Andy 2011...stick and string...

Well, since I enjoy reading everyone else's posts here I might as well try to contribute something myself. A short history on my big game hunting experience; I like muzzleloaders. I have owned a bunch and have only killed animals with blackpowder rifles, never a centerfire or bow. I have missed animals with rifle and bow, but never with a muzzleloader. So I hope to change that this year. I bought a used bowtech and have been shooting nearly every day. My goal is to shoot a buck and an elk with archery tackle this year.

I will be helping on a few elk hunts this fall. First up, my good friend Mike drew a CWMU bull tag and will be using his bow. He has only been hunting for two years, and never for elk. I hope to call him in a big bull and film it too. Second, my dad drew the same muzzy elk tag I had last year and that will be an absolute blast. lastly, one of my best longtime friends Luke drew a late Manti tag and has never hunted elk either. It's going to be a great fall. Add to the mix my DH deer tag and an OTC archery elk tag for me and it's off to the races in a few short weeks.

I don't plan on even picking up my rifle this year, but I will be packing my smokepole during my dad's hunt, as my DH deer tag is good for the same area....

I'll post again soon with videos and pictures of this year, but here is a picture of my bull from last fall and a link to the video of the hunt.

Good luck all!!

VIDEO
http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1383/Andys-2010-Utah-LE-elk-hunt



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Here are a couple short videos of animals I have seen this summer. I will add more over the next few weeks as the scouting efforts heat up.....I didn't mention above, but all my hunts will be in Utah this year.

Velvet Buck

Velvet Bull

Dinner Time



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Here is a pic of my bow setup, nothing special for sure, but a lot better than what I have hunted with before. I found the Bowtech Patriot for a great deal bare bow and picked up the rest over the spring. I have been shooting nearly every day and am pretty confident out to 50 yards. The 2 arrow group is typical of what I shoot out to 50. I only shoot 2 or 3 at a time because I have damaged arrows shooting more and it ticks me off...haha. I don't think that a robinhood pic is worth the $$ of a ruined arrow.




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Scouting....

I spent a lot of time in the hills during August looking at animals. I took my wife and kids along a bunch and they had a blast. The weekend before the hunt opened I found nine bucks in one area and decided to hunt it on the opener. There were 3 shooters in the bunch and lots of smallers guys too. Here are some pics from those trips;













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Utah archery opener......

For this day, I decided to focus on deer in an are I had scouted and hunted in the past. My buddy and I hit a trail at 6 am on the Utah opener last Saturday. We were near a popular road and hunting spot, but escaped the masses by putting elevation between us. We headed straight up and 2 hours later we were in our pre-scouted chute and slide area at the top. we passed on several small bucks on the way in, having seen some great deer here in the weeks prior. After half an hour of glassing we had turned up several bucks, and were planning on glassing there all day. Suddenly I noticed movement at our same elevation several draws over. There were two bucks coming and they were spooked. As the got to within 200 yards they slowed and started looking for a place to hide. They headed up a draw in front of us and my buddy decided to make his move while Istayed and spotted/filmed. He scurried up the slide and I filmed, hoping the deer would come out near him. Several minutes later I caught movement below me and over one draw. The deer had turned around and were going to cross under me at 100 yards. Iditched the camera and binos and grabbed my bow. I literally jumped and slid down the rockslide to get into position before the deer re-emerged from the draw below. I dove into a large bush under a lone pine and waited. 10 seconds later the small buck came out and walked left to right below me at 65 yards across the slide and into the trees. I knew what was coming next and got ready. I saw antlers headed into the open and I drew back in a crouching position in the bush. When the buck was right below me Istood up....right into the pine tree..... Ihad two take two steps to the left to get clear and the buck noticed the movement. Now, this is where I don't remember aiming or anchoring the bow. I didn't even range it. I thought it was 65 yards (later ranged at exactly that) and with the sharp angle I placed my 50 yard pin right on his shoulder and pulled the trigger. I watched the tracer noc light up and as my bow came down I saw that little light vanish into the buck's shoulder. I heard the famous "thwack!" and the buck took off, spraying blood all over the slide. The arrow went into the point of the right shoulder and exited the lower left brisket behind the left leg, carving a path that ended the buck's life. I went CRAZY. Brian heard the shot and them my hysterics and came running down to me. we found the blood trail and a few minutes later, my first archery buck. Words cannot express the feelings of that morning....Words can express the feelings of the two and a half hour hike back down the mtn with the quartered out deer, however Iwill not share those words here....

Here are some pictures from the morning hunt;




Here is a ten minute video of the hunt, I like the live footage Iwas able to get of the buck;

http://www.monsterhuntclips.com/video/1577/2011-Utah-Achery-Hunt

I have never tagged out this early in the year before, but this is the year to do it. I am getting ready to go on a lot of other hunts with family and friends and now can really focus on them. I do have an archery elk tag, and will hopefully shoot my first archery elk this year. More to come soon!


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Elk Hunting.....

My brother Chris and I have archery elk tags this year. He has never killed anything with a bow and never killed an elk. Our goal is to get him a cow or spike. We have gone out a few times and seen elk, just not close enough. Last Thursday we took off after work and camped near Strawberry res. We saw tons of deer, some moose, and a nice bull elk, but couldn't get in range of the cows. I took some video just for fun....and yes, he missed the squirrel at 40 yards...




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Follow up on Deer hunt.

Here are a few more pictures from the deer hunt. This deeer was killed in a steep nast place and had to come out in pieces. Luckily I had my Black's Creek Alaskan pack, this pack zipps in half to make two packs for hauling out meat. Here is my buddy brian with half the deer and me with the other half and head. Also, I am having a euro mount with velvet done by eurosbyRT here on MM. He cut off the antlers and preserved the velvet so that the beetles would not eat it. I have the antlers at my house waiting for the skull to be ready for re-attachment. Luckily I had a handy antler hanger handy....









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Mike's bull (September 20);

My good friend Mike drew a CWMU tag for elk this year. This is only his second season hunting and he was pretty excited. We had planned on hunting together, but the week he could get up there I had sales summit and was absolutely unavailable. Mike got in on a herd of elk that had several bulls running around screaming and fighting. he jumped in the middle and moved up the mtn with the elk. He found the biggest of the bulls and eventually got a 6 0yard shot and made it count. The bull only went 3 yards and crashed dead. He called me at nine PM to let me know what had happened. Big time congrats to him for doing it on his own. Four of us loaded up and went to help get the bull out. It took us until three AM but we got it done. Here are some pics from that night;



Here is the video mike took of his solo hunt;

http://gallery.me.com/floodresponse/101455




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Dad's elk hunt;

This year my dad drew that same muzzleloader elk tag that I had last fall. We had high hopes because we knew the area well and had seen a lot of good bulls there before. After a couple of scouting trips we had a pretty good idea of what we would be doing for the hunt and we had decided to hunt the same areas we had the previous year.

Tuesday;
Four of us headed down the day before the hunt. We set up camp in the early afternoon and got out to do a little night before scouting. We found that the bulls were very vocal and spotted a couple decent six points. Feeling encouraged we headed back to camp excited for the opener.

Wednesday;
On opening morning we actually woke up a little later that we should have. We made it to the designated spot right at the sun was rising. Most of the elk had made it back into the timber, but we proceeded with the plan anyway. We made a long hike along a CWMU border and set up to call several times. We called in one six point, but he was a little small for the opener, but it was fun to call one in later in the morning. For the evening hunt we dropped into a nasty canyon where we had gotten a few bulls to answer calls earlier in the afternoon. We never got into the elk, but had a fun hike out in the dark.

Thursday;
For the morning hunt we went back to the spot where I killed my bull in 2010. We heard a few elk right away and got set up to call. We spotted a bull 300 yards away and he was mad. After getting in place, we were able to call the bull all the way in to 20 yards. It was fun, but he was not a shooter. We spent the rest of the day following the herd and discovering some new ambush points for this group. We actually ended up finding the spot where my dad would kill his bull. We decided to leave this area alone for a day and hit it Saturday.

Friday;
On friday we decided to go to a popular area where there were usually a lot of bulls (and people). Sure enough there were three other rigs there, so we drove up the road a bit and got out anyway. Right after getting out we heard bulls firing off all around us. We hurried and set up on the closest bull. We called him in to 50 yards but my dad could not get a clear shot. he was a big bull, but before we could get closer shots started ringing out all around us. There were probably 5 bulls and 4 hunters within a few hundred yards and it was crazy. After following the elk for a bit we decided that there were way too many hunters around and we decided to get out. That night we sat a waterhole that was pretty sweet. Weather did not cooperate and we got rained on all evening. No elk showed up and we hiked back in the mud.

Saturday;
Saturday morning we decided to hit the meadow we had found Thursday and hope to get there before the local herd made their way in to the area. Sure enough we got there in time and the elk were all around us in no time. I set up and started calling and soon we had a bull on a string. he was coming in fast and angry. I spotted the bull in the trees and he was a decent six point. My dad got ready and I called the bull into the meadow. He came in to 45 yards and stopped broadside. BOOM!! My dad fired and...nothing. He shot clean over the bull. He had a bad rest and pulled the shot. The bull casually walked away and we tried to get another shot but my dad couldn't get steady and find the bull. As he was trying to follow the elk, I kept calling and another bull started answering. I called my dad back and we got set up again. He spotted the bull at the bottom of the meadow and pointed him out to me. The bull looked at my dad and I called again. he took a couple steps into the meadow and my dad took the shot. This time the bull wobbled, turned, and crashed. He had done it. We got over to the bull and he was down for good. I have a lot of video of those moments. I went back to camp and got the crew, then we got to work. It hailed and rained on us the whole time we were working on the bull. It was a great day, but pretty tiring.

Sunday;
Sunday we went deer hunting. My sister in law and my sister had deer tags. We found a buck and Jillena made a couple great shots on her first deer. We got back to camp and headed home that afternoon.

Here are some pictures from the hunt;











And here are some video clips;

Dad missing the bull;

Kill shot;

Jillena deer walk up;




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Luke's Manti Late Hunt;

My buddy Luke drew a Manti late elk tag this year. Luke has a farm and it is hard for him to take time off in the fall. The late rifle hunt offered a good chance to get out and hunt and not miss too much work back home. I offered my help and was excied to learn a new unit and hunt elk after the rut.

Friday;

We left friday night and headed to the mtn. Jeff Hansen (CSO here on MM) was great and offered the use of a Vortex razor spotter for the hunt, so we swung by his home in Mona to pick it up and watch his AWESOME hunt footage from the books a few weeks earlier. We got to Luke's cabin around 10 pm and were greeted by about 10" of fresh snow. We proceeded to lock ourselves out of the truck and spent the next two hours fishing the kesy from the ignition and out the window with a fiberglass 4-wheeler flag stick.

Saturday (opener);

We woke up at 5 to a light snow and no wind. The weather seemed pretty nice and we hurried to our first spot. We hiked in a couple miles to a good glassing spot and watched the storm roll in. What started out as a nice morning quickly turned into a blizzard and the rest of the day was lost. There were time when we could not see 50 yards due to fog, snow, and wind. The day was basically a wash and we didn't see single elk.

Sunday;

We woke up sunday to more new snow and big drifts on the roads. The weather was spotty, but there were times where we could glass for an hour at a time. We covered a lot of ground and found several herds of elk. There were a lot of bulls seen, but nothing worth shooting. We hiked in on several herds and saw a lot of animals, but ended the day with no shooters found.

Monday;

We woke up to a bit more snow and even more drifts on Monday. We were the ONLY truck to drive the skyline drive from fairview to the hwy6 rest stop area. It was the scariest morning of my hunting career. We plowed through some drifts that we had no business touching and the truck almost got stuck several times. We got to our chosen area at first light and unloaded the wheeler. we drove until the snow was too deep then hiked. We cut a fresh set of big bull tracks and decided to follow them......8.9 linear miles and 2500 foot of elevation drop and gain and the day was over. That's all i have to say about Monday...

Friday;

I had to get back to work and luke did as well. He was able to get back down on Friday wit hhis cousin Kent. They found a big herd in the morning and sat them out all day. in the late afternoon the elk atarted moving and they spotted a big bull. Luke missed the bull and the elk headed out. They followed the herd over a ridge and found them again. They saw a good bull and luke took the shot. The bull crashed and the hunt was over. It was not the big bull the had seen earlier, but Luke was happy. The dark came and the temps dropped. They got the bull taklen care of and loaded and then headed home.

Here are some pictures of the hunt and luke's bull;






Here are some videos;

pushing our luck in the snow;

Small bull;

Death march;





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Got my deer back;

Well, besides providing a lot of delicous ground meat, my archery buck made a nice trophy for the wall. I took the head to Skull Designs and robert worked his magic. The velvet is perfectly preserved and the skull beetled, de-greased, and bleached. I threw it on a skull hooker near my bull from last year. Here are some pics;










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Finished up the video of my dads elk hunt from this year;


good times!


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