Alpine Hunter
01-29-2021, 04:31 PM
I am fairly new to this forum so I thought the best way to start off would be to post something that I think we all like coming here to read...A hunting tale.
After returning from the North a few days ahead of schedule I was already consumed with the thought of my next venture. After just arriving home from a 2 week hunt, I didn’t dare mention to my wife the idea of leaving again right away. However seeing that I still had a few days until I was scheduled to return to work I couldn’t help but think about big hairy horned bucks roaming the high country. After spending a couple days home catching up on life with my wife and children, she new something else was on my mind. Luckily having the awesome wife I do, she was fine with me sneaking away for a couple more nights.
It had been a few years since I had hunted the alpine in Early September so I was very eager to do so. I planned for a quick 2 night solo trip.
After driving, hiking, gathering some water for 2 days and setting up camp, I had a couple of hours to glass. I stayed fairly close to camp and didn’t turn anything up. Very little sleep was to be had and I was hiking again the next morning a few hours before daylight to get to where I wanted to glass first thing. As the slopes became visible with the first signs of daylight I was able to spot a few groups of does but no horns. After a while I moved spots to try to take advantage of as much prime country as I could before that 9:00ish time when everything seems to bed, as it was going to be around 30 C that day.
It was around 7:30am when the sun was already becoming hot enough that I knew I was running out of prime time, that I spotted 2 bucks traveling away from me about 1.5 km away. I had just enough time to get the spotter on them to tell that one was a shooter, before they disappeared into the timberline. At that point based on where they were headed and the time of day I was skeptical on even making a move on them. I decided that he was a good buck and I had nothing better to do in the heat of the day than to head their direction. It took me about 2 hours of hiking and scaling rocks until I was above where I thought they disappeared on me that morning. By this point it was around 10am and the temps where rising. While having a snack I picked apart every narrow opening I could see through the trees on the edges of the open alpine. To my disbelief I was able to pick out the body of a deer bedded directly below the rising sun in the shade of the timber. Glassing into the sun at a shaded timbered slope is quite challenging so I had to move to get a different angle. After getting the spotter out I confirmed it was the buck I was after and his buddy was also with him deeper into the timber, barely visible.
After going back for my rifle and setting up a rest on my pack I had a 390 yard down hill quartering-to shot on the bedded buck. It was not ideal but well within my comfortable range. I took the shot and saw him tumble down a rockslide out of his bed.
https://i.postimg.cc/3JPQc01w/324104-CB-997-C-4289-BFC3-5-B39-E233-D0-A3.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
This is what I walked down to. I made quick work of boning him out and started the long hike back to my tent. By this time it was around noon and the hot sun added another challenging element to an already heavy pack out. Once I made it back to my tent, I packed camp up and made my way back to my truck. Based on the known weight of my pack going in and the weight of the boned out meat, my pack weighed about 130lbs.
After peeling the velvet and a few months of drying he ended up grossing a hair over 170.” Both G-2’s are split which is hard to tell in the picture.
Thanks for reading
After returning from the North a few days ahead of schedule I was already consumed with the thought of my next venture. After just arriving home from a 2 week hunt, I didn’t dare mention to my wife the idea of leaving again right away. However seeing that I still had a few days until I was scheduled to return to work I couldn’t help but think about big hairy horned bucks roaming the high country. After spending a couple days home catching up on life with my wife and children, she new something else was on my mind. Luckily having the awesome wife I do, she was fine with me sneaking away for a couple more nights.
It had been a few years since I had hunted the alpine in Early September so I was very eager to do so. I planned for a quick 2 night solo trip.
After driving, hiking, gathering some water for 2 days and setting up camp, I had a couple of hours to glass. I stayed fairly close to camp and didn’t turn anything up. Very little sleep was to be had and I was hiking again the next morning a few hours before daylight to get to where I wanted to glass first thing. As the slopes became visible with the first signs of daylight I was able to spot a few groups of does but no horns. After a while I moved spots to try to take advantage of as much prime country as I could before that 9:00ish time when everything seems to bed, as it was going to be around 30 C that day.
It was around 7:30am when the sun was already becoming hot enough that I knew I was running out of prime time, that I spotted 2 bucks traveling away from me about 1.5 km away. I had just enough time to get the spotter on them to tell that one was a shooter, before they disappeared into the timberline. At that point based on where they were headed and the time of day I was skeptical on even making a move on them. I decided that he was a good buck and I had nothing better to do in the heat of the day than to head their direction. It took me about 2 hours of hiking and scaling rocks until I was above where I thought they disappeared on me that morning. By this point it was around 10am and the temps where rising. While having a snack I picked apart every narrow opening I could see through the trees on the edges of the open alpine. To my disbelief I was able to pick out the body of a deer bedded directly below the rising sun in the shade of the timber. Glassing into the sun at a shaded timbered slope is quite challenging so I had to move to get a different angle. After getting the spotter out I confirmed it was the buck I was after and his buddy was also with him deeper into the timber, barely visible.
After going back for my rifle and setting up a rest on my pack I had a 390 yard down hill quartering-to shot on the bedded buck. It was not ideal but well within my comfortable range. I took the shot and saw him tumble down a rockslide out of his bed.
https://i.postimg.cc/3JPQc01w/324104-CB-997-C-4289-BFC3-5-B39-E233-D0-A3.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
This is what I walked down to. I made quick work of boning him out and started the long hike back to my tent. By this time it was around noon and the hot sun added another challenging element to an already heavy pack out. Once I made it back to my tent, I packed camp up and made my way back to my truck. Based on the known weight of my pack going in and the weight of the boned out meat, my pack weighed about 130lbs.
After peeling the velvet and a few months of drying he ended up grossing a hair over 170.” Both G-2’s are split which is hard to tell in the picture.
Thanks for reading