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Thread: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    Dad!......one of them is a bull!

    Evan it’s not like we can go after it and besides that, I wouldn’t kill an elk way up there!

    Hey Evan....pass me he spotting scope!!!.....QUICK.....pass me the spotting scope!!!! There’s an elk over here.

    As usual hunting season arrived sooner than I was prepared. Busy with summer and work I hadn’t bought our hunting licences or tags. Kids were going back to school sept 3 and I working until sept 4 but a sept 5, 4pm dentist app for the kids meant we could get our hunting licences and tags while in sparwood.
    With Evans hunting licence and mule deer tag purchased we were good to go for youth season. 5:30 pm were home and headed out for a drive and to do some glassing. We managed to see a few white tails that night but nothing else. Saturday morning we headed into another area to explore some new log blocks hoping the deer have moved back in. One lone mule deer fawn is all we seen that morning.
    Saturday evening Evan had plans to go to a birthday party ( beer drinking at a bush party with your friends and girls......I miss my youth!! ) So the wife and I went for a drive into an overlooked area that usually holds mule deer early and late season. No animals spotted.....wtf.

    Sept 8 I decided to head into an area that I haven’t been into for a few yrs. On the drive to said area we stopped numerous times to spot cut blocks and slides but we weren’t seeing anything. Upon arriving to our destination I immediately spotted 2 elk in the cut block. Using the spotting scope I determined one looked legal but something was off with his eye guards.
    After watching the bulls for 15min I decided to drive closer for a better look. We ended up driving close to where we though they should have been when all of a sudden they were 120yrds away and running away from the truck. Luckily they stopped 60yds further up the hill and let us have a good look at them for 20min.

    i have a few pic of these bulls but can’t load pics from my I phone( too lazy to get imgr )

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Langley
    Posts
    48

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    Aaaaand!??
    Resident Hunter

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    Spotting scope quickly came back out and it revealed that one was 5x4 and the other was 6x6 with extremely short 2nd points. So now theres 36hrs until rifle season opens and I know where there is a legal bull. A bull who isn’t scared of my truck or concerned that I’m walking around my truck in plain sight talking loudly with my son. This elk is going to die!! He’s obviously young and is going to make a mistake and get shot. Only dilemma is, i don’t have an elk tag and I didnt buy Evan one when I got his licence and mule deer tag.
    Sept 9 3pm....off to sparwood to buy an elk tag. 4 pm....Elk tag in hand, 15hrs until legal shooting light on opening morning and it’s pouring rain and supposed to rain tomorrow, well sh*t what do we do now. What else but go check on that legal bull.
    I already decided that I wasn’t killing this bull and that I’d prefer my son didn’t either. I started racking my brain trying to think of someone who was new to hunting that hasn’t had an opportunity to kill an elk but i couldn’t think of anyone. Next I started thinking of youth hunters.......bingo.....Ethan hasn’t had a chance to kill an elk.......quick text message and a plan was hatched.
    Driving to the cut block we noticed more vehicle tracks on the road and we passed 2 side by sides coming down the road so we figured someone else might have found the bulls.
    We arrived at the cut block later than the night before, it was pouring rain and the light was terrible. We sat in the truck glassing the cut block not expecting to see the bulls when out of nowhere they just appeared in the middle of the block. Everything was looking great and then the bulls attention turned to something to the north.....another bull coming out of the timber into the block. We’re over a km away and I can’t tell how big he is but he appears to have enough main beam to possibly be a 5 or 6. Obviously the guys in the side by sides didn’t see the bulls and we can’t see and trucks in the cut blocks so we decide to stay put until dark and hope no one pulls up behind us.

    When we got home my friend calls me and I tell him that I’m thinking of heading back up and sleeping in the truck, that way we can pretty much guarantee we’re the first ones in there. I also told him it was 4 deg and raining so I was expecting it to snow over night. He agreed that it would be a good idea to sleep in the truck and that him and Ethan would meet us up there. We pulled in at midnight and Aaron and Ethan arrived closer to 1am. A quick conversation and the plan was set for the morning.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    Have you slept in the front seat of a truck lately......seats only recline so far, can’t put your feet by the pedals or your ass and nuts go to sleep, can’t lay on your side, neck hurts because of the head rest....16yr old son’s breathing sounds like a white tail buck snort wheezing.....that was the worst 4hr nap I’ve ever had.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    6am finally rolls around and I wake Evan up and we start putting sleeping bags away and getting our gear ready I pull the truck across the road so I can put the spotting scope on the window mount instead of standing in the rain glassing. Due to the rain it isn’t light enough to see the block clearly until 6:45. After 10min of glassing we spot a bull slowly moving up from behind some trees and he is heading north to where they were on the 8th.

    We drive towards to the elk and park the truck closer to the elk. Were close to 900yds from the elk and start walking up the road but we jump 3 mule deer( one 2pt buck....where the hell was he 2 days ago in youth season ) and a white tail doe. The deer headed north so we weren’t concerned they would spook the elk. After 300yds of walking the road we bail off and start walking through the log block, using one small block of jack pine we manage to get with in 400yds. All we have to do is get up the hill another 200yds and we should be good to go. We’re just about to start up the hill and suddenly 3 mule deer appear and take off straight up hill towards the elk....Aaron looked at me and said, where the hell did they come from?......Oh well, can’t do anything about it now!
    We continue to walk up through the cut block for another 150yds and we run out of cover.....thankfully the ground is soaked so it’s quiet and it’s raining just enough to cover most noise we’re making.

    With Ethan right behind me , then Evan and Aaron we slowly keep pushing foreword. A few quick looks through the binos conform that the bull is legal. I didnt say anything to Ethan because I want him to remain calm, not that it’s possible for a 12yr to stay calm while stalking in on a legal bull.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    We finally get within 300yds and everything is going as planned. Except we’re caught out in the open with zero cover taller that 2 feet tall and needing to find a rest. I decided that the bull hadn’t noticed us so we kept pushing forward until we covered another 70yrd and got to a big mound of dirt below the road. I got Ethan and Evan to set up as best as they could in the prone position on the top of the dirt mound. All we needed now was the bull to step out from behind a couple trees. After a few location changes on the dirt mound and a few cow calls the bull moved giving Ethan a broad side view.........I told Ethan “ If your confident with the shot, fire when your ready “.............BOOM......I think you hit him Ethan, fire again......BOOM..........BOOM.......hit him again before he decides to run over the hill out of sight.......BOOM.......we rush up the hill anticipating to find Ethan’s first elk....only to find an empty cut block, a few distinct tracks from where the bull was initially standing and some faint tracks that disappeared with in 30yds.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
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    2,474

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    After splitting up and searching for a few hrs we couldn’t find any blood or hair anywhere with in 200yds of where the bull was standing or the direction he headed. We got back together and went over everything. Ethan fired the first shot, after what we thought was a hit his dad fired a shot to help anchor the bull but missed. Ethan then Aaron fired another shot each both missing again. In the end the bull lived.........or did he???


    Ive got some stuff to do so........I’ll post more later.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Posts
    6,432

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    great adventure..... I have not hunted elk much but I have been "deer blind" while moose hunting twice before...I think it is something about training your eyes to look for stationary black blobs instead of ever so slight movements of grey or tan ….I make a point of doing a moose scan then switch to deer scan mode before giving away my position....great lesson/reminder about staying alert at all times from that story..

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Tent city Victoria
    Posts
    3,562

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    Awesome to have a story posted here and even better that it involves your sons, can’t wait to hear the rest!

  11. #10
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Crofton BC
    Posts
    535

    Re: Quick....give me the spotting scope!!!

    aaaugh! I hate starting the stories before the are finished... Fingers crossed.

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