Looks like you guys had a good time as well as a successful hunt. That is some nice country. I just love hunting out west. Hunting the east in the hardwoods is nice. But there is something about hunting that open country that just, I don't know how to say it, but it fills all my senses.

Updated with the hunt stories.

Congrats on a successful hunt! Thats some pretty country out there and a nice buck as well.

well, while boning out my elk today at the butcher, I noticed the entrance hole was the size of a nickle where it hit a rib and then the exit side blew out 2 ribs and left a golf ball sized hole! That buck never stood a chance. Due to the shot angle, the bullet left a slight trail through the bottom of the spine, in and out. I didn't find any lead fragments either, so I feel pretty darn comfortable with that bullet next year if I draw a tag for something.

What upset me was the cost! $90 to hang a deer for 4 days and skin it. They didn't even wash it down like they normally do.

Probably the most expensive meat I ever bought! $360 for the tag, 90 for hanging/skinning, plus another $150 in gas and $60 for a celebration lunch for the 3 of us. This boy better taste good! LOL

When I got home, my brother and I did some work on the jeep. Fresh oil/filter change, checked all fluids and then put in the new HD shackles in the rear which helped level it out. Handles much nicer now!

Tomorrow, we'll all pitch in and cut the meat and package it. I need some jerky this winter!

I have to laugh as your observations are so true. I friend of mine in Wisconsin shot a nice buck last year. Having no skills in butchering, other then field dressing, he took it to a meat processor where he lives. When he got the meat back, and paid the bill, he said to me ... next year I am going to the fancy butcher shop in town, spend $200 on steaks and be money ahead. He did have sausage and venison sticks made. And they were very good. But he never did tell me what the whole thing costed. But the hint of $200 at a butcher shop kind of shocked me. And since it was none of my business, I never asked. I have always butchered my own and made my own specialty meats.

When I was married I always told my wife that I only provided the best meats as they were much more expensive when I figured in the cost of license, guns, ammo, clothing and general expenses associated with my hunting excursions...lol... However, I believe the only times I used a butcher was while living in on post housing. Other than that I always processed my own venison.

Frontier, nice stories and deer. When I was growing up I lived and hunted in NM with my dad sometimes in the Lincoln National Forrest near Weed and some in the Capitan Mountains. Do you mind telling about what area you were in. I have great memories of hunting with my dad in NM. How is the muley population, now? Here in Arizona, I haven't even hunted deer for years, because the population has been so low.

Guess this would help.

This is the exit on my buck with the 338gr Platinum Powerbelt.

Nice exit wound. It appears to have created a fairly catastrophic wound channel and that'll put'em DRT.