Day 1, Friday Oct. 12 2007 (Deer season open, but elk open on the 15th)
Left work early afternoon and made the relatively short drive to our chosen campsite. I was the first of the crew to arrive and was glad that nobody else had planted themselves in the prime spot. I began setting up the 14'x16' sleep tent - in the rain - and got thoroughly soaked by the time I finished, got the plastic tarp over the tent, and some firewood split and began drying everything out. Later in the evening, one of my older brothers came into camp after spending the night out on the ridge in a tent, with his dogs, deer hunting. He was sore, and one of his dogs had a mountain goat lower his head at him, ready to charge, but luckily just ran over the ridge instead! My twin brother came in later in the evening and got his cot set up. Then into the night, another two friends showed up at bedtime, so our first night, we just had a sleep tent set up, no cook tent yet.

Day 2, Saturday Oct. 13, 2007
After breakfast, cut some poles for another 14'x16' tent that was given to me, but had some holes in it and I'd never set it up and just wanted to see what kind of shape it was in. We planned to use it just to store things in to keep them dry and out-of-sight. Split a bunch more firewood, dug the latrine, and got camp just as well situated as we could without the cook tent yet. Along about 2 p.m. another two friends showed up, with two of the horses. At 2:30 p.m., the other horse trailer with 5 horses and two more friends showed up. We got another 12'x14' sleep tent, and the 16'x20' cook tent set up and all populated with the right stuff. Deer hunters spooked out a nice 5x6 bull elk 700 yards above camp, across an open hillside, so we were able to look him over well and size him up. Here's camp-sweet-camp; first pic without zoom above, with camp right in the center. Next pic is zoomed in from the same location. We had quite the compound.

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Day 3, Sunday Oct. 14, 2007
The nine of us went out in three separate groups after muley bucks. A beautiful day that provided a good conditioning primer for the tough upcoming elk hunting. One crew put on a drive through a basin for one of the guys, and they squirted out a nice 4x4 muley to him that he plugged at 50 yards with a Win Mod 70 stainless classic 338 WM, with some 185 gr bullet that I don't recall. This buck had good bases with a lot of nubbins on it, but the tops didn't develop that well; still a nice buck. I ran out a tremendous 6-point bull elk that was definitely a shooter, and was in shooting distance, but this day he was safe.

Day 4, Monday Oct. 15, 2007
Anticipation was high on the elk opener. Again, three separate groups went out, but lost one of the deer hunters to work pressures, and another was ill in the morning. The ill hunters' normal partner went out anyway, with cow tag in hand (the ill one had a bull tag). You guys know what's coming…….a nice 5-point bull walked into 15 yards of him before he recognized something wasn't quite right, and bolted off unscathed, and no cows showed themselves.

Up another drainage, my twin brother and friend spied a group of bulls and some cows early. Then they watched them bed at about 9800 ft elevation! One was a definite nice 6-point shooter so they formulated an approach up a parallel draw and got above them. A peek over a big boulder revealed the bull still in position in his bed. Plenty of time setting up sent a 180 Gr Failsafe from a Win Mod 70 stainless classic 30-06 into the neck from 200 yards. Approaching the bull revealed head/neck flopping, but not death, and wild eyes. Another failsafe went between the eyes, and that bullet was recovered in the neck, petals smeared off, but the entire shank still there. This elk got the head cut off, gutted, stitched up, stitched up at the neck, front legs cut off at the elbow, and then trundled up to the rear legs in a ball. Apparently this worked very well with only one of them able to unstick it and send it farther down the hill. Once they got it far enough, they quartered and hung it for the following day.

My crew - three of us - were in another part of the drainage. Early on, we passed up a fairly nice 4-point muley, maybe 22" wide, decent forks and mass. We just KNEW we were going to be in the elk at any time now! By 3:00 p.m., and seeing no elk, I took a seat on a hillside alone (we were spread out at different elevations) to try the waiting game awhile. I ranged a few spots on the opposite ridge to gauge my comfortable areas, then began glassing. In popped a feeding muley buck! It took me only a few short looks at the forks from the side - without even any consideration for width - to know he was a shooter. I sat down on the hillside, settled my elbows on my knees, and at 220 yards, sent a 230 Gr Failsafe through, tight behind the shoulder….at least I believe that was the shot that got him. Dust kicked up behind the buck, but at the time, I wasn't absolutely sure I had made a good shot. The buck swapped ends, and then stood. Another shot sent his way only got him moving again, but wobbly, and at the last moment before moving into the trees, another shot and the buck collapsed. Autopsy revealed only 1 hit, a good mid-elevation lung shot. I'm sticking with the story that all three bullets went through the same hole. Yeah, that's what happened! I think I got a bit of buck fever. A very nice 4-point muley, 'only' 24" wide, but deep rear forks, and carries good mass all the way out. I've shot some wider bucks, but this one is prettier, so it's going on the wall. We caped the buck and hung the halves up in a tree for retrieval the following day, at about 9300 ft elevation. Here's the buck:

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Continued in next post.....

And continued....

Day 5, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2007
Awoke to spitting snow and rolling fog for a packing day. Two separate crews went out with horses for the bull and buck. After the bull was loaded, two of them went off after a cow. The bull-packing crew spotted the 5x6 that we'd seen on day 2, 200 yards above the trail when coming out, but neither held a non-punched bull tag; he lived another day. Sometime later in the day the cow tag was punched at something around 100 yards in the timber, with a 30-338 Rem Mod 700 stainless; don't know what bullet was used.

My packing crew got our horses right to the buck; it was sketchy, but we got them in there. Some fine horses, let me tell you. We did try some mid-afternoon hunting before loading up, but saw nothing and it was getting late. Down a steep ridge with a loaded horse was a bit nerve-wracking, but with good dirt footing, and taking it slow, those horses did fine.

Day 6, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2007
We made a plan for the 5x6 bull. Several of us pushed up the canyon towards where we last saw the bull the day before, and other rode up to take stand upstream of where he was the day before. Not long after the hunt began, the bull tag holder got to the same area, and that mentally challenged bull was in the exact same spot. Several well-placed shots with a 7mm Rem Mag put him down 200 yards above the trail. Two stayed there and worked up the bull into quarters, and two others pushed on up the canyon with more horses to pack the cow out from the day before. We didn't see anything else to shoot that day. Here's the 5x6:

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/000_0176.jpg

Day 7, Thursday Oct. 18, 2007
A day of rest for several, but 3 of us went up to push an area for deer or bull elk. It was spitting snow and we had rolling fog again. The weather forecast was for a bad storm approaching and the high basin was barren, animals getting spooked out not wanting to get trapped.

Day 8, Friday Oct. 19, 2007
Awoke to wet heavy snow coming down in the dark hours of the morning, accumulating 8" at camp, then it rained HARD, ALL day. A pic of that morning:

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/100_0005.jpg

We had a huge breakfast, not wanting to ride in that weather. Then boredom set in as the rain just kept dumping. We probably got 2+ inches that day. We don't usually get weather like this, and didn't trench around the tents. We had a couple streams through our cook tent, so we channeled one to a mouse hole from which a mouse was terrorizing our food at night, then hunted mice. Here's a pic of the trophy after we hydrated his hole, with comparison of my muley buck so you can see the trophy potential of the little varmint:

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Day 9, Saturday Oct. 20, 2007
Time to pull camp. Another huge breakfast, and relatively good day, but always a letdown pulling camp. A pic of the take for our trip - two bulls, two bucks, and a cow (cows don't take good pics!)

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/100_0014.jpg

Our crew still holds two bull tags, one cow tag, and two buck tags, so a few more weekends and this may get added to. Good luck all!

Nice pic's and good storytelling.

Here's hoping equal success on the next go-'round.

Will have to leave that sort of hunting to you younger folk - think my time in the elk country has drawn to a close. Lots of good memories, though.

I'm in the same boat as kdub, the last heart attack did in 15 percent of my heart and I'm not sure I'll even get to use the deer tag in my wallet this year.

I sure enjoy your stories and pix though. Great shots and you didn't burn your tent down this year.

I keep telling folks that there are only two directions in Idaho, straight up and straight down and the rivers are either a mile wide and an inch deep or a mile deep and an inch wide. They don't believe me, but now your pix proves I'm right.

kdub and Bob,
I've been thinking about my later years and have plans to go set up camp anyway, even if I (we) can't hunt anymore. Maybe sit on an easy hillside and wait for others to run something into me, or, just have a nice comfortable camping trip. That, or shame the young bucks in camp to do the hard work after the shooting stops. :D I have an older brother that was in camp with us in his mid-50's that's still doing the hard stuff, so I figure I have 10-15 more years of this - cross my fingers!

We had three fire extinguishers in camp this year.:p

Good luck to everyone, and I'll add to the thread if we get more meat on the ground.

kdub and Bob,
I've been thinking about my later years and have plans to go set up camp anyway, even if I (we) can't hunt anymore. Maybe sit on an easy hillside and wait for others to run something into me, or, just have a nice comfortable camping trip. That, or shame the young bucks in camp to do the hard work after the shooting stops. :D I have an older brother that was in camp with us in his mid-50's that's still doing the hard stuff, so I figure I have 10-15 more years of this - cross my fingers!

We had three fire extinguishers in camp this year.:p

Good luck to everyone, and I'll add to the thread if we get more meat on the ground.

Really enjoyed your story and hunt pics. Can't wait for season to start down here.

Congratulations

We had some cuts from the tenderloin and backstrap of my buck tonight, and - no surprise - great eating. My brother left a message this evening that they had ke-bobs from his bull elk, and it was very tasty too. Even with a bad drought this spring/summer, the high country got some timely thunderstorms and the feed was good.

I just got done tonight with the cutting, grinding, packaging of that buck, with a borrowed grinder from a friend that he got from Sportsmen's Warehouse - a "Camp Chef" 1.3 HP. I can wholeheartedly recommend this unit. I usually take the animals to a processor, but I can already tell that the quality of the end product is going to be much better. I ran the burger through the grinder twice to get a good mixing of the 5%-10% added beef fat.

I sure don't like that meat cutting though. Maybe I'm being to concerned about trimming out all the fat/sinew; it sure is tedious. High satisfaction factor though.

Wow! Great pics and story.

That sure looks like fun! Do you guys need a cook? :)

We had some cuts from the tenderloin and backstrap of my buck tonight, and - no surprise - great eating. My brother left a message this evening that they had ke-bobs from his bull elk, and it was very tasty too. Even with a bad drought this spring/summer, the high country got some timely thunderstorms and the feed was good.

I just got done tonight with the cutting, grinding, packaging of that buck, with a borrowed grinder from a friend that he got from Sportsmen's Warehouse - a "Camp Chef" 1.3 HP. I can wholeheartedly recommend this unit. I usually take the animals to a processor, but I can already tell that the quality of the end product is going to be much better. I ran the burger through the grinder twice to get a good mixing of the 5%-10% added beef fat.

I sure don't like that meat cutting though. Maybe I'm being to concerned about trimming out all the fat/sinew; it sure is tedious. High satisfaction factor though.
I can't handle the tedious part. Too many ball games on this time of year. I'd let someone else cut it up for a share.

These Elk pics are getting me wound up.
I can't wait.
If this Mule deer thing in NM goes well, I'm going after Elk the next year before its too late to enjoy.

Great work Shawn. Nice bulls and bucks :D

RJ

Invite me along - I love to butcher my critters. Really! I don't know why but it just wraps up the hunt for me. Got a grinder, sausage stuffer, vacuum sealer, and more knives and cutting boards that I know what to do with.

Sausage, roasts, pork chops, loins..... mmmmmmmm (have to stop to wipe drool from keyboard now :D )

That sure looks like fun! Do you guys need a cook? :)

Yeah, and a tent setter-upper, latrine digger, wood splitter, dishwasher, horse waterer and feeder, quarter hangerer, trencher-around-the-tents, and stove stoker. :D One handy person could fill all those shoes. :p

MikeG, you sound like a handy man in camp! I'm not very good at that meat cutting, but I need to get the right tools; a good sharp fillet knife to start with. You know what I hate the most? The clingy plastic wrap, trying to get it unstuck from itself!

Had some fresh unfrozen hamburgers from the buck tonight, and they sure were good. A winter of satisfaction from good eating should ease the memory of the toiling though.

It was funny at night in camp. Deer stomping and snorting from a few loud snorers (glad I took ear plugs so I couldn't hear myself, or those yelling at me!). Up to relieve about midnight to 2:00 a.m. after some celebrating, there were always deer in camp, not even running off when the flashlight hit them at 15 ft. They were licking the "salty" spots we made. Thought we might bring a salt block for them next year, but F&G might frown on that.

Good luck on that NM muley hunt tpv.

I'm headed out Sat morn after a reported 350-class bull if he hasn't been plugged yet.

Yeah, and a tent setter-upper, latrine digger, wood splitter, dishwasher, horse waterer and feeder, quarter hangerer, trencher-around-the-tents, and stove stoker. :D One handy person could fill all those shoes. :p


That sounds like all the fun parts. I'll leave the mountain climbing and elk shooting to you guys.

You ever hear the joke about the guy who had a heart attack in some rough country? His buddy's swore they would get him out....even if it took two trips.

Thats funny. I don't care who you are. CG

Thats funny. I don't care who you are. CG

I always get a chuckle from that one too. We joke similarly in our camp if any of us meet our demise on the mountain, whether 'evidence of sex' should be left. :p

Went on a death march yesterday after bull elk. My neighbor, bless his heart, left work on Friday afternoon and took a two-hour heart pounder up to the ridgeline just to make sure there were elk where be planned on going. There were as he spied some cows and a 5-point bull, although the big bull wasn't spotted.

Up at 4:00 a.m. Sat morning, trailhead at 5:10 a.m. at around 6500 ft elevation. About 2 1/2 hours later and 9000 ft elevation, in position at first light we spied some cows in the open timber. A few shots with the rangefinder revealed we were still 400+ yards away, so we snuck closer. No bulls were revealing themselves, so we started our stealthy stillhunting in the timber. About an hour of this, we snuck in on several feeding cows and calves at less than 100 yards, but no horns. The morning air was still sinking so we were in great position, but we think some prying eyes may have spied us, and the elk began moving off - not in a panic, but definitely we'd been had. After a morning snack, we began following the departing elk up the ridge.

Rounding a small ridge in the timber, there standing in the saddle at about 9650' elevation was a spike. He offered a nice broadside shot at 250 yards, but I passed; a spike at the top of the world didn't sound very appealing to me. He and several cows departed. We then crossed over the saddle into the next drainage and hunted the main ridge back towards the pickup; an all-day undertaking. About 4:00 p.m. we decided to sit on a semi-open grassy hillside to wait for some feeding elk to appear. Then I began taking range readings of what I thought might be some do-able shots....550....720....sheesh, some of that country is deceiving. So, we moved down closer to these prime areas and promptly got busted by some elk that were approaching the feeding areas. :rolleyes:

Thoroughly beat, we began moving down the ridge with dark approaching, and not much interest in hunting remaining. Well wouldn't you know....out streaks a branch-antlered bull at less than 100 yards and in less than 2 seconds, offering nothing more than a Texas heart shot, he disappeared in the timber with no shots fired. Bailing off the ridge, down through the nastiest steepest terrain imaginable, we were back to the pickup right at dark, with burnt feet. That's hunting.....can't wait to do it again!

A tough weekend of elk hunting for me and a couple of my buddies. On Saturday one buddy and I (both holding bull elk tags) hiked several miles up a drainage and still-hunted through some beautiful areas that have been productive in the past. Seeing no fresh sign should have sent us home early, but hunting optimism pressed us on. We got into some good glassing positions but didn't see a hair all day. Foot-sore, we came out mid-afternoon. Here's a pic of some of the area, which is the 'shootin' rock' where "Warning Shot Joe" and I plugged two cows from a couple of years ago.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/000_0063.jpg

Today, another friend and I went out, he holding a cow tag. Early morning, a shot rang out across the canyon so we took a seat on the hillside. We could hear elk footie-steps in the crusty snow on a timbered NE facing hillside 600-800 yards away. A bunch of cow and calf elk scooted out above us after 10 minutes or so at about 450 yards, and while watching these, 5 elk came out below us at about 120 yards. One was a punk raghorn bull, rest were cows and calves. I decided to pass on him, but my friend was 40 yards below me on the hill and he didn't know this, and was waiting for me to shoot, and I realized this as I'm loudly whispering down to him to "shoot the cow, shoot the cow"........but the air was still sinking, and as soon as those elk hit our descending stink, they swapped ends and ran back into the timber , not offering my friend a good shot. Ugh!

5 days left in the season now, and I may regret passing on that bull, and I feel badly for my friend and our misunderstanding. I know my polite friend regrets not dumping the cow when he could have! We should have had "the talk" about what we were willing to shoot, or not (we haven't hunted much together). Kind of customary here that the bull tags take precedence over the cow tags if we're in a position to both shoot. But he didn't know that I was going to be picky.

Well fellas, I ate my bull tag this year; season closed on Friday Nov. 9. I had my chances at a spike and a 3 or 4-point raghorn bull but passed, so my freezer void of elk is my doing. Not much regret (except that I won't be eating that tasty meat) as I resolved to hold out for the big one, but he never presented himself. Gave it a good final shot though.

On Wednesday, my brother and I hunted a drainage around Ketchum. Spotted a cow and three calves on a burned out timbered ridge with nothing but black trees and ashes (in the left of the photo), and they winded us at around 200 yards away and hastily left, but no horns around.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/100_0028.jpg

On the last day of the season, another friend that held a bull tag came up with his 9-yr-old boy, and hunted north of Ketchum. We split up and hunted towards each other where we've had success in the past. No fresh sign, either deer or elk, and we had to admit defeat. I think as it gets this late in the season, snow or not, those animals move out. But a couple more photos from "elk camp", or the aftermath:

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http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/100_0036.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/Picture_3.jpg

For those that have seasons left, Good Luck! Don't worry, I won't go hungry as that buck I got is a tasty one!

Sounds like you still had a lot of enjoyment with the hunts, Shawn.

A couple of my more memorable hunts were those when nary a cap was busted, but the season, the country and the companionship were the greatest. The taking of game is always secondary to me anyway - a bonus if you will.

Sounds like you still had a lot of enjoyment with the hunts, Shawn.

A couple of my more memorable hunts were those when nary a cap was busted, but the season, the country and the companionship were the greatest. The taking of game is always secondary to me anyway - a bonus if you will.

Absolutely kdub. I had a great time, from day 1 setting up the first tent in a downpour, to the footsore and legsore nights in camp, waking up to the stomping and snorting deer in camp at night, to the nightcaps in the cook tent with everyone telling their stories of the day, and of years past. Can't wait for next year, even though I might hold a cow tag or even no elk tag at all. Then, I'll be happy to just be there and hunt deer and enjoy the company.

That's my phylosophy too, Shawn. If I don't get anything at least I got out and got the stink blowed off. That's wht Dad said when we'd come back from a hunt without any thing.

RJ

That's my phylosophy too, Shawn. If I don't get anything at least I got out and got the stink blowed off. That's wht Dad said when we'd come back from a hunt without any thing.

RJ

I like that quote. I'll have to use that next year, or at least use it on my friends. :p

Where does that saying come from? My parents use to say that to me when they thought I was spending too much time inside during the winter: "Go outside and get some of the stink blowed off."

They grew up in southern Wyoming (Encampment).

Well, my Grandpa came from Arkansas and he was always telling me that as a kid. I used to take him seriously, as we only got the normal "Saturday Night Bath" when growing up in the logging woods of New Mexico. A galvanized #2 wash tub by the wood burning kitchen stove! :D

Thanks for sharing your story. I really enjoyed reading it. I can't wait to get out for deer again!

I just had to show you guys and gals one last photo. Take a look at this buck....I've already showed plenty of horn pics of him but what this photo shows is how fat he was. Just a pig of a buck. Very good eating, although I think I added a little too much beef fat in the hamburger grind.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/shwncrea/000_0172-1.jpg