2 Awesome Coues, Bear, and a Speed Goat!

We just finished these mounts up.  We congratulate Nate H., Jayme S., Andrew G., and Tim M. on their awesome animals.  Enjoy!

Colton Fish's Giant Speed Goat

We just finished this awesome speed goat for good friend Colton Fish.  It is always an amazing feat to kill an antelope with a bow let alone a buck of this caliber!  Congratulations to Colton on this buck of a lifetime.  Thanks for using Badlands Custom Taxidermy and Desert Country Archery!

20 Years in Waiting

Joe Hawkins finally drew an antelope tag and capitalized on his opportunity.  The following is what he had to say about the hunt.

"The day finally came on September 7, 2012, opening day of antelope season.  I had to work until noon, get everything loaded up, and finally left Safford at 1:00pm, with a 4-hour drive to hunt.  Finally Friday evening around 6:00pm I found a nice buck with one doe.  It was too far to go after him because it was getting dark soon.  So Saturday morning started off really well.  I was only 15 minutes away from my sister’s house and jumped a really nice buck with six does.  I told myself, “Wait, you can get a bigger one.”  I kept jumping bucks and does all day.  At the end of the day, I had seen 9 bucks and 10 does.  It had been a good day.  Sunday I got up and rode my 4-wheeler all over.  I saw one small buck and around 9:30am I got a call from my brother-in-law Mike.  He said, “I think I found the big one.”  He spotted him a mile away and told me to meet him.  When I did we were overlooking a big valley that was green.  I picked up the buck and four does while I was glassing the area.  They were still ¾ of a mile away.  We worked our way to the top of another ridge.  They were still 800 yards away.  We worked our way to the top of another ridge and still too far to shoot.  Mike stayed on top of the ridge; I walked down and got into some juniper trees.  I ranged him at 500 yards.  I got set up and all of a sudden the buck starts walking right toward me.  He stopped at 420 yards and stared forever at Mike on top of the ridge.  I told myself that he was not coming anymore.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  I ranged him again at 420 yards, set my 25-06 upon my tripod, looked through my Nikon BDC, checked my chart for range and as soon as the buck turned sideways touched off the round.  All I heard was a whack.  I knew I had hit him.  I just wasn’t sure where.  I called mike on his phone and he said I had hit him.  The buck ran about 30 yards and went down.  I watched him for a minute or two.  He did get back up and ran about 100 yards and finally fell over.  I walked over to him.  He got back up and ran.  So I pumped another round in him.  He stopped and fell over.  I walked back up to him.  He still was not dead, so the third round did the trick.  Finally, after twenty years of waiting for a tag, I got a trophy antelope…wide…tall…super heavy mass…perfect heart shape.  What a great hunt!  Can’t wait until the next one!"

Joe Hawkins

Safford, Arizona

Congratulations to Joe on a dandy of a buck.  

New Age Digiscoping

Well I am finally getting settled in after moving to Prescott Valley.  Today I got a few minutes after work and grabbed the binos and went out to look around.  I started messing around with my i-phone and 10x binoculars and the pictures below are what I came up with.  I still prefer the Swarovski spotting scope and HD camera but it was still fun.  Lots of baby antelope on the ground.  And some decent bucks.  Enjoy the pictures.