re: I’m gonna do a day by day of 2024 Elk/Mule deer hunt starting tmrw *final update pg3!*

STICKY REQUEST! for living the life we all want. Time for some Vicarious living.

Any updates?....hopefully you are busy packing meat out.

BUMP

He may of changed locations. Packed up camp and headed to another area. Just hope he's ok.

He could be just taking a shite. If so, we should hear about pretty soon.

Camp chilli, Copenhagen and Knob Creek had me doing some things worth talking about last time I was up there.

I bet he packed wet wipes after wiping with pine cones

I’m sorry guys, been pretty busy…

Day 3 - Elk!

I went to that glassing basin for the morning sit where the rising sun lights up all those faces. I’m all settled in at sunrise when I hear the familiar sound of a side by side coming up behind me. “Surely they see my truck and know I’m in here…”

Well, they proceed to stop right up above me on the ridge and sit for about 30 mins, then fire it up and drive all around the basin…fantastic, right during prime time. I sit there for another hour but don’t see anything and I can still hear them racing around. I’m very annoyed, but it’s public land, what can you do.

At that point, I wanted to go check out the knob which was up and to the East of me. There’s NF up there that borders private and a natural area. I’m a big fan of hunting borders. Well it was a pretty brutal hike, I side hilled it up and over across boulders, blow down, and snow. It was treacherous. Once up there I did hike around and glass into the ravines below me looking East.


I turned up some more does, about 10, but no elk. After satisfying my curiosity I decided to head back down to my glassing spot since those guys were gone. The hike down was even more treacherous trying not to break my ankle. Every step had to be carefully placed, so I’m not really looking ahead. I almost get down and pause for a break, up ahead and down off the hill about two hundred yards are 3 young bulls running away and to my left. They pause and look back at about 200 yards, but not long enough for me to get my rifle down. They had taken off running the ridge line right by the road. So I took off for my truck in hopes to get ahead of them and cut them off. I ran about 200 yards with full pack and rifle on, was very gassed once I got in the truck.

Anyways, I couldn’t see them anymore so I didn’t know where to pull off so I went a little too far. I got out with my rifle, but they had veered off and down into the valley about 300 yards back. Exhausted, I decided to just get the tripod out and watch them. It was a spike, a small 4x4, and a small 5x5.

They stopped down on the other side of the valley and moseyed on into the trees. I forgot to zoom my phone in but you can barely see them here.



I watched them until they decided to bed down on a ridge in the burn, close to private, but still NF.



I formulated a stalk plan to get West of them and inch my way out along the ridge they were bedded on. I snuck in there, down a thick ravine and back up into the burn. It was hard estimating where they were with every landmark being a burned tree so I crept along as slow as I could. After about 30 minutes, I got to where I was thinking they were, so I’d stand for 5 minutes just scanning everywhere completely still before taking a couple steps.

I finally saw an antler about 150 yards ahead of me, he hadn’t seen me yet. I was getting my pack off and rifle when I looked further right and the other two were staring at me. They looked at me for maybe five seconds and took off. I don’t know if I would’ve had a shooting lane in there anyways it was so thick. They blew out onto private and out of my life.

I was kicking myself for not just sitting at my glassing spot all morning, tracks showed they traveled maybe 150 yards to what would’ve been my left. I would’ve had an easy shot and been able to back the truck right up to him if I had gotten one. But I let those Polaris guys annoy me and went on a needless hike. Just another lesson learned, sit your arse down and stay there.

Nothing eventful happened for the rest of the day, just more does and another forky. And of course that evening I started to feel the cold my son had coming onto me. Sore throat and cough. Of course.

Day Four - Tuesday

Alarm went off at 4, but I felt like crap when it did, so I told myself today can be my sleep in day. I slept in until 7 and boy did I need it. Throat felt awful, but I loaded up on immune boosters and what not, determined to still get the most out of the day.

After getting gas, more ice, food etc I got back up there maybe around 11ish. I decided to sit up on a very high ridge that had a 360 degree field of view. I probably wouldn’t have time to make a stalk if I found anything, but I just wanted to find something so I could pinpoint it for Wednesday morning.

Considering the previous days’ debacle, I was just going to sit and glass until dark. No relocating, just glass until my eyes bled. I had a view for miles. I had spotted a bunch of bulls from this spot a few years ago so was hoping for the same luck.





I glass up a cow moose just hanging around in the basin. I love how Moose really don’t give a crap. No hiding, just walking around without a care in the world. I watched her until she disappeared beneath me into a ravine.



The most interesting part of being up there was being able to glass North into an area that had the road closed. It looked like very good country, and with a road closure that means a long hike in, which deters many hunters.

Towards sunset it got super windy, maybe 20-30 mph gusts. Right at sunset I decided to head back to the truck. I was a mix of discouraged/encouraged. Discouraged that it was so slow and not many animals, given my encounter with the bulls the previous day, of course you just run scenarios in your head over and over on what could’ve been done right. For me the mental aspect of hunting alone is the hardest part. Always second guessing yourself with nobody to bounce ideas off. Nobody to encourage you.

But I was excited that I had a firm plan to hike into that Northern area that was closed off. I was also starting to feel better, so that was the plan. Get back up early again and spend all day traipsing around. That was my goal for Wednesday…

What brand optics you are using? Binos, spotting scope, and rifle scope?