257Tony
Long Time Member
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LAST EDITED ON Oct-26-11 AT 06:37PM (MST)[p]
I had very little time to hunt for myself this year due to work constraints (taking other people hunting
). Here are some pics and cliffs notes version of each story.
Utah Elk.
This is a hunt I try to do every year with some extended family. We mostly hang around the house, ride horses, shoot guns, look at all the cool Indian stuff, etc..And do a little Elk hunting here and there ;-)
We got there on Friday night before the opener, got the RV all set up and went to bed pretty late. I had to have the Wife meet me there since I didn't have time to go home and get them. She was a real trooper and drove her SUV through some pretty bad roads to get herself and the kids there.
Saturday morning found us sleeping in till 30 minutes after shooting light (I told you this was not a serious hunt lol), it was fine by me, I needed some extra ZZZ's. After breakfast we putted around looking for an Elk, and maybe a rabbit for the kids to shoot. Well, we did not find and Elk, or a rabbit.
Saturday afternoon we drove up to the top of the ridge and walked down long, steep ridges in search of a Bull, there was about 12" of snow up top, but no Elk sign. I did cut a couple pairs of big Bull tracks down lower, but was about a day too late to see what stood in those tracks. It was around 4:30 when we got back to the house and I decided to take the rest of the night off and play with the kids and watch a little football.
Sunday morning found me and my year old boy prowling the main road on the Ranger, looking for Elk, Rabbits, Coyotes, or whatever.... No luck again on any of them. Sunday around noon we decided to make a trip to see some of the local Indian rock art that is littered throughout Nine Mile Canyon (Ironically enough, we went to the "Great Hunt Panel"). Coming home around 3:30 pm we were putting up the main road looking for Elk up on the steep hillsides. Lo and behold not 1/2 mile from the house I look up to my left and see about 30 Elk way up on the hill. I let out a few cuss words, grabbed my binos and started scanning for the Bull. I found him quickly, down at the bottom of the herd trying to keep his cows from going any lower. I could tell he was a 6 point, and that was all i was looking for!
Well, I had left my rifle back in the RV because we were venturing into some country that I couldn't hunt and didn't want to have any issues with anybody. I tried to calmly drive back home so as not to spook the Elk, then ran and grabbed my rifle, my orange hat, and my vest (gotta keep it legal). I had my Wife drive back down the road, we stopped behind some tall sage and I got out and ranged the Bull, 750 yards. Damn! I need to get closer! I followed a fence line towards the herd that was down in a little ditch and found a big railroad style fence post to rest my gun on. I ranged him again at 523. There was no getting closer, the hills there are super steep and I was near the base of it. I shoot regularly out to 600 so I was confident!
I quickly judged that because of the steep angle I shoot hold for around 400 yards. Immediately after firing my first shot I heard the tell tale *SMACK* of the .338 bullet hitting shoulder. The Bull was stumbling around so I put a couple more in him before he started rolling down the mountain! mt family was in the Truck behind watching the whole thing through binos and a spotting scope, they were yelling and hollering that he was down.
Now the work begins! I took my oldest son, Connor, up the hill with me to help cut him up and start getting him off the mountain.
Here is my Son, and me, with my Bull. You get an idea of how steep the hill is. I had to tie him to a tree while cutting on him so he wouldn't roll over on top of me.
Heading back down. Steep Bugger!
Not a big Bull, but he is pretty good for Utah general Season any Bull unit!
Now onto Deer!
I drew a SE region again this year, after being one of those that failed last year I hadn't had a SE tag since 2005 when I killed a great 173" Buck on opening day.
I had only a couple days to hunt so I took only my son Connor this time.
Saturday morning found me on one of my favorite spots to glass for Bucks. The first 90 minutes of light was pretty slow, just a few does feeding behind us. Right around 9 I glassed a Deer at 1000 yards and could tell it was a Buck. Through the spotter he looked pretty good while feeding in the shade, with the sun in my eyes. I only got to watch him for about 2 minutes before he fed up over the ridge. As he passed over in the sunlight I could tell that he had real good forks on his right side, but was a 3 on his left side. he appeared to have some sort of blading on his left G2.
I had a good idea of where he would bed for the day so we cruised over there to see if we cold catch him before he hid himself. We crept up over another ridge in stealth mode looking with the sun to our backs into his bedding area, but did not see an sign of him. We decided to back out and come back and sit on him all night.
We got into position that evening at 4:30 and immediately spotted quite a few Deer already up out of their beds and feeding in the shade (steep hill again lol). I got really excited and told my boy we were gonna find him and kill him right now! Well, I was wrong. All we found were does and two little forkies (they were hell bent on beating each other up for the next 2 hours). I had decided earlier we wold sit there until full on dark to give him every chance to show himself.
6:30 rolls around and its starting to darken. no sign of Mr. Buck yet. All the Does and the forkies had fed up to nearly the head of the little canyon we were in by this point. I had spent about 2 hours behind my binos at this point and was just starting to second guess my decision to stay put, as we could have moved over back into the big canyon where we originally saw him.
I told Connor that if we hadn't seen him in 5 minutes we would get up and move to the ridge so we could see both the little canyon he was bedded in, and another good little canyon that I had seen Bucks in before. I didn't want to do this earlier so as not to skyline myself, or create a lot of movement. I stood up slowly to stretch my legs and gather my stuff, and started glassing up the draw above the Does. Immediately I saw a new Deer! Much bigger bodied, and had the tell tale Buck face on him. He was about 600 yards from us so I took a look through the spotter. IT'S HIM! We grabbed our stuff as slowly as we could and gently backed out up and over the ridge out of sight. At this point we start to run up the hill to get into range.
We creep over the ridge and I glass where I saw him last, he is still there. I take one last look through the spotter to make sure I want to put my tag on him, and notice that he has a 3" cheater on his left G2, which was the "blading" I saw that morning at 1000 yards. The cheater sealed his fate, as I had never killed a "cheater" buck, (in-line extras, yes, but no real cheater).
I set up the spotter for my Son and move about 5 yards in front of him so I don't hurt his ears (.338 with a Brake). I had already gone over the routine with Connor, that he was not to take his eyes off the Buck until I told him to!
I get my gun setup for a prone shot, range him at 410, and settle in. I was super steady, and used my 400 yard hash. The shot rings out, and I ask Connor "where'd he go?" "I don't know Dad, he disappeared!" At that point I knew he was down. We had high 5's and hugs, then hoofed it over there to see him. It was about 5 minutes to 7 when we got there, almost dark. The shot hit him dead center through the shoulder, dropping him without even so much as a quiver.
28" wide with the cheater and a small back fork (I prefer to call him a 3x4 with 2 cheaters ;-))
All in all, because i was able to invlove the family, definitely my best year yet!
Sorry for the length, my cliff notes got out of hand!
I had very little time to hunt for myself this year due to work constraints (taking other people hunting
). Here are some pics and cliffs notes version of each story.Utah Elk.
This is a hunt I try to do every year with some extended family. We mostly hang around the house, ride horses, shoot guns, look at all the cool Indian stuff, etc..And do a little Elk hunting here and there ;-)
We got there on Friday night before the opener, got the RV all set up and went to bed pretty late. I had to have the Wife meet me there since I didn't have time to go home and get them. She was a real trooper and drove her SUV through some pretty bad roads to get herself and the kids there.
Saturday morning found us sleeping in till 30 minutes after shooting light (I told you this was not a serious hunt lol), it was fine by me, I needed some extra ZZZ's. After breakfast we putted around looking for an Elk, and maybe a rabbit for the kids to shoot. Well, we did not find and Elk, or a rabbit.
Saturday afternoon we drove up to the top of the ridge and walked down long, steep ridges in search of a Bull, there was about 12" of snow up top, but no Elk sign. I did cut a couple pairs of big Bull tracks down lower, but was about a day too late to see what stood in those tracks. It was around 4:30 when we got back to the house and I decided to take the rest of the night off and play with the kids and watch a little football.
Sunday morning found me and my year old boy prowling the main road on the Ranger, looking for Elk, Rabbits, Coyotes, or whatever.... No luck again on any of them. Sunday around noon we decided to make a trip to see some of the local Indian rock art that is littered throughout Nine Mile Canyon (Ironically enough, we went to the "Great Hunt Panel"). Coming home around 3:30 pm we were putting up the main road looking for Elk up on the steep hillsides. Lo and behold not 1/2 mile from the house I look up to my left and see about 30 Elk way up on the hill. I let out a few cuss words, grabbed my binos and started scanning for the Bull. I found him quickly, down at the bottom of the herd trying to keep his cows from going any lower. I could tell he was a 6 point, and that was all i was looking for!
Well, I had left my rifle back in the RV because we were venturing into some country that I couldn't hunt and didn't want to have any issues with anybody. I tried to calmly drive back home so as not to spook the Elk, then ran and grabbed my rifle, my orange hat, and my vest (gotta keep it legal). I had my Wife drive back down the road, we stopped behind some tall sage and I got out and ranged the Bull, 750 yards. Damn! I need to get closer! I followed a fence line towards the herd that was down in a little ditch and found a big railroad style fence post to rest my gun on. I ranged him again at 523. There was no getting closer, the hills there are super steep and I was near the base of it. I shoot regularly out to 600 so I was confident!
I quickly judged that because of the steep angle I shoot hold for around 400 yards. Immediately after firing my first shot I heard the tell tale *SMACK* of the .338 bullet hitting shoulder. The Bull was stumbling around so I put a couple more in him before he started rolling down the mountain! mt family was in the Truck behind watching the whole thing through binos and a spotting scope, they were yelling and hollering that he was down.
Now the work begins! I took my oldest son, Connor, up the hill with me to help cut him up and start getting him off the mountain.
Here is my Son, and me, with my Bull. You get an idea of how steep the hill is. I had to tie him to a tree while cutting on him so he wouldn't roll over on top of me.
Heading back down. Steep Bugger!
Not a big Bull, but he is pretty good for Utah general Season any Bull unit!
Now onto Deer!
I drew a SE region again this year, after being one of those that failed last year
I hadn't had a SE tag since 2005 when I killed a great 173" Buck on opening day.I had only a couple days to hunt so I took only my son Connor this time.
Saturday morning found me on one of my favorite spots to glass for Bucks. The first 90 minutes of light was pretty slow, just a few does feeding behind us. Right around 9 I glassed a Deer at 1000 yards and could tell it was a Buck. Through the spotter he looked pretty good while feeding in the shade, with the sun in my eyes. I only got to watch him for about 2 minutes before he fed up over the ridge. As he passed over in the sunlight I could tell that he had real good forks on his right side, but was a 3 on his left side. he appeared to have some sort of blading on his left G2.
I had a good idea of where he would bed for the day so we cruised over there to see if we cold catch him before he hid himself. We crept up over another ridge in stealth mode looking with the sun to our backs into his bedding area, but did not see an sign of him. We decided to back out and come back and sit on him all night.
We got into position that evening at 4:30 and immediately spotted quite a few Deer already up out of their beds and feeding in the shade (steep hill again lol). I got really excited and told my boy we were gonna find him and kill him right now! Well, I was wrong. All we found were does and two little forkies (they were hell bent on beating each other up for the next 2 hours). I had decided earlier we wold sit there until full on dark to give him every chance to show himself.
6:30 rolls around and its starting to darken. no sign of Mr. Buck yet. All the Does and the forkies had fed up to nearly the head of the little canyon we were in by this point. I had spent about 2 hours behind my binos at this point and was just starting to second guess my decision to stay put, as we could have moved over back into the big canyon where we originally saw him.
I told Connor that if we hadn't seen him in 5 minutes we would get up and move to the ridge so we could see both the little canyon he was bedded in, and another good little canyon that I had seen Bucks in before. I didn't want to do this earlier so as not to skyline myself, or create a lot of movement. I stood up slowly to stretch my legs and gather my stuff, and started glassing up the draw above the Does. Immediately I saw a new Deer! Much bigger bodied, and had the tell tale Buck face on him. He was about 600 yards from us so I took a look through the spotter. IT'S HIM! We grabbed our stuff as slowly as we could and gently backed out up and over the ridge out of sight. At this point we start to run up the hill to get into range.
We creep over the ridge and I glass where I saw him last, he is still there. I take one last look through the spotter to make sure I want to put my tag on him, and notice that he has a 3" cheater on his left G2, which was the "blading" I saw that morning at 1000 yards. The cheater sealed his fate, as I had never killed a "cheater" buck, (in-line extras, yes, but no real cheater).
I set up the spotter for my Son and move about 5 yards in front of him so I don't hurt his ears (.338 with a Brake). I had already gone over the routine with Connor, that he was not to take his eyes off the Buck until I told him to!
I get my gun setup for a prone shot, range him at 410, and settle in. I was super steady, and used my 400 yard hash. The shot rings out, and I ask Connor "where'd he go?" "I don't know Dad, he disappeared!" At that point I knew he was down. We had high 5's and hugs, then hoofed it over there to see him. It was about 5 minutes to 7 when we got there, almost dark. The shot hit him dead center through the shoulder, dropping him without even so much as a quiver.
28" wide with the cheater and a small back fork (I prefer to call him a 3x4 with 2 cheaters ;-))
All in all, because i was able to invlove the family, definitely my best year yet!
Sorry for the length, my cliff notes got out of hand!
