Its been a while and for good reason.  I've been dealing with more heart issues that finally culminated in a quadruple bypass surgery in early October.  Seven weeks later, with the help of my future son-in-law, Aaron I tested it out by packing into an Arizona Wilderness with my llamas for a rifle coues deer hunt.  In this episode Aaron and I talk about the hunt and a bunch of other stuff.  It was his first time on a big game hunt and he got the full experience.  

I apologize for some low quality audio.  I recorded it straight from the built in mics on a portable recorder outside in the wind.  We also captured llamas humming and birds chirping for ambiance.  

I hope you enjoy it and learn something as usual.  Thanks for listening, and feel free to comment and contact me at [email protected].

I managed to get down to the border for a couple days of archery hunting opening weekend. Lance showed up for an evening even though he isn't archery hunting this year.   We finally got around to the wrap up for last year's archery deer and bear hunt.  Spoiler alert animals were harmed!  We also talked a little early season archery bear from two weeks ago. The audio quality is a little wonky in spots because I was recording off the built-in microphones on the recorder.  The crickets in the background are a nice touch though.  I tried to get Lance's buddy Fabian, who was also hunting, to join in but he's too shy.  They guy is a very good bowhunter so I'll keep working on him. This was just a fun conversation. I hope you enjoy the stories.

In the last few years I've climbed out from under my rock and tried to engage more with the traditional bowhunting community.  In this episode I describe my experiences with the Colorado Traditional Archers Society High Country Shoot (it was fantastic!), and the Professional Bowhunters Society Odd Year Gathering in Wyoming.  These events and the Compton event I attended in March have really helped me get more psyched about tradbow hunting again.  In addition, myself and four other Arizona tradbow guys are trying to start a new state organization cleverly called, Traditional Bowhunters of Arizona. I also give my opinions on things like crossbows, the North Rim forest fires and a quick report on how archery deer season is shaping up for me.   I hope you enjoy.  Thanks.

I should have done this one a couple weeks ago, but better late than never.  In this episode I describe how the Arizona big game draw process works, and how to access and use previous draw data to improve your odds in the future. The main AZ draw deadline just passed, but this info applies to all draws.  I start by describing the draw and bonus point processes then do a deeper dive into the data you can find on the AZGFD website and how to use it to your advantage.  I give several simple tips you should use to help your chances of drawing a big game tag, and some warnings about things that might hurt your chances. Hopefully it's not too confusing without visual aids.  Maybe I'll make a YouTube video about this before the next draw so I can show exactly what to do. I hope you get something from this that will change the way you apply for AZ tags.  Enjoy.

This episode was supposed to be about my recent trip to Colorado for the Compton Traditional Bowhunters Big Game Classic, but thanks to listener PJ Selinski (and I do mean thanks PJ) it was confirmed that the numbers I used for the previous episode on the 2024 archery deer quotas were wrong.  I knew then that something was off, but I went with the numbers I got off the AZ Game and Fish website at that time.  So, in this episode the first 20 minutes are the new stats based on the hopefully correct numbers.  The rest of the episode is me gushing about how awesome the Compton event was and how great the people are.  I did a hard sell on joining Compton and teased the idea of starting our own traditional bowhunting organization in Arizona.  I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to contact me at my email: [email protected] or on Facebook or Instagram at Closerangehunter. Happy hunting!

In this episode I breakdown some numbers and stats of the archery deer quota from 2024.  What units closed when, how many deer were killed by archers in 2024, how that compares to 2023, and what do these numbers tell us? At the end I did a little catching up and told some stories about a couple of crazy coincidences between big game hunting and meteorite hunting and a bit on drought and antler growth.  I also made another pitch for traditional archery seasons. I thought I had uploaded a podcast in February, but I guess I didn't.  I recorded this a few weeks ago, but the audio was not up to par.  So, here is my second attempt.  I will follow up soon with another podcast about my experience at the Compton Traditional Bowhunters Big Game Classic I attended in Golden Colorado in March.   As always I hope you get some useful info out of this one.

This is a long one, but a good one!  I've been wanting to get Zach Larsen on this podcast since before I even recorded the first episode.  Zach hunts with primitive bows, arrows, and even points he makes himself.  He's not just taking his bows for a walk in the woods either.  He's killed dozens of animals while getting stickbow close.  He is a legit close range hunter and doing it in the West where getting close ain't so easy.  He's also a great husband, father, and an environmental scientist.  Zach is very humble about his accomplishments, but I got some stories out of him.  We even got a little sidetracked talking about crossbows and other technology and how they threaten bowhunting opportunities, which is sure to ruffle some feathers.  We both did a quick recap of our successful archery javelina hunts from this week too.  Two hours was not enough to do more than scratch the surface on Zach and some of the other subjects we covered.  I definitely plan to get him on again ASAP.  Let me know what you think about this one.  I hope you enjoy it.

My once in a lifetime desert bighorn sheep hunt is over!   I got the ram I wanted and could not be happier or more fulfilled.  This hunt built into a dream I didn't even have when it started, and the conclusion hit me like nothing I've ever experienced hunting.  Desert sheep hunting is just different.

I decided the best way to tell the story was to tell it face to face with a hunting friend, so I invited Josh Schmidt back for another session.  No more words needed here.  This is a long one, but there is a lot to unpack.  I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks, Chris

This episode is a recap of the second week or so of my desert bighorn sheep hunt.  This time I had some great company and experienced the full range of sheep hunting experiences.  From chasing a ghost ram to missing a dream ram. Lots of highs and lows and lessons learned.  Desert sheep country is beautiful this time of year so just being out watching sheep do sheep things was really enjoyable.  Stay tuned for the conclusion of my hunt in Part 4.

Part 2 of my desert bighorn sheep hunt covers the last couple days of scouting and the first few days of the hunt.  Lots of sheep were seen and a gnarly one was killed. (Not by me.)  I'm learning a lot about sheep hunting and having fun.  Mostly. I'll be recording Part 3. soon and posting it when I get back into town.  It's going to be a good one.