2016 idaho elk

[Zpd307]

hey guys! this year has flown by with the new ranch and all...... I have been super busy most of the time and haven\'t posted much.

just letting you guys know that my new hunting partner, matt, and I are leaving for Idaho tonight after work. we are meeting terry out there, who has been there since the 2nd. steve couldn\'t make it this year due to some health issues this will be matt\'s first elk hunt and he is pumped!

terry has been into a lot of elk! he missed a cow today, after a branch deflected his arrow.

I plan on keeping a journal this year, to help keep this years melee organized. as I plan on boring you guys again with our story :lol:

wish us luck, t minus 2 and half hours to go time!

 

[cohunter14]

Best of luck Gary!! Can\'t wait to hear the report. Hope you guys have a safe trip and make your way back with a bunch of coolers full of elk :upthumb:

 

[Ol' Arky]

Be safe and have fun, Gary.... :upthumb: :upthumb:

 

[david.denham.39]

Good luck! Safe travels!!

 

[bnsafe]

good luck an stay safe

 

[Zpd307]

matt and I arrived home safely yesterday at 10 am!
terry texted me later in the evening that he also made it home safely!

this was an epic hunt!!!!!! yet another year for many firsts

matt is now an elk addict, you will see why when I start my story.....

 

[Zpd307]

day 1ish....
Wednesday sept 7

both matt and I had to work. that was agonizingly painful...... matt was able to get off early so I picked him up at 8:00 and we were on the road by 8:30.

from the scouting trip earlier in july, I knew that we would be at terry\'s camp in 20.5 hours.

the trip out was fairly uneventful, the typical mulies along the road around teddy Roosevelt national park, but no close butt pucker close calls this time I actually let matt drive. this was a big deal to me as I don\'t let anybody drive. it really helped when we got to camp, as I wasn\'t so exhausted!
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sunrise while running through eastern montana!
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sw montana, north of dillon

with matt being able to get off early, we were able to meet up with terry at a good time, with plenty of daylight to hike in and set up camp. I knew terry was at camp waiting for us, since he had called and then texted, wondering what our eta was we met up with terry at his camp location. I was excited to hear any updates that he would have. he hadn\'t been bivy hunting since the first night, as he was hadn\'t found water up high, where the elk were. with that concern, we elected to go with my plan a......

we hiked in a mile from the road and made camp sweet camp along a fast moving creek! we were a mile or so down the road further from where terry had been. I was nervous if someone was going to be parked at the trail head. I was so relieved when nobody was there! terry said that there hadn\'t been much for hunters so far. sweet :upthumb:

there wasn\'t much daylight after camp was set.

the bummer was, there was a burning ban in effect, so we couldn\'t bs around a fire. which wasn\'t all bad as matt and I were beat.....

with plans made for our first day, we turned in for the night. terry warned that it had been getting cold at night which presented frosty mornings.

like dan\'s earlier post, it was finally getting real

 

[Ol' Arky]

I\'m patiently waiting for all of ya\'ll\'s stories and pictures....

And there are a lot of ya... :lol: :lol: :upthumb: :upthumb: :upthumb:

 

[Zpd307]

day 2, sept 9

terry was right! it was cold...... my hands went numb right away trying to get breakfast made, oatmeal.....! and stayed numb for a good while after we started hiking.....

I must be getting old..... even after a good long sleep, I was dragging butt! I told the guys part way up, I still needed to get my head right, matt shot back, cool hand luke :lol: between the cold and the tired, I just wasn\'t in the game yet..... terry told us another nugget gem that came true. he said that we would welcome the sun when it came up. he was very right! he is such a wise old goat

the area is steep..... we knew this from the scouting trip! but that was the theme for the hunt. you needed to climb 1000 plus feet every morning to get to the elk! sometimes it was just outside of camp, sometimes it was 2 or 3 miles back. but, you needed to do it every day.... and what goes up must come down!

we went up just behind camp to check the area I had seen a ton of fresh sign in back in july. only now that sign was old.....
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an old usgs survey marker from 1935
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a well used ridge saddle
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so we walked the ridges looking for fresher stuff. we found an elk track on a trail. we followed it as one track led to two tracks and led to more tacks on the trail. it took us through some really elky and stinky bedding areas. but there were no elk.... we came to a burned out saddle. the dirt was powdery dry and we could see elk tacks of all ages. the tracks were going every direction :wtf: we checked around to see if something came about that would lead us to which way we should go from here. it was like throwing a dart at a board blindfolded :crazy: so we continued following the ridge.... we saw plenty of mulies, one of which was a pretty decent buck!
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the ridges that we were taking ran out, so we decided to walk it down and head to camp a little early. there wasn\'t enough sun to really continue way back in there..... we were particularly puzzled after finding a sweet bench that was littered with everything that you hope to find for sign.... down we go.... we stopped for a break partially down from the ridge. all was quiet until we heard something like rocks breaking..... I... 2.... 3..... we couldn\'t figure out what they were. then some other commotion....

it kind of started sounding like 2 bulls were fighting. so I snuck down and peered over the small ridge to see what it was.

as I peered over, I saw a lone spike bull looking straight at me at 60 yards. I immediately ducked back down and tried sneaking back to terry and matt.

I advised them of the spike. as I did the bull trotted off into view. terry stopped him with some mews. he stared at us for a bit, before trotting away. we were caught out in the open....

day 1 we saw an elk!

the walk back to camp was uneventful.

 

[Zpd307]

day 3, sept 10

again it was cold.....! the cold sure zaps your ambition! I forgot my cell phone and knife...... every day it seemed to be something. this time I didn\'t want to go back for them. man, that was a mistake matt and terry eventually turned into my mothers.... did you bring this, did you bring that..... :lol:

we made plans to hike back a couple of miles on a hiking trail and go into a steep drainage. from our scouting trip, the end of the drainage held some good timber.the entire area burned in a fire a couple of years ago so most of the dark timber was no longer.... so we were hopeful that it was a good sign that it held elk.

it didn\'t take long to realize that this drainage was narrow, steep, and rocky.... we located and followed a game trail into it. there was a lone elk track going in. from down low on the trail, it didn\'t look as there was anything in here that would hold elk.

we decided to climb up that steep thing to get a better look. it was tough going and required several breaks......

like I mentioned earlier it was cold..... so on our first break, terry whips out his package of Oscar Meyers and said look, my weinies are frosty :lol: matt and I looked at him and saw that his hot dogs in deed were frosty! man, terry didn\'t hear the end of that the rest of our trip
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this is what we affectionately called terrys poop. it looked like hell, but was very yummy! I asked for the recipe, but he advised that he would have to kill me if he did just kidding :lol:

again as a reminder, it was steep.... we were sucking some serious wind and our legs were feeling the burn! and on our second break, matt says who the hell would want to shoot an elk way up here! little did he know!

on our third break, we sat down for some chow and aired out our boots and feet. we were enjoying the heat of the sun! we were there for a bit. from this spot, you could see that the drainage ended in a large bowl. it was definitely very elky looking!

after getting our boots back on and packed up, I blew on the cow call for no particular reason. bam, two bulls lit off only a couple hundred yards above us! wth!!!!

we played the wind and hatched a plan to get up and behind where we thought they were.

on the way matt turned to me and said that we now had a purpose for hiking up that steep hill. yes matt, we do

we stopped when we thought that we were pretty close. we stopped on a ridge that overlooked a burned out bench. the ridge was very narrow and we had to line up on it. the ridge dropped off behind us into some thick timber. there was a lone short scraggly pine tree next to us, that hadn\'t burned. terry called this time and a farther out bull bugled immediately. we weren\'t sure if he even heard us, as he was that far out. terry called again and a bull, not more than 100 yards out, lazily bugled at us!!!!! I couldn\'t believe this was happening, this has never happened to me before! terry and I were trying to figure out where to set up, when I caught movement down below. the bull was running our way!!!!

I called out that he was coming and we all dropped to the ground. arrows were nocked and releases clipped on, or so I thought...... matt was on a patch of pine twigs and cones. man, it sounded like he was digging a fox hole!

I was thinking, man he is going to scare this bull out of here......

I lost sight of the bull. I had to unclip the release numerous times as I was getting eaten alive by giant bloodsucking gnats.... terry was trying to range it. then i could hear the twigs breaking as he came closer. I asked terry if he saw where the bull was at. terry said no, so I told him to tell matt to be ready. terry then said, there he is. I asked where. terry said, hes right there. I looked towards matt to see the bull standing broadside on the ridge staring at us....!!!!! terry later ranged it at 24 yards

matt was just kneeling there. I was thinking wtf!!! terry and I are both whispering shoot shoot!

nothing.....

then I see that matt is still trying to hook on his release to the string.......... :shock: after what felt like an eternity, matt draws back and aims..... I cant believe that the bull is still standing there!

I stared intently at the bull to see where matt\'s arrow will hit. thwack! the bull steps forward a couple feet and terry stopped him with a couple of mouth mews. matt has no follow up shot due to the branches so terry picks up his bow and draws back. boing! terry\'s arrow hit a limb and hits the bull in the knee.

the bull turned and hopped back the way he came for a few yards. I could tell that he was hit hard! he stopped and I ranged him at 54 yards. I was pulling back my bow when he hopped a few more feet to behind some trees. we watched him just stand there for what seemed like for ever. he then dropped down over a knoll and out of sight.

more to follow

 

[Lark Bunting]

All three of you shot at the bull? :dk:

 

[Zpd307]

lark, I was going to send another arrow into him, but he moved into the trees before I could...... he had already been hit and was still on his feet!

 

[Zpd307]

continued.....

once the bull was out of sight, and things slowed down, the emotions ramped up for me!!!!! this was now my greatest elk experience I had ever had!

we relived the encounter and more importantly got to rib on matt quite a bit. he said that he was so freaking nervous :lol: he was trying like hell to get that release hooked to the loop, but his hands were shaking so bad! the guy was so humble that he repeatedly stated that he was sorry for shooting him...... he didn\'t feel like he was worthy, and would rather I had shot it....

we waited an hour before terry went to find his arrow. the bright trimmer line that he weighted the arrow with led him straight to it. unfortunately, he had some not so good news when he came back.....

the bull was bedded down below but his head was up..... terry explained the bull was breathing hard and was having a hard time keeping his head up. we decided to give him several more hours so we headed up high to get into cell reception.

I was able to talk to my wife using matt\'s cell. man was she pumped!!!!! I was still trying to wrap my head what had just happened, I still couldn\'t believe it! I was finding myself getting misty eyed every now and again when it would hit me. man I was emotional! I had waited 5 years for this moment
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i took a pic of matt and terry
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so matt had to take a pic of terry and I
here is our view as we waited for matt\'s bull to die

after some chow and more ribbing of matt, shoot shoot was the new catch phrase :lol: we headed back down and snuck up in on him. it had been 3 hours.

the balloon deflated quite quickly when we saw that his head was still up.....

we watched him for a long while, trying to figure out what we should do.... I was worried that matt was going to loose his first bull just like I did! matt must have seen it in my face because he was worried also! those emotions of when I lost my bull were filling into me

eventually he got up but could only stand for a few seconds before having to lay back down. he was also starting to have a problem with being able to hold his head up.

so we snuck up and matt was able to get two more arrows into him. afterwards, matt said that he was more nervous on those two shots than he was on the first!

watching such a large and in my eyes majestic animal fade away like that was painful to watch.... but, the huge feeling of relief that he was not going to be lost, was a much welcomed feeling.......! I got misty again.....

we didn\'t have much daylight left and we were a long way from camp, so after some quick pics, we were busy breaking him down!

the bull had been more quartering to, than we first realized. the arrow hit one lung and came out the other side through the guts....

terry\'s havalon knife worked awesome! it is on my xmas list for sure. one blade broke the entire bull down!!! it was exciting to finally participate in the gutless method on an elk! matt had to sharpen his knives repeatedly.....

we were packing out by 8 pm, after bringing the three other quarter a couple of hundred yards away from the carcass. . my day pack does not support much weight, so I carried the head. matt carried a hind quarter and terry carried all of matts gear, which included a shovel :lol: matt still hasn\'t lived that one down yet he now has a big list of stuff now, of what not to bring!

matt was a beast and we made it back to camp around 11 pm. we were too tired to really eat and the plan was to sleep in and then head back to retrieve the other quarters. my shoulders were burning by the time we got back!

what a day!!!!!!

 

[Zpd307]

here are the pics!

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the bull
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with
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terry on the left with me on the right

the area had burned and the ground around the bull was powdery dry dust, which made keeping the meat and us clean hard to do....

 

[Zpd307]

day 4 sept 11

we slept in. I woke up to hearing matt and terry already up and out of the tent. the sun was shining and it was already warm by 8:30!

after some breakfast we headed back up to get the remaining three quarters. I was using my horn hunter pack. I was excited to put it to the test and see what it did with a heavy load!

that steep climb up didn\'t get any less steep since yesterday.... and was even worse with the heat.

to our relief, nothing had gotten the quarters overnight! we rested and ate some chow first. matt and terry have similar working fields and had lots of stuff to talk about every day. this day was no exception, most of the time I felt like they were talking in a foreign language :lol:

we put our boots back on and packed up.

the initial weight of the quarter surprised me as not being too bad! I was ready for the knees buckling, barely take a step kind of weight..... I had a front quarter with backstrap, neck meat and tenderloin, bone in.

it didn\'t take very many steps to change my opinion...... the ground was loose and soft enough that when I was side hilling, every step forced me to slide downward. I only fell a couple of times in the first couple hundred yards..... and it didn\'t take very long for my legs to start shaking.....

then there was that steep decent! I was honestly scared that I was going to start rolling down the mtn uncontrollably.... my legs were already jelly! but we made it finally after several breaks! I was now even more amazed that matt made it down the night before, in the dark, with no breaks!!!! I threatened to take my back off and roll it down the hill..... I was that scared a couple of times!

luckily, once off the steep slope, we had a game trail and then a hiking trail back to the truck for 3 miles. matt told me last night on his pack out, he was wondering how I was going to feel about killing an elk after tomorrows pack out. half way back I was already doubting if I would want to pack out another elk!!!!! I told him that I am only killing a calf from now on :lol: boy was I spent by the time we got back to the truck! I finally now know that feeling of the pack out! it had eluded me until now...... my feet were sore..... side note, screw murphys law! terry brought his bow along on the pack out, so I did too. never again...... I carried my bow on a sling on the way out, that extra weight on my neck was brutal. I dumped my bow off at camp, before heading to the truck. what a spirit lifter that was, not carrying that extra weight and having to hold it with my arm to prevent it from swinging.....!!
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almost back to the truck!

matt and I went back up to camp to get the final quarter and the head, along with sleeping bags to sleep in the truck with. the trip had been epic so far and matt and I quickly made it back to camp while talking about what had happened so far and comparing it to my previous 4 years of hunting. hiking seemed a ton easier with no elk quarter on your back

to our surprise, there were 2 cows with 2 calves watching and eating above camp! they were out in the open during the daylight! everywhere else that I had hunted, the elk were pressured enough that they didn\'t dare come out of the timber until well after dark.....

I was so concentrated on the elk that I ended up forgetting to take the head back to the truck......

I remembered when an Idaho warden stopped to chat with us at the truck! guess where matt attached the tag? he was nice enough to remind us of the rules!

we ate fresh elk steaks along with tinfoil taters and onions! terry was sure prepared
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terry and I both brought out some homemade wine. I made some mead, or honey wine, and terry made a batch of strawberry and wild black cherry! we enjoyed terry\'s strawberry wine that night, it paired well with the fresh elk steak

also notice that terry dug a big ol hole for his propane cylinder with burner to fit into, so the taters could cook on a grate, up above it!

terry tweaked his foot on the pack out..... it proved to be a burden the entire rest of the hunt. but, terry is a tough old goat and never let it slow him down after the hunt was over, I was surprised that my knees held up the way they did. last year my knees hurt for three months straight...... :downthumb:

 

[Zpd307]

day 5 sept 12

we celebrated and recouped in town today.

on the way to town, we stopped at the hot spring along the road. it was glorious to be able to relieve tired and sore muscles and to be able to wash of the grit and grime!!! we chatted with a pair of older women who were also enjoying the spring. they were sisters, one was visiting the other who was from L.A...... when the conversation turned to hunting, it didn\'t go very well with her! I don\'t want to hear it, was repeated several times, even though the other sister kept asking us questions :lol:

we ate pizza at a local pizzeria that matt had found while we were there scouting! the coors was mighty tasty too

we were all busy checking in and sending pics of the success. we looked like today\'s teenagers at a party, everyone not talking to each, but instead having their heads buried in their phones :lol:

it started raining on the was way back to camp..
but terry and I still went up to the ridge just up from camp, where we had seen the cows and calves the night before. we found a nice, well worked bench there, during the summer scouting trip.

needless to say, my stomach was not happy with me, after the amount of pizza and boneless chicken wings and coors that I had just consumed.... my farts were wicked!

we went up on the back side of the ridge, which was even steeper and consisted mainly of loose shale. the hike up was not fun.....

but, we made it, finally! up top, the wind was howling and cold.....

terry\'s foot was bothering him, I could tell that he was a little worried.....

after a break and adding layers, we snuck down to get a look into the bench from up above. we sat down and called for a bit. nothing showed.

I enjoyed the view!
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the cows/calf, were headed down on this ridge across from us
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if you look towards the bottom, you will see the dots of our tents
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we then took advantage of the remaining light and glassed. new binos are on my xmas list too! I saw an elk to the east of us, across the drainage. then another and another. there were 2 cows and a calf heading down. we watched them cross a saddle and into another drainage.

so far we have seen elk every day :upthumb:

terry went down before me. I tried to text the wife one last time for the day, but I was down far enough that I had no service :downthumb:

 

[Zpd307]

day 6 sept 13

it was cold again.... I wished that we had figured out to drain back our camelback tubes the night before, so that we could use it. I sure needed water on our way up....

we climbed straight up from camp, to the east. I wanted to look at that drainage where the cows/calf crossed into the night before.

it was steep enough that it took us just over an hour to climb it..... it was south and west facing, so it was grass and sage covered. we passed several mule deer beds in which they stopped out a flat spot into the hill for their beds. it was fun imagining them bedded where they were with such an awesome view!!!! the mulies stopped and pawed the ground to make a small bowl for themselves to lay in, it was neat to see

we made it to the top and wound around the ridge to look into it. I immediately sensed this drainage for the elk mecca that is was!!! we had to delayer first.

to be continued

 

[Zpd307]

camp pics
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heres another view of camp, from matt\'s pic
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[Zpd307]

continued

once delayered, I let out some cow calls. it was so calm and still, you could hear a mouse fart.

a few minutes later, I saw an elk body pass by, along the opposite saddle. with everyone now looking over there, matt spots what he thinks is a cow. it is still in the shade from the ridge and we cant get a very good look at it. it is staring over at us..... it stared our way for quite a time, we were beginning to wonder if it had seen us....

finally the elk moves a little bit and after it drops its head to feed, I can see that its a small bull. the bull mills around in the open for a little bit and then walks into a patch of timber. we don\'t see him for awhile and are afraid that he will continue down into the drainage, as that patch is a finger of timber that runs down to the bottom. from somewhere over there, we heard a bull bugle. im not sure if it was the same bull or not....

as we are watching to see where that bulls goes to, a bull moans and chuckles down below us! I knew this spot was a mecca

it gets quick from here......

I look over and see that the original bull is now back in the open and side hilling towards our side!!!! he is eating as he walks.

I tell terry that I am going to go after him and take off to intercept him. off we go! we get onto a well used game trail that leads right into a mansion of an elk bedroom. tons of rub, green poop and wet pee beds stink up the joint!!!!! terry holds back thinking the bull and ladies are headed there. matt goes with me. we are running the ridge, trying to cut off the bull at the saddle on our end! two grouse fly off and scare the crap out of us

I look over and matt is pumped!!!! as am I in the 4 years, I haven\'t had too many actually elk encounters like this.....

I set up, where the saddle looks to be. I have matt stay back and call for me. matt had told me on the trip out that he didn\'t practice enough to be comfortable..... well, after he called, I could tell! afterwards matt told me that he couldn\'t believe that I had him call. he immediately got nervous

no biggie, I am still not comfortable either, and still get nervous when calling to real elk..... and the best practice is on the mtn :lol:

so I started calling. a lil while later I heard a couple of sticks break just below me on the ridge. matt told me later that he heard something walk by also. nothing ever showed.

we regrouped and continued on, I was afraid that I wasn\'t at the saddle and the bull had made it through..... no dice, we never did find that bull.
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heres our view while waiting for terry. this is the saddle that we watched the two cows and calf cross over the night before. they were traveling from right to left.

we met up with terry later. he told us that he started calling and a decent 5x5 bull snuck in. he was 41 yards out, but he stopped with his vitals right behind a tree. terry moved a bt and a rock moved free and that bull lit out like a rocket!

matt broke off and went to camp. he took his bull head back to the truck and to refill the generator.

matt found this generator on facebook for sale. it was free and it worked! score :dance2:

terry and I planned to keep walking the ridge up and explore. from other ridges I could see that there was some timber at the start of this other drainage.
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I worked my way up to the timber. there was some week old sign and the wind was wrong. all I ended up doing was scaring off a mulie doe... the weather was turning crappy again, with periods of rain and sleet.....

terry wasn\'t at his napping spot when I returned so I explored some more. I found where a herd had bedded the day before, as the sign was really fresh! I also found a bull skeleton from last year. the antlers and ivories had been taken along with the quarters.

I found terry by his cow calling. on my way to meet up with him, I found an elk skeleton in the sage. I got excited as the head was still attached! but, quickly found out that it was a hunter kill. the quarters were missing, as was the ivories and skull plate. we had made a plan to watch the saddle in which those cows crossed the night before. so we had some time to kill before we moved into position.

while waiting we heard a crappy bugle, that sounded like it came from where we had the bull encounter earlier. so we decided to move up and check it out. we moved into position after hearing a couple more bugles. then the cow calls came and branches snapping...... yep, a hunter...... dang! he was walking fast as he was calling. :mock: terry said no elk that heard him could have caught up to him :haha:

we moved to a small timbered saddle that we found, just in case he spooked one up. nothing came through. so we headed back down to camp....
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heres the view on the way down

little did we know that it would start raining from 9:30 that night all through the next day.....

 

[Zpd307]

day 7 sept 14

we went to bed in the rain the night before, with plans of heading into town if it was raining when we got up.....

5:30 alarm sounds off to the pitter patter of rain. I fall back to sleep. I woke again to some more rain. I guess we are heading to town.....

terry researched and found a burger joint in town that was supposed to sell elk burgers, game on!
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it was damp and cold on the way out. notice the snow .....

left\'y didn\'t sell elk burgers...... :downthumb: but, their 1/2 pound beef burgers were awesome! especially paired with coors

it was still raining so we killed some time in town.... it didn\'t take long of being in town, for me to want to head back to camp. I haven\'t had cable at my house for over 2 years, so glancing up at the tv was making me want to puke..... especially with the presidential race going on :x what the networks find news worthy is sickening!

the rain finally stopped later that evening so we headed back to camp.