PEAX Equipment

I do want your honey holes and your secrets!

and then...
 

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Well the plan was simple, get down there and kill a bool as fastest as possible with the small amount of supplies I could fit in my truck.

I made it through Grand Junction without getting mugged or raped and headed up the hill. I hadn’t been in the unit since 2011 so I was a bit lost. Several people gave me a little direction to get someplace by sunrise where I could look over a ton of country and get things figured out a bit.

Opening day found me on an overlook doing just that, although the crows and magpies flying around on an elk ribcage left there by some other rude guy were a bit distracting.



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Several elk were spotted and I enjoyed the morning watching 2 guys Fudd around in the oak brush while the elk bolted before they were even within 300 yards. One bool spotted on a distant ridge needed a better look.

I figured out how to get there that evening and although he was nice, he was also busted up (missing a royal and a 5th) pretty important tines IMO. Actually the place was full of elk and I spent the evening just trying to get out of there without sending them all scattering. DSCN3785.jpg
 
I got back to camp that night to find my buddy "young soft brown boy" (don't ask, long story) had made it down and intended to spend Sunday hunting with CSEH. We spent the morning on another glassing ridge and YSBB spotted a very fine bool. We watched him disappear(red circle) into a juniper/oak patch and then spent all morning trying to get him spotted from other various vantage points.

When none of that worked we just decided to hike in there and assume he might come out the way he went in. We sat up on a high point (yellow circle) all evening and he never showed himself:mad::mad::mad:.DSCN3786hitched up.jpg
 
That night YSBB had to leave as he values things like a happy boss and a content wife. I decided to spend all Monday morning trying to see if I could spot Sundays bool again. With no luck again I was determined to hike in there and figure out what happened the day before. I walked straight to the last place I saw him and simply started following his tracks, they were big and easy to figure out from the other tracks in the area. It was a learning experience to say the least how he went down onto the thick stuff like a muley buck and spent the entire day in there. Bedded 3 different times, fed and made 3 rubs!DSCN3792.jpg
 
In my perfect hindsight I should have tried to come in around the white cliffs (mid picture)or the bigger hill to the left that Sunday night and I may have gotten a shot at him, or not, hard to say when the Oak brush is 8 ft tall in spots. Its hard to tell from picture but his path put him almost in the bottom of the draw coming and then just a little bit over the edge heading back. Foiled again.

I spent the evening in there without much hope, he seemed a little dodgy and spooked when he went into the patch and it just didn't feel like a place a bool would continue to stay in. And as predicted nothingDSCN3786boolpath.jpg
 
As requested. :D

That night I drove over to cell service and everyone was blowing up the phone. It seemed a legendary Hunttaker was hunting deer and had a nice bool spotted and wanted me to come shoot it the next day. However, he also has a 3rd season bool tag so I was a little hesitant to race over and blast the thing out from him. He didn't think the bool would stay there 12 days.

He came up with a plan to go back the in the morning and if said bool was still there he would get a hold of me. I was going to pull camp and head in that direction and spend the morning hunting a new spot on the way.
 

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Tuesday morning, It's funny the things you don't notice in the headlights, like the entire area you drove through for 30 minutes was indeed in the fire this summer. When it got light, it was a surprise to say the least.

From this point I spotted that tan shape that nearly guarantees stupidity is sure to follow. I stashed my spotter and tripod in the rocks and dropped down to take a look. DSCN3794.jpg
 
enough with the ms-paint and blah blah blah. Can you just show what an elk looks like?

Hey! be patient im gleaning info here for a muzzleloader hunt within the next 3 yrs unless point creep takes it into infinity
 
I was sneakier than Chuck Adams and made it to 300 yards across the canyon from him. I then spent the next 3 hours watching him and trying to decide if I should shoot or not.

It was a free tag, there are certainly bigger bulls in the unit. But at the same time it is free tag, take the bool and go? I was also hesitant to shoot him because of where he was, he was already busted up and I was sure he'd roll to the bottom it was so steep and bust himself to pieces. He fed most of the morning.

https://vimeo.com/298278255
 
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