Family Hunting Adventures 2025 (Multiple species/Multiple States)

[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 of us 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.

 

[Southern Elk]

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.

We are doing good. Full freezer here too, but not as full as yours.

 

[publichunter1]

The next trip out was for the opener of doe antelope season. My oldest boy and I each had two doe tags. Between where we live and the doe antelope unit sits the unit for my boy’s ewe bighorn sheep tag. We’d already made a trip over on opening weekend, but the only ewes we could get a shot at had lambs that were still awfully small, so we decided to wait.

This time, we left early so we could be in sheep country at daylight and glass our way through until we reached the antelope unit. Sure enough, right after first light we spotted a big group—30-plus sheep. We got on them several times, but picking out one of the bigger ewes was tough. They looked so much like the young rams, and every time we confirmed one was a ewe, she’d mix back in with the group and my boy would lose track of her.

This went on for 30 minutes or more until we finally singled one out. When he got the chance, he made it count.



After pictures and processing, we continued on to the antelope unit—where we got on one and filled a tag almost as soon as we crossed the boundary.

Then came a short break for a work call and getting a proposal submitted (never fails). After that, we found another big group with a buck rutting hard. My boy dropped the biggest doe, and the buck actually went and pushed another doe right back to the same spot—so my boy dropped her too.

We figured we were done and already feeling more than blessed with the meat. But when we got closer, we saw a smaller one that was injured, so we used my last tag to put it down.

We took pictures, cleaned everything up, loaded all five animals, and headed home—tired, grateful, and with a truck full of meat.

 

[publichunter1]

We chased muleys a couple of times, but the buck I was after never showed himself. We did get my boy on a couple of really solid bucks—shots I would’ve taken—but he just didn’t feel comfortable with them because the windows of opportunity were so short. The same thing happened a couple of weeks later with a really nice 6x6 bull. He was pretty disappointed each time, but you could see him getting sharper, calmer, and better at knowing what to do after every opportunity. To me, that’s what it’s all about.

After all of that, we made a trip back to Mississippi to visit family and absolutely wore out the baits catching bass and catfish to fill the freezers. The boys, my dad, and I went deer hunting a few times and had a couple of chances but never sealed the deal.



Then my daughter said she wanted to shoot a deer—so we got after it hard. It came down to the last minute of the last day, but when she pulled the trigger, she made it count. Her first whitetail and first kill!

 

[publichunter1]

Lastly, I killed my first Wyoming whitetail on the way back home, but with no family along on that one, it just doesn’t feel worth sharing after all of the hunts we had together this year.

We made one more trip trying to fill my boy’s general elk tag and a friend’s. We were able to get the friend on a cow, but no luck for my son. Thankfully, we still have some late-season cow tags that run through the end of January, so there’s no rush and still plenty of time.



I hope everyone else is having a great year out there. Can’t wait to see more pictures roll in. We’ll share more if we have any more luck before the year wraps up.

Until then, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

 

[duckhunt]

That is a great season.

 

[Lost Aggie]

incredible season, those are memories that will last a lifetime and the freezer full may also