Spring bear giants! Steffen gets the left overs!

After Skyler had killed such a great bear my oldest son Steffen look at me and said "I see how this is going to go, "Skyler kills a big bear and now there are hunters here and I'm just getting the left overs".  He was correct in that statement he was going to get the left overs since there were going to be numerous hunters in camp for the next little while, but I informed him that there were plenty of big bears and when they were done we would start hunting again.  After we had killed with numerous hunters it was Steffen's turn again.  At this time it was just us and another client.  There were 6 baits going at the time and since the other hunter was a paying client they would sit there bait of choice and we would take what was left.  Did we ever run into a streak of bad luck, we would look at the cards from the trail camera and pick a bait that looked pretty active and then we would head in that direction to sit all night and see maybe a little bear or two and many nights nothing at all.  It was that time of year when the big boars are searching for the hot sow, so you never knew what might walk in or not.  Killing a good bear would of been pretty easy but killing a giant was testing our patience.  We would sit one bait and the next day when the bait were re-baited and the cards were checked it would show we should of been at a different bait.  There was one bear in general we were trying to kill and we thought we finally had him figured out. The last time he hit the bait was just after dark so we were hoping that the cards showed us he was still there and that he had got just a little earlier so he would be there in the daylight.  Here is a pic of him.  Can you say giant!!

Well as our luck would have it he was gone again.  This is common for this bear we would show up on two different bait approx 5 miles apart and then he would be gone for a couple days.  So yes he is still alive and will only be bigger next year for a lucky client. 
Our luck finally changed when one of the huge bears we had had on camera showed back up again.  Coming to the end of the hunt and with no more clients to go we moved an extra bait barrel to this site to hopefully keep him there until we could get a chance to harvest him if he ever hit in the daylight hours.  After sitting the two man stand with three people of course, because Skyler was not missing out on big brothers kill if we could make it happen, good thing he is skinny.  Two nights of nothing was starting to take affect on Steffen and he was getting a little down.  That night when we got to the truck he looked at me and said "there is nothing we can do, we cant walk father, glass more, we are at the mercy of the bear.  I don't like this, I like being able to control the situation not them".  I could not not agree more. 
  So we decided to take a couple days off and let as much pressure as possible off the bait in hopes this big bear would make that one mistake we needed.  So we baited it real heavy that night so no one would have to come back for at least one day to re-bait.  The next couple days were real nice we actually got to eat a real dinner and got in a round of golf with the whole family. 
  Then it finally all came together.  After re-baiting real early one morning and looking at the cards we possibly had the break we needed.  The giant black bear had hit the bait numerous times and every time he was with a brown sow.  All we could hope for was he would stay long enough for us to get that one opportunity we needed and the sow would pull him to the bait in the daylight hours.
Here is one of the pictures that got the excitement level back to 1000%

That afternoon the decision was made to go with the ground blind and the sent sticks and the awesome Ozonics.  This would be something new at this bait since every hunter prior had sat in the stand.  We were trying everything to get that one chance on this huge bear.  After sitting for over two hours and not seeing a bear it was like our luck had not changed. All night we kept saying please show us the brown sow, show us the brown sow.  We knew if she would come in it would force him to follow since they were always together the last couple days.  Then it finally happened with only minutes of light left she finally appeared about 45 yards from the bait and made her way in.  Loosing light fast we were all staring in the direction she came from in hopes of big black.  He finally appeared and almost ran into the bait chasing her off and growling.  There was our chance and Steffen made it count.  He never moved and just fell at the barrel.  You would of though we just won the Super Bowl with all the excitement in that blind.  I looked at Steffen and said "left overs are not bad are they".

If you have an interest in hunting these awesome animals shoot me an email -kouryguideservice@gmail.com and I can get you hooked up with the right guy and maybe it will be you in the picture next year with a bear of this quality.

Spring bear giants! Part 1 Skyler wins the coin toss and gets first chance.

Sorry its been so long since my last post, hunting and helping on over 25 days of spring bear hunts on the reservation along with a full work schedule left no time for anything else. A good friend of mine has his guide license on the White Mountain Apache Reservation for Bear and Mountain lion and both my kids had tags to try and harvest a couple big old bruins. On the reservation they are aloud to bait unlike state land. With numerous baits and numerous trail cameras it is sometimes over whelming on what bait to sit for the night. When the season first started the bears were staying close to the same baits but as the season went on the big boars were roaming looking for females in heat, so when this started it really added to the guess work of where that huge boar might show up. My youngest son was first after winning the coin toss, this did not set well with big brother but it worked out better since big brother was still finishing up high school baseball and Jr. High track was already over. Both kids were set on killing these big bears with there bow and arrows. We picked a bait that had some good bears hitting in the daylight hours and then every now and then a huge bear would show, and then he would be gone again for a couple days. We sat this bait in a ground blind so we could get close enough to shoot a bow when the time finally came. We sat for a couple days before one of the other hunters passed on bear that would make Skyler very happy especially for his first bear and with a bow made it even better. So the next night we switched baits and what a mistake that was. The bear they had passed did not come in that night, on the way back out we checked the trail camera of the bait we had been sitting and the bear we were after had walked in at 7:11 pm. It makes you want to cry when this happens but that is life and you move on.

After this happened we decided that we would sit this bait no matter how long it took to get a chance at this big cinnamon bear. After doing everything in our powers to increase the chances of this bear showing up in the daylight hours (buying sent sticks, and Ozonics to kill all sent, along with lots of honey on the barrel everyday) it finally happened. With two bears on the bait at 25 yards in front of us the big cinnamon finally appeared on the top of the hill and started his way to the bait. After chasing off both the other bears he looked as if he was finally ready to come to the bait. Skyler was ready with bow in hand for an opportunity at this awesome looking bear.

After looking like he was going to the bait the bear turned and started to walk away. A quick decision had to be made, either wait and hope the bear would come back for that perfect bow shot or trade over to the gun we had brought just in case. Skyler look right at me and said" GIVE ME THE GUN HE'S NOT WALKING AWAY". So we quickly changed weapons and he made a great shot on the bear as he walked away up the hill.

Here are a couple other pics of Skyler's bear from the trail camera before we were fortunate enough to kill this awesome animal.

More Junior Turkey Success!

On the last morning the juniors could hunt before having to take a two week break Skyler connected.  We have had lots of close encounters but just bad luck has kept him from killing prior to this morning hunt.  We found this bird in the roost and made a quick circle to get into place for the fly down.  He held for quite a while and finally decided to come take a look, that was his fatal mistake.  Be sure to check out the video below it is pretty funny.  In two weeks we will be back at it, but in the mean time a little fishing and some archery bear hunts.

Turkey fever!

Five days into the Junior turkey hunt and the birds are calling well.  The last couple days we have found lots of birds that are with the ladies and really don't care about us stupid two legged creatures with turkey calls.  Here are a couple pics from some of the video I have taken so far this year.  This morning was awesome we had a tom roosted with three hens and another smaller tom, and boy did he like to gobble.  After they finally pitched down from the tree into a small opening about 200 yards from us the strut activity was on.  Unable to pull him from his hens we backed out and will be sitting very close to the small opening they landed in today come tomorrow morning.  None of today's video is on this section of video below.  Good luck to all!!

Junior Turkey Opening Morning!

One of my older sons friends asked if he got draw for some tags would I help him?  That was a no brainer for me, I love hunting with kids they are awesome. The excitement level started after not drawing Javelina, but drawing a Junior Turkey tag.  This was going to be his very first big game animal so he got first shot in front of my kids.  After locating this bird last night we snuck in this morning and set up waiting for daylight as the bird gobbled and gobbled and gobbled.  Finally after some light hen clucks he pitched from the tree and almost landed in our lap.  Before I could get the camera going the hunt was over with one a well placed shot.  I will post more pictures later this weekend since we still have two tags to go.  All of this and they still made it back to school on time so they could play in there baseball game tonight.

The Giant 7x7!!

Check out this bull we hunted with a muzzle loader but could never seem to get close enough for the shot with the primitive weapon.  It was like this bull had nine lives.  This video is from one morning when we had the opportunity to watch this bull for a while in low light.  Sorry for the poor quality but the light was not there to get better footage.

The Huge bull that walks away!

Here are some pictures and a short video of one of the bulls my hunters let walk in search of that ultimate prize.  Most of the time I have no issue with them passing, and to tell you the truth it is usually me saying don't shoot to them.  One of my hunters asked me if "don't shoot" were my favorite words to say.  I always want to see my hunters kill the largest animal possible and if that means passing on animals that would qualify for the record to kill a larger animal then so be it, but this one got to me.   I had seen him a couple times prior, and then we went in to kill him, or so I though.  This bull was passed at 250 yards with a rifle in hand and tag in the back pocket.  On the video look at the extra that comes off the left side of the rack, it is skinny you have to look close.

Here is a short video clip of the bull as I stand beside my hunter.

Titleist Elk Video!

We watched this bull for over two years as he grew into the awesome elk that he was.  We were in contact with the raffle hunter and he decided to hunt a different unit and ended up killing a smaller elk.  With all our hunters in units other than the unit Titleist lived in we could only hope he would survive another year.  He was killed in a muzzleloader hunt the same year and the score I saw was over 405. The video and the pictures you are seeing came after a large rain storm and I actually walked in circles untill I cut the tracks and then followed the tracks for about 2 miles before catching up to these two bulls.  Enjoy..



Snow Update!

The Phoenix news channels are reporting around 6-8 inches for Show Low, my house got more for sure.  Here is a couple of update pics.  The table in the back yard is showing 13 inches.  Grow those antlers!!

Snow in elk country!

With the elk loosing there antlers as we speak this moisture could not of came at a better time.  They are calling for 8-24 inches of snow before the storm leaves the high country.  The White Mountains area have not been as dry as the Northern part of the state but we are still in need of moisture.  This should give the grass a good start as long as we get some moisture through out the spring to keep it going. Grow those antlers!!!!

These pictures were taken around noon on Sunday while it was still snowing hard.