Got a call from DS

[A-con]

Phone rang last night. It was a bad cell phone connection, some crazy cajion, running around the Mt's with a late season cow tag.
As if he didn't get cold enought hunting with me in Colorado back in November, now he's chaseing Wyoming cows with Buzz. Said his tag was good till 1-31, so by now I'm sure they have a couple of elk hanging.
Some day that guy is going to figure out how
to get paid for elk hunting and we'll never here from him again.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 02-01-2003 03:25: Message edited by: Anaconda ]</font>

 

[JASON LEE]

Hell, I figured he was out working, thats why he hasnt been on here....guess I was wrong

 

[Deerslayer]

Jason.....you figured right...just been working.

As Dan said, Our tags were for 3 months...but we waited until the last day to go for it.......in an area we had never laid eyes on.

Buzz called and said for shits and giggles lets go whack a couple of cows.......and figuring since I did pay $150 for that damn tag back in the last summer, what the hell.

It was a quickie....you know the kind. Left the ponies in the barn, grabbed the packs and hauled ass up north. Hooked up with Buzz, and hit the road again. After driving all day, we arrived with and hour or so of daylight left, and maps identifying the hunt area. Not much time to set up a "last day hunt"...and we saw zero elk on the winter grounds.......but beef cattle had pretty much decimated it to a resemblance of Walmart parking lot, so it was no wonder the elk were not there. There was a big sign that said.." Important Elk Wintering Ground".....and right behind the sign was barren ground......except for the heaps of cow patties. It will be a long hard winter there......

Long story short, we had one hour to find elk for the next morning's hunt, and the road hunters were beating down every road, and the AYV's were in full force...really shaping up into a "quality" hunt

After being told there just weren't any elk, wolves had decimated the herd

, Fish and Game were wrong about herd numbers

, and there just weren't elk like it "used to be"

......we opted to take a high vantage point and pull out the glass and spot an adjacent roadless mountain on the wilderness edge. We were on the opposite side, ...a very roaded, open mountain side, with trucks constantly passing us wondering what the hell we were doing. Actually, what we were doing was glassing three seperate herds of elk.......two with at least 30-50 head..more than a mile away, but very do-able for the next morning.

As we broke out the packs....headed up the mountain in a windstorm two hours before daylight, we began to see the caravan of vehicles piling down the road just before daylight as we looked back behind us. There were probably 15-20 trucks total....none ever leaving the road, some racing 4 wheelers back and forth, and none ever fired a shot that day.

We continued our ascent....me slipping and falling in the dark and taking a face down bashing against my guns and the rocks.....it was plenty steep and slippery......and then add in wind gust as hard as I have ever seen...it was brutal.

Upon arrival on top...we followed the plan to drop over the backside and try to intercept the herds as they fed back across the open to the heavy timber.

It was over in a matter of minutes.......a herd of about 50 or 60 appeared right on que...oblivious to the death squad that had marched in the night to take a position on the top with them and do a WWF Smackdown on them......the shooting was quick and easy.....about 150-200 yards....and the herd gave their two sacrifices and continued on up the slope...looking back to make sure we were done.

This was about 8 am or so....we packed an elk each.....boned out, off that hell hole on our backs........it was after 4 pm when we had it in the truck heading home. The road hunters and ATV warriors were gauking at the two old boys who had no doubtedly killed the only two cows the wolves and Grizzlys had left in that unit........for there were just no elk there

as the some 15 vehicles would tell you in an instant.......as the herds "in plain sight" on the top chuckled and went about their merry way......

It was loads of fun.......no feedlot on truck hunt by any stretch...but rather a great way to spend the last day of January 2003......high at over 11,000 feet ...with a couple hundred elk sharing the view with you.

....ONLY HALF A YEAR UNTIL WE HEAD BACK OUT CHASING ELKS!!!!

 

[JB Florida]

Sounds COOL DS!

Way to find-em

 

[Moosie]

Thats WHAT I'm talking about !!!! Shooting the ELISIVE COW ELK

DS, the first doe I ever shot, we were hiking in a drainage only a mile from our place and saw several hunters coing out. Told us the same thing, About combing "EVERY INCH" of the hills, "HIGH AND LOW"....

I was ready to turn around when My dad told them "THANX, but we'll still go for a little walk"...... Anyhow, they shook their heads and less then 1 hour lkater we were dragging 2 Does out of the field.... Since then, I've learned what my dad has said !!!

KUDOS to you and BUZZ !!!!! I'm guessing a pic or two will follow ? I've never seen or heard a DS LONG winded story without a picture or two ?!??!

 

[Deerslayer]

yepper.....I would imagine we can get a pic or two up.

...and on the "elusive cow elk".......they can be easy......but on this one.....they were only to be had with lots of hard work.

We talked about was it worth it once we realized it would be no cake walk but rather a climb to over 11,000 feet in steep terrain and back again with elk on your back.......and decided to treat it as an opportunity to "elk hunt" instead of cow hunt.

I would imagine many bulls are killed every year with less effort.......

..and here is another thought for you.....
Those were quite possibly the last two elk taken this year.....coming out with them an hour before dark on January 31!

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 02-01-2003 13:05: Message edited by: Deerslayer ]</font>

 

[Moosie]

"this season" ya mean, becasue I'm sure "this year" they were some of the FIRST not last !!!

HEY , I'm just ribbing ya, We've hauled a stupid Forked horn out for one of the Longest packing trips me and Wylee have ever done, BUT, In order to compleete your Cow shooting story, You needed to say it was the "LEAD" cow

 

[Oak]

Congrats on the elks, DS and Buzz!

Oak

 

[BuzzH]

Moosie, no cow elk story is complete without the "it was the biggest cow I've ever seen" or "it was the size of a horse" or "you cant eat the horns".

It sure was funny watching all those ATV slugs tearing around "elk hunting". HAHA.It was also fun watching the string of headlights coming in about 1/2 hour before shooting light...way too late. It really is amazing how lazy people are, I mean most have just enough ambition to jump in a truck/atv. If you're going to show up to hunt, get after it.

One thing I was shocked at is the condition of that winter range. It was sheared down to the height of a putting green. There was one wire enclosure we hiked by and the grass was 12-16 inches inside, less than 1 inch outside. Not to mention that there was several key forage species of plants in the enclosure (winterfat, etc.) and outside the enclosure, you couldnt find a trace of those species. No shortage of cow shit though, if only elk could survive on it, we'd be set.

 

[Ithaca 37]

Congratulations on the hunt!! Amazing, isn't it, that the ranchers claim to love wildlife but won't leave anything to forage on! All for what?! So some welfare rancher doesn't have to get a real job!

 

[Tom]

Pretty neat hunt you guys, congratulations on 2003 Elk! It sounds like there's too many cows there, not enough rain, or both. That's really eaten down.

 

[Elkhunter]

WTG DS & Buzz.

Hurry up with the pics, you know we love pics around here.

Where bouts were you guys at?

 

[Kraven]

Congrats you guys sounds like it was a awesome hunt.

 

[Moosie]

BUZZ... I forgot the "YOU can't eat horns" one

 

[Deerslayer]

We used Buzz's camera...so maybe he can splash a couple of pics up here.

Elky .....we were northwest of Larimie, but southeast of Butte.....

It was way brutal on top...kinda resembles hunting the Artic

...gale force winds that pushed back many times. It was tons of fun though....
DS

 

[Elkhunter]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Elky .....we were northwest of Larimie, but southeast of Butte.....

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh, I get it. Don't want to give up that predation cow hunt honey hole.

Good call, can't be too careful these days.

Glad you guys got out and had a good time.

 

[ELKCHSR]

HAHAHA!!!Bill!!!!

 

[Elkhunter]

I was at least hoping for it to be narrowed down to less than a few million square miles.

The area he said is bigger than most states.

 

[Deerslayer]

Bill...we were scouting for big bulls for future hunts.......the cows were secondary and can easily be killed by most folks.......as proven by the famous "Jackson Run" this year

It's not important as to just excatly where we were......but the details of the huntshould be the point of interest.

I wasn't getting pissy with you.......just ain't gonna be pasting any hunt areas on here for the world to see.

Good post Elkchasr.....about 500 more like it and you'll hit the magical 10,000 mark........

 

[Wyodeerhunter]

Gotta love the anti-rancher approach. The day public land grazing is gone, hunting is sure to follow.

Congrats DS,