood pumping during the that I spend away during the week. He has several cameras set up to catch the buck of a lifetime but every now and again one of those elk wanders in for a drink. Needless to say, getting those pictures in my email has probably decreased my work production by a good 38%.

Early Saturday morning we made our way out to a spot and glassed a group of nine bulls as soon as our eyes hit the hillside. "I call this place Disneyland," Trevor said without pulling his binos down," because it's my happiest place on earth."

Due to the unwritten "I'll bury you out here if you breathe a word of this spot to anyone" laws I have some great pics but I'm not going to show them to you all. We spent the next hour and a half glassing new bucks and bulls from the same spot. 17 bulls and 14 bucks in the same basin is pretty tough to beat.

After we had seen all we could see in that spot we decided to go for a quick trip to a canyon neither one of us has visited yet this year.

The Southwest Desert unit is pretty unique in that it's not only huge and remote but the temperature swings are incredible. When we got out of the truck it was 45 degrees. By the time we were moving to our second spot it was in the low7 0's. . . .at 9:30 A.M. I was yet again reminded that I'm really going to need to have some camo that can adapt to the quickly changing condition when my hunt rolls around. I'm hoping to give the Core 4 and the new Badlands stuff a try when the time comes.

As it turns out our previously unexplored canyon yielded some great bulls and I was able to snap some "range modest" pics using. . . . . the sweet Zeiss glass I'm carrying this season and. . . . my cell phone. Yes folks, thank God for the tiny computers we all now carry around in our pockets. This should speak to the quality of the Zeiss product: due to the clarity and lack of distortion of this glass my cell phone took an incredible picture through one of the eye pieces. Check  it out:

I was able to spot these guys as they were laying down for the day. We glassed them for an hour undetected, found their water, and set a camera up. Stay tuned for some sweet up close and personal pics! I never got a good look a the the one laying down in the shadows but from what I can tell he's a stud.

I wore my Under Armour Speed Freaks and was impressed with them once again. My feet were very comfortable in the morning when it was pretty chilly and stayed that way as I was hiking in the hot late morning sun. I'm going to give them some more time before I put my name on them but so far I'm very impressed: light, breathable, comfortable (they feel like a pair of running shoes), and sturdy.

I'm  heading back this weekend and am excited to show you guys an up close photo of both of these bulls. I named the standing bull "Moby" because of the huge whale tail on his right side.

I've been shooting a ton as well and will have some reviews about my arrows and rest this week!

ALSO, I made a contact at Wack Em broadheads (another Utah based company) and am working on getting some awesome new blades to let you guys know about.

Thanks again, as always, for reading and stay posted!  A big thanks for Trevor for all the help to this point! I'm looking forward to more time in the hills. The hunt starts August 18 and there is plenty more to come before then.

As a parting gift, here are a few pics from Trevor's hit list, enjoy!