My 2023 hunt adventures thread.

[JakeH]

I have some good hunts lined up this year including a Limited Entry Utah archery elk hunt with my dad. I also drew a decent archery deer tag in Colorado. I also have my Utah dedicated hunter deer tag as well.

It should be a good year I will post scouting pictures in here along the way.

 

[JakeH]

First scouting trip of the year for my elk tag, I was able to sneak in close to this guy to get a couple pictures with my phone.

 

[JakeH]

First trip to Colorado for my deer hunt. Not bad for June 21st.

 

[JakeH]

Here are a few more bucks I found the following morning, definitely need to keep an eye on some of these guys.

This guy has a cool look to him and some giant eye guards.

 

[JakeH]

Couple massive bulls from this morning.

This guy is narrow but really heavy and good points.

This bull isn't going to score worth a darn, but he's an old dinosaur super heavy and really wide.

 

[JakeH]

Here is an updated picture of one of the original bucks I found back in June.

June 21st

Aug 7th

I love how tall this buck is.

 

[JakeH]

Spotted this bull and a couple smaller bulls bedded out in the middle of a grass flat sunning. Decided to put a sneak on them to see how close I could get. Closed the distance from 500+ yards down to 75 before deciding I couldn't get any closer.



Took the following pictures after sitting there watching for awhile and decided to make my presences known.

 

[JakeH]

Well I guess it's time for an update to this thread lol.

Took the family up camping in my elk unit and did a little scouting the week before the hunt.

We even caught a baby Horny Toad, they thought that was pretty cool.

Seen some good bucks.

And we thought this was a cool thing to see, 6 or 7 buzzards all strung along a pipe fence sunning their wings, never seen that before.

I had to head back to work, but would be off starting the morning of my LE elk hunt, and would have 5 days of elk hunting before going back to work for another set. After that I would be off for 3 weeks, and headed to Colorado for my archery deer hunt.

 

[JakeH]

First day of the elk hunt came, we didn't hunt the morning hunt, but made it into a spring for the evening hunt and set water for the night. Dad who also has a tag is on his first archery hunt ever at 70 years old. The hike into this spot was probably a little to steep for his knees to take so we never came back and hunted it after the first night. But it was a good looking spot.

After the first night we decided to try and find a more accessible spot to sit water and we found this spring that actually had water in it this year. So we built a blind on it with plans for the evening hunt.

Did some shooting back at camp to make sure we was still dialed in. The old man shoots better than I do lol.

We sat in the new spot for a few days, but never did have a bull come in to the water, dad almost got a shot at a coyote one morning, but he had fell asleep and didn't see them come in, and while I was waking him up they got spooked. Lol

We did see some bulls off about 800 yards away, and had another bull bugle a little but nothing was coming to the water.

 

[JakeH]

So after 5 days I had to go back to work, but it was a good time spending time with my dad, and my family. We seen some good bulls, but had no shot opportunities.

these moon shots was just too cool to pass up.

Found a really cool 4x2 buck.

The kids had a good time catching frogs, and Horny toads.

But it was back to work for me for 5 days, then it will be time to head to Colorado.

 

[JakeH]

Sorry, I will continue this later.

 

[JakeH]

After getting done with work, I was now off for 23 days.

I was off to Colorado, while scouting I had located 6 bigger bucks that we're my target bucks all ranging from 150" to upper 180" deer with varyingcharacteristicsthat made each a shooterin there own way.
With a LE utah elk tag in my pocket I decided that I would give myself 5 days to get a deer killed, if I couldn't get it done in 5 days I would try and come back after my elk hunt.

Got camp set up.

The night before the hunt I found a new shooter buck that I had not seen before. A very solid 3x4.

Opening morning I found this buck, he was one of my target bucks, but was in a horrible spot to try for, I decided to keep looking for one of the two biggest bucks.

Had this guy run up onto me.

Someone made a decision in this spot many years ago lol socks? Or underwear? Which would you have chosen? Lol

Day 2 I found my #2 buck, and he was bedded in a great spot for a stalk. I did my best, but being by myself I had to just hope the buck would still be there when I got to the shooting lane on the deer. When I got there he was gone. Not sure if I blew him out, or if he just moved off on his own.
Here is a picture of him in his bed.

Day 3 I Found this really tall narrow buck and made a play on him, but had the same results as the day before.

 

[JakeH]

Here is another picture of the terrain, it was extremely thick, and was making stalking almost impossible.

Day 4 I almost got a shot at my #3 buck, but he just didn't stick around long enough for a shot, here he is making his way out of the area after I blew my opportunity at him.

Found a big old Horny Toad, these are some of my favorite creatures lol

Survived a pretty knarly hail storm.

I decided that day 5 would be the day i headed home after the morning hunt.

I actually found a new shooter buck that morning he was a really heavy 29-30" wide 2x3, just an old dinosaur of a buck. I was able to sneak in close enough for a longer shot. Unfortunately my arrow went high just over his back.

I packed up camp after that and headed back home to Utah, hopefully I would be able to get me and my dad a bull and could make it back before the hunt ended.

 

[JakeH]

Well now it was back to my Utah LE elk hunt. I was going to have a couple days to hunt by myself Right off the bat on the first morning I found a group of 4 bulls together up on a steep hillside. One was a really nice 6x6 I decided if I could get close enough I would try and shoot. I tried calling them in down to me with no luck, I decided it was worth a try to use my decoy strapped to my bow and just pick my way up the hill using as much cover as possible. Sure enough my plan worked way better than expected considering how little cover there actually was. I was able to get within range and cut one loose, unfortunately again my arrow sailed high just over the bulls back. I actually felt myself come off target just as I cut it loose.

My arrows landing point. Doh!!!

Here is a picture of the open hillside I stalked up to the bulls on. They was just under the thick timber at the top, and i mafe it into the thin strip of pine trees in the middle.

Ohh well that's hunting with a bow.

Dad made it back up and we spent some more time sitting water, found a patch of choke cherry berry's too and picked a few of those, a bit sour, but the really ripe ones were actually pretty good.

 

[JakeH]

One morning while we was searching for more elk we found a really good bull, we tried to get in front of him before he made it onto some private property but was not able to do so. He was just a big old dinosaur bull with tons of mass, and a giant body. This bull would be my focus for most of the rest of the hunt. I made several attempts at him and actually got a shot at him only to have a branch deflect my arrow for a miss. ?‍ a guy just can't catch a break. Lol. I got close to him a few times, but usually had other elk, usually spikes blow the stalk. He was a fun old bull to go after but he just wasn't in the cards for me to kill.

 

[JakeH]

One night we decided to go try another spot, we didn't have a lot of time, we walked up a draw and I started calling. Within minutes we had a bull raking his horns just up the hill from us, but we couldn't see him. I set dad up and tried to move around and pull the bull out in front of my dad with no luck. But I was able to get a look at the bull. He was a really good 6x6. My dad is only 50 yards from the bull down and too the right in this picture, he just wouldn't come down the hill for a shot.

Here are a couple more bulls we seen on the hunt.

 

[JakeH]

Well, our pond we had been sitting just wasn't panning out. Before the season started while talking with one of the local guides on the unit I mentioned to him that I would be hunting up there with my dad trying to get him his first archery tackle. He said then that if we was getting into the hunt and not having any luck to let him know and he would see what he could do to help him. So I reached out. He currently had a hunter, but said as soon as he didn't he would see about sitting us on a pond that usually has elk coming into it.

Well the next day his hunter got a bull so he sent us into the pond on some private he had the rights yo hunt. We set up using this big tire as a blind which actually worked out great as a rest for dad to shoot off of.

The first night we had a herd come over the hill with a nice 6x6, but it got dark on us before they made it to the pond.

The next night we was in there again and right at sun down a small herd started making there way to us. The herd bull was a small 6x6. They eventually made it into the pond and the bull stopped at 60 yards. I quickly checked the time and we still had 5 minutes of shooting light light left.

Dad cut it loose and I instantly knew the shot was way back, I was videoing the shot as well. Here are a couple screen grabs of the shot.

When the herd ran off, and while trying to video I lost sight of the bull, when the herd stopped at around 160 yards I could no longer see the bull, but kind of figured he must have split off from the cows.

We found the arrow and there was no guts or smell of guts on it, actually the blood on the arrow looked really good.

We watched the video and decided it would probably be best to back out and come back first thing in the morning.

While at camp I started watching the video again, I was hoping that he had cut the artery that runs under the spine as that was going to be our best bet for finding the bull quickly. But I also noticed something else, I was not positive as the video was kinda shakey, but I was pretty sure I could see the bull go down in the video when the herd stopped at 160 yards out.

Well sure enough when we got there the next morning the bull was laying there in plain view 160 yards from where he shot him. The bull only made it about 100 yards and killed over. He had hit the artery under the spine and it is crazy how fast that bull died.

My dad had officially killed his first animal with archery gear. My wife and kids, and sister all tagged along for the recovery. It was a great day.

70 years old and he's still going strong and trying new things.

Just as a side note, as I'm sure someone will wonder, at the request of the guide and because we was able to get the truck to him we dragged the bull away from the pond to gut him as he was planning on having a disabled hunter come in for the rifle hunt and hunt that pond.

I hunted the rest of the season but never got another shot at a bull, did have a couple close calls, but just couldn't get it done. I still feel the hunt was a success.

I did go back to my Colorado hunt for a couple days, but was unable to locate any of the shooter bucks, that tag also went unfilled.

 

[JakeH]

I was now having to go back to work, I did still have a Utah dedicated deer tag, but had put zero effort into scouting for the hunt, if I did not kill a deer this year it will allow me to have a tag for next year so I had decided it would have to be a pretty good deer for me to consider shooting. I did not hunt Any of the archery season as I had put all my focus into LE elk, and Colorado deer.

Just the way my work schedule was working out, I would only have 2 days of muzzleloader to hunt, and then I had taken the whole rifle season off.

After 7 days of working nights I was going to get my 2 days of muzzleloader, I decided To go check out some stuff close to home, Sunday morning it was raining pretty good, I decided to go check a hillside I could glass, but would not be able to hunt as I did nor have permission to hunt it. But I do have permission for the property next to it. Right off the bat I found a great deer with deep forks and lots of mass coming down the hill. I knew he was a shooter buck right away, but I did not get a great look at him before he made it into the trees. Even still I figured he would make his way onto the property I could hunt that night, and that was the plan.

Sure enough the plan worked perfectly and that night the buck stepped out of the trees at 250 yards, I finally got a decent look at the buck, and seen that he was actually still in velvet and had at least one big cheater on his right side. That was all I needed and I felt confident the buck was dead. BOOM!!! smoke clears and I am fully expecting the buck to be flopping on the ground, but instead the buck is still standing not moving staring my way..... wtf.... I quickly reload get the primer on The gun set up on my shooting sticks, settle the scope on the bucks chest/neck.... BOOOM!!!! This time he is dead!!!!!...... nope still standing there staring my way. I am kinda tucked into some thick stuff so the buck couldn't really see me. Again I go to reloading my gun, but halfway through the buck finally turns and trotts into the trees.... I had blew my chance at a legit 180 class buck....

I now only had one more day, I decided the buck was going to come back into that gap, and was going to sit there the next day again and hope I hadn't blown the buck out of the area.

The next day is pretty uneventful, seen some does and little bucks in the morning, and the evening was looking pretty slow, then right at dark I decided with the little bit of light I had left I would go check another spot, and sure enough there he was, this time at only 160 yards I made the shot count and the rest is history. My 2023 season was over.

The buck is my biggest deer with a muzzleloader and has 6 scorable pints on both sides, plus eye guards.

Interesting enough the bucks left side frame is a full 9 inches bigger than the right side. As is he scores 184 green gross N/T. If his right side frame matched he would have been mid 190's. Not that it matters, but still interesting.

Got to say I am very happy with this deer.

 

[JakeH]

And that is the conclusion to my 2023 season, now it's time to go after some coyotes. I may update later with some song dog pictures. ?

 

[JakeH]

First dog of the year.