Vanish and FireTiger's Journal - Season 6

[vanish]

We're not done yet, and I promise to find more action in the upcoming week.

This is going to be a very busy time around here. Tonight, Forrest heads South East on a muzzleloader pronghorn buck hunt. I can't go with her, so she's taking a friend to help with spotting.

Meanwhile, I am packing for a nine day, three species adventure!

First, I head to an area I have been scouting for deer, but is still good for my OTC elk tag. I'll spend two days scouting for deer and hunting elk, until the season ends. My dad will meet me at camp on Saturday night, as he also has a deer tag. Monday morning, mule deer season starts. I've got the whole week if need be, though I'm hoping all my scouting pays off and it won't be needed. I've eaten three mule deer tags and still haven't taken one, so my bar is not terribly high, but I've seen some great deer in this area this year (I haven't deer hunted it before), including a massive 6x6 and a 32 inch 4x4. Friday night, I drive halfway across the state, picking up FireTiger along the way, to spend 2 days hunting pronghorn. I have a buck tag and she has a doe tag.

 

[vanish]

FireTiger just texted me an update. The pronghorn are not terribly scared of people yet. They had a very small buck walk right up to them. She passed on him. Lots of miles have already been covered as they're hunting on foot. They've put two stalks on bigger bucks, with the second resulting in her first shot ever at an animal with her muzzleloader, and a clean miss low.

 

[vanish]

Another stalk last night. FireTiger decided to pass again. Wish I had some pics to share, but you'd just see flat shortgrass prairie, as I have the phone scope.

I went through my spreadsheet last night and put my stuff together. Just a couple things to find still. Most of it is already packed in the RAV4. Hit up the grocery store and gas station, so I won't have to do that on the way out of town. Going to eat well. Surprising my dad with pancakes and homemade sausage.

A friend I met via BHA may be joining me on the Saturday elk hunt. We're planning something that will either be epic or a disaster.

I'm wish I could leave now! 32 more hours...

 

[duckhunt]

Looking forward to hearing more updates.

 

[vanish]

"Eventful morning but no bucks harvested."

Wish I had something less cryptic.

 

[vanish]

Stalk #7 is under way. The 95 degree weather isn't helping.

 

[vanish]

I think she's having a bit of trouble with the mental game of so many failed stalks. From here it sounds like a blast, but it's also 20 degrees cooler. Trying to help keep her head focused.

A big weather change coming in tomorrow, so I hope she keeps at it.

 

[bobbydean]

I love a good hunt. She is in one. Tell her to keep at. I was expecting a Hell Ya out of the last stalk.

 

[vanish]

They went to town for a DQ, some gas and water. Sounding like spirits are high once again!

I, on the other hand, have had a mess of a day at work and I am not expecting to make it up to camp before dark. Originally, I thought I might have time to set camp and at least get some glassing in, if not some hunting.

She may have worn out her spotter.

 

[Oak]

Dangerously close to the pie.

 

[vanish]

I don't think I could have beaten dark even if I left on time. There's a heck of a storm above me and it's black as night already. Passed through a 20 mile snow storm.

 

[vanish]

One buck down

 

[vanish]

I got a young 4x3 yesterday. Story when I'm home.

 

[duckhunt]

Congrats

 

[vanish]

Wishing I had a pronghorn tag for here...



There's an even bigger buck out there, but he wasn't in bow range like these.

 

[vanish]

Friday night I arrived at camp at about 8:30. My front door was set to arrive by 10 o'clock so I set about putting up camp. I had my lights on my car so I could see and the music going to keep my spirits up but I wasn't really thinking about it and next thing I knew I could no longer start my car. Silly me! Luckily mine arrived a few minutes after I tried to start my car and we were able to jump it. Paragraph we work early around 4:30 a.m. to a fresh blanket of snow on the ground.

This would be an interesting start to the morning as we had planned to buy about 3 miles and then start our hunt from there. I can't say I've ever biked in the dark while holding a flashlight in my hand on a cow Trail in the snow with a full pack and a bow strap to it before.

I had never been to this area before but I have heard good things about it and you a guy who has had to pull out before it was a gorgeous morning with the snow falling the entire time. However it was fairly uneventful from an elk's standpoint. While we immediately saw deer and even three bull moose the elk were mysteriously absent. I stopped to within 38 yards of a buck mule deer just for fun before a doe finally blew my cover.

Dark north-facing temper Health lots of Fairly fresh elk sign but we could not seem to find a lot of elk to save us. The snow melted just before we started going through that north-facing Timber so there was no tracks to look for unfortunately.

We headed back to Camp just before dark as neither of us felt like taking our chances riding our bikes out in the dark. Father father arrived at camp that night and we shared a few beers over some hunting stories.

( I am trying out dictation as I'm currently driving to meet my wife for pronghorn hunt. )

 

[vanish]

We found several dead heads as well as skulls with the horns cut off including this interesting specimen.

 

[MartinOwen]

I'm starting to think WOW won't be out before the season begins. No "Finished" announcement by GRRM and even when he does finish, it takes months of editing before publication...

 

[vanish]

I promise I'll get on with it soon! What an awesome week, but right now we've got 4 animals to butcher.

 

[vanish]

I had really been hoping to do a live hunt, but I definitely didn't have the signal I expected!

I would like to say we hit the elk really hard for the last day of the season, but instead we got up late, made pancakes and eggs with several pots of coffee and told hunting stories between myself, my dad and my friend. It was an enjoyable morning and I didn't miss chasing the elk under such good company.

We hit the hills after lunch. While I took my bow, I was really out scouting for mule deer. My dad and I spent most of the afternoon sitting on top of the highest point around, glassing and just hanging out. Around 3:00pm I spotted a fair buck out about a mile, but before I could get the spotting scope on him, he trotted over a rise and out of our view.



About 5:00pm we moved to separate locations where we anticipated seeing deer coming out to feed, with the sun at our backs. It didn't take too long before I saw a few does and a few pronghorn. I was surprised at just how high I was seeing some of the pronghorn, up in small sage opening in aspens. At one point, a group of three pronghorn were climbing a hump on one side, and three does on the other. They met at the top and the deer freaked out.

It took until 6:15 for me to spot the first buck out around 500 yards. I had been anticipating them appearing on the fringes on the aspens and working down into the sage but instead they were coming up out of the willows in the bottoms of the valleys. I'm curious if they were just using the willows as highways where they could stay hidden (and I somehow didn't catch them moving into them), or if they were actually bedding in them.

By dark, I had watched 5 different bucks (and got video of 4 of them). While none of them were overly large, two of them would meet my bar of having four points on a side. I've never tagged a mule deer and I wasn't going to be too picky, but I'd also seen plenty of nice deer throughout the year! My thought was to see what I could find elsewhere in the morning, since I knew where these fed in the evening.

I'll get the video up a little later today.