Family man's 2023 hunt log/recap

[jeremy.b]

This will be my 5th year logging my hunting adventures (man am I not getting any younger!).

Prior years linked below:

2021 Recap & 2022 season log
2020 Season Log
2019 Season Log
2018 Season Log

Up until today I was heavily waffling on whether I'd write up my hunts from 2023. Free time getting less free hasn't helped. BUT its been a good year thus far, and worth bringing the Hunt Talk crew along for the ride (and a few other folks that still are willing to read my long winded stories and want a link to follow)

Season has been pretty simple up to this point, although full of activity: chased turkeys the bulk of the Idaho spring season (with plenty of stories to come on there) and then a good 11 days chasing elk solo/with my buddy Josh during Idaho archery season (+1 day packing a bull out of the hole he died in ). Whitetail season is picking up steam and content should be coming as that unfolds, and there is still an elk tag that I'll be involved with trying to fill.

Pics and stories to come over the next couple days!

 

[jeremy.b]

2023 spring turkey

I'll camp out a bit on these stories from the spring.

Saying the spring was productive would be putting it, uh, mildly...

I called in or was shooter on 8 different birds taken this spring, so a good time was had by many!

Youth Season (with Caleb)

Season started out with taking my middle kiddo Caleb out during the youth season. We located a bird, misjudged his position.

I gave Caleb the choice on going around below or climbing back above to get on the bird, and he chose to climb right back up the 400 ft of elvelation we had dropped to make a play on the bird. We eventually did get a setup, but the bird didn't want to play the game.

I was super impressed with Caleb the whole day. Lots of hiking, and not a single complaint the whole day, and maybe just a little sleeping on the way home...

We snuck in a before-school hunt above the house, attempting to call in 7+ birds from private onto public, no luck but it was a stellar way to start that day!

Regular Season starts

Opening day of regular season found my buddy Josh and I out in the same spot where Caleb and I had our first hunt.

Lots of birds were sounding off at first light, Josh was first shooter since this was his first ever turkey hunt.

Did a first setup on a bird in a draw that decided to follow his hens instead of coming over to the sweet hen calls I was making (still baffled by that to this day ). Had a bird gobble behind and below us shortly after that, got Josh setup, called the bird in perfectly for Josh. Unfortunately Josh decided to just point the shotgun in the birds general direction instead of making sure he was down tight on the gun and I got to watch the bird fly off completely unscathed... Was a nice 2yr old tom too...

We watched a batch of birds on the next ridge chase eachother around, and made a move on them. Josh was still shooter (a point that I seriously reconsidered for a good 30 seconds) and got a setup done. Took some work but eventually 4 birds walked right into Josh's lap. I was immediately behind him and NONE of the birds had a visible beard. Red heads, look like jakes, but no beards!

Josh was holding off, so I did a raven call and all 4 gobbled, which was enough for Josh and he knocked over the one he was lined up on. It took some digging but we did find the beard, all of 1/2" long! But hey, Josh had is first bird down!

On the way back to the truck another bird torched off below us. I was honestly just fine with Josh having filled his tag and being done for the day. Josh, on the other hand, did bring up that the bird was sounding off where the one he missed had flown to and redemption would be sweet... I wasn't convinced at first, and in a vane hope the bird didn't want to play, hit the call once. Which of course elicited an immediate response from the bird... FINE, we'll go chase the bird...

We dropped down a bit since the bird was a ways below us, and about 1/2 way down did a locator call. And the bird was clearly making tracks up to where I had called from and was almost even with us in elevation already!

We did a quick setup, I hit the call once to get his attention and Josh took over calling and dropped back. Took all of 3 minutes and the bird poked up over the ridge in front of me less than 20 yds away in full strut. I waited for him to come out of strut and get a little cover so I could swing over, which he did exactly to script. And just like that I had my first of 2 tags filled.

 

[jeremy.b]

Regular Season continued

The second day of season was a chance for Hope and I to get out and try to get her a bird. The kids were shipped off to my folks the night before and we had the whole first half of the day to ourselves.

We made it to the spot a little later than I would have liked, but as we stepped out of the truck 2 different birds fired off 1/4 mile up the hill from us!

We did our best to get at least to their elevation before they hit the ground, but ran out of time and darkness to get very close. We set Hope up just off the break of a ridge and I started working the birds. And working and working and working them... Stubborn things did NOT want to come out of the trees! After at least 30 minutes (and full day light by now) the birds got quiet, which meant they finally hit the ground.

A couple minutes later they sounded off and were definitely on their way. We were a bit lower in elevation than the birds, and as they worked closer the started circling around below our setup, but not exposing themselves. Hope kept adjusting her position until finally we could hear drumming just below us. The popped out at 20ish yds and gave Hope a great shot on her first bird (after 3+ season of working to get one down!)

Caleb and I snuck in another hunt a few days later, but no luck that day. His fantastic attitude did continue though (makes it awful easy to take a kid hunting!)

 

[jeremy.b]

Turkeys continued!

My BIL Brian came up to chase birds around. We went out the evening he arrived and (eventually) put a couple birds to bed, actually not far from where Hope's bird had roosted.

The next morning greeted us with some fresh snow.

We got setup above the birds, but neither read the script, or more likely wanted to follow it. One came up below me, then decided to just run off (he never saw me as I was tucked behind some timber and Brian was a ways away as well). The other bird circled below us gobbling up a storm, but just marched on past without giving us much thought.

We hit a couple other spots, snuck in on a bird near where Caleb and I had his first setup but all without luck. We meandered our way through the area over to a spot over another basin to sit and wait for something to sound off. Fairly quickly I caught sight of birds on the other side of the basin cruising through, and for fun fired off a couple yelps. Shortly after multiple birds responded down below us in the basin, and we could tell they were shifting around not far below us. We made a move to try to cut one off as he was headed up the center of the basin. We got about halfway across, touched off a call and he responded right back, and it was quickly clear he had turned and was on his way right now. Brian set up and I dropped off a bank to call. It didn't take long and the I could tell the bird had rounded the corner and BOOM Brian dropped him!

We took Caleb back out to a couple spots the next day. While we had a good time and did get one setup in, nothing really wanted to play the game, even after attempting to use my patented napping technique.

 

[jeremy.b]

Turkeys continued!

The next chapter involved a few of my friends coming up from southern Idaho to chase birds. Andy and Mike from previous adventures, along with Andy's lady friend Felicia.

We shipped the boys off to my folks for the weekend and turned the house into turkey hunting central for a couple days!

First morning after everyone arrived we tried out different spot. We found birds, Andy and Felicia got on one first thing, but he didn't cooperate. Mike and I worked another couple birds that also didn't want to cooperate.

We bailed from the area and headed back to my main stomping grounds. Eventually we turned up a bird and got Mike setup. The gobbler didn't get within range, but we called a whole flock of hens right into Mike's lap, which was highly entertaining!

The following morning we hit a nearby area and had a ton of birds going off in the area. We tried to work a bigger flock to pull some away without success. Then a lone bird sounded off above us, so we relocated and got setup. I was able to call the bird right to the break of the ridge, but something spooked him that he took off. Turns out Mike, being a midwestern bird guy didn't get the memo that you can't move an inch when a tom can see you, and decided to track the bird as it moved along the ridge... It took until the end of the day for that little tid-bit to come up in conversation where I explained that moving is BAD, and only move when you're ready to shoot. Point made, and if he does it again then he'll get no end of grief!

After that call-in we moved on up the ridge, found another bird with hens and no interest in us. Not far from those birds another couple gobblers were sounding off and we moved over and got Mike, Felica and Andy all setup. The birds were super responsive, and there were quite a few, sounding like a handful of jakes, hens and a full sized gobbler or two in the group.

They got within about 60 yds of the setups, but hung up on a band of trees, eventually going quiet. I gave it a few minutes, shifted my position and called again getting a response, but now shifted to where Andy and Felica were setup. I moved to try to draw the birds back across all the lines of fire when a hen popped up right next to me, turns out she walked right over the top of Andy and Felicia on her way to me. A little more calling and BOOM, off goes a shot. The whole flock had finally cleared the trees and gave Andy a shot on a Jake.

Andy & Felicia headed back down to the truck and I dragged Mike WAY back up in the drainage we were in chasing a bird we had heard. We did get on him, but he wasn't interested in leaving the hen he was with to come check us out.

Mike headed home the next day, and Andy & Felicia spent the morning chasing birds in the same area, but not getting any shot opportunities before heading home that afternoon.

 

[jeremy.b]

Turkeys....

I took Caleb out a couple more times in the following weeks. We had some cool experiences, including having a hen walk right past our setup at 10 yds. Caleb made a tiny shift and she caught his movement and expressed her displeasure by putting at us for a good 5 minutes (and nicely cementing into Caleb's head that he really CAN'T move!)

Josh picked up his second spring tag and we headed out to our normal spot. Much like when Hope and I got there we were a touch late, but greeted by two birds within a 1/4 mile above us sounding off.

We put ourselves into a position between the birds and I worked on trying to call one of them up to Josh (and was setup to cover the 2nd bird). The first bird was gobbling like crazy, hit the ground and just kept it up... as he move completely away from us. The bird on MY side did head our way, and circled around my position, right into Josh's shooting lane!

Josh's 2nd bird down, we hung it in a safe place and went chasing birds for me with limited success. We did get setup tight on one bird, but as soon as we hit the calls he turned and left the area. This bird acted just like the bird that walked right under Brian and I, as well as the other bird from that morning. Super vocal, but pretty adverse to coming into calls.

 

[jeremy.b]

Moar Turkeys....

The season was winding down, but I finally was able to grab a day to get out solo for birds to work on my 2nd tag. Found the super vocal bird first thing, tried to position myself where I hoped he wanted to go, setup with some light calling. Nope, he went the other way. I hightailed it to try to cut him off and abandon calling. I didn't get the position correct and he bypassed me. I tried again, and again missed the positioning and the bird dropped out of public down on private.

I headed on my way to look for another bird, with that bird now in timber on private, and still gobbling like crazy. As I moved into the timber I popped off a couple yelps at the bird out of spite and kept moving. And he responded... and now again closer... NOW he wants to come in?? Fine, I setup, call once more and shut up.

He sounds off again, now just below me on a logging road (I have no visibility to). I wait it out, make a couple super quiet yelps. Finally I catch movement under me, ID the bird as a gobbler, shoot and down he goes! And the original bird gobbled from where I last heard him??

Turns out he sent a buddy in to my position to take the fall (damn smart bird...) His buddy was a nice 2yr old at least!

The second-to-last day of season rolls around and the last tag anyone has is Caleb. I go out the night before and locate some birds near the house, in the area he had the 10 yd encounter with the hen.

We are a little late getting in, and the bird I had put to bed was already on the ground and moving when we got to the area. We did a quick setup but didn't have any luck drawing him into us.

We let him go for a bit, then followed a ways. He eventually seemed to stop at a highish spot in a timber cut. We dove into the nearby timber and tried to work around him. He eventually moved further off and we were not able to cut him off in time. We pondered our options and decided to try to cover ground faster along the open edge of the cut.

We made it all of 40yds when I looked up and saw the fan of a bird 30 yds in front of me. Busted, I dropped to the ground and had Caleb do the same. We snuck back into the timber, and then the bird gobbled?? I guess NOT busted. The bird worked past our position (no setups available to us there) and back towards the high spot he paused on originally.

We moved forward to roughly where he had turned around and got a good setup for Caleb. We settled in and I started working the bird. And working... and working...

It took a good 20-30 minutes, but FINALLY I could tell the bird started heading our way. I had Caleb get ready, (who didn't believe he was really coming).

Round the corner comes not one, but TWO long beards. They couldn't make out our position really, but they kept crossing past each other.

Caleb, having nerves of steel for an 8 yr old, held it together though and waited for his shot. Finally the birds separated enough to give him a clean shot and down went his first turkey!

Caleb was still in a bit of shock that it finally came together, but man he did great. And he wasn't even late to school that day!

Caleb is STILL pestering me to get a 2nd tag this year, but we'll hold off on that until next spring, and yes, he'll probably have 2 tags next spring.

My oldest Joshua decided not to do turkey's this year, but now with a little sibling competition, those conversations are coming around again .

 

[jeremy.b]

Summer and prep for elk season

Summer flew by. Hope and I got a anniversary vacation to the coast and a chance to slow down a bit.

We stumbled across an fairly un-touched huckleberry spot last year, and got out a few times to capitalize on it, including with some friends.

I also dragged the older two boys out on a hike or two in my attempts to maintain some level of fitness for elk season

And as August wrapped up we got to watch one of the nearby fires burn.

And now on to archery elk hunting!

 

[jeremy.b]

So I REALLY was terrible at taking pictures much this fall (posting up this thread was a distant thought at the time). BUT Josh bailed me out a bit so SOME of the long text blocks will get broken up a bit!

Opening weekend found Josh and I back in the area where we ran into elk early season last year. We had a handful of cameras up in the area we wanted to grab that first weekend.

I was able to get to the area a few hours in front of Josh, and I spent that afternoon grabbing ond of the cameras. It finally had started raining and was a sloppy mess. Grabbed the camera, but it didn't have any bulls on it (and fairly few cows). Something spent a good 15 minutes messing with the camera though, maybe a young bear that made an appearance once or twice.

Josh made it to camp and I got to run my truck for a few hours drying out my gear (burn ban was in effect, ironically until the next day...)

We hiked into the ridge system we found lots of sign on the year before, grabbing our last couple cameras. Not far from the the top of the ridge system we got a response to our bugles. We got within 200 yds of the bull (and could hear cows with him) and waited for the thermals to settle.

After a bit over an hour, and no more bugles, we eased down into where we heard the bull and did a couple setups with no luck. The sign was there, the elk had clearly been around, but had move on. We kept working the area for the remainder of the day without any more elk responding.

The next day we headed right back hoping to hear the elk early in the morning. As we neared the top of the ridge system we picked up a bugle and headed its way. Well that turned into another pair of hunters! Cool guys, we chatted for a bit and made plans to keep out of eachothers way. They moved on and we gave that area some more time hoping to hear something pipe off.

Eventually our patience wore thin and we made a jump to try a large, nearby ridge system, skipping over the area where the other hunters went into.

As soon as we worked into the ridges we ran into fairly fresh bull sign (rubs and such) that continued down through the whole ridge system.

No luck getting any response to calling but our options had expanded!

The next morning we planned to try yet another approach into where we had found elk the first day. Unforunately a couple other sets of hunters beat us to the spot. We decided to jump back into the ridge system from the afternoon before.

We didn't turn up any elk (and needed to bug out by early afternoon) but DID find more fresh sign, so the elk were clearly still in the area.

We broke camp, ran home that afternoon.

We did a quick morning trip into another spot the next day to check a couple more cameras. No real luck besides Josh getting a visit from a hornet and get a touch damp.

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Archery Elk...

I had an extra day off so I did a quick solo day hunt back into the area that had the fresh sign in from opening weekend. No calling action, still had good fresh sign though and I did stumble across a moose shed we had missed on our first day in the area.

I also employed my patented napping technique (see my 2021 whitetail hunt) to great affect that afternoon. I settled into a nice chunk of timber to "listen" and was jarred awake after 10 minutes to the sound of foot steps on the ridge above me. I grabbed my bow, snuck 5 steps up toward the sound, to find myself staring at a tiny 4x4 raghorn bull at 20 yds! He didn't spook really, but also didn't stick around to give me a shot either.

Our next trip we planned to check out a new (to us) spot we had intel on from a couple folks.

Lots of hiking to turn up a single that-year elk rub and to hear a single (likely bull) bugle from his bed 2+ miles across the giant drainage in the afternoon. Cool change of scenery though!

With that spot turning out to be a dud, we decided to jump right back to our spots from opening weekend.

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Archery Elk

I had another solo day, so I headed back into our "elky" spot again.

Mid-morning I finally had a response from a bull, of course across the giant drainage over on our "first" set of ridges. I pondered the level of pain and suffering it would take to go straight after him when a 2nd bull sounded off, on the ridge above me!

Lacking the immediate need to kill myself crossing the drainage, it took after the 2nd bull. Who decided to circle all the way back to the ridge right above my truck... Good elk!

I followed and settled into a spot on the edge of a saddle to wait and "listen". Before properly settling into to the full napping technique the bull buggled right below me, probalby 60 yards down the ridge. I had NOT called from that location yet, so I got set and could hear him working up toward the saddle.

With him approaching, I held off calling since he would peg my location and I wasn't in the best spot to get a shot if he did. For a tense minute or so he kept working toward me, then abruptly turned, and I could hear him trotting off along the ridge. I assume he caught my wind, but it had seemed good from my spot up to that point??

I followed him out the ridge, eventually having a prolonged calling session, where I explained he should come and say hello. He didn't agree and instead decided to ghost me (bad elk)...

I had some daylight left, so I hustled back to the truck, jumped a cow and calf getting water right next to the truck, and ran down to climb the ridge I had heard the first bull that day. I made it up to the spot where I guessed the bull had been, and did get a distant response to my calls, but nothing close by. I was out of time for the day and called it.

With decent action, I burned a day off a couple days later and ran back into that same ridge. That entire day was a bust, not a single bugle was heard, and no new sign since my last trip in was found.

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Archery Elk

With the end of archery season marching closer, Josh and I secured a couple consecutive days. Plan was simple, cover as much ground as possible and move locations if nothing wants to play.

We headed back into the spot where I had the last encounter with the bull at the saddle. After making the first ridge in the area our first bugle elicited a response from at least 3 bulls! Game ON!

And then it started raining.... Welp, so what, we got elk!

First bull we went after was on top of the ridge (the same ridge the one I follow came DOWN). We jumped up on the ridge well in front of the bull in case he decided to come down it like my last encounter. Once on the ridge we eased up through the timber, and within 50 yds bumped something right off the back of the ridge.

We had the wind and it didn't see us, so we just stopped, made a couple soft cow mews and waited. Within a couple minutes we could hear something working back towards us. Finally we could see it and it was a 5 point raghorn. He stopped 40 yds below us without much of a shot (Josh was shooter that day). The bull was behind some cover, so I dropped back off the edge of the ridge and started calling. I could just barely see Josh and after a minute I saw him come to full draw. I kept calling and waiting and saw him let down after about 30 seconds.

The bull had come up and closed to 20 yards. Josh got drawn and the bull stopped with his vitals covered (he never saw Josh), but then he decided to take off. Stoked, and with another bull not far away in the same basin, we switched gears and headed over toward that one.

We snuck within 200 yards of where we last heard the 2nd bull bugle, sat down and waited. After a bit without hearing anything I touched off a bugle, with an immediate response directly below us within 150 yds.

I fell back calling, hoping to draw the bull up to us (not the best positioning on our part). The bull stopped talking, and Josh eased down, eventually getting eyes on the bull (another 5x5 with a small herd of cows). The moved off and we decided to give them time and go after the 3rd bugle we had heard (much further up the ridge).

We eased our way further up, trying to get a location on that 3rd bull, eventually taking a break to start a small fire and warm up a little.

(dueling playing-on-our-phone pics)

Finally the bull sounded off and we got a decent read on his location on a nearby ridge. We killed the fire and headed out.

We slowed WAY down as we started onto the ridge we thought he was on, stopping often to just listen. Fairly quickly he sounded off down in a steep little basin on the back side of the ridge.

We eased over, trying to work out an approach and were able to catch a couple flickers of elk as they worked out of the basin up toward the sub ridge. Sliding back to the ridge we made it down to a spot where it flattened out, and caught sight of a cow coming up below us onto the ridge. I was in cover, but Josh was a little exposed. She fed up on the ridge, and stared at Josh for quite a while trying to figure him out. She kept feeding, but barked a couple times, eventually wandering over the ridge.

We moved down the ridge past her location maybe 100 yards to a thicker spot with some cover in the timber. Josh found a position and I touched off a bugle. The bull screamed back at less than 60 yards!!

I fell back into the cover, screaming back a challenge over the top of him. After a minute or so the bull came out on the back side of the ridge. I moved back to try to get him into position for Josh, bugling and raking. Eventually the bull moved off a bit, then I saw Josh get to full draw, but never get a chance and eventually let down.

Turns out that was the SECOND time Josh drew on the bull. After the first bugle the bull marched right across Josh's shooting lanes and stopped at 30 yards. Josh took his shot but missed WAY low. Turns out that in the heat of the moment he didn't look through his peep (and probably looked through the string gap UNDER it).

The bull stuck around for a good 30 minutes after all of that, but never gave us a 2nd chance. And in hind sight, it was STILL raining, and a long blood trail would have been a nightmare in those conditions.

We dug Josh's arrow out of the tree and headed out.

While I was having my screaming contest with that bull, another bull sounded off back on the ridge where we had the fire and was on the way out. Unfortunately we were loosing daylight and basically pushed past those elk (probably was the herd with the 5x5 from earlier). Obviously in elk we were sticking around, hit the truck and made camp for the night.

 

[jeremy.b]

Idaho Archery Elk

The rain stopped in the night and we marched right back into the area the next moring.

We didn't get any responses in the first basin BUT as we worked across it we jumped a 5x5 bull off the edge of a old logging road. He took off up the basin, but stopped long enough at the top to bugle (punk).

We crossed to the next ridge and were greeted with two bulls going off on the next major ridge over. We didn't have a direct approach so we did a long loop around to get above them. Once in the right neighborhood, we waited and finally got a bugle confirming at least one of their locations (still in about the same spot from earlier in the day).

We dropped down a parallel sub-ridge, hoping to avoid busting anything on our way down. We heard the bull again and we were about on level now. We slid back over to the ridge we thought he was on, basically still hunting over looking for anything bedded.

We made the target ridge and settled in to wait. Farily soon we thought we heard something off the side of the ridge (we had a steady cross wind from that direction). I was shooter, we dumped our packs, Josh eased back off the ridge and I got setup.

Once settled Josh hit a couple cow calls, and then a couple more. Which was followed up by a bugle straight down the ridge below us! I could hear the bull coming. I caught sight of him, a decent 5x5, as he worked around some blow down (at 30 yards). He went behind a tree and I got to full draw.

He marched right up toward me, 20, 15, and I kept tracking him. He stopped almost head-on and was trying to figure me out at 12 yards. I settle my pin to take the frontal shot, VERY consciously checked peep and touched off the arrow, watching it bury fletching deep.

The bull whirled, took a few steps and I could see good (dark) blood coming out. He turned and trotted back down the ridge retracing his steps.

Josh came over, we worked through the series of events and sat down to give the bull time. We hadn't heard the bull crash which I had hoped for from that kind of shot if it made it into the arterial vessels around the heart. Even so I had a profound peace about the shot, cut my tag and touched up my knives.

 

[jeremy.b]

Elk Down!

After 45+ minutes we took up the trail. Blood was great right from the start, but dark. Immediately I was assuming I had at least caught the one jugular.

Blood was good, and we kept a good pace tracking. But it just kept going, 100 yards, 200 yards, 300 yards (and dropping elevation). The emotions threatened to rise, but that persistent peace flowed underneath and on we went. 400 yards, down a steep face of the ridge. 500 yards onto an isolated little nose on the ridge.

Finally, on out on the end of that little nose I caught his rack on the ground, let out a woop, bull down!

The bull was in a very "bull bed" spot, 550 yards from the shot, 500+ feet of elevation lower.

We said a prayer of thanks (especially for the gift of peace after the shot) and got to work!

 

[jeremy.b]

Post mortem & pack out

We never found the arrow, nor could we find much significant damage to the vitals from the arrow.

Penetration was great, with barely any fletching showing, and I shoot a 31" arrow (yeah I have monkey arms...) but I'm (still) baffled how there wasn't more lung damage at the least. My best guess is I was 1-2" too high and just hit the top of the lungs and missed all of the major plumbing around the heart.

The only thing I CAN say for certain is he definitely bled out from the jugular, his whole bed was filled with the dark red blood.

Anyway, we finished breaking him down, hung the meat and loaded up the heart, backstraps and tenderloins for the trip out. It was just getting dark as we got ready to head out.

We were "only" 400 yards from the road system we used to hike in. It was "only" across a steep nasty draw and several hundred feet above us...

The climb up to that road worked pretty hard at breaking us. At one point we were staring at a wall of young trees on a slope steep enough we'd need our hands to climb it, seriously questioning our sanity (and choice of routes!).

Thankfully that wall of trees was an over-grown road bed we were hoping to find, which we used to find a much better route up to the main road out.

We made the truck, and headed home. On the way we decided (indeed had already decided at the wall-o-trees) to NOT take that same route to pack the bull out, and settling in on a longer, but (marginally) less steep route, NOT involving wet branches, needing hand holds, etc.

Both Josh and I were scheduled to help out at our church the next day. Weather was cool, so I was (mostly) comfortable coming in on Monday to pack the bull out, AND it gave us a chance to recruit help!

Despite my best efforts to describe the level of pain, suffering and anguish involved in the elk extraction, we found 3 additional (willing) volunteers to come help on Monday, translating into a single trip in and out to get the bull.

This part of the story needs no words, pictures tell it well:

 

[F250]

Great story !! Congratulations !!!!

 

[targetpanic]

Great write up and pics! Congrats!

 

[jeremy.b]

Thanks guys! I believe that sharing our stories can be as important to the hunt as making the plans to go on the hunt. Seems like a proper "book end" to any hunt.

Last Friday I took the morning to take my bullets for a walk looking for a whitetail.

Headed into our main area where we chase turkeys, jumped a couple different cow moose, cut a couple sets of deer tracks and one fresh set of hunter tracks that changed my plans a bit, but was a great morning to cover ground and be out in the woods.

 

[jeremy.b]

Josh and I took Saturday to go try to drum up a bull in his short rifle season.

We've never been in our September elk spot later in the fall, so we took the chance and cruised into the ridge system that we hunted opening weekend of archery season.

It was a balmy 13 deg when we stepped out of the truck.

We cut a number of fairly fresh deer tracks, hunted through part of the area we'd never been through before, and eventually found elk tracks headed deeper into the main ridge system (a direction we didn't have daylight and time to chase).

Also we found plenty of these all over the main ridge.

For reference, those cat tracks are 5-5 1/2" wide, so not a little kitty.

We had to keep the day fairly short (something about me having to help take the kids to the local trunk or treat thing) but man, another great day to be out in the woods learning how our spot looks as winter is moving in.

 

[jeremy.b]

And this is how my travel day to our annual whitetail camp went...