DIY SUCCESS!!! Shot and recovered a cow on Friday evening. Headed back east right now. It was an awesome experience. Very tough hunt with absolutely no bugling in our area and no herding in the meadows, so we were forced to bushwhack the dark timber most of the time. I'll be posting pics and stories once I get home. Only a 27 hour drive away! BHOD
thanks for the support and encouragement. We drove straight through (two man team) so I got back about 4 hours ago. My poor cousin still had another 4 hour drive to go. I then promptly went to Cabelas (about an hour away) to pick up a vacuum sealer and assorted processing items. We brought my cow back in quarters (plus loins) in an old chest freezer hooked up to a gennie in a flatbed ATV trailer. We'd fill up the gennie enough to run for about 3 hours and then drive for 5-600 miles and then do it again. Kept her cold w/o freezing. Anyway, I'll be spending most of tomorrow slicing, dicing, wrapping, sealing, and freezing. Once I get all that done, I'll start transferring photos/videos from my phones and video cards. I'll leave off with this for now..if you have ever really, seriously considered doing a DIY expedition style hunt...do it. The first 4 days of our hunt was spent almost exclusively on learning what NOT to do...I've said this before on this forum; I think my favorite thing about hunting is how humbling of an experience it is. Even though I am writing this from a position of success; I had many, many mini-failures which eventually culminated with me being put into a position to even have an opportunity to take an elk. I am so incredibly thankful for just having had that opportunity; much less being able to capitalize on it. Once all is said and done, I hope you all take away at least a little bit of how much this trip meant to me.
OK not to tease, but I finally got everything uploaded to this computer. I will post pics and vids tomorrow. BTW- wild elk tastes FANTASTIC. Not gamey in the least; it tastes pretty much identical to grass-fed South American beef; which makes sense considering the altitude and feed. Super lean; a bit chewy but not tough.
OK... so we arrived in Idaho late on Saturday the 14th. We had enough time to pick a campsite and then ride the quad up the mountain behind us and do some glassing. Found a couple of areas that looked promising, then went back to camp and set up in the dark. 5am found us heading up the mountain. Despite some fairly fresh rubs and some poop, we didn't hear or see a thing. This would be the theme for the next 3 days. By Monday AM I had a horrific cold/upper respiratory infection setting in, complete with non stop running nose and by Tuesday, a rattling uncontrollable dry cough. Good times at 9000' ! By this point, we still had yet to see an elk, although my partner saw a sow bear and her 2 cubs above the timberline on the opposite mountain (he swears they were grizzlies.) Tuesday evening, we took the quad to the opposite slope and cruised around in the early afternoon. My partner heard a call (not from an elk) and decided to go off the trail about 40 yards to take care of business (w/o his bow.) I waited about 5 minutes and then went in w/o my bow to mess with him a bit. I snuck up a few yards away and let out a bugle - and about 40 yards away something big went crashing through the brush away from us... D'OH! Guessing it was an elk by the size... went back to the quad and grabbed my bow and went back to try a stalk, but whatever it was was gone. Oh, well...NEVER LEAVE THE TRAIL w/o YOUR WEAPON (this will come into play again later.) Given our lack of luck and just how steep and thick the timber was in this area, we decided to try another area. So we had e-scouted another mountain a few miles away and decided to pack and relocate before dark. We got set up and were ready to hit the quad trail at first light. Wednesday AM we got up to the top of the first peak (really kind of a saddle) and glassed/still hunted that morning. Didn't see/hear any elk but did find lots of day old poop. We were getting closer... TBC
That afternoon we took the trail further up to the top of the next peak. Tons of sign! Unfortunately we also found another quad and later that day a pop up ground blind. So we kind of started circling around down the mountain. Still no bugling and no elk seen. Thursday AM saw us bushwhack about a mile from the main trail to a meadow we had seen from our vantage point the night before. Despite tons of fresh sign, we saw/heard no elk. Might have had something to do with my tuberculoid hacking sessions. We called it an early morning and went back to camp. Around this time I pretty much felt like I had ebola. Headed back up the mountain around 2pm. We took a trail that split off of the main ATV trail and looked (per the map) to come around the back side (east) of the meadow from that morning. We got up to about 9000' and saw another unmapped ATV trail that headed straight up from the switchback we were on, then about 80 yards later another switchback. My partner stopped the quad and said he wanted to check out what looked like a run which was coming from the timber between the unmarked trail and the next switch. He hiked up the trail w/o his bow and I sat on the quad, debating if I had the energy to tag along. A few minutes later I followed up the run he had taken, and within a few yards came across fairly fresh tracks and some poop that wasn't too old. A few yards further, and then my partner comes half running, half hopping between the young pines down the run, his eyes as big as dinner plates. My hand immediately went to my holstered Glock thinking he had run into a bear. He threw his hands up next to his ears, and mouthed/whispered "BULL - BIG F*ING BULL!!! gogogogogo get the bows!" So we crow hopped back to the quad and unstrapped our bows. "What did I tell you about not leaving the trail w/o your bow?" I asked, half kicking myself as well. I asked him for details - he said that there was a "huge" mature bull about 80 yards up the trail, he had seen through an alley. He said that he thought he was either drinking or maybe eating. So we cruised back up the run, which was wide and well worn, toward where he had seen the bull. No bull. We creeped up closer, and saw that the run cut back across the unmarked ATV trail, which itself lead into the bottom of a meadow which went all the way to the top of the mountain. The meadow was about 70 yards at its widest point, but had several islands of trees and points of woods sticking into it. My partner creeped along the bottom edge of the meadow, and I took the western edge walking uphill. I saw a flash of brown towards the top of the treeline and that was all...he was gone. So we did some still hunting/exploring around the area and found that there was a seep about halfway up the meadow which was pretty well stomped into the ground, and then the water collected at the bottom which was where the bull had been watering. There were runs everywhere leading into the meadow, with tons of poop of various ages and tracks both old and new. I knew right then we had found our honey hole. We sat there the rest of the evening but didn't see anything. I was starting to feel a little better, though, my cough was producing and my nose was no longer Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, though, my partner was starting to come down with it and he's a smoker and not in as good as shape as me. That night we were both pretty excited, even though he was killing himself over not having taken his bow up the trail. I tried to keep things positive and said that we still had another whole week to hunt, and we were in much better shape than we had been the day before. 5am found us up the mountain again, where we waited until dawn and then still hunted the dark timber and pocket meadows that dotted the area. We found a ton of fresh sign but no elk. The chest cold was really starting to knock my partner on his rear, and about 10:30 he gave up. Between being sick, the altitude, and the frustration at the day before, he needed a break. So back down the mountain we went to take naps and see if he could get his second wind. I crashed for about an hour, then was awake and immediately raring to go back up the mountain. He was toast. So I shot my bow, drank some coffee, ate some jerky, shot my bow some more...finally it was 1:30 and I couldn't take it any more. I woke him up and told him we needed to get our butts back up the mountain. We could feel like crap in camp and definitely not see any elk, or we could go up the mountain and have a decent crack at seeing one while feeling like crap. He said that he didn't see how we could both sit on the watering hole. I told him he was out of his mind, 1 reason being that there were really 2 holes over 60 yards apart, with trails to watch over a 150 yard span; and 2 being that we had been alternating primary and secondary shooters all week so what was the difference? He kicked the idea around for a few minutes and then finally gave in. It was about 2:30 before we actually got up the mountain, and another half hour-45 minutes before we got set up. I took the lower hole and he took the upper, sitting about 100 yards above me. I set up under a mature pine tree, cutting away a few lower braches which then gave me a perfect little canopy blind. The slope to my rear made a nice backrest for my pack, and I could put my feet up on the tree trunk and stretch out. Other than my bony butt on the bare ground I was pretty comfortable. TBC
All quiet until about 6:00 when a huge chocolate brown head popped out from behind the tree line at about 50 yards away to my left (which was west; and from the same run we had entered the meadow from on the previous day.) She looked around, then stepped cautiously into the open. She poked around the meadow, making a slow general bee line for the water pool below me. I kept watch on the trail head while she was doing so, waiting to see what followed her. Nothing. I decided I was going to take her if given the opportunity and focused all my attention on her. Finally she cleared all the brush and was in the open below me, moderately quartering away, and of course as I came to full draw she turned straight away from me and put her head down to drink...good thing the Mission has great let off! I held it for what seemed about a full minute, and then she turned all the way around dead on facing me...still holding...then she completed her turn and was almost directly broadside, slight quarter to (maybe 100*) and took a step forward with her near side front leg, opening up the sweet spot. I had already ranged a log behind her at 30 yards, and knew she was about 25 from me. I set my top (35 yard) pin right at her breast line, just inside that elbow, and touched off the TruFire Hardcore. The G5 Striker tipped Maxima Red zipped home with a loud CRACK! and I watched as the white Blazers disappeared exactly where I wanted, about 4" up from where I had set the pin. She wheeled and went flying down the ATV trail, and shortly after I heard her banging down the mountain. Simultaneously to that, my partner (heard the shot impact) started squawking on a cow call. There was an immediate answer from the woods behind the area where my cow had appeared. A few seconds went by, and then whatever was in there took off down the mountain in the direction of my cow. I figured that it was a calf that was going after mama. I then gave a call on the Hoochie Mama which immediately drew a call I hadn't heard yet...basically was one note of a bull's chuckle. I gave another one, and got the same response. I waited a few more minutes, then heard what I assumed was a bull walking away. Waited a few more, and then gave another call. Nothing. I had thought I heard my cow go down, and since I knew the entry point of the shot was good I decided to try to at least get on blood because dark was closing in fast and that zone is reportedly crawling with wolves. I waited about 10 more minutes, slowly packing up. I checked the trail head again, and saw nothing. I stepped out of my spot, took a few steps which cleared a tree partially blocking my view, and stopped dead in my tracks - a nice 5x5 or smallish 6x6 was standing about 10 yards into the woods from the trail head, just staring at me. He wheeled and jumped back into the timber a few yards and stopped again. I dropped down and used the tree for cover. I waited a few more minutes and called. Nothing. About 10 minutes later, he half-chuckled again, but this time from deeper in the timber and further up the mountain. He was trying to circle and get the wind. Me and my partner gave it about 5 more minutes, trying to call him into range for my partner (who had moved down the meadow to about 50 yards from the trail head after my shot.) No dice. We met up and I apologized for blowing the chance on the bull. We went down to the point of impact and started coursing for blood. We found some prints and a few flecks of blood on the ATV trail, headed on an angle down the mountain generally toward where we had parked the ATV. We started tracking her, going slow both due to lack of blood as well as how quickly we had taken up the trail. Found her about 175 yards later piled up, but there was very little blood on the trail with a couple of exceptions that we found smeared onto the tops of 4-5' pines she went over the top of as she ran down the mountain. Mostly we were following her tracks. The G5 Striker had gone right into her heart and near side lung behind her elbow. Hit a rib on entry (sounded like a .22 going off) which ended up bending a blade and sent my arrow veering into her at an extreme angle toward her back offside hip. Tip of the head ended up barely poking out of her offside paunch- I mean barely...upon recovery could hear/feel gas hissing out of it like a leaky inner tube but no blood coming out. There was very little blood on the trail which found to have mostly come from her nostrils. Mainly we were following her tracks. She was dead w/in seconds of the shot but barely bled externally at all. This was on a heart and one lung shot! Goes to show that even on short shots, even a very slight quartering to is a risky shot on a big boned animal like an elk. I thought for sure I'd get a pass through but the arrow ended up entirely inside the body cavity from point of entry to the pin prick "exit hole." The fletching mostly blocked the entry hole, and with no blood coming out of the pin prick in her paunch it was tough going. Once we found her we realized most of the blood we found was coming out of her nostrils.
the best part - she died w/in 20 yards of our quad! She had made a beeline straight for it. This ended up being huge for us, because during the quartering process my partner got hit hard by both the chest cold and altitude sickness. He almost passed out and gave it everything he had left but that wasn't much. We got her quartered out (after tagging her, of course) and down the mountain. It took 2 trips, but we got her out of there before any critters tried to take her from us.
sorry; tried to delete the gut pics but no luck. tomorrow I'll try to compile a list of specialized gear that we used that performed above/below expectations, or stuff we didn't really need or needed and did not think to bring.
