M
MrTwister
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Sep-27-11 AT 11:45PM (MST)[p] When my wife first read the email that she drew a LE Any Weapon Boulder tag she didn't believe it. I asked her to read it to me and indeed she did luck out and draw one. My friend Jeff had just told me a few days before that his credit card got hit for the amount which would indicate he drew the same tag. I drew the same tag in 2004 and had been down scouting with a camcorder every year since. He and I had already started to make plans on going down together with me doing the guiding. Well, that changed to his dismay into me guiding my wife and he would just tag along. Funny thing how the whole several month wait thing starts to heat up the last 2 months, then the last month and down to the last week. I pushed my friend to start getting ready 2 months before because I know him too well. My wife really took the hunt serious from the start.
My wife Maryann and I headed down the Thursday before the hunt and got to scout the last two hours before dark. We heard a few bugles but didn't see a thing. Pulling into camp we see Jeff was just arriving and we helped him setup his tent. We were forced to stay in a 21? trailer with heat, microwave, generator and satellite TV. Friday morning we headed out to watch a basin and heard at least 5 different bulls bugling and saw 2 small herds each with a bull. It rained that day hard and it had been raining for most of the month the locals told us. The mountain was very green and wet. This was the muddiest I have seen the mountain. The quakies hadn't even started to turn yet, but we were able to watch them change a bit yellow during the hunt. We drove by a camp and I saw a dog trying to climb on an ATV as we drove by. After driving our Rhino a few miles down a trail we turned around and saw that same dog had followed us that far. He had a radio collar on that was flashing as he whimpered and whined. Maryann fed the poor little thing some energy bars and we put him in the Rhino. Checking all the camps in the area we found no one knew who's dog it was. It did have a phone number on the collar, so we drove back about 4 miles to our camp and called the owner from a nearby hill. Seems the dog was a bear hound and the owner had lent him out to a friend to hunt bear that day. Within a few hours the bear hunter stopped by camp and picked up the dog. His name was Bullet and the bear hunter had 2 other dogs lost. The evening before the hunt we sat in the trailer and hid from heavy rainfall. Jeff came back from scouting soaked and seemed to like the heater in trailer more than his tent. Of course as always the biggest question that night is where do we go tomorrow?
Coffeeed up and ready to go we headed to the same spot we went to the previous morn. Got in place and heard 3 bugle in the area and then the clouds rounded in and visibility dropped to about 100 yds for about an hour. The bulls shut up and opening morning was a big zip on the fun scale. 4 shots were fired to the west of us. Lucky us the bear hounds were back at it in our area and then we heard 2 more shots. Jeff went to a different spot and reported nothing. I believe that early afternoon the weather finally cleared up for the rest of the hunt. That evening my wife and I sat on a small lake and saw nothing.
The next morning the skies were clear, but the bulls shut up early again. My wife had an interested bull screaming back to her cow calls when I had walked back to get the truck. We went into the trees to pursue the guy and was only able to make sure he was moving away from us. Well it was time to go for a ride and check a couple of places. A cowboy rounding up his beefs told us that he was riding along on the bear hunt the day before and the hunter had shot a 200 lb cinnamon. Yes, Bullet was there for the second day in a row. We got several bulls to bugle and seem interested, but could never see one. That evening we watched a stock pond for awhile and then drove back to camp slowly at dusk. Two days and no one has seen an elk. ? where do we go tomorrow?
We tried to sneak in on the one that bugled to us the morning before as Jeff headed to a knoll that I knew was a good spot. The bull was still in the same area, but only interested for a few minutes. When returning from the morning hunt Jeff said that he did see some elk. A couple of spikes popped out in front of him, but the bigger bull didn't appear from where he was bugling. That afternoon we went for a drive and scoped out a spring that seemed to have a few wallows. Also found some bugling right in the middle of the afternoon. By this time Maryann is really loving to ?meddle with em with the hochie mama.? She got one pretty close, but once again could never see hair. That evening we decide to go check out the wallows. Parked the Rhino and was approaching the spring when I noticed a few cows grazing on the opposite side of the canyon. After sneaking into the spot we scoped earlier that afternoon we sat there until dark and saw nothing. We did hear one bugle in the trees by where we last saw the cows. I believe we got there too late and the elk had already watered and was just leaving when we got there.
Day four it was decided that we all would go checkout the knoll where Jeff had been yesterday morning. We were setup before light and only managed to see a bunch of turkeys. Around noon we all went for a ride and tried to look for the same bull we found the day before and checkout a bigger lake. There was nothing again. Maryann was all excited about getting down to the previous nights spring a lot earlier tonight, so we left at 4:30pm and was in place by 5pm.
After watching the spring for about an hour and a half we hear the first bugle. More like a whistle from the east. Whistles got louder and we knew a bull was coming in. I spotted the elk and Maryann put the binos on it and looked at me and said ?you are kidding me. I wait this long and this is what I get?? Then she started laughing to me. What we saw was a one antlered bull which looked like a big 2 pt. It slowly walked to the spring and we could see it was really a 5 pt with some very small points. It went down to the wallows and messed around wallowing, drinking and bugling 150 yds from us for about 15 mins. We could hear another bugle in the distance and knew another bull was coming. After awhile the other bull showed and instantly I noticed it was a shooter for her. Maryann had stated prior to the hunt that she wanted a nice 6 pt and that it didn't have to be a monster, she just wanted to eat it. The 6 pt kept walking towards the spring and out with it came 2 cows and 2 calves. Then behind them came a smaller 6pt. Well, Mr. 1Horn decided it was time to leave and started walking back up the hill from where him came. Mr. 6pt made sure he was in between the other bull and his own cows. Mr. 6pt gets along side Mr. 1Horn and they both are walking away from us now. After walking about 40 yds side by side Mr. 6pt starts to angle towards the other bull. Mr. 1Horn decides to make his move and BAM they go at it. Both are moving back and forth. Mr. 6pt finally gets lower down and put it in 4WD and Mr. 1Horn actually rolled over backwards and then jumped up and ran off making this little whimper sound.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1602/2011-ELK-HUNT
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1603/2011-ELK-HUNT
Now that the action was done it was time to drink. The cows ran down to the spring and got right in the water. I told my wife not to shoot the bull in the water. He came walking straight at us to the water presenting no shot. He then turned broadside. This is one of those times in your life that you etch in your mind. Mr. 6pt is about 150yds away, wife is ready to shoot, the evening has turned to dusk and the light has an orange tint which is making this bull glow. My job was to guide Maryann to the elk and to film it. I left the camcorder in the Rhino almost on purpose. Because every time I carried it we saw nothing. I did video Mr. 1Horn with my small camera, but when the shooter came out it seems I was more concerned with Maryann getting the shot. I said ?there's your shot.? She said ?you told me not to shot it in the water.? I said ? it's only standing in six inches??shooooot.? She waited awhile then the bull started to follow a cow to where the smaller 6pt was wallowing. He stopped broadside now another 30-40 yds farther away. BOOM rang out from the ol? Savage .308 lever action. The bull just stood there while the cows moved around some. Maryann racked another one in and whack I heard for sure the bull was hit. He ran down towards us about 20 yds then whack again and the bull flipped over backwards. Maryann said she was shaking. I said it was photo op time. I went back to get the Rhino while she walked over to the bull. I knew very well that this was her time and that her walking up to it by herself would be always remembered. I drove up to the bull and Maryann had already scoped out the situation. She said ?I shot his antler off.? I looked at it and the 5 and 6 was gone on one side and said that I know she didn't shoot it off. I looked and found the whale tail stuck in the ground 4 inches where he had flipped over and broke it off.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1604/2011
This was her first bull, she had shot some cows before. I'll tell ya I was sure proud of her. This was a hunt with few highs until this night. She persevered and got what she sit out to get and was very happy to do just that. Time spent in the field is priceless and spending that time with your lovely bride makes it beyond human comprehension.
We drove back to camp told Jeff to get in the truck. Had the elk skinned out and some dinner and in bed around 1 am. Jeff headed out the next morning, I was up and should have gone with him. Our plan was to take the elk down to the butcher and put it in cold storage. By now Maryann was really looking forward to staying the entire hunt to help out Jeff, she was enjoying the whole hunting experience. 8:35 am and I was going to wait 5 more minutes to see if Jeff would show when he did. He said he just shot one and asked if we'd help load it. He also mentioned it was smaller than Maryann?s. He drew out with 16pts and Maryann had 6pts. Jeff was going big or go home. Well, he started with ? I was under a lot of pressure and then there was no one to make me coffee in the morning and I'd be all by himself and I hadn't seen any nice bulls and I thought it was a lot bigger than it was.?
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1605/2011-ELK-HUNT
With both elk down to cold storage and a few needleings from me we spent the afternoon driving to Spectacle Lake on the Boulder Top and looked down from Rim Lake to the town of Boulder. Oh, today is our 15th wedding aniversary. An absolute beautiful view to finish off a great trip.
My wife Maryann and I headed down the Thursday before the hunt and got to scout the last two hours before dark. We heard a few bugles but didn't see a thing. Pulling into camp we see Jeff was just arriving and we helped him setup his tent. We were forced to stay in a 21? trailer with heat, microwave, generator and satellite TV. Friday morning we headed out to watch a basin and heard at least 5 different bulls bugling and saw 2 small herds each with a bull. It rained that day hard and it had been raining for most of the month the locals told us. The mountain was very green and wet. This was the muddiest I have seen the mountain. The quakies hadn't even started to turn yet, but we were able to watch them change a bit yellow during the hunt. We drove by a camp and I saw a dog trying to climb on an ATV as we drove by. After driving our Rhino a few miles down a trail we turned around and saw that same dog had followed us that far. He had a radio collar on that was flashing as he whimpered and whined. Maryann fed the poor little thing some energy bars and we put him in the Rhino. Checking all the camps in the area we found no one knew who's dog it was. It did have a phone number on the collar, so we drove back about 4 miles to our camp and called the owner from a nearby hill. Seems the dog was a bear hound and the owner had lent him out to a friend to hunt bear that day. Within a few hours the bear hunter stopped by camp and picked up the dog. His name was Bullet and the bear hunter had 2 other dogs lost. The evening before the hunt we sat in the trailer and hid from heavy rainfall. Jeff came back from scouting soaked and seemed to like the heater in trailer more than his tent. Of course as always the biggest question that night is where do we go tomorrow?
Coffeeed up and ready to go we headed to the same spot we went to the previous morn. Got in place and heard 3 bugle in the area and then the clouds rounded in and visibility dropped to about 100 yds for about an hour. The bulls shut up and opening morning was a big zip on the fun scale. 4 shots were fired to the west of us. Lucky us the bear hounds were back at it in our area and then we heard 2 more shots. Jeff went to a different spot and reported nothing. I believe that early afternoon the weather finally cleared up for the rest of the hunt. That evening my wife and I sat on a small lake and saw nothing.
The next morning the skies were clear, but the bulls shut up early again. My wife had an interested bull screaming back to her cow calls when I had walked back to get the truck. We went into the trees to pursue the guy and was only able to make sure he was moving away from us. Well it was time to go for a ride and check a couple of places. A cowboy rounding up his beefs told us that he was riding along on the bear hunt the day before and the hunter had shot a 200 lb cinnamon. Yes, Bullet was there for the second day in a row. We got several bulls to bugle and seem interested, but could never see one. That evening we watched a stock pond for awhile and then drove back to camp slowly at dusk. Two days and no one has seen an elk. ? where do we go tomorrow?
We tried to sneak in on the one that bugled to us the morning before as Jeff headed to a knoll that I knew was a good spot. The bull was still in the same area, but only interested for a few minutes. When returning from the morning hunt Jeff said that he did see some elk. A couple of spikes popped out in front of him, but the bigger bull didn't appear from where he was bugling. That afternoon we went for a drive and scoped out a spring that seemed to have a few wallows. Also found some bugling right in the middle of the afternoon. By this time Maryann is really loving to ?meddle with em with the hochie mama.? She got one pretty close, but once again could never see hair. That evening we decide to go check out the wallows. Parked the Rhino and was approaching the spring when I noticed a few cows grazing on the opposite side of the canyon. After sneaking into the spot we scoped earlier that afternoon we sat there until dark and saw nothing. We did hear one bugle in the trees by where we last saw the cows. I believe we got there too late and the elk had already watered and was just leaving when we got there.
Day four it was decided that we all would go checkout the knoll where Jeff had been yesterday morning. We were setup before light and only managed to see a bunch of turkeys. Around noon we all went for a ride and tried to look for the same bull we found the day before and checkout a bigger lake. There was nothing again. Maryann was all excited about getting down to the previous nights spring a lot earlier tonight, so we left at 4:30pm and was in place by 5pm.
After watching the spring for about an hour and a half we hear the first bugle. More like a whistle from the east. Whistles got louder and we knew a bull was coming in. I spotted the elk and Maryann put the binos on it and looked at me and said ?you are kidding me. I wait this long and this is what I get?? Then she started laughing to me. What we saw was a one antlered bull which looked like a big 2 pt. It slowly walked to the spring and we could see it was really a 5 pt with some very small points. It went down to the wallows and messed around wallowing, drinking and bugling 150 yds from us for about 15 mins. We could hear another bugle in the distance and knew another bull was coming. After awhile the other bull showed and instantly I noticed it was a shooter for her. Maryann had stated prior to the hunt that she wanted a nice 6 pt and that it didn't have to be a monster, she just wanted to eat it. The 6 pt kept walking towards the spring and out with it came 2 cows and 2 calves. Then behind them came a smaller 6pt. Well, Mr. 1Horn decided it was time to leave and started walking back up the hill from where him came. Mr. 6pt made sure he was in between the other bull and his own cows. Mr. 6pt gets along side Mr. 1Horn and they both are walking away from us now. After walking about 40 yds side by side Mr. 6pt starts to angle towards the other bull. Mr. 1Horn decides to make his move and BAM they go at it. Both are moving back and forth. Mr. 6pt finally gets lower down and put it in 4WD and Mr. 1Horn actually rolled over backwards and then jumped up and ran off making this little whimper sound.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1602/2011-ELK-HUNT
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1603/2011-ELK-HUNT
Now that the action was done it was time to drink. The cows ran down to the spring and got right in the water. I told my wife not to shoot the bull in the water. He came walking straight at us to the water presenting no shot. He then turned broadside. This is one of those times in your life that you etch in your mind. Mr. 6pt is about 150yds away, wife is ready to shoot, the evening has turned to dusk and the light has an orange tint which is making this bull glow. My job was to guide Maryann to the elk and to film it. I left the camcorder in the Rhino almost on purpose. Because every time I carried it we saw nothing. I did video Mr. 1Horn with my small camera, but when the shooter came out it seems I was more concerned with Maryann getting the shot. I said ?there's your shot.? She said ?you told me not to shot it in the water.? I said ? it's only standing in six inches??shooooot.? She waited awhile then the bull started to follow a cow to where the smaller 6pt was wallowing. He stopped broadside now another 30-40 yds farther away. BOOM rang out from the ol? Savage .308 lever action. The bull just stood there while the cows moved around some. Maryann racked another one in and whack I heard for sure the bull was hit. He ran down towards us about 20 yds then whack again and the bull flipped over backwards. Maryann said she was shaking. I said it was photo op time. I went back to get the Rhino while she walked over to the bull. I knew very well that this was her time and that her walking up to it by herself would be always remembered. I drove up to the bull and Maryann had already scoped out the situation. She said ?I shot his antler off.? I looked at it and the 5 and 6 was gone on one side and said that I know she didn't shoot it off. I looked and found the whale tail stuck in the ground 4 inches where he had flipped over and broke it off.
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1604/2011
This was her first bull, she had shot some cows before. I'll tell ya I was sure proud of her. This was a hunt with few highs until this night. She persevered and got what she sit out to get and was very happy to do just that. Time spent in the field is priceless and spending that time with your lovely bride makes it beyond human comprehension.
We drove back to camp told Jeff to get in the truck. Had the elk skinned out and some dinner and in bed around 1 am. Jeff headed out the next morning, I was up and should have gone with him. Our plan was to take the elk down to the butcher and put it in cold storage. By now Maryann was really looking forward to staying the entire hunt to help out Jeff, she was enjoying the whole hunting experience. 8:35 am and I was going to wait 5 more minutes to see if Jeff would show when he did. He said he just shot one and asked if we'd help load it. He also mentioned it was smaller than Maryann?s. He drew out with 16pts and Maryann had 6pts. Jeff was going big or go home. Well, he started with ? I was under a lot of pressure and then there was no one to make me coffee in the morning and I'd be all by himself and I hadn't seen any nice bulls and I thought it was a lot bigger than it was.?
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1605/2011-ELK-HUNT
With both elk down to cold storage and a few needleings from me we spent the afternoon driving to Spectacle Lake on the Boulder Top and looked down from Rim Lake to the town of Boulder. Oh, today is our 15th wedding aniversary. An absolute beautiful view to finish off a great trip.
