Hunting Season Opened for us

DesertRam said:

A nice leisurely dove opener a couple days ago.View attachment 176056

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What kind of doves are those? I'm assuming you have mouring doves and white wing. Do they just get darker as you get closer to the border?🤣

These are all mourning doves. Locally we have mourning, white-wing, and the invasive Eurasian collared dove. The latter two species are mostly in the valley near the river (Rio Grande) and in town. I don't like hunting those places because there are more people, so I go out to remote desert water holes where only mourning doves venture. The mourning doves are typically much darker in color than the other two species. Can't say why...

DesertRam said:

These are all mourning doves. Locally we have mourning, white-wing, and the invasive Eurasian collared dove. The latter two species are mostly in the valley near the river (Rio Grande) and in town. I don't like hunting those places because there are more people, so I go out to remote desert water holes where only mourning doves venture. The mourning doves are typically much darker in color than the other two species. Can't say why...

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Don't you usually wear darker colors at funerals, and other times of mourning?

ID Bronco said:

I'm your huckleberry.

But, after following a million Utah plated cars who can't seem to understand the concept of merging yesterday I'll need a day or two. Seriously, if you want to come up this way for a day or two I can take you out and help the best I can. I think it would be fun and productive. Send me a pm if you are interested.

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That would be amazing. I’ll keep that in mind but it might not be this season.

It's late September again (I can't believe it's here already) and that means sage grouse hunting.

This year I was excited that all of my boys would be home for this. I don't think I've ever had all the boys together for this before. Yes, we miss my daughter who isn't here but it was a great time. We had a cross country meet and a swim meet on opening day so I yanked them out of school and we all went out for our own opener yesterday. We had 10 tags, 2 dogs and 5 hunters with miles and miles of habitat to cover. I had been monitoring the birds for about a month and it had been hot and dry so I knew they were near the creeks. Of course last week it rained for 3 days and there was water everywhere so they were more spread out, but that's what boot leather is for.

I took my old dog with us even though he's not much help but the youngster really stepped up and did great.

An early departure and arrival:



It was a chilly 39 degrees but we were sweating in no time.


This was such a cool moment, one of my boys (in blue) had missed a few and was really down on himself. We had a "self talk", talk and kept on going, then a few minutes later he hit a double and two of his brothers finished their limits all in one bunch. Confidence was restored.



A well deserved rest (11 miles)

And....................dinner of sage grouse.

Got lucky in South Eastern Utah. My sister-in-law called him out of a canyon and my dad and brother helped find him and get a shot. Super fun memory.

Gawynz said:

Got lucky in South Eastern Utah. My sister-in-law called him out of a canyon and my dad and brother helped find him and get a shot. Super fun memory.

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Nice work! That's cool your family was involved.

Sharptails

One beautiful bird filled day. Lots of miles.

It's officially fall

What a weekend! One kid qualified for the state xc meet, one swam great at his meet and we worked in some fishing/hunting time with two of my boys. It was the best October weather ever!

My youngest daughter's first elk.

There's just something cool about generational pictures like that. Congrats

I'd like a new set of Bino's or Mono's or spotting scope. Probably lean towards a mono.
I know next to nothing about what's good or not good.
This would be for leaving in the truck (so smallerish in size) to spot animals on my property. Just for fun. No life or death.

Is $50 a reasonable budget? .. Because that's all I get for Christmas..

Anything particular stand out as a must buy over others?

Monos almost universally suck. $50 optics 100% universally suck.

Budget an additional $30 for aspirin if you think you'll ever actually use it.

Seriously. Take a picture with your phone and zoom in. Save the $50. What you are asking about will get used once or twice and then cast aside in disgust.

- DAA

DAA said:

Monos almost universally suck. $50 optics 100% universally suck.

Budget an additional $30 for aspirin if you think you'll ever actually use it.

Seriously. Take a picture with your phone and zoom in. Save the $50. What you are asking about will get used once or twice and then cast aside in disgust.

- DAA

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Thats what I needed to know.
Thanks.

It's getting to be winter and I'm not acclimated yet. Brrrrrrrrr............... We didn't eat until later on Thanksgiving and I had to spend many hours with my in-laws so I went fishing ahead of time.

It's sure tough to photograph big fish by yourself with frozen limbs.



That mark on the rod near the tail is 28". He was FAT and just a ton of fun to land. Of course in good fishing fashion I didn't land the biggest one. I wish I'd had a wing man to net it.

Beautiful fish. I should have spent an extras day up there and fished with you.

UNSTUCK said:

Beautiful fish. I should have spent an extras day up there and fished with you.

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I agree, that would be fun!

I got a little later start this year. I tried a new spot and did OK. My shooting was a little rough, since I hadn't picked up the gun since last February. The dog did great for her first time out this year and my shooting got better as the day went on.