Post by: finnman on October 17, 2008, 11:38:14 AM
He is going to be scouting till I arrive Sunday morning.
Best to all you tag holders, I hope you find one that makes you happy. I do not have any big expectations do to my knee surgery and the fact I have already overdone it on the moose hunt and deer hunt last week, I had the surgery over 2 months ago and I noticed after the moose hunt my incision opened up a bit and was oozing blood! The wife freaked out on me and pulled the choke collar tight!!!
I expect to not be able to hike alot but the horses should get us up high for a chance at a bull. COME ON SNOW!!!
Finnman
Post by: boneaddict on October 17, 2008, 11:43:42 AM
Post by: bowsandhose on October 17, 2008, 12:31:05 PM
Post by: dreamingbig on October 17, 2008, 10:42:00 PM
Post by: WAPITIHUNTER on October 17, 2008, 10:56:13 PM
Post by: WAPITIHUNTER on October 22, 2008, 09:23:33 PM
Post by: dreamingbig on October 23, 2008, 08:12:04 AM
Post by: WAPITIHUNTER on October 23, 2008, 08:20:14 AM
Post by: bowsandhose on October 23, 2008, 08:31:33 AM
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 23, 2008, 09:00:11 AM
Post by: Colville on October 23, 2008, 04:09:14 PM
Post by: finnman on October 23, 2008, 07:14:23 PM
We arrived Sunday morning about 10am to Mnt. Hunter's camp and started setting up the tent. At about 1:00 he showed up with the two packers Bo and Lilly, he had been camped up near Pear lake for the last two nights looking for elk. He said he had a bull circle his tent in the dark that bugled nearly 20 times!!!! He said it was awesome, he just did not want it to scare the horses! We talk elk for awhile then he asks if we want to go glass for elk, we say sure, we drive around to the south shore of Rimrock lake and set up the spotting scope. Yep, their they are! 5 bulls and about 12 cows, from 4 miles away!!!! This was the only place he found where we could glass the ridge top where he saw the 7 bulls on Friday!!!! We went back to camp and set the game plan. We got up at 4:00am and drove to the trailhead, GOOD, nobody there! We start hiking, and hiking, knee feels good, the weather is good, we get to the top just at daylight, we round the corner, CRAP! a horse is tied up there, we keep hiking and we hear a bull bugle down below us, but we want to be a bit further on the ridge to glass the bowl with all the bulls, Mnt. hunter is ahead of us and says he hears another bull bugle and he is going down after it. Paula and I stay on top to glass the ridge and give my knee a break, we don't see anything and just as a snow squall sets in we hear a shot come from the bowl to our right, NOT US, DANG IT! It must be the other hunter, we lose contact with Mnt. Hunter and we hunt the ridge top till 3:30pm without seeing an elk, on the way down the trail the other hunter is coming back up on his horse to get the other half of his bull, a 4x5, his first, we congratulated him and hobbled down to the trailhead, we drove back to camp and I took a 800 mg ibuprofin and a beer, Paula and I talked about the ridge and my knee and what we would do tomorrow, we both faced the fact that I would not be able to go back up there again! :'( Even if thats where the bulls were at! Stupid stupid knee! :twocents: Mnt. Hunter arrives at dark and he had a good day chasing that bugling bull all morning in and out of the snow storm, he finally got a scope on it but it had already got a bead on him and disappeared before he got the shot! :bash: A decent 5 or 6 pt. he said. We lay out a plan and Mnt. Hunter says he is going to do the same hunt but start earlier. He suggests that I come in from the bottom of the drainage where he came out tonight, he says there are some good game trails and its covered in beds and sign and its close to camp, so I agree.
Mnt. Hunter has his own story to tell about Tues.
This is mine, Paula and I leave camp at 6:45am and walk to the drainage, we arrive and start hiking up and around and about 9:15 we are standing on a game trail and we are in some dark timber looking down into the steep creek drainage, when Paula whispers, "elk", I look at her and she has her binos up and is looking up the trail we are on, I step back to look and sure enough there it is, feeding and completely unaware of us and only 30 yards away, she starts counting "1,2,3,4 its a good bull, SHOOT", I step back as it turns the other way with it's head down, it clears a small tree, shoulder exposed, BANG, the .......338 win mag roars, the bull staggers but doesn't go down, it turns and is coming down to our left, BANG! again in the shoulder, NO EFFECT, again BANG! still no sign I hit it! It finally wobbles and takes a tumble 30 yards from us! We high five and go look and low and behold its a 6x6! I told Paula that I was prepared to take any bull I could find after opening the opening day low! Again, getting your butt off the road and hunting even if its only a quarter or half a mile, I your in the right terrain you will find elk.
I am extremely happy with the results of this years hunts! A great big thanks to Mnt. Hunter for his hard work scouting and packing and to WAPITIHUNTER for being on the ready at a minutes notice! They tag teamed Mnt. Hunter's bull, but that is his story!!!!!! :chuckle:
Finnman and Pumpkin
Post by: Slider on October 23, 2008, 07:25:59 PM
Post by: jackelope on October 23, 2008, 08:09:06 PM
Post by: 270Shooter on October 23, 2008, 08:29:43 PM
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 23, 2008, 08:39:09 PM
Post by: demontang on October 23, 2008, 08:59:09 PM
Post by: finnman on October 23, 2008, 10:29:55 PM
Frying pan on left, moose tenderloins, frying pan on the right, whitetail backstraps!
Lilly and Bo, they did real good in the steep stuff!
Post by: X-Force on October 23, 2008, 10:38:02 PM
Post by: bow4elk on October 23, 2008, 11:08:20 PM
Excellent write up and hunt - Congrats once again on another notched tag!
Post by: mwhite on October 23, 2008, 11:33:01 PM
Post by: bowsandhose on October 24, 2008, 02:24:11 PM
Post by: boneaddict on October 24, 2008, 02:34:37 PM
Post by: Muleyslyr on October 24, 2008, 02:38:00 PM
Post by: TheKid#10 on November 02, 2008, 12:06:42 PM
Post by: nw_bowhunter on November 02, 2008, 12:14:24 PM
Post by: bullcanyon on November 02, 2008, 07:25:00 PM
Post by: Wea300mag on November 02, 2008, 09:01:14 PM
Post by: dbllunger on November 02, 2008, 10:59:32 PM
Post by: finnman on November 02, 2008, 11:10:02 PM
Yes, KID, I am a little embarassed to say the 3 shots I took with the .338 all took a piece of my nose with em' :chuckle: cracked it real good on the 2nd or 3rd shot, cut it right open, I think it may have even refractured it, which I did in January playing raquetball...... :'(
Post by: Opportunist on November 03, 2008, 05:59:50 PM
Post by: BENCHLEG on November 03, 2008, 06:43:26 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on November 03, 2008, 08:09:07 PM
First of all thank you to all of you who helped us with info ahead of time!
Well I got up there 3 days before Finnman and started scouting. Elk everwhere! I spent three days riding horses and seeing some country. It was worth the time spent just for that...but of course it gets better with a gun in your hand!
Opening morning we made the ridge after about 1.5 hours of hiking. After seeing tracks in the snow of another hunter ahead of us I started walking faster. After hearing a shot I walked faster yet.(We later learned he killed a 4x5, his first bull, congrats to unknown hunter!) Well keep moving and then I hear the sound of music---A bull bugling below me... I call Finnman on the radio, he is behind me on the trail(I didn't want to leave him, but he kept telling me to go ahead)His knee is slowing him down, so I drop in the canyon after the bull. He is easy to follow as he bugles about every 10 minutes. I chase him down one draw and up on a ridge, he drops into the next canyon and crosses it and seems to hold up about 300-400 yards from where I stop to glass the timber. He keeps bugling occasionally until about 11 am.
I want to go after him, but the wind keeps changing, it blow uphill, then a snow squall comes and blows the wind downhill. No way to aproach without them winding me.
I decide to hunt a bench about a 1/2 mile away and wait for more consistent thermals. As it get close to dark the thermals change and start blowing down hill and the snow storm only makes them blow faster that way. I take off heading for the canyon. As I aproach I hear my bull again, he is screaming about every 5 minutes. I cross back to my earlier glasssing point and check the wind. It is blowing hard downhill. It is snowing pretting good as I drop down the finger ridge opposite the elk. As I drop in the snow picks up and visibilty goes down. I know I am close to the bull I just can't see him. He screams and I make him out about 100 yards across a small gully. He makes me out as I pull up the scope, turns and runs into the timber. :'( He keeps bugling as two cows are right below me in the river bottom, and one of them keeps making the whiniest cow call I have ever heard.
I kept chasing them that night, but never saw them again.
DAY 2
Up at 3am, Today I am the only one on the ridge as I get close to the back bowl, about a 2.5 hour hike, I hear bugling. As I sneak a peak thru the twisted fir trees I see a beautiful scene: a bull bugling near the top of an alpine bowl with a few cows scattered below him. It looks like a scene from Yellowstone!
I drop my pack and steady my gun on it for a closer look. The bull is just feeding at about 300 yards, maybe less. This is awesome!
As I look thru the scope the bull is quartered away from me and below me at about a 45 degree angle. I plan to wait for him to turn broadside. I start counting points, 1,2,3...7 points on the side I can see, this is definitely the biggest bull I have ever seen while hunting!
Two of the cows have been acting nervous and start trotting down the hill. THe bull is still feeding, but the challenge I had with thermals yesterday comes to mind. I decide I better take the shot while I can. I center the scope and shoot. The bull turns and runs a couple steps downhill. I chamber another round and pull the trigger--click. What the?!@!@# (Federal Prmiums usually are great..maybe time to start handloading)I load another shell and take the last shot as the bull heads for the timber.
With a few inches of fresh snow I quickly determin that no blood or hair are where I epected they would be, I missed. :'(
I walk out each of the elk trails, about 40 elk busted after the shots. Nothing! I am out in the bottom of the bowl, in the open meadow and drop my head in frustration, when I look up I see a 5 point bull looking at me from 200 yards. (He is thinking...where did everbody go and what is that loud noise??)
I drop my pack, put my gun on him and pull the trigger. He drops and rolls down the hill!
I have killed my first bull, and the best part is about an hour later Finnman drops the hammer on his!
Two elk down on the second day!
Many thanks to Wapitihunter, who nearly died helping me get my elk out!
Post by: huntnphool on November 03, 2008, 08:12:08 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on November 03, 2008, 08:13:14 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on November 03, 2008, 08:21:08 PM
Post by: finnman on November 03, 2008, 09:50:32 PM
I look forward to our next excursion, if it could top this I would be amazed! :twocents:
Post by: bowsandhose on November 04, 2008, 06:54:19 AM
Post by: WAPITIHUNTER on November 05, 2008, 07:35:14 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on November 06, 2008, 06:14:36 PM
Post by: eburghunter on November 06, 2008, 06:19:07 PM
Post by: X-Force on November 06, 2008, 11:25:41 PM
Post by: WAPITIHUNTER on November 07, 2008, 08:06:57 PM
Post by: DeerHarvester on November 07, 2008, 09:02:15 PM
Post by: Buschingc on November 07, 2008, 09:07:44 PM
Post by: robb92 on November 07, 2008, 10:09:11 PM
Post by: snipekillr on November 07, 2008, 10:11:32 PM
Post by: fc2038 on November 09, 2008, 05:10:20 PM
Post by: bucklucky on November 09, 2008, 05:32:48 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on November 11, 2008, 05:43:17 PM
Post by: skybusterbo on November 13, 2008, 04:26:19 PM
Post by: DOUBLELUNG on November 13, 2008, 04:43:31 PM
Post by: SSG Brower on November 22, 2008, 09:39:05 AM