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Here's a great video of the Golden Trout backpacking trip Kaden made of our adventure. You can also learn more about this trip in the article he wrote: 2024 Golden Trout Wind River Backpacking Fishing Trip

May 2020: My website has finally been rebuild! I have decided to move my website from the www.thediyhunter.com domain name over to www.diyhntr.com to be consistent with my social media accounts of @diyhntr. All of my articles are in different locations now so I apologize for the 404 errors you may be getting. You might need to use the search feature to find the article you are looking for.

I have never been good at keeping a journal and really have never been good at writing, however, I do really enjoy hunting on one side and on the other I enjoy working on the Internet. What better place for me to keep my hunting journal than the Internet. This website is my Do-It-Yourself hunting and shooting journal.

A good friend of mine has a journal that he writes his hunting experiences in. He can flip back through it and give me the details of the rifle, who he was with and his thoughts at the time of a mule deer hunt that happened twenty years ago. How cool will it be for his children to read about their father's experiences back in the good old days?

Speaking of my writing abilities. I have never been good at writing so you are bound to find grammatical errors throughout the website. I'll keep the spell check on but it doesn't help much when you use the wrong wording. This is my journal and mistakes in grammar will abound.

I really enjoy and work hard at being a successful big game hunter and success doesn't always mean putting antlers on the wall. Enjoying the experience is what it is all about in my book. You will find that what I write in this journal are my straight from the hip experiences in the field and on the range, enjoying the experience and freedoms we have to spend time in the great outdoors.

I do take most of my kitchen passes to hunt mule deer and elk. I love backpacking into areas that require a little more effort to hunt than the average hunter cares to exert. I enjoy archery, muzzleloading and rifle hunting and try to hunt as much as I can on a limited budget, with very limited seasons lengths and in the limited public areas near where I live in Northern Utah. I have worked for Browning for 20 years in web and social media positions. If you would like to learn more about me check out my bio.

Often hunters have favorite calibers. Some of my favorites are the 243 WSSM, 270 WSM, 300 WSM, 28 Nosler, 6mm Creedmoor and the 6.5 PRC and you will find my favorite hand loads and experiences on this website using these cartridges.

When the 243 WSSM was introduced in 2003 it piqued my interest. A few years later I purchased my first rifle chambered for this round and I just loved it. Since then I have acquired two more rifles chambered in 243 WSSM.

Although I do have three 243 WSSM rifles I also hunt with my other rifles, muzzleloaders, and just love archery elk hunting, so not every journal entry on my website will contain experiences with the 243 WSSM. This is my DIY hunting and shooting journal.

If you have stumbled on this site looking for information on the 243 WSSM you should know that I am by no means the all-knowing expert of the 243 WSSM or the other WSSM calibers. I do really enjoy my 243 WSSM rifles and the excellent performance I get from them. In the WSSM's short history I can't help but feel that they haven't been given their fair shake. Maybe, as I ramble along sharing my experiences, you may gain a greater understanding of why, in my book, the 243 WSSM is a winner. For more thoughts on the 243 WSSM you can read my journal entry titled: 243 WSSM and the 243 Win.

I hope you enjoy the website.