2017 Hunt Report and Meat Pole Contest - Win a $300 or $100 Gift Certificate

[Canhunter35]

Seen this guy last year elk hunting. Luckily got drawn and went back and got him. He's not as wide or tall as last year, he's so old he has white on his muzzle. I think he's well past his peak, but the old bugger still made me work for him. Used my 257 wby with 115 gr ballistic tips. Pretty happy with him! It was a good day hunting in some of th roughest country I've ever walked...which is why he got so old. He will make some good jerky...extra chewy lol

 

[Schnyd112]

so I have been applying for a Nevada elk tag for 17 years. I drew this year and went all out, which may have been a mistake. I took 3 scouting trips and found BIG bulls. Somebody ran a stopsign and totaled my truck in August. I got married in September and had to make up for all that working my *** off in October so I could afford the time off and extra cash for gas. Elk season opened November 6 and I hadn't been in the area for almost 60 days which made me nervous.
I took 10 days off, nov 1-11, and scouted for 5 days leading up to the opener.

Ran into a lot of muzzle loader hunters, usually the bulls get some time to relax between muzzleloader and rifle season, 2-3 weeks. Most years there is a cow season after muzzleloader and before rifle, after the rut. That wasn't the case this year. 3 days before the season opened I talked to a guy that had taken 2 bulls out of my first choice of hunting locations. Not inspiring but I went in as planned.

Anyway, I found bulls the first day scouting. A spike and three ragheads, spread across a high basin with some cows around the spike. Right before dark I was seeing a very small 5x5 roaming an old burn scar in some really rugged country. I saw him 3 days in a row. Then friday hit. Storm settled in, temps dropped, bulls disappeared. I have hunted in tough conditions, but never 30 degree highs with wet snow and out of a tent camp. My camp got drenched, i was cold, I had to pull out and go dry up. Ended up getting a hotel room and met my dad to scout for a couple days and prepare for the opener. A few cows, a full moon, unsettled weather and hunters moving in made me uncomfortable.

I had limited time, basically one week. I never saw hide nor hair of the 7point we found in August. I was out from pre-dawn to after dark every night. Then the season opened and I was shot. I kinda gassed myself trying to find elk before I could hunt them. The snow was so wet it may as well have been rain. We found a couple ragheads, the small 5x5 and tons of deer.

Come this morning, located the 5x5 and decided he wasn't what we wanted, especially with his location and just me and my dad to pack him out. Had a great plan for an afternoon hunt, got into the area about 1, found 3 other hunters driving side-by-sides right through the good elk country, in the middle of the day. Not stopping and glassing, just running roads hoping something came out. Got off the road, found tracks and it started raining again. We bailed out and made lunch in the valley.

The storm socked in, the mountaintops were ghosts in the mist, but we headed up anyway. Sitting under a tree, not being able to see the ridges, parks and valleys we had hiked to see, I got distracted and looked into the valley. Lots of antelope and all of a sudden, an elk! A bull! Moving across the valley and looking for cover. A juniper rich ridge caught my eye and I decided that is where he was headed. Me and Dad bombed out of the mountains, dropped 1,500' of hard earned elevation and decided to go after this bull. All we knew is he had a good whale tail and long eyeguards.

Made it to the valley and at about a mile the wind was blowing from us to him, ****. So we hustled around to get in front of him so the wind was blowing across everything instead of us being upwind of him. The sleet started coming down, pretty much expected at this point, and he popped his head up. We hit the dirt and he was walking right at us. I deployed the bipod, flipped up the scope caps waiting for a range. The sleet and cloud were so thick all my dad could say was "he is further than 1200 because I am getting dashes."

Sorry pop, that elk is less than 500 yards and closing. We were right where he wanted to go. I find a high spot, find the elk in the scope, and hear a faint "350!" I hold 10" high, about halfway between his elbow and the top of his back and squeezed off a round. Boom, WhAcK! No reaction. He took about 3 steps and stopped. Boom, WhAcK! No reaction. Boom, WhAcK! No reaction. As I grab for the 4th round I am starting to wonder *** is going on. He is hit, hard, at least twice, probably 3 times. The fourth round, fumbled from my inner jacket and into the dirt. Grab the 5th, chamber, find the elk, blood running down his side, head starting to sag, Boom, wHaCk! No reaction grab the 5th from the dirt, Boom, Whack! I reactin. Is this for real!? Grab a 6th, chamber, re-center, and he stumbles and falls. Stone dead.

F'ing a cotton! My first elk! Looking the hide over, I hit that bull 5 times. 3 in the lungs, one just in front of the diaphram and one a little low, maybe off the vitals but still in the chest. The 3 lung shot entries were abkut 2" apart, the first one hit ribs and dislocated the shoulder which is why he didn't move. The heart had bruises on it but no holes. The 4th and 5th I was getting a little excited and probably pulled. But 5 rounds, 350 yards, 300 win mag, 180 accubonds at 2850 fps, verified and loaded by me. Drops confirmed to 600 yards. he never. even. flinched.

Anyway, 17 years of applications for a Nevada bull tag, bad weather, a little frustration, a tough *** bull, public land, diy, me and my dad, first elk hunt where we carried the rifle. Bull down, pics to follow. He isn't what I expected from this tag, I actually thought he was 6 right, 5 left (i really only saw fronts then the whale tail on the right) but we worked our asses off and I am proud we did it alone. Usually these tags bring a party of 6-10 guys trying to get one bull. We had two.

All in all, an amazing experience. I gassed myself trying to find elk before the season started. Lesson learned. This bull was in the right place at the wrong time. I may not have shot him if he were on the mountain but since we could make an easy pack out of it, the unsettled weather and the fact that he was the biggest bull we have seen since August, I am jacked.

My photos are too large. I have more but am tired as hell.

Edited elevation when we came out of the mountain. We did not come down 3000 feet but it sure felt like that going up it.

 

[Deleted member 102985]

This is my 2017 Montana antelope, shot on the Crow Reservation. He was 250 yards, and I used my 300 Weatherby with 190 Grain Accubond Long Range bullets. This was a great hunt and I was very happy with my goat. I cant get my picture to upload??

I work on that ranch where you shot that goat! I can see our feed shed in the distance. we normally do not give permission to hunt big game unless you are a tribal member as white guys cannot get tags here. Only crow you might want to take this down before you get in a lot of trouble! They are now prosecuting poaching on crow reservation.

 

[lotek]

I'd love to write some great tale about my hunt, but I live I n S.Ga. and rarely get a shot over 100 yrds. I used to shoot a win. 30-30 until my eyes couldn't make a neck shot at 100 yrds with iron sights. Now I harvest deer with a scoped 243 on the back of my land. How do you say it? Drt? Took my first one this yr. at 122 yrds. 100 gr. Grand Slam. Neck shot.
I love this page, and have picked up a 6.5 Creedmoor to use, and reload. My buddy in Douglas, has some big fields where one could shoot 500 yrds. I wonder if you could make a neck shot from that far out?

 

[Jack Woods]

My Indiana whitetail with a mission crossbow.

 

[Barrelnut]

That's a nice buck. I like the mass and eye guards.

 

[Jack Woods]

Thank you

 

[SCdeerhunter]

Man, reading all y'all's stories are making me kinda jealous haha. Definitely some once in a lifetime hunts written about on here! Congrats to all you guys. Haven't had as much time to go this year as I'd like but hopefully I'll be able to post up a story before the SC deer season ends!

 

[Speedo]

Accidental Moose 2017

Moose season 2017 started out like most of the rest of our annual moose hunts, not quite ready when we wanted. We try to be in moose camp before opening day but it seems like most years we don't have everything done that we had planned on getting done and this year was one of those years. We arrived at the trailhead in the early morning hours of August 31. Since it takes us the better part of two days on the trail to get to our moose camp that meant that we wouldn't be in moose camp till sometime on the 1st of September, which is opening day. We make it to our camp site but the weather is not very accommodating and it has already been a long day so we just fix some food and get some rest and plan on setting up camp tomorrow.

Up early and the weather is nice and we get started on setting up camp, The cook tent gets set up first since this is where we spend most of our time when we are in camp. Once that task is complete the outhouse is put back into working shape, then our tents are set up and we start arranging our gear. Once the tents are set up and our gear stowed the next item on the agenda is drinking water. We have a clear mountain stream a few miles from our camp where we have been getting our drinking water for more than 20 years, we load all of the water containers into one of the moose buggies and head off to get water. Now remember, moose season opened the day before so we are kind of hunting but our primary mission at this point is getting water.

My wife has been feeling a little under the weather so she stays in camp while Don and I head off to get the needed water. There are a few nice places to stop and spot on the way. The first spotting location we spot a few cows and after a bit we locate some bull moose but they are all sub legal, so on we go. It is afternoon and we want to get back before dark if we can. Along the way we spot a lone cow near the trail, not wanting to spook her in case there is a bull following her around we take an alternate route to avoid her. On our way to get water we stop at one more spotting location and again we see some animals but no legal bulls. The sun is starting to get a little low on the horizon so we have a little impetus to be on our way to get our water and head back to camp.

All of our water jugs are full and we are headed back to camp, we've seen some animals and while we haven't seen anything legal we haven't done any exhaustive spotting so we're feeling pretty good about our chances for the coming days. As we pop over a little rise in the trail, where we had seen the lone cow on the way to get water, there is a bull moose standing near the trail. Its starting to get late in the day and in the fading light he wasn't real easy to see because his rack is still in full velvet. He is looking right at us and frankly I'm kind of surprised that he doesn't just run off. While we're looking him over and decide that he is legal we debate who should shoot him. Don says that he wants to wait for the big one and I decide that I'm not going to let a legal bull just wander off, possibly never to be seen again. In our haste to get water after getting camp set up we just tossed our rifles into the rig and headed off to get water. Now here we are with a legal bull standing in front of us and I'm going to have to dig out my rifle and ammo to put this bull down before he just wanders off. Wait! He just decided to lay down, now there is less pressure to get things done in haste. Out comes the rifle, ammo, range finder and phone with my ballistic app. Don digs out ear plugs . While the bull isn't a long way off I've got the time to get things set up and put the bullet right where I want it to go. He's 280 yards away, plug the info into the app, dial the scope and set the crosshairs right at the juncture of the neck and the skull. Bang, flop, over and done. His head tilted to the right and he never wiggled.

I've never had a moose quite this easy, thank you Lord. We hadn't even really been hunting, just kind of looking to see what was hanging out so we could go after one tomorrow. Normally when we spot a legal bull or one that looks like it might be legal it involves several hours of stalking then getting the buggies and retrieving the animal. This one was probably the easiest moose I've ever taken and I've taken a bunch over the years. Well this is the short version of my 2017 moose hunt. Did I mention that I took a griz too.

And since this is also a meat pole thread I better include a meat pole picture along with a pic of the moose.

Gus

 

[CaptnC]

My Colombian Sniper!

My wife is Colombian where she was never exposed to hunting growing up or once she got here to the U.S.A. Even though she had been in the US for over 25 years she was never exposed to outdoors.

I ran into a deal on a 1957 Colombian 98 mauser and got the idea to build a rifle on the action for her. With the 6.5 craze I wanted something that would feed well in a action designed to run 30-06...so 6.5-06 it would be!

Got it built with a 26" stainless #5.5 Douglas barrel with a Hawk Hill muzzle brake. I plan to set it in a mesquite stock, but it's in a Archangel stock for now.

Worked up a couple loads and within a few trips she is ringing steel at 400yds without too much effort.

Been a while since I had been on a deer lease. But with in the a few months of getting the 6.5-06 up and running a long time friend needs a member on his lease.

So I get on the lease and start working on the wife about her shooting a deer. Surprisingly she was pretty much game for it even though I had not hunted since we meet 6 years ago. She had no idea what to expect.

We set up a feeder and clean up a shooting lane down the road that leads to the feeder. It has a box blind off to the south and the road comes in from the east. The box blind is useless with our summer south wind. But as winter sets in it would be idea with north winds of winter.

She can join me opening weekend because of lease rules, so I go main to see what the bucks look like in our area. I didn't get a trail camera running until the weekend my wife could join me at the lease. So we had no clue what to expect.

As luck would have it the wind is out of the south so we are stuck sitting on the main road leading to the blind. Because of the distance I give her my freshest build...264am on a Savage action.

Remember no outdoor experience at all. We fish together some at times, but this was her first trip into "the woods". She did ok, her patients level is pretty short and we get no signal on the cell phone to occupy her time. So I use that time to train her on how to aim at the live deer in front of us.

Late in the day of first deer season she has a small butck walked out in the road where she can see it. Her finger was on the trigger right away. I quickly got her attention and told her it wa not legal that we had to wait for older buck.

That was her first clue to me that she would pull trigger on a deer if I give her the green light.

At 5:07 she ask me in Spanish when is the boyfriend going show up? I remind her of what I do. I tell myself he will be here in the next 5 minutes....every 5 minutes I repeat him being here in the next 5 minutes.

At about 5:15pm she punches me in the left shoulder and she is motoin "antlers" over her head , so I quickly turn my attention to the feeder. Sure enough a big 8 is walking up to the feeder and turns broad side.

She is on him, but all she gets is a click! The ammo I had loaded was some primed brass I had bought from a member here...up until this moment all had fired fine. I don't noramlly trust pre-primed brass but because it was my hunting rifle I took the risk.

But now because we were on the road not in the blind she was shooting 264wm. We are sit ting 307 yards from the feeder. I know that's not the best idea to do to a first time hunter, but she had been doing just fine at 400 yards at the range.

I clear the dud and give her the rifle back. She quickly settles in behind the 264. I had reminded her to slowly tighten the tenting on her trigger finger until the gun went off.

We her shot was dead on! She hit the point of the shoulder and he never moved when the 130gr Nosler Accu-Bond hit him!

Her first day, her first shot, at the first big buck she has ever seen, she drops the hammer on a big 8pt at 307yds!

I had never told her about about buck fever but it set in. It was so funny to discribe how she thought she was going to have a heart attack and how she couldn't breath.

When we got back to camp the fellow lease members started calling her a Colombian Sniper. We even got a vist from the local game wardens and after the inspected her license and hearing her story they ask if she was a Colombian Sniper!

 

[IronRanger]

My daughter approached me this year and told me that she would like to hunt deer with me. She has tried it in the past, but she was never comfortable shooting left handed. (She is right handed but her vision in her right eye doesn't allow her to use it to sight with.) So the challenge was to set up a rifle that she could shoot right handed, but use her left eye to sight with. I found a Savage Muddy Girl in a .243 on sale at a local sporting goods store to start with. I then ordered two 45 degree offset picatiny mounts from SWFA and tried an idea that came to me out of a deep desire to hunt with my daughter. I took the scope off of the bases and mounted the 45 degree offsets on them facing up and to the left. I then mounted the scope to the 45 degree offsets and re-aligned it. To my surprise it seemed to work. The test came when my daughter came home to try it out. We went to a gravel pit to sight it in. The smile on her face said it all. The second afternoon of the season provided her with an 80 yard shot on a mature doe. It dropped in it's tracks when the Muddy Girl spoke! For a brief moment I saw the little girl come out from my 21 year old daughter! I don't need to shoot a deer to have a successful season.

 

[Andy Backus]

Very cool! Congratulations to you and your daughter.

 

[JTB]

 

[JTB]

View attachment 83815 View attachment 83816

In follow-up to my prior post my other 11 y/o grandson shot this nice 2x2 coues last week. He and his cousin are the best of friends so it was great that we were able to help him get on this one. He was able to creep within 200 yards by carefully crawling through the tall grass until he had an open shot. He hit it with a nice shot to the shoulder with the same rifle mentioned above with the same outcome. There was quite the controversy over who shot the nicest buck. Finally settled on one being bigger and one better looking. The light gray buck had beautiful coloring for sure. We had him on a very nice 4x4 but it wasn't to be that day. Got them home in time to help their team win the season soccer championship. Great times for grandpa