NMPaul
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Well I hunted 4.5 days of a 5 day hunt and shot a meat bull the last morning with some regrets. Maybe, regrets is not the best word, but, certainly I second guessed a lot of the decisions I made during my hunt.
My son and I agree we are under a little more pressure when my wife has the tag. She loves hunting, but, after a few hard hikes, she loses some of the enthusiasm.
First morning we decided to go int an area that I had hunted 2x by myself during my hunt because my son was in school. The first morning in there I located 4 bulls in my mountain range, but, passed on all of them. It was still fairly early in the hunt, and felt I could do better. Any of them would have been better than the one I got.
The 2nd day I hunted in there I stalked in on a small bull, and what appeared to be a good bull, but, also appeared to have a broken antler on one side. I never got a real good luck at it, but, when I dropped into the juniper grove he should have been in, I could not find him. If I had Zach on the spotter, I think it would have ended different.
So, opening morning found Kim and I hiked into the highest peak on one mountain range, and Zach about 1.5 miles away on a peak across from our range. We checked in on radio. We both found some bulls, but, nothing big. He thinks he found the same good bull, and he also thought almost the entire antler was missing off of one side. After first hour or so I hike behind our peak and watched a herd, with a indetermined size bull crest a hill about a mile away. I walked back to Kim in time to watch a cow elk walking right towards her to within 15 yards, before she saw me and broke off. We are sitting on a completely burnt hillside pretty much in the open. Neat stuff happens when your in the mountains.
It was starting to look like the morning was a bust.
Z had lost the broken horn bull in the trees, and with the sun coming up and a 80 degree day forcasted the morning and evening hunt are short.
About, then I look right across from us on a oak brush hill side and see the yellow of an elk. I put up my regular glasses and see a small bull about the size of my bull about 650 yards from us. Kim did not have glasses and said I thought it was a rock. He appeared to be by himself, but, I checked all around him and went back to my 15s to glass the other ravines.
I checked him again, and there was this compact and symmetrical 6x6.
Now, my wife has high standards when it comes to hunting, and always wants something better than average. I explained to her that it was maybe a 300" bull (we still need to tape it) did she want to take him.
I think with the health issues of a couple of our parents, and the demands on her time, and the knowledge that my plan that afternoon was to hike into our elk camp and sleep in a tent motivated her to say lets get him.
We were on a complete open hillside, and they were on a oak brush face. We got to about 455 and I gave her the green light. Had a little problem with the rifle and one of her first 3 shots missed. We never saw him leave the brushy hillside, though the raghorn, skedaddled out of there.
We got our bearings on a couple of big burned tree trunks. About 300 yards away kim saw him. I had lost bearings messing with reloading the gun earlier so I was not sure where he was last. He was sick.
This is where we had a little problem. The scope on the rifle does not not have the 300 yard reticle marked so Kim went right to the cross hair and missed the first 2 at a chip shot. We figured it out and her 3rd shot was perfect.
It was a good day. She was happy, Z was there to help me pack out my 3rd bull in about 2 weeks, and even though it was full of wild roses that tore at your clothes and exposed skin it was only about .25 miles to get to a spot we could access with 4 wheelers. Thanks to Zach I only had to make 2 trips.
This shot you can see a little of the hill side we were on. Not much cover to move around on. this time of the year, elk are on full alert. For the most part the rut is over and they are just trying to stay alive.
Z trying to help me get up with a back leg and head. didnt work.
Got it. Really happy with the Eberlestock J34. Actually crushes down to a reasonable day pack and you can still put 80+ pounds on it and legitimately carry it without it killing you. Real good for our type of hunting.
Couple more pics. Elk we snuck up on during my hunt. 20 yards, we tried all our calls on him to get him to get out of our way. He was snoozing.
Here is a bear Zach and I snuck up on also during my hunt. very funny story to go with it (at least between us) had us laughing all morning. One of the bigger bears I have seen out here.
My son and I agree we are under a little more pressure when my wife has the tag. She loves hunting, but, after a few hard hikes, she loses some of the enthusiasm.
First morning we decided to go int an area that I had hunted 2x by myself during my hunt because my son was in school. The first morning in there I located 4 bulls in my mountain range, but, passed on all of them. It was still fairly early in the hunt, and felt I could do better. Any of them would have been better than the one I got.
The 2nd day I hunted in there I stalked in on a small bull, and what appeared to be a good bull, but, also appeared to have a broken antler on one side. I never got a real good luck at it, but, when I dropped into the juniper grove he should have been in, I could not find him. If I had Zach on the spotter, I think it would have ended different.
So, opening morning found Kim and I hiked into the highest peak on one mountain range, and Zach about 1.5 miles away on a peak across from our range. We checked in on radio. We both found some bulls, but, nothing big. He thinks he found the same good bull, and he also thought almost the entire antler was missing off of one side. After first hour or so I hike behind our peak and watched a herd, with a indetermined size bull crest a hill about a mile away. I walked back to Kim in time to watch a cow elk walking right towards her to within 15 yards, before she saw me and broke off. We are sitting on a completely burnt hillside pretty much in the open. Neat stuff happens when your in the mountains.
It was starting to look like the morning was a bust.
Z had lost the broken horn bull in the trees, and with the sun coming up and a 80 degree day forcasted the morning and evening hunt are short.
About, then I look right across from us on a oak brush hill side and see the yellow of an elk. I put up my regular glasses and see a small bull about the size of my bull about 650 yards from us. Kim did not have glasses and said I thought it was a rock. He appeared to be by himself, but, I checked all around him and went back to my 15s to glass the other ravines.
I checked him again, and there was this compact and symmetrical 6x6.
Now, my wife has high standards when it comes to hunting, and always wants something better than average. I explained to her that it was maybe a 300" bull (we still need to tape it) did she want to take him.
I think with the health issues of a couple of our parents, and the demands on her time, and the knowledge that my plan that afternoon was to hike into our elk camp and sleep in a tent motivated her to say lets get him.
We were on a complete open hillside, and they were on a oak brush face. We got to about 455 and I gave her the green light. Had a little problem with the rifle and one of her first 3 shots missed. We never saw him leave the brushy hillside, though the raghorn, skedaddled out of there.
We got our bearings on a couple of big burned tree trunks. About 300 yards away kim saw him. I had lost bearings messing with reloading the gun earlier so I was not sure where he was last. He was sick.
This is where we had a little problem. The scope on the rifle does not not have the 300 yard reticle marked so Kim went right to the cross hair and missed the first 2 at a chip shot. We figured it out and her 3rd shot was perfect.
It was a good day. She was happy, Z was there to help me pack out my 3rd bull in about 2 weeks, and even though it was full of wild roses that tore at your clothes and exposed skin it was only about .25 miles to get to a spot we could access with 4 wheelers. Thanks to Zach I only had to make 2 trips.
This shot you can see a little of the hill side we were on. Not much cover to move around on. this time of the year, elk are on full alert. For the most part the rut is over and they are just trying to stay alive.
Z trying to help me get up with a back leg and head. didnt work.
Got it. Really happy with the Eberlestock J34. Actually crushes down to a reasonable day pack and you can still put 80+ pounds on it and legitimately carry it without it killing you. Real good for our type of hunting.
Couple more pics. Elk we snuck up on during my hunt. 20 yards, we tried all our calls on him to get him to get out of our way. He was snoozing.
Here is a bear Zach and I snuck up on also during my hunt. very funny story to go with it (at least between us) had us laughing all morning. One of the bigger bears I have seen out here.
