Hello from a die hard North Carolina backcountry public land hunter.

[Elkhunter24]

welcome from PA!

 

[geetar]

Hey guys. Been a Randy fan ever since the first time I watched his show, and have listened to all the Podcasts since day one. Really diggin' Elk Talk lately.

Diehard public land hunter here in the NC mountains. Running bears over hounds, deer hunting, turkeys, squirrels, hogs, and running my German Shorthair for the few grouse and woodcock we've got around. You boys would be surprised at how rugged parts of the East can be! All the pics attached are National Forest or state Gamelands. Most places we hunt, I don't have the option to get a deer out whole, so they all get packed out. Sometimes 400 yards, and sometimes 4 miles...
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Been hunting out west since I was 15, and I'll be heading back next week for a 10-day pronghorn trip.

We hunt SOMEWHERE every year and this year was FINALLY the time for my dad, brothers, and I do a September elk hunt together. A trip 40 years in the making since the first son was born. Dad retired from his job in April at 60 years old and 43 years of service to the same company. He's in better shape than my brothers and I combined, and this would be the first western hunt for one of my brothers. To say we were excited was an understatement.

Been planning and prepping since the winter. Getting stuff together and shifting work commitments around (I'm a PM/Salesman for one of the largest regional commercial contractors in NC/SC. Like Randy says, I drive a desk for a living. Well, and a Subaru...)
Working on GoHunt to draw what we needed and doing the ENTIRE GROUP'S applications, getting the muskets ready to hunt a unit we know well and had leftover tags since we didn't draw NM or any of our CO lottery units, and getting in shape cause last October whipped my butt in the Gunnison NF.....

We were BOUND AND DETERMINED to make this an awesome hunt. My brothers and I agreed that the only mission was to make sure we had a musket tag for dad first, and if we couldn't get leftovers and had to bow hunt, that'd be perfectly fine with us too...

Fast forward to 6 weeks ago... mom and dad were mountain biking and mom ended up with a triple fracture in her that put her out of commission for 12 weeks, and dad on the sidelines and out of the trip.
My brothers and I were forced to scrap the whole trip the day before we were supposed to buy our tags, and 3 weeks before we were gonna leave...

I'd spent the last 6 months planning work, life, the year's vacation hours, my budget, and everything else around being out West in September...

LUCKILY, I've got the best wife in the world, and she knew how badly we just needed to get away together and retreat from our corporate lives...
So, she's riding shotgun with me out to CO next week for 10 days of blackpowder antelope, coyote calling, grouse bushwhacking, and trout fishing...

Before y'all ask how we can keep from killing eachother during a 10-day hunting/camping/goofing off road trip, don't worry. We got it.
We already did a 10-day boondoggle in May and managed to hit Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada with a little trip into Cali. We hiked 9 different parks in 9 days and logged a couple thousand miles on the rental and a couple dozen on our feet. Petrified Forest, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Death Valley, and the big ditch up there above the AZ strip...
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This is my first antelope trip ever. I've always wanted to get after them, but bugling bulls have always taken priority...
This is also her first "western hunt", and I'm downright giddy to show her what it's like as a hunter to see a totally new place, to hunt a totally new species, and figure it all out on the fly..
Honestly, I don't really care if we come back with a gunny sack full of meat. It's gonna be a blast either way.

We're hunting our way up the front range to fill two goat tags, with the final destination undetermined, and just gonna see what cool stuff we can get into. The only waypoint we have to hit is a buddy's fishing cabin outside of Rocky Mtn. Nat'l, and make it back to NC to be sitting at our desks on Monday 10/1!

We're super excited, and I'll post up our adventure in the Pronghorn section of the site. Neither my wife and I have ever had any social media like FB, Twitter, or the like, but we're toying with the idea of making a trip-specific Instagram for our adventure to keep from having to text pics and updates to all of our friends and family... If we can figure out how to use the dang app, I'll post the handle on here if you guys want to follow along.

The best part? The wife doesn't have a care in the world to harvest an animal. She loves everything about the hunt, though...
She loves the glassing, hiking, stalking, calling, and camping.
She helps with the field dressing and the packing.
She's the best fisherman I know, and best of all, she's the only person in my crowd that likes deer/elk heart tacos as much as me!!!!!!

On top of all that, she helps me process all the game that comes through our home, and 90% of our yearly protein comes from the field.
Last year she and I butchered, processed, packaged, jerkyed, dehydrated, canned, and stored a whole 6-pt bull elk and all the goodies, roughly 300# of boneless whitetail meat, 100# of feral hog, 200# of yellowfin and bigeye tuna, about 100# of mahi, and untold numbers of squirrels, birds, ducks, trout, etc. (even a couple bags full of crow breasts to make dehydrated treats for my bird dog)

Everything we do is about wild game, public land, and wild places (no matter where you find them), and I hope I can glean enough knowledge from you guys to help me be a better western hunter for years to come.

Looking forward to getting to know you guys.

Thanks, Logan

P.S.

Randy, my wife and I would LOVE to have a chance to grab a cup of coffee with you if our paths ever cross. Our treat. It would be a privilege. I'll buy for the cameraman too.
Fresh Tracks is the only outdoor show my wife enjoys, and Unfiltered is one of the only outdoor podcasts she likes to listen to with me.

If you're gonna be anywhere around CO in the next few weeks, give us a shout!

I’m from NC also. We don’t have the same elevations as they do out west but the ruggedness is definitely there. Nice pics.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Welcome!

 

[Scarey]

Welcome

 

[tarheel]

Welcome neighbor,
Leave a few for the rest of us. Enjoyed the intro!

 

[338 win mag]

Welcome from a fellow NC hunter

 

[Scott85]

The OP hasn't been here since OCT 26, 2018.