Tim’s Turn

[Gerald Martin]

My son Tim has been on a lot of hunts with me and his siblings over the past ten years. Until this year elk have eluded him.

A favorable result from this spring’s permit draws gave us renewed focus on prioritizing his elk hunting this year.

Some sound advice from several generous friends gave us some starting points to begin looking for a bull for Tim. So we started looking.

Nothing like last minute work issues to eat up your scouting day. We rolled into our hunting area sight unseen at 10:30 the night before the oener.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Opening day was met with anticipation of big bulls slipping through coulees. We found old elk tracks but saw no elk. We did find a few forked horn muleys to keep it interesting and looked at a lot of beautiful country.

Prairie sunrises and sunsets are always memorable.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Day two was a repeat of day one, just in a different direction. We did see a nice mule deer buck that got us interested enough to interrupt looking for elk. Unfortunately, as Tim was trying to get set up for the shot the buck slipped over the ridge and we ended up bumping his companion as we tried to get closer.

Hard boiled eggs make a great ridge top breakfast rather than cooking in camp.

We took a drive in the afternoon to glass a different vantage for the evening. A badger entertained us for a few minutes as he hunted prairie dogs in their holes.