Dad and I finally went on our dream trip to alaska after moose, it only took us 10 years to stop making excuses.
We booked our trip with Papa Bear adventures back in January.
Sept 7th seemed to take forever to get here, I went through the gear on my list so many times it was nearly worn out before we ever left.
Day 1 Sept 8th, with breakfast scheduled for us at the the lodge at 8 am prior to flying out to our drop camp, we are a little excited, I woke up at 4 am with the excitement and dad woke up at 1:30 am cause we were so excited!
We couldn't leave till almost noon though due to the fog/rain, but man were we excited when he came in and said "lets go, time to fly". We were like 2 kids with a unlimited shopping spree at Toys R us!
us flying out to our drop camp
It was a typical alaskan day, rainy and cloudy. As we were approaching the lake we were landing on we spotted 3 cows, a calf and 1 nice bull.
We set up camp and prepared for the next day!
Day 2, we woke up 1 1/2 hours prior to daylight. We soon arrived to our first spot to call. We immediately had a bull answer us by raking bushes with his antlers but he just wouldn't come to us, we knew he was on the edge of the lake due to hearing him walking through the water so we tried to go to him but he was already gone, no biggy, 1st day.
We started sneaking along side of the lake looking for others and decide to head to the next lake, we arrive at the edge and peak our heads over the top of a bank and there is a cow right in front of us. We both immediately start looking for a bull deeper into the brush off the lake edge but nothing, she soon smells us and takes off. We start scanning the rest of the lake and at the same time we both spot 3 bulls at the far end feeding towards us. There is a shooter and 2 other forkies, with the wind being questionable we immediately start to move to get it in our favor. I told dad he has 1st option to shoot so he starts his stalk along the lake edge, I moved into the meadow of the side just in case they winded dad, and took off, then I'd have a shot at him. I soon hear dad shoot, reload and shoot 1 more time. I knew he had him down so I head to the lake and soon run into 1 of the little ones. I start grunting to him and waving my paddle above my head imitating a bull. I walked right through a meadow towards him to a meare 25 yards before he took off. I continued on and soon found dad and his bull. We were both so excited we were high 5'g and cheering when I just happened to look up to see another big bull coming out of a channel farther down the lake. I was so excited from dad's bull, that instead of wisphering I just shout out "There's a big one!" I go to grab the binoc's to check him out and dad starts yelling "he's a shooter and he's heading to the brush" so I through down my binoc's and grab the gun and lay it across the rack of dad's bull for a rest. OH crap the scope has water all over it due to when we found dad's bull I laid it against a dead tree in the grass which was wet with dew. I couldn't see the bull with all the water on the scope and dad kept saying "he's going left he's going left". I finally find him just as he's heading into the brush on a severe quartering away shot, I tried to sneak one into the ribs but hit his hindquarter but he then turned and gave me a broad side. I shoot 3 more times, try to reload but couldn't find the shells so dad throws me his gun and I shoot 2 more times with water on his scope too :-(
Finally the bull goes down, now we are really excited cause just a 1 1/2 hours into our hunt we shoot our 2 bulls with just a couple of minutes in between them.
Dad's 42" bull
my bull at 54 1/2"
Looking to the far end of the lake in the right corner is where my bull came out at 240 yards.
one of the channels we had to drag the boat through to get to where the moose were.
1 of the many beaver houses in the area that I'm sure are older than me.
This is what we got to enjoy every evening.
Flying back to the lodge
The beaver that did all the work.
I also had a black bear tag, but after sitting on the carcasses and not seeing any bear sign, we thought we could better spend our time back in colorado elk hunting before I had to start work again, so we flew out on the 5th day of our 10 day hunt and came back to CO. We arrive at the house late Monday night and then after watching my daughter(5 year's old) run in her 1st cross country race, we head up into the mountains with my Over the Counter Archery tag on Tuesday night.
The next morning dad is feeling sick so he stays in camp and I head out at 4:30 but don't see anything and only hear 2 weak bugles. Back at camp I take a nap and we head back out for the evening hunt with dad feeling better but not perfect he decides to wait for me to return at dark at the 1st saddle about 3 miles in. I continue on and about 4:30 I finally get a bugle, (I am very aggressive when it comes to calling elk), I take off runnig to close the distance and bugle again, he is still a ways off (couple hundred yards) I start walking fast again to close the distance. Stop to bugle again no answer, I am on the edge of a meadow now knowing he is close, when I spot him angling up behind me, I start heading back towards him and spot him in the timber, bad thing for him a large tree is blocking his view so I close the distance to about 40 yards, then run out of cover and wait. he comes out looking for me and stops with just nothing but his neck, head and antlers showing, wow! a 6x6, good thing I'm not one to get "buck fever" cause that was all I had to look at for 30 seconds was his rack! he starts to move and I draw he goes through the 1st opening but walking too fast, I wait and he slows down for the 2nd openig and there goes me arrow, seemed like it was never going to get there.... wack a quartering a way shot into the ribs!
I wait trying to get another arrow in him but with no oppurtunity I watch him walk away. I try to call him back with no luck, wait about 20 minutes and then go get dad. We arrive back at the sit about 45 minutes later and start to track him.
We find the arrow, complete pass through with a little blood after 10 yards the little bit of blood stops! Nothing :-( plus with him walking away in the damp moss there was no way of following his tracks. We do a couple of small circles and then at dark decided to wait till morning. we get back there bright and early, still not being able to find any blood we start trying to follow different tracks hoping we get lucky and find blood, Nothing, after 4+ hours of doing circles and following the draws down the mountain for hundereds of yards with no luck. We sit down to have a snack and try to figure out our next move, even though we were out of moves :-( not knowing what to do we decide to each take a side of the draw right near where I shot him and walk down each side again to the bottom hoping to find something.
After about 50 yards dad smells him and like a dog walks into the wind sniffing and finds him 100 yards from where I shot him! We both walked by him 2 times during the day from 30-50 yards and never seen or smelled him.
It was a liver shot and he never bled even where he fell, really lucky we found him
Oh he ended up being a 5x6 I'm no official scorer but I taped him at 269 gross and 257 net
What a great hunt, 3 bulls on the 1st day a week apart!
Best of luck to you all who still have tags!
Mntman
"Hunting is where you prove yourself"
We booked our trip with Papa Bear adventures back in January.
Sept 7th seemed to take forever to get here, I went through the gear on my list so many times it was nearly worn out before we ever left.
Day 1 Sept 8th, with breakfast scheduled for us at the the lodge at 8 am prior to flying out to our drop camp, we are a little excited, I woke up at 4 am with the excitement and dad woke up at 1:30 am cause we were so excited!
We couldn't leave till almost noon though due to the fog/rain, but man were we excited when he came in and said "lets go, time to fly". We were like 2 kids with a unlimited shopping spree at Toys R us!
us flying out to our drop camp
It was a typical alaskan day, rainy and cloudy. As we were approaching the lake we were landing on we spotted 3 cows, a calf and 1 nice bull.
We set up camp and prepared for the next day!
Day 2, we woke up 1 1/2 hours prior to daylight. We soon arrived to our first spot to call. We immediately had a bull answer us by raking bushes with his antlers but he just wouldn't come to us, we knew he was on the edge of the lake due to hearing him walking through the water so we tried to go to him but he was already gone, no biggy, 1st day.
We started sneaking along side of the lake looking for others and decide to head to the next lake, we arrive at the edge and peak our heads over the top of a bank and there is a cow right in front of us. We both immediately start looking for a bull deeper into the brush off the lake edge but nothing, she soon smells us and takes off. We start scanning the rest of the lake and at the same time we both spot 3 bulls at the far end feeding towards us. There is a shooter and 2 other forkies, with the wind being questionable we immediately start to move to get it in our favor. I told dad he has 1st option to shoot so he starts his stalk along the lake edge, I moved into the meadow of the side just in case they winded dad, and took off, then I'd have a shot at him. I soon hear dad shoot, reload and shoot 1 more time. I knew he had him down so I head to the lake and soon run into 1 of the little ones. I start grunting to him and waving my paddle above my head imitating a bull. I walked right through a meadow towards him to a meare 25 yards before he took off. I continued on and soon found dad and his bull. We were both so excited we were high 5'g and cheering when I just happened to look up to see another big bull coming out of a channel farther down the lake. I was so excited from dad's bull, that instead of wisphering I just shout out "There's a big one!" I go to grab the binoc's to check him out and dad starts yelling "he's a shooter and he's heading to the brush" so I through down my binoc's and grab the gun and lay it across the rack of dad's bull for a rest. OH crap the scope has water all over it due to when we found dad's bull I laid it against a dead tree in the grass which was wet with dew. I couldn't see the bull with all the water on the scope and dad kept saying "he's going left he's going left". I finally find him just as he's heading into the brush on a severe quartering away shot, I tried to sneak one into the ribs but hit his hindquarter but he then turned and gave me a broad side. I shoot 3 more times, try to reload but couldn't find the shells so dad throws me his gun and I shoot 2 more times with water on his scope too :-(
Finally the bull goes down, now we are really excited cause just a 1 1/2 hours into our hunt we shoot our 2 bulls with just a couple of minutes in between them.
Dad's 42" bull
my bull at 54 1/2"
Looking to the far end of the lake in the right corner is where my bull came out at 240 yards.
one of the channels we had to drag the boat through to get to where the moose were.
1 of the many beaver houses in the area that I'm sure are older than me.
This is what we got to enjoy every evening.
Flying back to the lodge
The beaver that did all the work.
I also had a black bear tag, but after sitting on the carcasses and not seeing any bear sign, we thought we could better spend our time back in colorado elk hunting before I had to start work again, so we flew out on the 5th day of our 10 day hunt and came back to CO. We arrive at the house late Monday night and then after watching my daughter(5 year's old) run in her 1st cross country race, we head up into the mountains with my Over the Counter Archery tag on Tuesday night.
The next morning dad is feeling sick so he stays in camp and I head out at 4:30 but don't see anything and only hear 2 weak bugles. Back at camp I take a nap and we head back out for the evening hunt with dad feeling better but not perfect he decides to wait for me to return at dark at the 1st saddle about 3 miles in. I continue on and about 4:30 I finally get a bugle, (I am very aggressive when it comes to calling elk), I take off runnig to close the distance and bugle again, he is still a ways off (couple hundred yards) I start walking fast again to close the distance. Stop to bugle again no answer, I am on the edge of a meadow now knowing he is close, when I spot him angling up behind me, I start heading back towards him and spot him in the timber, bad thing for him a large tree is blocking his view so I close the distance to about 40 yards, then run out of cover and wait. he comes out looking for me and stops with just nothing but his neck, head and antlers showing
, wow! a 6x6, good thing I'm not one to get "buck fever" cause that was all I had to look at for 30 seconds was his rack! he starts to move and I draw he goes through the 1st opening but walking too fast, I wait and he slows down for the 2nd openig and there goes me arrow, seemed like it was never going to get there.... wack a quartering a way shot into the ribs! I wait trying to get another arrow in him but with no oppurtunity I watch him walk away. I try to call him back with no luck, wait about 20 minutes and then go get dad. We arrive back at the sit about 45 minutes later and start to track him.
We find the arrow, complete pass through
with a little blood after 10 yards the little bit of blood stops! Nothing :-( plus with him walking away in the damp moss there was no way of following his tracks. We do a couple of small circles and then at dark decided to wait till morning. we get back there bright and early, still not being able to find any blood we start trying to follow different tracks hoping we get lucky and find blood, Nothing, after 4+ hours of doing circles and following the draws down the mountain for hundereds of yards with no luck. We sit down to have a snack and try to figure out our next move, even though we were out of moves :-( not knowing what to do we decide to each take a side of the draw right near where I shot him and walk down each side again to the bottom hoping to find something. After about 50 yards dad smells him and like a dog walks into the wind sniffing and finds him 100 yards from where I shot him! We both walked by him 2 times during the day from 30-50 yards and never seen or smelled him.
It was a liver shot and he never bled even where he fell, really lucky we found him
Oh he ended up being a 5x6
I'm no official scorer but I taped him at 269 gross and 257 net
What a great hunt, 3 bulls on the 1st day a week apart!
Best of luck to you all who still have tags!
Mntman
"Hunting is where you prove yourself"
