Post by: chukar hunter on October 14, 2019, 01:22:43 PM
Rant over, this story will take me some time as it's a long one(and I've got a huge backlog of "work"). Sit back and enjoy the ride! Hope you enjoy as much as we did.
Post by: slowhand on October 14, 2019, 01:45:01 PM
Post by: jstone on October 14, 2019, 01:46:45 PM
Post by: Rainier10 on October 14, 2019, 01:50:30 PM
Looking forward to this.
Post by: JohnVH on October 14, 2019, 01:52:54 PM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 14, 2019, 02:05:55 PM
Leaving the comfort of the truck at 7:30am, we make the journey for a 9 day base/spike camp way over weight. A gallon of whiskey doesn't help, but it's the best backcountry medicine for easing aching muscles, backs, and bones! The area is a ghost town and not a single human, stock, or animal sighting on the way in. Base camp completely set up by 1pm, water pumped, we're way ahead of schedule. Instead of hiking to a vantage point to glass for the evening, having a couple of extra hours to play with, we decide to hit a canyon that I shot a nice bull in the year before. Taking the trail another 3 miles into another canyon, we sneak along the river calling into each ravine trying to raise a response. Nothing....but some bear tracks and decent fresh elk sign. With three hours of daylight left we opt to circle around the canyon, gain about 1500 ft of elevation and plan to spread out sidehilling through some historically promising ravines. On the climb up, we bump 6 does feeding on an open hillside and continue to see fresh elk sign. We spread out as planned a couple of hundred yards apart and slowly begin sidehilling. Crossing the first ravine we're navigating shale slides, attempting to be as quiet as possible when I hear a cow chirp in the ravine below me about 500ft in elevation. I cow call back and immediately receive a response from a bull and multiple cows. Soft at first, we call back and forth for a couple of sessions, until I hit him with a challenge bugle. This bull flips a switch and immediately sounds like a brahma bull....we've got him fired up! I then see a couple of cows filter out on an exposed knob and through the binos see antlers through some thick pines working back and forth. After a few heated hand motions, the plan is understood that my brother and I are going to circle back to the ridge he's on and hunting partner C is forging ahead to the ridge we were working towards. We're all going to drop elevation and surround this guy. 15 minutes later we're all in place and I find myself on an exposed finger ridge overlooking a dense jackpine thicket and across the ravine at 300 yards a sparsly vegetated open hillside. This bull is firing bugles every 30 seconds and sounds massively angry. Within a minute cows begin to filter out on the opposite hillside. I'm sitting in front of a stump with the gun on it like a turret. I'm locked on the cows, mentally preparing for when the bull walks out. 3 cows, then a spike, 2 more cows....then BOOM, C's gun cracks from the opposite side of the ravine. Elk barely move and continue to feed. 2 more cows, 2 more minutes and then BOOM a second shot. Unknowing if C's shots are lethal, I frantically scan the group looking for the bull. I then see C fast walking down the hill and the elk scatter. 11 in total, no more big bulls.
We forgot the radios at camp, so after a few tense minutes of "marco polo" we find each other in the jack pine thicket and the first animal of the trip! We take pics and it takes us til it's completely pitch dark to get him quartered up and in bags. We carry all of the meat away from the carcass and opted to leave a front shoulder and some loose meat for a final load for C the next morning. The packout ended up being the easiest of the trip, but in the moment felt like hell as I don't believe any of us were mentally prepared for what we had just done. Was it going to be this easy......no, it never is! Back to camp by 10pm, we eat some grub, and make a dent in our whiskey ration and relish in what had just happened. An Elk on Day one, does that ever happen!? Sore already, how were we going to keep this up for 8 more days?
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 14, 2019, 02:15:00 PM
Post by: JohnVH on October 14, 2019, 02:21:43 PM
Great story so far!
Post by: ljsommer on October 14, 2019, 02:51:26 PM
Post by: shootem on October 14, 2019, 08:14:15 PM
Post by: MacAttack on October 14, 2019, 08:25:43 PM
Post by: Dan-o on October 14, 2019, 09:38:19 PM
Post by: silverdalesauer on October 14, 2019, 09:59:22 PM
Great start to day 1. Can't wait to read day 2!
Post by: ganghis on October 15, 2019, 08:10:47 AM
Post by: HikerHunter on October 15, 2019, 09:46:22 AM
Post by: kellama2001 on October 15, 2019, 09:53:03 AM
Post by: Skyvalhunter on October 15, 2019, 10:10:38 AM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 15, 2019, 01:13:45 PM
With high hopes of active elk from the previous days encounter, we decide to split up. C is going back in to grab the rest of the meat and Bro and I are headed deeper into the canyon to explore more elk encounters, exploring new basins and mountain ridges. We woke around daylight and set off in a slight drizzle, which quickly turned to snow. Bro and I travel up canyon to the farthest extremities, calling into each ravine without a response. As we approach a saddle approximately 7 miles from camp, we hear a crackle on radio. It’s C and he can’t find the meat...
It was dark when we hung it, so we give him a little bit of flack about his navigational abilities, but after a few minutes, he comes to a grim realization….something had gotten into the bags and eaten our meat! In the cover of darkness, something had ripped open both remaining bags and devoured all of the loose meat and left the shoulder unsalvageable. Not the result we wanted after our efforts and ultimate goal of providing food for our families. C documents the situation in case questioned by authorities and makes the sad walk back to camp. All disgruntled by the situation, we all lament in what we could have done differently and to learn from this experience to make sure it doesn’t happen again. As if the universe wanted to give C a consolation present, he finds a really nice 4x4 deadhead on the way back down the mountain.
Bro and I trek on the rest of the day traversing the entirety of a ridge of a canyon. Little to show for it with the exception of a matched elk shed set, some cold weather, and a few does as we dropped elevation in the evening on the way to base camp. We covered a ton of good ground, just everything was in lockdown due to the inclement weather. Gloomy day all around….
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 15, 2019, 01:20:36 PM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 15, 2019, 03:39:26 PM
With the main elk canyon explored in detail and not finding another bull wanting to play, we’re convinced the animals are at higher elevations. We opt to leave the comforts of base camp(no more whiskey ☹) and get our skeleton gear together to spike at a location 5 miles deeper and about 2500 ft higher in elevation. Planning for two nights we bring little more than the clothes on our backs, sleeping bags, and some mtn houses. The area we head is known for both deer and elk and we camp in close proximity of a honey hole canyon that in the past has been stuffed with animals. We’ve harvested a couple of decent bucks there in the past and seen elk. Not getting to spike until late in the afternoon, we decide to leave the canyon alone and hunt the fringes for the afternoon/evening. We bump a few deer, couple small bucks, see a 3’ snake at almost 7000’, and come across and elk wallow that was recently used. Not expecting much today, we hunker down out of the wind next to a raging fire in anticipation of what may come the next day….
Post by: Bowhunter3 on October 15, 2019, 05:44:08 PM
Post by: Alchase on October 15, 2019, 06:53:43 PM
Only 1 gallon for 3 guys and 9 days? :chuckle:
Great story so far!
:yeah:
What are the other to going to drink :dunno:
:chuckle:
Post by: HereDuckyDucky on October 15, 2019, 08:07:28 PM
RW
Post by: chukar hunter on October 16, 2019, 01:41:26 PM
Cold, but excited we wake up to our water frozen in our packs. We make some quick grub and head up the hill gaining about 1000ft of elevation to the summit of one of the nearby mountains. At this point we’re over 8000’ but perfect glassing and access point to our honey hole canyon. Relishing in the sunrise, feeling on top of the world, with snowcapped peaks surrounding us in every direction, we hear a faint howl in the distance. We drop off of the summit, out of the wind and the unmistakable howl of a wolf can be heard from our canyon below. At about a mile out, I see a couple of cow elk glowing in the sun, nervously pacing back and forth in the fringe canyon we hunted the night before, looking up to the ridge top bordering our canyon. Spotter out, I scan the ridgeline and see movement. 8 wolves in total are running back and forth on top of the ridge. C grabs the elk bugle tube and lets out a long howl. Instant response! We call back and forth for a few minutes and then the pack starts coming our way. We make a gameplan to work down into the canyon as far as the treeline will allow. Dropping 500ft of elevation we’re posted up on the edge of a vast sage brush filled bowl, concealed by a cluster of 15-20 trees. C continues to howl and the wolves continue to work our way. Halfway to our location the entire pack sprints off of the ridge and into our honey hole canyon, into a couple of densely wooded benches. The howling reaches and all time high and we must of heard 100 howls in succession. After about 10 minutes of this, we hear the howling grow more distant and think the pack has headed out of the canyon. This being my third wolf encounter, I was still in awe yet overall disturbed at the impact a pack of this size was having on these herds given the lack of game we were seeing versus years past. Chalking it up to a close encounter, we begin the hike back to the summit. About 30 yards uphill, howling again, but this time, much, much closer. Immediately going back to plan A, we drop to the same location and set up the guns. The wolves in our haste had come back on top of the ridge and had stopped on a small bench at 600 yards out. Through the binos I count 6 wolves. Range 580 yards.
The lead wolf must have seen or heard us, as it was locked onto our position and not moving. I figured now or never so I dialed up the MOA adjustments, took aim, exhaled, and pulled the trigger. The recoil knocked me off a confirmed site impact and when getting back on the scope, all I saw were running wolves. Two more attempts and they were gone….
Dropping elevation to check for a hit, we were disappointed to find nothing. We opted to continue to hunt the drainage, found a ton of fresh wolf, elk and deer sign, but every animal we bumped ran out of country like it’s tail was on fire. The quintessential mule deer behavior or stopping and looking back just wasn’t happening. After working the drainage til dark, we come across a small buck. This deer must have thought we were helping him from the wolves as he didn’t want to move off of his rock outcropping. Good photo op, but just not what we were looking for. He let me get to 35 yards before he stood up and just walked off. Being the same distance from base camp to spike camp, we opted to drop elevation and stay the night at base(drink some whiskey) and let the honey hole cool off for a day or two….
Post by: shootem on October 16, 2019, 09:19:23 PM
Post by: X-Force on October 16, 2019, 10:59:23 PM
Post by: Jgarrigus on October 17, 2019, 06:55:24 AM
Post by: Tapp8277 on October 17, 2019, 07:11:47 AM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 17, 2019, 07:15:17 AM
Would love for a dead wolf happy ending
Me too..... >:(
Post by: JohnVH on October 17, 2019, 07:48:56 AM
Would love for a dead wolf happy ending
Not just A, how about ALL of them! :tup:
Post by: chukar hunter on October 17, 2019, 08:09:36 AM
Knowing it was tail end of the rut and wanting to let our honey hole canyon cool from the wolf infestation, we decide to do something we hadn’t done before and re-hunt the same elk area. C has a running joke that I like to “hunt harder, not smarter”. Thinking some cruising bulls might decide to stick around a harem of cows that didn’t have a competitor now, we make a plan to get on the same elk herd and hunt the “elk area”. Like a well written play, we’re at elevation at daybreak in the same draw we shot the bull 4 days prior. In the pre-dawn light, we see cows milling around on the opposite hillside in the same jack pine thicket where they were before. Less than 400 yards away we scour every inch of the thicket for two hours, freezing our butts off. We call, and get zero response. Nearing hypothermia, we send Bro above and around to cut-off the exit point and C and I play bird dogs working across through the thicket pushing the elk his direction. It couldn’t have gone smoother as the herd exited as planned and slowly walked in front of bro at 200 yards…..problem was no bulls had joined the herd. Well crap…. mid morning……no bull, what to do but hike! We decide to explore new ground, a peak where we had seen bulls and cows go before but never attempted to hunt. We climb for 4 hours and reach the summit, just shy of 9000’. We wrap around the peak exploring a few bowls, but the area is a wasteland. An old burn 10 or so years ago had ravaged this peak and the windswept hillsides had little to hide. About 4pm we make the decision to head straight back down navigating some of the nastiest rock slides and felled timber choked draws one could imagine. A brutal 15 mile day with little to show but 11 elk and 4 does. Great scenery, but a possible low of the trip. First halfy gone, broke into the second….
Post by: chukar hunter on October 17, 2019, 12:08:41 PM
Slightly disturbed at the amount of animals we’re seeing, or lack thereof, we decide to split up doing a massive push from base camp, to the honey hole canyon, with a rendezvous mid afternoon at the summit of previous mentioned mountain we’d seen the wolves from a couple days before. Maps scoured, we each establish a route hitting strategic cover, water, wind concealed topographical hideouts; we’re in full seek and destroy mode. We each have our own experiences throughout the morning and early afternoon bumping dozens of deer each, but no big bucks. Meeting mid afternoon we execute one final push on the backside of the mountain, farther up the migratory route. With each step I mentally struggled with the excitement of new territory/opportunity vs the dreaded realization that this is a LONG way from camp and the truck. We bump a handful of does and a decent 2 point that had a death wish, just not the type of buck we were looking for on this trip….
Eventually turning back, we make our way to spike camp just before dark. While seeing in excess of 70 deer today, 7 bucks, we’re slightly deflated in the lack of mature deer sightings. This is by far the hardest I’ve ever worked for a mule deer and the pressure begins to rise with 3 days left in the trip. The last words my dad mentioned to me before we left, “get your brother a deer”, keep rattling in my mind.
While feeling in some of the best hunting shape of my life, the body is beginning to take a toll with the long days, double digit mile days, and the shear ruggedness/vertical nature of the country. Nothing some whiskey and ibuprofen can’t handle though!
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 17, 2019, 01:13:17 PM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 17, 2019, 01:40:49 PM
:tup: No pics of the whiskey then?
Naww...it would have reminded us we should have packed in more!!! Rationing is hard, especially when we planned for a total of 4 spike nights.
Post by: bracer40 on October 17, 2019, 02:54:51 PM
Thanks for sharing!
Post by: chukar hunter on October 18, 2019, 07:48:57 AM
A major storm system rolled in through the night and ravaged the region. A torrential downpour with high winds just after dark made us feel like we were in a car wash. The flat spot we had chosen for base camp was quickly a pool of standing water and we had doubts of a dry camp from this point forward. With all of our “go to” spots thoroughly explored we had discussed over dinner exploring a new area closer to the truck about 4 miles. A whole new river drainage system with larger peaks that may get us closer to the migratory routes of the animals we sought. We discuss a spike camp for 2 nights as we’d like to give the drainage a good thorough check. About 10:30 we kill the lights and the battering rain slowly begins to subside.
Pre-dawn we wake up loaded for spike and zip open the tent to be greeted by a blanket of snow. Thinking, crap, we don’t want to be huddled by a fire in this crap after a long wet day, we decide to just hike the extra miles to base at the end of the day. With high hopes, we hit the trail.
Just after sunup we hit the unexplored river drainage. Whether it be sleep or energy deprivation, everything was a comedy today. We pioneered the valley, glassing every vantage point and draw we came across. About 3 miles in, we come across 3 river otters foraging the stream. Pretty cool to see them work together and eat fish, freshwater crustaceans, and whatever else they got. I kept thinking, holy cow, how do those little buggers stay warm! A mile farther, the river canyon offered it’s only flats and abutting it was a steep open sage hillside. I spot a doe bedded high on the ridge and after a few minutes pick apart the landscape to find 6 does and 2 bucks. A small 3 and a forky. Not what we were looking for, but the bucks seemed in pre-rut mode. We press on and decide the next draw is the access point to the mountain that we want to explore.
I’ll fully admit I picked the wrong area to hunt as what looks good on the screen of a cell phone with imagery and topo lines isn’t representative of what we were about to encounter. A series of finger ridges with sparse timber on the map, turned out to be the steepest terrain of the trip with rock outcroppings and shale slides. Add 12” of fresh snow and I don’t believe anyone thought we were being productive. I’m not the type of guy to quit, so we press on gaining elevation, thinking what about the ravine on the otherside of this rock….we did encounter 8 more does, but did put us in a few treacherous situations. After many hours, we finally reach a point above the rocks, a large plateau. We cross a few large single tracks headed off of the mountain in the now knee high snow, but soon realize it’s much closer to dark than anticipated and being 10 miles from camp, it’d be safest to start heading back. C has a funny video complaining of me leading us straight up the mountains, just to turn around and head straight back down….”hunt harder, not smarter” right! The decent was fast and almost like glissading except we skied on our feet.
Picking different ridges to descend, we rendezvous in the same flat area we had seen the deer in the morning. With about 30 minutes of light left, Bro takes the lead, though it’s apparent we’re deflated from yet another disappointing sightings day. Before exiting the flat I make one more glass of the steep open hillside and spot antlers. 2 bucks and 4 does were in almost the same spot from the morning. I get the guys, set up the spotter and quickly identify the larger buck as a decent 3 point. 680 yds. Bro’s minimum was a 3x3, so he makes a quick confirmation and we decipher a plan on how to get closer. There’s a tree halfway to the deer, though the rest of the hillside is entirely exposed. We tell him to put the tree between him and the deer and get his a$$ up there as quickly as possible as lights fading fast. 10 minutes later and he’s in position. 340 yards. C and I stayed in the bottom with spotter and got the next series of events on video.
We radio back and forth making sure he’s on the right buck. He responds back that he’s ready….buck steps broadside….CRACK, buck kicks and runs left sidehilling. CRACK again, buck doesn’t react. At this point all of the deer are milling around each other and in the fading light we communicate/confirm which one is his. CRACK, buck makes a mule kick and immediately heads downhill. Stumbling for 15 or more seconds the buck stops and then begins a death roll down the steep hillside. Out of control, the buck tumbles more than a 100 yards down the hill and finally stops when it slams into a mature sage bush. Buck down! Way to go bro! In review of the video, the first two shots missed, but the third one hammered him.
C and I hike up from the bottom and meet bro at the deer. Take pics, gut him and drag him the 500 yards down the mountain to our packs and level working area. Snowing, bitter cold, we start a nice fire and begin the process of breaking him down. 8 miles to base camp, we didn’t get back until 12:30am, quick dinner, whisky, ibu, we hit the sack at 1:30. 21.6 mile day. Sore, bruised, wet and tired, a well earned buck, harvested at mile 86 of the trip!
A lesson learned here is to check batteries. An in the box, extra fresh set were duds for me once my headlamp was drained. Thank god for the flashlight app on my phone, it was the only light I had for the 8 mile trek out…
Post by: MacAttack on October 18, 2019, 08:14:18 AM
Post by: Odell on October 18, 2019, 08:14:43 AM
Post by: X-Force on October 18, 2019, 09:11:48 AM
Post by: jackson7 on October 18, 2019, 10:43:27 AM
Post by: TheStovePipeKid on October 18, 2019, 11:43:21 AM
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 18, 2019, 11:54:29 AM
Post by: Brushcrawler on October 19, 2019, 03:05:15 PM
Post by: bowhunterforever on October 19, 2019, 03:18:42 PM
Post by: chukar hunter on October 21, 2019, 07:29:34 AM
Getting a weather report from the inreach the night before, the next few days were going to be cold and clear. A low of 7 and a high of 27, I knew the deer were going to be out in full force the next day and that the heavy snow had likely stimulated some of the migration. With the pressure off of getting bro a deer, I had two days to get it done. I opted to let my buddies sleep and snuck out of the tent an hour before daylight, getting 4 hrs of sleep. In effort to stay warm and be in a good position at daylight I went straight for a vertical workout gaining a couple thousand feet of elevation. Plan was to work a major ridge and zig zag the top picking apart both sides as I worked towards our honey hole canyon.
Immediately upon reaching the top, there was a super highway of tracks. Optimistic I slowly pressed on. Around the first knob to my surprise I came across a herd of bighorns with a small ram, in which since the biologist has confirmed was rare for this area. A couple cool photos and onto hunting. Like predicted deer where everywhere. Small bucks, does, they seemed to be out in droves trying to stay warm like me. By 9:30 my deer count was approaching 50, though no signs of Mr Big. I change sides of the ridge and begin glassing the other side, when my eyes catch movement. Big Buck! I set up the spotter to confirm shooter and he’s a solid 4x4 feeding on a ridge below me at 408 yards. He’s concealed by some burnt trees with no clean windows so I take some video and pics of him. He’s feeding in the direction of an opening. Wanting to get the shot on film, I’m farting around with the camera angle, look back down and he’s gone! Wind good, my position is concealed…where the heck did he go!? I had to go back through the video to see that he’d fed across the opening without stopping amidst my dinking around. Crap! Did I just miss out on my deer opportunity of the biggest buck of the trip?
Not giving up, I sidehill over to the ridge he was on and begin dropping elevation. I walk slowly, expecting to see him in the other ravine. Preemptively dialing back my scope from 400, then 300, then 200. Working my way slowly down the ridge I cut some extremely fresh large deer tracks headed up the ridge, opposite direction I’m going. I begin to second guess my decision thinking he scooted out ahead of me as I was messing around with the camera. Ahead of me a rock outcropping that then dropped onto a bench about the elevation he was at. My instincts tell me he’s still down there and the tracks are from something else. I decide to give it to the next saddle and if nothing, high tail it out to follow those tracks. Dropping around the rock outcropping, I’m slipping and sliding on the steep terrain. Working my way back to the ridgline I bend to go under a downed tree and see antlers. It’s the buck, looking directly at me. I take one more step and he’s completely exposed broadside, 55 yards. I raise the gun, settle the crosshairs on his chest, exhale and BOOM! He immediately hunches up and slowly turns 180 degrees to face the way he had come. BOOM, he hunches up even more, tail wagging frantically and takes two more steps, BOOM! Falls over out of site. I hear the unmistakable sound of sliding and crashing down the steep hillside. Buck Down!
I radio C and Bro and fortunately they had began working up the mountain for some time and were shockingly only 20 minutes from my location. I wait for them to arrive and go in search of the buck. He’d fallen where I last saw him and slid down a greater than 1:1 slope for more than 100 yards. Piling up in some logs and buck brush, I’m shocked he didn’t break anything off. Pics, quartered him out and began the pack up and out and then 5 miles back to camp. Buck at 101 miles! Century club! Back to base camp by 4:30, the only time we’d seen base camp in the daylight since Day 1!
Post by: whacker1 on October 21, 2019, 01:33:47 PM
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 21, 2019, 01:42:35 PM
Post by: X-Force on October 21, 2019, 01:51:05 PM
Post by: Harbor_hunter on October 22, 2019, 08:44:30 PM
Post by: mfswallace on October 23, 2019, 02:01:01 PM
Post by: kellama2001 on October 23, 2019, 08:37:19 PM