WELCOME

Primetime Outdoors is a group of ordinary hunters that are trying to show that anyone can be successful if they are willing to put in the hard work. Our team has a deep passion for hunting and the outdoors. We hunt DIY out west on publicly accessible lands. Any hunter can buy over the counter tags and partake in hunts similar to ours. We like to hang our hat on the fact that this is "real hunting" that can be done by anyone.

We want to bring a dose of realism to the world of hunting television and show our adventures as well as the accomplishments in the field. Our success is not measured by the size of the antlers, but by mornings on the mountain, the time spent with friends and family, and the nights spent under the stars. All of our animals are trophies as are the challenges met. You can't be consitently successful unless you spend every possible minute you can, "GETTIN AFTER IT".

Primetime Outdoors

2011 Washington Rifle Blacktail Deer

Author: primetimeoutdoors

Wow! This season came and went fast! After having only a couple days of hunting under my belt from my Peaches Ridge bull hunt, I finally got an opportunity to get out and hunt some Blacktails. I typically like to hunt Eastern Washington for muleys, but didn’t have a lot of time to take off to make a legitimate 3 or 4 day hunt like last year.

The late season is when I would have my fun this year. November 17th thru 20th. I got very lucky on the whole deal. A buddy of mine called me saying he had a nice 3-point buck spotted. Since he had already tagged out during the general season he said I should come up and shoot it. I managed to finally get up there about 2 hours later and my buddy still had to buck spotted. You could barely make out the buck through the driving snow showers and dead senecio. We were looking down on the buck from above as the slope we were on was nearing 70% and the buck was bedded on more like a 30% slope. I could have taken a shot from around 300 yards, but we wanted to try to get the buck to stand and offer a better shot at his vitals. This also allowed time for me to get a better rest and move closer.

The snow helped to conceal our movements and noise since we were walking through a 1 year old clear cut directly towards the buck. We got set up closer and with a better rest at around 270 yards. Of course, as if things weren’t difficult enough, just as the buck stands the snow really started coming down HARD! I got set up to shoot and my buddy got set up on the camera. BOOM! The recoil from my .300 WSM moved me off target and I lost track of the buck in the blizzard. My buddy was between using his binoculars and running the camera (rookie mistake, but I don’t fault him as he is not used to the camera thing) so he also missed seeing if the buck went down. But after a quick review of the film it was obvious the buck was hit hard and went down just out of the frame.

We drove around to the bottom of the unit and walked in. Just before we found the downed buck we jumped a doe and spike bedded down not 50 yards away. They obviously didn’t spook when I shot. Must have been all the snow and what not. And there he was…

 

The biggest blacktail I have killed in my life and a decent buck in his own right. 3×4 with eyeguards. He won’t score well, but is heavy, nice eyeguards, 15” inside spread, 17” outside. It was a good hunting season for me even though I only had 3 days of actual hunting. Primetime Outdoors takin’ ‘em down again!

P.S. Sorry for the pic quality. We only used my friend’s stupid iPhone. I wasn’t very prepared that day.

-Trevor Kaech

 

2011 Washington Rifle Elk

Author: primetimeoutdoors

I have never drawn a bull tag and had never even been in the units for which I applied. As it ended up, I drew a very sought after special elk permit for Washington State. I knew I wanted to start scouting in early August. So, fellow Primetime Outdoors member, Jason Phelps, acquired a couple tips from some contacts and off we went. We took one trip in together and I also hiked in on another solo trip. We found a few elk, but no branch antlered bulls. We saw exactly as many bulls as we had been told we would see and that the big boys would not show their faces until September. However, these trips helped to learn the area, topography, and logistics of camping and packing out a big bull.

The rest of the month I was busy working, getting married, honeymooning, etc… This continued through September and part way into October. I went on another scouting trip in mid-October to hopefully spot some bulls. This trip proved fruitful as I found five 6×6 or bigger bulls that weekend; two of them still bugling quite heavily. I now had some confidence heading into this hunt as I would be glad to take any of the bulls I had scouted.

We had originally planned to have a whole Primetime Crew join me on this hunt, but due to conflicting work schedules it just didn’t work out. Jason and I headed in on Friday night and just as we got into the tent around 8pm, it started raining. It rained all night and into the next morning. I finally rolled out of the sleeping bag and decided to head one direction while Jason headed the other – hoping to scout out a big bull a couple days before the season was to start. This continued through the next day and by Sunday evening we had scoped out six 6×6 and three 5×5 bulls. I had told Jay when we were hiking in that I was looking to shoot the first 6×6 I could get a shot at. Of course, we decided to concentrate on those areas holding bulls of that caliber.

Sunday night, Mother Nature decided to deliver us about an inch of snow just to make sure we were good and cold the next day. The snow and seemingly concomitant fog made it difficult to spot any of the bulls. Jay ended up spotting two nice bulls moving together through an opening. We made a stalk, followed tracks and apparently got busted as we found two empty, melted out beds in the adjacent timber patch. We hiked back to a good viewing point and I spotted a different herd with a good bull moving from an opening into some thicker timber around noon. We climbed a few miles up the trail and spent the rest of the day peeking through gaps in the fog and trying to stay warm while hiding from the 30 mph wind blowing snow all over creation. Just as we were about to drop down into a 5×5 happened to appear just ahead in the trail, but I didn’t get too excited and he ended up moving on undisturbed.

Tuesday morning I was happy to awake to clear skies that would be perfect for spotting a bull early and getting on him before he moved into the timber. It didn’t take long as shortly after daylight I spotted what I think was the same herd as the one we had seen the day prior. We walked a quick three miles to get above them and started making our way down the slope, following the timberline as to stay out of the open. Due to the convex nature of the hill slopes it was pretty challenging to see an elk before it was going to be right in your lap. Regardless, I happened to spot a cow in the distance and we stayed just inside the timber edge moving down the hillside. We found a good position to see where the elk would enter the timber or continue feeding in the openings and posted up about 30 yards apart – scanning the area with our binoculars. The cow was nowhere to be seen.

After about 5 minutes, Jason says, “Elk! It’s a bull!” So I hurried over to him and he began to get the camera ready. I think we both had a hard time seeing his antlers, but at this point all I was thinking is, “He is going down!” The bull moved right to left behind a small noble fir covering his entire body and I ran ahead 15 yards to a break in the topography where I had a better viewing angle. Jay and I had good communication and as soon as the bull was to pop out, I was going to whistle and stop him, so we could capture the shot on film. All went as planned except I didn’t quite hold up my end of the bargain. I missed at around 225 yards! I had felt very confident shooting off of the bench on the range to around 500 yards or so, but this wasn’t the range! I was shooting downhill aiming on approximately a 60-70% slope, leaning across my knee, shooting at the biggest bull I have ever had in my crosshairs. After the recoil, I noticed the bull didn’t move and I cycled another cartridge in the chamber so fast it would have made Bob Munden look twice. The second shot proved just as fatal as the first and as I put the third round into the path of the firing pin, I decided that on this shot I was really going to take my time. I took a couple a breaths and squeezed on an exhale. The bull darted to the left and out of sight. Jay said he saw him hunch up good and we headed down to start tracking. It didn’t take long as he only ran about 125 yards or so and then decided to roll another 70-80 yards down the hill just to make sure our legs were really burning by the time we got him out.

We boned him out and proceeded to pack him and our camp out. And though the pack out may have taken a toll on our bodies, I think it makes this hunt that much harder to forget!

Overall, Awesome Hunt!!

-Trevor Kaech