JohnSWA
Senior Thread Mover
Whew! Just got back and man am I beat! I've never seen so many elk in my life and the majority of them were bulls! There's gonna be some huge bulls harvested in 5BS this year.
Well here goes the story:
I scouted this area for 3 weeks and saw numerous elk every weekend. The spot was perfect, ie nice gradual incline with junipers and oak trees everywhere with a few canyons and steep hills in between. I wanted to make sure that I would be on the elk on opening day because my neighbor, Dave, had never hunted elk before and I wanted him to harvest his first animal.
We arrived Thursday evening to my camp that I had set up two days before in order to secure a good camping spot. The spot I chose was flat and level and had three campfire rings all set up for a group of people. I should have taped a note to my door welcoming anyone to join the site being that it was only Dave and I. Sure enough, when we got there, there was a family of four generations complete with several RVs in a make shift spot because I stole their anual camping site. I met the folks and honestly, you couldn't have met a nicer bunch of people and it was sooo heart warming to see 4 generations of one family hunting and enjoying the outdoors together! The Patriarch of the family had just turned 81 (he was hunting, by the way!) and his great granddaughter baked a cake for him and 20 yards away I could hear the family singing "Happy Birthday" to the eldest hunter. It brought a tear to my eye seeing and hearing this from my campfire. What a blessing to have a close family that enjoys the outdoors and especially spending time together!
Well, back to the hunt.
The alarm goes off at 3:30am and I get a quick breakfast together for us and we're off to the hills for Dave's first elk hunt. Dave never heard a bugle before and wasn't sure what one sounded like. He didn't have to wait long for his first bugle! "What was that?" he said. I said welcome to elk country! Bugles were coming from every direction and he decided to stay right there and wait for the cows to come. I decided to chase the bugles and burn some boot leather.
Just before I crested the first ridge, I saw a small heard moving cautiously amongst the junipers. I had my scope fixed on the lead cow, but it was just not quite light enough for legal shooting hours. In hindsight, I think I could have gotten away with the shot as the sun was just beginning to rise, but I didn't want to appear as an unethical hunter to my friend on our first hunting trip together. I followed the ridge line down into a shallow drainage when I saw another lead cow with several young bulls/cows and calfs walking slowly single file! They were only 15 yards away at best, but I had a clear shot, so I put the lead cow in my sights and let a bullet fly! A clean miss! I couldn't believe it, but after beating myself up after missing the shot I realized that I had my rife sighted in at 200 yards. Well, I should have hit her anyway, but that's just the way it goes.
After the missed shot, I tried to chase the heard, but couldn't find them, so I climbed another ridge chasing another loud bugle. I didn't find the bull, but I did see a cow about 50 yards down-hill, silouetted in the juniper branches which surrounded her. Like an idiot, I decided that I see if a 300 winmag would bust through the brush and hit her! Yup! I was wrong. She just stood there for a few seconds laughing at me and the hill exploded with cows running everywhere!
I'm still burning boot leather chasing bugles, when Dave calls me on the radio... "I shot an elk!" "Great!" I tell him. I told him that I was coming to help him gut and load the animal on my truck, so off I hiked back down hill when another cow and calf walked no more than 10 yards in front of me! I took a standing shot and same as before... a clean miss! I couldn't believe it! As I was walking toward Dave, I met a two guys that downed to cows, but only brought one knife and no sharpener! They asked if I would gut one of the animals since their knife was dull. I told them that after I help my friend out, I'd be right back to give them a hand. Well, I'm done helping Dave and I gut the cow for these guys and then they ask me to help them load the cows on to their Kubota "Ranger" look-alike. No problem. I just tied rope to my quad and to the cows and towed the beasts right into the bed of their rig. The were blown away how easy it was and thanked me profusely! One of the guys noticed that I was still hunting and said that I've got good Kharma now and I was sure to get an elk.
Now I'm at camp skinning and butchering Daves elk, tired and beat, but I still go out hunting. Nothing! I saw more Bulls, but none of my quarry. Dave didn't want to drive his vehicle up so I had to drive him home and put his meat in my freezer to keep it fresh. Now I'm hunting all by my lonesome. Two days go by with the same thing... lots of miles hiked and bou coup Bulls and no cows! Finally on Tuesday, I'm whooped, beat, tired and sore. I decided to make it a scouting day. I burned more boot leather in the morning and didn't see a thing! After that, I decided to go for a drive and save my legs for Wednesday's hunt. I drove to several areas and didn't see anything promising, so I went back to camp and downloaded my quad and decided to follow some trails. It's a good thing I did! I found an amazing water tank that had a huge meadow leading to it!
I sat behind an old dead Ponderosa Pine log and waited and waited! Sure enough a heard of elk came down from the hill, crossed the meadow and congregated in the tank! There must have been 30 elk! Cows, calfs, spikes and one huge bull! I took my time and found a cow standing on the berm of the tank! I steadied the rifle and fired! The heard scattered, but this cow tried to run, but couldn't keep up! As she stood still 200 yards away, I put one more round in her to seal the deal!
Now the work begins! I gutted the cow and it was a major chore! I don't know why, maybe I was just too tired, but the two animals before were a piece of cake! Anyway, no I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to make two trips loading this beast in my truck and then coming back to load my quad and then come back to camp. Here's where the family next door came in to help.
I offered some money to these folks if they would just come with me and drive my truck back since I didn't want to make two trips down two nasty trails back to our camp. They were more than happy to help and even offered the use of their trailer! Ofcourse I took their offer and away we went!
One of the brothers new a shortcut to this camp, so we took his advice... Bad Idea! Somehow we ended up on the wrong road and it took us a good four hours to finally get to where my cow was and bring her back to camp!
Now it's 1:00am and I still had to skin the animal. I finally went to bed at 3:20am and woke back up at 7:00 and butchered her up. I lost my carving knife and one of these nice folks had a metal detector and immediately found my knife! I even forgot that I left my pack frame outside of our camp while loading my quad and the matriarch of the family asked me what that shiny metal thing was! These folks saved my bacon 3 times and were more than happy to do anything for me! I'm really going to miss that wonderful family. I truly envy them.
Well enough rambling on and please forgive my long winded rant. I've been up for almost two days shy 3 hours of intermittent sleep. I hope that this is readable, since I'm barely coherent now as it is.
The bottom line is that I put my neighbor and friend on elk for the first time and I made some new friends that I'd do anything in the world for in a heartbeat!
Here's my first attempt of taking a solo picture using the timer on this camera:
Well here goes the story:
I scouted this area for 3 weeks and saw numerous elk every weekend. The spot was perfect, ie nice gradual incline with junipers and oak trees everywhere with a few canyons and steep hills in between. I wanted to make sure that I would be on the elk on opening day because my neighbor, Dave, had never hunted elk before and I wanted him to harvest his first animal.
We arrived Thursday evening to my camp that I had set up two days before in order to secure a good camping spot. The spot I chose was flat and level and had three campfire rings all set up for a group of people. I should have taped a note to my door welcoming anyone to join the site being that it was only Dave and I. Sure enough, when we got there, there was a family of four generations complete with several RVs in a make shift spot because I stole their anual camping site. I met the folks and honestly, you couldn't have met a nicer bunch of people and it was sooo heart warming to see 4 generations of one family hunting and enjoying the outdoors together! The Patriarch of the family had just turned 81 (he was hunting, by the way!) and his great granddaughter baked a cake for him and 20 yards away I could hear the family singing "Happy Birthday" to the eldest hunter. It brought a tear to my eye seeing and hearing this from my campfire. What a blessing to have a close family that enjoys the outdoors and especially spending time together!
Well, back to the hunt.
The alarm goes off at 3:30am and I get a quick breakfast together for us and we're off to the hills for Dave's first elk hunt. Dave never heard a bugle before and wasn't sure what one sounded like. He didn't have to wait long for his first bugle! "What was that?" he said. I said welcome to elk country! Bugles were coming from every direction and he decided to stay right there and wait for the cows to come. I decided to chase the bugles and burn some boot leather.
Just before I crested the first ridge, I saw a small heard moving cautiously amongst the junipers. I had my scope fixed on the lead cow, but it was just not quite light enough for legal shooting hours. In hindsight, I think I could have gotten away with the shot as the sun was just beginning to rise, but I didn't want to appear as an unethical hunter to my friend on our first hunting trip together. I followed the ridge line down into a shallow drainage when I saw another lead cow with several young bulls/cows and calfs walking slowly single file! They were only 15 yards away at best, but I had a clear shot, so I put the lead cow in my sights and let a bullet fly! A clean miss! I couldn't believe it, but after beating myself up after missing the shot I realized that I had my rife sighted in at 200 yards. Well, I should have hit her anyway, but that's just the way it goes.
After the missed shot, I tried to chase the heard, but couldn't find them, so I climbed another ridge chasing another loud bugle. I didn't find the bull, but I did see a cow about 50 yards down-hill, silouetted in the juniper branches which surrounded her. Like an idiot, I decided that I see if a 300 winmag would bust through the brush and hit her! Yup! I was wrong. She just stood there for a few seconds laughing at me and the hill exploded with cows running everywhere!
I'm still burning boot leather chasing bugles, when Dave calls me on the radio... "I shot an elk!" "Great!" I tell him. I told him that I was coming to help him gut and load the animal on my truck, so off I hiked back down hill when another cow and calf walked no more than 10 yards in front of me! I took a standing shot and same as before... a clean miss! I couldn't believe it! As I was walking toward Dave, I met a two guys that downed to cows, but only brought one knife and no sharpener! They asked if I would gut one of the animals since their knife was dull. I told them that after I help my friend out, I'd be right back to give them a hand. Well, I'm done helping Dave and I gut the cow for these guys and then they ask me to help them load the cows on to their Kubota "Ranger" look-alike. No problem. I just tied rope to my quad and to the cows and towed the beasts right into the bed of their rig. The were blown away how easy it was and thanked me profusely! One of the guys noticed that I was still hunting and said that I've got good Kharma now and I was sure to get an elk.
Now I'm at camp skinning and butchering Daves elk, tired and beat, but I still go out hunting. Nothing! I saw more Bulls, but none of my quarry. Dave didn't want to drive his vehicle up so I had to drive him home and put his meat in my freezer to keep it fresh. Now I'm hunting all by my lonesome. Two days go by with the same thing... lots of miles hiked and bou coup Bulls and no cows! Finally on Tuesday, I'm whooped, beat, tired and sore. I decided to make it a scouting day. I burned more boot leather in the morning and didn't see a thing! After that, I decided to go for a drive and save my legs for Wednesday's hunt. I drove to several areas and didn't see anything promising, so I went back to camp and downloaded my quad and decided to follow some trails. It's a good thing I did! I found an amazing water tank that had a huge meadow leading to it!
I sat behind an old dead Ponderosa Pine log and waited and waited! Sure enough a heard of elk came down from the hill, crossed the meadow and congregated in the tank! There must have been 30 elk! Cows, calfs, spikes and one huge bull! I took my time and found a cow standing on the berm of the tank! I steadied the rifle and fired! The heard scattered, but this cow tried to run, but couldn't keep up! As she stood still 200 yards away, I put one more round in her to seal the deal!
Now the work begins! I gutted the cow and it was a major chore! I don't know why, maybe I was just too tired, but the two animals before were a piece of cake! Anyway, no I'm thinking to myself, I don't want to make two trips loading this beast in my truck and then coming back to load my quad and then come back to camp. Here's where the family next door came in to help.
I offered some money to these folks if they would just come with me and drive my truck back since I didn't want to make two trips down two nasty trails back to our camp. They were more than happy to help and even offered the use of their trailer! Ofcourse I took their offer and away we went!
One of the brothers new a shortcut to this camp, so we took his advice... Bad Idea! Somehow we ended up on the wrong road and it took us a good four hours to finally get to where my cow was and bring her back to camp!
Now it's 1:00am and I still had to skin the animal. I finally went to bed at 3:20am and woke back up at 7:00 and butchered her up. I lost my carving knife and one of these nice folks had a metal detector and immediately found my knife! I even forgot that I left my pack frame outside of our camp while loading my quad and the matriarch of the family asked me what that shiny metal thing was! These folks saved my bacon 3 times and were more than happy to do anything for me! I'm really going to miss that wonderful family. I truly envy them.
Well enough rambling on and please forgive my long winded rant. I've been up for almost two days shy 3 hours of intermittent sleep. I hope that this is readable, since I'm barely coherent now as it is.
The bottom line is that I put my neighbor and friend on elk for the first time and I made some new friends that I'd do anything in the world for in a heartbeat!
Here's my first attempt of taking a solo picture using the timer on this camera:
