Nim, not sure I want to make a big deal of it. When I talked to Fish and Game, they said that these guys were the best instructors they had ever had, and really spoke highly of them. Pretty scary if you ask me, but I really feel that I' ll be shouting into the wind if I make a complaint inside of their group. I did tell them how overrated Alaska is however.

Phish, not a goose one to be seen anymore. Got a stalk on a red fox last night, saw 4 caribou with one small bull, but drove an extra 185 miles to see if there were anymore to be stalked. Should of gone after the small guy 15 miles out of town. When the odometer hit 100 miles, I turned around and came back. Saw one grizzly 12 miles south of town, 4 caribou 15 miles south and the red fox about 16 miles south. Nothing but hawks, ravens and musk ox all the way down to pump three.

Brian, good luck with all the upcoming seasons! Sounds like you' ll keep yourself busy.

abm- if that is their best then maybe they should stop the program they are doing more harm than good. of course besure you have you card before you complain so they don' t make you retake it.
heading to ray' s today then we are going in sheep hunting tomarrow.

Juno grl - Sounds like you got to meet my better half while I was off on State business over in Sitka. We are looking forward to the Toyo installation - they are a great piece of equipment. Hope you' re getting around better all the time - you don' t want to have bad ankles when the slippery stuff gets here!

ABM - That' s too bad about putting on all the mileage after seeing that smaller bull, but you just never know do you? There could have been a monster just a little ways down the road. [:' (] My son-in-law shot a nice deer over near Sitka yesterday. He and his partner saw a total of 22 does on their roundtrip up one side of the drainage and back down the other side. He finally took a large animal seeing as there was no apparent shortage. It had a heck of a layer of fat on top of its " straps" . (Made me jealous thinking about all those great chops!)

beej - That sounds like some real good potential at your sites in TN and MO. Best of luck! I can' t give you any pointers seeing as I' m not only new to turkey chasing, but never have tried it yet in the Fall. But it sounds to me like learning the " kee-kee" run on the mouth call would improve your chances of having a lost bird home in on you after you scare up a flock. That one and the fly-down cackle are my " project" calls to learn for this Winter and Spring and at the moment I' d have all the birds breaking up with laughter if I tried either out in the woods! Good luck on your combination hunts.

Beej,

I wish I would have known sooner!!! I have a buddy in Tn, another in Ky/tn border. Both are bowhunting machines! One is killing on average 4-5 book bucks a year with his stickbow, numerous turkeys, etc etc etc. The other is a bowhunting addict. He dont kill as much game but has fun getting out. Drop me a line, not sure if they can help ya or not, or if they are willing to this late in the game being they dont know ya at all but I' ll put in a good word and we' ll see what happens. Btw, they are seeing 150-160+ class bucks on one of the areas.....BRUISERS!!! CHOTA' S! Gotta say I wish I had more in the cash flow department and I' d be down that way pronto, no questions asked. I have hunted with one of these guys more then a few times. He is one helluva hunter. You' d be hard pressed to find someone more addicted and a finer bowhunter then he is. He hunts long, hard, etc etc etc. The other guy is a fella I have yet to meet but have talked to know via email and phone (phone most often and some big phone bills that neither of us still can believe) for appx 3 yrs now. Great fella! Very down to earth and calls the shots as he see' s them. None of that cherry coating crap like some " bowhunters" are doing these day and ages. They are both stickbow guys and they are both pretty adiment about being stickbow shooters. They also pick their partners wisely. Like I said I am not sure if they' d be willing to take ya or not but I' ll do my best to do some leg pulling to get ya " in" on your first bowkill. I am sure they' d have a hoot with ya trying. That' s IFn they dont have that special tree picked out yet Drop me a line, you should still have my number, if not drop an email!!!

Dan,

thanks for the offer. I think at least for this year, I am chocked full of places to be and I' m not sure that I can make all of them. My plan for thanksgiving is quickly falling through because my wife thinks I should be spending time with family[], what' s that all about.

in all seriousness, though, if you can get down here, you are more than welcome. I have two pieces of private property to hunt between TN and AL and plenty of public places that get very little pressure.


I have a distinct feeling that before Oct. 9th, I will have my first bowkill. I will certainly let you know.

beej

ps, let me know if any of the guide types up there have ever hunted 24 or 25 GMU by boat. I' d like to get up there next year for some bou!

It has taken time to understand and learn whitetail habits and all the nuances. I suppose I would have killed a doe last year but my arrow hit a branch. All the other deer I drew on I spooked ---that taught me a good lesson --- be patient in teh stand and hold out for the deer to present an opportunity to draw.

Brian,

Best of luck on your first deer!!!! The famous last words, PICK A SPOT !

I hear ya on the family thing. I have been gone working/guiding most of the spring summer and now fall. Only been home 2 days and I am gearing up to go again. Gotta say my wife is pretty dang lenient in that department, now if I could only get her to come out and pack..hmmmm, well on second thought maybe not [>:]

If your spots fall through or you want something different, I' ll run it by them. Just keep me posted via email.

Oh and I just returned from guiding from one of those 2 units. Used a plane, then a small river boat to get to our glassing areas. It all was for moose though. We did see some bou tracks albeit very few in the area we were hunting. Then again I really didnt expect to even see that as the area was thicker then pea soup. I can however point ya in a direction. Not sure how it will turn out or to be honest what you are looking for but I know of 2 charter companys that come with high regards! I know both of the pilots, worked for one of them and I dont think you could find 2 more honest and client loyalty in this state.

Anyone know the story on the moose rack to be found at the following site?
http://www.bucktrack.com/Alaska/Big_Moose.jpg

Either that is a " whopper" - or the guy holding it upright is a midget! It was supposed to have been taken out at King Salmon this season and is rumored to be in the 80-inch-plus category. Curious if anyone else knows more about it - I didn' t do a lot of notice anything posted on this thread. Thanks.

Oops, had a brain fart on the last post - Meant to say I didn' t do a lot of backtracking on this thread, but I didn' t notice anything about this big animal on here. I guess I am one of those " inquiring minds" . . .when the mind is working.

Phish, that' s one hell of a moose! Sure wish we could hear the story behind it. Looks like it was an out of stater that bagged it because of the locking tag on the antlers. I' d love to see a bull with head gear like that sometime in the wild.

I went out last night searching around for bou. Not a single one out there, but lots of hunters, and all of them aren' t seeing any. I stalked up on a grizzly last night with the camcorder though. I got within 25 yards, and clicked some pictures using a memory stick in the camcorder. Here is one of the pictures of the bear.



I plan to head out again tonight and see what is down there. At the least, I' d like to sneak up on some musk ox and get pictures and video of them.

Happy birthday to SEAK today! And happy birthday to juno grl tomorrow!

The guy holding it is not the hunter who shot it.
I met the guy who shot that moose in King Salmon on Sept.18th. He was there with his brother. He believes it will be the B&C record. They saw the bull when they flew in but of course could not hunt that day. He said it took 4 days to catch up to him and his cows!!!! It was going to be green scored in Anchoarage. Our flight left King and hour before his did. My buddies were on his flight. They had an emergency. The guy who shot the moose had a siezure and had to be taken off the plane![] Poor guy...

Mark Rose was his name...
This is all I know.