Fall days afield 17/18

[2FUNKY]

Educate me here-I thought an MOA was just over 1" at 100 yds so wouldn't 4.8" at 500 yds still be sub MOA?

Yes it is, 1.047@100yds. I didn't say " shot sub moa " as I didn't think many would understand that term and what it meant. I see the error in my post though.

[thebirdhunter]

What a day.

Brought him in with cow call, perfect shot, and a trophy bull.

It took 6 years of DIY public land hunting in Colorado to reach today's payoff . Wow

Awesome!!!
Nice work.

[Phall]

Stud. Congrats! Been tough here in UT, I gave up (probably a poor choice) on the area I scouted all summer as the two times I went in it was a ghost town. Checked out some North Slope area my buddy had seen bulls in last weekend, saw one cow and the ass of another elk, then we bailed because the weather was coming in and we were not fully prepared for snow. On to the extended here on the Wasatch Front. Tomorrow AM should be excellent when this storm lifts, temps drop, and the moon is nearly non-existent.
I have managed to go 4 for 4 on Grouse with the bow, so a consolation prize, I guess?

[hatchgreenchile]

Phall - I had some awesome activity on my trail cam on the last moonless nights in August. No big herds moving through, but a steady stream of elk for 2 days straight. Hope they move for you!

More random cam stoke and photos from the last week in the woods:








Saw this guy on opening day at 100 yards, in & out of the meadow fast chasing a cow


Bro, Dad & I




We're going to need a bigger grill


That's the way to pack 'em out


My bull measured 278 2/8", back to back 6x6s for our crew in the same zone. Stoked in a big way!
(Updated w/ correct score)

[highangle]

Great job Hatch!

[Foggy_Goggles]

Nice work Hatch. Unit 28 I'm guessing?

[snapt]

[lifelinksplit]

Happy dog!

[KQ]

Archery elk camp at 8000 along the West Fork of the Rapid River in West Central Idaho.

~Photo by Erik Kaminski

https://www.facebook.com/IDAHOmagazine/

[The Reverend Floater]

It has been a ridiculous grouse season here in the Potato State. Shooting limits whenever I can get out. Judy has been fantastic on them--the first few years were tough with grouse as she'd often bust them. This year she's been 100% solid, even pointing one 30 feet up in a tree the other night. It's *almost* too easy.

Stoked on my bull rifle tag starting in a few weeks. Built up the Scirocco II loads to sub MOA and have just begun digging out the mountain of gear required.

Judy:

[flatlander#2]

Can't make our annual SoDak pheasant opener weekend to my parents this year. My 12yr old son, who shot his limit last year, well maybe I just fly up there and have Grandpa pick me up? What? No, you cannot go without me. Why? Ugh.

[yeahman]

Got 'er done with the cow tag! Super psyched to have a freezer full of elk meat.

[snapt]

It has been a ridiculous grouse season here in the Potato State.

Best season I've had as well.

[hatchgreenchile]

Sweet ! Nice cow - solid work

[yeahman]

Couple more pics from the great cow expedition. It was my seventh day out this year, on top of the past two seasons of hunting pretty hard and not shooting an elk. So confidence was waning. All that work really adds to the satisfaction of getting an elk down this year. I know shooting a cow elk isn't a big deal for everybody, but for me it seems to be plenty challenging.

Here's my wife on a hunt in the same area a week earlier, about 15 minutes before the distant ice storm chilled us to the bone. She is a great partner, doesn't complain and never gets discouraged. She wasn't with me the morning I shot the elk, but she came out right away to help with the hauling. Could not have done it without her.


Nice elk country around Helena. I knew I had to get my ass out of bed early to intercept these elk at daybreak on their way from the fields up to their bedding area, and with a little luck it worked out exactly as I had planned. Ten minutes later and I would never have even seen them.


Due to a couple reasons, mostly the fact that there was a tractor trail about a half mile downhill from where I shot the elk, but also because quartering gets you less meat generally speaking (especially if you're a hack like me), I decided to field dress the animal, cut it in half, and drag the two halves down to the trail where we were able to get a game cart. Pretty much took all the strength the two of us could muster, about 15-20 steps at a time and resting in between. Deer Drag chest harness helped immensely. From there it was 1.5 miles to the truck, twice.


Long way from New Jersey where she grew up. Little $99 game cart I bought a couple weeks ago sure paid off.


And now it's time to relax and do some deer hunting. Ahhh...

[Grange]

From work to family reunions to taking care of a kennel full of field trial dogs to 90 degree days I haven't had much time to go hunting let alone run my dogs. Well I finally got a chance to get out with the gun this weekend. We only hunted for a couple hours on Saturday, but in those couple hours we found 5 birds on five points. Ground foliage was for the most part still thick so I only heard the flush of three of the five birds. I saw two of the birds and got a snap shot at one and the other was a good crossing shot. Unfortunately the video ended before I got the retrieve, which was actually funny to me. My setter was retrieving it, but got sick of the feathers and put it down to spit out a mouth full of feathers. My lab then came in and finished the retrieve while my setter was still spitting out feathers.

I could tell from my setter's point that she was pointing a running grouse so I opted to relocate her instead going on a long flushing attempt. On the second relocated the bird got up in front and flew over her giving me a nice crossing shot.

[hatchgreenchile]

Yeahman, don’t water down your accomplishment of a successful hunt . Taking big game on public land, DIYing, is something to be stoked about !


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[yeahman]

Yeahman, don’t water down your accomplishment of a successful hunt . Taking big game on public land, DIYing, is something to be stoked about !

Appreciate that, but, while it was definitely a DIY hunt, this was actually the first elk I've taken that was not on public land. The "shoulder season" B tags offered this year in Montana can ONLY be used on private land (and only for antlerless elk). This year I decided I needed a new hunt strategy, and decided I was going to put in more work on the front end in terms of researching elk populations, getting the right tag, and securing access, which would hopefully result in less work on the back end, i.e. actually shooting an elk.

I suppose it mostly worked out that way, although it still took 7 days of hunting, whereas I've needed less than that to shoot one on public land in the past. Physically, though, this was easier hunting, which was another one of my goals because I'm just not as young as I used to be.

It's actually a challenge for me to knock on ranch house doors and ask permission to hunt. I hate it. These people turned me down flat last year, pretty much told me to get lost, so it took a little gumption to go back and ask again. Difference was, last year I asked during the general season when they were sick of hunters. This year I stopped by in August, when they weren't sick of hunters yet--but they sure were sick of the elk! Lesson learned there.

Sure was cool to be rifle hunting during the rut for once. I heard so much bugling. Even did some calling. Pretty fun. Hopefully I will draw another one of these tags next year, but if not, it's back to public land for me. Whatever. It's all good.

[hatchgreenchile]

Sure was cool to be rifle hunting during the rut for once. I heard so much bugling. Even did some calling. Pretty fun. Hopefully I will draw another one of these tags next year, but if not, it's back to public land for me. Whatever. It's all good.

That’s the truth ! Fall breeze , snow on the high peaks , yellow aspen and bugling elk downrange. Hard to beat!

[2FUNKY]

Nice work yeahman!

[2FUNKY]

Just got back from my WY Elk hunt. Most physical hunt I've done and I've done some nasty ones. The weather really changed our game plan as my buddies honey hole was covered in 13" of snow and the steepness of the trail made getting horses to it impossible. That meant an Elk would have to come out on our backs which he said is impossible for two guys in that terrain.
So we went with plans B and C which meant climbing massive elevation and covering a ton of country by foot in horse friendly areas for retrieval.
I went on this hunt with the notion that I was going to kill a nice 320+ 6X6 or nothing.
I passed on 4 bulls, the biggest one would have gone 330ish if he didn't break the top off his right side and half his 3rd. After watching him for 20min from 462yds deciding wether to shoot him or not, I let him walk. We did find 2 bulls pushing 350" but they were to far, we were already 6miles in and they were another 3 and in the move, plus it would have taken 3-4 hrs to get to them. If they would have bed down, we would have made a move and tried to capitalize but they kept pushing up and over the top.
I used to live in this area and forgot just how awesome and unforgiving it is. We climbed 3.5k feet each day and covered 50+ miles in 5 days of hard hunting. Talking to others we had better luck then they did. The Elk were acting very weird. Not responding to calls and only coming from cover in the evening or at other odd random times, making patterning them impossible. The predators are taking a massive toll as was all to obvious as every time we saw Elk tracks there was wolf tracks right on top of them. My buddy had a wolf tag but we only saw a glimpse of one at 600yds. They were very cagey.
The night of opening day we were hammered by 24" of snow. Made for a sleepless night keeping our shelter clean. We were hoping it would make the Elk start to migrate, nope. Great hunt nonetheless with one of my best friends.

[Kopi_Red]

Very nice!

[thebirdhunter]

Nice one Funky! Looks like a great adventure. Some of the most memorable hunts are the unsuccessful ones.

You guys packed in a Dutch Oven but not a tent, you're hard core.

Wolves are cagey??? Wait!! But I've been told by treehugging bunny humpers that you can just go out in the woods and start blasting wolves at will. You're telling me that's not true?

[thebirdhunter]

Best season I've had as well.

What kind of grouse snapt?

I have not been out after forest grouse at all this year. I've been out 3 times since the season opened on the 1st chasing Sharptails. Even though I've gotten my 2 bird limit each day it's been tough hunting. Up until yesterday every sharpie I shot were just singles. I finally saw a covey of 9 birds yesterday. Use to see coveys of 20 and 30 birds. For the last 10 years or so it seems their numbers just keep declining. On a brighter note seems to be a good Hun year. Besides my 2 sharpies I got yesterday I shot a limit of Huns. I haven't shot a limit of Huns in years.

Edit: Ahh forest grouse, just saw your guys other posts.

[2FUNKY]

Nice one Funky! Looks like a great adventure.

You guys packed in a Dutch Oven but not a tent, you're hard core.

Thanks. Nah, that's just an MSR cook pot. Tents are heavy, tarps are not.