My quality hunt is fast approaching

[teanawayslayer]

Pics or it didn't happen! It's easy to take a pic of a fridge full of meat! Come over to my place you can take the same pic.  . Seriously congrats can't wait for pics!

[bracer40]

Can't wait for the story! And pics of course...

[Jpmiller]

congrats! cant wait to hear and see more

[7mmfan]

Momma is requiring personal time. I'm logging off for the night. I'll post in the morning. Sorry guys

[bracer40]

Happy wife happy life

[scottfrick]

Tagging along. Can’t wait to read story

[2MANY]

Awesome.
Love on that family.

[7mmfan]

Alright, where to start?

We left town early Saturday morning and headed east. We got into our camp spot at approx 8:30, and got everything setup. Anyone who has a fully stocked wall tent camp, knows it takes a while to get everything done. So by the time we'd got the kitchen set up, firewood cut, and lunch cooked, it was about 12:30. I took off and went to scout a spot I'd been thinking about. I walked in past the closed road signs, following all the tracks of vehicles that didn't care. I reached the elevation I wanted and dove off into the woods, heading up into a canyon. I had just made it around the corner, out of ear shot of the bottom, and I heard a bugle. YES! a few minutes later, another one, and then another one. All the same bull though. I made my way to a high point above the canyon and pulled out the binos and tried to find him, but couldn't. I could see lots of tracks in the remnants of the snow that had flown earlier in the week, and a short time later, I could hear elk talking and making noise below me in the timber. By this time it was about 5:30, and I was happy with what I'd found. I knew I wouldn't put eyes on the bull unless I went in after him, so I backed out. On my way back down the road, I met a group of 6 very drunk atv riders. They knew they weren't supposed to be there and dropped their masks and zoomed by me. Oh well. Heres Quality Elk Camp 2017.

[7mmfan]

My plan for Sunday morning was to scout near where I had scouted over Labor Day weekend, and see if I could track down those bulls again. I had spoke with an archery tag holder on my way in that was hunting up in that area and he said he had hunted that bull for a couple days but could never quite make it work. That was encouraging! He told me where he had last seen him and said they had been there for a couple days. I knew the spot and knew that if I came in from above, the thermals would screw me. So we made a game plan to sneak up the creek bottom and then work uphill to the area.

Sunday morning came cold and crisp. Nice and frosty. We left the truck and headed uphill an hour and a half before light. As we neared the location I wanted to be in, I realized I had forgotten to put my boots on that morning and was hiking in my tread free romeos. I was looking at the mountain ahead me and wondering how it would work. It went surprisingly well!

I let out a locator bugle.... nothing. Climbed the hill a little further, another bugle.... nothing. We ended up climbing the whole ridge, and checking every nook and cranny in the upper end, and never saw an elk. I found where they had been, and the direction they were headed though. We waited for the thermals to switch, and then headed down the spine towards an area I felt was likely they would be. By now though it was near 11:00 and I didn't hold much hope of spotting anything. I periodically cow called, or threw out weak bugles hoping for a response, that never came. Then by chance, we spotted a cow work her way across an opening a couple hundred yards below us. This was the first elk we'd actually laid eyes on in 2 days. It was very encouraging. Given the time of day, I knew she would be bedding nearby. Also encouraging.

We backed out, and that evening I made my way to a vantage point for the area and watched and listened until about 6:00. At that point, I heard a group of animals get out of bed and make their way out of the timber. I never saw them, but knew they were there. I dropped down from the ridge, and onto an old road bed and began tailing them. I had only gone a couple hundred yards and I peaked into an opening and there was a cow standing there feeding. I backed up and found cover and waited until dark just listening, hoping for a bugle. None came.

I knew there were elk in the area, and I knew where they weren't from that morning. I knew that the big bull I had seen earlier in the season was still there somewhere, and I assumed he was with this group of animals, just wasn't talking. I made a plan to be back in there first thing in the morning, opening day.

[2MANY]

Hhhhhmmmmm.
The plot thickens.

[dreamingbig]

With a cape cool and dry is your friend.  Salt only as a last resort.  Once dry you can roll, wrap and put in freezer but I would suggest getting it to your taxi asap.


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[7mmfan]

The alarm went off 3:45. I was surprisingly slow out of bed. The 9.5 miles in romeos the day before had taken more of a toll than I expected. But once up and moving, I loosened up nicely. Coffee brewed, breakfast choked down, gear checked, double checked, BOOTS tied on, I grabbed the shooting iron, and we hit the road.

The forecast was for overcast and light/variable winds all day. I planned my approach based on morning thermals. I got to my staging area an hour before light and waited. The wind was swirling everywhere, driving me crazy and shaking my confidence in the plan. We stuck it out and hoped that when we got out in the open it would steady a bit. At 6:55, the sun peaked over the horizon, and offered us an amazing blood red sunrise. An omen

[7mmfan]

I ripped out a locator bugle.... nothing. We started moving forward toward where I had seen the cows the night before. The wind still swirling. I got a point where the grade we were walking on turned to the right and I knew that if we went too far up it, we would most likely wind anything in the flat beside us. I chose to just peak around the corner into a large sagebrush hillside. At first, I didn't see anything. I commented to my Dad that I couldn't believe there wasn't any animals in there. I moved just to left, about 10 feet, and bam, there’s a bull. He was way up at the top of the hill side, about 300 yards away, but even from there I could tell he was a good size bull with the naked eye.

I pulled up the binos and got a better look at him. He was not the BIG bull in the area, but he was a wide, long 6 pt bull. He turned and walked into the brush and disappeared. I pulled out my cow call and gave him a few seductive mews. I was instantly greeted with a chuckle. I cow called again, chuckle sent back. 3 times we did this, and I realized he wasn't going to move so I pulled a tactic from the Elknut play book. I began cow calling feverishly, almost distressed, and then immediately followed them with a bugle and a chuckle.

[7mmfan]

It was instantaneous.

There was no response, just action. I immediately heard brush breaking and limbs snapping. He was on his way. I had the gun on the sticks ready. Unbeknownst to me, my Dad had moved up behind me and suddenly, he's talking in my ear about something, and I almost whisper yell at him, " Don't move! He's RIGHT THERE!" And almost on que, he stepped out of the brush 40 yards away looking right at us.

Part of me would like to say that I looked him over, counted points, judged his 4ths, etc.. etc.., but at that point, I had a nice bull in front of me, that I had just called in to archery range. I told you guys in the beginning, that I would probably shoot the first decent 6 pt that I saw, and it just so happened that it was the first bull I saw, in the first 30 minutes of shooting light, on the first day.

He turned slightly, giving me a slightly quartering to shot. I placed it on his shoulder and let it fly. The resounding THWACK! was almost deafening. He took off like nothing had happened. I chambered another shell, put it on the front of his shoulder and sent it, tumbling him head over heels. He was down.

I leapt up and took off across the sage brush hillside like I was walking on air. When I was about halfway to him, I stopped, and let it soak in for a minute. There, a short distance away was a large elk horn sticking up in the air above the brush. A sight that I will never forget. Dad and I slowly worked our way to him, ensuring he was down for good. Dad and I had a big hug, and a few minutes of reflection.

One thing that's very important to me is respect for the animal. I won't ever set a gun, or a pack, or any object on a dead animal. I won't ever straddle them, or sit on them. They deserve better than that. I don't enjoy killing them. The more I do it, the more I realize that its so instinctual. I run on auto pilot, hunting my butt off, strategizing, and making moves, and only after the trigger is pulled, and the animal is down, do I come down from the hunt and feel some remorse. I never regret killing an animal, it's all part of the cycle, and I will always be a part of it, but I have an immense amount of respect for the life I've taken, and ensure that it's not wasted.

[7mmfan]

I had been sitting marveling this animal for a few minutes when I remembered, my buddy Jordan was filming all of this! He had done a fantastic job of just staying back out of the way and getting everything. I said, "Man that is going to be awesome video the way he came in!" He just kind of looked at me and said, " I didn't get it. I didn't know he was coming so fast and I was trying to change lenses on the camera when you shot!" He was super bummed, but I really couldn't have cared less. He knew the hunt was more important to me than the video, and he kept that in mind the whole time. We did get some awesome footage, just not the kill shot. Oh well.

The work began. We took some great photos, moved him down to a flat spot and broke him down. The trigger was pulled at 7:15, and we were heading downhill with the first load at 10:30 or so. Dropped that off headed back up at 1:30. The last load was substantial. I had decided to pack the skin out to be tanned, so my load was a 30# bag of scrap meat, the hide which had to weight close to 50#, and the head, another 35# or so. The Exo pack creaked and groaned a little, but nearly as much as me when I shouldered it. The pack held everything steady and securely, and I we made the 2 mile trek back to the truck. What a relief to drop that pack on the tailgate!

We got it all back to camp, and used the remaining daylight to trim up the meat, and bone the quarters out. We had a great dinner, a couple drinks, and great campfire that night. It was the epitome of elk camp.

There you have it boys! That's my hunt. I accomplished exactly what I wanted out of it. I could have waited, and I'm certain I would have had opportunities at bigger bulls, but I have zero regrets, and now I'm home hanging out with my family again for a couple days before I have to head back to work. Thanks for following!