ihuntelk
Member
Boyz Drool - Part 1
I posted this in the elk section since it began as an elk hunt and ends with an elk pic - disregard the mulies in the middle if you must............
Took the 2 oldest girls (McKenzie and Paige) out of school Wednesday afternoon and headed for Kenz’s Wyo elk unit. When she drew the tag, I was positive we had a slam dunk. A family friend had purchased a big ranch 4 or 5 years ago and gave us permission to hunt. I’ve killed 20 elk in my life and exactly 0 have been on private land. I’ve always hunted them the ‘hard way’ and wanted to try and find a little easier way to get my daughter a bull. I figured we would mostly hunt on public land but access it through the ranch. The owner showed us on the maps where the ranch was located. I put her in for that unit and she drew. I didn’t think much of it and called the ranch manager the week before her hunt to get directions. I was a little confused as the bunkhouse we would be staying at was 15 miles from her unit. After further discussion, I determined the owner wasn’t sure where his ranch was…………..
I should have known that there is no such thing as a slamdunk elk hunt. Needless to say, I was scrambling as her unit is mainly private land and I had never set foot in it before.
I started digging through the maps, google earth and called a buddy up by her unit. After some scrambling I felt like we had as good of a game plan as possible. Her hunt opened on the 9th but they had their Jr. High volleyball tourney that weekend. We’d be 10 days late, but going elk hunting was better than not going elk hunting!
We got on the road and stopped that eve to fill up the rig and the kiddos. I can’t believe a large blizzard is $5.49!
We camped that night with the girls in the back of the 4-Runner and me on a cot outside. The next morn we were going to familiarize ourselves with the country before we hiked into our spot. Deer and pronghorn were also open and rigs were EVERYWHERE. We still saw lots of lopes and deer but no elk. About 10 o’clock we loaded up the packs to hike into the ‘elk hole’. Paige packed one of my old backpacks with their lunch, gloves, hats, water, gps and headlamps. I packed my Optics Hunter pack with 2 tripods, video camera, stool, spotting scope, knives, gamebags, maps, headlamp, their winter coats, extra hats and gloves, water and enough snacks to feed 2 growing kids for a month. Kenz packed my Weaver rifle and shooting sticks. It took us about 1.5 hours to skirt some private and get into the 4 or 5 square mile chunk we wanted to hunt. My gps chip from www.HuntingGPSmaps.com was invaluable! There was one spot where 2 section lines came together. It didn’t line up perfectly on the map so I zoomed into it on a GIS layer at work and also on my GPS. Sure enough, there was a 40 yard swath that we could hike through and stay on public the whole way – wasn’t going to try the corner crossing thing with my kiddos there!
We set up on 2 big canyons and proceeded to glass. And glass. And glass.
Paige kept digging up sandstone layers and scribing her name and smiley faces on them. Kenz took a power nap. Yes she is really curled up in there.
I stayed on the binos for over 5 hours and couldn’t turn up 1 elk.
Some decent elk sign in there but nothing within a week. At 5 that eve, I knew the elk had to be getting up and moving to the private hay meadows 2 or 3 miles away. Still nothing, so we hiked up a little ridge to glass the hay meadows in case the elk somehow slipped by us. As soon as I put my binos up, I could see 100 elk bedded in the hay meadow. As I kept scanning 5 more bunches were visible including some smoker bulls. I could also see mulies, pronghorn and whitetail. This ranch charges a crazy fee to shoot one in the hay meadow but quite a few people do it. Generally it takes one person to shoot an elk, deer or pronghorn and the elk head for the hills we were hiding in. Apparently the ranch hadn’t had any shooters for a week as evidenced by all the sign being a week old. These crazy buggers were content to lie out in the hay, 3 miles from the nearest tree, all day long. We watched them til dark and hiked out. That night I heated up a pot of fresh chili and we sat on my cot, eating chili, watching shooting stars and counting satellites.
The next morn we were on point as the sun came up and put the spotter on all the elk far below. We were positive they would come our way today. No such luck. I couldn’t find another elk in the country we could hunt.
That night we hiked out and decided to go to her deer unit a couple hours south of us. I apologized like crazy for not doing my homework better before putting her in for that elk hunt. She had killed a cow the year before but wanted a bull this year. I really wish it was my tag we were burning and not hers………….
Her cow from 2011
Got to her deer unit and a spot my buddy Rhen had scouted a couple times in years past. He had always seen mature bucks. We went to bed about 11 and about got blown out of the hills. The next morn we were on the glasses as the sun came up.
We glassed some awesome country.
Hiked out to some good vantage points.
Picked up a few sheds.
Hiked around some water sources looking for tracks and generally held on to our hats as the wind was 30 mph all day long.
The temps in the mid 70’s didn’t help either. We ended up seeing lots of lopes, 30 deer and 5 bucks.
The best buck was a 22” 3x4 that evening.
I tried to talk her into shooting it. Once she looked through the spotter she just looked at me and said that I could do better and I should find her a big buck. HUH!!!!
I kept telling her that I killed 5 deer before I shot one that big. She didn’t care. She wanted a bigger buck and it was my fatherly duty to find it!
She killed a whitie buck last year and this was her first time hunting mulies. First-time mulie hunters aren’t supposed to pass 22” bucks, are they?
Her whitie from 2011
All in all, we had a great time and got to share many laughs and a few serious conversations. She’ll eat her elk tag, but we’ll go whack her mulie this weekend. Temps are supposed to be in the 30’s with some snow! Should be a great weekend.
To add some salt to my elk wounds, my brother called as soon as we were out of the hills to tell me about his Idaho bull he'd killed the day before.
I am going to try and get her out one night this week to shoot her pronghorn. I better have a couple more posts by the end of the week and yes, the title will be about Boyz Drooling.
My 4 daughters remind me on a daily basis that Girls Rule and Boyz Drool. I wouldn't have it any other way...........
- Cade
www.HuntForeverWest.com
I posted this in the elk section since it began as an elk hunt and ends with an elk pic - disregard the mulies in the middle if you must............
Took the 2 oldest girls (McKenzie and Paige) out of school Wednesday afternoon and headed for Kenz’s Wyo elk unit. When she drew the tag, I was positive we had a slam dunk. A family friend had purchased a big ranch 4 or 5 years ago and gave us permission to hunt. I’ve killed 20 elk in my life and exactly 0 have been on private land. I’ve always hunted them the ‘hard way’ and wanted to try and find a little easier way to get my daughter a bull. I figured we would mostly hunt on public land but access it through the ranch. The owner showed us on the maps where the ranch was located. I put her in for that unit and she drew. I didn’t think much of it and called the ranch manager the week before her hunt to get directions. I was a little confused as the bunkhouse we would be staying at was 15 miles from her unit. After further discussion, I determined the owner wasn’t sure where his ranch was…………..
I should have known that there is no such thing as a slamdunk elk hunt. Needless to say, I was scrambling as her unit is mainly private land and I had never set foot in it before.
I started digging through the maps, google earth and called a buddy up by her unit. After some scrambling I felt like we had as good of a game plan as possible. Her hunt opened on the 9th but they had their Jr. High volleyball tourney that weekend. We’d be 10 days late, but going elk hunting was better than not going elk hunting!
We got on the road and stopped that eve to fill up the rig and the kiddos. I can’t believe a large blizzard is $5.49!
We camped that night with the girls in the back of the 4-Runner and me on a cot outside. The next morn we were going to familiarize ourselves with the country before we hiked into our spot. Deer and pronghorn were also open and rigs were EVERYWHERE. We still saw lots of lopes and deer but no elk. About 10 o’clock we loaded up the packs to hike into the ‘elk hole’. Paige packed one of my old backpacks with their lunch, gloves, hats, water, gps and headlamps. I packed my Optics Hunter pack with 2 tripods, video camera, stool, spotting scope, knives, gamebags, maps, headlamp, their winter coats, extra hats and gloves, water and enough snacks to feed 2 growing kids for a month. Kenz packed my Weaver rifle and shooting sticks. It took us about 1.5 hours to skirt some private and get into the 4 or 5 square mile chunk we wanted to hunt. My gps chip from www.HuntingGPSmaps.com was invaluable! There was one spot where 2 section lines came together. It didn’t line up perfectly on the map so I zoomed into it on a GIS layer at work and also on my GPS. Sure enough, there was a 40 yard swath that we could hike through and stay on public the whole way – wasn’t going to try the corner crossing thing with my kiddos there!
We set up on 2 big canyons and proceeded to glass. And glass. And glass.
Paige kept digging up sandstone layers and scribing her name and smiley faces on them. Kenz took a power nap. Yes she is really curled up in there.
I stayed on the binos for over 5 hours and couldn’t turn up 1 elk.
Some decent elk sign in there but nothing within a week. At 5 that eve, I knew the elk had to be getting up and moving to the private hay meadows 2 or 3 miles away. Still nothing, so we hiked up a little ridge to glass the hay meadows in case the elk somehow slipped by us. As soon as I put my binos up, I could see 100 elk bedded in the hay meadow. As I kept scanning 5 more bunches were visible including some smoker bulls. I could also see mulies, pronghorn and whitetail. This ranch charges a crazy fee to shoot one in the hay meadow but quite a few people do it. Generally it takes one person to shoot an elk, deer or pronghorn and the elk head for the hills we were hiding in. Apparently the ranch hadn’t had any shooters for a week as evidenced by all the sign being a week old. These crazy buggers were content to lie out in the hay, 3 miles from the nearest tree, all day long. We watched them til dark and hiked out. That night I heated up a pot of fresh chili and we sat on my cot, eating chili, watching shooting stars and counting satellites.
The next morn we were on point as the sun came up and put the spotter on all the elk far below. We were positive they would come our way today. No such luck. I couldn’t find another elk in the country we could hunt.
That night we hiked out and decided to go to her deer unit a couple hours south of us. I apologized like crazy for not doing my homework better before putting her in for that elk hunt. She had killed a cow the year before but wanted a bull this year. I really wish it was my tag we were burning and not hers………….
Her cow from 2011
Got to her deer unit and a spot my buddy Rhen had scouted a couple times in years past. He had always seen mature bucks. We went to bed about 11 and about got blown out of the hills. The next morn we were on the glasses as the sun came up.
We glassed some awesome country.
Hiked out to some good vantage points.
Picked up a few sheds.
Hiked around some water sources looking for tracks and generally held on to our hats as the wind was 30 mph all day long.
The temps in the mid 70’s didn’t help either. We ended up seeing lots of lopes, 30 deer and 5 bucks.
The best buck was a 22” 3x4 that evening.
I tried to talk her into shooting it. Once she looked through the spotter she just looked at me and said that I could do better and I should find her a big buck. HUH!!!!
I kept telling her that I killed 5 deer before I shot one that big. She didn’t care. She wanted a bigger buck and it was my fatherly duty to find it!
She killed a whitie buck last year and this was her first time hunting mulies. First-time mulie hunters aren’t supposed to pass 22” bucks, are they?
Her whitie from 2011
All in all, we had a great time and got to share many laughs and a few serious conversations. She’ll eat her elk tag, but we’ll go whack her mulie this weekend. Temps are supposed to be in the 30’s with some snow! Should be a great weekend.
To add some salt to my elk wounds, my brother called as soon as we were out of the hills to tell me about his Idaho bull he'd killed the day before.
I am going to try and get her out one night this week to shoot her pronghorn. I better have a couple more posts by the end of the week and yes, the title will be about Boyz Drooling.
My 4 daughters remind me on a daily basis that Girls Rule and Boyz Drool. I wouldn't have it any other way...........
- Cade
www.HuntForeverWest.com
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