For the past 6 months or so, I’ve been working on a new video series. I wanted to create something that documented my hunting season beyond just vlogging. Something more is what I was looking for. A series that explored my season past that of just the hunting part. As a writer, I thought there was no better way to do this than through a diary in film format, hence the name Dialed in Diaries.
My hunting seasons will be split up into chapters, with each chapter representing a different hunt. Within each on of those chapters, there will be episodes that take one along my journey. The number of episodes will vary from hunt to hunt.
In this first chapter, “Bear,” there are 2 episodes. One that walks through my Spring bear season with the next following up with Fall bear here in Arizona. It was a doozy and a hunt I won’t soon forget.
Thanks so much for checking this out and I really hope you enjoyed it. I sure enjoy putting them together. If you did like the video, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube Channel and blog to stay up to date with future posts! Episode 2 we be published November 15th 2020. Stay tuned!
This year(2020) I was fortunate enough to draw a spring bear tag right here in Arizona. That hunt has long passed and spring bear is now but a memory. During the hunt though, I placed a few trail cameras out. I never did get a chance to check those bad boys during the heat of the season. There was actually a National Forest closure, due to fire danger. It was a bummer to say the least, but I get it. Now, that we are out of those weeds, I decided to go and do a trail camera pull! I was so pumped to see what was lurking around the area while I was gone.
On my way into check these cameras, I kept finding piles of bear scat. These certainly weren’t here when I was actually hunting earlier in the year. I just knew that I was going to have bears on camera, and turned out I was right. Every camera I had out had bears hitting the water there. Some really cool ones too. There was a blonde bear that I had a close call on while hunting that showed up, a mean looking solid boar, and quite a few other ones as well with some cool colors. It’s always fun getting bears on camera!
Another thing was the lions! I had a lion or lions on each camera as well. In fact, I had 3 lions in one picture! I’ve never caught that before and my jaw dropped when I saw it on the screen.
You’ll notice in the video below that there’s a bear named “Latch Breaker.” Upon my arrival at one of the cameras, I noticed that the latch was open. Well, I thought it was open. Turned out, it was actually broken. The bear snapped it right off. These bears are always so curious, which is why normally my cameras are in lockboxes. This one wasn’t and suffered the consequences!
Another funny thing that happened was the loss of my bungee cord. If you remember in a video that I did earlier in the season, one of these cameras was held up by rope and a bungee cord. Well, when I got there a few weeks ago, the bungee cord was missing! I looked all over that little drainage and couldn’t turn it up. Bear must have gotten a present for itself, haha!
On a side note, I’ve been super happy with these Stealth Cams that I recently picked up. They’re affordable, super easy to use, and take good pictures.
If you enjoyed the video, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel and blog to stay up to date with future content! Going through these photos, I absolutely cannot wait until next spring bear season. Until then though, I’ve got a late archery bull elk tag for November 2020. Be sure to keep your eyes out for content surrounding that. It’s going to be the first time my brother and I ever have elk tags together. For that, I am beyond excited!
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January in Arizona is one of my favorite times of year. The weather is incredible, the holiday vibes are still in the air, and coues deer are rutting their tails off. Oh, and it’s also archery hunting season.
Just this past January I was joined in camp by some great folks who were new to this whole thing. We had a blast and I can’t wait for them to come back. A couple of Idaho boys that I can’t wait to hunt with again. Some folks just click and that’s what happened in deer camp. They had never experienced coues deer hunting and it was a pleasure showing them the ropes. Coues are an animal that I have come to hold so dear over the years, but it wasn’t always like that.
Which lands us here. This short film called “Looking Up” is about not only how I came to start hunting coues deer, but it’s also about the incredible landscape that is Arizona, the place that I am lucky enough to call home. And between all of that a relationship has blossomed. The landscape, a magical little deer, and a curious kid that had never even seen a mountain before stepping into the desert.
Thanks so much for watching! Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube to stay up to date with future videos.
I’d love to hear about your coues experiences down below. How did you start hunting them? What season? Bow or rifle? These deer are really something else and it is an absolute privilege to live in a state that they call home. Rifle coues deer seasons are right around the corner. Good luck to everyone out there and I hope you find what you’re looking for. Whether that’s a giant buck or simply a good time around a campfire.
Coues deer are a special little deer that have a way of capturing the hearts of hunters. This is the story of how that very thing happened to me years ago. Since I started hunting them on accident as a kid, they’ve ingrained themselves in me for the long haul. From many failed attempts to simply watching them do their thing, they captivated me. Coues Deer are found in Mexico, a little in New Mexico, and my home state of Arizona. It’s a privilege to live in a state where I get to see and hunt them as often as I do.
The full film will be covering how I started hunting coues, my struggles through the years of doing so, the Arizona landscape, and then underneath all of that is an actual archery coues hunt. The hunt took place earlier this year in January. It turned out to be a great time with good friends.
You can look for the full film to be released on my Youtube Channel October 4th! Don’t forget to hit SUBSCRIBE to stay up to date with future posts and videos. I’d also love to know how you got started hunting coues deer! It’s always nice hearing stories from likeminded folks. Drop them below in the comments!
It’s June, it’s hot, and the Fall Hunting Seasons are coming in fast! Before we know it, we’re all going to be chasing our dreams in the mountains and making some incredible memories in the process. In light of the new season approaching, I wanted to introduce a new video series I’ve been working on. The series is going to be called Dialed in Diaries, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. A video diary of my entire hunting season, along with the folks that I have the pleasure of sharing camp with. From failures to triumphs and everything in between.
It’s trail camera day! A few episodes back I set a few trail cameras for my upcoming spring bear tag here in Arizona. These are set on secluded water sources that looked pretty “beary” to me. It’s been over a month since I’ve been there, so my brother and I were pretty stoked to drop down into this country and pull these cards.
My plan with this hunt is to check my trail cameras one more time before the opener. That will be about 2-3 days out from when I’m actually planning to hunt for a few days. If I’ve got bears hitting my cameras regularly, then I’ll backpack down into this area and sit the water. If they aren’t quite hitting the water yet, I’m going to backpack into a different area and put the glass to use for a spot and stalk hunt. Either way, I’m stoked to get out there! You’ll also see me pick out potential camp spots in the video below.
One of the things I’m most excited about with this particular area where my cameras are is that it’s where my spring bear hunting bug started. I knew next to nothing back then. At that point, I had never even seen a spring bear. This was the first spot I had ever hunted spring black bears in Arizona, and one that I’ve thought about since then. Returning is pretty nostalgic for me, which makes the trips all the more better. Harvesting a bear there would be nothing short of epic for me. Another thing I’m excited about is I don’t usually ambush hunt. Spot and stalk hunting is usually my main course of action. Sitting water like this and waiting brings a whole different level of adrenaline. When an animal comes into an area that doesn’t know you’re there, it’s a great way to get the blood pumping. Not to mention, if that animal is a black bear.
As always, if you like the video, I’d super appreciate if you hit the like button and SUBSCRIBE to the Youtube and blog to stay up to date with future posts. This whole video thing I’ve undertaken over the past 6 months has been a learning process for sure. I’ve been enjoying every second of sharing the adventure with you all though. Thanks for watching and until next time, stay safe out there.
Here we are! Winter is finally starting to wave through the rear view mirror and spring is coming in hot. Turkeys are starting to gobble, vegetation is greening up and the bears are coming out to play. It truly is one of my favorite times of the year. In this episode, we continue with the spring bear hunting season 2020. My brother and I head up for a few days to try our hand at finding a lurking spring bear. We head into an area that we’ve never been before and experience all sorts of weather.
Spring Hunting Season is finally here and it’s for BEAR! This is a hunt that I look forward to each and every year. A time where the weather is fantastic, water is usually plentiful, and backpack hunting is on the agenda. I first ventured into this area about 4 years ago. Back then, I packed into this spot without ever stepping foot in it and was lucky enough to find bears! Since then, I’ve come in every year and look forward to it more and more. This would mark the first trip of the year for me, and I couldn’t wait to hit the trail.
On this hunt, I was solo, which is always interesting on the mental front. I enjoy hunting solo immensely, but there is always a tad bit of anxiety in the back of my head when doing so. Once out there though, I’m fine and generally end up having an amazing time. This was no different. After a few hours of hiking and gaining elevation, I arrived at camp. What a great feeling it was to sit down in the shade and relax for a bit. To see how the rest of the hunt unfolds, you can watch the video down below!
As I was hiking back to the truck, it was comforting to know that this was just the beginning and there was a lot of hunting to be had. What a great way to get out and stretch the legs though. Not to mention, get away from the chaos of the world right now. We are definitely living in some crazy times and I hope this whole pandemic hasn’t put too much of a damper on you or your families. Let’s not forget to get outside and enjoy Mother Nature when we can. It’s therapeutic to say the least and a break from the noise is much needed.
Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the Youtube Channel and blog to stay up to date on Spring Hunting Season episodes and much more. This is all just getting started, and I’m so pumped to share the adventure with you all! Good luck out there and stay safe!
Spring Hunting Season 2020 is trucking right along here! Each week that goes by is another one closer to opening day of spring bear! Goodness gracious I can’t wait for that. In the meantime, doing these small scouting trips has really been helping fill the void. And now we sit with Episode 4 in front of us!
In this episode, I’m joined by my good buddy Skyler. Skyler has absolutely no experience bear hunting at all, so this was pretty fun for me to take him out. He’s what you’d call a “deer guy.” His passion for desert mule deer are almost a mirror image of mine for black bears. He’s an addict, and I totally get it! Skyler will spend all summer trudging through the desert, dodging rattlesnakes, all in the name of mule deer. With that being said, Skyler has been super interested in getting his toes wet on the bear front. And what a better way than coming out on a morning scouting trip?
We hike down into an area that I have been this season already, yes. However, we are trying to find a different branch of the same water source. The plan is to find that water and place a cam on a good looking pool of water. As it gets warmer out, the bears should start crawling in to cool off. Indeed, we found the spring. What we didn’t expect, was that we’d forget the straps and cables to the trail camera…
Yeah, you heard that right. Luckily, I had some bungee rope and regular rope in my truck. This was gonna be fun, haha.
Hope you enjoyed another spring hunting season episode! Things are only going to get better as it heats up, and I can’t wait. Another year of bear hunting! Don’t forget to like and SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel if you are digging the videos. This way you can stay up to date with future content. Until the next video, stay safe, and good luck out there!
Here are previous episodes if you haven’t already seen!
Alright! Another spring hunting season is right in front of us and I’m am so excited to share it with you! I drew an archery spring bear tag right here in my home state of Arizona for 2020. If you’ve followed any bit of what I do, you know how much of a bear nerd I am. They are without a doubt my favorite species to hunt. Pair that with another love of mine, bowhunting, and I’m a pretty happy guy. My tag is good for May-July and scouting has already begun!
Being that this hunt takes place during a fairly dry part of the year down here, the plan is to focus on water. Over the next few weeks I’ll be checking out various water sources and placing trail cameras on them to monitor any beary behavior that may or may not occur in the area. Bears just love their water. They’ll swim in it, play in it, sleep in it, and obviously drink it. I’d look at this as sort of an achilles heel of the bear this time of year.
In this episode, I head down into a brand new area to a spring. Right from the get go, I was a little apprehensive of placing a cam here. The spring is fairly close to a trail, but after further investigation, I just couldn’t pass up placing a cam. It offered a great potential setup for an ambush with a hill right above the spring looking down. Would be a nice way to potentially take a bear over that water source.
If you like the video, I encourage you to SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube channel to stay up to date with all future posts and adventures!
At the time of putting the cam up it was late February. Like I say in the video, I really have no urge to check that camera until April most likely. Maybe even May. It needs to get hot and dry for those bears to consistently be smashing the water. Once it does, there can absolutely be multiple bears hitting the same water source throughout the whole day, not just in the morning and evening. So, now we wait. Until then, I’ll be out checking out some new areas and getting excited for the coming spring hunting season!
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