Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
- Messages
- 820
This hike was both a scouting trip for my upcoming cow elk hunt, and also an opportunity for a walk in a canyon full of stunning fall colors with a couple in their mid-thirty’s.
The lower canyons, where we were, had just reached their brightest best.
We walked along a small trout stream. The forest floor and the quiet pools were all orange and yellow covered with fallen leaves from shrubs. Still most of the large trees had barely dropped a leaf.
I took the young couple away from the main trail along the creek showed them a barely used hidden path entering what at first seemed like a little slit of a canyon. It was a great place to scout with them.
It was so tight and the trail would go over some ledges so quads could not get in there. I brought extra binoculars for them to look for elk in this canyon. It would become enormous and was an elk hideout during hunting season. This was where I planned to have my cow elk hunt.
Of course we saw elk, several groups.
Somewhere along the main trail on the way back to our truck, a quad was coming down trail behind us.
The young hunter, in his late 30’s stopped as I held my hand up. He was lean and fit The quad was new, his camo clothes were all matching high quality expensive Kuiu. His rifle, a 300 PRC, was a long-range wonder with an extra-long barrel fitted with a muzzle brake and tactical large scope.
He had taken a decent bull, clean long shot, gutted him and was gong for help to bring out the meat.
Everything about him, his gear and his hunt would have been a perfect cover photo and lead story for any current hunting magazine.
And me, my gear and upcoming hunt would also have been a cover photo and lead story for a hunting magazine,,,,,from 60 years ago, when I was 18.
My rifle was a Safari grade Belgium Browning bolt action 30-06 that has the same fixed 4x scope on it that it had when I bought it used in 1970 for $180. It has a French Walnut stock with near surreal burls and whirls in the wood. The checkering is “almost perfect” as it should be when done by human hands. I had the stock full length glass bedded for barrel and action for stability. It was from era when 300 yards was a long shot but I have gone to 400 for larger game
If you took a scraping on the stock where I had carried this rifle for 55 years, it would test positive for my DNA. I shoot it as an almost living extension of my body, in which there is no thought, no doubts, just confidence.
And my clothes are classics too, like my ultra quiet leather upper gum-rubber bottom LL Bean Maine hunting boots. Modern moccasins they are, that help hold my scent in. I love the art of the stalk.
My Orvis brown wool tweed hunting jacket has a pattern to match the heather of the moors in Scotland. Still great camo. I recall my beginning hunting mentors being so well dressed.
My only modern items are Barnes all copper bullets, which have totally upgraded my 30-06’s field performance and a Garmin In-Reach Satellite communication device. I would use that to send a message to my horse packer to come and haul out my elk.
This service allows me to hunt deep and wild alone.
Critical to all my elk hunts in staying in a close radius to this service. The cost of even a run of the mill quad would pay for 10 to 15 years of such basic packing out services.
MR
The lower canyons, where we were, had just reached their brightest best.
We walked along a small trout stream. The forest floor and the quiet pools were all orange and yellow covered with fallen leaves from shrubs. Still most of the large trees had barely dropped a leaf.
I took the young couple away from the main trail along the creek showed them a barely used hidden path entering what at first seemed like a little slit of a canyon. It was a great place to scout with them.
It was so tight and the trail would go over some ledges so quads could not get in there. I brought extra binoculars for them to look for elk in this canyon. It would become enormous and was an elk hideout during hunting season. This was where I planned to have my cow elk hunt.
Of course we saw elk, several groups.
Somewhere along the main trail on the way back to our truck, a quad was coming down trail behind us.
The young hunter, in his late 30’s stopped as I held my hand up. He was lean and fit The quad was new, his camo clothes were all matching high quality expensive Kuiu. His rifle, a 300 PRC, was a long-range wonder with an extra-long barrel fitted with a muzzle brake and tactical large scope.
He had taken a decent bull, clean long shot, gutted him and was gong for help to bring out the meat.
Everything about him, his gear and his hunt would have been a perfect cover photo and lead story for any current hunting magazine.
And me, my gear and upcoming hunt would also have been a cover photo and lead story for a hunting magazine,,,,,from 60 years ago, when I was 18.
My rifle was a Safari grade Belgium Browning bolt action 30-06 that has the same fixed 4x scope on it that it had when I bought it used in 1970 for $180. It has a French Walnut stock with near surreal burls and whirls in the wood. The checkering is “almost perfect” as it should be when done by human hands. I had the stock full length glass bedded for barrel and action for stability. It was from era when 300 yards was a long shot but I have gone to 400 for larger game
If you took a scraping on the stock where I had carried this rifle for 55 years, it would test positive for my DNA. I shoot it as an almost living extension of my body, in which there is no thought, no doubts, just confidence.
And my clothes are classics too, like my ultra quiet leather upper gum-rubber bottom LL Bean Maine hunting boots. Modern moccasins they are, that help hold my scent in. I love the art of the stalk.
My Orvis brown wool tweed hunting jacket has a pattern to match the heather of the moors in Scotland. Still great camo. I recall my beginning hunting mentors being so well dressed.
My only modern items are Barnes all copper bullets, which have totally upgraded my 30-06’s field performance and a Garmin In-Reach Satellite communication device. I would use that to send a message to my horse packer to come and haul out my elk.
This service allows me to hunt deep and wild alone.
Critical to all my elk hunts in staying in a close radius to this service. The cost of even a run of the mill quad would pay for 10 to 15 years of such basic packing out services.
MR
