2018 season...Boot leather and backpacks

[Karl Blanchard]

Hey Karl when your all done with yours can you type up stories for my fall? My story telling sucks. I’m not great with all the words

Deal!  You can't change anything I write though and have to go along with EVERTHING I post 

[Dan-o]

Supertag!

Thanks, Karl.
I'll be following for sure.

[BULLBLASTER]

Hey Karl when your all done with yours can you type up stories for my fall? My story telling sucks. I’m not great with all the words

Deal!  You can't change anything I write though and have to go along with EVERTHING I post 

[Karl Blanchard]

Once again Jon and I were burning through the gas and the coffee on our way to Nevada!  At some point in the night Jon decided to test the durability of a live coyote.  Turns out that coyotes are not Toyota Tundra proof   50 miles after we turned off the black top and one failed jackrabbit assassination by Jon and we were at the trail head.  Luckily it was mid day so we were able to enjoy our hike in the sweltering Nevada heat We hiked, and we hiked, and we hiked but the drainage we were in was failing to give us the elevation gain we wanted to towards dark we pealed off and straight up we went.  We glassed until dark but it produced very little.  Couple small bucks and a dumb little 370" 6x6 bull elk 

Where we ended up wasn't exactly optimal for sleeping.sharp rock and cactus kind of suck but we managed to dig out a spot flat enough for a tent and we settled in for a semi comfortable nights sleep. The insanely bright full moon kept the tent nicely lit and at one point i contemplated getting up and glassing We were up and caffeinated before the sun and it was incredible how quickly the few deer we saw bedded up for the morning.  They literally ran from sun light!  We needed to get farther up the mountain but for fear of not being able to find water we opted to leave camp and drop back down to the creek bottom to load up on as much water as we could carry.  The creek is what my little brother would refer to as "questionable".  There was an endless chain of beaver ponds and an endless amount of beaver crap floating in the water.  We were convinced that this particular water was the origin of beaver fever but it was all we had so purified, drank till we were sick and back up the hill we went.  That evening we settled in for a nice evening of glassing.  Jon had found a particularly nice spot to sit but there was a cactus that was a bit to close for comfort so in an odd display of aggression towards a plant he removed it from its location.  As he was violently assaulting the cactus with his trekking pole I noticed a lot of quills flying around.  I thought to myself "man that could get a guy in trouble".  The thought barely entered my brain when I noticed Jon was in visible distress.  "Man i sat on a quill".  I laughed but as he continued to dig he came up with a blood covered quill that had achieved a solid 1.5" of  penetration    Only thing worth seeing that evening was a big cougar we glassed up that was working  high sage clearing.

Lots of fruitless glassing produced very little so it was time to make a move and find some deer.  Four more days we explored around the most depressing country I have ever hunted 

[tgomez]

Those are TALL spikes. Congratulations on a great hunt and thanks for sharing your story with us.

[Karl Blanchard]

Our last ditch effort was an area I had looked at during my Google scouting but had decided to stay away because it was foretold to me that it was a popular trailhead for other hunters. Like anything else, just go farther and work harder and you can be rewarded.  The hunt was coming to a close and we had to make something happen so we loaded up packs and kicked it in high gear!  We only had a few hours of light left and we needed to make good time.  I felt bad for Jon because he was in high gear and my fat arse was stuck in mid range.  We gained the elevation we wanted and started working across a big ridge that had canyons running off of it.  The second canyon we got to was exactly what I had been looking for all week.  Instantly I got that feeling that if there was a good buck in all of Nevada, this is where he would be.  We shucked our packs and Jon began to glass.  Though I began to unpack the optics, I couldn't glass.  I had to look over the lip into the mahogany.   I had to scratch that itch.  There was a buck in there and I knew it.  Like a lab with a nose full of fresh pheasant scent I snatched up my gun and edged my way along the mahogany.

The bucks caught me off guard.  They saw me before I saw them and they weren't going to stick around to see what I was all about.  I had a little window but I timed it wrong and it was a clean miss.  Jon came down to me and immediately glassed up another bachelor group of bucks at 580 yards with one good one in it.  It was getting dark fast and I was already making my plan for the next morning when Jon says "I bet if you walked straight at that pine you may be able to get into range." 

I made it to the pine tree and miraculously the bucks had not moved.  They were still watching Jon on the hill with great interest.  The bigger buck was in the back and offering a perfect broadside.  The shot was a long one so I took my time getting into a solid shooting position and calming my breathing from the rodeo that had just taken place.  At the shot my line of sight filled with smoke but the all too familiar sound of a 300gr bullet impacting a body brought me sweet relief!  I rolled clear of the smoke just in time to see the buck snow plowing down the sage hillside towards the bottom.  It was going to be a long night!

Up and up and up to the ridgeline for what seemed like an eternity.  Once on the ridgeline it was just a short 4 mile walk across sage grouse (aka pterodactyls) infested rock and we were back to the truck.  It was 1 a.m. and we were both ready for hot chow and a warm sleeping bag.  Nevada was hot, cold, dusty, rocky, and challenging but it felt great to go there, scrap it out and be successful.

[Jonathan_S]

Karl comes from a long line of sharpshooters and he didn't disappoint on either hunt. He's purely relentless behind his glass.

[Karl Blanchard]

There's a forum member and friend who had hunted this unit multiple times and provided me with good insight into the area and i can't thank him enough for being willing to offer up specifics......even though I killed my buck where he told me not to go

Most of all I can't thank the jon enough.  His rock steady positive attitude, high level of fitness, and overall skill and confidence as a woodsman really made that whirlwind  trip one of the more enjoyable hunts I've been on, despite the trials and tribulations.  Your friendship is much appreciated Jon 

All in all it was a heck of a fun week and was able to bring home almost 200lb of meat as well as a few euro's for the shed wall.

High mtn idaho buck vs mahogany and sage mule deer meat is equally delicious though those idaho deer are the most delicious flesh you will ever consume!

[deerhunter_98520]

Those are some great animals, congrats 

[Karl Blanchard]

If I ever end up back to that nevada spot I will be allowing a day for jackrabbits and a day for fishing.  Every single stream and beaver pond was packed full of huge trout!  One night Jon had had enough and waged war on some trout.  we spent hours in the dark trying to come up with ways to get a fish.  Came close a few ties with the spears but to no avail.  Last ditch effort we cut a narrow strip off my ground cloth and tied it to a safety pin.  With a small freeze dried pea we went to work.  Only thing we successfully caught was granddaddy crawdad! We contemplated eating it but decided he belonged to the water{too lazy to cook it} and turned him back

[deerhunter_98520]

That's almost worthy of a full mount 

[Karl Blanchard]

That's almost worthy of a full mount 

it definitely falls into the "big old goodin" catagory

[Hoythunter]

Fantastic season and great write-up!  Congratulations, now it’s time to start planning for next year....   

[BULLBLASTER]

Fantastic season and great write-up!  Congratulations, now it’s time to start planning for next year....   

Oh he’s only half done with his story. 

[coachcw]

Wait till he tells you about his terrible pack out in colorado !