My quality hunt is fast approaching

[Skyvalhunter]

Hope your buck holds still like those milk jugs.

[7mmfan]

Hope your buck holds still like those milk jugs.

Hey, those milk jugs can be quite elusive     especially when you can't find them after walking 550 yards back to your shooting location, only to realize you put them 100 yards to the left of where you thought you did! Made for some tricky shooting through tiny gaps in trees. Was a lot of fun actually.

If history has any way of repeating itself, I'll most likely kill my bull this year inside of 15 yards. That's how it usually happens for me

[Elkcollector82]

Hope your buck holds still like those milk jugs.

Hey, those milk jugs can be quite elusive     especially when you can't find them after walking 550 yards back to your shooting location, only to realize you put them 100 yards to the left of where you thought you did! Made for some tricky shooting through tiny gaps in trees. Was a lot of fun actually.

If history has any way of repeating itself, I'll most likely kill my bull this year inside of 15 yards. That's how it usually happens for me

15 yards or 550 yards. Just hope one gives you a chance. Good luck.

[7mmfan]

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

[Karl Blanchard]

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

smoke is absolutely unbearable today out this direction!  Visibility is like 500 yards.  Afternoon winds have been blowing it out a bit though.  Worst it has been hands down so far this summer.   Good luck this weekend!  I'm out of town or I'd offer up a second set of eyes.

[7mmfan]

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

smoke is absolutely unbearable today out this direction!  Visibility is like 500 yards.  Afternoon winds have been blowing it out a bit though.  Worst it has been hands down so far this summer.   Good luck this weekend!  I'm out of town or I'd offer up a second set of eyes.

I was worried about smoke, but this may be my only weekend to scout so i'm going. I'll learn the lay of some land and put boots on the ground in some places I'm excited to see. Forecast up high calls for a S/SW wind both days so hopefully that helps some.

[DaveMonti]

Best of luck 7MM!  Following along now!

[Pegasus]

Grayson says you need to get this hunting elk stuff out of your head and stay home with him and Momma. PS: He says it is time to change his diaper.

[7mmfan]

Grayson says you need to get this hunting elk stuff out of your head and stay home with him and Momma. PS: He says it is time to change his diaper.

No son of mine will talk to his Dad that way! 

[GUscottie]

Excited for your hunt! Good luck and can't wait to hear how the scouting goes.

[Falcon]

Great post.   The best part of the hunt is the journey IMO.
Do what you do and make it a great experience.  A big bull is a bonus. 
Soak it all in.    Looking forward to your story

[RB]

Right on looking forward to reading more about this hunt! 

[7mmfan]

Well my Dad and I had a successful weekend scouting. We bugged out at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, and came home mid day yesterday, hoping to not hit any traffic. We set the cruise control at 75 and never touched it the whole way home, fantastic!

The smoke in a lot of that area is unbelievable right now, especially in Thorp on our way back through yesterday. It felt like we were in the fire. I feel terrible for those of you who are having to live in that right now.

We spent a lot of time Saturday bouncing around on nasty roads. I have hunted portions of that unit, and knew the roads were rough, but some of the ones we found Saturday afternoon took the cake. 4 wheel low, 1st gear, and crawl. It was the only way to move without rattling the truck, and us, to pieces. 

We covered a lot of ground, getting to know the lay of the land. I was able to effectively check off a few large areas. We finally made it to the area that I was really interested in about 4:30 Saturday afternoon. We shouldered our packs, grabbed our scopes, and headed up the trail. We had a vantage point in mind to do some glassing for the evening. We had a super productive evening seeing almost 100 elk in 2 big groups, and several bulls, including, the one I'm hoping to track down in a couple weeks. We heard lots of cow talk, and several bugles. Man it got the blood pumping! No photo opportunities, so I'll leave it at that!

Sunday morning, different area, fewer elk, but plenty to go around. One thing that I really enjoyed about this weekend, and the elk, was being able to observe elk that are just being elk, and not being pushed around by an orange army. They were so vocal, and often we could get in pretty close if careful, just because they weren't so high strung. It was a lot of fun.

All in all, a super productive weekend, it felt good to stretch my legs in the elk woods once again, and spend some quality time with my Dad. I know at 60, he still has many good years of hunting ahead of him, but I'm more aware than ever now that those will be gone before I know it, so I'm cherishing them as best I can now.

Heres one good smoky sunrise pic for your viewing pleasure!

[bracer40]

Sounds like a good scouting trip! Thanks for sharing.

[Elkcollector82]

Sounds like you had a great trip. Being outdoors with your dad and bugling bulls. Only way to beat that is standing over a tank of a bull in coming weeks. Good luck.