Well as it turns out it was a pretty darn good hunt! (Says every unsuccessful Hunter ever!) I shouldn't say unsuccessful I did bring home some meat but here is the rundown.
Sunday – After getting camp set up we decided with the limited amount of time we had to go on a short deer hunt. We decided to go to our old stomping grounds close to the town we were hunting near. Not 15 minutes into the hunt we ran smack dab into the biggest bucks bed I have ever seen! I'm not very good at field judging big deer but both me and my dad agreed he would score well over 150". As I said we stumbled into his bed and he jumped up and ran to 54 yards. We all know nothing comes easy and neither did he. Instead of standing broadside like almost every other deer I have ever had stop, he stopped and took two steps directly towards us, he never stood broadside once. After about a five-minute standoff he spun then took off like I was chasing him with hounds. Over the next week I went back to that area four separate times trying to get my chance at him but unfortunately I never saw him again.
Monday – well Monday was another strange day as I got a call from a recruiter wanting to do a phone interview with me right in the middle of the day. Interview went well but the rest of the day didn't we didn't see any deer or elk.
Tuesday – tuesday morning me and my dad both woke up super excited. We were finally going to head back into our honey hole and see what we could stir up. We were up at 3:30 and walked 3 miles before the sun even came up.
While walking in our excitement and grew because we could hear at least four bulls going at once.
Our excitement was short-lived. At daylight all of the bulls stopped bugling. Within about 20 minutes of the bulls stopping we ran into a Bear hunter who informed us that he had been in the area almost 20 days straight! Some of you may remember the game cam pictures i posted earlier in the year and needless to say there was zero game in the area when we tried to hunt it this year.
Wednesday – exact same as Tuesday including the Bearhunter in our spot! Except today no bulls bugling at all!
Thursday we tried to switch it up a bit. We hunted an area that we knew about but had never actually hunted before. We never heard any bulls and saw very little sign but we did jump a spike bull at about 10 yards in a very thick area before a meadow. He was very jumpy and never presented a shot. The rest of that day consisted of me fighting with my dads old Garmin rhino about where we were on the mountain. Turns out I was right and it end up costing us an evening hunt. And about four extra miles of walking.
Friday was a day of somewhat redemption. We decided to try to get some meat in the freezer and went on a deer hunt to one of our favorite spots. Within five minutes of leaving the truck we stumbled upon a decent group of does and me and my dad stocked them to within about 20 yards. I let my dad shoot first and he smoked a doe that didn't go but 25 yards. The other does scattered but I was able to get a shot at about 40 yards at one who was standing trying to get a peek at what we were. All in all we had two does down within 5 minutes of each other! Meat in the freezer. After field dressing and running to town to get some ice we had an unsuccessful evening elk hunt.
Saturday morning was our last day to hunt and we decided to go way up high. We went to a spot that was around 8500 feet and set up and started bugling. After only about 10 minutes of calling we had a cow walk right in the middle of us exactly where neither one of us expected an elk to show up. She was head on to me at about 65 yards and broadside to my dad at about 10. Unfortunately there was a giant boulder in between my dad and the cow. Even though we had both of our decoys set up she knew something was wrong and wouldn't take one more step. Unfortunately my dad never knew she was there until he cow called and she knew something was wrong and hightailed it downhill.
Even though we had limited success I still feel like it was a fantastic hunt. I spent some great time with my dad and got to see some new country. Next year we will definitely have to find new land that is not invaded with other hunters. All in all I calculated we walked almost 40 miles! And let me tell you neither me or my dad are in any kind of good shape. Round would be the closest shape in fact!
What a difference a year makes. Last year even though I didn't hunt we saw six Bears 60 to 100 elk and countless deer.
This year, no bears three elk and about 15 to 20 deer. Good thing we have next year to look forward to.
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