Huntingonthebrain
09-23-2010, 02:13 PM
My Brother and I planned on hunting Tuesday to Saturday this week. If we got an animal down the plan was to bring it home and hunt for his moose draw with archery gear.
It all started with the drive up. We could see snow still in the mountains and the nasty fog that accompanied it. With the forecast calling for better weather our hopes were high.
We reached our camping spot and found that the melting snow was making it not only very muddy, but hard to find a dry place to put our tent. After setting up our camp and getting our gear together, we set out for an evening scout/hunt.
There wasn't a breath of wind and you could feel the moisture in the air. The melting snow made it very muddy for quadding, so slow and steady was the ticket. There was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground so it made tracking of recent game easy. However the only real tracks we were seeing were bear! Black and Grizzly bear tracks littered every quad trail we went down. With no sign of elk anywhere our hopes weren't as high as on the drive in.
With the recent fog in the air and the fact that the elk were't calling due to the weather it was going to make hunting very hard indeed.
Once arriving back to camp we made some soup to warm up and talked with our neighbor who was in a trailer next to us. He warned us of a bear in the area that was a bit of a pain that had been scared away before. With that we went to bed. At about 1am I was awakened to a sound near my feet. The moon was full and it was very bright in the tent as a result. I sat straight up and could see the tent wall cave in towards me. Immediately I thought bear and began to yell..."get out of here, get out of here" reaching for my gun I loaded a shell from the magazine and again yelled..."get out of here"...as the bear ran away. In the commotion my brother finally woke up and asked me why I was yelling. I said " A BEAR WAS TRYING TO COME IN!" We grabbed to 2million spot light and peaked out of our tent shining the light back and forth. Seeing nothing we walked around to check tracks in the snow, finding black bear tracks on my side of the tent! We also could see rips in the tent from the bear!
I couldn't sleep a wink after that, but did manage to stay warm in my sleeping bag until our alarm went off at 5am for hunting. I could't have been happier to get out of the tent and away from the camp.
We got high on the mountain and waited for the sun to come up. The fog lifted and the sun was shining! We could see as far as the eye could see. We glassed the area high and low and found a group of elk high on the mountain.
We quickly made our way over the base of the mountain the elk were on and made a game plan as they were over 2km straight up. Closing the distance we could here the bull bugling on his own which helped with direction and distance. Once in "HIS" comfort zone, we began cow calling. He responded but didn't come in to us. So after some time we let out a small bugle and this got him fired up! A short time later he came trotting down the mountain towards us and I got ready for the shot. At 120 yards I had a broad side shot and made it count. He only went 10 yards and fell over.
After some high '5's we went to see what we had gotten. A nice bull well deserved. We de-boned it out and after some sore backs made it down the mountain safely. We had shot the bull at 11am and down to the quad by 4:30pm.
I'm thinking that will be the last time I sleep in a tent in the mountains so I guess i'll be looking for something with 4 HARD walls for next year!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4263.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4262.jpg
TENT
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4229.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4241.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4251.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4256.jpg
It all started with the drive up. We could see snow still in the mountains and the nasty fog that accompanied it. With the forecast calling for better weather our hopes were high.
We reached our camping spot and found that the melting snow was making it not only very muddy, but hard to find a dry place to put our tent. After setting up our camp and getting our gear together, we set out for an evening scout/hunt.
There wasn't a breath of wind and you could feel the moisture in the air. The melting snow made it very muddy for quadding, so slow and steady was the ticket. There was a fresh blanket of snow on the ground so it made tracking of recent game easy. However the only real tracks we were seeing were bear! Black and Grizzly bear tracks littered every quad trail we went down. With no sign of elk anywhere our hopes weren't as high as on the drive in.
With the recent fog in the air and the fact that the elk were't calling due to the weather it was going to make hunting very hard indeed.
Once arriving back to camp we made some soup to warm up and talked with our neighbor who was in a trailer next to us. He warned us of a bear in the area that was a bit of a pain that had been scared away before. With that we went to bed. At about 1am I was awakened to a sound near my feet. The moon was full and it was very bright in the tent as a result. I sat straight up and could see the tent wall cave in towards me. Immediately I thought bear and began to yell..."get out of here, get out of here" reaching for my gun I loaded a shell from the magazine and again yelled..."get out of here"...as the bear ran away. In the commotion my brother finally woke up and asked me why I was yelling. I said " A BEAR WAS TRYING TO COME IN!" We grabbed to 2million spot light and peaked out of our tent shining the light back and forth. Seeing nothing we walked around to check tracks in the snow, finding black bear tracks on my side of the tent! We also could see rips in the tent from the bear!
I couldn't sleep a wink after that, but did manage to stay warm in my sleeping bag until our alarm went off at 5am for hunting. I could't have been happier to get out of the tent and away from the camp.
We got high on the mountain and waited for the sun to come up. The fog lifted and the sun was shining! We could see as far as the eye could see. We glassed the area high and low and found a group of elk high on the mountain.
We quickly made our way over the base of the mountain the elk were on and made a game plan as they were over 2km straight up. Closing the distance we could here the bull bugling on his own which helped with direction and distance. Once in "HIS" comfort zone, we began cow calling. He responded but didn't come in to us. So after some time we let out a small bugle and this got him fired up! A short time later he came trotting down the mountain towards us and I got ready for the shot. At 120 yards I had a broad side shot and made it count. He only went 10 yards and fell over.
After some high '5's we went to see what we had gotten. A nice bull well deserved. We de-boned it out and after some sore backs made it down the mountain safely. We had shot the bull at 11am and down to the quad by 4:30pm.
I'm thinking that will be the last time I sleep in a tent in the mountains so I guess i'll be looking for something with 4 HARD walls for next year!
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4263.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4262.jpg
TENT
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4229.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4241.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4251.jpg
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c300/smithmp5/2010%20Sept%20Bull%20Elk/IMG_4256.jpg