Pemby_mess
09-09-2012, 08:48 PM
So I am trying to get back into hunting after doing some as a kid with my dad and as a young adult both with minor success.
A friend of mine (almost completely green) and I decided to go for a four point Muley this last week in 3-32. It may have been a little ambitious in hindsight but I think we learned a ton and had a great time even after suffering a bit.
Im here to share our experience and to appeal to the experience of the board here to help us hasten the learning curve.
We drove in as far as we could get on Tuesday afternoon, up to about 1600m or so and started hiking. Few Kms down the trail we ran into a doe and another one soon after. We already knew that the big buys were up high so we started heading straight up through aspens and meadows. Tons of fresh sign got us pretty excited. Made camp at 2100m and were up before first light glassin all the south facing basins from the ridge.
By 10am had seen nothing so we decided to move west down the ridge. We were out of water so had to move quickly into a northerly basin that held some. Sat quietly at the creek for a while and nothing so again started westerly again on the ridge. Ran into a great big flock of ptarmigan so took a couple of those with the .22 to supplement our MH dinners. Soon after around 4pm as we were back glassing one of the basins off the ridge, we scared up a doe and two point buck in their bed of krumholz. The buck stood there 30 yds away staring at us broadside for a couple minutes before taking off down the cliffs into the basin we had just been searching.
To be honest, if he had been in season we probably would have taken him then and there. So off we go again searching for something bigger and sure enough as we're walking a group of three bucks is walking up a scree slope below us towards the ridge. I immediately hit the deck and told by buddy to get down. At this point they saw us and took off into the basin. There was an older buck, at least three points but could have been greater, wish I could upload the photo we took cause he looked massive and two smaller bucks two point or greater.
If we had seen them earlier we may have been able to set up for a real close shot on the ridge. Alas we spooked them enough that they took off around the next ridge system. We attempted a stalk to get a closer look at the bigger guy, but we couldn't find them so as darkness set in we retreated to the valley for dinner and bed.
Next day we were reluctant to haul our sorry asses up the same ridge system and wanted to see some new country anyway so we set off on a 20km round trip up into a high pass at about 2000m via a new ridge system.
Again lots of fresh sign but no deer. Buy the time we got to the pass the only tracks we were seeing was grizz and lots of wolves. There were lots of trails up high in the scree however.
We were both pretty bushed at this point and decided to hike down the 10k to the truck seeing an other doe at 1800m beside a creek. We were back at the truck late thurs night. All in all we saw 4 bucks, 5 does, one possible shooter in two and half days - about 35kms of ground and quite a bit of elevation.
We learned that to ensure success in the future dealing with this kind of terrain one of us will probably need to get a quality spotting scope, and both of us will need to get comfortable taking long shots.
One thing that made me uncomfortable, is that we couldn't seem to locate the deer without them seeing us at the same time. Is there anything we could do in the future to improve this?
Were we covering too much ground? Not enough?
Really appreciate any and all help and/or tips you guys are able to provide. Thanks.
A friend of mine (almost completely green) and I decided to go for a four point Muley this last week in 3-32. It may have been a little ambitious in hindsight but I think we learned a ton and had a great time even after suffering a bit.
Im here to share our experience and to appeal to the experience of the board here to help us hasten the learning curve.
We drove in as far as we could get on Tuesday afternoon, up to about 1600m or so and started hiking. Few Kms down the trail we ran into a doe and another one soon after. We already knew that the big buys were up high so we started heading straight up through aspens and meadows. Tons of fresh sign got us pretty excited. Made camp at 2100m and were up before first light glassin all the south facing basins from the ridge.
By 10am had seen nothing so we decided to move west down the ridge. We were out of water so had to move quickly into a northerly basin that held some. Sat quietly at the creek for a while and nothing so again started westerly again on the ridge. Ran into a great big flock of ptarmigan so took a couple of those with the .22 to supplement our MH dinners. Soon after around 4pm as we were back glassing one of the basins off the ridge, we scared up a doe and two point buck in their bed of krumholz. The buck stood there 30 yds away staring at us broadside for a couple minutes before taking off down the cliffs into the basin we had just been searching.
To be honest, if he had been in season we probably would have taken him then and there. So off we go again searching for something bigger and sure enough as we're walking a group of three bucks is walking up a scree slope below us towards the ridge. I immediately hit the deck and told by buddy to get down. At this point they saw us and took off into the basin. There was an older buck, at least three points but could have been greater, wish I could upload the photo we took cause he looked massive and two smaller bucks two point or greater.
If we had seen them earlier we may have been able to set up for a real close shot on the ridge. Alas we spooked them enough that they took off around the next ridge system. We attempted a stalk to get a closer look at the bigger guy, but we couldn't find them so as darkness set in we retreated to the valley for dinner and bed.
Next day we were reluctant to haul our sorry asses up the same ridge system and wanted to see some new country anyway so we set off on a 20km round trip up into a high pass at about 2000m via a new ridge system.
Again lots of fresh sign but no deer. Buy the time we got to the pass the only tracks we were seeing was grizz and lots of wolves. There were lots of trails up high in the scree however.
We were both pretty bushed at this point and decided to hike down the 10k to the truck seeing an other doe at 1800m beside a creek. We were back at the truck late thurs night. All in all we saw 4 bucks, 5 does, one possible shooter in two and half days - about 35kms of ground and quite a bit of elevation.
We learned that to ensure success in the future dealing with this kind of terrain one of us will probably need to get a quality spotting scope, and both of us will need to get comfortable taking long shots.
One thing that made me uncomfortable, is that we couldn't seem to locate the deer without them seeing us at the same time. Is there anything we could do in the future to improve this?
Were we covering too much ground? Not enough?
Really appreciate any and all help and/or tips you guys are able to provide. Thanks.