Rocksteady's 2010 Hunting adventures [Archive]

rocksteady

09-08-2010, 08:42 AM

So, for my first day of hunting September 4, I gathered up all of my archery gear and went ot one of my favorite areas..

Wandered around for a few hours, did not locate any critters on my side of the river...However on the far side I saw 4 whitey bucks, a herd of elk (1 decent bull) and a bull moose... Bad part was, private land with no hunting allowed :confused: Oh well....

Went out with Ddog on the saem nite (I think), went to one of his favorite areas, saw a couple of whitey bucks (300 or maore yards away, again on private land that they do not allow hunting....

Did not hunt on Sunday....

On Monday, slept in (again) but decided to go "scouting".. Went to another high elevation area to look around... Saw couple groups of muley does but no bucks.... On the way out, got to the valley bottom, looked up on a steep cut block, saw an orange arse when I stepped out to take a leak.... Glassed the orange spot, sure enough BIG cow elk... Watched her for about 10 minutes, she fed along then disappeared into a dip at the top of the block....

Got all geared up, the wind was right, heading cross hill, put the stalk on.... About a 400 yard hike straight up the cut block... Got to the little ridge going into the dip, had the crossbow at the ready, safety off, tip toe, tip toe... Alll of a sudden here is this elk broadside, looking at me... No time to be able to range find it... Big cow, looks like 40 yards, put the 40 pin on her and pulled the trigger.... Clank.... Over its back into the rocks :confused::confused:

It was a small calf :cry: that I did not see from way down the hill. Because of the size difference I had misjudged the distance... The big cow was standing about 25 yards to my left, she was bedded down....
Found my arrow, clean miss...

Went out again that night with Ddog, saw a few mulies (does) and 2 big cow elk, but could not get shots at them... The one cow was huge..she looked like a Clydesdale, the other one with her was fair sized too...

Oh well, that's why they call it hunting...

Had personal committments last night, so could not go, but plan to be out there tonight....

Stay tuned....

rocksteady

09-09-2010, 08:11 AM

Went out with the Ddogler again last night, went to one of his areas, did some calling, yada yada....He looks at another cutblock about a km or so away....BIG BULL !!!!

We discuss it for about 30 seconds, back to teh truck, boot up the road, get to teh road leading into the block, get out and grab our gear....

Damn, elk already heading up the hill....

Cow, 4 point bull, cow, calf, spike bull, calf....

Look through the trees down the road...Big bull on the road.... We figure that the big bull will take the same path as the others so we wait.....and wait...and wait...

Finally he tells me tha tif I am gonna do something I had better do it quick....Getting dark...

I beetle down the road, come around the corner...calf standing in the middle of the road :( busted !!! Lower side of the road goes a few cows/calfs and the big bull....Into some thick regen...

I get to the edge of the landing and get busy on the duelling hoochies (I pack 2 Mamas and 1 baby Hootchie), occassional spike yelp on the reed and poor bugles (want to sound like a medium bull, non perfect notes, so tha ti don't scare teh big boy into thinking there is a bigger bull to take his harem)....

After a few minutes of this I hear crunching in the bush....Buig bull walks to teh edge of the regen and just pokes his head out to see what all teh noise is about.... Damn...75 yards or so with a straight on shot... Not gonna happen with a bow :(

Anyways, messed around with the elk til pitch black and left when a grey cow did the alarm gronk at me....

They were not scared so either Ddog will hopefully put an arrow in one this morning or I will be there for first light tomorrow, hoping that the big boy is a 6....Could not tell last night, he was moving an it was a little dusky...

So close and yet so far.... Got to love elk hunting:mrgreen:

trigger

09-09-2010, 09:15 AM

great start start rocksteady. I will be tuning in for updates. Good luck and be safe

rocksteady

09-10-2010, 05:32 PM

Went out for the opening day of rifle, snuck into the area where I had the mature bull playing with me from the regen (couple days ago during bow season). Was in there just after 6:00, grey light around 6:15, decent light by 6:30..There he was standing broadside at about 150 in the wide open...Bino check, counld not tell if he was a 5 or 6 (regen in the background).....Put the spotting scope on him, clean 5, no doubts....

Oh well, season could have been over by 6:31, but not meant to be....Its good to know tha the is a clean 5 though, now I won't waste any time trying to follow him around, time to go to secret spot #2 tomorrow...

Stay tuned...:mrgreen:

Everett

09-10-2010, 07:32 PM

Wife and I had the same deal this morning up Perry clean 5 standing broadside at 300 or so giving us all day to set up the scope to count. Supposedly Elk don't read the regs but after 5 years hunting the trench I have my doubts.
Your right though who wants Elk season to end on the 10th been waiting all year need to drag it out for a few weeks.

rocksteady

09-14-2010, 06:29 PM

Since my last post I have been hitting it hard morning and night, the hunts just seem to blur together....

Been up at 4:00, out the door and in the bush by 5:45 , decent light around 6:30....

No big bulls, no cows in the low lands (for seniors), no spikes (for me), been putting on a tonne of miles and not seeing the elk like usual.

No bugling is going on whatsoever..... Banging my head against the wall.. My past honey holes don't even have fresh tracks in them...???? I think I got BrotherJack syndrome (J/K BJ)....

Seen a few whitey bucks (no decent shooters, that I don't want to pack 3 or 4 km) and some weiner muleys... But the elk are being just frigging weird??? Not feeling too confident right now :icon_frow:icon_frow

Have shot a couple grouse and that's about it ... WTF ???

Not sure if it's the moon, wether, color of my socks, what type of beer I am drinking??? I just don't know....

The Dawg

09-14-2010, 06:50 PM

Sounds like the 5 days moosinaround and I had in chetwynd last week.

Lots of sign, but they were not bugling at all.
Don't know what it was either....

Keep at it, you've earned a big one this year :)

JDR

09-14-2010, 06:52 PM

My buddy and his partner just got back from East Koots and said there was no bugling whatsoever. Girls not ready yet perhaps??

Everett

09-14-2010, 07:08 PM

Well Rock you are making me happy thought I was losing my touch we have had one bull bugling so far this season. The places that always have Elk have none we have seen one 5pt and he would not respond to calls either cow or the bugle. Think its going to be a late rut. Could have something to do with how green everything is and the amount of water around.

J_T

09-14-2010, 08:23 PM

Rock, we had bugling every day during the early bow season. (Sometimes they'd bugle until after noon) One fellow bugled in and took a nice 6 pt on the 5th. So they have been and continue to bugle.

rocksteady

09-15-2010, 09:39 AM

I had bugling happening in the early bow season as well, but nothing lately....

I think the first rut may have come and gone, plus, as Everett says the amount of widespread feed and water may be influencing the elk locations.....

I just don't know :confused::confused::confused:

Rodd

09-15-2010, 10:19 AM

I had one bugling, and screaming mad on the morning of the 12th, and I couldn't cross the river, to get at him, and he was with his harem of about 11 cows&calfs. Only heard a few single bugles other than that, and they are in the dark early in the morning. The big Bull shut right up about a half hour after good light. I've been on a similar mission as you, from what I've read. The way I figure it, the rut is on, and the big guys are visiting and hanging with the Cows at night in the feeding areas checking their staus of estrous, and maybe the cows are waiting to be bred later knowing this winter is going to be a long one... Who Knows.... I'm just going to keep buging them, and he'll eventually make the mistake I'm looking for. Could have shot him once, but i couldn't get a clear count in the early morning light. Of my last 4 bulls I got one on the 10th, one on the 13th, one on the 14th, and one on the 18th. My Dad (oldtimer) told me the peak of the 1st rut around here is Sept. 22nd. JMO.... Good luck and keep us posted!

rocksteady

09-21-2010, 01:16 PM

Been hairstraight back for the past few days....

Friday, one buddy got a 6 by 7...
Saturday, I shot a 2 point whitey,
Sunday, other buddy shot a 6 by 6....
Yesterday I took a big cow,,,,

Details to follow later once I get back to feeling human again...

Wore out from hunting, packing, quartering, skinning, doing laundry.....Will update you one I am back to normal...

trigger

09-21-2010, 01:45 PM

good to hear rock. cant wait to hear all about it

Amphibious

09-21-2010, 01:55 PM

neeeeeeeeed pics!

nano

09-21-2010, 03:39 PM

Congrats Rocksteady!

sawmill

09-22-2010, 03:19 AM

So..............tell me a story Mike!

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 08:55 AM

Okay, thanks for bearing with me all, my brain/body are finally starting to recover...somewhat...

Okay, so last Friday up at 04:00, it's pissing outside and windy...HMmmm.Not looking forward to a walk in the woods.... So drive out of town to a little area that me and a buddy hunt successfully... Not raining, not windy..perfect....Get to the exact spot and there is my partner P and another friend from the LML (who I have hunted with before) just getting geared and good to go....

So we have the usual BS, planning,, complaining talk and then P asks me which way I want to go.... I say North... He says, they will go South, we will meet at the viewpoint in a few hours......

I scoot into the viewpoint in the dark, set up the spotting scope, watch a cow and calf in a meadow at about 1000 + yards (no bulls), so I figure no use following them, not cow season yet.... I head North, walking the break of the timber/meadow which goes for a long ways before it fades to rock... I get about 1.5 km from the viewpoint, creeping up on a few whiteys (no bucks) when just up the ridge I hear 4 gunshots in rapid succession... I was getting ready to return fire, they sounded that close...:confused::confused: I sit and wait a minute and another shot goes off.....

I wait a few minutes, wander over the ridge, investigating what went down.....Could not find anything... A few minutes later P calls me on my cell (He left his in the truck, so had to hike back and get it, so he could call me).... so 30 minutes after the last shot, he finally tells me that R has shot a 6 by 7 bull and they need some help.... He describes where they were at and I headed that way (another road closure BTW:?)

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 09:07 AM

So I get to P&R and get the whole story...They heard the 4 gunshots, were wandering slowly back to the trucks from the viewpoint (they coould not find me cause I was not there and P did not have his cell) when they had about 30 cows/calves and this guy walk across the road single file.... so they swung way wide down wind, knowing where the elk were going to try to go to....The boys got into the bush on a main trail and the herd walked by at about 25 yards...nose to tail.....BANG !!! the big bull is hit, runs up the hill about 50 yards, does the flipflop over backwards down the hill...DONE...300 WSM in both lungs at 25 yards....

So when I get there we try to move this bad boy, we know we only have a couple hundred yards til the road closure ends how bad could it be with 3 of us ?????? :neutral: Way too big...

So we buck him in half, cut a couple of fir trees to lash to the antlers and hinds so that we can use them as handles to drag the elk out.....2 hours or so later...we are loaded in the truck and ready to roll (Sorry no field ficks yet, as they are on R's camera)..... Get it to P's garage, start a skinning away, have it all nicely cleaned up and ready for the butcher by 4:00 ish......BTW, R left back to the LML at 12:00 cause he had to work the next day...:eek::eek:

So here he is on the ride to the butcher....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/100_0983.jpg

Weighed in at 490 lbs a the butcher... Good Bull...

Now for another story.....

d6dan

09-22-2010, 09:20 AM

Thats a Keeper!!:-D Thanks for the pic and story RS..

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 09:32 AM

Pick up P the next morning we are going to another area to look for spikes/big bulls.... Arrive in the bush by 06:00, strategize in the dark...we split up and watch over some meadows til 07:30. Sometimes you can catch the elk crossing the meadows in the first light, other days they are already across in the dark (this morning it was in the dark)....

We meet up after 07:30, hike up onto some ridges that have dog-hair thick fir regen on them that it would be hard for a rabbit to fit... We split up, sit about 100 yards apart and just watch... P had a 5 by blob bull come walking by him at 30 yards.... I call it a blob, as he described it as an antler that came down the side of his face (drop tine like) to a huge water drop shaped ball.....Close but not a 6...

We are walking the ridges, doing a little bit of hootchy mama calls for about an hour, no luck....

On the way back to the truck, we hear a bunch of coyotes yapping/barking etc on another ridge on the far side of the meadow... We sneak to just inside the timber on the edge of the meadow and look for the yotes...Nothing.. P asks me if I have my rabbt calll with me...Course not its elk season..... I grabbed one of my elk reeds and figured if I try to do my best somethig is dying call, they may not know its supposed to be an elk call...:mrgreen:

Take a big breath and startt the serenade of death....Within 2 notes there are 3 coyotes coming full speed across teh field from about 350 yards away, almost knocking each other over to see who gets to me first....

They hold up at about 100 yards and boom....DUH !!! I missed....Go and look and see a big ripper of a bullet track in between where the front feet of the yote shoud have been standing (was looking straight on at me)....

Oh well, keep walking back to the truck, go naother couple hundred meters and I look and here comes a whitey out of the edge of the timber, tail springing, coming right at us.....He stops at about 100 or so yards and I figure, well may as well take him, easy meat, drive right to him, tender young buck....

Laid down with the bipod...X-hairs perfect - BOOM !!!!

Did not move/flinch ?????

Reload, same sight picture - BOOM !!!! Does a little hop, runs about 50 yards and stops... P says my rifle is shooting terrible and he thinks I hit way low on the body (foot maybe???? WTF???)

We sneak over to get a better vantage point in the field, I locate the buck, but when I look through my scope it is totally FROSTED internally.... Frick !!!!!

SO I borrow P 7MM using my scope and bipod as a rest, aim at the deer, who is broad side at about 120 yards and pull the trigger.... off he goes hippity hopping with the white tail giving me the bird.....Right off til he hits the timber.....

We go look and do locate some blood between where he had stood betweem my first 2 shots and when I used P's 7MM.... Not much, just enough to follow across the open field...... After we get to teh shot where I shot at it with the 7, we find blood and food material...SHAT !!! gut shot....:evil::evil:

We keep trracking til the edge of teh timber and the buck stands up, ask P to finish him off as I am unsure where my rifle would hit....So 1 shot..he is down.....

Not sure which shot it was or which rifle, but found the hole to be maybe 2 inches above the belly line. So a gut shot but would not ruin any meat..... Nice little 2 point whitey...

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/IMG_0148.jpg

Less than 100 lbs a the butcher but gonna be tender...

30-06 is gonna be riding the pine til I get a new scope for it....Time to bring out the 6.5 by 55 Swede

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 09:53 AM

So, now we are on day 3 of my adventures...I think....

I pick up P and we go to an area that I had hunted with Ddog and we had seen couple of cows and a spike...Last day of spike season and Ddog was working so I figured maybe P and I could sneek in and remove the spike we had seen a few days earlier.....

When I got up that mornnig at 04:00 it was pouring rain, not just sprinkling, but pouring....:icon_frow P and I started walking some thickets on the ridges as soon as it was decent first light, bumping some cows/calves and P also say a decent bull, but could not count points.... The elk were not scared, until the damn whitetail ran through the herd at 40 miles per, snorting like idiots....:evil:

So we called it quits about 12:00 ish, as we are both soaked to the arse... We have been walking/stalking in the pouring rain for about 5 hours, so we are wet...

Get home, there is a flyer in the mail from Giant Tiger..Waterproof camo, on sale...went down, bought a set...good to go again....

After having a very hot shower, some of my wifes excellent elk chili and a quick nap, Picked up P at about 3:30, we are gonna go walk some other ridges in the rain....

We park at the end of the ridge and splitup, walking extremely slowly thorugh the bush... It took close to 2 hours to cover about 600 metres of thickets.....

Finally I came to the opposite end of the ridge we were on where I could see quite well and was glassing the meadows and cutblocks....After sitting in the rain for about 10 minutes I am sure I heard a cow chirp (but I am not sure as P and I use this as a communication signal between each other, so we know where each other are when elk are in the area).....

Sit and listen for another 5 minutes or so, hard to hear when you have the hood up on the camo, but get wet really wet when its down.....

Anyways, I finally can't stand it, grab the cell phone and call P....Its on vibrate, but.....

Anyways, on his side of the ridge, he sees a big herd of cows and calves coming down the edge of the timber, into the thick stuff right ahead of him, again, doing the nose to tail thing..... He waits it out, there is the big bull at 45 yards quartering away, starting to squeeze...BZZZZZ! BZZZZ! damn cell phone starts vibrating and the elk can hear it...they look right at him......

So on theother end it goes to voice mail, so I hang up thinign that its probably buried in his pocket to keep it dry and he will call me back once he gets it ....BANG !!!!! Holy crap, there was a shot about 150 yards away from me, up on the other finger of the ridge.....

Go grab a popcorn and a beer, this is where it gets exciting.....

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 10:10 AM

So, after the shot, my cell rings, its P and I ask him what he shot, he said a 6 by !!! Right on... I get vague directions from him and meet up with him.... We go to the spot he shot from and he shows me where the elk WERE and where he saw the bull run off to.....

We go to the place the bull was standing and we found about 3 or 4 patches of foamy lung blood about the size of a golfball and then nothing.... Found tracks where the bull was running like hell but no blood afetr about 10 feet WTF ????

So we are walking the tracks the bull does a complete 180 turn, heading back for the ridge they had come down......P says "Wouldn't it be funny if he ran into that swamp/pond ??" We chuckled....Should not have...:icon_frow

Keep following the tracks, eventually they came into an open cut block and I looked, pointed it out to P...Here was his bull...IN THE POND...:eek::eek: Dead as a dooor nail, but still in the pond...?????

P stayed with the animal, I hiked my arse back to the truck, drove it around a different road, little bit of 4 bying across a cutblock and at the pond.....

Tie up some rope, that I had in the truck, wade in up to about my knees, tie the rope around the antlers and get back to the truck to use the winch.....Could not find the winch control, til we ripped the whole freaking truck apart, basically, but oh well, now we are back on track...Not quite....

Winch rolls out nicely but won't roll in Frigg !!!!!! Hookk up the elk to the winch cable and back the truck up...Works good...

After a whole lot of back forth and manuevering, we get the bull dragged up onto teh peak of the cut bank so that we can knock the guts out and slide it into the truck....Perfect height to slide it in, should be no problem....Maybe !!!!

Get him all gutted out, whcih was a chore, cause the cold wter had caused rigor to set in, so it was difficult to open legs etc to gut....Its still raining by the way....Guts out, back the truck around, should be easy peezy for the 2 of us to slide it down a bit into the truck.....

NOT SO MUCH...... still raiining, plastic box liner, muddy booots from the swamp, 1 dose of rigor and 1 big bull = Whole lot of grunting/groaning....Finally got him half assed (no pun) onto the truck, tied him up a bit, pulle dover and back into a tree slowly to push him on the rest of the way......Still not fully loaded....

Roll up all of the winch cable around the bumper in a figure 8 pattern ( did I mention its still raining and its now pitch ass black????) Do a 4 low slow crawl across the block till we get to a steep pitch down to the road, then I let the truck get momentum and hammer on the binders....Elk slides right to teh front of the truck, but my truck is a short box and with the rigor, had some heaving/puling to do before I could close the tail gate.....

On the way home :mrgreen:

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 10:18 AM

Get to P's about 10:00 ish, string up the elk, start skinning, drinking a few beers.... Really washed it weel prior to skinning,as he had swamp/pond stuff alll over him...:x:x

We had him all skinned out by about 2:00 and then we just sat around till all teh beers were gone.....I went home about 3:0 or so had a long hot shower and went to bed....

Got up in teh morning, called P, loaded it in the truck and took him to teh butcher...

495 lbs on the hook......

Field pics suck cause it was getting dark but here is one from when we were heading to the butcher...

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/IMG_0144.jpg

We nicknamed this elk "Rambull" as we figured he was trying to do a Rambo thing, hiding in the water, breathing through a bamboo reed, hoping we would walk by and not see him.......Beer and fatigue creates some silly humour......

When P shot it, the bullet entered between 2 ribs, took out one lung and then a couple ribs on the other side....but with it being such a close shot the bullet did not have time to expand and leave a huge exit hole....it was also a high lung shot so took a while for the lung to fill with blood and the bullet was was laserbeam through the lung (pencil sized)......

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 10:19 AM

Stay tuned for Day 4..... That's the day that I got my cow with Ddog....Its another long story too...

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 10:49 AM

I am back...More coffe in...and some out too...

So Ddog picked me up at about 5:00 ish on monday night (opening day of cow/calves) as I slept in from the nights previous adventure, and missed the morning hunt....

We drive up to an area that he knows there is elk in the thick stuff...Beautiful afternoon, nice and cool, not much wind....Left the waterproof camo at home, as it is supposed to hang to dry...Bad mistake :(:(

We get to the area, Ddog goes to hide the keys to the truck, puts them in a hollow stump, but then puts a big log on them and Honk ! HONK ! HONK! HONK ! about 8 or 10 times before he can get the remote and shut them off.... What a way to start a hunt.....:rolleyes:

We split up, D goes high I go low, following some significant elk trails through the rocky ridges and fir thickets....I put some of my elk scent on my wafers on my hat (Ddog loves the smell of it...) and pull up my face mask....

Creeping along I see movement comng down the hill through the timber....Whitey doe and 2 fawns, I lean against a tree and let them come, tehy get withn about 10 yards before the doe smells me and after a couple minutes leaves in a hurry (guess she thinks it stinks too !!) As she snorts and runs up the hill, I see another deer join the bunch... I have my whitey, but wanted to get a look see if it was a buck, so that I could tell Darryl...

Sneeking along some trails, trying to get a better look I come up the backside of a small knoll and peek over the top....Here is a big cow elk standing, quartering away, looking back at me over her left shoulder....

I take the rifle off my shoulder, slip off the safety, look through teh scope, confirm its a cow and aimm between her snout and left shoulder. Drop the hammer and she dropped in her tracks, in fact she dropped so quick her head went under her shoulder and stayed there, when she fell...

I called Ddog, told him, elk down.... Been away from teh truck for maybe 15 minutes.....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/IMG_0006.jpg

Big cow, but not close to a road, so we took a few pictures (Still on his phone, so will have to get them from him)....And got to butchering....

Took aboout 45 minutes to gut and quater her and get her ready for the pack to the truck....It was about 500 yards, not too bad but it was now raining heavy and dark, glad we both had headlamps......But no Packboards (DUH)

Hind quarters over the shoulder, in the first trip, fronts in the second, head, rifle, backstraps and tenderloins in the 3rd......

All in the truck by about 09:30 ish..... Drive back to town, Ddog dropped me off, he had to get up at 2:00 AM to go to work, so I bought some brews, hung it and started cleaning and finished off the skinning......Got to bed about 2:30 or so again....

Up the next morning 09:30 ish, quick clean up of the quarters, off to the butcher... Weighed only 170 lbs but that was just front/hind quarters, I had pulled the backstraps/tenderloins, will butcher them myself. Left the spine, hide etc all in the bush so pretty well pure meat......

The bullet did its job well, 139 grain Hornady SST hit her smack dab in the middle of the neck/spine about the 3rd or 4th vertbrae from the head...Very small entrance, lots of bone damage and decent sized exit wound......

The shot was a free hand standing shot at about 80 yards or so. Neck meat was not salvageable as the shot was pretty devestating...

So now I am on a temporary shut down for filling tags, I have to wait til teh WT doe season opens, but am still gonna be Ddogs guide/sherpa/grunt/ when he gets his elk....Probably tonight, as I took last night as a rest up period....Consumed as much food as I possible could during the day to help rebuild the old body.....4 consecutive days of hiking, hauling, skinning, lack of sleep took its toll.....

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 10:52 AM

I am sure that I have missed some of the details intrying to recount 4 days of successful hunting, so don't be afraid to ask, and I can fill in any gaps.....

My Father in Law will be here tomorrow night from the West Koots, trying to get him a round head elk.....I will keep you informed as the adventures continue....

Since I have been offline for a while I am sure I have missed some important posts of successful animals by others....Good job...I will try to sort my way through them all but am still trying to play catch up....

sawmill

09-22-2010, 03:47 PM

Wow,you need a vacation dude!Great storyGetting them out is hardly ever easy is it.Wifey is buying an elk tag today but I told her no more elk hunting on a work night!Glad she made me go out Monday though,feels great to have the critter at the butchers.We`ll head out Friday evening........who knows,might get lucky again.

rocksteady

09-22-2010, 03:57 PM

Good Luck Joe... Rut seems to be turning around...The herd sizes have really increased in the last 10 days... Were cows/calves of 4 to 8 , now the herds are 20 to 30, with the big boys running the show...

Trevorg

09-22-2010, 04:18 PM

great stories, i wish i could hunt up that way, it sounds like its a fun spot.

cainer

09-22-2010, 10:08 PM

good start for ya, not so good for the elk.

rocksteady

09-23-2010, 07:56 AM

good start for ya, not so good for the elk.

Hair straight back til the season is over, elk hunting is a very bad addiction:mrgreen::mrgreen:

rocksteady

09-23-2010, 08:43 AM

Posted a pic of my whitey in the post #22....

Went out with Ddog last night, so no elk but saw a great buck, but he could not get a shot at it.... I would say it was at least a 4 point, high and wide....

Stone Sheep Steve

09-23-2010, 09:47 AM

Nice job RS!!! I was getting a little worried with the start of this thread but you turned it around....as you always seem to do:).

Always one of my favorite yearly reads!

SSS

rocksteady

09-23-2010, 11:49 AM

Nice job RS!!! I was getting a little worried with the start of this thread but you turned it around....as you always seem to do:).

Always one of my favorite yearly reads!

SSS

I was gonna try to do daily updates and keep you guys stringing along, but just could not make that happen...:confused: Too many hours of hunting with not enough hours of sleep, then trying to cram in legible thoughts on the computer...:eek:

BimmerBob

09-23-2010, 11:52 AM

Great read RS, nicely done x4 for the East Kootenay Elk Killers! Congratulations to all of you, thanks for the stories, made it seem like I was along for the hunt (in my dreams!)

trigger

09-23-2010, 11:55 AM

great read rocksteady. Sounds like a crazy but successful few days man. good for you all.

Ddog

09-24-2010, 11:10 AM

just wait,,there is more to come yet..we need a few more elk now,,err after today there is a couple more..

Kody94

09-24-2010, 12:34 PM

Just got up to speed! Congrats RS! Your energy and enthusiasm is inspiring!

Sounds like congrats to Ddog may be in order too? Let's hear the story. :)

Cheers!

rocksteady

09-24-2010, 03:16 PM

Father in law and a friend came over last night...Took them into a honey hole this morning...Put a cow on the ground by 09:00...More to follow, busy doing laundry etc ...AGAIN !!!!!:mrgreen::mrgreen:

sawmill

09-24-2010, 04:06 PM

O.K.,knock that off now!:mrgreen:
Actually from all acounts we are in for a bitch of a winter this year,heard on the radio that a guy was sking in Fernie this morning.Probably be a lot of winter kill so you might as well get while the gettin`s good and we have a big winter die off.Going out tomorrow with the wife to try punch her elk tag.

rocksteady

09-24-2010, 07:03 PM

[quote=sawmill;751996]O.K.,knock that off now!
quote]

No...You can't make me.... :-D:-D

sawmill

09-25-2010, 06:05 AM

Hey Rock,wife got a huge cow last night.:mrgreen:Butcher is gonna love us!

rocksteady

09-25-2010, 06:45 PM

Congrats Joe... You guys are gonna be rolling in elk meat ... Ooooooow...Mental Picture I just painted myself....

Went out this A.M. too snuck in on a cow/calf but the FIL was not able to drop the hammer.... Sneaky little boogers...:evil:

FIL's hunting buddy is still on cloud 9 after smacking her first elk yesterday...:mrgreen:

sawmill

09-26-2010, 05:30 AM

I`m off to to take a good kid I met on this site out for a hunt this morning.He worked with me for a few days this week,hard labour on a construction site,never wimped out,pulled his wieght as good as any man.I hope my luck holds for one more day,this guy deserves it.Keep you posted.

hunter1947

09-26-2010, 10:08 AM

Very nice bull Mike ,congrats on getting this beautiful bull http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif..

rocksteady

09-27-2010, 09:36 AM

So finally here is the story of the FIL's hunting biddies cow elk...

The threee of us (FIL, D and I) were heading into a known area for elk in the dark, when we heard a bull bugle (first unsolicited bugle I have heard all season).

We snuck into the edge of a large grassy meadow, I have had the elk come into teh meadow at first light under similar conditions... Unfortunately not this time, they skirted the edge of the meadow in the timber and were heading for the thick crap...

Once it became obvious they were not going to come to us, we did a big circle downwind, coming into the thick stuff way around from them...

We mustered together, came up with a plan and spread out and started sneeking through the snarby fir thickets.

We had not walked more than about 100 metres and I spy this cow down on the bench below the small ridge we are on....

I turn around and get D's attention, giving here the signal that I see acow and to come over to me....She starts making her way to me, I look around and see another elk, on top of the bench about 100 yards away from me....Glasses go up, spike bull....

Look back at D, she is quietly making her way to me.... Look at the cow, she is till grazing, spike bull still wher ehe was, but oh look, there's my FIL, about 60 yards away from Mr. Spike...

We make eye contact, he signals me to glass it, cause the bulls head is behind a deformed fir and he can't tell.. I signal him it is a spike bull....

D is slowly making her way to me and I am starting to get a little peeved...Hurry your arse up girl !!!

I signal her to get it in gear, as there is only avery small shooting window and the cow ain't gonna stand there forever..... What I did not know is she had also spotted the spike bull and was moving slow so as to not scare him... Good stuuf, I just wasn't sure what was taking her so long....:confused::confused:

Finally she gets to my side, both of us are kneeling down, I point out the other elkk to her.. Its a small shooting window, if the cow moves more than about 2 steps in any direction, no shot will be available, plus the bull is checking the FIL and not really sure what he is, but is starting to show a little bit of nervousness....

Finally I tell D to line up the shot, the cow is broadside... She has shot some deer but never an elk, so is very nervous.... I tell her to get on it and I will call the shot... SHe lines up on the elk... I am watching the end of the barrel swing circles like crazy, once it sets down to a tolerable wobble, I say to her, "okay, on three"... I count 1, 2,..... 3 ! BANG !!!!!!

Down goes the cow, flat onto her side....And that's where she stays:mrgreen: On teh shot the spike bull just wandered away....

Unfortunately the FIL could not see the recieving end of the action, he just saw her shoot....He comes wandering over to us asking if we got her.... Damn straight !!!

We wander down, cow is toast, perfect shot with the 6.5 right behind the shoulder...

I would say a 2.5 year old cow...Very nice teeth, blonde chin/muzzle, no evidence of ever been bred (got to check this stuff out:confused:) and no evidence of milk....

Left the FIL to guard the carcass, after gutting, and to do a little more hunting, D and I went back to town and go the quad trailer and a couple more bodies... My wife and stepson....

Pulled the trailer into the area, winched her onto the trailer with the hand winch and off to the races, back to the truck... Had her in the garage by 12:00....

Cleaned her up, let her hang and quartered...

FIL and D went home yesterday and each quarter weighed 75 lbs on his beam scale, so 300 lbs in total...

D was totally stoked, enthusiastic, grateful, happy, excited....You name it, she was it....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/rocksteadyrifle/IMG_0160.jpg

rocksteady

09-27-2010, 07:08 PM

Added pics of me and my cow....on post #27, Ddog finally figured out how to get them off his IPhone 4 whatever the hell its called...:mrgreen:

A week to send pictures...What a guy:wink::wink:

6616

09-27-2010, 10:56 PM

That's a heck of a set of whiskers you're sportin' there RS, expecting a long cold winter....?

sawmill

09-28-2010, 03:55 AM

Nice beard buddy:mrgreen:Great elk,that`s what mine was too,same age ,same wieght on the hook.My wifes is bigger,got to phone Cliff for a wieght.

rocksteady

09-28-2010, 08:11 AM

6616

09-28-2010, 09:55 AM

Started off just growing the goatee for the ZZ Top concert, have not touched the razor since.....

Just biding my time to see how long I can go before the wife snaps or she gets me in my sleep with the clippers :mrgreen::mrgreen:

SHe must be mellowing as she gets older, I figured I would have been held down and zip-zipped by now...

I wore a beard for over 20 years from the mid '70's to the mid 90's, usually trimmed to about 1" in length. Finally got rid of it when it turned white but it sure was comfortable in the winter wind.

Great hunting season you're having again Mike. Way to go. If the predictions of a severe winter turn out to be true, it will be a huge asset to the herd if we bump off a bunch of cows this fall. Need to whack some of those Whitey does as well.