Agent Orange
01-05-2016, 05:44 PM
Well times are a little slow, so I thought I'd share my hunting story from this year. I had been putting it off until I had this photobucket thing figured out and I think I've finally got it. (Thanks Coach!)
This trip is an annual event that my Dad and his friends have been doing for over 20 years and I have been lucky enough to go with them these past two years. I've read that elk hunting is addictive and now I know why! Myself, my Dad and two of his friends pulled into base camp around 1 pm. Two of our other partners came up two days earlier to set up the wall tent which was nice, but they were not back for lunch yet which was unusual. As we unpacked our stuff and set up, they came back to camp with an elk all quartered up! Nice way to start the trip. (Sorry no pics)
So after a quick nap my Dad and I head out to a valley where we know elk have been in the past. No long into our hike we spot a cow elk grazing on the hill side. After glassing her for a while and letting out a a couple bugles with no response we keep moving. Just around the next bend, we spot a couple more cows grazing on the hill side. Again, no reply to the bugling, so after a while, we move on. We round the next bend and the valley bottom begins to rise up to meet the ridges on either side. To the left we spot 2 more cows and this time there is a reply to our bugles. We see a bull emerge from the right side of the valley near the top of the ridge but he is still 700 yards away. But even from this range we can see 6 points silhouetted against the evening sky. As stealthily as we can we proceed to close the gap. The bull has crossed the open span between the right and left and has joined the the cows on the left side in an attempt to push them back to where he had come from. He successfully pushes one cow into the open and is close behind her. We are still 500 yards out and my Dad turns to me and says, "How much does your bullet drop at 500yds?" I simply shake my head no. I don't feel comfortable at this range. We close the gap a little more as the cow and bull disappear into the timber on the right side. We are now 400 yards out and my Dad sets up for a shot. The bull is bugling like crazy to try and get the second cow to follow him but she wont budge from her hiding spot in the trees. We sat there waiting for him to show himself again but he never did. So we hiked out of there in the dark, pumped that we got into some elk on the first night.
We get up before the sun is up on the following morning and head back to the same spot. As we are hiking in, much to my terror, my phone starts to ring! SHIT. As fast as i can i pull it out of my pocket and shut it off. My Dad and I exchange looks that can only be described as WTF! What happened next was even more surprising. An elk bugled! We look up to the right, and there at the top of the ridge is the six point from the night before!! He starts walking in the direction of the end of the valley. We start to hustle to the end to see if we can meet him where we saw him yesterday. We get to the end of valley and make our way up the left side to give us a vantage point if he comes out of the trees on the right. We eventually come to the game trail that the elk we travelling on yesterday and decide to follow it towards where we expected the elk to be. Slowly we make our way along the trail, stopping every so often to peek over the ridge. Up ahead there is a large rock, and I think, "That would be a great spot to shoot from." Sure enough, a couple steps further and we see the antlers poking up over the ridge. 6x6 for sure. We drop to ground and crawl to the rock, Dad sets up a shot with his .338 ultra mag @ less than 100 yards. The bull is staring at us head on, he knows we are there. Not the best shot but my dad is the best shooter that I know. BOOM, antlers go down and legs go straight up in the air. I've never seen an animal drop so fast. Upon surveying the Bull we cannot find a bullet hole anywhere and start to think that maybe we scared it to death! Once we quartered it up (gutless method of course) we find the bullet wound hidden by his thick main. Straight through the throat and into the spine. Not an ounce of wasted meat!
http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv21/chris_jamieson1/Dads%20elk%202015_zpsfvrkg2mi.jpg (http://s666.photobucket.com/user/chris_jamieson1/media/Dads%20elk%202015_zpsfvrkg2mi.jpg.html)That's all for now. I'll finish up the rest of the story when I get home. Stay tuned
This trip is an annual event that my Dad and his friends have been doing for over 20 years and I have been lucky enough to go with them these past two years. I've read that elk hunting is addictive and now I know why! Myself, my Dad and two of his friends pulled into base camp around 1 pm. Two of our other partners came up two days earlier to set up the wall tent which was nice, but they were not back for lunch yet which was unusual. As we unpacked our stuff and set up, they came back to camp with an elk all quartered up! Nice way to start the trip. (Sorry no pics)
So after a quick nap my Dad and I head out to a valley where we know elk have been in the past. No long into our hike we spot a cow elk grazing on the hill side. After glassing her for a while and letting out a a couple bugles with no response we keep moving. Just around the next bend, we spot a couple more cows grazing on the hill side. Again, no reply to the bugling, so after a while, we move on. We round the next bend and the valley bottom begins to rise up to meet the ridges on either side. To the left we spot 2 more cows and this time there is a reply to our bugles. We see a bull emerge from the right side of the valley near the top of the ridge but he is still 700 yards away. But even from this range we can see 6 points silhouetted against the evening sky. As stealthily as we can we proceed to close the gap. The bull has crossed the open span between the right and left and has joined the the cows on the left side in an attempt to push them back to where he had come from. He successfully pushes one cow into the open and is close behind her. We are still 500 yards out and my Dad turns to me and says, "How much does your bullet drop at 500yds?" I simply shake my head no. I don't feel comfortable at this range. We close the gap a little more as the cow and bull disappear into the timber on the right side. We are now 400 yards out and my Dad sets up for a shot. The bull is bugling like crazy to try and get the second cow to follow him but she wont budge from her hiding spot in the trees. We sat there waiting for him to show himself again but he never did. So we hiked out of there in the dark, pumped that we got into some elk on the first night.
We get up before the sun is up on the following morning and head back to the same spot. As we are hiking in, much to my terror, my phone starts to ring! SHIT. As fast as i can i pull it out of my pocket and shut it off. My Dad and I exchange looks that can only be described as WTF! What happened next was even more surprising. An elk bugled! We look up to the right, and there at the top of the ridge is the six point from the night before!! He starts walking in the direction of the end of the valley. We start to hustle to the end to see if we can meet him where we saw him yesterday. We get to the end of valley and make our way up the left side to give us a vantage point if he comes out of the trees on the right. We eventually come to the game trail that the elk we travelling on yesterday and decide to follow it towards where we expected the elk to be. Slowly we make our way along the trail, stopping every so often to peek over the ridge. Up ahead there is a large rock, and I think, "That would be a great spot to shoot from." Sure enough, a couple steps further and we see the antlers poking up over the ridge. 6x6 for sure. We drop to ground and crawl to the rock, Dad sets up a shot with his .338 ultra mag @ less than 100 yards. The bull is staring at us head on, he knows we are there. Not the best shot but my dad is the best shooter that I know. BOOM, antlers go down and legs go straight up in the air. I've never seen an animal drop so fast. Upon surveying the Bull we cannot find a bullet hole anywhere and start to think that maybe we scared it to death! Once we quartered it up (gutless method of course) we find the bullet wound hidden by his thick main. Straight through the throat and into the spine. Not an ounce of wasted meat!
http://i666.photobucket.com/albums/vv21/chris_jamieson1/Dads%20elk%202015_zpsfvrkg2mi.jpg (http://s666.photobucket.com/user/chris_jamieson1/media/Dads%20elk%202015_zpsfvrkg2mi.jpg.html)That's all for now. I'll finish up the rest of the story when I get home. Stay tuned