Here is the recap my wife would lovingly and mockingly give:
"Lemme guess - you hiked a lot, got close, whispered, walked around some more, woke up early, got close, saw some animals, eventually got one, hiked a lot and then drank some beer and whiskey?!" Well, she's not too wrong. Here is the longer recap.
Wyoming General Tag - Rifle. Early into mid-October. It was the first time either my buddy or I had ever set foot in that area. Thank you to the Hunt Talkers who allowed me to reach out and bounce ideas off of you to make sure my plan was sane. The thoughts, advice and help went a long way. I went with one other guy who did not have a tag and we car/base camped and hiked in/out each day.
After ~8 hours of driving, we showed up, set up a base/car camp along the road and then hit the hills to get to a glassing point I identified from e-scouting for the evening to help get the lay of the land. The plan was to have a central car camp and mobilize from there as we learned the land a bit more. While I always tell myself to not fall victim to getting sucked into google earth and thinking the terrain is easier than it is, I definitely did but had also been doing a good amount of training this summer in anticipation of some steeper terrain than I typically hunt. The first hike out that evening to our glassing spot was only a mile but ~1,600' up - definitely a butt kicker. Thankfully we got eyes on four different groups of elk that evening and had a great idea where to head for our first morning out.
Example of some of the terrain
OnX What?! Why use that when you have a map that "shows you where your camp is and where the elk will be for Dada" drawn from your 4 year old daughter? Looks spot on to me.
Over the next five days, we spent each day hiking up different drainages in the same general area finding some vocal bulls and plenty of elk. We were waiting for them to shut up any time, but thankfully they mostly continued with talking during the mornings, with some occasionally rattling off midday and in the evenings. From the truck, the hike was generally steep for the initial 1-2 miles before leveling out up top. For the most part, the elk were all tucked into timber pockets pretty early in the morning, and would bugle back and forth until we got close. I could never fully figure out the right cadence/language to use to actually call any in, but we were able to keep some in their general areas as we moved in. We saw elk every day and had a few opportunities at bulls that either broke down in the last second or I decided not to shoot based on the bulls being smaller than I was hoping for – at least early on in the hunt. There was one exception. A big exception. On the evening of night #4, we were posted up on a point way up above a handful of different meadows. Right at shoot-thirty (less than an hour of shooting light left), we started hearing bugles below and to the south of us. We closed the distance as fast as we could through a very steep chute and stream bed and got to the edge of the timber where we expected to see some elk on the other side. Bingo. Up above us and only 150 (156 to be exact) yards away was a nice 6x6. I slid my pack out, rested on it and squeezed the trigger. Click. CLICK!?!?!? No BOOM?!?!?! WTF? Thinking it was a misfire, I cycled another through and same thing happened. I couldn't believe it. I break out my leatherman, take apart the lever and the bolt, move things around and put it back together. In the minute or two it took to do that, the bull continued to mill around above us. Thinking it would be good, I reloaded, aimed, CLICK. Completely demoralized, I looked at my buddy and signaled to him that we needed to ease out to try and get out without spooking them. As I did that a bugle rips off just below me so I get to the timber, move slightly only to find a small group including a larger 6x6 feeding around ~100 yards below. Turns out the solo 6 up top was a satellite. Further demoralized, we hike a pretty massive loop around and back down to the truck. Back at camp and in a slightly better headspace, I completely break down the rifle, check all of the components, clean it and put it back together. Working through the motions, it seems like things are back in working shape so I take a round, find a safe spot to aim and fire. BOOM.
We are a circle of trust here, right? Well, what I am about to share will hopefully save someone else the same pain. Well, turns out I officially suffered from my first ever experience with buck (bull) fever. Yup - it pains me to even write this but turns out I had my safety on the whole time. The click was simply the hammer striking the safety and never hitting the firing pin... Bring on the jokes, jabs, etc. I know I deserve them. In that moment, I went through my entire shooting motions, broke apart the gun in the field, etc. but never thought to check my safety. Wow. Like I said, hopefully me sharing this will remind someone, some time in the future, when they too have an animal in front of them and they cannot for the life of them find out why their gun is not operating as expected. CHECK YOUR DAMN SAFETY!
"Lemme guess - you hiked a lot, got close, whispered, walked around some more, woke up early, got close, saw some animals, eventually got one, hiked a lot and then drank some beer and whiskey?!" Well, she's not too wrong. Here is the longer recap.
Wyoming General Tag - Rifle. Early into mid-October. It was the first time either my buddy or I had ever set foot in that area. Thank you to the Hunt Talkers who allowed me to reach out and bounce ideas off of you to make sure my plan was sane. The thoughts, advice and help went a long way. I went with one other guy who did not have a tag and we car/base camped and hiked in/out each day.
After ~8 hours of driving, we showed up, set up a base/car camp along the road and then hit the hills to get to a glassing point I identified from e-scouting for the evening to help get the lay of the land. The plan was to have a central car camp and mobilize from there as we learned the land a bit more. While I always tell myself to not fall victim to getting sucked into google earth and thinking the terrain is easier than it is, I definitely did but had also been doing a good amount of training this summer in anticipation of some steeper terrain than I typically hunt. The first hike out that evening to our glassing spot was only a mile but ~1,600' up - definitely a butt kicker. Thankfully we got eyes on four different groups of elk that evening and had a great idea where to head for our first morning out.
Example of some of the terrain
OnX What?! Why use that when you have a map that "shows you where your camp is and where the elk will be for Dada" drawn from your 4 year old daughter? Looks spot on to me.
Over the next five days, we spent each day hiking up different drainages in the same general area finding some vocal bulls and plenty of elk. We were waiting for them to shut up any time, but thankfully they mostly continued with talking during the mornings, with some occasionally rattling off midday and in the evenings. From the truck, the hike was generally steep for the initial 1-2 miles before leveling out up top. For the most part, the elk were all tucked into timber pockets pretty early in the morning, and would bugle back and forth until we got close. I could never fully figure out the right cadence/language to use to actually call any in, but we were able to keep some in their general areas as we moved in. We saw elk every day and had a few opportunities at bulls that either broke down in the last second or I decided not to shoot based on the bulls being smaller than I was hoping for – at least early on in the hunt. There was one exception. A big exception. On the evening of night #4, we were posted up on a point way up above a handful of different meadows. Right at shoot-thirty (less than an hour of shooting light left), we started hearing bugles below and to the south of us. We closed the distance as fast as we could through a very steep chute and stream bed and got to the edge of the timber where we expected to see some elk on the other side. Bingo. Up above us and only 150 (156 to be exact) yards away was a nice 6x6. I slid my pack out, rested on it and squeezed the trigger. Click. CLICK!?!?!? No BOOM?!?!?! WTF? Thinking it was a misfire, I cycled another through and same thing happened. I couldn't believe it. I break out my leatherman, take apart the lever and the bolt, move things around and put it back together. In the minute or two it took to do that, the bull continued to mill around above us. Thinking it would be good, I reloaded, aimed, CLICK. Completely demoralized, I looked at my buddy and signaled to him that we needed to ease out to try and get out without spooking them. As I did that a bugle rips off just below me so I get to the timber, move slightly only to find a small group including a larger 6x6 feeding around ~100 yards below. Turns out the solo 6 up top was a satellite. Further demoralized, we hike a pretty massive loop around and back down to the truck. Back at camp and in a slightly better headspace, I completely break down the rifle, check all of the components, clean it and put it back together. Working through the motions, it seems like things are back in working shape so I take a round, find a safe spot to aim and fire. BOOM.
We are a circle of trust here, right? Well, what I am about to share will hopefully save someone else the same pain. Well, turns out I officially suffered from my first ever experience with buck (bull) fever. Yup - it pains me to even write this but turns out I had my safety on the whole time. The click was simply the hammer striking the safety and never hitting the firing pin... Bring on the jokes, jabs, etc. I know I deserve them. In that moment, I went through my entire shooting motions, broke apart the gun in the field, etc. but never thought to check my safety. Wow. Like I said, hopefully me sharing this will remind someone, some time in the future, when they too have an animal in front of them and they cannot for the life of them find out why their gun is not operating as expected. CHECK YOUR DAMN SAFETY!
Great story and great bull.
