Back From The Koots With An Elk

[trigger]

well im home from a very eventfull hunting trip in the kootneys. For those of you that dont know, i had a few days of bad luck before i headed out but im glad i put on my boots and went. I showed up at hunter 1947 s camp on the 20th of sept. I spent the next day setting up camp and then heading in to the areas that wayne had been seeing some elk sign. i found alot of sign but it was going to be very tough country to hunt, being so grown in with only a 75 yrd shooting range. over the next week me and wayne hunted very hard morning , day and evening. Everyday we were into elk. We soon learned that the elk were very vocal but nothing was coming in. The bulls were always holding up in the timber. On my third morning i was set up on the edge of a ridge over looking a clear cut. me and wayne were spread out a couple of hundred yards apart and were doing some cow mews and also the odd bugle when i heard a crack of a branch behind me. I slowly turned around to see two young bulls sneaking in. they both stopped at 40 yrds looking for what had just been making the calls. I identified the second bull as a 6 point. but it was a rag horn 6. he was with a 4 point that i actually think was a bit bigger so i chose not to shoot it. 5 minutes later another bull came running out of the timber. I thought ohhhhhh man here comes my bull. He came right into 50yds and i was only able to count 5 on each side. it was a nice 5 but clearly did not have six points.
Later that day wayne and i were on the chase of a good herd bull that was held up in the timber but was very vocal. wayne ended up getting a quick look at the elk as it had run over the hill, but could not count six.
The next day we had decided to get above him in the morning as he was always headed up in the mornings. I ended up sneaking in on him to 50yards and could hear him scraping trees and bugling but the bush was so think i couldnt see him. A cow ended up blwing my cover as i tried to get to a position to where i could see the bull. The trees exploded with elk running everywhere. i did get to see the bull when i ran down into the gully but only for a few seconds and couldnt positivly identify it as a 6 so he got away.
I cant tell you everystory about this trip. one i dont have enough time to write them and im sure you dont have enough time to read them all.
But,
I have to tell you the one when my bull came in.
I was hunting this area in the morning and the elk were very vocal but instead i thought i would head into the timber and see if i could find the area that they are feeding and getting water. After walking around for a few hours i had hit the jack pot. i found an area that was littered with fresh sign. there were beds, crap, tree rubs, scraps. and to top it off a running creek ran right through this area. I had found these elks bed room. I left the area not wanting to leave much scent and planned on coming back early in the afternoon so i could be set up for the evening hunt. I showed up at 2 o clock and when i was hiking into the spot i could allready here the bull bugling. this got me very excited. I was set up by 3. this area that i had found was going to be a tight area. the farthest shot would be a 50 yard shot. I did a few hyper hot lip calls and the bull was bugling back at me like crazy, but again he would not come in. so after an hour of back and forth calling i shut up. as tempting as it was i could not call anymore. well it paid off. this bull came in about 20 mins later screaming his head off and looking for this horny cow that had just been calling him. I saw the bull come to an opening 50 yards away. I just bought a marlin 336 xlr in a 30-30 with no scope so i had to use binos to count points. He gave me enough time to count 6. he was barely 6 but at 50 yards i deffinetly saw 6. i quickly draw my rifle and look back up and he was gone. i then noticed the trees moving to the right and he was coming in hard. at 30yards i gave him a mew to stop and he gave me a perfect broad side shot. I quickly counted six again and then let him have it. 2 shot and he was mine. This is my first rocky mountain elk. Not a monster but one i am very proud of.
Like i said i have lots of stoies and memories from this trip. but can tell it all. here are some pics. In total our camp had 2 elk and 3 whitetail. hope you enjoyed

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture013.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture015.jpg

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture012.jpg

[trigger]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture033.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture025.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture040.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture038.jpg
where the dog is is how far the elk was when i shot

[trigger]

We got alot of snow up there
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture071.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture069.jpg

[trigger]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture046.jpg
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture076.jpg

The real TRIGGERhttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture020.jpg

[trigger]

Wayne bugled this beaut into five yards
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e368/trigger22/elk/Picture019.jpg

[Orangethunder]

Nice bull. Sounds like you earned that one. thanks for the pics

[tooley]

Congrats, looks like it was a great trip. I have never gone for elk before, But I am planning a trip next year. Any suggestions on where I should be setting up camp? I don't know where to start.
P.S. I love your lab really beautiful dog

[bruin]

Dandy bull man and a good story. Thanks for sharing.

[locdog_99]

good story thanks for sharing

[lapadat]

Great looking bulls and a very beautiful dog.

Not sure how the backstraps will taste off your ratbuck

[Freshtracks]

trigger,

Congrats on a great looking first bull ... btw - us at home can never get enough of 'the hunt'. Sounds like Wayne's camp was doing it right.

[Will]

CONGRATS ! Well Done !

Nice to see the venerable 30-30 can still actually Kill things... contrary to what folks think nowadays :wink:

Love the Pack Rat(?) too :mrgreen:

[todbartell]

right on Scott, glad the rifle worked for ya!

[huntwriter]

Congratulations to your first bull elk, great story and pictures.:cool:

[Sharkey]

Nice work! Great lookin' elk. Aren't Labs awesome? I have one too. Gotta teach him to retrieve grouse.

[trigger]

just to ad, wayne will be coming up to houston for ten days. he and a buddy have a draw for a bull moose

[Jetboat]

Terrific story and awesome pic's! Congrats and thanks for sharing.

[alremkin]

Hm, let me consider the body count: 2 elk and 3 deer, both elk are small 6 pointers and the one you of which you showed it's pics appears to be in good shape no evidence of fighting like being horned. So the meat should be very good. Elk is my favorite meat and I value it @ $10/lb so assuming the 2 bulls give 250 lbs of deboned cut and wraped meat their value is 2x 250 x $10 = $5,000 and then there's the 3 deer which to me of only worth half as much as an elk say 250-300lbs of deboned cut and wraped meat for the deer then conservativelt 250 x $5/lb = $1250 and $5,000 + $1250 = $6250. This is sort of like winning second or third prize in the Lotto. I don't know how many were in the party, but it sounds like at least 3 which is better than $2,000 each assuming an even split of the meat. As well there's the value of comraderie of the hunt and obviously you communed well with nature...I don't mean to be crass mentioning the value of the meat, but people go to places like this JUST to be there for the enjoyment of being in nature and I think that's why most people hunt well done!8)

One question I have is about your choice of rifle which I hope you will answer at your convenience. I can't be critical of you since you've been so successful, but most people would think a 30-30 to be on the light side for elk in grizzly country. Why did you choose that caliber instead of a 45/70, 444, or 450? The country is thick favoring a lever style gun.

[Elkhound]

Nice elk and I love the marlin XLR

[Dale]

hope i do as well as you guys next week. i'm heading out to the koots as well for a few days. congrats on the first elk.

[Brambles]

Great story and pics, nice to see some one else spending the time to do a good write-up, thanks

Brambles

[Gateholio]

One question I have is about your choice of rifle which I hope you will answer at your convenience. I can't be critical of you since you've been so successful, but most people would think a 30-30 to be on the light side for elk in grizzly country. Why did you choose that caliber instead of a 45/70, 444, or 450? The country is thick favoring a lever style gun.

Im sure at least a few hundred thousand elk have been put on the ground since 1894 with the 30 WCF and Im sure a few thousand grizzly bears have been to

:p

[alremkin]

I imagine so, but if I was going to buy a new lever rifle for elk in grizzly country I'd choose one of the heavier calibers. Similarly, most moose in Canada have been killed with a 303 yet most hunters lately would choose one of the more powerful modern calibers.

Reasonable arguments can be made for the lighter calibers and of course marksmanship and staying within the limit of one's ability plays a major role. In this case the cover was thick so long shots are highly unlikely favoring a lighter lever gun which would give quicker follow-up shots. There's also the possibilty of a sentimental choice. It could be that he just REALLY likes the 30-30 caliber. Being a bit of a gun-nut, I'm curious as to why people choose different rifles.:confused:

[Stone Sheep Steve]

A huge congrats Trigger!!

I'm a big believer in good things happenning to balance out the bad things as long as you don't give up!

Way to stick it out and get your butt down there!

SSS

[model88]

Congrats Trigger, great story and awesome pics:cool:

[trigger]

One question I have is about your choice of rifle which I hope you will answer at your convenience. I can't be critical of you since you've been so successful, but most people would think a 30-30 to be on the light side for elk in grizzly country. Why did you choose that caliber instead of a 45/70, 444, or 450? The country is thick favoring a lever style gun.[/quote]

Well the reason i chose the 30-30 is i was in the kootney area last year and got to see how thick the cover was. Knowing that the shots were going to be closer i thought why not make it a bit more of a challenge and shoot with the 30-30. The guys in Terrace were really pushing hard for me to buy a 45-70 right up untill i rudely had to say I DONT WANT THAT BIG OF A GUN. i right away called tod bartell and he had exactly what i wanted. the sale went smoothly and well that was going to be my weapon of choice.
I do have a story about a grizzly on this trip. People are always talking about have a bigger gun because you are in grizzly country. Well i dont think thats a good way to look at it. I would never want to have to kill a grizzly if i didnt have too. if at all possible i will avoid confrontation. Wayne and i were set up in this prime spot for elk. chirping away with the cow calls, we had two bulls bugling back to us. after about fifeteen minutes i looked over to the right of me just to see a huge grizzly coming right towards us. right away we stood up and started yelling at this grizz. well he just looked at us and kept coming, but at a faster pace. At 200 yards i told wayne i was going to shoot at the stump beside the bear. Well the bear kept coming not worried about the shots at all. At 100 yards wayne fired a shot at the bear and he seemed to pick up his pace even more. At this point we figured the only way to stop this bear was to kill it so instead we decided to skidadle. and that we did we climbed back through the slash and got to a road and high tailed it out of there. Now in this case i dont think it would have mattered weather i had a bigger gun or not. i wasnt planning on killing the bear

[The Hermit]

Great trip and good on you for getting your elk. Big kudos too to Wayne for getting you started on what will no doubt be a lifetime of some of the most exciting hunting to be had!

BTW - I think you were lucky to escape that bear. A determined bear can cover 200 yards in 25 seconds or less. I wouldn't want to have to shoot one either and I appreciate that I shouldn't second guess the guys that were there, but I think I'd have stayed my ground and slowly backed away at the ready. Then again I would have had a bigger gun too. LOL

[bwhnter]

Great story Trigger and congrats on a great elk. He looks like his is in great shape and should be some good eats.

When you come up to FSJ be sure to bring your coyote call there are a ton of them this year.

[BCLongshot]

30/30 is just fine for a man who's a good shot and an outdoorsman.

People have no idea obviously what has been done in this province for YEARS !!!

Just think how many moose/elk/bears/deer were shot with that calibre. Does anyone know that are goverment supplied 30/30's with ammo to men in B.C. as part of a militia ? Do you think maybe they used these guns to hunt with and before there was a heel of a lot more game around.



On the real topic beautiful pics and obviously an amazing hunt ! We have so much to be thankful for in this province on this Thanksgiving weekend don't we ?

[alremkin]

Trigger, I'm glad your confrontation with the griz worked out the way it did. It would have put a dark cloud over what otherwise is an outstanding hunt dealing with the ramifications of reporting to the CO. I think it's difficult for many here safe, warm, and comfortable at our computers, to understand that in the bush a lot is determined by the bear:eek:. In this case it chose not to pursue you and Wayne. Right or wrong my action in that situation would be more like what the Hermit said he would do if so confronted. I don't think there's always one action that will work in all cases such as this. It brings up an interesting fascet of hunting and your hunt to consider how we each might handle a situation like that. Another thing that interested me about your hunt was the weather.

In I think the second pic you have Wayne in a tee shirt and sandals...makes me wonder with his age born in 1947 was he ever a hippie? Well not to digress. Then later it looks like you had about 6" of snow. I bet this helped intensify the rut. Is that the case? Or did you take the elk when the weather was warmer?

The other item of interest to me, is with the impressive body count: 2 elk and 3 deer in what appears to be no more than a 2 week hunt you must have been busy packing as well as hunting. I noticed you had an atv as well your trucks. In my younger days I was a "packin-fool" one year I had a ratio of 4 days packing for ever day hunting taking an elk and a deer that year. I'm guessing you had were able to utilize the atv to save some packing time. On average how far did you have to hand pack the animals to get them out? I hope you don't mind me analizing your hunt, one of the more successful hunts reported here this year and a good write up and pics in a sense it's accurate to say I'm trying to glean a little more out of a great hunting experience both for myself and the others here. I'm not sure about any awards, but I suspect you guys are in the running for the elk/deer Bwana awards.8)

[tmarschall]

Trigger.... Congrats on your success. I know you don't have enough time to report all the adventures of hunting with Wayne, but you did a good job of it. He does seem to be a bit of a bear magnet.... every year I was up there we had a bear come to camp(without incident). I hope he gets an elk down himself when Bosch gets over there.... can't wait for the stories!!

[Wildman]

Awesome....way to go guys!

[trigger]

the picture of us in the snow was quite the day. it was coming down hard. we were supposed to help our buddies get there elk out first thing but we said we ddnt want to waste a morning hunt. we walked up to this ridge that over looks a big draw and right away i spot a cow standing. I move a bit farther along and saw 6 or 7 other elk. Wayne said, they are all cows but i put the binos up and there were three very impressive bulls in the herd but there antlers were all covered in snow. we could not count how many points they had. it was very frusterating as we could just watch them walk into the timber.

[BlacktailStalker]

Nice work Scotty. Glad you got one this year.
Next year we'll both get one !!
Nice pics too.
Why isnt Chris smiling ? That was his first elk too !