Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Backpack Elk 2016

It's been a busy fall but I got a minute over lunch so I loaded up a few pictures.

Things took an interesting turn last spring when I broke my ankle playing basketball. I worked hard on rehab and still managed to get out and find some bears. I was tuning up physically on a hike in August when my other foot started giving me some pain after the first 1/4 mile. I kept trucking, and 3,000' of vertical later it was burning. I thought it was just a pulled muscle so I hammered my way back down.

It didn't go away after about 10 days so I went to the doc and it was an acute fracture of the 3rd (middle) metatarsal. 6 weeks of non weight bearing was the plan. I scrapped my mule deer hunt and hoped I might make it out for elk.

After 6 weeks of sitting around it was feeling decent so I backpacked in for a few days. The rest of me was soft after that long of doing nothing dynamic but no further injuries occurred. I passed on some small bulls and got outwitted by the only good one I saw. I was waffling over a small 6x6 the second afternoon but a shot spooked him so that made up my mind for me.

Little raghorn


Bigger raghorn



I'd been watching a herd with a little bull in it off and on, on a hillside that was (kind of) on the way out. I had an extra cow tag so I decided if I didn't find a good bull my last morning I would try to shoot a cow out of that bunch. I did get into more elk that morning, but a long run resulted in no good views of the antlered members of the group. I made may way down to a spot with a good vantage of where my herd had been coming out. They ended up pushing through and making things a little tricky but I was able to fill my cow tag.




I shot in late evening and the long down-up across the canyon took quite some time. I got her boned out and figured what the heck, might as well get a load out that night. I walked all night and got to the car about 7am with 112# of meat trophy and gear. While I think it was a significant overestimation, my phone told me I'd walked 21 miles in the last 24 hours.



A friend came along to help me get the rest of the meat and gear that afternoon. If I'd have known he was going to come I would have spaced out the loads a bit better, but so it goes.

I took a week off of hiking and got another x-ray. All was good after that foray so I hit it again, this time on a ridge where I've consistently found bulls. Great backpacking trip, but not a bull to be found. I saw a couple herds of cows, a couple of decent deer, and some rams.




TBC...

I had one more chance to backpack in for a bull toward the end of October so I took it. Decided to try a place I'd never been. I ended up spotting a huge herd of cows (+-50) on a hillside and waited on them until a bull fed out. He was nosing them a bit and then bedded.






I had time on my side, but not the wind and terrain, so I had to come straight up the bottom at them. I got in view of where he'd bedded but he had moved and I was on top of a dozen cows. It was almost dark so I pushed into them and set up on my pack so see if he'd filter out. A couple dozen more cows and spikes galloped by at 100 yds but not him. I left my pack and ran across the hill to the only other pocket of elk I figured was left and sure enough he was there. No shot, but I could tell they were going to wrap around a chute, and with that many animals might give me time to close the deal.

I kept on them for another 100 yds until I could slide against a log and watch them line out. I already had 200 dialed and that'd be about right; he stepped out from a scrub fir and that was it. He was dead on his feet but obscured in some alders so I moved up a bit and finished him off.















I'd dropped all my backpacking gear where I spotted him, which wasn't really on the way out. I figured I might as well do the night thing again so I had another long quiet walk with my thoughts. Got another buddy to come along for round 2 the next day. After the disappointment of missing a backpack hunt for mule deer, easily my favorite hunt of the year, it was pretty satisfying to work hard for a decent bull and close the deal.

Good job Snowy!

Wyoming has terrific elk hunting... doing it when they're not in rut like we have to hunt them here in MT (rifle) only adds to the accomplishment of dropping a good 6pt bull on public ground.

Well done, congratulations!

Nice! Good looking country there.

Thanks for sharing & congrats

Great story and pictures!

Nice! my kind of hunting and great story!

Thanks for sharing that.

Nice bull! Overcoming the injuries just makes it sweeter.

Darn well done, congrats.

Fantastic! thanks for the write up and congrats on making it happen! So did all your gear work out for you?

Congrats on salvaging the elk season! What was your rifle setup? Also at what elevation were you encountering snow?

Brad, I bet if you bought a tag it wouldn't take you long to look over a lot of bulls hunting in the style you're used to.

Handwerk, everything worked well as far as I recall. I've got things pretty well squared away gear-wise for my hunting style at this point. Not saying I know it all of course, but I've used enough stuff pretty hard to know what I like for my purposes. Didn't use much new stuff this year, except I sold some old gear and a Six Moon shelter and tried the Hilleberg Enan. Basically a lighter built Akto. I have mixed feelings but overall I like it.

bigwhoop, the rifle is a bone stock tikka in .308 with a 3-9 SS. I've been shooting 155 scenars. I did very little load workup, much more work to do over the winter but they worked well. I like trying new rifles but the cost:benefit ratio of Tikkas has me thinking otherwise. The snow level came down to the valley floors (6K-7K), though it's since melted quite a lot. Wet October, dry November.

Great job. Way to overcome the injuries!!

Very nice SM! Great story and congratulations on making it happen.

Very nice, thanks for the story and pictures.

Never give up! Great motivational story dude. That's a whole lot of quality meat as well.

Good job---You earned that bull. I've got a Tikka in 30/06. It shoots great----I use factory ammo---kills elk just fine.

Excellent story Snowy! Good on you!


Casey

Way to go...good looking bull and nice pics, thanks for sharing your hunts.