Season of a lifetime - Summer/Fall 2025
- Thread starter npaden
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npaden
Well-known member
Okay. I'm starting my 2025 Colorado Bighorn Sheep thread. It's not the next tag in order but I'm posting some stuff on getting in shape and I have a scouting trip planned for this weekend.
Here's the link - https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/2025-colorado-bighorn-sheep-hunt.330041/
Here's the link - https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/2025-colorado-bighorn-sheep-hunt.330041/
npaden
Well-known member
Just to add to the insane craziness of this fall, it looks like we are going to be doing a land swap on our hunting property here in Texas.
I've had a contract on my place with a 2 year option on it for about 8 months now, and have been looking for a replacement even before we got the contract finalized. They are going to be putting a data center on it and are paying me a pretty big premium for it. Well the other day I saw a place that checked most of the boxes for me, but the sellers were not interested in a long term option so that I could match up the purchase with the sale of my property. I circled back around to the people buying my place and asked if they would be interested in moving the close up on it and didn't hear back from them.
Well on the way to Colorado for my scouting trip, I got a text from them saying they were willing to move up the close on my place and are looking at 60 days to close on it. So I quickly circled back to the folks with the property I was interested in and was able to schedule a showing Sunday late afternoon once I got back from Colorado. Well it's not perfect but for sure has some potential and one neat thing about it is that it has Aoudad that at least periodically show up. It's double the size of my current place and with the premium that I'm getting for my current place I'm getting 85% of the $ needed from selling my place even though I'm doubling up the size of property. Another nice thing is that it has a little house that should be a nice change from having to pull our trailer down there to spend the night.
Here's a link to the new place - https://www.land.com/property/326.5-acres-in-scurry-county-texas/24237818/
Some pictures from looking at it Sunday.
Biggest drawback is that with the stepped up close I am not going to be able to hunt my current place at all and I've been getting trail camera pictures of a couple nice bucks, one of which would almost certainly be bigger than any whitetail I've ever shot, but I can't always have my cake and eat it too.
I ended up making an offer on the new place and just heard back from the realtor that they are going to accept my offer, just getting the i's dotted and t's crossed!
I've had a contract on my place with a 2 year option on it for about 8 months now, and have been looking for a replacement even before we got the contract finalized. They are going to be putting a data center on it and are paying me a pretty big premium for it. Well the other day I saw a place that checked most of the boxes for me, but the sellers were not interested in a long term option so that I could match up the purchase with the sale of my property. I circled back around to the people buying my place and asked if they would be interested in moving the close up on it and didn't hear back from them.
Well on the way to Colorado for my scouting trip, I got a text from them saying they were willing to move up the close on my place and are looking at 60 days to close on it. So I quickly circled back to the folks with the property I was interested in and was able to schedule a showing Sunday late afternoon once I got back from Colorado. Well it's not perfect but for sure has some potential and one neat thing about it is that it has Aoudad that at least periodically show up. It's double the size of my current place and with the premium that I'm getting for my current place I'm getting 85% of the $ needed from selling my place even though I'm doubling up the size of property. Another nice thing is that it has a little house that should be a nice change from having to pull our trailer down there to spend the night.
Here's a link to the new place - https://www.land.com/property/326.5-acres-in-scurry-county-texas/24237818/
Some pictures from looking at it Sunday.
Biggest drawback is that with the stepped up close I am not going to be able to hunt my current place at all and I've been getting trail camera pictures of a couple nice bucks, one of which would almost certainly be bigger than any whitetail I've ever shot, but I can't always have my cake and eat it too.
I ended up making an offer on the new place and just heard back from the realtor that they are going to accept my offer, just getting the i's dotted and t's crossed!
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kiwi hunter
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The joy of turning it into something youll be proud of, that pool is damn nice.
Im living on a property of about the same size and money, (seems land is about the same price to same quality on this planet.)how quirky is that, i have hog deer, sambar and fallow.
A bit of machinery and itll be a paradise soon enough. Look forward to your updates.
Wind in His Hair
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Nice man. So are you using a 1031 to roll your proceeds into the new one?
npaden
Well-known member
That's the plan.
I guess I might have jumped the gun on it though. I had an written offer in and the realtor said they were going to accept it, but I didn't have it back signed. Evidently someone has come in with a higher verbal offer and they are holding off on mine for now. (My offer was 100% of the listing price). I had been a little on the fence on the new place but finally got 100% behind it. Now I'm possibly not going to be able to hunt my current place and going to be scrambling around to find another place so I don't have to pay tax on the sale.
First world problems I know but some pretty big highs and lows today on this.
TheBenHoyle
Well-known member
If the new owners are not breaking ground on the data center right away, would they offer a short-term lease so you can still hunt?
npaden
Well-known member
I've tried that. Big corporation. 15 people were cc'd on the last email they sent relating to the closing. They have no interest in messing with a hunting lease. They are giving me until the end of the year to get all my stuff off the property at least.
Looks like I'm out on the place that I thought I was buying. Realtor won't tell me how much over asking price the new verbal offer is but when I asked if it was more than 10% over asking price he said that it was a "really good" offer. I might go up to $750k but not sure I need to die on the hill for that place although I did like it, there were some fence issues on one side (as far as 100' off the property line) and there were no recent photos of animals.
I'm scrambling looking at other places now as I only have 45 days after closing on my current place to name up to 3 alternative properties that I'm looking at buying. If the close happens in less than 60 days that doesn't leave me much time.
kiwi hunter
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Get in touch with the real estate manager, doesnt sound like the guy is acting impartially. He has to let you make a counter offer.
npaden
Well-known member
They did give me the opportunity to counter but made it sound like it would need to be higher that I was willing to go. I said something like “I can’t see myself going past 5-10% above asking price, do I even need to bother to counter with something in that range?” and he replied that he can’t tell me what they offered but that it was a REALLY good offer. So I took that to mean that it wouldn’t be worth making a offer at anything less than 10% over asking and I wasn’t willing to go that high.
Oh well, other places out there and I’m not marrying whatever place I end up with, I just need to park my gain there for a while until I find “THE” place.
sclancy27
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Knowing real estate agents the offer is probably 5$ higher than yours......I HATE real estate agents.
seeth07
Well-known member
Yup I never trust anything they say. Make the offer based on your own thoughts not influenced by them
npaden
Well-known member
Having a hard time getting to sleep. We did some packing tonight for my son's Nevada antelope hunt and for my Colorado Sheep hunt.
Did some last minute shooting and glad I did. My son shot a 3 shot group right at 1 MOA at 390 yards including one dead center bullseye but when it came my turn I couldn’t even hit the cardboard. After closing the distance all the way to 30 - 40 yards and a LOT of turret spinning I hit the target for the first time dead center. Backed it up to 100 yards and was dead center. Only thing I can figure out is that I’ve had my rifle leaning up in the corner for a while and someone must have spun the turret or something. Took 4 full spins to get it zero’d which ended up right at zero but several extra spins to get there. I hadn’t even adjusted it a half spin previously so no ideas how it needed 4 to get back to zero. Really should upgrade to a scope with a zero stop but too late now.
I think I’m just not going to click it and if I need to I will adjust my aim point. I might get a chance to shoot one more time but not sure I want to do any clicking.
Flight to Nevada is tomorrow at 3:20 pm and should get us into Reno at 6:35 pm with the time changes. I will probably run a live hunt on it in a separate thread like I’ve been doing on the others. It will be short but hopefully sweet. Probably do my posting for it in the airport or hotel as we go. Not sure on cell phone coverage but should be in the hotel each night.
Will be coming home on the 1st and leaving for Colorado for the sheep opener whether Eli tags out or not. If he hasn’t the guide is going to give him a ride to the airport after the last day of hunting. Hopefully we can get it done with a nice buck in 2 days and fly home together.
I’ll post a link to the live hunt thread here once I get it started.
P.S. - I started this thread with the title before all the other ”_______ of a lifetime“ threads popped up. It really is shaping up to live up to the title, at least for me anyway.
Did some last minute shooting and glad I did. My son shot a 3 shot group right at 1 MOA at 390 yards including one dead center bullseye but when it came my turn I couldn’t even hit the cardboard. After closing the distance all the way to 30 - 40 yards and a LOT of turret spinning I hit the target for the first time dead center. Backed it up to 100 yards and was dead center. Only thing I can figure out is that I’ve had my rifle leaning up in the corner for a while and someone must have spun the turret or something. Took 4 full spins to get it zero’d which ended up right at zero but several extra spins to get there. I hadn’t even adjusted it a half spin previously so no ideas how it needed 4 to get back to zero. Really should upgrade to a scope with a zero stop but too late now.
I think I’m just not going to click it and if I need to I will adjust my aim point. I might get a chance to shoot one more time but not sure I want to do any clicking.
Flight to Nevada is tomorrow at 3:20 pm and should get us into Reno at 6:35 pm with the time changes. I will probably run a live hunt on it in a separate thread like I’ve been doing on the others. It will be short but hopefully sweet. Probably do my posting for it in the airport or hotel as we go. Not sure on cell phone coverage but should be in the hotel each night.
Will be coming home on the 1st and leaving for Colorado for the sheep opener whether Eli tags out or not. If he hasn’t the guide is going to give him a ride to the airport after the last day of hunting. Hopefully we can get it done with a nice buck in 2 days and fly home together.
I’ll post a link to the live hunt thread here once I get it started.
P.S. - I started this thread with the title before all the other ”_______ of a lifetime“ threads popped up. It really is shaping up to live up to the title, at least for me anyway.
One think you may want to check is your scope rings and bases. Just check and make sure all screws are tight.
npaden
Well-known member
Started the semi-live Nevada pronghorn hunt thread in the pronghorn forum.
www.hunttalk.com
Nevada Antelope hunt 2025 - Semi-live
Starting the thread sitting in the airport waiting on our plane. Packed up with soft sided coolers in our larger suitcases and my son’s rifle in the hard sided case. Checking in the rifle went smoothly, so far the flights are showing to be on time (should knock on wood there since it is a...
www.hunttalk.com
Irrelevant
Well-known member
hell I bet there wasn't even another offer. Realtors are the scum of the earth.
npaden
Well-known member
Started the semi-live Nevada pronghorn hunt thread in the pronghorn forum.
Nevada Antelope hunt 2025 - Semi-live
Starting the thread sitting in the airport waiting on our plane. Packed up with soft sided coolers in our larger suitcases and my son’s rifle in the hard sided case. Checking in the rifle went smoothly, so far the flights are showing to be on time (should knock on wood there since it is a...
Hunt #2 is in the books.
npaden
Well-known member
Headed to Colorado in the morning for the sheep hunt. Current plan is to pack in a couple miles and then hike in the rest of the way and be where the guide has been seeing some rams by first light opening morning.
In a lot of ways I would hate to end the only sheep hunt I will ever probably have on opening morning, but with the success rates for the unit I’m hunting I’m not going to pass on any opportunity that I get.
Not sure if I’ll have cell coverage once I get there or not.
In a lot of ways I would hate to end the only sheep hunt I will ever probably have on opening morning, but with the success rates for the unit I’m hunting I’m not going to pass on any opportunity that I get.
Not sure if I’ll have cell coverage once I get there or not.
npaden
Well-known member
Still on cloud 9 after the successful sheep hunt! This was the most important hunt of the entire fall and it turned out to be an amazing hunt and I was able to take a great ram for the unit.
I'll post the link to that thread again - https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/2025-colorado-bighorn-sheep-hunt.330041/
Here's the video -
Just a few pictures.
It was everything I was hoping for and more! The hunt of a lifetime as part of my season of a lifetime!
I'll post the link to that thread again - https://www.hunttalk.com/threads/2025-colorado-bighorn-sheep-hunt.330041/
Here's the video -
Just a few pictures.
It was everything I was hoping for and more! The hunt of a lifetime as part of my season of a lifetime!
npaden
Well-known member
Next hunt will most likely be Colorado bear and also since I was able to get the sheep hunt done pretty quickly I will be able to go on my Wyoming pronghorn hunt. Not sure if I will combine those or have separate threads or exactly what I will do on them. So far not getting much for trail camera pictures of bears, I'm thinking that is going to be better the later I wait so maybe the Wyoming pronghorn hunt first then the Colorado bear. Still a week and a half to figure it out.
About the only thing not going smoothly is the whole land sale and purchase thing. The big corporate buyer of my property has the wheels in motion now and is wanting to close on September 30th. I still haven't found another place since my first one fell through and am trying to delay it as long as I can because for the 1031 exchange the 45 day window to name the replacement property starts the day of the close of the sale of the first property. I've got a couple places kind of in my pocket as backups, one has some pictures of some really good deer on it, but it just isn't a very pretty property with limited topography and possibly some access issues as it is an inholding on a much larger ranch. I'm probably going to go land shopping this weekend to look at some of the options in person.
The big fire in my mule deer unit on the Kaibab Plateau is finally out (at least in my unit) and the guide has assured me that if anything it should make the hunt better so hopefully that isn't an issue. I gave away my archery mule deer tag in Colorado to a fellow HuntTalker so hopefully that works out for him.
Will be working on getting the sheep butchered the next couple days and probably need to get the antelope done soon as well. It is already frozen so not as pressing as getting the sheep done. Really looking forward to trying the sheep, I don't think I've ever eaten wild sheep before.
About the only thing not going smoothly is the whole land sale and purchase thing. The big corporate buyer of my property has the wheels in motion now and is wanting to close on September 30th. I still haven't found another place since my first one fell through and am trying to delay it as long as I can because for the 1031 exchange the 45 day window to name the replacement property starts the day of the close of the sale of the first property. I've got a couple places kind of in my pocket as backups, one has some pictures of some really good deer on it, but it just isn't a very pretty property with limited topography and possibly some access issues as it is an inholding on a much larger ranch. I'm probably going to go land shopping this weekend to look at some of the options in person.
The big fire in my mule deer unit on the Kaibab Plateau is finally out (at least in my unit) and the guide has assured me that if anything it should make the hunt better so hopefully that isn't an issue. I gave away my archery mule deer tag in Colorado to a fellow HuntTalker so hopefully that works out for him.
Will be working on getting the sheep butchered the next couple days and probably need to get the antelope done soon as well. It is already frozen so not as pressing as getting the sheep done. Really looking forward to trying the sheep, I don't think I've ever eaten wild sheep before.
