Family Hunting 2025

[publichunter1]

I never know where to post these hunts—I’m never able to share them live, and there are always too many species and too many memories to split into separate threads. I’m not on here nearly as much as I used to be, but I always enjoy catching up with the old timers and seeing the newcomers on here too.


This year was hands-down the most fun I’ve ever had. Every hunt but one included at least one of the kids—most of them were with the whole family. We kicked things off with antelope season. I was gone nearly all of August for work, but I was able to sneak home for a day, and thankfully the family and I were able to fill my tag in half a day with archery gear.



More to come…

 

[publichunter1]

From there, things slowed down quite a bit as we didn't hunt again until the start of rifle antelope. We had drawn decent tags, but my beautiful wife isn’t exactly known for her patience—so the first buck we saw after daylight, she said she wanted it. It was her tag, so that’s exactly what we did.



On the way back to town, we spotted another medium buck. My boy wanted to take him, but I talked him into glassing one more area in the distance. Thankfully he agreed, because there was a really nice one out there. Him and I slipped in perfectly, and he made an awesome shot. Two hours into the day and both buck tags were filled.

 

[Southern Elk]

I’ve been wondering how you did this fall. Love seeing that Mississippi State shirt and Braves hat.

 

[publichunter1]

The next morning, my middle boy and I decided to go after a deer we had glassed before the season. It was a little later in the morning, and he was still a bit annoyed with me for passing on a really nice buck he wanted me to shoot. It was the one time all season I held out—I had a particular deer in mind.

Just then, a small bull chased a cow into the drainage above us. He told me we had to go after him. I reminded him we’d seen bigger bulls, but he reminded me that I had just passed on that buck… so I said, “Alright, let’s go.”

We made the long hike over to the last opening where we’d seen him. We set up in a big sage bush, and on the second cow call he stepped out at 62 yards. Whack. And just like that, we had a bull on the ground.

My wife had plans that morning, but she still drove up and dropped the other two kids off so they could help with the pack-out. A fully blessed morning all the way around.

 

[publichunter1]

Things only kept rolling from there. We headed up for the start of the early deer rifle season in the Gros Ventre, and the momentum from the rest of the year seemed to follow us right into that hunt. We got there the afternoon before season and hiked up the ridge to glass. After a little while, my oldest asked if I’d heard the tree break down the ridge. Me being half-deaf, I hadn’t heard a thing, so I told him to keep watching. Not much later, my middle son said he heard it too.

I barely had time to turn around before a bear popped out. We watched it for a while to make sure it was a black bear and that there weren’t any cubs. Meanwhile, the boys must’ve told me to shoot it a hundred times. I finally pulled up and squeezed the trigger—click. Misfire.

After cycling another round—and the gun actually going off this time—we had a bear on the ground. The excitement from all three boys was unreal.



I’ve got to run to a parade now, but more to come.

 

[Redraider7]

Awesome hunting. Thanks for sharing!

 

[publichunter1]

I’ve been wondering how you did this fall. Love seeing that Mississippi State shirt and Braves hat.

We are still alive down here. Took a new job so I’ve been tied up. I hope y’all are doing well up there.