My season so far

[BLUEBULLS]

I'll be brief...

It started with scouting through out the summer. I found a lot of elk and a few qaulity bucks.

at the end of August I headed up to the mountains with my Dad for a couple days of scouting and then 3 days of chasing mulies. We found a few bucks before the season opened but not as many as years past. A friend (LUVHUNTIN) came up on the 31st to spend a few days bivy hunting a wilderness with us. We ended up seeing 9 or 10 bucks over the next three days but only one was worthy of an arrow. After spooking him once and getting close once more it was time to move on. We ended up seeing 25-bulls on our deer hunt with a few being real solid. We decided to hunt a little lower in elevation on our last day and maybe find a big whitetail. We drove down the mountain about 25 miles and LUVHUNTIN let us know that he had to head back for work.
   Down low... me and the old man head into a large canyon, him from one end, me from the other. We ended up seeing 6 bulls, 35 cows and 4 bears but no bucks. we ended up coming home without a single arrow cut loose.
   We made it through a couple days of work and headed down to a walleye tournament at Umatilla. We ended up in 7th place and the old man got "fisherman of the year" for the third year in a row. Good, now we have a little elk hunting money.
as soon as the boat was put away hea headed for the mountains and left me to work a couple more days. I finally get out of town on the 9th and head up to find EASTWAVIKING. I spent 2-1/2 days hunting for his bull with no success. We had close calls with some great bulls just no shot opportunities. After a few days I figured I better try to kill myself an elk. the elk were being extremely quiet due to the heat and full moon. Finally on my 5th day we got into a good concentration of elk. The bulls were bugling and everything seemed to be shaping up. on the 6th day, I took my dad into these new found elk and we ended up calling 5 or 6 bulls in tight including a 5pt that came in to about 8 feet. then all of a sudden, with all the commotion, there's a spike.
This spike came in and gave me a 38yard uphill shot. His head and chest were behind a tree and I picked a spot and released. I heard the arrow hit hard and the shot looked good. I saw red right at the back of his shoulder and thought it was my blazer vane. We gave him about an hour and then went to look. I found my arrow which obviously hit his shoulder paddle and didn't penetrate the bone. we looked for any encouraging sign and found none. The red I saw was a tiny bit of blood. He had his leg angled back and I didn't realize it. I felt terrible about this but realized that this spike would be fine, maybe a little sore for awhile but fine. After searching some more just to make sure he was alright we headed out of the canyon. we ended up getting in tight on a 360" 6pt on our hike out. That afternoon I decided to head down and try to kill a buck that LUVHUNTIN had been chasing for awhile.
   Tuesday the 16th found me freezing my butt off in a t-shirt with 8 nice bucks heading right for my lap. They ended up feeding past me at just over 60 yards. I opted not to take a long shot. once the bucks were past, I pulled off the boots and went into sneak mode. I ended up getting 15 - 20 yards from the group but the only buck that offered a shot was one of the smaller ones. He ended up blowing them out and my day was over. Back to work for a few days and then off elk hunting again for one last morning hunt.
   This time it would Timberstalker and I. we arrive at our cabin at 10:30 pm to find about 20 guys playing poker. After losing a little money and hearing all the stories it was off to bed. First light the next morning found Timberstalker, My old man and myself deep In a hell of a canyon with rain falling and wind swirling. The bulls were really getting with it despite all the weather and we were optimistic. Our first few set ups ended with the swirling winds running a few bulls off. We climbed around this vertical country for a couple more hours deciding which bugles to chase. Finally we hear two bulls lokking for a fight. I figured with the way they were worked up, there must be more elk in there and maybe a spike. We hustled in close and set up, Timberstalker to my right and Dad to my left. With a few calls we could tell one bull was going to commit. after sweet talking him for about ten minutes I see what we're after, A little silent spike sneaking in to try and steal his momma back. It took a little sweet talking but he worked in good. As he was coming I look at my dad and he's at full draw on the bull who's now at 40 yards broadside. I convinced him to let the bull keep coming, he let up and bull was doing great. another coulple yards and Timberstalker was going to have a 25 yard shot. Well, the bull ended up hanging behind some limbs. my dad had a clean 45 yard shot but missed, the spike runs and stops to a cow call, Timberstalker lets one fly and misses, oh crap, he's gonna get away. Another  cow call stops him again and I touch one off....it's a hit but back a little. He runs up the hill about ten yards and I tall Timberstalker the distance.....A perfect double lung shot. We watch the bull go about 20 yards and I grab the video camera and film him tipping over. We're pumped now and then notice the screaming bull from earlier moving in on us. He comes to about 60 yards, rakes a tree, sees us and then leaves. Timberstalkers year round hard work with his bow paid off. After quartering and picking apart every piece of meat it was time to head home. 294lbs made it to the truck in about 2 or 3 hours.
  we were all beat and I Still had to head home to keep the wife happy. The next day found me out with LUVHUNTIN chasing bucks again, this time there were more like 25 of them with a couple being heavy 26" 4pts. a 1/4 mile belly crawl ended up with me making a rookie mistake. The only buck that presented me with a shot was a 22" 3pt. He was 25 yards and as I drew, my arrow sailed about fifteen feet. with deer staring my direction I failed to get my release on the loop all the way. The day ended withou a shot.
  I still have two more days to chase bucks with my bow. fortunately I was drawn for the multi season tag so I'm just getting started. You can bet I'll be back with more rookie mistakes and stories. I've had my fair share of great times and now it's time to start concentraing on the big boys. I feel like hunting season is just starting.
  good luck to everyone else, and hey LUVHUNTIN, you better get one of those big boys on the ground before my rifle comes out.

[bucklucky]

Nice write up Jake, I think I heard most of them stories already 

[X-Force]

Great read. Good luck with the multi tag. Thanks for sharing.

[miah]

dang dude, where are you seeing all these bulls? The blues?

[EastWaViking]

Post a picture of your spike! 

Thanks again to you and your whole family for helping me out!

-Viking

[M_ray]

We like pics of all kinds!!!! 

[BLUEBULLS]

We didn't get any field photos of the spike. I just had the video camera.
Timberstalker posted a pic of it somewhere.

[BLUEBULLS]

Well, now it's time to add muzzleloader season on here.

it started bad, Friday night I had to drive my daughter to meet up with her grandma who would be watching her for the weekend. Before we left I figured I would take the gun apart, why? don't know. anyways, I ended up busting the nipple off in the breach plug. after a quick run to sportsmans whs. I had a couple new nipples that looked to fit well. Saturday morning at 4:00am found me almost to my hunting area. I stopped to fire a cap through the gun and found that the nipple was too long, uh oh! I jump in the truck and start flying back to town, I start calling my buddies and one of them finally decided to wake up and answer the phone and he had a nipple. I picked it up, checked to make sure it was right and I was off again.
  once there I park the truck, get out and look over and here's a coyote, 15 feet away looking at me, I ran him off and he came right back. I didn't want to shoot him and run the deer out so I chased him on foot and finally convinced him that I didn't want him around. I started hiking and the rain started falling. I'd covered about five miles before I saw my first deer which was a 3x4 muley. He wasn't what I was looking for so I let him walk, or run I should say. The remainder of the hunt I covered 14 miles and saw only a 2pt and a doe.
  Off to another spot for the afternoon. I get to this huge CRP field and start hiking. The wind has picked up to about 25mph and the rain has stopped. I know the deer will be bedded so I start jumping from vantage point to vantage point glassing for horns or ears or whatever. Finally at the 3rd stop I see horns. It's a 26" 3pt and he's sleeping, perfect. I crawl to within 100 yards and stop there because it's the only spot to get high enough where the grass won't block my shot from a bipod. After waiting about 15 or 20 minutes I get bored. I decided I was gooing to get him up and kill him or run him off. I start howling like a coyote and it gets his attention but doesn't stand. Finally after a few minutes of this I don't want to waste any more time on a 3pt that I shouldn't be wanting to kill anyways so i wave my arm, he stands perfect and I'm holding dead steady. BOOM....smoke....running deer....damn, I missed. I didn't compensate for the wind and that sounds like a good excuse to me. I follow his tracks for half a mile to make sure the miss was a miss. Sure enough, he's alive and well.
eventually I tell myself that I'm glad I missed because I have a lot of hunting still to come. The day ended with no more sightings.
  Sunday found me at the same area as saturday morning. About an hour into it I spot a buck. He looks to be a good one and as I close the distance I realize he's what I'm after, a 26" 4x4, that'll probably be close to 170". I sneak for an hour and get to 75yds. I lay down and lay the gun out for the shot. BOOM...what the he$%, someone else shot at him. He jumped as if he was hit and ran off. I finally spot the hunter who took a shot close to 300yds from behind me...Dumb a$$. he doesn't know I'm there and finally see's me when he gets close. Well, he was an idiot that shouldn't be hunting with a muzzleloader and after looking around we found that he hit the buck in the hoof. I tracked him for about a mile and lost his track. by the way his tracks looked I think he'll be fine. I hunt a few more hours and decide to head home with hopes for next weekend rifle hunting. About 4:00 I can't take it anymore, I should be hunting. I head to a spot close to home and see a small 3pt that I left alone and then dark came.
   Well, I think my muzzleloader hunts over and now I'm pumped for rifle season. I'll be in the same canyon as last year hunting for the big one that got away. He'll most likely elude me again but I'm going to have a helluva time hunting him.
   
Good luck to the rest of you and I'll be back with another report.

[EastWaViking]

Good writing!  Thanks for the update.
Can't wait to hear your update after this weekend.

good luck.

[BLUEBULLS]

Thanks Clint, have fun with the ducks and geese. Oh yeah, kill that coyote too!

[bucklucky]

Hope you kicked that dude in the nuts  Good luck man!

[X-Force]

Kicked his nuts or chewed his ass. that shi^ just doesn't speak well for a the rest of us. Good luck in MF

[robb92]

Sorry to hear about the *censored* shooting over your head. Best of luck next time you head out.