Vanish and FireTiger's Journal - Season 6

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I packed up a bit early from work at the Village Inn ( they sure were confused when I hung around to eat lunch after having had breakfast! ) in hopes we could get to camp before dark. We headed out from Craig back up into the mountains with just enough time to see where she would hunting the next day and find the piece of BLM we would be camping on. It was 4x4 from the moment we turned off 40, with the snow falling and it getting deeper and less traveled the closer we got to our destination. The moment we hit land we could hunt, we started seeing elk.

There's a few things to keep in mind here. 1.) Neither of us have ever rifle hunted elk, only archery. 2.) Neither of us have experience with late season hunting. 3.) FireTiger has taken one cow elk, no bulls.

So, we were pretty excited when we started seeing elk, and in numbers that were hard to fathom. It was about 4:30 when we hit the hunting grounds, and in the 30 minutes it took us to get to the BLM camp spot from the border of the huntable land, we saw at least 500 elk. Most of these elk were over a mile away, but we also had some within 100 yards of the truck.

As darkness was setting, we pulled in to camp with a few minutes of light left. There were at least 100 elk within view right from camp, including 4 branch bulls. I took a quick blurry photo through my binoculars.

 

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In the morning, we grabbed a quick bite, warmed up in the truck and as light dawned, we pulled out from camp. Around the first bend we found the herd from the night before, hanging out too close. They were down in a creek bottom, out of view from camp, but obviously tipped off to our truck. They made their way up the hill a short ways, but didn't seem too disturbed. We backed around the corner and FireTiger told me her plan. I would stay back and keep tabs on them while she used the brush in the bottom to hide her approach.

Well, it didn't work out because the creek was much larger than she expected and couldn't find any way to safely cross. She backed out and we regrouped. She decided she was probably too excited and we should probably take a closer look to see if there was a bull she wanted to pursue anyway. Upon review, it was a different herd from the night before, with the largest bull being a small 4x4. She elected to go look for a bigger bull, and preferably in a bachelor group, so as not to have to deal with 200 eyes. On the drive in the night before we had seen one pair of decent looking bulls not with a big herd, and that was the the situation she was looking for today.

This whole situation had occurred within the first 30 minutes. Excitement was still high.

 

[wolfpup]

Excellent thread! I Am envious of the season you have had and getting to do it all with your wife. Can't wait to hear the rest!

 

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Took a screencap from some video of that first herd.



We drove on and quickly spotted another group of elk. I parked out of sight, hopped out of the truck and snuck up the hill to glass. All cows. Continuing on took us over the creek and up the next hill. Glassing back, it turns out I had only seen a small fraction of the herd, and that there was at least one branch bull with them. FireTiger didn't see anything huge and thus wanted to move on to deal with less eyes.

We came to a valley where we had seen a huge group of elk the night before. Sure enough, they were still in the area, but far enough that we couldn't tell what were bulls versus cows even through my grandfather's old 45x Redfield spotting scope. We parked and began the hike in to get a better look.

 

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Since Big Fin posted a photo of his truck in the snow, I feel obligated to post mine! We debated putting the chains on a couple of times but flirted with getting stuck only once. Most of the roads at least one person had driven down already, but one road was ours to plow the path. There was about 12 to14 inches of snow on that road and was actually kind of fun to chart the course. Most of the other roads only had about 6 to 8 inches of powder. I wish I had a photo or video of that one, as it was a new experience for me.

 

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Right, so, we began our hike in to a ridge that looked like it should give us a good view of the elk at the back of the valley. I carried the spotter and the camera. It didn't take too long to get up there, but things didn't quite pan out as we were hoping. When we had spotted the elk from the truck, they were elk spread out all over the mountainside. When we hit the ridge, the ones we could see were balled up pretty tight. We were also much farther from the elk than we expected ... should have spent more time looking at the map and planning our best vantage point.

Then I saw what had caused such a change. Another hunter was working his way closer to one of the herds farther up the valley. I was surprised he had so many elk on edge, but we decided to leave these elk to him and go find some others.

We drove around checking out some new territory and spotted another large herd of elk a couple of miles away on top of a peak. There were two bulls on top that stood out from the rest. We had trouble determining if they were on huntable land but we wanted to get another vantage of them and monitor the herd in case they were huntable. This lead us to loop back to our original location, where the herd from the morning was hanging out on the opposing hill. They still didn't have any elk FireTiger was interested in pursuing, but they were fun to watch, and the second herd with the two better bulls was visible from here as well, so we made some breakfast while keeping tabs on them.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Great job Vanish & FireTiger!

 

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The elk all bedded down, so we decided to go check out some more new vantage points. We set up the spotting scope on the tailgate to glass a ridge to the northwest and it was covered up in elk all along the top. As I was scanning the different groups, one elk in the brush/timber caught my attention. I was watching him through the scope and could tell he was a bull, but not how big. Suddenly, a different bull appeared right in front of him. I called to FireTiger, "BIG BULL!" and he disappeared into the trees once again.

We formulated a plan, but knew it would be tough with all the eyes around. We'd loop around the back / north side of the hill, climb up to a saddle, and hopefully set up and ambush as the elk were generally slowly working from east to west. Unfortunately, Hank started howling the last time we left him in the truck, so I would be wrangling him and hanging back as we worked up the hill.

Well before we hit the saddle, we were suddenly in elk. Apparently, they were on both sides of the ridge. We could see several bulls, including a heavy 5 point, bedded at about 6-700 yards, but we had cows feeding at 100. The wind was in our favor, so we just held tight. I was about 50 yards behind FireTiger, when suddenly I saw cows appear to my left, way too close. FireTiger hid under a bush, and they fed by at 20 yards of her. Phew, that was close!

We were hoping the bulls I had glassed would work their way through where the cows had been, but after nothing came through for awhile, she moved up to cut the distance. This worked for awhile, and she got to ~400 yards of the bulls. At one point, she passed on 3 small branch bulls within 120 yards, but the largest was a 4x4. With bigger bulls in sight and lots of time, no reason to end things yet. But then things fell apart, with a cow closer than expected. The herd balled up around the bulls, and eventually decided they'd had enough. It took them awhile to make a decision, but finally they bailed over the ridge to the west.

Knowing that elk had been spread over a wide range on the ridge, we did not lose hope. FireTiger was feeling uncomfortable with me and Hank and her prospects of sneaking the timber on the south side of the hill, so I dropped all the way back down to the truck, and drove around to the location where we had originally glassed the elk, in hopes I could signal which way to head to FireTiger.

I was unsure if it would be possible from that distance, and it would take me about half an hour to get into position. As I pulled the truck over and pulled up my binoculars, I was happy to see a few elk on the ridge. I then realized that it was the two bulls I had glassed that we were after (and I third we hadn't seen), and FireTiger was right there! At the distance I was from her, it looked like they were going to walk right over top of her.

Through the binoculars I can tell she is aiming, but no shot fires. Eventually, the bailed off the bench, down the hill and out of town. What the heck happened? The whole thing looked perfect, and I could the lead bull was by far the largest we had seen. We signal back and forth and eventually I head over to pick her up. On my way, I can see both herds we had been watching over lunch are making their way down to the bottoms to feed for the evening. Its after 4pm, but it might be possible to get another opportunity.

Upon picking up FireTiger, she tells the short, sad story. We had gotten a new bipod for this hunt, a taller one, as we new there would be sage and a prone shot was unlikely. When she was setting up on the bulls, the one leg of the bipod had not been clicked in fully, so when she put pressure on the leg to aim, it retracted, making a nice metal clunk sound. The bulls were under 50 yards and weren't going to put up with that! OUCH!

While it seemed like a perfect setup, it was only the first day, and there were hundreds more elk coming down just around the corner...

 

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We got in position above where the herds were moving down into a creek bottom. It was incredible to watch that many elk. There were several bulls, including two 5 points we were watching. None of them got FireTiger overly excited, so even there it looked like we could get into position for a possible ambush, with only 20 minutes of light left, she was content to just watch them.

We made the short drive back to our BLM location, to find elk practically standing where we were going to camp. Tomorrow would be a good day.

Did I mention, it was freaking cold? We were camping in the back of the truck, with each of us in double sleeping bags and some blankets, too. I still had to wear my layers at night. We were lucky if the temperatures were positive. We'd wake up in the morning to a layer of ice covering us. My boots were completely frozen in the morning. Not too sure how many years I have where I'd want to camp like that in that cold.

 

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Day two started with watching the big herd of elk near our camp cross the street on to unhuntable land. We decided to glass from a couple of different points we had found the day before. At the second location, we spotted a small group of elk in some timber on top of the ridge where FireTiger had the opportunity on the nice bull the night before. While we couldn't tell for sure there were bulls, with only about a dozen elk up there, FireTiger wanted to try still hunting in on them. I drove around and dropped her off on the back side of the ridge, then went back to the glassing location. This photo is terrible but, we saw several of these grouse.



I watched as FireTiger worked her way across the ridge. The distances were not as great as they appeared through the spotting scope. Eventually I saw a cow head peak out from the timber, and had a feeling things were about to go south. A few minutes later, I start to see golden bodies making their way through the timber, eventually bursting out into the sage and barreled down the hill. I counted 11 cows, so, no bull to be hunted anyway. They hesitated as they reached a road ... a poor choice. There was another hunter waiting in his truck and he took home a cow with a shot that definitely broke 2 or 3 laws.

 

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We moved on glassing more terrain, but the snow was moving through, making glassing difficult. Eventually we met some other hunters and chatted with them for about half an hour. We had been glassing one drainage and had found a group of elk, but were unable to make out any bulls. They felt certain there should be some bulls in there, as they had taken two cows out of there the night before and were planning on going back in for their remaining tags. We decided to let them have it, and moved on.

In the breaks of snow, we continually spotted elk, often alone. Each time we found a solo elk, I was expecting it to be a bull, but alas, we were only finding cows. While up on a knob, we saw a jeep drive up not too far away and park. Eventually a hunter got out and was glassing and pointing to the other hunter in the vehicle. Neither was making a move to hunt something, so we made our way down to them. There were two bulls just standing in the open 500 yards away, and they had cow tags. Neither of them looked overly large, so we didn't make a move at first, but then we noticed the smaller bull was limping. FireTiger debated, and finally decided she wanted to sneak closer and evaluate, as she didn't like seeing a wounded animal. Between us and the other hunters, we had been watching these bulls for probably 15 minutes, and yet as soon as FireTiger decided to make a move, so did the elk.

It was onward to the next glassing location!

 

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We set up at a location where we could see several hill tops at once. During the day, the elk would gather on the hill tops and bed down, seemingly so they could see danger coming from any direction. The snow would come and go, so glassing was in spurts. After one squall moved through, I glassed the top of the hill where FireTiger had made a stalk the night before and this morning as well, and it was black with elk.

They were coming out of the timber on top, and looked to be heading towards the hill closest to us. We pondered whether they would head to feed in the same creek bottom as the night before, and whether we should get in position down there now. The elk weren't exactly in a hurry, and so we were not confident in their choice of direction. Finally, they started moving south, which was not one of the directions we expected. This didn't last too long before they stopped once again, and some started to bed down. We could see two bulls without the spotting scope, so there was some potential here.

If the elk went East, this would be the creek bottom plan. If they went West, we'd move into the same saddle as the night before, but this time be there before the elk. A movement North would be private land, and we honestly had no plan if they went South. After about 45 minutes of watching, something got them on their feet. A few elk started moving uphill West, and soon the herd was in one long line headed West. Our plan was set in motion, and we drove over to the hillside where we would climb to the saddle.

A 20 minute climb brought us to the saddle. We carefully picked our way from clump of brush to clump of brush, but there was no sight nor sound (yes, they were loud, even some bugling!) of elk, only these guys:

 

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Well, it was after 3PM, so there wasn't a whole lot of time let in the day. FireTiger let me know we were going to slowly work our way East towards where we had last glassed the elk. It was about a half mile walk and we took our time, glassing nearby hills. We finally reached the crest of the eastern ridge, and still no elk. BUT! We hadn't seen the tracks a couple hundred elk would make, either. FireTiger took the lead, just in case we were to walk into elk, and suddenly dropped to her knees. She gave me the signal that there were elk below us, and so I dropped down and eased my way up to her.

By the time I had closed the distance, the elk below had started moving down the hill. They must have caught some movement and wanted to get out of dodge, as they were initially bedded. We watched them go, and there was only about a dozen cows, not the 200 or so elk we had glassed. I kneeled a bit higher, and caught sight of more elk, even closer, bedded below us, including a bull at 220 yards. FireTiger had the bipod up, and was trying to ease over the edge of the ridge and the sage. Just about when she was ready, the cows started standing up, obscuring the bull.

There were two hunters down below us. I don't think they knew we were up there, and I am not even sure they were hunting the same elk we were, but regardless, it put the elk on edge. The bull stood up, and FireTiger got ready for the shot again, but then the herd took off in a mass exodus. DANG! They were actually moving closer to us, but up a bit of a valley, so we couldn't see them any more. I pointed to FireTiger where I thought the next shooting location would be, if they hung around, and she moved into position while I tried to find the bull. Instead, I saw 4 bulls. They were all clustered together and I couldn't tell one from another.

Once again the elk started to move. FireTiger was in position, and one of the bulls stepped out into her opening and stopped broadside at about 100 yards. Can't ask for much more than that! ( The gap on the middle-left of the image )

 

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A single shot from the 7mm Mag and the bull stumbled, turned away from us, took two steps and face planted into the hillside. We didn't waste time, as it was already past 4PM and darkness was approaching. FireTiger finally had her first bull elk, and though he may not have been the largest elk on the mountain (he's a 4x5), the stalk and shot were nearly perfect, making for a memorable hunt we aren't soon to forget.







After gutting him, we dragged/sledded him down hill to the road. I made the 1.5 mile walk back to get the truck and then, with a light snow falling, we skinned and quartered by headlight. 90 minutes later and we were on our way to Craig to find a celebratory motel for the night, before the drive home the next day!

 

[Tjay]

Thanks for taking us along on your adventures.

 

[walnuttree]

Awesome write up. Congrats on the bull!

 

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With the nice weather, I've been working on getting the Euro mounts done for all of this year's success. Really happy with FireTiger's mule deer.

 

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Finished my skull mount from my first buck pronghorn. Still trying to figure out where I want to hang him. I've got him by the door in my office but if I didn't wear glasses he might take an eye out. You can't tell from the side, but he's a very lopsided bugger!

 

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The lighting sucks in my basement office.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Great job, Ryan!