Vanish and FireTiger's 2017 Hunt Journal - Season 7

[vanish]

Made it up to camp on Friday night through a thunderstorm. Dad had made it up there early and got in the woods just before the storm came through. Sucker got soaked. We set up a "big camp" for this as we anticipated being there for four days, complete with a gear tent and tarped cooking area.

Passed a couple of these guys on the way up.

 

[vanish]

Saturday involved a hike to an area I spent a lot of time in during the last two years, including shots at two bulls. I really like hunting this spot as I can hunt the way I like; moving at a steady pace looking for sign and animals. However, its not a large area and can pretty much be covered in a day to determine if the elk are living there.

At the two mile point I was hit with a bugle uphill from me. I covered some more distance following up a ridge before responding with a cow call. I got a response but it was still a fair amount uphill. Cut some more distance and repeat. Finally, I was getting to the point where I thought I might know where the bull was located, when he bugled way up hill from me. Unfortunately, there was a point where I found he had crossed into private property.

I hung out there listening to him bugle for another hour, but it was clear he was not coming back. The area where I was cut off was full of elk sign, but the problem was it a four mile hike and only 1/4 mile from the boundary; that doesn't leave one much room for error.

Exploring for the next two hours revealed not much more information, so I spent the whole rest of the day waiting over the closest water, a small spring right on the edge of a north facing slope.

It was a loooong day with no action. I saw several bucks on my back out but the real prize was as I came to a spot to glass from, 15 minutes before dark, I spotted a large herd (40+) on a ridge about two miles away. I couldn't tell what was in the herd from that distance, but there had to be a bull in there. I knew where I would be the next morning.

 

[vanish]

We got an early start on Saturday morning and were headed to the trailhead 20 minutes earlier than usual. This would be perfect as I had some extra ground to cover this morning to be in the right area on time.

Lady luck, however, disagreed with my plans. Some poor trucker had fallen asleep at the wheel and rolled his rig. They had the intersection blocked off where we needed to turn to land the Medivac chopper. We had to wait for the authorities to get him strapped in and flown out. After about 20 minutes they decided they had to burn off some fuel or risk being over weight limit, and the chopper took off, allowing us to pass on by. Now we were right back on our normal schedule, and I was debating whether I could make the hike in time.

Well, what did I have to lose? Jogging through the sage in the dark while carrying a bow is not an easy task. One of my socks suffered some damage, but I made good time. I started climbing the hill opposite where I had seen the elk the night before as shooting light broke. I was a bit behind but the sun had not breached yet, so if I was lucky, they would still be feeding.

And they were...

Some of the elk were looking my direction, so I had to be careful in my movements. They were only about 400 yards away now. I glassed for a bit to try to determine what was up there, and more elk kept appearing and then disappearing over the ridge. There were at least 5 legal bulls up there. The question wasn't should I pursue, but how. I determined that since the thermals were still coming downhill, I would go straight at them.

I slipped into the bottom below the elk slowly and found that's where they had bedded the night before. I was now completely out of view, and picked up the pace. I slowed down as I neared crest, and it was a good thing as this guy nearly busted me.

I'm actually fairly sure he saw me, but he wasn't smart enough to realize I was a threat. Spikes are not legal here. He was only about 35 yards away so it made the stalk a bit tricky. He finally turned and I was able to focus on looking for a legal bull, but the lost 20 minutes was starting to bite me. The sun had come over the top and was starting to heat the valley below. I was working on borrowed time, but I was within 100 yards and thus committed.

The hill top was more rounded than I was expecting, and I could not find anything but the spike. I worked my way sidehill to the right as there was a bit of a knob and I hoped to keep the shifting wind in my favor. Looking north where the elk were last located revealed nothing, but I about stumbled into two big bulls off to my right.

I ducked behind some sage brush and pulled out my rangefinder. 55 yards .... hmm, a little too far for my tastes. Not much cover except one more piece of sage about 5 yards ahead. If I can avoid elk fever, I can do 50...

Then, the thermals switched. A big gust ended all thoughts of a shot. It was literally a snap of the fingers and the elk were thumping off. I have no idea what happened to all the cows - never saw them on top, but the two big bulls I was watching met up with four other branch bulls about 250 yards away. They trotted back and forth, unsure of which way to go. I thought for a few minutes that this might not be over, but they finally gathered up and disappeared.

 

[vanish]

Unsure of what to do at this point, I started touring to find fresh sign that might indicate where the elk had gone. Due to proximity to private lands, my hopes were not high. Eventually, I came to a spring that was just torn up. Mule deer were everywhere around here and I had a hard time getting anywhere without one blowing at me. I decided to settle in 30 yards from the most used spot.

Within 10 minutes, I caught a glimpse of something heading up the ridge to my left. He stopped and I could tell it was a good bull. At 120 yards there wasn't much I could do with him looking my direction. He stood there for 5 minutes before deciding to head over the ridge. Darn, why didn't he come to drink?

Something distracted me for a few minutes, but when I looked up, there he was on the ridge again, just standing there looking into the drainage. I'm not sure if the winds were just inconsistent enough that my scent was occasionally wafting that way or what, but he just stood there like a statue. Once again, he headed back over the ridge.

By this time things were starting to get warm and I figured I might as well stay here. Over the next hour, I had 13 mule deer come through, and then it just died. I didn't see anything else until a mulie wandered down around 5PM. At 6PM, I figured I would head over where the herd had been gathered the night before and see if I could glass them again, but it was not meant to be.

The bucks were playing on my way back, providing at least some entertainment, though I didn't see any truly large deer.

 

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Sunday was a very quiet day, other than one random encounter. I was watching this trail that elk take to escape from hunter pressure, when approximately 5 elk started trotting past me 100 yards away on a parallel trail. There was a slight hump between us, so I sprinted after them on my side of the hump. My hope was I could intercept them where the trail came together at the sage.

I got to the edge but I was too late. There were 5 cows already 100 yards out in the sage. As I stood there cursing to myself, a cow elk suddenly appeared entering the trees right in front of me. Like, 15 yards away in front of me, walking straight at me. I scrambled to knock an arrow as she turned broadside. I drew and she took a couple of steps but I was able to stop her with a couple of cow calls. She stopped right behind a tree, vitals covered, for about 3 seconds before trotting off.

I don't know if she had heard me moving down the trail and thought I must be another elk or what, but I was definitely not prepared for that. Why on earth did she abandon the group of cows she had been running with?

 

[Ohboytimmy]

Love the posts, keeps me inspired!

 

[vanish]

Monday we decided to try a whole new area. The day before a bull had been bugling right behind camp. I was almost kicking myself for not pursuing him, and when I mentioned it to Dad on the drive Sunday morning, his response jokingly was "what are you going to do, drag him to the neighboring unit?" Of course, this puzzles me for a moment, when I remembered my Dad has a deer tag that's unit restricted and he was getting confused with that ... our OTC tag is plenty good where we are camped. I reminded him and you could see the gears turning.

So, back to Monday ... once again we're making coffee and well before light there's a bull bugling. Then more than one. Why the heck are we driving somewhere if there's elk right here? They shut off about 20 minutes before shooting light, but we had an idea of where to go.

Up, up, up and away we started exploring and climbing. As we hit the edge of the highest meadow, the laziest short bugle you ever heard sputtered out. We looked at each other wide eyed to confirm it was in fact a bugle. 20 seconds later it was confirmed as he bugled like he was awake this time. I told my Dad to get set up inside the cover 60 yards ahead, because when I call he's coming, but he'll probably stop at the edge and not see the elk he's looking for. As he was maneuvering into position, before I had even called, a bugle blasted out just ahead. This caused my Dad to stop short of where I had told him to go, as he was afraid the bull was coming any second.

Well, after a few minutes of waiting, the bull did not appear, so I settled in to making some sweet cow calls. After what seemed like an eternity, I was starting to question what had happened. We were starting to hit that time of day where the thermals shift once again ( I always hear 10am, but it seems more like 7:30am where we hunt ) and questioning if we had been unknowingly busted when finally a branch cracked. Dad gave me the thumbs up.

A few minutes later there was an awful lot of ruckus heading down the hill from us. I was confused, as I didn't see anything happen. A cow and spike passed above me, but out of range. I tried calling and they stopped and turned around several times, but were unsure. Finally, they went over the ridge.

We grouped up and my Dad immediately asked if the bull was as big as he looked. I had no answer - I never saw him. The bull had hung up 50-60 yards from my Dad before finally being annoyed at not finding the cow. Gee, that sounds an awful lot like what I told him would happen.

 

[vanish]

Friday, I was able to leave work a little early, but decided I needed to make sure the guns were sighted in for future hunts, so I stopped at the range on my way west.

First up was my wife's CVA Optima II. Since it would just be used for pronghorn this year (just over a week away!), and last year the mule kick of it gave my wife target panic, we had worked up a new load of just 80 grains of Blackhorn 209 and 250 grain Thor bulllets. We had also swapped in a peep site. It took about a dozen shots to get everything back in line. A couple shots in the red at 100 yards had me please. Those Thor bullets do make a concerning woosh-woosh-woosh sound, though. Anyone else come across that?

Next was her .270. We'd be using this on our WY pronghorn hunt coming up in early October and her mule deer hunt later in October. We decided to switch to non-lead ammunition this year and are shooting 130 grain Federal® Power-Shok Copper. I took 2 shots at 100 yards and both were 2 inches high and 1 inch right. Gave it a few clicks to the left and moved to 200 yards. Put two shots right in the bull. I think these shoot better than what we were using before as I'm only a mediocre shot.

I packed up the guns and blasted over to a spot to glass for elk with the remaining time in the evening. I finished the 1/2 mile or so hike with about 45 minutes of glassing light. There were some elk bugling over on private, and I saw a black bear over there, too, but I couldn't even find a deer on the public land.

 

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Saturday found us returning to the same area where he had called in the bull on Monday, albeit with no pre-dawn bugles. Nobody was home in the nearby meadows, so we kept moving hoping to find sign. It was already pushing noon when my Dad said he'd had enough and was going to head back to one of the meadows and park it. I decided I was going to keep pushing until I found today's sign.

Finally, about 2PM I found a fresh pile. Within a hundred yards or so I found some more, and the area stunk of elk. I had the general feeling that the elk had been there in the morning and headed West to bed. The wind was very fickle, so I didn't like my chances of pushing into the bedding areas. Time for lunch and a nap.

Around 5PM, the thermals started changing and the wind started a steady downhill draft. I moved into position where a trail crossed a skinny, long meadow. ( Looking uphill in this shot )

I sat back down to read my book. Around 6:30, there was some distinct crunching uphill to the southwest of me. This is it, I thought. The thump thump of hooves crossing a downed log. Antler tips were visible above the short pines, but I could not see his body. I didn't really have anything resembling a shooting lane unless he came into the meadow as it was very thick on both sides of it. The antler tips got to about 40 yards and stopped. And then, as it has been this season, a strong gust came from the northeast. The wind almost never blows from the east here.

The hooves thundered away, and I never even got a good view of him.

 

[vanish]

Because you can never have enough moose pics. One of these days I'm going to have to take my good camera. Saw a real brute (5 brow tines on each side!) but he didn't hang around for the photo.

 

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Sunday, we went back in the same area and found that bull had come back into the meadow but left before we got there. Nothing more eventful happened throughout the day as we pushed into new territory and found no new sign. Dad had to leave so we hiked back out and cooked up some lunch. I resolved to sit over that wallow in the evening, as it seemed like that bull was active there.

At 4:30, I hiked my way back in only to find that bull had been there while we were at lunch. Gosh darn it. I stayed until dark but nothing showed and the world was quiet.

I'm running out of time on this hunt as I have a 3:30am Monday morning shuttle to the airport on Sept 18, which means I have to be careful where I hunt this weekend. I cannot risk shooting a bull too late or too far. Dad cannot make this weekend, and my one buddy also has to work, so it looks like I am solo. However, I've had this one wilderness area in my back pocket that's been calling to me and I don't know if I can resist heading in there on Saturday.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Keep up the hard work! I'm waiting for a "hero picture" text message

 

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Today

A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 55. Breezy, with a west southwest wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Tonight

Rain showers likely before 4am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Some thunder is also possible. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 36. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 9 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible.

Saturday

A chance of rain and snow showers before noon. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 52. Breezy, with a west southwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

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I think Saturday afternoon is going to be killer.

If work calms down here, I'm out of here ASAP.

 

[vanish]

On the way home.

 

[Joel53]

Very nice, can't wait to read about it

 

[WildWill]

Congratulations excited to hear the whole story.

 

[plumber1969]

Congratulations! As a southerner who has made this trip for the first time, I'm jealous of what y'all have up here. We only have a short window of time and it is tough!

 

[vanish]

Not enough time for the journal entry yet as I am packing for my business trip in the morning, butchering this elk and repacking for the pronghorn trip we're headed on when FireTiger picks me up on Wednesday. This was the only full body photo that came out halfway decent - its hard to photo while solo at dark in a rainstorm.

 

[7mm08mo]

Congrats, I have enjoyed following along.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Congrats Ryan!!!!