Deaddog
02-26-2012, 01:59 PM
Well, finally had some downtime to put together my hunting from last season. The season started off as it always does with a trip up the river with Riverjet Adventures, our numbers were less this year with four of us doing the main trip, a fifth fellow(who is camera shy) joined up later in the trip. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
We arrived in mid-September to find the rut in full swing,our first day in we set up a main camp, no sooner was it set up than anotherboat full of hunters pulled in to our camp, they had been hoping to camp in thesame spot as us. As they were planning on hunting sheep and elk in a differentlocation than us, we offered to share the camp as we would only be back to maincamp every fourth or fifth day. So ourcamp immediately doubled in size!! Turned out to be a decent bunch of guys and it worked out well over thenext two and a half weeks. Our first dayout had us backpack in for about seven hours to our spike camp, as we arrivedat our camp (Darren’s camp, named after a now deceased hunting partner of ours)we took off our packs and began to glass, we had one new member of the partywith us, he had hunted up the tuchodi for the past two years , however in thenext ten minutes he saw more game than he had in two years of prior hunting,below us was a bull moose with three cows, three different groups of elk, eachwith young bulls and in the distance two legal bulls, to set the mood in thefar distance a pack of wolves began to howl….. This is what life is supposed tobe about. For the remainder of the day we established camp and glassed. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
The next morning we arose to the bugling of elk, we had a quick coffee and set off, my partner had never shot a bull elk before, he had been with me the year before and had missed a decent bull. We focused on a bull that was bugling about five hundred yards from camp. Over thenext hour we moved in on him slowly, finally bringing him out into the open at about 250 yards, however he would not turn broadside and stayed focused on us,my partner Rick made the wise choice not to take a risky shot and we watched the bull move off with his cows. Circling back we headed off for the day, as we moved back into the country we spotted a bull many miles away on an open hill, Rick asked if we should go after him, me in my typical lazy manner told him it was way too far away, as we continued on we bugled in another legal bull, however again he did not present a decent shot At 4pm that afternoon we were on the open hill thatI had previously said was too far away, sure enough the bull was there and we bugled him in to 100 yards where Rick made a good shot and put him away.. His first bull elk was down … I apologize for the crappy video as I was just learning to work my camera. After dealing with the bull, we put half in a tree and the other half on our backs and began to work back to camp. Contacting the other two members of our party on the radio we found that they too had shot a six point bull.. DAY ONE and a DOUBLE HEADER!! (They had also missed a six point bull as well!) We were off to a great start. We arrived back at camp tired and sore at1230. (I passed up a legal six point at two hundred yards on the way back as I was too tired to deal with it!!) Day three found us off to gather the rest of our meat and bring it back to spike camp, day four had us packing meat again back down to the river. We took a break for day five and then headed back up the mountain to get the rest of the meat…much to our chagrin we found two younger grizz had climbed (clawed) their way up the meat poles, reached out and opened up our meat bags, we lost a fair bit, somewhat dejected we went to bed , arising early the next morning we packed the remainder down to the river…ONLY to find that another grizz (sow and cub) had tried the same tactic,they also got a bag of meat. Needless to say we were not happy. We fixed up the meat pole as best we could ( we had used the same pole for the last five years with no problem) We then headed back into the mountains, the next few days found us with lots of encounters, five point bulls called into 7 paces, six point bulls that just didn’t work out. I missed a nice six point on a shot at two hundred yards, he was going away from me and I probably should not have shot. As the trip wore on we woreout! Finally we decided one more day and we would head back to the river to meet our fifth guy, as luck would have it we were able to get in on a cow and I took her as my wife had left instructions that meat better becoming home! Moving back to the river we took a day to recover, we placed the meat up popular trees about 30 feet up.The next day we crossed the river and were able to have our fifth member shoot a nice six point bull, crossing back over the tuchodi with loaded packs was interesting to say the least. Arriving at camp we discovered an animal had climbed the 30 feet and took another smallbag of meat!!***** It was a great trip, with five animals being taken, numerous chances, we passed on Bull Moose (they were 50 inch plus and we were too lazy to pack them!) and saw hundreds of elk, we had four of the five members of ourparty shoot their first bull elk. Thanks again to Kevin at riverjet for once again getting us into the zone and making the trip one for the books. Needless to say I am booked again and cannot wait till I get “home” on the tuchodi….. My season continued with a trip to Kyrgyzstan,however I will place that write up in the out of province hunting section, hopeyou enjoy the pics.. Jim
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
We arrived in mid-September to find the rut in full swing,our first day in we set up a main camp, no sooner was it set up than anotherboat full of hunters pulled in to our camp, they had been hoping to camp in thesame spot as us. As they were planning on hunting sheep and elk in a differentlocation than us, we offered to share the camp as we would only be back to maincamp every fourth or fifth day. So ourcamp immediately doubled in size!! Turned out to be a decent bunch of guys and it worked out well over thenext two and a half weeks. Our first dayout had us backpack in for about seven hours to our spike camp, as we arrivedat our camp (Darren’s camp, named after a now deceased hunting partner of ours)we took off our packs and began to glass, we had one new member of the partywith us, he had hunted up the tuchodi for the past two years , however in thenext ten minutes he saw more game than he had in two years of prior hunting,below us was a bull moose with three cows, three different groups of elk, eachwith young bulls and in the distance two legal bulls, to set the mood in thefar distance a pack of wolves began to howl….. This is what life is supposed tobe about. For the remainder of the day we established camp and glassed. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)
The next morning we arose to the bugling of elk, we had a quick coffee and set off, my partner had never shot a bull elk before, he had been with me the year before and had missed a decent bull. We focused on a bull that was bugling about five hundred yards from camp. Over thenext hour we moved in on him slowly, finally bringing him out into the open at about 250 yards, however he would not turn broadside and stayed focused on us,my partner Rick made the wise choice not to take a risky shot and we watched the bull move off with his cows. Circling back we headed off for the day, as we moved back into the country we spotted a bull many miles away on an open hill, Rick asked if we should go after him, me in my typical lazy manner told him it was way too far away, as we continued on we bugled in another legal bull, however again he did not present a decent shot At 4pm that afternoon we were on the open hill thatI had previously said was too far away, sure enough the bull was there and we bugled him in to 100 yards where Rick made a good shot and put him away.. His first bull elk was down … I apologize for the crappy video as I was just learning to work my camera. After dealing with the bull, we put half in a tree and the other half on our backs and began to work back to camp. Contacting the other two members of our party on the radio we found that they too had shot a six point bull.. DAY ONE and a DOUBLE HEADER!! (They had also missed a six point bull as well!) We were off to a great start. We arrived back at camp tired and sore at1230. (I passed up a legal six point at two hundred yards on the way back as I was too tired to deal with it!!) Day three found us off to gather the rest of our meat and bring it back to spike camp, day four had us packing meat again back down to the river. We took a break for day five and then headed back up the mountain to get the rest of the meat…much to our chagrin we found two younger grizz had climbed (clawed) their way up the meat poles, reached out and opened up our meat bags, we lost a fair bit, somewhat dejected we went to bed , arising early the next morning we packed the remainder down to the river…ONLY to find that another grizz (sow and cub) had tried the same tactic,they also got a bag of meat. Needless to say we were not happy. We fixed up the meat pole as best we could ( we had used the same pole for the last five years with no problem) We then headed back into the mountains, the next few days found us with lots of encounters, five point bulls called into 7 paces, six point bulls that just didn’t work out. I missed a nice six point on a shot at two hundred yards, he was going away from me and I probably should not have shot. As the trip wore on we woreout! Finally we decided one more day and we would head back to the river to meet our fifth guy, as luck would have it we were able to get in on a cow and I took her as my wife had left instructions that meat better becoming home! Moving back to the river we took a day to recover, we placed the meat up popular trees about 30 feet up.The next day we crossed the river and were able to have our fifth member shoot a nice six point bull, crossing back over the tuchodi with loaded packs was interesting to say the least. Arriving at camp we discovered an animal had climbed the 30 feet and took another smallbag of meat!!***** It was a great trip, with five animals being taken, numerous chances, we passed on Bull Moose (they were 50 inch plus and we were too lazy to pack them!) and saw hundreds of elk, we had four of the five members of ourparty shoot their first bull elk. Thanks again to Kevin at riverjet for once again getting us into the zone and making the trip one for the books. Needless to say I am booked again and cannot wait till I get “home” on the tuchodi….. My season continued with a trip to Kyrgyzstan,however I will place that write up in the out of province hunting section, hopeyou enjoy the pics.. Jim
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytvUOaKdVjQ)