brotherjack
01-08-2014, 11:45 PM
This was the first year since I moved to Idaho that I actually had time and money and everything else together to go make a serious go at elk hunting. In 9 days of hunting, The Wife(™) and I saw 8 legal bull elk, which is nearly 3 times as many legal elk as we ever saw in 7 years of hunting in the EK (in all of which time I only ever saw 2). Those who say you'll never see any elk if it's not 6 point only have no idea what they're talking about (IMHO). There are 10 times more hunters down here, wolves way thicker, and we still saw elk almost every day, and bulls almost ever time we saw elk - all less than 3 miles from camp. Anyway, I digress…
We didn't know the area very well, so it was a learn-as-you-go proposition. We bumped elk back in thick/nasty timber quite a bit because we didn't realize where the hidey holes were. But by day 7, was pretty sure I was getting things figured out. For my afternoon hunt, I strapped on my pack and hiked in past a gate. The spot I was heading for was about a mile and a half in, and the plan was to sit there and wait till dark and see if they'd filter along the edge of a small clearing like they had several times earlier in the hunt.
The area was actually a large clear cut, one of only a couple of places in the vicinity where you could see a reasonable distance. It also had a lot of up/down to it, with as much as 500 feet vertical rise or drop over fairly short distances. I was only about a third of the way to my planned evening hunt, huffing and puffing hard as I worked my way up over the top of the highest knob in the cut, when I spied a cow elk right at the edge of the timber. I was a good 450 yards out, a solid 200 feet in elevation higher, and I was walking through waist high scrub brush, so I felt comfortable just getting a little low and making a quick sneak closer. About 380 yards out (said my rangefinder), as I am coming to edge of my good cover, I slowed way up and start glassing every few yards.
There are half a dozen cows filtering slowly along in the treelike, heading up the hill towards the very area I was planning to catch them at later tonight. I watched a while, and finally caught sight of an elk body that was a lot more blond than the cows around it. I couldn't see the head, but I was about 98% confident it was a bull just from the body color. If there hadn't been a cow up the hill that was obnoxiously blonder than her pals down the hill, I would have been 100% sure and just dropped the hammer as soon as I got setup for the shot. I even had a clean shot at the vitals, but without seeing the head, I wasn't confident to drop the hammer. And besides, it's more than 3 hours till dark, I'm hiked in way past a gate, haven't seen hide nor hair of another hunter back in here all day, so I've got all the time in the world.
I continue sneaking in, slow and easy now, until the rangefinder says I'm 328 yards from the elk I was pretty sure was a bull (and if it's a bull, it's legal around here). I'm standing up to see over some brush, peering into the binoculars as hard as I can, when I hear a quad off in the distance. There's a road that runs by the gate I just hiked past, it's not like a dead end or anything, so I don't worry about it for a second; probably just some hunter heading up the miles and miles of road that are farther in... Until about 90 seconds later when I realize that the sound is not fading off into the distance, it's coming up around the knob I'm standing on.
Yep, this idiot has finagled his quad around the gate, so his tender little feet don't have to get sore hiking a mile or two - how freaking awesome. I make a frantic attempt to get setup for a clean 328 yard shot, which is plenty do-able for me with this gun, if I'm setup right (heck, I do 12x12 steel targets out to 500 yards with this rig, comfortably). Key phrase there, though, is "setup right". I need a stump with a bag or coat for padding, or sticks, and I need to be prone or darn near it. The brush way to thick right where I was standing, so as the elk attentions were starting to focus on the approaching ATV, I took a few quick steps closer to a spot where I had a clean view, and a nice stump for a rest. I had dropped my pack on the stump, and was was just hitting my belly and swinging the gun up over the pack when they bolted.
Sure enough, that elk I'd been checking out was a bull. A nice chunky 5 point bull, I would have been more than happy with. He had friends too; a 3 or 4 point, and a 6 or 7 point that was as big as any elk I've ever seen on the hoof. I actually did get the scope on them as they hit the tree line at a gallop, but 300+ yards, at a moving animal, now with brush and tree trunks in the mix? Come on now - you know I just moved to Idaho, I didn't give up my ethics. Plus, I didn't want this jack-ape on the quad to hear me shoot and realize that there were elk in this clear cut. He never did figure it out. They were all gone before his quad came bouncing around the side of the knob. He meandered his way clear over to the far side of the clear cut almost a mile a way, and back.
One good thing did come of it though. It inspired me to write this joke:
"Driving around on a quad 'hunting' is kind of like having sex with a condom on; you may be in the bush and having some fun, but the equipment you're using is negatively affecting the potential for enjoyment for you, and everyone else in your immediate vicinity, and your odds of getting off a clean shot and bringing home a trophy are approximately zero."
Elk being elk, once they'd been bounced that hard, they were gone from the whole area, not to return that day, nor any of the remaining two days I had to hunt. So, as it all ended and I never did get to drop the hammer on one personally, but one of the guys of our hunting party had dropped one a few days earlier, to which I lent my expert deboning and back packing skills, so we all got some pretty good eating out of the adventure. He did manage to drop it 3 miles from the nearest spot we could get a truck/ATV, so we ended up packing in the dark till after 1AM, but hey - that's all part of the adventure! As long as I go home eating elk for another year, I'm a happy dude! :)
Anyway, that's the north Idaho elk hunting adventure from this year.
That's all, ya'll!
We didn't know the area very well, so it was a learn-as-you-go proposition. We bumped elk back in thick/nasty timber quite a bit because we didn't realize where the hidey holes were. But by day 7, was pretty sure I was getting things figured out. For my afternoon hunt, I strapped on my pack and hiked in past a gate. The spot I was heading for was about a mile and a half in, and the plan was to sit there and wait till dark and see if they'd filter along the edge of a small clearing like they had several times earlier in the hunt.
The area was actually a large clear cut, one of only a couple of places in the vicinity where you could see a reasonable distance. It also had a lot of up/down to it, with as much as 500 feet vertical rise or drop over fairly short distances. I was only about a third of the way to my planned evening hunt, huffing and puffing hard as I worked my way up over the top of the highest knob in the cut, when I spied a cow elk right at the edge of the timber. I was a good 450 yards out, a solid 200 feet in elevation higher, and I was walking through waist high scrub brush, so I felt comfortable just getting a little low and making a quick sneak closer. About 380 yards out (said my rangefinder), as I am coming to edge of my good cover, I slowed way up and start glassing every few yards.
There are half a dozen cows filtering slowly along in the treelike, heading up the hill towards the very area I was planning to catch them at later tonight. I watched a while, and finally caught sight of an elk body that was a lot more blond than the cows around it. I couldn't see the head, but I was about 98% confident it was a bull just from the body color. If there hadn't been a cow up the hill that was obnoxiously blonder than her pals down the hill, I would have been 100% sure and just dropped the hammer as soon as I got setup for the shot. I even had a clean shot at the vitals, but without seeing the head, I wasn't confident to drop the hammer. And besides, it's more than 3 hours till dark, I'm hiked in way past a gate, haven't seen hide nor hair of another hunter back in here all day, so I've got all the time in the world.
I continue sneaking in, slow and easy now, until the rangefinder says I'm 328 yards from the elk I was pretty sure was a bull (and if it's a bull, it's legal around here). I'm standing up to see over some brush, peering into the binoculars as hard as I can, when I hear a quad off in the distance. There's a road that runs by the gate I just hiked past, it's not like a dead end or anything, so I don't worry about it for a second; probably just some hunter heading up the miles and miles of road that are farther in... Until about 90 seconds later when I realize that the sound is not fading off into the distance, it's coming up around the knob I'm standing on.
Yep, this idiot has finagled his quad around the gate, so his tender little feet don't have to get sore hiking a mile or two - how freaking awesome. I make a frantic attempt to get setup for a clean 328 yard shot, which is plenty do-able for me with this gun, if I'm setup right (heck, I do 12x12 steel targets out to 500 yards with this rig, comfortably). Key phrase there, though, is "setup right". I need a stump with a bag or coat for padding, or sticks, and I need to be prone or darn near it. The brush way to thick right where I was standing, so as the elk attentions were starting to focus on the approaching ATV, I took a few quick steps closer to a spot where I had a clean view, and a nice stump for a rest. I had dropped my pack on the stump, and was was just hitting my belly and swinging the gun up over the pack when they bolted.
Sure enough, that elk I'd been checking out was a bull. A nice chunky 5 point bull, I would have been more than happy with. He had friends too; a 3 or 4 point, and a 6 or 7 point that was as big as any elk I've ever seen on the hoof. I actually did get the scope on them as they hit the tree line at a gallop, but 300+ yards, at a moving animal, now with brush and tree trunks in the mix? Come on now - you know I just moved to Idaho, I didn't give up my ethics. Plus, I didn't want this jack-ape on the quad to hear me shoot and realize that there were elk in this clear cut. He never did figure it out. They were all gone before his quad came bouncing around the side of the knob. He meandered his way clear over to the far side of the clear cut almost a mile a way, and back.
One good thing did come of it though. It inspired me to write this joke:
"Driving around on a quad 'hunting' is kind of like having sex with a condom on; you may be in the bush and having some fun, but the equipment you're using is negatively affecting the potential for enjoyment for you, and everyone else in your immediate vicinity, and your odds of getting off a clean shot and bringing home a trophy are approximately zero."
Elk being elk, once they'd been bounced that hard, they were gone from the whole area, not to return that day, nor any of the remaining two days I had to hunt. So, as it all ended and I never did get to drop the hammer on one personally, but one of the guys of our hunting party had dropped one a few days earlier, to which I lent my expert deboning and back packing skills, so we all got some pretty good eating out of the adventure. He did manage to drop it 3 miles from the nearest spot we could get a truck/ATV, so we ended up packing in the dark till after 1AM, but hey - that's all part of the adventure! As long as I go home eating elk for another year, I'm a happy dude! :)
Anyway, that's the north Idaho elk hunting adventure from this year.
That's all, ya'll!