Hunting of 24’

[CRP003]

I thought I would share a few photos from 24' hunts. I was able to take two new hunters that have never shot anything. One was a neighbor kid and his dad that were supposed to come with us but the night before his dad wasn't able too. I ask if his gun was ready and he said had a box of bullet and hadn't been sighted in yet. I told him to leave it home and have his boy be ready in the morning.

Opening morning: I brought him a rifle,"orange nasty" I had him dry fire it in the dark while we waited for light. When it was just turning light, we noticed there was a guy on the ridge down below us so we didn't encroach anymore and stayed all the way at the top.
Shortly after light eight ATVs and UTVs came down the same ridge yelling back and forth cussing about how we were already on the ridge. They drive right by us and stop by the guy below. Blowing out all the deer that were starting to move.
It was now light and we decided to make a move on a buck we had spotted a few ridges over. I sent my middle boy and the new hunter after it while we stayed and watched. It was quite the process. My son was able to go with him and help get him ranged/dialed in and get a shot at it.
It took forever because he was left eye dominant, and right handed and had only shot 22 before. I was able to see them shoot and they said they had hit it good but it went over a small ridge. After 30 minutes I went over and they still couldn't find it. I sat them down and we rested and talked through the series of events and retraced where it first started.
At that time I asked where "orange nasty" was? They had left my rifle back in the trees where they took a breather. Who forgets a $5k plus rifle? They went back and grabbed the rifle and we made a plan to look for the deer. Within 15 mins they found the deer and we gutted it and grabbed the atv to help load and head home.

Following day, I asked my son if we should head back up on the mountain and go see if we can find him something? He said yes. We grabbed his gun and off we went. When we got up to the location we wanted to try there was already someone there so we quickly glassed the ridges and headed over where I knew there would be a pocket that we could look into. As soon as we crested ridge, we walked over and noticed a deer down below us. It was a buck and I asked my son if he wanted to try to shoot it and he said yes, so we set up his Thompson Center 308 and in position to make a shot. He placed one shot in the lungs at 210 yards. It knocked it down and ran 20 feet into a ditch where we went down and located his first deer.

The rest of the hunts were for cow elk.
I had two permits and so did my middle son. I was able to go while he was in school and I located some elk at 640 yards shot one and then the other one was 570. I gutted them by myself and was able to load them up with the help of some family after a phone call. I was using a 338 Edge.

A couple weeks later I took my middle son.
We found an herd and tried to cut the distance. We were able to get 670 yards away. He took his time and used "orange nasty"and shot one of the elk, it went down but was still alive so he put one in the head. While the herd was looking back at the one that was down, I ranged another and dialed him while he was on the gun. He made another shot on another cow and hit it right in the heart and it went down we were able to drive right to them. 6.5 SAUM

We have 2 more tags in the family still yet to fill. We have 2 more weeks and will probably use the edge on those.

 

[unholy-snare]

You did an amazing job guiding new hunters and sharing the experience with your family. From helping the young hunter with the rifle to tracking down that buck, the patience and teaching moments are the heart of hunting.

It's also impressive how you handled everything—from the ATV distractions to finding the deer and even forgetting "orange nasty"! That story had me laughing. It's a great reminder of how even seasoned hunters can have those moments.

The elk hunts sound incredible, too. Your shot placements and how you worked through the shots with your son are textbook. The 338 Edge and 6.5 SAUM—those are some serious tools for the job!

Good luck with the last two tags. With your track record, it sounds like you'll be filling those without much trouble. Thanks for sharing the stories and photos—it's moments like these that make hunting so rewarding.

 

[CRP003]

You did an amazing job guiding new hunters and sharing the experience with your family. From helping the young hunter with the rifle to tracking down that buck, the patience and teaching moments are the heart of hunting.

It's also impressive how you handled everything—from the ATV distractions to finding the deer and even forgetting "orange nasty"! That story had me laughing. It's a great reminder of how even seasoned hunters can have those moments.

The elk hunts sound incredible, too. Your shot placements and how you worked through the shots with your son are textbook. The 338 Edge and 6.5 SAUM—those are some serious tools for the job!

Good luck with the last two tags. With your track record, it sounds like you'll be filling those without much trouble. Thanks for sharing the stories and photos—it's moments like these that make hunting so rewarding.

Thanks for the kind words.