OR Elk and Bear Blog

[TRICER]

Packed out of the 16 this morning got home around noon dried all my fear in the driveway packed up and hit the road with my buddy Paul for our OR elk hunt. Hopefully we will be there by tomorrow afternoon so we can get some scouting in.

Season opens Wednesday and runs 5 days. We can shoot any bull and I have a bear tag. Weather has been lots of snow and rain since Friday. We are driving Paul’s wife’s Xterra he even washed it first lol. She gonna be brown by tomorrow night.

Stay tuned there will be blood.

 

[TRICER]

Sleeping on a tarp somewhere on BLM near Bishop. Clear sky, cold, and a steady wind.

 

[Stikbrandon]

Keep ‘em coming bud!

 

[GUNDOGLOVER49]

Sleeping on a tarp somewhere on BLM near Bishop. Clear sky, cold, and a steady wind.

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I hate wind. Hope your hunt is successful.

 

[TRICER]

Froze our nuts off last night should have taken the 10 minutes to set up the tent.
Got up at 5am and hit the road. Making good time eating breakfast in Winnemucca now then back north. Should be in our unit around 5-8pm.

 

[sportyg]

Looks like it's going to be a fun trip. good luck on the hunt.

 

[TRICER]

Pulled off and shot the rifles. Stupidly cleaned my gun last week and it took a few to get her settled in. Dialed it back to 250 we are ready to kill elk.

 

[TRICER]

Three bucks in this group

 

[Dawnandusk]

Pulled off and shot the rifles. Stupidly cleaned my gun last week and it took a few to get her settled in. Dialed it back to 250 we are ready to kill elk.

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I can see that rock bleeding…

 

[NBK]

Drew, are you shooting the 7mm Ackley?

 

[HATCHET1]

Any sporks in the 16?

 

[Stikbrandon]

Drew, are you shooting the 7mm Ackley?

John You know he never leaves home with out his 6.5CM.

He leaves all his howitzers at home for his boys and the mighty 16.

 

[NBK]

John You know he never leaves home with out his 6.5CM.

He leaves all his howitzers at home for his boys and the mighty 16.

Haha - if he goes that route it would be a .260 Rem. The OG 6.5!

 

[TRICER]

We are returning home bloodied beaten and elkless. What an awesome week. We got close they zigged we zagged. We we got on a bull last night glassed him up a mile as the crow flies it was a 2.5 mile 3 hour stalk to get in position 528yds rock steady prone and he never made an appearance so we did the smart thing which was sleep on the mountain with no sleeping bags and a fire so we could set up on him this morning. We froze our balls off! Set up this morning and he didn’t show again.

It’s all over we are somewhere in Nevada now. Wish Pictures could show how nasty this place was. One day we did 96 floors in 1.6 miles we went places we never should have went and made some bad decisions that probably cost us an elk but we had one heck of a week.

Gear Side note: Hillenbrand tents are incredible! That REI Quarter Dome tarp 12oz saved our butts and has found its way into my pack probably permanently. Kenetrek Mountain Extremes are worth the money if you are going to be in the steep stuff side hilling etc.

 

[ilovesprig]

Drew,

What an adventure!....Love your line of stuff....I need some Christmas presents...................

 

[TRICER]

Another note: ramen in the jet boil when it is freezing out is incredible. That and a fire can be a total mood/moral changer.

Also sorry for the weak blog. Blogs only work when you have service and I haven’t had any for 7 days. It was pretty great to be honest. I have 250 unread Tru-Duct emails so that’s cool.

 

[Snake Charmer]

We are returning home bloodied beaten and elkless. What an awesome week. We got close they zigged we zagged. We we got on a bull last night glassed him up a mile as the crow flies it was a 2.5 mile 3 hour stalk to get in position 528yds rock steady prone and he never made an appearance so we did the smart thing which was sleep on the mountain with no sleeping bags and a fire so we could set up on him this morning. We froze our balls off! Set up this morning and he didn’t show again.

It’s all over we are somewhere in Nevada now. Wish Pictures could show how nasty this place was. One day we did 96 floors in 1.6 miles we went places we never should have went and made some bad decisions that probably cost us an elk but we had one heck of a week.

Gear Side note: Hillenbrand tents are incredible! That REI Quarter Dome tarp 12oz saved our butts and has found its way into my pack probably permanently. Kenetrek Mountain Extremes are worth the money if you are going to be in the steep stuff side hilling etc.


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An adventure that will never leave you for sure congrats ! as rad an adventure from my experience's as I have come close to with not so much weather (Arizona) . Glad to hear about Kennetreks again. I think folks have gone too extrememism wise with brand to brand alleigiance these days. I have ran them for years and replaced multiple soles and still use them. Would love to sit with you sometime and listen to your tales and share with you what I have have experienced and learned and listen to your read on the modern western big game hunting opportunites. Congrats again on the extreme hunt you performed...

 

[TRICER]

An adventure that will never leave you for sure congrats ! as rad an adventure from my experience's as I have come close to with not so much weather (Arizona) . Glad to hear about Kennetreks again. I think folks have gone too extrememism wise with brand to brand alleigiance these days. I have ran them for years and replaced multiple soles and still use them. Would love to sit with you sometime and listen to your tales and share with you what I have have experienced and learned and listen to your read on the modern western big game hunting opportunites. Congrats again on the extreme hunt you performed...

For sure Would love to share a fire one night.

I bought a pair of uninsulated hard scrabbles and a pair of insulated Mt extremes. I love them both almost wish I went with the Mt extremes for both though. I love the support especially side hilling steep terrain. but for the majority of our hunts here in so cal and AZ the hard scrable is a perfect boot.

I am going to look into custom insoles “sheep feet” is a brand a lot of people are loving. Once they have your mold you are set for life and can interchange the insoles from boot to boot.

 

[TRICER]

Since I couldn’t blog I put together a terrible hunting video for you of little short clips from each day of the hunt. Don’t judge my videography skills it’s just random stuff from the hunt pretty much in sequence.

@Lungpopper the second spot had a lot of deer we saw some shooters. It has potential if AK gets screwed up again next season. We could pull some bucks out of there.

Two big takeaway from this hunt
#1 stop pigeon holing myself make sure I start the hunt somewhere I can be more mobile if needed. That hike into our first spot was brutal and wasted 1 scout day and 2.5 hunting days of a 5 day hunt.

#2 always have a sleeping bag and tarp in my pack that way I can sleep where I end up at night if need be. The terrain was so nasty that hiking back in the dark would have been super dangerous. Literally one misstep and you are gonna be rolling for hundreds of yards. I have no desire to do that at night or end up cliffed out etc.

 

[2duckhunter4]

Your hunt looks to have been a combination of brutal terrain and relentless bad weather. Way to hang in there and give it 100%.