Hairy Beasts and Smell Korns

[Gerald Martin]

Am I crazy to wait 5 minutes for a hero shot?

That was the hero shot. Cool knife on a chunk of horn. Horn and knife porn clickbait….

This gives me a really good idea. I’ll call it OnlyStories. Hunting tale fantasies for hunting forums….

Congrats on your bull @Stone_Ice_1 !

 

[Caseknife]

Lunch break tomorrow for the final chapter is my guess

 

[mtmuley]

That was the hero shot. Cool knife on a chunk of horn. Horn and knife porn clickbait….

This gives me a really good idea. I’ll call it OnlyStories. Hunting tale fantasies for hunting forums….

Congrats on your bull @Stone_Ice_1 !

Make sure you offer my long barrel T-shirts on only stories. I enjoyed the story. Another one I really liked was when Hem held his sheep tag close to the vest. Hope you post a bull pic @Stone_Ice_1. Congrats. mtmuley

 

[Hem]

I'm just having fun.
Great thread.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I sent out my Garmin Mini report to some friends and family and got ready to start the long day of breaking down and getting this animal back home. I tell people all the time that any serious hunter should break down and pack out an elk by himself at least once. You don't realize how much work it is until you've done it by yourself a time or 2. I find the day of breaking down the animal is more tiring than pack out day. Taking care of an elk, whether it is quartering or boning out, takes a lot out of you. This is of course usually on a day that you have hunted most of the day or sometimes like this day it happens right away. If I am in very far I will take out the first load that day and come back the next day for the rest, usually with a friend or two. But that day of breaking down the animal and taking the first load out always wipes me more than the actual pack out day, maybe it is just me.

So first I got to taking a few pictures. Also another chore when you are by yourself and trying to get things set up right.


This is how a found him. Right up against this rock. That rock proved to be a bit of a pain when I started taking care of him but was able to slide him down to the patch of snow you see below him.





As you can see, the sunrise was beautiful and not even up yet. One plus was after my goat hunt I was going to make sure to get plenty of pictures this time around.

This bull is a good representative of what I saw all year for mature bulls. Not a giant by any means but a good solid 6 point. Wouldn't surprise me if I passed up this bull earlier in the season at some point as I hunted this general area a few times. He isn't quite the monster I was hoping to find but it had been a fun hunt and season. Throughout the season and all the bulls I laid eyes on, I did not for sure see a big one. There are a few I didn't get eyes on or a few that I only got a glimpse of that may have been a big guy but of the ones I saw and got a good look at they were mostly very similar to this one.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

A few more pictures before I really get to work...




The sunrise made for some good pictures.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

So then the work started. I started working on getting him broke down. Truck was about a mile off so my plan was to mostly quarter this one. Usually I don't like to pack out bones but this wouldn't be too bad. After working on him a while I decided to get one of the back legs out with my hunting pack and then grab my meat packing pack in my truck and come back. I also would grab my game cart because I hoped I could pack everything to the top of the hill and then since it is all downhill from there I would use the gamecart and possibly get it all in one trip.



The snow was great for cooling off the meat and keeping things clean.

After getting out one of the back legs I then finished cutting up the rest. This took longer than usual, I had some problems with my knife. It got very dull and my sharpener had been lost on the goat hunt. I hadn't replaced it yet. Luckily I had a multi tool in the truck that I had grabbed when I took the first pack out. I was able to finish up the rest with that. Then I packed everything to the top of the hill where I had left the game cart.


This is roughly the location that I shot from above but looking the other way. You can see my truck at the bottom of the hill. I made it down the steep part of the hill with some meat and the antlers on my back while holding onto the game cart to keep it from taking off down the hill on its own. Once at the bottom of the steep part I decided all of it was too much and left the game cart and came back for it.

I got home about 5 oclock and the first thing my kids say is "What took so long?! We have been waiting all day!" Reminds me of the time I shot a spike a few years ago and was working on dragging it back to the truck after it had gotten dark and busting my ass. There was a short uphill section right before the truck and I was struggling dragging it uphill. After a while one of the kids opens the door to the truck and yells out "Dad, hurry up, what is taking so long!"

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I will be curious to get the results back on the teeth for the age. Supposed to get them back by May.

After a season chasing elk in this district here is my evaluation of it:

This is a fantastic district if you are looking for a decent 6 point that you won't necessarily have to pack in several miles to find and get. However if you are looking for a big one there are better places to go. In my opinion its a great district for your average Joe to maybe get that elusive mature bull he hasn't been able to otherwise get. There are of course big ones around. That said it is a really fun hunt. You see lots of elk, and many of them are bulls. For archery season it is really fun because they actually call. I heard more bugles this year than I probably have heard throughout my entire hunting career.

The sad part is this district has amazing potential. It is a very large district and most of it is PRIME elk country. There are a lot of elk here but this area has the potential for many more. For this to be a true trophy district there are 2 things that I believe need to happen:

1. Stop leasing every square inch of this district to ranchers. The cattle is here until October and they eat all the grass on the winter grounds that these elk need in the winter. After October it doesn't grow back. It is unbelieveable the amount of cattle and where I ran into cattle throughout my hunt.
2. Stop shooting spikes. I even believe they should decrease or stop the shooting of cows for a year or two. Like I said this area has the potential for many more elk.

I did hear from several people when I drew the tag that during rifle there would be people everywhere. With the exception of opening weekend I did not experience that. I didn't honestly see that many people after that. However one reason for that is I tend to hunt areas that others won't/don't.

All that said I can say that I will still apply here. Mostly because as I showed in my first post I can see the district from my house, it is close by. The 2nd part is archery season was a blast.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

To wrap up the story the next week we went to my family hunting camp. My son was able to get a little 4 point whitetail. Other people in camp had seen the buck a few times through the season but nobody had been able to close the deal. He was easy to recognize because he was missing most of one of his antlers. I believe he may have gotten hit by a car at some point.



It was a good ending to a pretty fantastic season!

 

[BuckRut]

2. Stop shooting spikes. I even believe they should decrease or stop the shooting of cows for a year or two. Like I said this area has the potential for many more elk.

Unless you get them to not allow people into the wintering ground until April I don't know that there could be many more elk.

 

[Caseknife]

Awesome story and season and beautiful pictures, thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

[Jbotto]

Congrats on the great season! This has been an excellent thread to follow along with in the post-season!

 

[Hem]

As someone that lives in the South end of the unit this thread has been interesting to follow along. I've been here for 22 years, hunted cow elk, muledeer, whitetail, and antelope in 380, mostly the bottom half. I know quite a few people who have drawn this tag, to include some land owner preference guys. I think it's fair to say it's not nearly the unit for bulls as it was 20+ years ago. Confounds me people still perceive it to be the holy grail. In recent years I don't believe I've seen a 350 bull. Landowners friend has a house full of bulls this class that he killed on public ground. He, or his adult kids haven't killed anything huge for quite a few years. They hunt like you did, but know the country better than most.
I put in dutifully. Think it would be fun just once to hunt local.
Glad you had a good hunt, filled your tag.
Solid bull. Congrats!

 

[FishN4Eyes]

Thanks for sharing your story. I know you got a lot of teasing for taking your time on this one but I sure enjoyed it and it was always a nice read after my lunch.

I live across the road from 380 and have property in 380 (not enough for Landowner's Preference unfortunately) and have put in for the tag every year since it started and haven't drawn yet but I'll keep putting in there just for the reasons you outlined.

Nice bull and congrats and thanks again for taking the time to put the story together, I enjoyed it.

 

[MTTW]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, I have enjoyed reading about your season.

 

[Oak]

Congrats on the great season. That's a lot of time in the field.

I've done a few "long reads" like this and it's a lot of work. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

[Luke_with_a_lab]

Congrats on a great bull. You did the tag justice with the time put you in. When I had the tag in 2021 I killed my bull just below where it looks like you were. I used the same strategy many days, dropping in on the top of them. I had the whole unit cow tag there this year. As luck would have it I had a 330-340” bull run across in front of us at full speed. Must have been spooked by someone else. Thanks for the write up!