noharleyyet
Well-known member
Anybody want to hear this story?
- Thread starter Bluffgruff
- Start date
Walkathon
Well-known member
I voted "No", only because you didn't have an option for maybe.
Hem
Well-known member
Based upon the trending threads , yes please.
But honestly most people don't have time for Hunttalk unless they are working so interest will pick up next work day.
But honestly most people don't have time for Hunttalk unless they are working so interest will pick up next work day.
noharleyyet
Well-known member
Based upon the trending threads , yes please.
But honestly most people don't have time for Hunttalk unless they areworkingslacking so interest will pick up next work day.
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
I don't really know who that is.
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
"Yes" was running away with it, so I added a couple more options.
Paul in Idaho
Well-known member
Looking forward to the story.
Derek44
Well-known member
Ummmmmmm. Yes Sir!!!
txco
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2017
- Messages
- 280
Wheres the story?
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
Medium length it is. 2 parts, maybe 3.
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
An embarrassment of riches
I've got a bunch of elk points. Creep went from 1/2 point per year when I started to a point per year when I got close. I was unlucky 4 or 5 years, just 1 point behind. This year, I thought I'd switch to a different unit that I was highly likely to draw, but after drawing a couple other tags, I switched back, knowing this was a hunt that would fit into my schedule and satisfy my decade old persistence. I am wondering if this is the year I finally catch up. I didn't, but random draws occasionally happen, especially when you've already got multiple high investment, high time consumption, tough to draw tags in your pocket. Poor me.
I plan to wait 1.5 - 2 weeks into the season to show up. I have several clearly defined hunt plans. I drive up one evening, pull over onto some BLM land and get a couple hours of sleep. My plan is to be on plan A glassing knob at sunrise the next morning.
I start walking an hour before shooting light. I can see the glassing knob a bit farther up the trail and I come to a wire gate in a fence. The top wire loop is really tight. I've gone through thousands of these, but this one is the hardest one I've ever had to close. Pack and rifle on the ground, one arm through the fence, both hands pulling the gate post towards the fixed fence post, grunting, sweating stabbing myself with barbed wire, I finally get the loop over.
Well that was fun.
Moving up the road a short distance, just as light is cracking over the land, I smell elk.
Too bad they're really close and not too happy about the commotion of my opening and and closing the gate moments before. 6 bulls and a bunch of cows are cresting a ridge, in range, on public, right at the edge of shooting light. I can't tell what any of the bulls are, and I let them pass.
I make the ridgeline and glass. The elk are far along the ridge, moving cautiously into private land, cresting another finger ridge, then gone forever.
There are tons of other critters around, though, hundreds of antelope and dozens of deer.
After a little while, I realize it's warm enough that elk are getting on north slopes quickly in the morning, and these south slopes just aren't going to work out.
Plan A spot is over.
I drive to town, get a sandwich and catch some Zzzs in the parking lot. That evening, I try a different area, gain a glassing point and enjoy watching deer until I get to enjoy quite the sunset.
Right at sunset, a bull decides to pop out, right next to a well used access trail, coming from a NE facing pocket of trees and into a SE facing sage slope.
He isn't what I want to shoot, so I get a picture and continue looking.
The sun disappears and I work my way through the boulders and sage to the truck, eat an extra sandwich and ponder my options.
I decide to sleep in the truck again, trying to stay mobile.
I find that if I park pointing up on a steep hill, I can make my front seat feel pretty flat. It sucks, but not quite as bad. The wind is Wyoming Proud, and I haven't really mustered the energy to fight it to put up the big comfy tent I borrowed.
The next morning, I break out my stove and boil water for coffee and decide today is the day for long range glassing from a high point I can drive to.
Sunrise is spectacular
Deer are plentiful.
Elk are scarce. I see one group way off the opposite direction I'm expecting.
I decide that's where I'm going for a midday stroll.
I drive around, seeing a few deer, and really appreciate a big sage and a full size shovel for when nature calls. I am going to hate kicking a hole with my boot on my next backpacking hunt.
I walk a huge circle, 6 or 7 miles, seeing nearly 100 deer, but few bucks. Several times, I'm within bow range of does and fawns.
This buck is not concerned about me, but does NOT want this doe going anywhere. He would have put border collies to shame with his agility and speed.
I arrive back at the truck, scarf some junk food, and decide it's time to change my glassing strategy. Instead of glassing from the south, onto south slopes the elk aren't using in daylight, I need to find a place I can see north slopes.
I drive an hour, and get to a spot that apparently is quite popular with the road hunting crew, but everyone else freehands their binos, and I don't.
What follows is that evening's sightings.
And a sunset
I decide to sleep close by. Some of the bulls are decent, some are on public, some are near public. I'm willing to see if the bigger bulls will move to public overnight. I'm planning an adventure for the next day, so I get settled for another night in the front seat.
The next morning, I make coffee and choose bars for breakfast, lunch for the day is packed. I walk from the trees I parked in over to the best glassing spot and get set up. Right before legal light, a new group of bulls crests a ridge 3 miles away.
Nothing too big, but I'm feeling excited that new groups are popping up.
Sunrise peaks through a developing haze.
The bulls from the night before, all 20-something of them in a few groups, materialize from the creeks, where I assume they were watering before moving off to their beds.
Some of the ones I didn't get good looks at the night before start to get me excited.
This one has a great 1st brow, but his 2nd brow is where most bulls have a 3rd, making me think he's broken for some time while I'm following him with the spotter through the trees. I end up watching this group both morning and afternoon, as the haze turns to snow flurries. He's a half mile onto private, so thinking he's both broken and unavailable, I keep glassing. Even when I figure out he's not broken, I decide it probably won't work out.
Another group of bulls shows as the light fades.
I've seen over 30 bulls from this spot, and I never even took my big walk. What's wrong with me?
Sunset
I decide my original plan B deserves at least one day, so I drive towards that after grabbing dinner in town, and park on a really nice uphill for the 4th night.
The next morning, I'm expecting heavy competition for the best parking spot, and even though I head that way early, I see taillights in front of me a quarter mile. Dangit.
I continue on, and when I arrive at the parking spot, it's empty. The other vehicle must have turned off. The spot I want to get is about 3 miles away, so I chug away in the dark, never having been here in the daylight.
Over the sound of my own hurried steps, I hear thunder, the kind you hear in an old western. Hooves.
I had stopped a few hundred yards back and cleared the valley to my right in the pale pre-dawn light, but now there are 12 bull elk running full speed coming from that direction. It takes them what seems like 3 or 4 minutes to circle in front of me, passing at under 200 yards. The biggest bull is a medium 5x5, so I never even unshoulder my rifle. Very tempting to shoot something right by a trail that leads right back to the truck, but I have a lot of years invested in getting this tag, and I don't want it to end just yet.
I keep walking. The plan is to climb out of this canyon and peek over the top of the ridge into the next series of canyons, but before I get very far, two more smaller bulls show themselves in the mix of aspens and pines at the junction of 3 small canyons that coalesce to form head of the main valley floor. They don't interest me either, so I start sidling out of the canyon. Halfway up, I look south and see two hunters perched on the far ridgeline, glassing my direction. I suspect they owned the taillights in front of me, and also pushed the 12 bulls by me as well. I'm probably screwing up their hunt plan, but there's not much to do about that now that I'm in the middle of a ton of elk sign on the side of the canyon wall. Walking through a saddle full of fresh elk tracks and droppings, I try to move quickly to avoid being skylined from the finger ridges in front of me. I move left to a rocky outcrop to look into the nearest canyon, and manage to slip and fall on a sheet of ice. Unhurt after a very short slide, I stand up and see a bunch of elk, close. In range close. I throw my binos up and see a bunch of smaller bulls, but one looks bigger. Is that a 7x7?
I've got a bunch of elk points. Creep went from 1/2 point per year when I started to a point per year when I got close. I was unlucky 4 or 5 years, just 1 point behind. This year, I thought I'd switch to a different unit that I was highly likely to draw, but after drawing a couple other tags, I switched back, knowing this was a hunt that would fit into my schedule and satisfy my decade old persistence. I am wondering if this is the year I finally catch up. I didn't, but random draws occasionally happen, especially when you've already got multiple high investment, high time consumption, tough to draw tags in your pocket. Poor me.
I plan to wait 1.5 - 2 weeks into the season to show up. I have several clearly defined hunt plans. I drive up one evening, pull over onto some BLM land and get a couple hours of sleep. My plan is to be on plan A glassing knob at sunrise the next morning.
I start walking an hour before shooting light. I can see the glassing knob a bit farther up the trail and I come to a wire gate in a fence. The top wire loop is really tight. I've gone through thousands of these, but this one is the hardest one I've ever had to close. Pack and rifle on the ground, one arm through the fence, both hands pulling the gate post towards the fixed fence post, grunting, sweating stabbing myself with barbed wire, I finally get the loop over.
Well that was fun.
Moving up the road a short distance, just as light is cracking over the land, I smell elk.
Too bad they're really close and not too happy about the commotion of my opening and and closing the gate moments before. 6 bulls and a bunch of cows are cresting a ridge, in range, on public, right at the edge of shooting light. I can't tell what any of the bulls are, and I let them pass.
I make the ridgeline and glass. The elk are far along the ridge, moving cautiously into private land, cresting another finger ridge, then gone forever.
There are tons of other critters around, though, hundreds of antelope and dozens of deer.
After a little while, I realize it's warm enough that elk are getting on north slopes quickly in the morning, and these south slopes just aren't going to work out.
Plan A spot is over.
I drive to town, get a sandwich and catch some Zzzs in the parking lot. That evening, I try a different area, gain a glassing point and enjoy watching deer until I get to enjoy quite the sunset.
Right at sunset, a bull decides to pop out, right next to a well used access trail, coming from a NE facing pocket of trees and into a SE facing sage slope.
He isn't what I want to shoot, so I get a picture and continue looking.
The sun disappears and I work my way through the boulders and sage to the truck, eat an extra sandwich and ponder my options.
I decide to sleep in the truck again, trying to stay mobile.
I find that if I park pointing up on a steep hill, I can make my front seat feel pretty flat. It sucks, but not quite as bad. The wind is Wyoming Proud, and I haven't really mustered the energy to fight it to put up the big comfy tent I borrowed.
The next morning, I break out my stove and boil water for coffee and decide today is the day for long range glassing from a high point I can drive to.
Sunrise is spectacular
Deer are plentiful.
Elk are scarce. I see one group way off the opposite direction I'm expecting.
I decide that's where I'm going for a midday stroll.
I drive around, seeing a few deer, and really appreciate a big sage and a full size shovel for when nature calls. I am going to hate kicking a hole with my boot on my next backpacking hunt.
I walk a huge circle, 6 or 7 miles, seeing nearly 100 deer, but few bucks. Several times, I'm within bow range of does and fawns.
This buck is not concerned about me, but does NOT want this doe going anywhere. He would have put border collies to shame with his agility and speed.
I arrive back at the truck, scarf some junk food, and decide it's time to change my glassing strategy. Instead of glassing from the south, onto south slopes the elk aren't using in daylight, I need to find a place I can see north slopes.
I drive an hour, and get to a spot that apparently is quite popular with the road hunting crew, but everyone else freehands their binos, and I don't.
What follows is that evening's sightings.
And a sunset
I decide to sleep close by. Some of the bulls are decent, some are on public, some are near public. I'm willing to see if the bigger bulls will move to public overnight. I'm planning an adventure for the next day, so I get settled for another night in the front seat.
The next morning, I make coffee and choose bars for breakfast, lunch for the day is packed. I walk from the trees I parked in over to the best glassing spot and get set up. Right before legal light, a new group of bulls crests a ridge 3 miles away.
Nothing too big, but I'm feeling excited that new groups are popping up.
Sunrise peaks through a developing haze.
The bulls from the night before, all 20-something of them in a few groups, materialize from the creeks, where I assume they were watering before moving off to their beds.
Some of the ones I didn't get good looks at the night before start to get me excited.
This one has a great 1st brow, but his 2nd brow is where most bulls have a 3rd, making me think he's broken for some time while I'm following him with the spotter through the trees. I end up watching this group both morning and afternoon, as the haze turns to snow flurries. He's a half mile onto private, so thinking he's both broken and unavailable, I keep glassing. Even when I figure out he's not broken, I decide it probably won't work out.
Another group of bulls shows as the light fades.
I've seen over 30 bulls from this spot, and I never even took my big walk. What's wrong with me?
Sunset
I decide my original plan B deserves at least one day, so I drive towards that after grabbing dinner in town, and park on a really nice uphill for the 4th night.
The next morning, I'm expecting heavy competition for the best parking spot, and even though I head that way early, I see taillights in front of me a quarter mile. Dangit.
I continue on, and when I arrive at the parking spot, it's empty. The other vehicle must have turned off. The spot I want to get is about 3 miles away, so I chug away in the dark, never having been here in the daylight.
Over the sound of my own hurried steps, I hear thunder, the kind you hear in an old western. Hooves.
I had stopped a few hundred yards back and cleared the valley to my right in the pale pre-dawn light, but now there are 12 bull elk running full speed coming from that direction. It takes them what seems like 3 or 4 minutes to circle in front of me, passing at under 200 yards. The biggest bull is a medium 5x5, so I never even unshoulder my rifle. Very tempting to shoot something right by a trail that leads right back to the truck, but I have a lot of years invested in getting this tag, and I don't want it to end just yet.
I keep walking. The plan is to climb out of this canyon and peek over the top of the ridge into the next series of canyons, but before I get very far, two more smaller bulls show themselves in the mix of aspens and pines at the junction of 3 small canyons that coalesce to form head of the main valley floor. They don't interest me either, so I start sidling out of the canyon. Halfway up, I look south and see two hunters perched on the far ridgeline, glassing my direction. I suspect they owned the taillights in front of me, and also pushed the 12 bulls by me as well. I'm probably screwing up their hunt plan, but there's not much to do about that now that I'm in the middle of a ton of elk sign on the side of the canyon wall. Walking through a saddle full of fresh elk tracks and droppings, I try to move quickly to avoid being skylined from the finger ridges in front of me. I move left to a rocky outcrop to look into the nearest canyon, and manage to slip and fall on a sheet of ice. Unhurt after a very short slide, I stand up and see a bunch of elk, close. In range close. I throw my binos up and see a bunch of smaller bulls, but one looks bigger. Is that a 7x7?
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
Sho'Nuff! I'm interested!
Are they on public? Oooo, very close, but possibly on private. I'm trying to triangulate their position and get some video and trying not to freeze as I've just stopped in the below freezing air and whipping Wyoming Proud wind after sweating up a storm walking in. Yeah, definitely on private in this weird sawtooth area. They likely had been on public a few minutes before. I'm frustrated. I put my down jacket and insulated pants on, get my heavy ski gloves, and set up my spotter for some video.
I'd shoot him if he were on public. He's not, moving off to bed about 200 yards into private in some thick trees.
It's Friday morning, I'm headed out of town Sunday afternoon to visit family for a week.
If I wait this bull out until evening and kill him, very tempting even with the broken left 4th, I'd be butchering in the dark, and doing a marathon packout all night and into Saturday, probably 30 miles or more, and I might just get divorced if I overestimate my ability to get him out in time. I definitely would stop having fun almost as soon as I squeezed the trigger.
While pondering my marriage and wagering it against this 7x7, the hunt, etc etc, I find two enormous herds of elk out in the flats on private land. It's comical watching about 750 elk act like cattle. Here's the much smaller herd of the two.
There are so many elk, an embarrassment of riches in this typically impoverished pursuit.
I can come back and hunt in about 10 days and have about two weeks to hunt, really squeezing the juice out of this tag, so I walk back to my truck and drive home.
The vacation was nice and earned me the cred with the wife to come back and hunt the rest of the hunt the way I want to do it.
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
The marathon
I'm more prepared this time. Fully planning to be there more than a week, but hoping a couple "scouting days" will bring me quick success on a nice bull. Maybe even that 7x7 that I've been thinking about.
After getting groceries and a pizza, with an appropriately crowded front seat @TOGIE,
I arrive in time for a quick glass, but I see only deer. There's more snow this time.
A different moon phase, cartoonishly bright and up all night, lights up the scattered snow left from the last storm.
I still have yet to set up this tent I borrowed. I'm still thinking mobility, so I sleep in the truck, and plan to glass from nearby in the morning.
A glorious sunrise, as I've come to expect every day, gets going as I park it in the snow with the big glass.
I'm looking around, back and forth, all over, really not seeing anything except deer, getting a little concerned, why aren't there 30 bulls wandering around... hmmm.
This is way harder already.
I'm giving it all the patience I can, I've been sitting here for 30 or so minutes, everything is within 2-3 miles of me, the sun is peeking over the hills, but it all looks barren of elk. Any elk should be shining.
Oh. There's an elk.
A pretty good elk. Where's the spotter?
He's the only elk I see. He's a nice elk, but I'm trying to talk myself out of going after him.
I eventually get my coffee and breakfast going and decide I need to look elsewhere that afternoon.
Up higher where I've never been for the afternoon, there are deer tracks, some elk tracks, and lots of snow. Also cat tracks.
Sunset is nice.
I catch a glimpse of a mountain lion on my white knuckle drive out right at dark. It's only the second wild lion sighting I've ever had.
That evening, I'm back to my front seat bed where I slept the previous night. I barely make it up in time to glass at first light the next morning, and see 0 elk, 0 deer, and generally get discouraged.
I decide I have to have a better place to sleep if I'm going to really grind this hunt out, so I get the tent set up with a great struggle. It's feeling a bit like home already.
Driving around, I'm able to find a couple new glassing spots, and even see some deer out feeding midday.
I found these guys and gals trudging through the snow, even more dejectedly than me.
Damn their heads must feel cold.
I bounce and slide my way back to my magic 30+ bull spot. I find a bunch of elk, which improves my mood, but they're all on private.
It starts to snow as the sun sinks towards the horizon, and I call it a bit early to avoid getting stuck far from my tent.
I cook myself a nice Alaskan elk steak, some peppers, and potatoes for good luck. Tomorrow is time to go after that bull from the morning before, and eating elk helps you kill elk, right?
I wake up at 430 the next day. Coffee, a giant bowl of cereal. And is that a frozen banana in your pocket? Yes. Yes it is.
I get going in the dark. It's pretty cold, so I walk fast, barely able to see the mule deer I jump in the draws on either side of me. I'm going to make a big loop to get full downwind of where I saw the bull, then try to glass him up from close.
Quick sunrise pic
I really thought I'd have this area to myself, but between shooting light, and sunrise, as I'm about to drop down into a saddle where a ranch road crosses, a pickup with a guide and 2 clients comes creeping up the road. Dang. IT!
They drive passed, just a hundred yards in front of me, and park a quarter mile off to my right and then move farther down the road into a canyon. I'm 3.5 miles into my hike and 400 yards from where I want to glass from. They're going a different way, so I continue towards my glassing knob. As I'm getting to the knob, a side by side motors up the same road and blazes behind me, then they take a road that follows the rim towards where I started the morning. WTF. Seriously. How do this many people have private access to this spot? I make a big circle around and above where I had seen the bull. No elk tracks in the snow at all, just deer, and a few tracks from other hunters.
Probably a wolverine....
I'm more prepared this time. Fully planning to be there more than a week, but hoping a couple "scouting days" will bring me quick success on a nice bull. Maybe even that 7x7 that I've been thinking about.
After getting groceries and a pizza, with an appropriately crowded front seat @TOGIE,
I arrive in time for a quick glass, but I see only deer. There's more snow this time.
A different moon phase, cartoonishly bright and up all night, lights up the scattered snow left from the last storm.
I still have yet to set up this tent I borrowed. I'm still thinking mobility, so I sleep in the truck, and plan to glass from nearby in the morning.
A glorious sunrise, as I've come to expect every day, gets going as I park it in the snow with the big glass.
I'm looking around, back and forth, all over, really not seeing anything except deer, getting a little concerned, why aren't there 30 bulls wandering around... hmmm.
This is way harder already.
I'm giving it all the patience I can, I've been sitting here for 30 or so minutes, everything is within 2-3 miles of me, the sun is peeking over the hills, but it all looks barren of elk. Any elk should be shining.
Oh. There's an elk.
A pretty good elk. Where's the spotter?
He's the only elk I see. He's a nice elk, but I'm trying to talk myself out of going after him.
I eventually get my coffee and breakfast going and decide I need to look elsewhere that afternoon.
Up higher where I've never been for the afternoon, there are deer tracks, some elk tracks, and lots of snow. Also cat tracks.
Sunset is nice.
I catch a glimpse of a mountain lion on my white knuckle drive out right at dark. It's only the second wild lion sighting I've ever had.
That evening, I'm back to my front seat bed where I slept the previous night. I barely make it up in time to glass at first light the next morning, and see 0 elk, 0 deer, and generally get discouraged.
I decide I have to have a better place to sleep if I'm going to really grind this hunt out, so I get the tent set up with a great struggle. It's feeling a bit like home already.
Driving around, I'm able to find a couple new glassing spots, and even see some deer out feeding midday.
I found these guys and gals trudging through the snow, even more dejectedly than me.
Damn their heads must feel cold.
I bounce and slide my way back to my magic 30+ bull spot. I find a bunch of elk, which improves my mood, but they're all on private.
It starts to snow as the sun sinks towards the horizon, and I call it a bit early to avoid getting stuck far from my tent.
I cook myself a nice Alaskan elk steak, some peppers, and potatoes for good luck. Tomorrow is time to go after that bull from the morning before, and eating elk helps you kill elk, right?
I wake up at 430 the next day. Coffee, a giant bowl of cereal. And is that a frozen banana in your pocket? Yes. Yes it is.
I get going in the dark. It's pretty cold, so I walk fast, barely able to see the mule deer I jump in the draws on either side of me. I'm going to make a big loop to get full downwind of where I saw the bull, then try to glass him up from close.
Quick sunrise pic
I really thought I'd have this area to myself, but between shooting light, and sunrise, as I'm about to drop down into a saddle where a ranch road crosses, a pickup with a guide and 2 clients comes creeping up the road. Dang. IT!
They drive passed, just a hundred yards in front of me, and park a quarter mile off to my right and then move farther down the road into a canyon. I'm 3.5 miles into my hike and 400 yards from where I want to glass from. They're going a different way, so I continue towards my glassing knob. As I'm getting to the knob, a side by side motors up the same road and blazes behind me, then they take a road that follows the rim towards where I started the morning. WTF. Seriously. How do this many people have private access to this spot? I make a big circle around and above where I had seen the bull. No elk tracks in the snow at all, just deer, and a few tracks from other hunters.
Probably a wolverine....
Last edited:
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
I was thinking the same thing…
Raisin Bran
Well-known member
I am all ears…….
No kidding. Anyone who passes that bull isn’t wired like me.
Bluffgruff
Well-known member
I'm not wired like any of you good elk hunters, it's just my lot in life.
