Western Edge Hunting Journal

Ohio Public •12-21-25• Undoubtedly the toughest year I have ever had in Ohio, EHD cleared out at least half of the deer herd I hunt, and probably closer to 75% of bucks 3 years old or older. Struggled to even find a 130-140” buck, held out until the bitter end. Finally got eyes on a decent buck doing deer drives with the boys and decided to close out one of my toughest seasons in the last 10 years. Very blessed despite all the hard knocks this year. I’ll be back in the game soon enough ✌️

Colorado is kind if you know how to grind. Or something like that 🙃.

Elk hunting is quickly becoming my #1 addiction, love my deer too but man, elk are a thrill. I need someone to mentor me on moose now 🤣.

2025 elk season was a crazy 6 days of hunting, from calling in a bull in the first six hours of the hunt and making a superficial shot, to calling him back in two hours later and my first time elk Hunter brother-in-law killing him. The story just got crazier as the trip went on and on day six I was fortunate enough to kill a beautiful mature bull. We had three days left to hunt with no tags to fill of course but we went fishing and enjoyed Colorado before heading home. It was super cool to take a first timer out again, I’m looking forward to more trips in the future. I’m still a novice elk Hunter, only four trips under my belt so far but I have learned a hell of a lot. If you see me, let’s talk about elk!

OHIO-2024- Its finally over for me, looking at this year in review its been a tough season, for several reasons; moving from OH to PA in March threw a lot of wrenches in my program. Building a cabin in OH near my favorite hunting area has been a challenge and took much of my woods time away. Despite everything stacked against me I had solid intel on a number of big deer and I had a lot of history with. With limited time to hunt I focused on historical data and new intel, new ambush sites, and was rewarded with several great encounters with great bucks. Nov 10th was my last rut hunt. Knowing my next window to hunt would start Thanksgiving, just before rifle, I strategized to hunt food when I returned. Leading up to thanksgiving a 5.5yr old buck called BT was daylighting somewhat consistently between a few spots, night 1 was a miss, saw deer but not him, but night 2 I took a huge risk to hunt my best spot on a bad wind. I took in a stand but ended up on the ground in setup I had little faith in, but after a number of close deer encounters BT stepped out and gave me a 17 yard frontal shot. My arrow was true and the rest is history. Still feel the solo recovery, sorry for the crap solo pics. One day between me and the orange army. What a season. So thankful to all who supported me this crazy year!

Throwback to October when I was able to take my first archery bear ever, on public land in PA. It’s no secret that bears love corn fields and this big sow was no exception, I waited until the corn was picked knowing the bears would be in the woods nearby. Bear trails are a real thing in PA and I sat on the biggest one I could find, 30 minutes into my sit and I was able to make a great shot on this old 240 # sow at less than 3 yards from only 12’ up a tree. Capturing the kill on video is always fun and I managed to pull it off this time 💪

OHIO •Mid season update• It’s been a tough year for me to get in a tree with my personal projects and family obligations but I have had a couple encounters with a giant deer that is still alive and well. Been a roller coaster year for sure, one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen made early appearances and left us all on read after my cousin and frequent accomplice had a heartbreaking miss. Follow that with several shoulder shots and a miss on great bucks by a couple of my hunting buddies and it’s been a stressful season full of near misses. There are some bright spots, however, three great bucks hit the dirt on public land including one first archery buck which was very special to the young man who took him. Overall, it’s been a very good season, we’ve been dialed in on the deer but between projects in Ohio and Pennsylvania, I have just not had a lot of time to hunt. Things are looking up now and I’m looking forward to a few more days of bow hunting before I start to think of gun season. Lots of time left to turn my season around. for today just enjoy sprinkling those pictures from the season thus far. #

October is becoming my favorite month to hunt whitetails in the east/midwest. The predictable nature of deer is much easier to take advantage of before the chaos of the Rut and a huge influx of hunting pressure. Last weekend was a great example of how scouting, knowing food sources, and hunting cover can pay off. My cousin Matt has been hunting with me for several years and has really dived into the public land game with great results, after a botched opportunity at a stud 8 point Matt made up for it the following day with a perfect 5 yard shot on a beautiful Ohio 11 point that chased a doe under him on a morning sit inside a thick bedding area. Congratulations Matt! The season is just getting started.

Colorado Elk Part II- With my tag filled on the third day of the trip and I slept in day 4 & headed to a processor, it was forecasted to rain all day. After dropping the meat off and a shower/laundry we made a plan to head back to where I killed to chase other bulls we heard deeper in. We tried a spot that evening with a couple hours but no luck. The next morning we headed in deep and glassed a magnum herd bull on the mountain we hunter the night before, too far to move on. After a grueling day we had walked 10 miles and called in two silent bulls (they busted us), another hunter, and thrown a lot of rocks at grouse. Also saw some great muley bucks! For day 5 we debated if we should pack pack in to a nasty hole we knew had elk, instead we chased the silent herd bull we saw the day before. No luck by noon so we headed to the other side of the unit to backpack in. On the way in we wanted to bugle every drainage from the road and lit a bull up on the second stop! We jumped into action and dumped into the canyon at 1:30, by 2 we had a bull at 20 yards with no shot, too thick! We heard another bull not too far away so we pressed on, cow call.. a bull bugles 100 yds away. Hit the deck, Chris moves in & motions he sees cows, I drop back cow calling/pleading uphill. The satellite bull screams uphill from me which sends the herd bull into a rage as I work towards the satellite cow calling. 30 seconds later I see Chris sidestep, cow calling, BOOM!! Bull is on the ground a minute later but had to get a second round. Sometimes everything just comes together! The packout was 900 ft gain over 3/4 mile in THICK blowdown. Yuck. But Chris had his first elk and we were tagged out with three days to spare. Truly an amazing hunt where God just smiled on us.

My brother headed to CO this year for Chris’s first elk hunt in a new to me unit. I hunted CO last year and learned lessons about the mountains and muzzleloader mishaps which cost me shots on 3 bulls. After a mental and physically exhausting hunt last year I decided to not lose elevation unless I knew there were elk down there. I set up my Bronco for road camping and hit the road west. Upon arrival we immediately located several bulls after a day of trout fishing. Day 1- the first morning we made a mistake and called a bull in to a location bugle before light, blew that up and moved on. Day 2- we didn’t have any bulls located so we made a massive 10 mile loop blind calling and located a couple bulls across a road and up near tree-line so after dark we camped on the road with plans to head up the mountain the next morning since the road was more like a rough 4x4 trail that I didn’t want to navigate in the dark. Day 3- we wake up to rain, laying in the Bronco at daylight I hear a bull rip a bugle no more than 75 yards from us in a small clearing, at that point Chris and I were wide awake! After letting the bull work off we got out in light rain and got straight to business looking for him, just our luck a massive fog front moved in and we could not see 40 yards, rain started coming down hard so we bailed out. After being soaked we headed to town to use a laundromat and regroup, it was around noon when we started the 1.5 hour drive up to where we heard the tree-line bull the previous day. The fog was heavy and cold at the top of the mountain, visibility was terrible, I debated even heading out at 2pm to sidehill off a summit trail into a nasty aspen slope and avalanche shoot. The fog suddenly lifted and we dove into a nice bench with a park, we could hear bugles as we dropped in. After a hurried setup I could see two raghorns headed my way, around Chris somehow. After a few minutes I knew the bulls were going to wind us so I took a 120 yard shot that put the bull down quickly. Thrilled to have a comeback bull down less than 3/4 mile from the truck and 200 yards to the trail! And the best was yet to come as I was determined to get Chris a bull…