huntingfool

Oh it was a fun day for sure. Neither of us have called in that many before. It just could have been a GREAT day if we'd connected a few times. Beats workin!

Most of the grocery store butchers will save it for you if you ask them. Usually it costs like 10-30 cents a pound but Albertson's has been giving it to me for free. Very nice of them!

Well, here's a recap of our elk season. My dad and his hunting buddy Greg got 5B south bull tags this year, and I had the late cow hunt in 5B south. We are familiar with the unit and have our usual "hot spot" but due to various circumstances, we camped and hunted a new area this year (at least for the bull hunt, not to be done again). Anyway, a family friend who used to cowboy in the area showed my dad a spot that looked great. Scouting produced lots of elk and a number of bulls, right up thru the weekend before the hunt. They were both excited to finally get bull tags again, and had taken the whole season off. A little background before we start, we are all meat hunters who also enjoy a good set of antlers. We put in for cow second choice and usually get cows every other year. In my family there are 4 of us who put in so we get at least one cow about every year. Anyway, we almost always fill our elk tags, there have been a very few blemishes. However, Greg is about the most unlucky hunter any of us have known. We bag animals more often than not, but he usually goes home empty handed. If he's hunting cows, he sees bulls. He'll jump animals and hear shots from where they ran. He's just unlucky. DAY 1 Anyway, season opener comes and the bull hunt is on. Everybody's excited. Much to our dismay, however, opening morning the spot was swarming with people. It seemed like the majority of the tags were hunting right where we were. Twice there were hunters right where my dad wanted to hunt, and he glassed a bunch more. My dad and my brother (playing guide) saw five bulls the first day, one whopper a LOOONG way off, and that was it besides a handful of deer. They couldn't have shot any of the bulls. Greg and his son Andy saw about ten cows and a bunch of antelope. My sister and I hiked around all day to see what we could se, and all we saw were some antelope, 6 cows, and one decent six point bull. Tracks and poop suggested there had been a lot of elk in the area recently, but nobody was seeing many animals. We were kinda missing our old spot but with all the sign, decided to give it another day. Day 2 My brother left that night, so next day I was with my old man. Same thing, we get to where we want to set up and somebody's already there. Move to another and get out and hike. LOTS of sign and no elk. Saw a couple deer. The only elk we saw that day was what looked like a good five point in the back of a truck Well we were bummed getting back to camp. Greg and Andy weren't back so we got a fire going. About fifteen minutes later it started spitting snow. Well just as soon as we remarked "well heck, I hope they didn't get one" because we were tired and didn't want to skin an elk in the dark/snow, we hear the truck approaching. Sure enough, this was in the back! Story as follows: second morning they weren't seeing anything either, so they headed back out to the old hot spot. By this time Greg was down in the dumps again, remarking to Andy "typical hunt, they're here before the season starts, but when I get here they all disappear and all I see is a few cows." I believe he was still grumbling as they parked and headed up a hill that leads into a good bedding area. About halfway up Greg stopped to take a breather and looked behind them out into some big open country. Sure enough he can see a herd of 8 elk moving thru it at 2:30 in the afternoon a good thousand yards away. Andy got on the binoculars and looked them over. "Cow, cow, cow, cow, spike, spike, spike...hey dad that's a nice bull." He picked out a landmark where he thought they could cut them off, and said "ok dad, we're gonna have to run to get ahead of this herd." Greg says "son, it's too far. Let's go find a different one." Andy says "Dad, this is what we're here for, now lets go!" So they headed down the fenceline, stopping for greg to catch his breath a time or two along the way. They got to the ambush spot and Andy says "ok dad, they're gonna be coming thru here from the left." Greg says "no son, they've already crossed the fence to the right." Well about a minute later here they come at about 150 yards from the left. Right thru a clearing. SO Greg got down on one knee and was waiting, Andy calling them out. "Cow, cow, cow, cow, spike, spike, spike...ok dad the next one is him"...BANG! The 30-06 put him down, and Greg bagged his first bull. Scored 342, not bad a tall. Day 3 Well we decided after a few victory beers to make the drive out to our old spot. It snowed that night a little so we had a way to follow tracks. About a mile before our old area on the rough, rough road we started cutting elk tracks. By the time we got there we had seen an incredible amount of tracks. We had found the elk again. After such a lousy second day though my dad was saying he was gonna shoot the first bull he saw. I tried to talk him out of it, it was day 3 of 7, but he wanted me to be there to help him get it out. Mostly he wanted to get one that day more than he wanted the horns. Like I said before, we're meat hunters. Anyway, sun came up and we're hiking. My sister and I split up to see what we could see. Lots of tracks and a few cows/calves. Heard lots of shots. About 11:00am we heard a shot and my dad got on the radio and said he had a bull down, so we headed to him. He'd been hiking all morning, and was seeing cows. It was very cloudy all morning and a fog and wind set in around 10:00am. He ended up sneaking up on a herd of cows that had two spikes. They were only about 100 yards away and didn't see him...it was too perfect so he put one down. He's still kicking himself a little, but he know's it'll be worth it with every bite of burger. The meat is the importand part and that's what he got, so he's happy. Can't eat the horns anyway! Besides we could drive right to it. My cow hunt: Well the next friday my cow hunt started. We decided to gamble and not camp out, just because it is kind of a pain to set up the big wall tent for only a night or maybe two and we'd save some gas-I couldn't get away from school/work until late thursday night and we figured it wouldn't take long to get a cow, so it was drive separate and camp or drive together and just go get one. SO, the exact plan was to drive out early friday morning, hunt for about an hour, make a spot and stalk (no fun to shoot them from the road), put a cow down, drive to it, skin it and have all day to let it hang in the cold until late afternoon, and then get it home and in the fridge just before dark...no sweat right? Well about 1 minute after leaving the house, I spilled hot coffee all over my lap--I cussed myself for the spill and for conciously making the decision to not wear my long johns, which would have done at least a little to cushion the scalding coffee...So we head to the old hot spot, just as it's getting light enough to shoot. No sooner had we commented "looks like we're the first ones down this road" we see a toyota truck about 100 yards ahead of us. Crap. Oh well, we pulled up to a clearing and figured we'd get out to glass it for a minute and let them get ahead of us. We knew where we wanted to park anyway. Well we got out and about 1 minute later we hear a BANG from about 200 yards ahead of us. Of course. Still undaunted, it's no fun to shoot from the road anyway, we got back in the truck and rolled past them. They were parked, presumably tracking an elk so we didn't stop. We drove another half mile where we wanted to park, and started hiking. We picked this spot because it generally holds lots of elk, and it's generally open enough to drive to your game. About 1 minute after leaving the truck, I realize it's COOOOOLD today, I'm guessing around 10 degrees, and the coffee I spilled is now a block of ICE against my skin. Again cussing the decision to not wear long johns...anyway we hiked about half an hour when I decided to glass a semi-open spot around 800 yards away. I couldn't really see much but I had a feeling. Sure enough, I see the body of an elk in a shadow. After a minute there are two bodies, and no obvious antlers. It looked like fairly open country to just head straight for them, but the wind and sun were right so we gave it a shot. About half and hour later we were at the spot we thought they had been, no good landmarks, but we got to looking around and sure enough I could see the butt of an elk. Then I could see a few, in a clump of trees with clearings on each side. They were just feeding and didn't see us. 200 yards. So I got down on my shooting sticks and waited for one to come out. The only elk I could see well was of course a spike, but it was inevitable, they had to go somewhere and I would have a shot. I could see a few heads grazing, and thought I could dome one but my old man kept saying wait, they'll come out and then you'll have a better shot. So I waited. Then kind of out of the blue a big cow starts walking thru the clearing to the right. She wasn't grazing though, she was going. So I barked at her and my dad kissed at her. Finally, just as she was about to walk past the clearing, she decided she better look at the noise. Her body stopped first before her head turned to look, but my crosshairs were already on her neck and as soon as she stopped I dropped the hammer. Well she dropped like a ton of bricks, always a good thing to see. We got a good look at the heard after that, two calves, a spike, and another cow. The one I got was definitely the biggest animal in the herd. And just as planned, we could drive right to it. We forgot to get a picture before we loaded her in the truck, but here's one of the important part. With two elk in the freezer we'll be eating good all year. No need to buy beef. It's a beautiful thing when a plan comes to fruition! Well that's a wrap up of our elk seasons. All said and done we're happy to have gotten the chance to chase these beautiful animals around another year, and can't wait for next season. The freezer will be running on empty and it'll be time to do it all again. Just like last year, I had some good bonding time with the old man out in the woods, where there ain't no city, highways, bells and whistles, stop lights or neighbors. Out with the critters and the cold, doing what we love to do. Can't beat that, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

That would be a cow elk. Hannah likes to draw pictures. I think it looks pretty sharp.

Here's a few pics of the butchering process for those who are curious. First, after the animal is gutted in the field, we bring it back to camp and skin it. We always do this as soon as possible to get the meat cooling down and I've heard the hide taints the flavor of the meat if left on too long. Anyway after the skin is off and head removed, we chainsaw it in half lengthwise. We let it dry for 15 minutes or so and then get a few wet rags and begin to pick all the hair, dirt, or gore off of the carcass. We do this until it is clean. Once it's clean, we let it hang in the cold until it's time to go home. Then we quarter the carcass at the start of the ribs and lay the pieces on clean blankets in the bed of the truck. Stack our gear on top and head for home. At home we usually wash each piece off with the hose to make sure it's very clean and ready to butcher. We have a couple of refrigerators that we can stack the quarters in after we dry them back off with clean towels. Sometimes we'll separate the ribcage from the front shoulder so that all the pieces fit nicely. After that it's time to butcher. One piece at a time with separate meat from bone with fillet knives, and cut steaks and roasts with larger butcher knives. Here's me doing this. The bowl full of meat will be burgers. Here is a pan of steaks and roasts from my cow. We took 62 pounds of boneless steaks/roasts off of my cow. Here's the grinder hard at work. We made 25 ounds of breakfast sausage and 88 pounds of burger, mixed with beef fat at 7%. My dad likes to go 15% but I'm getting "stocky" so I'm cutting back this year. So far the burgers seem to be as good as ever. Burgers grilled to perfection over oak coals. Best in the world as far as I can tell. We usually package the burger in 2lb packages. We wrap it in seran wrap first, then freezer paper over that. Then into the deep freezer it goes, and we'll have it all year long. My cow yielded 185lbs or so including the heart and liver. My dad's spike yielded 171 pounds, heart and liver included. Thats 350+ pounds of meat!

Yeah I'm kind of dreading having to get it from her and hold it...I'm scared I'll like it...a lot.

Here's the picture you wanted Casey. Same two dogs.

While scouting in 36B after the first coues hunt, I came upon a camping site from the week before and there were plastic bags strewn about the landscape. I was driving out so I decided to clean the mess up because I can't stand seeing people try and ruin things for the rest of us. So, I get out and notice there are a bunch of dug up spots...turns out the bags were full of human feces, and were burried a few inches below the soft dirt. The coyotes had dug up all the bags, and I got stuck with picking up about 8 bags of 6 day old hunter-crap. DISGUSTING. Stunk up my whole street for 3 days before trash day. They got a nice buck too, we talked to them during the hunt, fella shot a big 2x4 he said. Story of my life, the guy next to me shoots big bucks in my spot and I clean up his mess.

Yeah on that first stand, Casey's whoops were right in pitch with the foxpro, sounded kind of like that little beep you get with walkie talkies, y'all know that electronic blip sound I'm talking about??? Anyway, at the six minute mark that's what I thought was happening, and was seriously thinking "oh I bet Casey's pissed that his caller is making that racket"...and a dog popped out between me and the caller, maybe 12 yards from me. She saw me get my rifle up so she turned and started leaving straight away. She couln't outrun a bullet though It wasn't until she was all piled up that I realized what the sound really was. Second stand was also perfect. At about 8 minutes I could see a cow looking hard into the draw, but I couldn't see in. Sure enough a minute later it was on my side of the hill, focused on the sound. Coming right to me. He even put his head down for a minute for me to get my rifle on him. I waited a small while hoping Casey would see him but he was a little behind the rise...so he died. Couldn't have been more perfect. Maybe 50 yards. Sure as shootin'. It was a good time, next time I'll push the buttons and hide in a tent so you can be sure and get one hoss OR... You can just let me man the AR next time

I was just always taught it was one of the things that spoiled first and should be removed as quickly as possible. I guess I just never questioned it. We always remove it with skinning.

cool, just took it online. Thanks, very handy!

Like gamehauler said, I know people who could use that meat. My aunt is having hard times right now and my buddy/schoolmate didn't get a mulie. Buying meat from the store is expensive, especially to poor college kids. He'd be glad to get it. My recommendation would certainly be to at least make it so that it will be consumed by people, and not a bunch or birds. They can eat roadkill. If you want send me a PM, I'll find somebody who can use it.

Yeah me too, I don't understand why people wouldn't do this. Getting bloody is the best part, it means you're gonna be eating well!

I haven't even got mine in the mail yet.

Little suckers are neat when they come around, but usually they come sometime in the late night and knock over everybody's trash cans. What a mess, they tear open every bag So I had to rig up a tie system, but if I ever forget to latch it they remind me with a yard full of my own garbage. They don't even have the decency to show up at like 8pm when I can at least see them before bedtime. Ok rant over. Last time I saw a herd there were about 15 of 'em with a few little tiny ones. They seem to have young year-round. Prolific little buggers.

I've seen a few big old two points, but none that big. Cool buck!

Awesome! What a buck, congrats.

I think I'm all set actually, I don't have time to reload anyway, let alone shoot.

I was there yesterday and they had an 8lb jug of Bullseye for $120. That's $15/lb even, good deal but I don't have the dinero Most of their other powder was gone. Still no primers.

Well I decided to try my hand at predator hunting to see if I couldn't improve the deer herd in my hunting area. I started calling in december I think and I've dropped 8 as of last week. 6 of these have been out of my deer spot. We'll see if this makes a difference, but it is a lot of fun at any rate. I'll never forget the first one I called in, I was lucky enough to get him. I am hooked to say the least, and have been battling the heat to get out during the "off season." Anyway for you fellow dog poppers, enjoy the pics. Casey, if you ever get that new AR sighted in maybe we can really do some damage!

I have two call that produce very well: One is a custom call I got from a call maker on predatormasters.com. It has a very raspy reed in it, voiced in cottontail. It worked great when I first got it, and also every time I hit a new area. I think it must not be a sound they here too often from other callers. The other is the Primos Lil'dog. It is two calls actually. I've had best luck with the green one but I've used it way more. Called in dogs with the white one too. I use them as both rabbit and fawn distress, and have called in a pile of dogs with both sounds. Basically I just mix it up each stand. Here's the link to cabelas, the video is quite helpful. I recommend this package:Lil'dog As far as electronics go I haven't used them yet. Casey just got a foxpro though so that'll change shortly I hope. I know a lot of people like them but I have good enough luck with hand calls for a fraction of the price. It is a lot of fun and the deer herd doesn't mind either. It takes patience but you'll eventually get one in. Then you'll be hooked. Git after them dogs!

I too saw far fewer deer this year in 36B compared to last year. We managed to fill 3 out of 5 tags with small bucks, but numbers-wise there were definitely fewer deer. Pre-season scouting was the same way, I'm glad to have gone 60%. Not sure why it happens but I've had good spots go dry lots of times.

dang I can't even see that far! Good shooting.

Hey I made $100 on the yankees this post season...and that only cause I wussed out and started late (after they crushed the twins). Should have made $300. Next year...

Man that's a heck of a buck! Thanks for the story.