Utah Youth Any Bull Hunt

[npaden]

I meant to start this earlier but it has been very hectic getting things going with this hunt so haven’t gotten a chance.

We’ve been preparing for this hunt most of the summer and took a scouting trip in August and really felt like we had things dialed in.

Of course that’s usually when you get thrown a curveball and that’s exactly what happened with the location that we had scouted and was our hands down our #1 spot getting closed due to a fire just west if it.

That left us scrambling for a spot on the drive up there.

 

[npaden]

We had a fairly uneventful trip until Friday morning. We had lent our toy hauler to some friends in Wyoming over the summer and we picked it up in Rawlins and then drove through Rock Springs to Vernal. Coming down into Vernal is STEEP and I didn’t have the trailer brakes adjusted right so the truck was doing nearly all of the braking.

Just to be cautious I decided to pull out and check things about halfway down and when I stopped smoke started pouring out of the wheel wells the brakes were so hot!

I didn’t know what to do but instinctively thought cooling them down as fast as possible was the way to go so I started splashing water from water bottles on them and the steam spit just evaporate the water as soon at it hit the brakes or the rotors. About 20 minutes and a couple gallons of water bottles later the water quit steaming when it hit the rotors.

I sat down and pulled my phone out and googled “what to do when your brakes overheat” and one of the first things it said was to never pour water on them! Oops! Here I am halfway down the hill and with something like 9 switchbacks left to go and that was not what I wanted to hear!

I tested them out a couple times and it seemed like things were okay so I decided to head on down the hill.

This time I just put the hazards on and switched to manual and let the engine braking do about 90% of the work. I also adjusted my trailer brakes to do their share of the work as they weren’t even hot to the touch when my truck brakes were literally smoking hot!

The truck did fine the rest of the way down the hill, I think I only hit the brakes 4 or 5 times the whole way down, I should have been using the engine braking the entire time. Live and learn!

 

[npaden]

So we got over to a new spot recommended by the Utah DWR and got the trailer parked, unloaded the RZR and drove forest service roads to try to get some quick scouting in.

It was the last day of the archery hunt so I didn’t want to do any calling to mess anyone up so I just tried to get to decent spots and glass. Some very good looking spots but didn’t see or hear any elk.

You can see the smoke from the fire and we were about 20 miles East of it.

 

[npaden]

Okay, I’m caught up now and just need to post today’s action.

Got out this morning and got to the spot we had picked out last night and saw 4 cows and watched them for about an hour. Bugled a few times and cow called and they would look our way but nothing ever responded or showed itself.

My son wants to hold out for a bull at least for a while so we just watched them. Did some more scouting/hunting and saw some pretty nice looking spots but no elk. Saw 5 other youth hunters out this morning so more hunters than elk. Sometimes seeing quite a few other hunters is a good sign, but I’m not sure this spot warranted that much attention.

We decided to pull stakes and move to the next spot. Probably not giving it enough time but I usually hang out too long and I’m trying not to make that mistake this time.

 

[npaden]

I didn’t realize this was going to be a telling picture.



Moved to a different spot this evening on a tip from a member of a different hunting forum. Got in and got setup a couple hours early and sat. Nothing going at all so at sunset I decided to leave my son setup and move downwind and downhill from where I expected any elk to come and started calling.

Started with just some cow calls but after a while threw in a few bugles. I had moved downhill about 50 or 60 yards and decided about 10 minutes before shooting light to move back up to where my son was.

As I started that way I saw something light colored up near where my son was sitting and looked through my binoculars and it was a raghorn bull standing there maybe 20 yards from my son. The problem was that I had moved him from his earlier setup that I took a picture of him to another spot that had a better overall shooting lane but there was one clump of pine trees smack dab between where he was sitting and where the bull was.

The bull busted me and left although I’m not sure how busted I was. I called a bit more but gave up at the end of shooting light. My son said he heard the bull “thud, thud” as it ran off but he was thinking it was coming in instead of running off. He was pretty pumped although he hadn’t seen him.

I’m really hoping he gets to hear a real bugle at some point during the hunt. This little bull came in completely silent.

Hoping to get into a group of them in the morning. I’m afraid a nice cow might be in danger if it presents a nice easy shot tomorrow!

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Good Luck,,to you and your son! Hope that guts and grins are posted soon.

 

[npaden]

Oh yeah, forgot another incident on opening morning driving the RZR to the spot we were planning on hunting in the dark and I hear something fall off the RZR. I stop and look back and the road was so bumpy that his new gun had bounced out of the gun rack and landed in the road!

I got some strap and strapped it down for the rest of the ride and when we got back to camp setup a target and we very thankful to find out that it was still sighted in!

 

[duckhunt]

Sounds like a lot of excitement so far. looking forward to more updates.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Good luck this morning filling that freezer...

 

[JohnCushman]

Can't wait for more of the story!! Good luck!

 

[npaden]

Well, we were at a good spot at about 15 minutes before shooting light and just after shooting light we heard a good bugle maybe 400 yards away. In retrospect we should have just gone after it, but we had a good setup so I thought I could back off and call him into my son.

A little back and forth but he was getting farther away instead of closer so I went back to my son and we gathered our gear and headed that way.

Heard another bugle and closed the gap. Cow called and another bugle and really closed the gap. Some real thick trees between us but I wanted to keep the wind in our favor so we went through the thick trees (some as close as 6” apart) and finally broke into more moderate tree cover. A couple more cow calls and a bugle reply and we crept in on 2 guys calling for a young lady youth hunter.

They asked if we had been bugling and I had only bugled 3 or 4 times and tried to sound weak and small and they said they had heard a few decent bugles so there is a chance there was an actual bull elk somewhere in here but it is always a bummer to get called in by other hunters. You go from thinking you are about to make it happen to feeling stupid the second you see that first flash of orange.

We talked for a bit. They had a cow elk at 70 yards the night before and she had passed on it. Eli said that if the same cow was 70 yards from him it might not live to tell the tale.

We are just a little over a mile in, we will probably wander around a bit and head back to camp for lunch. Might get farther back in for sure tonight so we have a little better opportunity at seeing them before dark if they are where we think they are.

 

[noharleyyet]

Hopefully you guys have Murphy removed from your hunt....make some lemonade.

 

[npaden]

Well this evening was a complete bust.

Nothing seen and nothing talking. I started cow calling about 50 yards downhill and downwind from my son about an hour before the end of shooting light and with 30 minutes to go I threw in some weak bugles. But nothing showed or talked. Going to give this spot one more morning and then I think we are going to try somewhere else.

Did find a deer that I’m assuming was wounded during the archery hunt. Couldn’t see any obvious broken or cut bones and didn’t see an arrow though. There were still flies on it so relatively fresh.



We have had some very nice weather and been able to enjoy some quality time in the woods together. Hiking out in the dark off trail through some thick timber was a new experience for my son, the last couple nights we were hiking out in the dark on trails and he thought there was a big difference. He asked me if there were any animals that would be desperate enough to try to eat us and I told him there was plenty of food for them right now so we didn’t have to worry about it.

This was one of our shooting lanes tonight, maybe tomorrow will be the day.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

I hope things turn around for you guys today! Looking forward to more updates!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Really?

maybe luis11 could get one with his .15 cal. AR-15...Ha! ,Ha!

 

[npaden]

We got to where I wanted us to be about 6:10 this morning with shooting light beginning at 6:30 and waited until about 6:50 before we couldn’t take it anymore and threw out a few cow calls. Nothing responded though.

We hung out trying to decide what to do and had pretty much given up and all the sudden at 7:45 we hear a bugle! Then another!

The blood started pumping and we got everything setup and I didn’t call hoping the bull was headed our way. Then I saw 2 orange hats. Then a 3rd.

I think they saw us and they hiked off to our East about 150 yards away.

We waited another 30 minutes and gave the spot up. We had a tip that there were as many as 30 elk and 2 bulls in that drainage on Friday but I don’t think they are there anymore. I guess with the warmer weather they must have moved back higher up.

Switching spots again. I don’t think this spot has cell coverage so probably a while before you hear from us again.

 

[skyfire]

Anxious to hear how the week turned out for the both of you.

 

[npaden]

Well we are still at it. Been out of cell coverage but got the story pretty much caught up this afternoon and am sitting on a ridge waiting for elk right now and have full bars so I will try to get it caught up.

 

[npaden]

Day 3 - We moved back up the mountain to try out a different spot.

I saw a few places on the map that looked promising and we got the trailer parked and pulled the RZR out and headed up a forest service “road” to check out a lake. Didn’t look very promising so we went back and decided to check out another spot and were a little over a mile into a 4 mile one way hike when we got cell signal and I had a message from a guy we had be trading private messages with and he told me not to bother with the spot I was heading to and to gave me a several different spots to check out.

We hauled back down the trail, jumped in the RZR and got back to camp, unhooked the pickup from the trailer and drove the pickup about 45 minutes back the same road we had just come in on to check out one of the spots.

We got there just in time to get setup and waited until it got dark but nothing showed up except a bunch of mule deer does.

We stopped and talked to a couple different folks who also were helping youth hunters and got a different spot to try the next morning.

45 minute drive back to the trailer hoping that day 4 might turn out better.

Some pictures from the day.

 

[npaden]

Day 4 - Another 5:00 wake up call, another 50 minute drive in the truck back the same way we had come from, we obviously shouldn’t have hauled the trailer way back in where we had it but it was too late to change that now.

Got to the spot we wanted to be but there was a truck parked at the first trailhead and a UTV parked at the second one so we went down another couple miles to a third spot. We got out and up the trail to a large meadow or “park” here in Utah in time to sit for just a bit before it was shooting light.

Shooting light came and nothing was in the meadow and nothing was talking. It was just below freezing and there was a lot of frost on the grass and several of the puddles were iced over. We watched the meadow a bit, made a few cow calls and then decided to hike to the meadow we originally planned on and thought maybe the people who were there first might have pushed something our way.

No such luck. A nice 2 mile hike and the other meadow was as empty as the first one. I decided to leave my son there just in case while I hiked back to the truck and brought it around to the original spot we had planned on that morning. 2 miles back to the truck for me and about 3/4 of a mile for my son to cross the meadow by the time I got back. Nothing happened.

We ended up driving around a bit and checking out some spots we had been told about. Got back to the trailer for lunch and hung out for a bit then decided to go for an afternoon stroll just to see if we could change our luck up a bit. We had my wife drop us off and then were were going to do a 3 1/2 mile one way hike and have her pick us up on the other side.

We got dropped off and were thinking the entire way was going to be on trails but about 50 yards in the trail disappeared. In retrospect we should have suspected something because there wasn’t any kind of trail marker or anything when she dropped us off but the trail actually looked pretty good right at the start and thing disappeared.

Starting out the terrain wasn’t too bad and we zig zagged back and forth trying to pick up the trail but never could find it. Another tip off should have been was that the trail was perfectly straight on the map and the chances of that are pretty slim.

About a mile in I caught some movement and spotted an elk in the trees in front of us. I saw it was a cow but we were about ready to shoot any elk but my son said “maybe there is a bull” and by the time we got it figured out that it seemed like it was a lone cow it trotted off.

We hadn’t made any plans with my wife for what to do if we didn’t show up at the other end of the planned hike so I wasn’t too disappointed because I would have have to hike out to her then come back and get the elk packed out. It was nice to see something though.

We got to a big meadow that was 1 1/2 miles from any road and it looked really nice. All of the meadows looked really nice. Evidently the elk don’t think much of them though. We cut the other trail we had planned on meeting and after a bit of searching found it to be a pretty nice trail. We were running late since we had 2 miles off trail to start so we kept a pretty good pace to get to where my wife was going to pick us up. Lots of good looking country and a decent amount of sign but nothing extremely fresh.

We got to my wife a little late but not too bad and headed back to the camper. We had just enough time to go back over to the spot we had been to the night before and thought we would give it a second chance.

We got there and got setup in a little different spot and waited for it too get dark. Evidently that’s exactly what the elk also had in mind because shooting light was over at 7:58 and at 8:03 five elk came running into the water we were sitting on. They splashed around and drank and then left almost as quickly as they came in. We grabbed our gear and got back to the truck and made it back to camp at about 9:15.

Some pictures from that day.