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Lost in the Woods - Mental recharge season

Today was pretty interesting.

I woke up at 430 with a nasty migraine, trouble breathing, and having to run to the bathroom.

After a few hours of Tylenol, lots of water and Gatorade, napping, and a little coffee I was able to kick it.

I wasn’t dehydrated because I do pretty well with that. I just self diagnosed myself with a little mountain sickness. I went from Missouri straight to 9400 feet and I’ve been going probably a little too hard.

So todays plan was to take “take it easy…” 😂.

Oops…. That didn’t happen. My buddy and I chased elk all over the place. We would just pick a canyon or drainage we liked and explore it.

Kind of cool, but we found two bedded bulls that we did stalks on mid day. We just did some cold call set ups and the bigger of the two bulls really liked my whiney mews. He responded a few times and I put in a stalk. About 140 yards away we found him bedded and it was to time. I had plenty of blind spots and terrain to sneak in to what I figured was 30 yards. We’ll….

Turns out he had a cow.

I was probably 90 yards away and had 60 yards more worth of sneaking blind spots. She must have pegged me.

Passed a few small bulls as well….

All and all it was a good day. I’m about to make up a lot of calories with some sirloin burgers, with eggs & cheese on bagels. Plus snacks.


I’m going to attempt to get some rest and get back after it tomorrow.

Also if anyone ever has hunted cat claw… it’s my favorite! ;)

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Where is your granddaddy?
Had him at 22 all said and done.
He responded to some cow calls and brought him in. He only bugled once then came in silent.

I’ve also got a video of him chuckling at 22 yards. That was cool

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Today was a wild day to say the least.

This morning started with that fun little bull encounter I posted pictures of above.
Mid day exploring and cold calling produced another fun encounter with a 5 point we kicked up. He heard us and didn’t smell us so we called to him with some herd talk, he calmed down, and bedded back down.

This evening was pretty cool. I found some water that I know nobody was going to because there aren’t many people hunting up here and of the few, not many who want to drop off cliffs.

After sitting down there for a while I had an awesome bear encounter.

If I remember I’ll upload the elk video and bear video another time.

All in all another fun day, just no elk big enough to shoot!

Final random fact. I waved at a guy driving by camp and smiled. On the way back he stopped in and chatted with us. After a 45 minute chat he basically told us that he’s just come out of federal prison for being deemed an eco terrorist.
Pretty interesting article written about him:

Needless to say it was an interesting day!

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Today was a wild day to say the least.

This morning started with that fun little bull encounter I posted pictures of above.
Mid day exploring and cold calling produced another fun encounter with a 5 point we kicked up. He heard us and didn’t smell us so we called to him with some herd talk, he calmed down, and bedded back down.

This evening was pretty cool. I found some water that I know nobody was going to because there aren’t many people hunting up here and of the few, not many who want to drop off cliffs.

After sitting down there for a while I had an awesome bear encounter.

If I remember I’ll upload the elk video and bear video another time.

All in all another fun day, just no elk big enough to shoot!

Final random fact. I waved at a guy driving by camp and smiled. On the way back he stopped in and chatted with us. After a 45 minute chat he basically told us that he’s just come out of federal prison for being deemed an eco terrorist.
Pretty interesting article written about him:

Needless to say it was an interesting day!

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What’s wrong with the bull giving you the walk away? Looks like more than a 5 point!
 
That article was interesting to say the least! He sounds insane. Makes you wonder what hes doing back out in the woods...
 
Pretty sure I need to hunt with you just to eat your cooking.

Entertaining thus far!
Come on! We are well overdue an adventure.

That article was interesting to say the least! He sounds insane. Makes you wonder what hes doing back out in the woods...
It was interesting for sure. He said he was driving to new places to camp and hike. You never know who you’re going to meet in the woods. I always play calm and nice when I meet people in the woods, but have my pistol ready just in case.

We talked a long time and I think between my original wave and smile, plus the convo about how we are as hunters/outdoorsman - he definitely was more friendly with us than had we not been either of those.

He told us about the article. After he left and when I read it I was in shock for a while!
 
The draw season is here and it’s looking like incredible so far.

As of right now my September will be maxed out with 2 archery elk tags and 2 archery deer tags.

On top of that there will deer hunting in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, fishing, turkey hunting, and trapping. Add in a few other random adventures and this might be a fun season to document.

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The draw season started off swell with an Archery Elk tag in Montana plus the deer tag.

I’m going with a friend who has hunted the unit a few times and has been fairly successful. I’ve never stepped foot in Montana so this should be fun.

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Next New Mexico gave me a heart attack when I drew an archery elk tag and archery mule deer tag.

The elk unit is one that I hunted in 2020 and took my best bull.

See below

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The deer unit is near where I use to live when I was stationed in New Mexico and there is a decent population of deer.


Ultimately my goal for this season is to slow down and enjoy my time in the woods/mountains/outdoors.

These past few seasons my brain has been on fire and my body has been on overload from work and life stuff. So it’s time I learn to recharge better and there is no better place to do it.

Hope you enjoy.
Wow, that's awesome!
 
I hope lack of update means your packing out a bull? 🤔
I wish, but we are so close.
I’m in absolute monsters today. Yesterday too. I’ll try to sit down at some point and write stuff down, but after going the two bulls I went after this morning… I’m on a super adrenaline rush.

Monster 5 point that broke 300” easy and then a Mack daddy bull that gave me a show like you always dream of.

Glunking, groaning, insane bugles, and just kicking his cows around like they were rag dolls. I got into 75 yards on him and had more, but a fricken rag horn was in between us and had us pegged. I could have shot him at 15 yards, but you don’t shoot smaller 6x4s when bulls of a lifetime are right behind them.

I’ll be back after them here soon!
 
I wish, but we are so close.
I’m in absolute monsters today. Yesterday too. I’ll try to sit down at some point and write stuff down, but after going the two bulls I went after this morning… I’m on a super adrenaline rush.

Monster 5 point that broke 300” easy and then a Mack daddy bull that gave me a show like you always dream of.

Glunking, groaning, insane bugles, and just kicking his cows around like they were rag dolls. I got into 75 yards on him and had more, but a fricken rag horn was in between us and had us pegged. I could have shot him at 15 yards, but you don’t shoot smaller 6x4s when bulls of a lifetime are right behind them.

I’ll be back after them here soon!
Is this a LE tag... haha
 
I wish, but we are so close.
I’m in absolute monsters today. Yesterday too. I’ll try to sit down at some point and write stuff down, but after going the two bulls I went after this morning… I’m on a super adrenaline rush.

Monster 5 point that broke 300” easy and then a Mack daddy bull that gave me a show like you always dream of.

Glunking, groaning, insane bugles, and just kicking his cows around like they were rag dolls. I got into 75 yards on him and had more, but a fricken rag horn was in between us and had us pegged. I could have shot him at 15 yards, but you don’t shoot smaller 6x4s when bulls of a lifetime are right behind them.

I’ll be back after them here soon!
Wow! Your in a elk hunters dream! Go get him!
 
I wanted to give you an idea of how some of these stalks play out.

I’ll see elk
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But then when you go across the burn to get to them you get introduced to cat claw over your head and boulder fields.
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If you could see my body it looks like they unleashed a pack of methed out kittens and I was their scratch post.

It’s ok though. Last night I set up on where I figured the big bull was set up and passed on probably my biggest bull since I’ve been here. He was a good 6 point that would have easily been my #2 bull. I’m just gonna hold out another day or two before I start shooting bulls like him. I am not build for this holding out thing. 😬

Dinner was nice though



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All in all this has been a great trip so far. Yesterday’s encounters with the elk are what people dream of.

I love spot and stalking and I love a challenge of multiple eyes. It’s going to pay off soon!
 
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