elkhunter

My son drew second choice this year, a unit we hunted two years ago. Opening day came and Christian, my pops, Colby and I got to glassing. It was a slower than usual morning, only 5 small bucks. We had an interesting find, saw a pack of 14 maybe 15 dogs cruising the mountains. No collars, all dogs were a different breed of pit, boxer, lab, German Shepard etc and looks like none of them were tracking scent, sure didn’t look like lion dogs. They covered some good country so we decided to hit a different spot for the afternoon. That afternoon we hit up a glassing spot we seen some nice bucks in with some lions in the past. I glassed this buck right at 3:20 getting up from his bed 1030 yards. The boy and I grabbed our gear and spent the next 30 minutes going uphill to get in range. After the shot, it was even more difficult getting to the buck and even worse packing him out. The cat claws were amazingly thick and we enjoyed every moment of it. We know that when we are back in school/work, we would rather be out in the field getting cut up by catclaw.

Just had mine posted in the portal

That's awesome.

It was a hot one this year! At one time our trucks recorded 98 degrees on Saturday. We only glassed up 24 bucks this season, way less than our usual 50 bucks. After the first 4 days of struggling and passing up bucks, my wife decided to turn her hunt into a meat hunt. At first light she saw this buck 1300 yards away and we watched him while waiting for the heat to kick in. Once it got warm enough, he bedded and we were off. We snuck in to 309 yards and had to wait a couple of hours for him to stand up. As soon as the buck got up, she was all ready and dropped him. I got a feeling this next Nov hunt is gonna be a real good one with the cooler temperatures and a lot more bucks in the field.

My son has 4 bps for elk. Last year unit 22 youth cow had a bonus pass of 3 bps and unit 23 had a bonus pass of 4 bps. I put him in for 22 1st choice and 23 second choice (no reason for the second choice as I was sure he would draw 22 in the bonus pass). Draw results were posted and my son drew second choice unit 23 tag #17. I’m in a similar boat, trying to figure out what happened and what to do in the future

We had a tougher than usual day on this hunt. Friday we glassed all day without any breaks, didn't see any pigs early on but found flocks of turkeys, mule deer and coues deer everywhere. About 4:30pm Friday I was able to glass up a herd 3 miles out. I knew there were hunters about 1000 yards from the herd but it didn't look like they have seen em yet. We drove a bit closer and started the mile hike to the herd. We only need to crest one more ridge to see the herd and try to get a shot when we heard 4 gunshots. Guess the hunters did find the pigs or another hunter did. We stood there to check for any pigs running in our direction and no luck. We started the long hike back to the ranger and when we were about 500 yards away we got a strong whiff of the javelina skunk smell. We stopped and I looked around and found a group of 4 trotting up a hill side. It was almost sunset so we started moving quickly to cut them off and we were able to get to 75 yards. I told my wife to shoot the last pig in the group and this guy took the bullet without moving much. Stood for 10 seconds with broken shoulders and lung shot. He was a tank of a javelina, he ate well!

Awesome congrats. That's on my to do list. How accurate is that 50 hawken?

I'm sure no one cares but here's the story 👍. Friday we had no school so my son and I headed out and I'm the last person with a HAM tag. We didn't see any javelina all day and about 80 coues deer and 6 bucks. We covered tons of country and got chased by some angry cows with newborns. We saw a hog nosed skunk in the day time and I'm sure it had rabies the way it was moving around. Sunday I headed out with my sister and pops, same thing as Friday, we didn't see diddly squat in the morning. If we were lucky we would have found 5 herds the way we glassed. About noon we were ready to have lunch and I decided to check out some north facing slopes before eating. I was able to glass up a herd of javelina bedded down. I was able to sneak in above the herd about 80 yards. I wanted to use the pistol but the pigs got up and started moving around and I couldn't find a clear lane to shoot so I used the muzzleloader. I was able to get a 49 yard shot on this nice size male.

Friday my son and I were unable to go out. My dad went out with my mom. After a few hours of not seeing anything, my mom glassed up a herd with her chest binos. She does not hunt she tags along on some hunts and does not glass for anything except for cows and predatory birds. Once the herd was spotted the pigs bedded down and they were able to get in to 120 yards and he took this nice sow. Saturday my son had a flag football game in the snow, he got to play in 2 inches and had a good ole time and his team got beat badly. The weather was not good for us to go out in the sloppy muddy conditions. Sunday Colby and I headed out in the dark and his hunt was similar to his junior hunt. We were glassing far out 1-3 miles and we weren't seeing anything. Right below us at the glassing spot, a herd of javelina popped out feeding at 220 yards. We snuck in to 96 yards and he laid the hammer on this pig. Blew out the right shoulder taking all critical organs out. We were able to cut up the pig and get back home just in time for the super bowl game. I'll be headed out next weekend to try my luck.

Colby had 3 bps going into this draw and drew tag #1 for his multi unit hunt. This week we double checked the rifle and shooting strategies and started putting gear together. I let him choose where he wanted to start opening day, he picked the farthest unit and the farthest part away from home. This morning we left the house, made a lucky superstitious stop at a gas station for his doughnuts and hit the road. When we got to the first glassing spot, we couldn’t see crap. The fog was pretty good this morning. We spent 45 minutes watching funny videos and listening to music while the sun killed the fog. We glassed for an hour, didn’t see any pigs moving but coues were in full rut. We moved to our second glassing spot. After a while we got lucky and spotted pigs below us 300 yards away feeding in the oaks. We grabbed our gear and when we got to 220 yards, Colby said he can make the shot. I’d like him to get 150 or so but he was confident. We got the rifle set up and he got on the larger boar right away. After a few practice squeezes he felt ready and let the rifle bark. The pig hit the ground hard on the quartering to shot (messy gutting job). This boar had some age and stink to him. We took our time, cleaned the pig and took pictures. We picked up some roadside burritos and hit the road on the way home.

Opening day took us a while to find some pigs. We spent most of the morning looking over deer, the muleys were rutting while the coues were not. The first two herds we spotted were no where to be found when we got to where we last saw them. We regrouped after the two failed stalks and hit the spotter for long range glassing. It didn't take long til we spotted a third herd. The third herd stayed around long enough for my 72 year old pops to get within range. His shot was 27 yards and the sow didn't go too far.

*** Binoculars purchased for my son. Thanks to those of you guys that sent me a message!

Awesome congrats, especially with a limited time too. I have a couple students prepping for state this Saturday and they are running pretty much whenever they can.

Awesome, congrats!

My wife and I got tags together this year for the same hunt for the first time. We were real excited for this hunt, more than usual. Opening day I spotted her buck 2100 yards out and figured he was a mid 80’s buck. We kept an eye on him every 5 minutes to see where he beds down. While keeping tabs on him we saw 10 other bucks but nothing worth chasing after. Once her buck bedded down under a tree, we marked the spot and started the stalk. We snuck into 330 yards and the rest is history. The buck had a bigger body than we thought and scored right at 90. We had a long pack-out back to the ranger and feeling the aches and soreness today. Over the next few days we looked over 30 bucks or so. I was looking for a 4+ year old buck (secretly trying to beat my wifes buck!) I didn’t have any luck. Monday morning came and I spotted a big 2x2 buck that we have seen maybe 8 times and never gave chase to him. He bedded down during grey light and the wife and I took off. We snuck into 380 yards and waited about an hour for him to stand up and the hunt was done. My buddy Christian showed up to help out with the morning Monday hunt, he carried out some weight which was nice! Thanks amigo! Overall deer movement was phenomenal even with the full moon. The freezer is full with our bucks and my sons junior buck. We’ll definitely put in together again next year.