Caribou Gear Tarp

Average Joe's 2018

sn.outdoors

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 27, 2016
Messages
464
Location
WI, WA, NM, ID
It’s that time again! Looking back at our thread from last season, https://onyourownadventures.com/hun...verage-Joe-Hunting-Adventures-with-Dan-and-CJ Dan and I decided to keep our goals basically the same. We hope share our experiences in the most authentic way we can, and through our stories, illustrate to people the abundance of opportunity that exists in this great nation. All you have to do is take advantage of it.

Since Dan and I are both constantly trying to improve ourselves, we each have a few things we want to do better this season than we did last year. My biggest personal goal for this season is to improve my storytelling and photography. Primarily, telling a better story through my photos. I really want to capture the special moments with my camera, and share them in a meaningful way.

As far as the hunting goes… well we’re nearly 6 months into 2018, and the majority of our plans for the year are beginning to solidify. So far Dan and I will have at least one hunt we’ll share together, and I can’t wait for it.

As of right now, I have one big elk hunt on the schedule this September, but I’m also hoping to sneak away to Oregon for an early archery hunt over Labor Day weekend. (Maybe I’ll get lucky like I did last year and kill one on the first day ;) A guy can dream, right?) Earlier this year, I half-jokingly said to Dan that I’d like to kill either 3 elk or an elk in 3 states this year, but it’ll take a lot of luck to get it done since my work schedule is busier than I’d like. I will for sure be hunting deer and elk in ID, but I’m still waiting on ID deer, elk, and antelope results to come out to know when those hunts will happen. I’m applying for rifle deer and elk tags, and an archery antelope tag. I'm also throwing a wild dart into the Arizona deer draw, but the results are doubtful.

My wife is applying for deer, elk, and antelope rifle tags here in Idaho. And lastly I will most likely buy 2 deer tags in ID, since I’m kinda starting to get addicted to chasing muleys. It’s just too much fun not to do it more.

Regardless of the tags that find their way into my pocket, my biggest hunting goal for this season is to take new or inexperienced hunters out into the field. If that means I don’t get much time to hunt for myself, I’m not too worried…. My freezer is pretty full after all. I feel I’ve been blessed more than enough, and I really look forward to helping some buddies put meat in their freezers and create memories they’ll cherish forever.

In summary… there’s more opportunity than what my calendar allows for, but the three priorities for the season are: do everything I can to help new or inexperienced hunters get out in the woods this fall, hunt elk in the rut with my bow, and take my wife on her first elk hunt. I’m sure I’ll do much more than those three things, and I can’t wait to get it started.

Here are a few photos of what I’ve been up to so far this year…



1866350406e5ac82beaec47c2aab3866.jpg


983e8ba0472ad90a4a67b26e2c8b0c76.jpg


2edca7c48fbe9fa4f9885a5d205b468f.jpg


da6d1ae1b36d503ccd0a3bc799f86e06.jpg


5a90ab9d1ccc8fc17e38afb99a01b420.jpg


1bf4f73f0aaa6d688ff0cd6623e48532.jpg


c6146624227d40f664329b3108fb55a8.jpg
 
VERY Excited to hear more about your adventures! Keep it up! Your photos look great and they will only get better. If you don't mind me asking, what camera gear do you use? We use a Canon 6D and have recently acquired a Tamron 150mm-600mm to use for wildlife and man was that a worthwhile investment. I have a whole new appreciation for birds now haha.
 
VERY Excited to hear more about your adventures! Keep it up! Your photos look great and they will only get better. If you don't mind me asking, what camera gear do you use? We use a Canon 6D and have recently acquired a Tamron 150mm-600mm to use for wildlife and man was that a worthwhile investment. I have a whole new appreciation for birds now haha.

Thanks!

My camera is an Olympus OMD em5 mkii, and my lenses are the Olympus 12-100 f4 pro, and Panasonic 100-300 f4/5.6. I really like the form factor of the micro 4/3's camera, but it does have its compromises. The 12-100 lens is absolutely fantastic for a walk around lens, and the image stabilization is terrific. But it is not good in lowlight.

I think if I could do it over again I'd go with the 6D for photos, and a 4k camcorder for video. That said, I'm still very happy with the setup I currently have. Its a solid do-all setup.
 
I think if I could do it over again I'd go with the 6D for photos, and a 4k camcorder for video. That said, I'm still very happy with the setup I currently have. Its a solid do-all setup.

Your setup looks and sounds very solid. You obviously found something that works well for you and really that's all that matters. Best of luck!
 
Like CJ mentioned, there aren’t too many changes this year as far as our goals go. 2018 is already shaping up to be such a fun year and we cannot wait to share it with you.

So far I’ve been fortunate enough to land a New Mexico archery elk and rifle antelope tag.

6b98992956c1d53852291772a6406acc.jpg


I’ll be in the elk mountains from Sept 7-24th. I’m going to head out a little early to help a buddy on his hunt and then roll right into mine.
Im also very lucky because I’ll be able to tie in another antelope hunt into my New Mexico hunt. Oct 1-9th are the antelope dates. I plan on hunting an over the counter archery antelope state prior to my New Mexico antelope hunt and that’s going to be a ball.

Mid October I will be heading up to Kentucky because a good buddy of mine drew a KY cow elk hunt. I’m so excited to help on that hunt because my friend could potentially be killing his first elk in his home state, how neat is that?

Late October kicks of Florida deer and let me tell you, this year is going to be an interesting one. I will come back to this in another post though ;)

November will also be an amazing month. I was fortunate enough to draw a Kansas archery tag. So I plan on tying the Kansas hunt in with an Oklahoma public land hunt. My good friend also drew a New Mexico mule deer hunt that I plan on helping him with. He’s never taken a deer yet, so I’d love to be a part of that. Three years ago introduced him to hunting and it’s been so fun watching him grow into the hunter he’s become. It’s really what all of this is about. So November should be 2-3 weeks of fantastic deer hunting!

0cd139bb430b7862ed11c919f1b3d4b7.jpg


The remainder of November, December, January, and early February will be chasing whitetail in Florida and Kentucky! Again... in a few posts you’ll understand why I’m going to invest a lot of time down here in Florida... ;)

There are still a few draws left out there that I’m waiting on, but I have a feeling that this will most likely be this years plans.
Iowa, Oklahoma, Maine, Wyoming, and Texas are the last draw states I’m waiting on and any drawn tags in those areas would really turn this into a extra interesting year.


I’ve got a lot of stories to catch up on, so I’ll keep this one short.
We hope you enjoy following along this year. Last year was so much fun being able to share our experiences and interact with everyone. We love when people take their time to post in here and encourage you to as much as you want. Tell us what you think no matter it may be, bad or good, we are here to grow!


Take care and enjoy.
 
Last edited:
I'm always following along, all be it tough with kids playing sports every night, trying to get food plots in. I have both of your knife blades ground out ready for drilling the handles, polish, heat treat and final polish and sharpening. I look forward to watching your seasons unfold the good and the bad. I look forward to hearing from you guys!
 
I'm always following along, all be it tough with kids playing sports every night, trying to get food plots in. I have both of your knife blades ground out ready for drilling the handles, polish, heat treat and final polish and sharpening. I look forward to watching your seasons unfold the good and the bad. I look forward to hearing from you guys!

I’m lucky now because my daughter is too young for sports. I know the crazy days are coming though!
I hope you can get the plots in soon.
 
My 2018 season officially kicked off in April.
I met up with some friends at our annual Kansas TurkeyFest.
We typically do it a little later in the season, but due to some work issues, we opted for the archery season! It didn’t matter though, we were there to hangout and have fun.

16ee741fe692ab11d57d24f7e6634c91.jpg


I hooked up and hit the road.

As you can see “camp” is vey rough. We have a fully stocked pond, dinner area, and some cover from the Kansas winds.

26e5752dd40710e2fa26d9684a497edc.jpg


4ce6c68891f36162b966190f4fd90161.jpg



I got in a few hours before everyone so I did some quit bird scouting and exploring.

0efb7ca74e7c65e17225dc81b25c4b75.jpg


I found some birds right away, so things seemed to be off to a good start.

I did some walking and found this little guy.

5a6b0406dfc619cabcdfa42fb04a7548.jpg


I set up on the side of a field that evening and just glassed. It was so nice to watch the sun set over the wheat fields. Something I never got to experience when I grew up.

c4e117d50f4e1b8d58d331aeda6e339e.jpg


280a9441d13c07d839fdc365081ae0ae.jpg
 
My buddy who hosts the camp took me to his barn the night before everyone got me in and asked me something that almost made me faint.

He asked if I was interested in hunting his farms this upcoming season.....


Mind you he asking me this standing in front of all of these...

29859ab59d7d43488e9bc1dfbbec0484.jpg


d517a1050dfb87e6193120390e9547af.jpg



Of course I said yes and the trip was off to a killer start!


Here is another little treat my buddy has in his barn

d3b182c97842eb9409599004d821b9a6.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The trip immediately turned into 40-60mph winds, rain, sleet, and birds that were broken up.

There was plenty of exploring though and I got to scout all the spots I’ll be hunting this year.

13ef1881346178996c3c47674acebe88.jpg


22ce5e36bf0e3cc8a2dfcd216f1ade8b.jpg


ffaaef766b1b3dd093210df68e1e9653.jpg



f4140bba18244b8ffbf88e396e262343.jpg


be5c9482744c02662c9f6262e43931b9.jpg


04f9b7e2ebcfcb34cf17ece95759fa88.jpg


ca5adcb1f72408d7b18ebb2089c75c1a.jpg
 
The funky shed I found got my buddy excited because he actually had pictures of him.

7626ce005179b9125cc7dd97cdeebdc6.jpg



It’s a neat deer for sure and all of these sheds came off the same farm.

479a1ec32426557eebdbf09bcbe26761.jpg



f486fad237348027d0a6f107b41d203c.jpg



Some really neat areas out there for sure.

77f5d3dd381699c6af0933163d3882f3.jpg


028edde19d7a9d103cde1707353fbeea.jpg


c9e15e02a59c0c04909600cd144fedff.jpg


286ea6e6dcf2eacf9237eecc447281fd.jpg


8766ce0ba11fed7620532b23a06f7472.jpg


21d7b2331a9716009fd9cdfc64064682.jpg
 
One day my buddy said he wanted to show us a secret turkey spot....

This is what we drove up to...

240b8c1db95479291f54db333addb971.jpg


394724522014ab0695d4557cf4741e23.jpg


008311b9e28e57b574c6dca6b0d048f6.jpg


61e631f9d6869cdb745befd046077b4f.jpg



His good buddy runs an elk ranch. It was amazing holding some of those 400”+ sheds.


We ended up getting skunked on the trip. The birds weren’t responding (probably because they couldn’t hear us beyond the wind), they weren’t broken up and in their normal areas, and it was chilly (for spring turkey season)


I did pick a mount off my buddies wall and told him this is the one I wanna shoot this upcoming year, so he needs to tie it to a tree ;)

471c4dbe65b9c167b68c2a636e026ffa.jpg


4639df2154f9b119f5a0cce55e013cda.jpg


6583efd07a4d08317e0affc9ac9f60df.jpg


It was a great trip and I cannot wait to get back out there in November
 
Looking forward to watching your season unfold. Best of luck guy's.

Thanks for following along! You’ll be able to see how the antelope hunt goes real time on here.
I’ll take some good notes for you so it can help when you head out next year.
 
So after I got back from my Kansas journey it was about time where Florida deer were starting to drop their antlers.
There was one specific buck that I’ve been trying to peg for a while now, but with the odd Florida seasons, tons of safe zones, and pressure... he eluded me again this past season.

However... with a little walking and some knowledge from where I found sheds before.... I stumbled onto this....

8b7d0b13891258c6544befba5c0d792c.jpg


0a93551e01c639debbbd69e30e756937.jpg


0476d5e046043bc537f4cc2f2ce14556.jpg



6c023b78122b640a76ca2e28b0c11241.jpg


d54fa706f90981b2c3be175c637eddee.jpg


As you can imagine I was screaming at the top of my lungs for joy when I found this bad boy. I now have sheds of his from 2014, 2015, and 2017. He’s a great deer!


f47331d45ab88cc868106c9ff4ef27b5.jpg


3483b401a57f2e35e3e11cbffcd44253.jpg


I can tell you right now that I’m going to spend a lot of extra time this year trying to make this all happen. He’s an old deer, a smart deer, and he had these awkward Florida seasons to his advantage....
but I will hunt smarter than I ever have, scout harder than I ever have and maybe, just maybe... it’ll all happen!
 
I'll be curious to see what he looks like this year. I have faith you'll at least get him on trail cam.

He looks like he might be on the edge of regressing antler wise. Look at that mass!
 
Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping Systems

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,700
Messages
1,930,966
Members
34,838
Latest member
Crookhunt
Back
Top