Our adventure began in May/June when the DWR results began hitting the debit cards. My son, Logan, had enough points to draw a limited entry muzzleloader bull tag and we were hoping this was the year. You can imagine our excitement when his debit card was hit for the price of the bull tag. There was a lot of hooting and hollering going on!
There's a bit of a backstory with this tag and this unit. I drew an archery tag in 2010 and harvested a nice 6 point bull. My wife drew the muzzle loader tag in 2016 and shot her bull at 5 yards! My father-in-law drew the late season tag in 2015 right after he had a terrible car accident. With the help of family and friends and a long range shooting .338, he was able to harvest a nice bull. On each of these hunts, the squad would show up after the bull was down, help cape the bull, and carry the meat back to the ATV's. You guys know how hunting elk can be...sometimes, they like to hide in those areas without trails
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In the spring of 2017, my father-in-law passed away from a heart attack. He was young, and my wife was devastated. Then to add more to the pile, Logan cut his right hand off at work while operating heavy equipment. The doctors were unable to re-attach the hand, so Logan has his thumb (it moves a fraction of an inch) and a stump where the palm of his hand used to be. It was a hard recovery for the entire family, and really hard on Logan. He's been mostly deaf his entire life and now felt like his life was going to be even harder. Through it all, my wife has remained steadfast, and upbeat - which is saying a lot.
This brings us to present day. Logan had never hunted with a muzzleloader. So the first thing we did was research muzzleloaders. We both bought CVA Accurra brand muzzleloaders and began working up a load that would fly straight and consistent. Logan had to learn to load a muzzleloader with one hand. We shot a bunch and worked up a load that we were confident with out to 200 yards. I have a son who is a member of the US Navy, and is stationed across the country. He scheduled his leave to come help his brother hunt.
We pulled the camp house up on the mountain and got camp set up a few days before the hunt. I took my 13 year old with me and we walked into an area that usually holds elk. The elk were in there and the bugles were insane! We snuck within 100 yards of a bull and my 13 year old bugled at him. The bull fired back with some chuckles and started walking toward us. He was a nice 6 point bull. We watched as the elk stopped about 80 yards away and looked for us. He couldn't see us, so eventually he lost interest and walked back the way he came. It was so cool!
Logan arrived in camp the next evening. Logan has been with us on a few elk hunts, but doesn't know the unit like I do. I grew up in the area, and archery hunt the heck out of it. The unit has good access and a lot of ATV trails. It's very popular with campers and hunters because of the good access and scenery. It's beautiful up there.
I took Logan to a lookout and we got set up to glass for bulls. I could hear the elk below us and they were bugling like crazy. I asked Logan if he could hear them and he said he couldn't. I asked if he'd brought his hearing aids (which he hates wearing) and he said he hadn't. We sat and glassed elk for about 2 hours. We saw a 8x7 that had a crazy 3rd that we estimated was more than 20 inches long. This bull was rutting hard and chasing smaller bulls away from a hot cow. He was very active and Logan said he'd like to kill that bull. We also saw a bull that I estimated would score between 360 and 370. This bull was chasing cows too, but he wouldn't leave the trees. We got a few photos of him and the 8x7 before slipping off the ridge and heading back to camp.
There's a bit of a backstory with this tag and this unit. I drew an archery tag in 2010 and harvested a nice 6 point bull. My wife drew the muzzle loader tag in 2016 and shot her bull at 5 yards! My father-in-law drew the late season tag in 2015 right after he had a terrible car accident. With the help of family and friends and a long range shooting .338, he was able to harvest a nice bull. On each of these hunts, the squad would show up after the bull was down, help cape the bull, and carry the meat back to the ATV's. You guys know how hunting elk can be...sometimes, they like to hide in those areas without trails
. In the spring of 2017, my father-in-law passed away from a heart attack. He was young, and my wife was devastated. Then to add more to the pile, Logan cut his right hand off at work while operating heavy equipment. The doctors were unable to re-attach the hand, so Logan has his thumb (it moves a fraction of an inch) and a stump where the palm of his hand used to be. It was a hard recovery for the entire family, and really hard on Logan. He's been mostly deaf his entire life and now felt like his life was going to be even harder. Through it all, my wife has remained steadfast, and upbeat - which is saying a lot.
This brings us to present day. Logan had never hunted with a muzzleloader. So the first thing we did was research muzzleloaders. We both bought CVA Accurra brand muzzleloaders and began working up a load that would fly straight and consistent. Logan had to learn to load a muzzleloader with one hand. We shot a bunch and worked up a load that we were confident with out to 200 yards. I have a son who is a member of the US Navy, and is stationed across the country. He scheduled his leave to come help his brother hunt.
We pulled the camp house up on the mountain and got camp set up a few days before the hunt. I took my 13 year old with me and we walked into an area that usually holds elk. The elk were in there and the bugles were insane! We snuck within 100 yards of a bull and my 13 year old bugled at him. The bull fired back with some chuckles and started walking toward us. He was a nice 6 point bull. We watched as the elk stopped about 80 yards away and looked for us. He couldn't see us, so eventually he lost interest and walked back the way he came. It was so cool!
Logan arrived in camp the next evening. Logan has been with us on a few elk hunts, but doesn't know the unit like I do. I grew up in the area, and archery hunt the heck out of it. The unit has good access and a lot of ATV trails. It's very popular with campers and hunters because of the good access and scenery. It's beautiful up there.
I took Logan to a lookout and we got set up to glass for bulls. I could hear the elk below us and they were bugling like crazy. I asked Logan if he could hear them and he said he couldn't. I asked if he'd brought his hearing aids (which he hates wearing) and he said he hadn't. We sat and glassed elk for about 2 hours. We saw a 8x7 that had a crazy 3rd that we estimated was more than 20 inches long. This bull was rutting hard and chasing smaller bulls away from a hot cow. He was very active and Logan said he'd like to kill that bull. We also saw a bull that I estimated would score between 360 and 370. This bull was chasing cows too, but he wouldn't leave the trees. We got a few photos of him and the 8x7 before slipping off the ridge and heading back to camp.
