I wanted to do a recap of our 07 season with pics and narrative. Although there is an Elk hunt thrown in, most of it is Deer hunting so it seemed this was the appropriate forum. Bare with me as there are many photos and lots of rambling....
This year started as they always do filling out applications in most western states for premium draw tags, and as most years go we drew asolutely nothing. We planned our trips after all the unsuccessful notices came in.
Our first trip was our annual Idaho archery Elk hunt. Generally we buy our tags for this hunt right after the draws, but for some reason this year we procrastinated. We were going to buy our tags when we got to Idaho, instead of the phone or internet sales.The day before our planned departure I saw on another hunting site that the NR tags were selling fast, so I pulled up the IDFG web site and found out they were not only selling fast but were completely sold out. To say I was upset with myself was the understatement of the year. Now what ? The only state that had OTC archery tags and a season coinciding with our dates was Colorado. About 2 hours of internet research and we were off.
Colorado Elk hunt.... I printed off harvest report numbers and Gmu map to go along with some Co regs I had gotten for my earlier permitt applications, so we could research more units and areas on the drive down. 1300 miles later we had picked our unit, bought our tags and licenses, and had found a place to camp at 9700 feet.
About the time we set up camp, what we thought was an afternoon storm statred. It rained, hailed and snowed nonstop for the next 2 days before we could actually hunt. Here is a photo looking out our tent at the storm on day 1.
This is a photo of what it looked like after the storm.
That day we drove around the area and tied to find a good spot to hunt. It was a lot thicker than what we were used to but Elk sign was every where and although we saw no Elk that day we were optomistic about the next days hunt. It rained again most of the night and really monsooned as we got up that morning. We were 2 hours later than we should have been because of the heavy rain. Here is what I saw as i exited the tent that morning.
We were off , there were 2 cows with the small bull and they were 300 yards from the tent. We were awful enthusiastic to head off after the Elk but our trip was 4 days old and we had hunted about 15 minutes so far.
Well ,needless to say we came up empty and headed to another area that was loaded with sign, all we found this day was this little guy.
Day 5 found us going in seperate directions trying to locate some Elk we hunted hard all day and although we heard a few bugles we again saw no Elk. we were starting to get frustraed the sign was there we heard bugles but it was so thick we couldn't travel quickly and we couldn't see more than 40 yards in most places. It was alot like western Washington but at 10,000 feet.
Day 6 was we again headed different directions. I took off up a traihead and hiked in about 4 miles before I finally found some Elk. 3 cows and about a 280 bull were bedded in some quakies 80 yards away. I nocked up and crept within 37 yds. as I went to put my release on my string loop my release tapped my Easton axis arrows and I blew the Elk out of the county. As it turned out this was about the only oppurtunity I had and I had blown it. We hunted 2 more days and saw a few Elk from afar. I did see these 2 Moose on the last day on my way back to camp. I still had 2 more states to hunt, and we learned some new country and had a great a adventure.
Idaho deer hunt.......
The last week in October I headed out for a rifle hunt in Idaho. The unit has a large popualtion of deer and is a major migration route down out of the Sawtooths. Steep open country and large canyons are the norm.
We base camped on the river in the bottom of the valley.
We saw lots of animals the first few days with nothing really catching our eye. So we decided to pack in a spike camp about 5 or 6 miles.
We hunted out of spike camp for the next 3 days and saw some good bucks with the biggest being about a 25" 4 pt. with heavy dark horns. Here is where we glassed him from.
We actually got in to about 380 yds before a herd of Elk went up throughh the middle of the bowl and blew him and his 3x4 buddy out of the canyon. We saw a total of 18 bucks while in the spike camp but just the one good one. we saw 6 different 4 pts but they were all under 23" and probabally in the 140" to 150" range. I was pretty proud of my partner as he had never killed a buck and passed up a lot of descent deer back in there looking for a good one. We had talked earlier in the hunt and decided if we couldn't get a 170" deer or better that we would opt for some last day meat bucks. Here is a sunset from the last evening in spike camp.
We hunted 2 more days out of base camp and never found any more descent bucks. The last day we decided to go up and get some meat bucks. We left before day light to get up where the deer were before they bedded. This last day I wanted a little fork horn for meat so we passed on a couple a 3pts before I found this little guy. I passed on 37 bucks before I took this little guy on the last day.
After quartering this little guy and getting him all bagged up my partner says there is something coming up out of the bottom. Sure enough another forked horn about 140 yds out. Boom, and we now have 2 deer to pack out about 3.5 miles. We quartered John's first buck out and each carried a whole buck out in one load. Mine wasn't to heavy, but John's was a little more of a load. Johns was 39th buck seen in 7 days. We had an awesome hunt and some great memories were made. Here is john's first buck.
Washington Late archery.....
The day ater Thanksgiving we headed out for our late archery hunt. We arrived to temps in the mid 30's and no snow. The year before it was 5 below 0 and a foot of snow down low. This year the deer would be up on top. Fortunately we had caught the tail end of the rut.
The first morning I got into 7 bucks working a doe up in a slide shoot. I got up to 100 yds and watched as they took turns chasing the doe. there were 2 good bucks that I wanted out of this group. One was a 27" 4pt with descent forks and good mass he would gross mid 170's and 19" or 20 " Non typical that had a ton of trash on his right side he would also gross in the 170's. I never got closer than 100 yds on the NT but got within 65 yds of the 4 pt. but never having a shot oppurtunity.
Day 2, The deer had moved up the mountain even higher. We hiked up about 3miles and split up me going up and around while Darin went low and around. As soon as we split I jumped a good 4pt. at 20 yards not knowing he was on the bench. I saw another big 3 pt. a little further up and thought I could cut him off. I went up and cut his tracks but he had already baled over the side. So I continued up around so I could get the wind as I came down through a series of benches. As soon as I started down through I jumped 3 does. I froze knowing there was probabally a buck around . After a 6 or 7 minute stare down with the does, who were continually looking back. I saw antlers through the fir bows. I Slowly pulled my noc's up and saw a good buck. I had already lazered the does at 48 yds. As he went behind a tree I slowly drew my bow. As he came out the other side his head was low and he was lip curling, I put my 50 yd pin low behind shoulder and released. I heard a solid hit and saw my arrow buried to the fletches. He jumped up like a rodeo bull and headed down hill, where I thought I heard him crash. After a long 30 minutes I started on the blood trail with a slight skiff of snow I found him 60 yards below where I had shot him. What a way to finish up a great year. Here are a few shots him on the mountain.
I quartered him up and left him on the mountain that night as I didn't want to go down through the cliff in the dark. My partner had hurt his foot the same day and I was going to have to pack the buck out my self. Which was normally not a big deal ,but this buck was back in about 4 miles in some serious steep country. and I didn't want to have to make another 8 mile round trip the next day. I started hiking back in around 7:00 am, I finally got up to where I stahed the meat and put the 4 quarters, back straps and loines ,frozen like a rock on my pack and headed down. Finally getting to the truck around 2:00pm.
I hunted with my partner the rest of the week seeing many bucks but never a giant like we had the year before. He had some oppurtunities but you know how bow hunting goes, sometimes you get em' sometimes you don't. Here are some pictures I took during the remainder of the hunt.
A couple of pics of the surrounding countryside
A big horn ram
A doe in the snow
A nice Whitetail
A rooster Pheasant
Cows and Ducks
And one last one of me and my 07 archery buck. I know this is long but I thought we needed some more detailed posts. I hope 2008 is great for everyone, Ironhead Iwould also like to thank my Partners Darrin (Pootenanny) Green and John Van Winkle
