Godsstepbrother
Member
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2017
- Messages
- 53
We went out for our second ever big game hunt last week, and ended up getting an awesome buck. I do not know if some of you guys remember last year my brother and I pulled a cow Elk tag, and where successful. We are completely new to this so we are naturally super nervous, and double guessing all of our decisions. This year we put in for Mule deer and Cow Elk, we drew both to our surprise. We were nervous being that we have never been able to glass a deer until a week before our hunt (even then it was only does).
We showed up a day before the season opening, but were unable to do much being that there was thick fog all over the mountains we had planned on hunting. Frustrated we went back to camp hoping for the fog to lift. We woke up at 3:30 am and set off to our glassing spot hoping for the best. It was pretty intense from the get go, we crested a saddle and discovered ten or so elk bedded down, we froze as they looked right at us 20 yards or so away. They booked it down the mountain and we got in position to glass. As the sun began to rise, the mountain in front of us sprang to life. We glassed tons of elk, and to our surprise three does feeding low on the mountain. From everything we read the bucks should be higher up from the does, and bingo! Three more deer, we scoped them and notice they were all bucks, one was a 2x2, a 3x3, and a 4x4. We got so excited, devised a plan for my brother to go out and stalk, I would stay back and make sure they didn’t move with my spotting scope. At this point my brother is half way to the crest we had agreed on where a shot is possible. At this point I noticed 2 other hunters moving up to a knob to my left. They saw me waving my hat to warn them not to shoot. I had noticed they saw where my spotting scope was pointing. When all of a sudden I hear them shoot at the bucks my brother was getting close to, they where well over 1000 yards out. The bucks ran down a canyon, and I could still see the 2x2 but lost track of the others. Then they shot again, and missed as the bucks ran downhill. My brother pulled back and talked to them. They were from the area, and it became apparent they most likely shot to scare that 4x4 buck away. They mentioned they hadn’t seen us. Not sure we believed them, either way they agreed to lay off and allow my brother to get to that canyon and try and get one. The forest was to thick with trees, and my brother was unable to get a clean shot. We lost them, we were devastated, and headed back to camp completely defeated and frustrated. We had a chance and it was blown!
We got pretty down, and decided to start looking for another spot, we spent the rest of the day driving around but there was so many road hunters all over. We agreed we would come back to the same spot the next morning, hoping the bucks hadn’t spooked to bad. We did it all over again, this time upon arriving the same gentlemen had come back and brought 2 more friends. Then another couple set up next to us. We saw nothing but some cow elk and realized everything had booked it, we decided to find a way behind the mountain we had glassed them on the day before. We realized it would be a hell of a hike and we committed to making that hike and stay up on that mountain until night. It ended up being the best decision we made, no other hunter was there. We got up to the top of that mountain around 11am, we spend hours and hours glassing. Check out this video to get an idea of how much land we had available.
https://youtu.be/PtAqkpB9veE
It wasn’t until 5pm that we noticed a deer around this green colored patch, we noticed the deer and elk where feeding on this plant from the day before. So we committed to glassing that patch over and over. It paid off, we scoped it out and it ended up being a 4x4. I think the exact one from the day before. We did the same plan, my brother would go out, and I would keep an eye on the buck. It was a huge mountain to go down and another one to go up. It took my brother an hour and a half or so to get within range. By then though the deer had bedded down and he couldn’t see it. Twenty minutes or so passed I could see my brother trying to find the buck with no shot ringing out. At this point the buck realized something was off, and started going up the mountain. My heart was sinking, I was watching him get away again! Then all of sudden a huge boom, and the buck drops in its track and starts rolling down the hill! A tree stops him from rolling further, and now it is my turn to go down and up the mountain. By the time I got there it was 15 degrees or so outside and dark. We gutted him took the head, liver, and heart, and made a plan to get there tomorrow morning to get him out.
The next day, it was suppose to be 10 degrees. Super cold for a couple of novices that live in the desert. They forecasted a light snow for 30mins to an hour tops. In hindsight we should have never gone out, it got very dangerous. We ended up finding ourselves in a blizzard sweating and damn near freezing to death on top of a huge mountain. We got to the buck and processed it loaded up and coming down as fast as we could. It was miserable we almost dropped our bags just to get out of there. Coming down the snow was piling more and more. It got to the point where there was snow up to our shins. Please if you’re new to hunting or hiking do not make the dumb mistake we made. Our legs where so tired and weak by the time we made it down the mountain. We couldn’t go over a log crossing a stream, we just got more wet and chugged through it. Our feet where damn near numb but not our calve muscles. It hurt and your mortality runs through your mind. We made it back to the truck and ended up being thankful for being alive. It was an adventure, but we have both made the decision that we will never risk our lives for an animal again.
That’s the story boiss. Be safe out there, and happy hunting. Next up is a cow elk tag in 2 weeks, wish us luck!
We showed up a day before the season opening, but were unable to do much being that there was thick fog all over the mountains we had planned on hunting. Frustrated we went back to camp hoping for the fog to lift. We woke up at 3:30 am and set off to our glassing spot hoping for the best. It was pretty intense from the get go, we crested a saddle and discovered ten or so elk bedded down, we froze as they looked right at us 20 yards or so away. They booked it down the mountain and we got in position to glass. As the sun began to rise, the mountain in front of us sprang to life. We glassed tons of elk, and to our surprise three does feeding low on the mountain. From everything we read the bucks should be higher up from the does, and bingo! Three more deer, we scoped them and notice they were all bucks, one was a 2x2, a 3x3, and a 4x4. We got so excited, devised a plan for my brother to go out and stalk, I would stay back and make sure they didn’t move with my spotting scope. At this point my brother is half way to the crest we had agreed on where a shot is possible. At this point I noticed 2 other hunters moving up to a knob to my left. They saw me waving my hat to warn them not to shoot. I had noticed they saw where my spotting scope was pointing. When all of a sudden I hear them shoot at the bucks my brother was getting close to, they where well over 1000 yards out. The bucks ran down a canyon, and I could still see the 2x2 but lost track of the others. Then they shot again, and missed as the bucks ran downhill. My brother pulled back and talked to them. They were from the area, and it became apparent they most likely shot to scare that 4x4 buck away. They mentioned they hadn’t seen us. Not sure we believed them, either way they agreed to lay off and allow my brother to get to that canyon and try and get one. The forest was to thick with trees, and my brother was unable to get a clean shot. We lost them, we were devastated, and headed back to camp completely defeated and frustrated. We had a chance and it was blown!
We got pretty down, and decided to start looking for another spot, we spent the rest of the day driving around but there was so many road hunters all over. We agreed we would come back to the same spot the next morning, hoping the bucks hadn’t spooked to bad. We did it all over again, this time upon arriving the same gentlemen had come back and brought 2 more friends. Then another couple set up next to us. We saw nothing but some cow elk and realized everything had booked it, we decided to find a way behind the mountain we had glassed them on the day before. We realized it would be a hell of a hike and we committed to making that hike and stay up on that mountain until night. It ended up being the best decision we made, no other hunter was there. We got up to the top of that mountain around 11am, we spend hours and hours glassing. Check out this video to get an idea of how much land we had available.
https://youtu.be/PtAqkpB9veE
It wasn’t until 5pm that we noticed a deer around this green colored patch, we noticed the deer and elk where feeding on this plant from the day before. So we committed to glassing that patch over and over. It paid off, we scoped it out and it ended up being a 4x4. I think the exact one from the day before. We did the same plan, my brother would go out, and I would keep an eye on the buck. It was a huge mountain to go down and another one to go up. It took my brother an hour and a half or so to get within range. By then though the deer had bedded down and he couldn’t see it. Twenty minutes or so passed I could see my brother trying to find the buck with no shot ringing out. At this point the buck realized something was off, and started going up the mountain. My heart was sinking, I was watching him get away again! Then all of sudden a huge boom, and the buck drops in its track and starts rolling down the hill! A tree stops him from rolling further, and now it is my turn to go down and up the mountain. By the time I got there it was 15 degrees or so outside and dark. We gutted him took the head, liver, and heart, and made a plan to get there tomorrow morning to get him out.
The next day, it was suppose to be 10 degrees. Super cold for a couple of novices that live in the desert. They forecasted a light snow for 30mins to an hour tops. In hindsight we should have never gone out, it got very dangerous. We ended up finding ourselves in a blizzard sweating and damn near freezing to death on top of a huge mountain. We got to the buck and processed it loaded up and coming down as fast as we could. It was miserable we almost dropped our bags just to get out of there. Coming down the snow was piling more and more. It got to the point where there was snow up to our shins. Please if you’re new to hunting or hiking do not make the dumb mistake we made. Our legs where so tired and weak by the time we made it down the mountain. We couldn’t go over a log crossing a stream, we just got more wet and chugged through it. Our feet where damn near numb but not our calve muscles. It hurt and your mortality runs through your mind. We made it back to the truck and ended up being thankful for being alive. It was an adventure, but we have both made the decision that we will never risk our lives for an animal again.
That’s the story boiss. Be safe out there, and happy hunting. Next up is a cow elk tag in 2 weeks, wish us luck!
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