So finally done hunting and will start at the end. In a last ditch effort I hunted on Black Friday and the Saturday after Thanksgiving. As my tag was a depredation tag I could only harvest within two miles of 3 specific ranch areas. I saw nothing, elk wise, those two days. I took the time to do some exploring the area and did manage to see a couple antelope herds and quite a few mule deer. Of the three ranch areas (Great Basin, Baker and Granite Peak) I found Granite Peak to have more game near it.
I did hunt the first week of November with a friend that was one of the other people on our party tag, I hunted solo after Thanksgiving. This portion of the hunt turned turned into a comical lessons learned hunt. The crazy thing was we saw tons of elk. Now we agreed to draw cards to see who would get the first chance to hunt. My buddy won the draw with an ace of spades. Apparently I can't shuffle stack cards worth a hill of beans
Now I started shooting and prepping pretty much before I even drew the tag. I ended up taking the rifle I was most accurate with plus a backup. My first shooter is my Savage 110 in 6.5 CM (yeah yeah yeah I know) and my backup was my Tikka in 6.5 CM. The Savage I was getting sub MOA group at 200 yards at the range and felt really comfortable with it. My buddy brought a 7MM Rem Mag (Ruger 77 I think) and a 30-06 as back up. My buddy had two separate surgeries this year, a knee replacement and shoulder surgery. As a result he did not get much shooting in. Our first morning in Ely he had to take both rifles to the sporting goods store in Ely (friendly great folks BTW) and had to get new rings and had both rifles bore sighted while there, you can guess what was going to come next. We went and set up camp and then made a makeshift rifle range. He could not get the 7MM RM to shoot well. I tried shooting it and hit off as well. Now on the cool side, he had a can on it and it was my first time ever shooting suppressed, I am sold. Need to go through the process and heard it will become harder to obtain suppressors, thank you anti 2A politicians, but was impressed not only the noise reduction but the recoil damping. Anyway after hearing my buddy complain about not getting accurate and seeing frustration on his face I pulled out my Savage and handed it to him. He shoots it and bullseye at 100 yards. I told him he would be shooting that rifle. Lesson learned by him, prepare well ahead of season. I know this one already.
Next day we get up and drive the truck less than a half mile from camp and see a herd 300 yards off the road. I could have snuck out of the truck gotten the rifle gotten off the road and filled the tag there. My buddy had first opportunity and elk were on his side of the truck. We slipped back to camp and snuck to a spot where we had the herd about 800 yards away. I wanted to stalk, buddy decided he wanted to wait and see their movements, he had the hunt chance so we watched the herd and then a truck starts driving all over the place and chases the herd off. Lesson learned, stalk when you can stalk and honestly no more drawing cards person with the best chance on a party tag gets the shooting opportunity.
Now I am not without blame this hunt, a couple days later we got within 600 yards of a herd and I was up. I told my buddy to stay with his Jeep while I stalked. My mistake was I was certain I would get a prone shot, and neglected to pack my shooting sticks in the pack before I headed out. I got within 300 yards and could not see the herd unless I stood up. Had a cow in the crosshairs but without support on the front of the rifle was not steady enough to take the shot. I backed off got the sticks and moved back but herd had moved on and another party was stalking the bull in the herd. We watched them successfully hunt a very nice bull so that was fun to watch. Lesson learned, always carry my sticks!
Aside from those issues I managed to blow 2 tires during the week. Lesson learned, not all All Terrain tires are created equal. My truck had new tires better suited for terrain on my after Thanksgiving trip. The other "fun" mishap, buddy locked his keys in his Jeep. Yeah it was one of those hunting trips.
The good news is my buddy and I had a fantastic time and found a great place to deer hunt. The other thing we both noticed in the Granite Peak area was no invasive species (horses). I really find areas in Nevada where horses dominate, game is more scarce.
While we are eating paper, not feeling bad about lessons learned and how next time those mistakes won't be made.
