Elk hunt
This hunt started about 7 years ago when I first set foot in the unit. Not the best unit in the state but I know it well. Please no guesses on units or areas I'd rather that not go on a public forum. This is a quick day by day rundown. I'll add some more pics and video in the upcoming days.
Day 1 (3 days before hunt opened) broken shoelace. Hiked 75lbs into spot setup camp. rain wind fog! 4 rag horn bulls right off trail. Mac n cheese! Tang!
Day 2 rain hard all night turned to snow early morning hiked to glassing fog snow wind! Tried to wait it out wasn't happening. Back to tent. Lifted about 10 am got little glassing in on and off the rest of day. 10 or so bulls biggest maybe 310ish steak and potato soup
Day 3hiked a couple hours to different glassing spot. Bumped a heard with decent bull right off trail saw 10 bucks 1 bull approx320. Bro killed deer packed it back to camp. Hiked to glassing spot saw bulls best approx 330 Chili and hot dogs
Day 4 hunt starts. hiked to glassing. passed on small 6 and 5. passed a stalk opportunity on 330 ish bull. Snow started falling heavy with fog. Back to tent gathered quartered wood stockpiled in tent. Hiked back to glass snow little visibility heard of 5 cows 2 spikes just below us. The same 6 and 5 too. Mac n cheese and hot dogs
Day 5 hiked to glass. snow fog little visibility! zero elk! decided to pack deer out to truck resupply and hunt out of different area. Reached new location at 230am slept in truck
Day 6 woke at 5 started hiking at 530. Got to glassing about 730 spotted 5 bulls decided one a shooter huge bottoms! Mass! Droptine! broken fourth. Put a stalk closest was 670. dialed in waited for shot dropped him! 5 min later realized he was standing 2 more shots for sure one more hit. Hiked around and up to him bear spooked him brother watched him walk through a couple openings. No blood at site of 3 shots(3"snow) decided I should get back on original shooting hillside. Took me forever very tired no energy! Got back to my bro. Decided he would go check last spot he saw the bull. Waited. bro got on bulls trail hear over radio busted him he's coming out in opening. dropped down spotted him shot. no reaction out of bull. shot again just before he disappeared sounded like hit a rock. Got ahold of bro got back on trail good blood where I last shot he spotted bull 50 yards bedded so he backed out and I headed over we snuck in very slow and quite to find a dead bull. Couldn't budge bull he was wrapped up in trees. Took some pics quartered him. 3 solid hits. headed back towards truck right at dark. Fog and snow couldn't see 50 feet and we had some tricky traveling back to trail. Gps came in as life saver! Both dogged it back to truck made it about 1030. Very long 2 day stretch!!! slept in truck
Day 7. Drove to town ate a big good breakfast. Bs'd with some hunters headed back to trailhead. hiked.Hard snow. boned out. load up hinds on each of our packs hiked out(1000' up) then a couple miles with some ups and downs. Felt a lot better with good sleep and food today even with meat on back. drove back to town for good dinner! Slept in truck
Day 8 another bro met us at trailhead. We ate breakfast hiked in towards down elk. He dropped contents of his pack and we all dropped down to bull. One pack carried front/ misc meat, one pack carried front/ back straps, and other pack carried head with cape. Switched packs regular to keep moving. Felt like break with any pack other than head. Reached brothers contents and loaded all meat in one pack and one brother headed for our first tent to hunt spikes and bring out our stuff. Now we have a pack about 100 full of meat and a pack that made the meat pack fill like a break. We kept rotating packs and eventually reached truck. Halelula!!! Btw hard snow all day plowed snow on drive out. Even had to chain up to get through a traffic jam on icy hill. Made it home late!
Day 8 8 am text. Do u mind coming back to help pack out a spike. Fortunately the rest of the fam went to help with some horses. Let me clean up the meat and take care of a wet wall tent. What a hunt. Deer bull spike
