Muzzleloader Mania - Part 2 - Timber to Alpine

[trb]

You can read Part 1 of my muzzleloader season recap HERE

I spent the last 4 days trying to fill my muzzleloader buck tag, which I picked up to accompany the bull tag that I filled on opening day. I am on dad duty today, so although I can't post it all at once, I will try and finish the story today.

A preview of what's to come:

 

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After a taking care of the elk meat and a couple days of unfocused work on Monday and Tuesday, I had the rest of the week to fill my buck and bear tags.

Over the summer, I had dedicated the majority of my scouting efforts towards elk, but with the amount of glassing at high altitude I did, I had found some bucks as well. The most notable of these were a bachelor group of 3 in the same timbered basin that I had killed my elk in, which I only caught a glimpse of moving through a small meadows one early morning. 2 of them were small 3x3s, but one was clearly a mature 4x4 that I really wish I had gotten a better look at.

The bucks were in one of the small meadows in the foreground:



The others were a forky and an interesting, tall 3x3 in deep willow tunnels in a large basin, a few miles away. The spotting scope pics I have of these bucks are garbage, they were too far away to be clear.

 

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Given that the biggest buck I had found was conveniently in the same basin where my elk carcass was, and I had a bear tag as well, my plan was to backpack right back in where I had been the weekend prior.

My main concern in terms of the logistics of hunting these bucks was that I had spent days glassing this basin, and had only seen them once, in a meadow, whereas elk were constantly above treeline. This was a challenge because they would be far harder to hunt in the timber, than they would spotting and stalking above treeline.

Regardless, I set off early Monday morning with 3 days worth of stuff. My plan was to avoid the trail and hunt my way up and over a ridgeline, hoping to stumble into something in the timber on my way. This was a long and fairly uneventful morning of choosing moments to slow down and still hunt, making my way up about 2k feet of elevation and 4 miles. I bumped a deer in the timber that I only saw running, and came across a nice bull moose in a meadow, but other than that, it was slow.

Around midday, thunderheads began to gather, and the rain began. I had to pause just below a ridgeline for lightning to pass, and was unable to glass before dropping into the bowl where the bucks had been and my elk carcass was.

Sheltering below treeline waiting to cross a ridge in bad weather:

 

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Dropping into the bowl for the first time since packing out my elk, I still hunted through the timber with the rain masking my movement well, but the visibility was poor. I am unfortunately short of pictures for this day due to the rain.

The amount of elk sign in the bowl was impressive. So many thrashed trees, game trails, and scat. I worked my way to the elk carcass, in the hopes there would be fresh bear sign. Instead, it was as I left it, only having been visited by birds, and nothing of note on the trail camera I had left.



I then headed to the rocky spine in the center of the bowl, in the hopes it would provide a good vantage of the meadows below. It was more difficult to climb than I expected with car sized boulders interspersed with thick brush. The point being, the climb was not stealthy. Stepping onto one of these boulders, a bucks head revealed itself, staring at my from 30 ft away. It was a narrow 3x3 in velvet, with only his head visible. Before I could make another move, he bounded off. I really hadn't expected to find a buck in such steep, rocky terrain, but I also don't know if I could have gotten the drop on him regardless of how I approached.

On top of the spine, I spent a couple hours til sunset glassing, only to find more elk above treeline, clearly in full rut mode.

 

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I left the spine at sunset in time to pass my elk carcass just at last light. It remained undisturbed. I hiked to my camp in the dark, tired and absolutely soaked. I really don't know how you Pacific NW and Alaska hunters consistently do it...backpack hunting in the rain is tough. I had a small fire to try and dry out my boots, which only kind of worked. The crackling of the fire was regularly punctuated by bugles from above and below my camp.

Visit my OnlyFans and subscribe today for more feet pics:

 

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Two or three bulls within a mile of my tent bugled all night and into the morning, and continued as I made my way to the glassing knob I was camped below. The rain had let up overnight, and gave way to beautiful glassing conditions.

 

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From the glassing knob that morning, I did not relocate the bucks, but instead found three groups of elk, each with a bull. One bull was a massive 6x7, whom I believe I had located over the summer in the same area. I watched him bugle and push his group of a half dozen cows above treeline and eventually into it over the course of a couple hours.

6x7 in the center of the photo:

 

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With service on the knob, this text thread with a friend sums up my feelings at that moment. Excuse the typos, my fingers were a tad chilly.

 

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Recognizing how difficult it would be for me to sneak in on a bedded buck in the timber, I decided to pack up camp and head above timberline to glass the basin where I had located the other two bucks in the summer. I would hunt 3+ miles along a ridgeline on the way, focusing on the band of grass and openings between scree and timber.



Along the way, I bumped a 6x6 satellite bull near a wallow in the timber. Besides him, I saw no other animals the whole morning.



I ran into yet another abandoned hunting camp on this ridge. I have packed out the trash of several of these over the past few years, and they remain greatly annoying to me.


Snowshoe hare:

 

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I made my way to a point that would give me a commanding view of the next basin, and set up camp. I spent the next 7 hours glassing a huge amount of terrain.

 

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I spent the entire afternoon and evening glassing, and only spotted one distant lone bull, and 3 moose. That evening I met two hunters who informed they "hadn't seen a f*ucking thing!" and that a recurve hunter had killed a 3x3 in that basin days earlier. That probably explained why the deer were missing from the basin. It was a beautiful evening, but disappointing not to spot a single deer despite looking at a vast expanse of viable habitat.

The next morning, I decided to hunt my way through thick timber down to the trailhead, and try a new location on the way home. I spent pre-dawn to noon walking very slowly along creek bottoms, on game trails through thick timber, and through groves of aspen. All I found was one grouse and 2,367 pine squirrels.

 

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Back at the truck, I changed some clothes, refueled, and drove a rough road to the backside of some cattle ranches where there were some finger ridges with broken habitat types. I did a 4 mile loop that afternoon, and although I discovered a great new Abert's hunting spot, I did not see any fresh deer sign whatsoever.




I returned home for some elk heart tacos, an evening with the family, and to hatch a new plan.

 

[CPAjeff]

@trb - looks like you have a Kowa spotter. If so, which model? How do you like it?

 

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With family obligations occupying Sunday, I knew Saturday would be my last chance and I was also pretty frustrated with my ineffectiveness at still hunting timber. The obvious choice was to get back to the strategy that I think I am best at, and I certainly enjoy the most, spot and stalk in the alpine.

I chose a basin, left the house at 2 AM the next morning, and climbed to 12,000 ft before first light.

 

[woods89]

I love these write ups......

 

[trb]

@trb - looks like you have a Kowa spotter. If so, which model? How do you like it?

TSN 501. I like it because it's tiny and ultralightweight. But it lacks definition around the edges and definitely is not the best if for instance you are trying to count tines at long distances. I'd like to get a higher end spotter eventually with higher magnification, but can't afford it yet.

 

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I had climbed the south facing slope to glass the N facing slope, which on Google Earth looked like it had some great broken timber and willows, although admittedly there were willows throughout. Right off the bat, I was seeing animals. 2 separate lone bulls on the opposite slope, and at the head of the basin between willows patches, a herd of a dozen elk. A few minutes later, not 20 yards in front of that herd, deer! I watched as 2 became 4, and 4 became 7 deer.


It was very hard to tell at this distance, but it appeared at least one or two of them were small bucks. Being my best lead in days, I decided to make may way over for a closer look.

 

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I had 2 choices.

1) I could ascend 300 more feet to the ridgeline behind me, and traverse it all the way to be above the head of the basin (but would potentially be extremely difficult to pick my way down for any sort of stalk due to steep cliffs.

2) Descend 200 feet to a bench that remained at a consistent elevation and with some broken timber that would take me straight to the head of the basin, and also towards where it looked like the deer were heading.

Both options would be traveling into the wind. I chose option 2, and began to head up the basin.

About 10 minutes into my walk, I came to a 300 yard gap between trees. I glassed, and proceeded to make my way towards the next patch. About halfway across, I stopped to glass, and immediately picked out 3 deer moving uphill to my right, skylined. A large buck in front, followed by a small 2x3, and a doe.

In this photo you might be able to zoom and see the rack of the buck skylined.



I dropped to my knees, but they were staring right at me. We remained like that for 5 minutes, and eventually they crossed passed from beyond my view, walking steadily. They were on a grassy slope that jutted out from the ridgeline. That same slope cliffed out not far from where I had been glassing. Therefore, I turned around, and ran towards the base of that cliff, in the hopes I could cut them off. When I say ran, I mean ran. Sticking to the base of the cliff band, I made it around the grassy slope and was at the base of the next rocky bowl where I thought they might pop out. I was frantically glassing, when I saw them emerge on the skyline once more, immediately pinning me in an open expanse of rocks and grasses.

 

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I ranged the buck at 216 yards. They knew I was there, but hadn't winded me, and were very curious. We remained in this stalemate for about 20 minutes. The deer were relaxed, feeding, the bucks playfully sparring, and the smaller buck licking the larger's freshly rubbed antler, still pink with blood.

It was during this standoff that I was able to appreciate the bucks size. He was a mature 4x4 with impressive mass, and his left G2 was split into 2 small points. Not sure it qualified as a 5th point, but it was impressive nonetheless. Although I am not qualified to make any score estimates, I can safely say he was the biggest buck I've ever seen with a tag in my pocket, and he dwarfed the buck (which I rough scored at 163) I killed last year both in terms of mass and size of frame.

 

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I was probably unrealistically hoping that they would bed right there, in order to keep an eye on me. However, after 20ish minutes, all of a sudden, they began to look up basin, away from me, and they spooked, stotting down the ridge back the way that I had come. Out of view, again, I ran to catch up. Rounding a mound of rocks, I watched as they continued towards a saddle. Again, I was hoping they'd just drop into the basin I was in, but much to my chagrin, they crossed the ridge, into the next basin. For the 3rd time in an hour, I ran (can I just share that running at 12k feet really, really sucks) to catch up. Scrambling up to the ridge, I somehow caught them in my binos, nearly a half mile down the adjacent basin. As they disappeared out of view, at least they had slowed to a walk.

I figured there was a 50% chance I would never see that buck again. But, it was my best lead, and I decided to pursue them given they had slowed their escape to a walk. Having gained the ridgeline, I continued up the ridge paralleling their path about 600 ft of elevation above them. After 10-15 mins of carefully picking my steps through extremely steep mixed terrain, I rounded a point where the view opened up beyond which I knew they either went into the timber, or were within view. I sat down and began to glass the path along which I had seen them disappear. All of a sudden, I picked up the doe, then the 2x3. No sign of the big buck. I sat down and set up to wait.

The deer were in the strip of stunted Spruce and willow below me on the same slope: