2014 Hunting journal.

[NoShot]

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I have thought about doing this for a couple years now. Obviously I'm going to give it a try.


Bare with me as I try to keep it entertaining and updated.

To start the year, as most here do and are familiar with the process, January is the start of application season. This year, my dad, son and I decided to keep burning some points off in Wyoming(last year was buck antelope) This year was to be Elk and mulie bucks. Back in February we got our Gen elk tags, and with 6 points going in on Region G deer should be a no brainer, and we'll keep our fingers crossed for a random antelope tag.

Utah, the draw was the draw.. No limited tags drawn, save for my sons Manti archery deer tag(dad and I are part of the hated Lifetime License group) so Manti archery tags for us as well and we'll all pick up archery elk tags when available.

I've been shooting the same bow for over 20 years! Old school hard cams and an over draw, PSE MachFlight 4.(you can laugh, but if it aint broke....) It's been time for a new bow for a long long time, but that bow has served me well, killed 21 deer and 9 elk but it was time to retire.

[IMG]http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/n570/2011elkman/_3.jpg
The new PSE.

Also, for my birthday last week, my wife surprised me with a new Remington 7mm.

I'm hoping to not need the 7mm to fill any tags this year, but going to do some heavy load development over the summer.


I hope I can do this HAC as well as those that have in years past!

 

[NoShot]

Final tag count for Dad,son and myself.
3 Utah archery deer
3 Wyo Reg G deer
2 Wyo Elk
3 Utah archery elk(when on sale)


The Plan:
Opening 5 days: Utahs archery hunt stalking deer. There area we like for elk, seems to hold very few deer, and the area we like for deer holds few elk.

Last 7 days of the Utah archery elk, chasing elk.

3rd week of Sept for 11 days: Archery Elk in Wyo(concentrating on Elk, but if a good buck opportunity presents itself)

Reg G: Last 9 days of rifle deer.
Still hoping to fill all tags with the stick and string, but easier to schedule time now for the rifle hunt if need be.

Typing this gets me to thinking of my first Wyoming deer hunt, 22 years ago. Time flies..

Killed these bucks on I believe the 11th day of hunting. Getting him(and my buddies buck(killed together)) out is a story unto itself.



Working on getting the 7mm dialed in. Did some shooting last Friday and I think i've gotten the charge I want, just need to play a little with the seating depth.

Have the first Wyoming scouting trip planned in two weeks with the wifey. Hope to turn up a few good animals and just enjoy the relaxation that being in the mountains brings!

(sorry I suck at resizing pics)

 

[NoShot]

Between work and the hunts, I've let this slip.


Back in July, the wife and I made a 5 day trip in our hunt area of Wyo.

It ended up being more of a vacation trip than a scouting trip, but I was able to spend a little time looking at animals.

A buck worthy of mounting in our Ut. deer area. hahahaaa

It was a great trip and very much needed.

Next up, The Utah hunt.

 

[NoShot]

With much anticipation, the 2014 archery hunt was upon us. This was to be my oldest sons first deer hunt, let alone first archery hunt.

He took his first big game animal last year, a Wyoming Antelope, with one shot from the 25.06. I was a proud dad.

The hunt started off slow with not many animals sighted, but my son was able to get a stalk in, with a good buck his target.

Close but no cigar.

His grandpa and I had decided that his success was the priority and ours was second. So, with that, we were the spotters and he was the hunter.

Six days into the hunt, we found another good buck, the he was able to stalk twice in two days, again close but no arrows loosened.

Some practice at camp.

The last Sunday of the season, we again spotted the buck from two weeks earlier. The stalk was on! The end result was GREAT!

One shot from 30 yards even and his first set of antlers.

 

[NoShot]

Oct 3, once again packed up and headed north from Utah county.

This time with my wife and son. The first two nights we stayed at a hotel and hunted 20 miles out of town. First time i've ever "hotel" hunted. weird... We saw a ton deer but all does and fawns, this was a sign of how the whole week was going to go.

Sunday late morning, checked out of the hotel and headed 40 miles of dirt road north.

Over the next week we saw loads of does and fawns, my son and I figured close to 300 separate deer, but could count on two hands the number of bucks. The first morning in the new area we both passed a couple 2 points, that was not what we came here to take.

We figured that we needed to get away from the does to find the bucks, but each new canyon or drainage we hiked/climbed into just produced more does.

After several days, we pulled out the maps and question what we were doing and where we should be going. We settled on ridge for the next morning. Unfortunately the next morning I forgot to turn the alarm on and we over slept by an 1 1/2 hours, it was just starting to get light when I woke. We hurried to get dressed and get out, we had a 20 minute jeep ride to where we wanted to start. Since it was so late, told my son we were going to hike out, and stay till dark since most animals would probably be bedding by the time got to where we wanted.

About 30 minutes in to the hike, my son sees two does on a small ridge in front us walking up, soon followed by a 3rd, a buck!

We watch him for a minute or so, I then ask him if he wants to take it, his reply is "No, I want to best my archery buck". I tell him that i'm going to if he isn't.

114 yards and the 150grain 7mm Ballistic Tip does the job.

That took care of that morning and early afternoon getting him quartered and packed out.

 

[NoShot]

I've been pretty slow to keep this updated, my apologies to the viewers.

With the Utah archery hunt over, it was time to think Wyoming deer and elk. On Sept 19, we pulled out of town, two days later than I wanted, but I needed to get a Facet injection in my back, the T9 and T11 were not going to make this the most enjoyable trip.

A quick side bar: in the spring of 2010, my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The months of chemo and other myriad of drugs and hospital stays really took it out of him.

In 2011 we drew our limited entry archery elk tags. I was completely surprised how well dad did hiking the canyons for the 13 days we hunted. This year, well, dad is now 71 and 3 years in remission, but this year the hunting/hiking has been extremely hard on him.

The Wyo archery hunt was unsuccessful in terms of tags filled, but we had a great trip none the less

weather was great except for the 40 hours of constant rain.

The color on the Aspens, willows and brush was as bright as i've ever remembered seeing.

Over the course of the week, we both passed up a few smaller bucks. We both did find a couple bucks that were shooters but never got an arrow in the air.

The elk during the week were not being as vocal as we thought they might, but bugles were heard every evening/morning.

I watched a small 5x tear up this pine for 20 minutes, very neat to watch.

One afternoon I decided to take a long hike. About 3pm I got to the top of a secluded ridge and took a breather and some pics.

about 3:30 I let out a locator bugle and banged a tree for a few seconds and had an immediate response. Being by myself, I got a little unorthodox in my approach to this bull calling and closing the distance. The 6x6 ended up 72 yards from my position and no closer, all I could think about was "man, I need another person for this situation" anyway, he walked away, and I had another great elk memory of ivory tips and dark beams.

Now, it has been many years since our last visit to this area during a hunt, but it struck us as to how many archery hunters there were. It seemed half the archery hunters in the state were in this area.

A week home, then back up with rifles in hand,,,