2024 was a reasonably memorable 12 months. Each looking season has peaks and valleys, and this one was no exception, nevertheless it appeared to have many extra peaks than different years.
I usually look ahead to the looking season beginning with turkey within the spring, however this 12 months, I had a reasonably particular journey to start out issues off: Jason Matzinger and I went to Patagonia to hunt Purple Stag. We had been following a good friend of ours who guides in Patagonia and the standard of free-range stags they have been taking. We had hunted with Joaquin in 2017 and stayed in contact by the years. When he instructed us about the fantastic thing about the world, the low looking strain and the standard of the stags, we needed to go.
It’s not typically a hunt exceeds expectations, however this one did. Every part about the place we have been in Patagonia was superb: The folks, climate, panorama and high quality of stags was second to none and Jason and I received to share it collectively. We each have been in a position to take nice, mature stags and Jason was in a position to additionally take a administration stag.
My turkey season began a month after Patagonia with my first time looking Iowa with Tom Petry. We hunted with our buddies in Iowa and Tom and I have been in a position to take toms, however so did our good friend in addition to his younger daughter, who killed her first turkey with a .410.
I made a decision this 12 months that I wasn’t going to journey to hunt in September and October, however elk and concentrate on my house state for elk and pronghorn. That focus paid off with my second-best bull and my first pronghorn archery buck. I used to be additionally in a position to fill a cow tag in September with my bow.
Archery is my largest ardour however coming in second place is whitetail. I took two and a half weeks in November and made a street journey to Kansas and Oklahoma. Nick Ventura, Rob Shaw and I subleased a few farms in Kansas from an clothes shop and had a superb hunt. We had some good, mature bucks on path digicam and hunted arduous for 7 days, however didn’t find yourself taking a buck. I did have a mature deer on my first sit, 5 minutes into the hunt, however he had a damaged tine, and I figured I’d have extra alternatives. It was a superb time with good buddies, and we spent per week in Kansas in the course of the rut.
I then drove to Oklahoma to hunt with Tom Petry on our mutual good friend, Mike Stone’s household property. I did kill a hog, a primary with my bow and eventually took a pleasant 8 level on the final night of my hunt.
Though it was 2025, I nonetheless take into account it a part of the 2024 looking season, I returned to Oklahoma in mid-January to hunt with Mike once more and assist shoot some does. Sadly, Mom Nature didn’t play honest and dumped 12 inches of snow on us. I used to be in a position to shoot two does in a single sit, however apart from that we didn’t do a lot to assist handle the does for them.
Most of those hunts have been filmed, excluding Montana. Hold a watch out on the web site for them, they are going to be out earlier than the tip of April 2025.
