Let's hear your story!

[Lowlander]

Not a very exciting or long story, but it's a true story...

I got to take my son out on his first real hunt this year. Unfortunately I work a lot so my hunting time is limited, but we got to go out the day after Thanksgiving. He is young, so still learning. I got to teach him a lot, about how to walk quietly through the woods. How to identify different sounds, how to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Even though we didn't see anything but the local herd of does, was one of the best hunting trips of my life. I just hope it meant as much to him, as it did myself when my father started teaching me the way of the woods.

As father's we wonder if our sons hear a word we say sometimes. The woods has it's way of branding these lessons into us I think. Every time I take my kids out, I hear my father's voice, through my own.

The wilderness brings him out in me, and his father before. It is the hunt that bonds a lot of us I think, whether we take game or not.

 

[nmbarta]

2001, 52.5 or 525.
2021 It'll be 525 or 1525.
525 is still a good poke.

 

[Skimbleshanks]

Finished Elk season last week or a few days ago or something like that. Quarantine and my 2 kids make the time blur.

Went out opening morning with a friend I usually only see once a year to shoot before deer season since we stopped working together a number of years ago. We roll up to the gate on the main road opening morning and wait till 1 hour before sun up to continue up the road. Logging companies own most of the huntable stuff so you follow their rules or the state trooper that may or may not be a mile up the road gets ya with a hefty fine. Day 1 was foggy. My range finder consistently read 19 yards. Friends said the same. Some sign but zero visibility. Good day to strech the legs and get ready for lugging the 15.1 lb target rifle I decided to carry. Spent too much money on it too much frustration developing a load to not try and get an elk with it.

Day 2 we decided to check a different area since day 1 had only a little sign and nothing fresh. Well a truck beat us to the gate we wanted, drove to our next choice and ****, another truck. Decided to back track to a gate we passed a few miles back and hike up. Short little logging road that lead up into some real thick reprod. Didn't have much hope, but oh my, the elk had been there that night. Pellets everywhere. Stick to your boot soft and hard to not step in them there were so many. The road forked about a mile in. I went left he went right. 20-30 minutes later we were back at the fork. Each seeing more sign but the trail I found at the end of my road and the clear cut it went toward said we were going left. An hour of Bush whacking popped us out on a nice ridge. 400 yards away was the next ridge and the drainage in between just looked elky. We sat under a big Douglas fir, ate a snack and started glassing. 20 minutes in, the drainage opposite the ridge we were glassing erupted with gunfire. 12-20 shots in about 5 minutes. Aparently a group of guys cought the elk we were following in the open. 3 bulls I heard. 1 ridge over. Close. So close. Luck and skill matter. We didn't have the luck. Well that herd was going to move on, and no shootable bulls left alive so day 3 would be a different area yet again.

Day 3 was supposed to be glassing more clear cuts but the gate we wanted was occupied. Down the road a few miles was 1 we found empty. Looked at the maps after we pulled in and it looked REAL good if you hike 2 miles and a 1000 feet up. Got to the bench we wanted to be at and the weather held... for a time. So much sign again. We tried to wait em out but eventually visibily went to crap and my buddy said "at some point you aren't hunting, you're just sitting on a log getting rained on." Good day out and a spot I will for sure be checking out again.

We both had obligations for a couple days and wouldn't make it out till the last day. My shoulder needed a break from humping that 15 lb target rifle up and down the hills and through the nasty thick forest and reprod that is the Oregon coast range. Friend said I was crazy to carry such a rifle but I only ever complained about my binos being too heavy on my neck. It's good to have a sense of humor when you are cold and wet and tired.

Last day to make it happen. And my friend had to pick his kids up no later than 5pm. We decide to go back to where we started the season. It was nice to see the area and the variety of tree growth without the fog. More sign but ultimately the clock counted down and we were headed for the truck. I hoped really hard on the hike down, but no, there wasn't a big 6x6 bull waiting at the truck for us.

It was a good season. My boots finally need replacing after all the wet we worked through. They had a good run but they are too smooth on the bottom to provide secure footing and no amount of mink oil or nikwax will waterproof the cracked leather anymore. Tag soup isn't what we wanted to eat, and we wont. I got a good buck and he got a big black bear earlier in the year. But a couple nice bulls sure would have been the way to cap off this hunting season. Sharing 4 days in the woods with a good friend is a real close second though.

 

[yobuck]

I'm new to this site and was wondering how and where you posted your story. I have a story also and can't figure out how to do it.

Youve already done it, you just used the wrong story.

 

[nord-partizanen]

Last year I filled both my white tail tags using arrows only. But those were young doe and a very average buck maybe 3y.o, which was not a big challenge to get. This fall I harvested a doe again at some 30 yds. Bow season is the very beginning of deer hunt in our area, so I always try to benefit those days when deer is not yet stressed by hunting pressure, enjoying tracking and stalking them - my favorite style of hunting. Doe is good meat for eating and my family appreciates the wild organic meet. But I saw that there are big buck traces in that public area. Also, soon enough I found human foot prints there and thought that it was not improving my chances to lay my eyes on that big buck. Middle of November and rifle season was the only hope, so my mind was begging the sky to send cold weather which would trigger the rut of white tails. The need to look for a female turns off caution and whole brain not only in deer. ))
To my luck the night temperature of November-21 was at freezing point, so there was a hope... I took my Rem 783 then twenty minutes before sunrise I was already walking down the trail toward my spot. The public area was consisting of spots of old forest alternating with heavily brushed openings. There was also farming land, about only 200 yds away from my point of interest. The crops were all harvested but fortunately there was a green spot of clover about 200x100 yds. So this was solving at least a couple of variables. I guessed that deer will be bedding not too far away in that heavy brush on the public side. I approached the area downwind then started checking for deer traces by walking slowly and stealthy while watching the wind direction. I started from the edge bordering the clover spot then soon enough I discovered fresh ground scrapes and foot prints of a big buck. Those were of bigger size than average. So I turned toward the brush and blown my grunt call couple of times. I simulated ground scraping noise using a random piece of thick wood then blown a sound like "phff-phfffffffffoo!!!" just by my mouth. Waited about 7 minutes then repeated this provocative combination of calls and scrap noise while walking very slowly and quietly back and forth near the brush and downwind. Ten minutes later I repeated it again, waited about 5 min and thought to go checking another spot. Then suddenly the magic started to work. A huge rack slowly pulled out of brush toward the trail clearing. The deer was looking rather slow and bold. His body language was saying: "who dared to claim my territory". It was about 70 yds between me and him. I froze up. I was staying on the trail side so there were remnants of dead grass about 2ft tall around me. Afraid to shoulder the rifle while standing tall I started to get down on my knee slowly but steadily. I took maybe 3-4 sec and meanwhile the buck has completely pulled out to the middle of trail. I cheek my stock only to discover that the lens caps are still on the scope... Yeah, part of my walk path to the area was going through brushing, so I covered the lenses to avoid getting them dirty then forgot to remove the caps when started calling. "Dmn..!!!" - exploded in my mind. I removed the caps by my right hand while keeping the rifle shouldered. OK! I see his shoulder in crosshair... I stop my breathing, move the aim a bit behind the front leg then slowly pull that trigger. I didn't feel the recoil and the shot sound didn't seem to be too loud to me either. But then I could hear my heartbeat. I saw that the buck stumbled a little then jumped into the brush on the other side of trail. Apparently the guy was trying to go downwind to sniff me then kick my butt. I couldn't believe. My plan worked. My dream became true! I took my backpack off and opened tea thermos.
30 minutes later it took me only 10 min to follow the blood trail through the brush. He walked about 60 yds from the point of hit. There was maybe 3 yds break with no blood and the old deer trail was intersecting the initial path in that bush. So it was maybe 2 minutes when my heart was squeezing and melting. But then I was able to find the blood again. That time the trail was generous, especially last 15 yds. The .308 150gr Rem Core-Lokt passed through, it destroyed top of lungs and trachea on its way.

I'm always butchering my game myself. It was a nice about at least 260LB and 9pts specimen who has not yet managed to burn his fat deposits for doe chasing. It is only 5 yrs since I started hunting, so it was my first trophy white tail. And here is the rack:

End of story

 

[trhall]

After months of worrying if my Alaskan moose hunt was even going to happen due to Covid, September 1st found me on 3 different flights from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks, Alaska. I could go on and on with the details, but I'll fast-forward to September 5th. After hiking, glassing, cow calling, and then hiking some more, about 1:00pm my guide and I reached the ridge above our tent camp. There we overlooked a long valley that ran east to west for a couple of miles, and nearly 1000 yards to the opposite ridge. On the first cow call from our new perch, almost instantly a big bull emerged at about 500 yards. He was moving through the head-high brush from west to east, and with the wind in his face. Billy, my guide, quickly interrupted the bulls movement as an attempt to get downwind of the cow he expected to see and smell. We made a fast decision to back up a bit and loop to the ridge line on the eastern end of the valley, effectively getting us downwind of the area the bull was heading. Once settled into our new lookout we began glassing the valley below us. With the sun poking in and out of the clouds, during one of the moments it lit up the brush below us, Billy spotted a flick of antler. The bull was bedded about 200 yards below us! After about half-an-hour he stood. Billy made one low volume cow call and the bull started towards us. Billy now had the opportunity to clearly judge him and pretty quickly told me the bull was indeed a shooter. At only 160 yards he cleared the brush and turned broadside to me. The crosshairs quickly settled behind his shoulder, and the 33 Nosler sent a 225 grain Accubond on its way. The echo was still bouncing around the valley when he tipped over. After maybe 30 seconds he struggled to get back on his feet. The brush he fell in was too high for another clear shot, but thankfully after another 20 or 30 seconds he fell again. That was it! The Accubond performed perfectly, passing through both lungs and exiting behind the off-side shoulder. As a postscript, Billy and I returned to the kill site 4 days later, thinking maybe a bear or a wolf might be working the gut pile. Sitting in the exact spot I was sitting when I shot the moose for about an hour, believe it or not, a big gray wolf suddenly appears. Again, 160 yards, and "bang"! At the angle he stood, a neck shot seemed the most logical. Needless to say, the 225 grain Accubond was a bit of overkill, but it did the job. I can only thank God for giving me the opportunity to go on such a fabulous hunt, for providing Alaska's endless beauty, and for hooking me up with such a great outfitter and guide!View attachment 229817View attachment 229818View attachment 229819

Man, what an awesome bull and the wolf to go along with it just the cherry on top!

 

[trhall]

My husband is Jeff who's name on this site is Nuclear worker. I know he posted about our three unsuccessful previous tries at getting a branch antler bull. Well we finally got one and here's our success story.
We met our outfitter Lee Livingston and our guide Jason at the trail head along wit the other hunters, guides and camp personnel. Jeff had requested a mule instead of a horse because he has had bad luck on past hunts with horses. We left the trail head at 9:00am with 18 horses and mules for the 6 1/2 hour ride into camp. We traveled through some of the most beautiful and scary country you can imagine. I wouldn't think your a** could stay puckered for that long! There is one section of the trail they call the cat walk. It's about 12 inches wide. You can touch the uphill side without bending over and the downhill side is extremely steep and about 1000 feet down to the river below. We had 30 mph winds that day and it was throwing gravel and sand off the hill and Jeff's mule was doing a tap dance on the cat walk because of it. We finally made it into camp which is at about 8000 ft at around 4:00pm. We got settled into our tent and started glassing the ridges around us. We saw three cows on on a ridge across the river from camp. There was a huge rock knob at about 11,000 ft across the valley and our guide Jason said that it was called the "bull pen" and that is where we were going tomorrow.

We left camp at about 6:30am the next morning and headed for the bullpen. We tied our horses at about 9500 ft and had to climb the rest of the way. Now we have been training for 5 months doing 1000's of flights of steps and miles of hiking with full back packs and gear. Nothing can prepare you for the thin air!! We are both 56 and our guide was 35 and 6'6 with 4' long legs. He was always waiting for us. We finally got up to the bull pen and in the valley to the east a bull bugled! We started working our way that direction. He had at least 50 cows with him. We never saw the herd bull. The cows made it very difficult to move in on him. They headed up another draw so Jason said if we can make it around a huge rock outcropping maybe we could catch the bull at the top of the pass. We tried but by the time we made the climb he had already passed over and all we saw were cows. On the way back down to our horses that day we had grizzly tracks on top of our tracks in the mud as it had snowed, sleeted or rained all day. We walked our horses back down to the main trail as it was too steep and slippery to ride. When we got back to camp one hunter had missed a bull at 400 yards and another one had taken a big 5x5. His partner had seen 5 bulls including 2 big 6x6's fighting which he missed at 150 yards! He also missed another one and finally got a small 5x5 at the end of the day. We thought here we go again! Two guys are done already and had seen multiple bulls and we saw nothing!

The next morning we headed for the area they were at the day before because of all the bulls they saw. We couldn't take our horses as high as we wanted because at the top of the ridge was an elk carcass from yesterday. Although there were ravens and an eagle on the carcass we made a wide berth around it because of possible grizzlies. Jason said he didn't think a bear was there because he wouldn't share with the birds but we didn't want to chance it. As we worked our way through the nightmare of downed timber from a forest fire in 2018 we heard another bull bugle. We had to go past the other carcass from yesterday but saw no bears. By late afternoon we were about 3 1/2 miles from the horses when Jason spotted 2 bulls at 150 yards in the timber. Now my husband Jeff and I flip a coin at the start of our hunts to see who shoots first every day. It was Jeff's turn and as this was our 4th hunt we decided before we got there that we were going to take the first branch antler bull we saw. Well the 2 bulls were small so Jeff tried talking me into taking the shot because it was his turn to shoot first that day. I was having no part of it! I said "it's your turn so take the shot." All he could see was part of his shoulder and behind his shoulder quartering towards him and the trees. He had no place to rest his gun so he got down on his knee and touched one off! Jason said you hit him him but he didn't move so he put another one in him. After shooting again he took one step forward and fell. The other bull which was a 4x4 ran off about 40 yards and stopped. Jason started cow calling and it started coming back. They told me to shoot it if I wanted. I got down and put the crosshairs on its neck because he was facing straight at me. I decided I didn't like the shot and wanted to wait for a chance at bigger bull now that we had meat. We quartered it up and Jeff carried the quarters about 150 yards up hill from the carcass because we were going to have to wait until morning to come back and get it. It had been snowing on and off all day and on the way back to our horses there were grizzly tracks in the snow next to ours!

The next morning my back was really hurting. I've had two back surgeries and have rods in my back and after the day yesterday I was pretty sore so after a heated conversation Jeff convinced me to stay in camp in the morning while they went back to get Jeff's bull off the mountain. I felt really bummed for not going along. When they went back for the meat and got close to the carcass the birds were in the trees and not on the carcass. You couldn't see the carcass because it was over the ridge top but Jason felt there was probably a bear on it because the birds were in the trees waiting. They finally made it back to Jeff's bull and loaded it on the pack mule and headed back to camp. By the time they got back two other hunters in camp had both shot bulls. Now I really was frustrated and not very happy because I felt I wasted a morning and I was the only one in camp who didn't get one! We decided we would go out and glass that afternoon to see if we could spot something for the next day. It was already mid afternoon so we climbed a ridge not far from camp and sat down to glass. About 45 minuets into glassing Jeff spotted an elk about 1 mile away in a grass clearing. With his 10x40 binos he couldn't see horns so he described to Jason where he was and with his bigger binos he was able to see horns. He felt we could make it there by 5:15 so off we went down the mountain, across the river and up the other side. The closest we could get was 770 yards. Turns out there were three bulls. Two small ones and we couldn't get a good look at the third one so we climbed back off the ridge to maneuver closer. Jason finally got a good look at the third bull and he was a big one but he didn't want to tell me so I didn't get nervous. We set up at 400 yards and Jeff called out the dope for me to adjust my scope. Jason didn't like the shot because we would only get one so we moved to the left and set up at 380 yards and I redialed my scope. We moved left a couple more times trying for a better shot. We were at the bottom of the ridge with an extreme angle up shot. We had lost sight of the other 2 bulls and were afraid they would bust us so we moved and set up two more times until we finally found an opening in the trees where I could get a second shot if needed. He was at 353 yards so Jeff told me my dope and I went up 14 clicks and when he steps out I could take him. When he finally stepped out and I went to take the shot after moving multiple times and redialing my scope over and over I was a little frazzled and forgot to take my safety off! As soon as I realized it I flipped it off but had to calm myself down again to shoot. Finally I touched one off and bull down!!!! He had taken a few leaps down hill and buried his horns under a downfall. When we finally got to him it was almost completely dark. He was a huge 6x6!!! I never could have imagined I'd get one like this!!! Once in a lifetime bull! We had left our gear with the horses so we only had one headlamp. Jason started to quarter it up and I took bear guard duty with my 10mm pistol. As Jason got the quarters off, Jeff carried them 150 yards down the incredibly steep ridge. After four trips of hauling the quarters down Jeff was wiped out! Now we had about a mile back to the horses with one headlamp in grizz country! We made it back to the horses and camp with no problems. Everyone congratulated me because I had taken the biggest bull in camp!!! The next day we went back and packed it out in the daylight. There was no bear sign at least.

You would think the adventure would end there but oh no! We left Cody the next afternoon and had to go through the mountains in an ice storm with fog so thick you couldn't see 40 feet in front of you. By now our a**** were so used to being puckered form the horse rides and grizzlies at least it didn't hurt! We ended up driving all the way back to Wisconsin in snow, sleet, fog, rain and high winds! I guess it make a fitting end to an amazing trip. Again we would like to thank Lee Livingston for a great camp. And thanks to our guide Jason, the other guide Paul for helping get our elk out, Justine the camp cook for the great food and April the camp wrangler for having our animals ready each morning. After four hunts we finally did it! We both got our branch antler bulls! After all the hard work we put in I couldn't have asked for a better trip! Here's to more adventures and memories to last a lifetime!!! I feel so lucky that we can both share these memories together!

Beautiful bull! Congrats....

 

[memtb]

Same as previous 3 falls, only more so.....nothing to report! memtb