Wrj
09-27-2014, 11:55 AM
Just got back from close to a week of hunting. Wasn't as successful as we'd hoped, but a ton of fun non the less for our trio...before I get too carried away I'll just give the heads up, that I've never posted pictures before, so something is bound to go wrong haha.
We drove straight through the night last friday, sleeping in our truck close to where our camp would be from 3-6am. We had done a fair bit of research in the previous weeks that we had a pretty good idea of where we needed to be to find the moose/elk. So we drove around for a few hours that first morning until we found a great camp-site. As soon as we pull up and turn the truck off, we quickly survey the area. BEAR! Not 300yrds from camp. Looking back now, it was a little dumb to shoot something that quickly and early in the hunt considering we had forgot the coolers with ice...anyways, the bear was feeding on some grassy bank so I snuck up to within 175yrds, loaded the 7mm and took out both lungs as soon as a broad side shot came available. A quick follow up to the head put the bear out quickly, I'd rather do that then see them squirm. So before we unloaded anything from the truck or trailer (besides my gun), we were elbow deep in a smaller meat bear. Should taste great!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1779_zpseeb336e9.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1779_zpseeb336e9.jpg.html)
After we set up camp and had the bear hanging, we had an afternoon of scouting/hiking and talking to the only other group of hunters within 10 miles. They were very friendly, and let us know that they had just shot arrowed a 7 point elk! They were just coming back for lunch and then going back to search/recover it. They had also successfully rifled a 6 point the weekend before in this same spot...I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or if the only 2 mature bulls in our area had been killed. Well, I figured since I'm really up here for the adventure and the meat, that I'd be extremely happy with ANY meat, and I already had some pepperoni hanging! We carried on walking trails, watering holes, and even into the timber. Although we felt good getting a bear before we really started, we soon realized how tough a week it would be with the heat hitting 28 C the first few days.
We started seeing alot of wolf sign, and some fairly large too. This isn't even the biggest, but didn't have camera at all times. Pictured below is a 7mm cartridge.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1785_zps093b8a91.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1785_zps093b8a91.jpg.html)
Well, after our first few days of extreme September heat were over, we started to get a little antsy. It was hot during the day, and didn't go below about 8C at night. I had the only quad up there between the 3 of us, and my buddy just came back tuesday morning from a hike. He mentioned a very recent cut tough trail wayyyyyy into the bush...we'll, maybe that's where the other hunting party had been? I told him to take my quad for the late afternoon/eve and find out how far it goes.
Meanwhile, I'm a little choked myself. As we haven't seen anything in 3 days beisdes coyotes, does, and a mulie buck. So I decided to go back to basics, sit myself between the timber and the waterhole I'd seen a few days prior. The days were getting a little more overcast, and the afternoon temps were dropping into the low 20's. So as I was sitting there messing around with my phone, I see a deer poke his head out of the timber. Scramble for the binos which ended up being in my lap, and have a peek. All I could see was the head broadside, hard to tell. All of a sudden he looked right at me (about 200 yrds from me), and I see bone! Sweet, please be a whitey, please be a whitey. As I moved for my gun to have it ready, he got spooked. Big white tail straight up skyward, and he started bounding across a grassy clearing from the timber, towards the timber on the other side. WHITEY! Assuming he was determined to get to the water hole. But first he needed to make it into the timber on the other side. I quickly got a good rest, and slid the safety off and did some weird high-pitched bark just before he reached the timber edge. He came to a complete stop, motionless. I line up an inch higher than normal, figuring I was shooting out to 200 here. Squeeze the trigger, CLICK!! %$!#$!#!!!! I read this happens from time to time, but I told myself it would never happen to me. Well, it did! The buck looked towards freedom as I frantically (at world record speed) cycled a round. Found him in my scope as I let out another audible bark to keep him from bolting, BANG! He jumped straight up in the air, did a little dance, then bounded off into the bush. I was pumped, as this was the first legal White-tail I've ever seen. I was close to my truck, so I gave him a few minutes, put on another layer of clothes and tossed my gun in. It was about 6:00pm, so I knew I had an hour and a half or two to find him before dark. When I went to the spot I hit him, I could find any blood. Nothing, and the leaves from the trees were all changing red and dropping all over. It was more challenging then I thought, although I did end up finding him about 30 minutes later piled up under a bush behind a big tree. As I was dragging him back out of the timber, I could see his exact path. The blood was everywhere, was I blind or just to amped up to see? As I got him out, I could clearly see the spot where I shot him, so I pulled out my range finder to see how far it was. 220yrds, a bit more than I estimated, and alot further than I've killed out to before. But I'm 100% confident in my rifle/ability, especially if I have a decent rest. The deer expired no more than 15 yards from where I hit him, one shot, double lung. The bullet hit exactly where it was supposed to!
He ended up being a small 4x3, with a weird split brow tine. I'll get better pics later of the rack, do a little euro probably..
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1789_zps91736acd.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1789_zps91736acd.jpg.html)
So now me and one other buddy got back to camp the same time, and it was dark. Past shooting light, so we set up to gut/skin/hang the deer, and took a few poor pictures. By about 8:00pm its pitch black, and the 3rd amigo hasn't returned from taking my quad late afternoon. So we decide to jump into the truck and go for a drive to see if he's having mechanical trouble. Well, after an hour of searching the general area we knew he was in, we decided to make a lot of noise in case he was also lost. After alot of horn honking, elk bugling, and whistling, he finally drove out of the bush. He says he wasn't lost, but did have some mechanical problems. Seems the headlights shorted out, and the 4x4 relay blew. So there he was, deep into the woods at dark, without 4wd or lights. Good thing he had his headlamp haha. We were glad he was safe, but pissed at his time management out there by himself. "What did you wait so long to come out?!?" We kept asking. "I found the 7 point elk!" He said. (The one the other hunters arrowed but never recovered). We were still angry at him, "thats sweet, but why did it take so long to get out?." He goes on to tell us that he was following this other fresh cut trail, when all of a sudden there was "this smell." Like the worst thing he's ever smelled. So he knew something was rotting, jumped off the quad, and immediately found this big bull not 8 yards from the "trail." He walked up to it, and reached out and grabbed one of the big beams to admire it. That's when the snapping/growling started. Just in front of him a decent black bear was ascending a tree quickly clacking his jaw the whole time. One thing led to another, before the bear could get out of the tree, he had a few 30-06 rounds in him. This was less than an hour before last light, so he made quick work by headlamp gutting this bear. He then struggled to get it onto the front rack of the quad, as dragging it over and through that forest wasn't an option. Pitch black, with 200lbs of bear hanging over the front of the quad in difficult terrain only worked for a km or so. He decided to drop the bear for the night, get himself out of the bush, and we could go back in the morning for it. That's what took him so long, happy to have him out safe and sound. We slept in the next morning in anticipation of going back for the bear. With 2 of us, quad, and alot of ratchets and ropes, we managed to get him back to camp in less than 4 hours. Of course, once again in the heat of things, no one got ANY pictures! Live and learn, wish we had some Oh well.
In the next few days, I saw a cow elk running around but never had the cross-hairs on her. Also seen a few monster mulie bucks (bow only) and regret not bringing the arrows with me. Had a shot at a wolf, but it was last light and my buddy wasn't confident in the distance. He said right after he wish he'd pulled the trigger! We ended up leaving just before our week was up, a little discouraged we couldn't bring back an elk or moose (didn't see any moose all week). Although, we were coming back with some meat, and it was the first time for us hunting up in that gorgeous country. It was a fun, tiring week with many lessons learned and more of a drive and desire to find those moose/elk! And if there's someone on HBC who knows or shot an 7x7 Bull Elk in 7B with an arrow, we found it and can provide more info so that doesn't happen again!
We drove straight through the night last friday, sleeping in our truck close to where our camp would be from 3-6am. We had done a fair bit of research in the previous weeks that we had a pretty good idea of where we needed to be to find the moose/elk. So we drove around for a few hours that first morning until we found a great camp-site. As soon as we pull up and turn the truck off, we quickly survey the area. BEAR! Not 300yrds from camp. Looking back now, it was a little dumb to shoot something that quickly and early in the hunt considering we had forgot the coolers with ice...anyways, the bear was feeding on some grassy bank so I snuck up to within 175yrds, loaded the 7mm and took out both lungs as soon as a broad side shot came available. A quick follow up to the head put the bear out quickly, I'd rather do that then see them squirm. So before we unloaded anything from the truck or trailer (besides my gun), we were elbow deep in a smaller meat bear. Should taste great!
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1779_zpseeb336e9.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1779_zpseeb336e9.jpg.html)
After we set up camp and had the bear hanging, we had an afternoon of scouting/hiking and talking to the only other group of hunters within 10 miles. They were very friendly, and let us know that they had just shot arrowed a 7 point elk! They were just coming back for lunch and then going back to search/recover it. They had also successfully rifled a 6 point the weekend before in this same spot...I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or if the only 2 mature bulls in our area had been killed. Well, I figured since I'm really up here for the adventure and the meat, that I'd be extremely happy with ANY meat, and I already had some pepperoni hanging! We carried on walking trails, watering holes, and even into the timber. Although we felt good getting a bear before we really started, we soon realized how tough a week it would be with the heat hitting 28 C the first few days.
We started seeing alot of wolf sign, and some fairly large too. This isn't even the biggest, but didn't have camera at all times. Pictured below is a 7mm cartridge.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1785_zps093b8a91.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1785_zps093b8a91.jpg.html)
Well, after our first few days of extreme September heat were over, we started to get a little antsy. It was hot during the day, and didn't go below about 8C at night. I had the only quad up there between the 3 of us, and my buddy just came back tuesday morning from a hike. He mentioned a very recent cut tough trail wayyyyyy into the bush...we'll, maybe that's where the other hunting party had been? I told him to take my quad for the late afternoon/eve and find out how far it goes.
Meanwhile, I'm a little choked myself. As we haven't seen anything in 3 days beisdes coyotes, does, and a mulie buck. So I decided to go back to basics, sit myself between the timber and the waterhole I'd seen a few days prior. The days were getting a little more overcast, and the afternoon temps were dropping into the low 20's. So as I was sitting there messing around with my phone, I see a deer poke his head out of the timber. Scramble for the binos which ended up being in my lap, and have a peek. All I could see was the head broadside, hard to tell. All of a sudden he looked right at me (about 200 yrds from me), and I see bone! Sweet, please be a whitey, please be a whitey. As I moved for my gun to have it ready, he got spooked. Big white tail straight up skyward, and he started bounding across a grassy clearing from the timber, towards the timber on the other side. WHITEY! Assuming he was determined to get to the water hole. But first he needed to make it into the timber on the other side. I quickly got a good rest, and slid the safety off and did some weird high-pitched bark just before he reached the timber edge. He came to a complete stop, motionless. I line up an inch higher than normal, figuring I was shooting out to 200 here. Squeeze the trigger, CLICK!! %$!#$!#!!!! I read this happens from time to time, but I told myself it would never happen to me. Well, it did! The buck looked towards freedom as I frantically (at world record speed) cycled a round. Found him in my scope as I let out another audible bark to keep him from bolting, BANG! He jumped straight up in the air, did a little dance, then bounded off into the bush. I was pumped, as this was the first legal White-tail I've ever seen. I was close to my truck, so I gave him a few minutes, put on another layer of clothes and tossed my gun in. It was about 6:00pm, so I knew I had an hour and a half or two to find him before dark. When I went to the spot I hit him, I could find any blood. Nothing, and the leaves from the trees were all changing red and dropping all over. It was more challenging then I thought, although I did end up finding him about 30 minutes later piled up under a bush behind a big tree. As I was dragging him back out of the timber, I could see his exact path. The blood was everywhere, was I blind or just to amped up to see? As I got him out, I could clearly see the spot where I shot him, so I pulled out my range finder to see how far it was. 220yrds, a bit more than I estimated, and alot further than I've killed out to before. But I'm 100% confident in my rifle/ability, especially if I have a decent rest. The deer expired no more than 15 yards from where I hit him, one shot, double lung. The bullet hit exactly where it was supposed to!
He ended up being a small 4x3, with a weird split brow tine. I'll get better pics later of the rack, do a little euro probably..
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/jrplumb/IMG_1789_zps91736acd.jpg (http://s32.photobucket.com/user/jrplumb/media/IMG_1789_zps91736acd.jpg.html)
So now me and one other buddy got back to camp the same time, and it was dark. Past shooting light, so we set up to gut/skin/hang the deer, and took a few poor pictures. By about 8:00pm its pitch black, and the 3rd amigo hasn't returned from taking my quad late afternoon. So we decide to jump into the truck and go for a drive to see if he's having mechanical trouble. Well, after an hour of searching the general area we knew he was in, we decided to make a lot of noise in case he was also lost. After alot of horn honking, elk bugling, and whistling, he finally drove out of the bush. He says he wasn't lost, but did have some mechanical problems. Seems the headlights shorted out, and the 4x4 relay blew. So there he was, deep into the woods at dark, without 4wd or lights. Good thing he had his headlamp haha. We were glad he was safe, but pissed at his time management out there by himself. "What did you wait so long to come out?!?" We kept asking. "I found the 7 point elk!" He said. (The one the other hunters arrowed but never recovered). We were still angry at him, "thats sweet, but why did it take so long to get out?." He goes on to tell us that he was following this other fresh cut trail, when all of a sudden there was "this smell." Like the worst thing he's ever smelled. So he knew something was rotting, jumped off the quad, and immediately found this big bull not 8 yards from the "trail." He walked up to it, and reached out and grabbed one of the big beams to admire it. That's when the snapping/growling started. Just in front of him a decent black bear was ascending a tree quickly clacking his jaw the whole time. One thing led to another, before the bear could get out of the tree, he had a few 30-06 rounds in him. This was less than an hour before last light, so he made quick work by headlamp gutting this bear. He then struggled to get it onto the front rack of the quad, as dragging it over and through that forest wasn't an option. Pitch black, with 200lbs of bear hanging over the front of the quad in difficult terrain only worked for a km or so. He decided to drop the bear for the night, get himself out of the bush, and we could go back in the morning for it. That's what took him so long, happy to have him out safe and sound. We slept in the next morning in anticipation of going back for the bear. With 2 of us, quad, and alot of ratchets and ropes, we managed to get him back to camp in less than 4 hours. Of course, once again in the heat of things, no one got ANY pictures! Live and learn, wish we had some Oh well.
In the next few days, I saw a cow elk running around but never had the cross-hairs on her. Also seen a few monster mulie bucks (bow only) and regret not bringing the arrows with me. Had a shot at a wolf, but it was last light and my buddy wasn't confident in the distance. He said right after he wish he'd pulled the trigger! We ended up leaving just before our week was up, a little discouraged we couldn't bring back an elk or moose (didn't see any moose all week). Although, we were coming back with some meat, and it was the first time for us hunting up in that gorgeous country. It was a fun, tiring week with many lessons learned and more of a drive and desire to find those moose/elk! And if there's someone on HBC who knows or shot an 7x7 Bull Elk in 7B with an arrow, we found it and can provide more info so that doesn't happen again!