Our hunting party consisted of myself, Sarah Murphey (a good friend and new camera person we were using), our good friend and new Outback Outdoors Team member, Dave Beronio, and Ryan Litwin and his dad Gary. We rolled into town met up at the Wal-Mart and soon we were headed out to look at the country it would be hunting and glass up some bucks.

This hunt was very special in a few regards because last year we hunted R and K Outfitting Company’s property in Utah and were unable to put a buck on the ground. Opening morning finally came and we’re out glassing bucks before the sun had fully risen. The first morning we saw lots of bucks but nothing of the quality we were looking for.

That afternoon we were able to find a few quality trophy mule deer bucks and I was fortunate enough to make a stalk our group of bucks moving below a small coolie. Sarah and I came round the corner and to our surprise a nice young buck was standing broadside just within range of my cross bow. Sarah quickly got on the buck and I was able to meet a clean shot and even with my damaged shoulder take a nice Wyoming muley buck.

This hunt meant a lot to me, because actually I didn’t think it would happen. Because of the severity of the injury to my shoulder and the nerve damage in my hand I thought my season was done before it even started. This goes to show that with a strong competitive drive even under adverse conditions a Hunter can still get out and enjoy the outdoors and be successful.

Be sure to watch in the near future for this exciting hunt on www.outbackoutdoors.net.

Next up, elk in the high country of Colorado.
Trevon Stoltzfus
Team O

At this time of the season the bulls will be just breaking up their groups and start to establish their pecking order. Small bugle sounds and chuckles work best this time of year. They want to know where each bull is at and who might be in the area. Again it can be a very frustrating time of year because elk are hard to find when they are not vocal. You just have to keep at it and set up and call. Wait at least 30 minutes before re locating. The bulls will come in quietly and you have to be ready.

As the rut continues the calling will pick up as the bulls start to gather cows and move them to their mating grounds. You have to change your tactics and calling styles if you want to be cutting your tag on a good bull this fall.

I drove around and scouted for a day to see where the biggest bucks were calling home and set up multiple blind set ups. Antelope bucks will stake out their territory and will use certain water holes all the time. You have to see which ones they guard and with the 100 degree weather you can expect action.

You need the hot dry weather to drive those antelope to your ambush set up. They are very spooky around the water and do not drink very long before running off so you have to be ready for a shot. Long hours of boredom go hand in hand with this type of hunting. Usually you spend 10-14 hours a day sitting in the hot blind where flies bite at you. Make sure you bring plenty of water, food, reading material and patience.

I was running a video camera myself on this hunt and it made it extra tough to make sure I had the antelope in frame and in focus and still be able to draw the bow the whole time hoping they stay in the frame. This particular buck came in 3 separate times during the third day. The first two times he heard me moving around trying to get the camera on him and still shoot and buggered off. Finally at 6:30 at night he came in to drink with his group of 7 doe and it was his final attempt.

Look for this great hunt in the next few months on Outback Outdoors as you will see I got it done in high fashion.

I want to thank everybody who came out to the seminars to listen and to support me in the outback outdoors. Hunting season is right around the corner but up next is Michael Martin Murphey’s West Fest in Rifle, Colorado Aug 12-15th and the next thing you know… we will be in the field hunting.

For more info on West Fest – www.westfest.us

Trev

Team Outback Outdoors

Michael Martin Murphey’s West Fest is a HUGELY popular country music festival (even though they took a few years off) that is put on in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and brings together some great western and country music talent to celebrate everything about our western heritage. This year Murph is bringing it to Rifle, CO Aug 12th-15th. With great country music playing on 2 stages, an Indian/Cowboy camp, mountain man camp, morning trail rides, the Outback Outdoors’ hunting/outdoor expo, and much more… there will be tons to do and a lot of fun! (for more info and tickets go to www.westfest.us)

We want to invite everyone out to Michael Martin Murphey’s West Fest in Rifle, CO on Aug 12th-15th to kick off the fall hunting seasons and listen to some great hunting seminars, compete in the West Fest /Outback Outdoors’ 3D SHOOT, and of course enjoy some great country music such as…

• Michael Martin Murphey
• Waddie Mitchell
• Don Edwards
• Craig Morgan
• Patty Loveless
• Trailer Choir
• Ryan Murphey
• Carin Mari
• James Otto
• Peter Rowan
• Bill Miller

I look forward to seeing a lot of you there

Trev

Outback Outdoors

The Doc said he won’t do the surgery until the nerve damage in my arm and hand subsides. This might buy me enough time to still be able to hunt this year using a crossbow. Here is a video blog with all the particulars, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

Trev

Thanks again

Trev

Team Outback Outdoors

The weather was perfect, sunny and temperatures in the 80’s with night time low’s in the 40’s. Keeping track of all these kids could not be done with out the volunteers who help cook, teach and mentor all these youngsters. I look forward to this camp every year.

The kids go through a number of work stations which last 90 minutes each. From trail building to conservation to fly tying and photography. An over night hiking/camping trip and archery as well as hunting 101. Most of these kids have never shot a bow before coming to the camp and this year over half of the kids brought their own bows. It is a great way to help grow the sport and teach conservation and responsibility.

This kids camp is four days long but flies by for all the volunteers. Everyone participates in a big bon fire on the last evening and on the last day we put on a big 3 D archery challenge. We break the kids up based on their experience level and some great prizes are awarded for all the top winners.

I want to thank all of the sponsors who donate some great prizes and gifts for all the kids who attended. Montana Decoy, Mossy Oak, Bugling Bull Game Calls, Hunter Safety Systems, Schrade Knives and others.

Kids camp is over and now time to focus on the fall hunts coming up for Outback Outdoors.

The next morning we jumped on the chair lift and up to shoot one of their four 3D courses in the beautiful high country of Utah. The courses were laid out in the picture postcard beauty of the Snowbird summer slopes with a beginners, intermediate, elite and the infamous SMOKER course.

The first day was a lot of fun and Rocket Ryan (who had been in TX working some rodeos and had not been able to bring his bow) ran camera to capture the shooting before he headed back down the mountain to work the West Jordon,UT PBR. Saturday we had a chance to shoot three of the 4 courses (all but the smoker course) and then I got to go to dinner with Mark Renner, Branden VanDyken, Joe Arpin, Cory Taylor and the rest of the be the decoy.com guys and Eric Nothe and the Pimpmybow.com crew. After dinner we hung out,visited, laughed, and caught up with everyone’s upcoming hunting schedule and swapped some great stories looking forward to the next day’s shooting (It was also fun to catch up with Chris Denham of Wilderness Athlete and his son Mark)

The last day brought us some rainy conditions and Rocket and I headed up to meet Corey Benge and the be the decoy.com crew and shoot the SMOKER coarse (where all the winning $$’s in the bet were going to be donated to Brodie Swisher and his Montana Youth Bowhunter Camps). The Smoker course was phenomenal! We had 10 targets of various yardages and extreme uphill and downhill shots (one was a mule deer at 80+ yards and you shot it for 67 yards). The kicker was you only got 2 arrows (1 primary and a mulligan) if you missed and broke it then you had to use your mulligan arrow for the rest of the round and if you missed and broke that you were DONE!) The scoring was a little different too, instead of the usual 12-10-18-5-0 score the small 12 ring was worth only 10 points and the 10 was worth 8. If you missed the vitals instead of getting the normal 5 points you got zero!

Unfortunately I missed and shattered my first arrow on target 3 and Corey was a rock. We had a great time and Corey had ice running through his vanes and at the end Outback Outdoors donated a $100 to Brodie’s camps as Corey put the whooping to me. (Branden VanDyken out shot both of us and he wasn’t in the bet!)

The event was a blast and Rocket and I even got a chance to have Shawn Monsen and Anthony Dixon help us draw for the 2nd Quarter Bowhunting Gear Giveaway for a set of new Nikon Monarch Binoculars (check back soon as we are going to be posting the video of the Nikon Bino winner soon). Already looking forward to next year and I feel we at Team OO are ready for this years archery big game season!

Thanks to Shawn, Anthony, Aneal Roney, Mathew Burrows… etc and all the Bowcast and FMP crew that put this event on …. YOU HAVE TO GO NEXT YEAR!!!

Just got back from a GREAT time with the family in California (Disneyland) and got to see it through the eyes of my 4 1/2 year old. It was awesome!

My wife Sandy and I hung out with all my family and then we went back to Phoenix to see Sandy’s dad and we met my little sis and her husband in Tucson AZ for a triathlon where Sandy and I posted personal bests! It was a ton of fun, too!

I have one more triathlon on Aug 7th in Denver then it will be hunting season and I should be in really good shape to chase critters in the Rocky Mountains with my bow.

Couple things…. I am heading to the Bowcast at the Bird (http://www.bowcastatthebird.com) with our FMP (Shawn “Launch” Monsen and Anthony Dixon) buddies this weekend and Rocket Ryan is flying into Salt Lake for a PBR Saturday night (Talk about killing two birds with one stone) to join me and capture it all on video.

Also we will be drawing (and videoing the drawing) the winner of our 2nd quarter Bowhunting Gear Giveaway (a set of Nikon Binos) and will get the results up as soon as I get back! Thanks so much for checking in with us in the off season and I promise I will get the last part of the turkey webisode up ASAP!

Trev