JustLucky
Member
- Messages
- 5
Hi all,
I usually only post on my home states hunting forums, but I had the good fortune of being able to meet up with one of your moderators here (Slamdunk) and a hunting buddy of his Tyler..... so I thought I'd write a little recap of my hunt over here.
It's been a long time coming for me to get this tag, and I'd heard a lot about the area from my father and a few hunting buddies that had drawn it in previous years. This year I was joined by my dad, 2 good hunting buddies, one of their wives and my own wife (7 months pregnant but still a trooper). The guys got over to Utah 5 days early to scout, while the wife and I had to wait till I finished my work week before making the drive from Washington to show up two days before the season.
We set up a couple trail cams early then the guys set up the wall tents and built up a firewood supply. But the time I rolled in camp was looking good, weather was looking great, and I was ready for some great elk hunting.
Friday (the day before the season opened) my father and I went with Slamdunk scouting around the area in the morning. The man has a wealth of knowledge with this area. I got to see many places he's seen and/or killed elk over the years. He knows all the access points and best ways to get about anywhere. Anyway, we saw some elk, a couple bulls, hell we even saw a few moose! The other boys went and grabbed the trail cams. One only caught a bow hunter on it. On the second, best I could tell there were three separate bulls that had passed by it the previous evening. Here's one up close:
Though we'd seen and heard elk in a few other areas, I wanted to hit the area we'd captured the bulls on camera. Slamdunk (and his friend Tyler who'd joined us Friday night) we're going to check some additional areas in the morning to try and give me more options should we need them. The rest of us we're up early and at the area to walk into at 6:22am. I turned on my phones onX tracker function just to have a record of where and I went and when as we headed in.
We dropped down slightly off the road through some sagebrush in a small valley and up a hillside past that. Picking our way up between some trees to try and be on the far side of the hill at daybreak. Got to the spot we wanted on top and from the edge of some trees we looked over the valley below us but didn't see anything. The plan was to drop down into the valley then head right along it to a small finger that went up the far hillside.
We'd just taken our first steps to start coming down off the hill when in the far distance I saw color on the far hillside to our left center, just below the treeline I hadn't seen before: ELK! They were in an odd spot for us. There was this partially visible clear finger going up the far hillside between two chunks of aspen trees. A few elk were at the bottom of this, and I was later to learn more were up in that out of my vision.
The good news is we could go to our right a little and walk down in the trees obscuring our sight from them. So Eric and I went on down while the rest of the gang took a seat at the top of the hillside to watch the show. We got to the bottom and were able to cross to the far trees out of sight (unsure if they had moved up a bit while we'd been hiking down). Followed the treeline around slowly and up the far side looking for the elk.
I was now out in front with the gun, my friend Eric behind me with the the rangefinder and the bigger binos. I'm working my way up that far hill along the trees and come around the corner and stop. Through two trees I see an elk head down eating! I throw my binos up. IT A BULL! Now the hard part, it's still pretty damned early. The sun is not up yet...or certainly not over the trees to light this guy up. I know it's a bull but seeing the horns is rough with the hill behind him. The bull would look up occasionally but always go back to eating, so I motioned Eric over to me and asked if he could get a better idea of what we were looking at. Well we knew it was a 6x6 but he wasn't cooperating on the angles. Eric said later he was just about to tell me it was a good bull just not very tall when he heard my safety click off.
I'd decided that this bull was good enough for me. Opening morning, right around sunrise, with the whole season ahead of me in this awesome area....but I couldn't pass him up. I wasn't in a great spot. I'd left the trees to try and get a better look at him on my knees so I didn't have any type of bench. I'd thought I could do a sitting shot but he was just out of sight when I sat down. So that left me with a kneeling shot and I took it about 280 yards away. After my first shot? Nothing. He didn't move! I cranked another round into my old Browning A-bolt and shot again. He jumped and started running towards the left most trees. One more round in the chamber I shot while he was moving and took out his front left leg high up. He flipped and went down just before the trees.
Gave him a couple minutes and he was dead when I got to him. Second shot had destroyed the heart so the third wasn't needed....but I always keep shooting til it's on the ground. Turned off my onX tracker at the elk at 7:22am, exactly one hour since we'd left the truck. Hard to believe that much excitement can happen in an hour. Yelled for the rest of the gang to head on down, and it was time to celebrate and for the real work to start. Pic of said rest of gang:
We got the quarters out and Slamdunk and his friend Tyler had joined us by then for the rest of it. Tyler threw the head over his shoulders and took off (Never been so happy not to have to carry an elk head up a hill).
Got him back to camp and Slamdunk scored him out for us. Came out to 357 & 1/8th gross (because he says nets are for fish lol).
I'm just so extremely thankful to everyone for making this a hunt of a lifetime for me. Beautiful weather, beautiful country, good friends and family, and big elk to chase. I had the time of my life.
Hope you guys enjoyed the story and best of luck on your own hunts this year.
I usually only post on my home states hunting forums, but I had the good fortune of being able to meet up with one of your moderators here (Slamdunk) and a hunting buddy of his Tyler..... so I thought I'd write a little recap of my hunt over here.
It's been a long time coming for me to get this tag, and I'd heard a lot about the area from my father and a few hunting buddies that had drawn it in previous years. This year I was joined by my dad, 2 good hunting buddies, one of their wives and my own wife (7 months pregnant but still a trooper). The guys got over to Utah 5 days early to scout, while the wife and I had to wait till I finished my work week before making the drive from Washington to show up two days before the season.
We set up a couple trail cams early then the guys set up the wall tents and built up a firewood supply. But the time I rolled in camp was looking good, weather was looking great, and I was ready for some great elk hunting.
Friday (the day before the season opened) my father and I went with Slamdunk scouting around the area in the morning. The man has a wealth of knowledge with this area. I got to see many places he's seen and/or killed elk over the years. He knows all the access points and best ways to get about anywhere. Anyway, we saw some elk, a couple bulls, hell we even saw a few moose! The other boys went and grabbed the trail cams. One only caught a bow hunter on it. On the second, best I could tell there were three separate bulls that had passed by it the previous evening. Here's one up close:
Though we'd seen and heard elk in a few other areas, I wanted to hit the area we'd captured the bulls on camera. Slamdunk (and his friend Tyler who'd joined us Friday night) we're going to check some additional areas in the morning to try and give me more options should we need them. The rest of us we're up early and at the area to walk into at 6:22am. I turned on my phones onX tracker function just to have a record of where and I went and when as we headed in.
We dropped down slightly off the road through some sagebrush in a small valley and up a hillside past that. Picking our way up between some trees to try and be on the far side of the hill at daybreak. Got to the spot we wanted on top and from the edge of some trees we looked over the valley below us but didn't see anything. The plan was to drop down into the valley then head right along it to a small finger that went up the far hillside.
We'd just taken our first steps to start coming down off the hill when in the far distance I saw color on the far hillside to our left center, just below the treeline I hadn't seen before: ELK! They were in an odd spot for us. There was this partially visible clear finger going up the far hillside between two chunks of aspen trees. A few elk were at the bottom of this, and I was later to learn more were up in that out of my vision.
The good news is we could go to our right a little and walk down in the trees obscuring our sight from them. So Eric and I went on down while the rest of the gang took a seat at the top of the hillside to watch the show. We got to the bottom and were able to cross to the far trees out of sight (unsure if they had moved up a bit while we'd been hiking down). Followed the treeline around slowly and up the far side looking for the elk.
I was now out in front with the gun, my friend Eric behind me with the the rangefinder and the bigger binos. I'm working my way up that far hill along the trees and come around the corner and stop. Through two trees I see an elk head down eating! I throw my binos up. IT A BULL! Now the hard part, it's still pretty damned early. The sun is not up yet...or certainly not over the trees to light this guy up. I know it's a bull but seeing the horns is rough with the hill behind him. The bull would look up occasionally but always go back to eating, so I motioned Eric over to me and asked if he could get a better idea of what we were looking at. Well we knew it was a 6x6 but he wasn't cooperating on the angles. Eric said later he was just about to tell me it was a good bull just not very tall when he heard my safety click off.
I'd decided that this bull was good enough for me. Opening morning, right around sunrise, with the whole season ahead of me in this awesome area....but I couldn't pass him up. I wasn't in a great spot. I'd left the trees to try and get a better look at him on my knees so I didn't have any type of bench. I'd thought I could do a sitting shot but he was just out of sight when I sat down. So that left me with a kneeling shot and I took it about 280 yards away. After my first shot? Nothing. He didn't move! I cranked another round into my old Browning A-bolt and shot again. He jumped and started running towards the left most trees. One more round in the chamber I shot while he was moving and took out his front left leg high up. He flipped and went down just before the trees.
Gave him a couple minutes and he was dead when I got to him. Second shot had destroyed the heart so the third wasn't needed....but I always keep shooting til it's on the ground. Turned off my onX tracker at the elk at 7:22am, exactly one hour since we'd left the truck. Hard to believe that much excitement can happen in an hour. Yelled for the rest of the gang to head on down, and it was time to celebrate and for the real work to start. Pic of said rest of gang:
We got the quarters out and Slamdunk and his friend Tyler had joined us by then for the rest of it. Tyler threw the head over his shoulders and took off (Never been so happy not to have to carry an elk head up a hill).
Got him back to camp and Slamdunk scored him out for us. Came out to 357 & 1/8th gross (because he says nets are for fish lol).
I'm just so extremely thankful to everyone for making this a hunt of a lifetime for me. Beautiful weather, beautiful country, good friends and family, and big elk to chase. I had the time of my life.
Hope you guys enjoyed the story and best of luck on your own hunts this year.
