G
GrizlyHunter
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Oct-22-06 AT 02:12PM (MST)[p]Hi Everyone,
We just got back Friday night around 9:00 PM after a 30 hour drive...ughh!!! I don't think I'll ever do that again...the drive that is.
It was a very tough hunt. Our guide said they normally receive about 8" of precipitation per year but this year they had a drought in the sping, which stunted the back half of their antler growth, and then they got about 40" of rain since the end of July. Consequently there was water and green grass EVERYWHERE which kept them very spread out thoughout the entire area. They were bugling only the first morning then the rain/storms knocked them down and bugling was pretty much non-existant after that. So with scattered elk, food and water everywhere, no bugling, and rain everyday it was tough to say the least. We pretty much had to cover as much ground as we could and try to shoehorn them out. Very tough. But that's why they call it hunting and not killing.
They were bugling the very first morning and we got on a small herd with two nice bulls but they got into the pines before we could get close enough for a shot. Later that day it started to rain and rained on and off for the rest of the hunt. The 2nd evening hunt we were way up on top of a mountain when a big storm blew in...dark clouds, high winds, driving rain with lightening everywhere. I literally through my gun in a bush and came back for it later. I wasn't about to walk around with lightening rod in my hands during that storm. It scared the hell out of me. Especially after what happened to another hunter in an earlier post. God rest his soul.
We ended up spotting a bull on the morning of the 3rd day. We where sneaking along sidehill trails and spotted him across a valley on the next ridge. Before I took the shot I pondered on waiting for something bigger but this was the first legal bull we had a shot at, our hunt was literally half over, and we were hunting 2x1 guided, so I decided to take it. I made a nice 200 yard one shot kill which dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Hooves literally up in the air. My guide thought I only wounded him since we couldn't locate him right away. But he just dropped, rolled over and slide down the hi. He is a smallish 6 x 6 with a devil point and one sword completely broken off. He has some mass and his rack is pretty dark since I shot him in a burn area. He was one hour by truck, then 16 miles by quad, and then two miles by shoe leather away from our cabin. I shot him at 10:30 AM and we didn't get him back to the cabin until 10:00 PM that night. It was a very long day.
Then it was my buddy's turn, Shootwice, to fill his tag. The 4th morning we got on a 5x5 but while were glassing him through our binocs from 700 yards away and then another hunter lobbed a couple pieces of lead at him and missed. He knew we were there so I think he gambled, on a shot longer that he normally would have taken, and lost. We could see from the elk's reaction that they were both clean misses.
The last morning our guide dropped me off to glass while he took Shootwice to hunt another area to hunt. I spotted a herd of 35-40 elk with at least one nice bull over a mile away. While glassing them a black bear came running through the area with a pack of bear hounds about 15 minutes behind him. This blew every elk out of the area except the bull. I was able to guide Shootwice and his guide to within 35 yards for the kill. It was 3-1/2 hours from when I first spotted the bull until Shootwice put him down! It ended up being a nice 6x7 with most of one sword broke off. It was something we'll both remember for the rest of our lives.
Tough hunt, fun, but tough! They were the only two legal bulls that we were able to get our scopes on the entire hunt.
I don't have the photos downloaded yet but when I do I'll post a few. I'm still trying to figure out how to make my bull look bigger than he is. ;-)
Grizzly
We just got back Friday night around 9:00 PM after a 30 hour drive...ughh!!! I don't think I'll ever do that again...the drive that is.
It was a very tough hunt. Our guide said they normally receive about 8" of precipitation per year but this year they had a drought in the sping, which stunted the back half of their antler growth, and then they got about 40" of rain since the end of July. Consequently there was water and green grass EVERYWHERE which kept them very spread out thoughout the entire area. They were bugling only the first morning then the rain/storms knocked them down and bugling was pretty much non-existant after that. So with scattered elk, food and water everywhere, no bugling, and rain everyday it was tough to say the least. We pretty much had to cover as much ground as we could and try to shoehorn them out. Very tough. But that's why they call it hunting and not killing.
They were bugling the very first morning and we got on a small herd with two nice bulls but they got into the pines before we could get close enough for a shot. Later that day it started to rain and rained on and off for the rest of the hunt. The 2nd evening hunt we were way up on top of a mountain when a big storm blew in...dark clouds, high winds, driving rain with lightening everywhere. I literally through my gun in a bush and came back for it later. I wasn't about to walk around with lightening rod in my hands during that storm. It scared the hell out of me. Especially after what happened to another hunter in an earlier post. God rest his soul.
We ended up spotting a bull on the morning of the 3rd day. We where sneaking along sidehill trails and spotted him across a valley on the next ridge. Before I took the shot I pondered on waiting for something bigger but this was the first legal bull we had a shot at, our hunt was literally half over, and we were hunting 2x1 guided, so I decided to take it. I made a nice 200 yard one shot kill which dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Hooves literally up in the air. My guide thought I only wounded him since we couldn't locate him right away. But he just dropped, rolled over and slide down the hi. He is a smallish 6 x 6 with a devil point and one sword completely broken off. He has some mass and his rack is pretty dark since I shot him in a burn area. He was one hour by truck, then 16 miles by quad, and then two miles by shoe leather away from our cabin. I shot him at 10:30 AM and we didn't get him back to the cabin until 10:00 PM that night. It was a very long day.
Then it was my buddy's turn, Shootwice, to fill his tag. The 4th morning we got on a 5x5 but while were glassing him through our binocs from 700 yards away and then another hunter lobbed a couple pieces of lead at him and missed. He knew we were there so I think he gambled, on a shot longer that he normally would have taken, and lost. We could see from the elk's reaction that they were both clean misses.
The last morning our guide dropped me off to glass while he took Shootwice to hunt another area to hunt. I spotted a herd of 35-40 elk with at least one nice bull over a mile away. While glassing them a black bear came running through the area with a pack of bear hounds about 15 minutes behind him. This blew every elk out of the area except the bull. I was able to guide Shootwice and his guide to within 35 yards for the kill. It was 3-1/2 hours from when I first spotted the bull until Shootwice put him down! It ended up being a nice 6x7 with most of one sword broke off. It was something we'll both remember for the rest of our lives.
Tough hunt, fun, but tough! They were the only two legal bulls that we were able to get our scopes on the entire hunt.
I don't have the photos downloaded yet but when I do I'll post a few. I'm still trying to figure out how to make my bull look bigger than he is. ;-)
Grizzly
