Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2018 Backpack Hunting Trip

When we got back to the trailhead OC was waiting. He had driven the 39 hours without sleeping after a couple of stressful days and was feeling it. We showed him the pictures of the elk and discussed our thoughts for the plan. He agreed, and on the way out we found a safe spot to check my zero on a 1.2’ish MOA rock at 780 yards. It hit the left edge.

Enter third learning point- rifle systems and scopes should stay zeroed even through abuse. Scopes are a aiming devices and they must maintain POA/POI.




So we all went into town, ate lunch, picked up a couple of supplies and drove back to the trailhead. After packing, and parking the vehicles it was around 3:30 when we stepped off. By the map it should be 4.5 miles to where we figured to setup camp, with 3 of those miles on the trail- the last 1.5 miles would be mostly “up”.




We made decent, but not great time with OC and Yo both feeling a bit beat down, stopping for dinner where we left the trail. By the time we hit the planned spot to setup camp it was 11pm. We had hiked pretty hard for 7 hours and everyone was ready for bed. We pitched both tipis and fell asleep.

The plan was to be up at daybreak and move up the finger ridge we were on, to glass across to the big ridge that the elk had been feeding on. Imagine a 11k foot ridgeline running left to right with some spurs and draws coming off of it, a very steep valley separating that big ridge from the smaller fingers, and both being hidden from the trail or prying eyes by the terrain.

The alarm went off way too early for me, and I rolled over and asked OC if he was ready. I got a “I feel like hell” response. Yo said he was a bit sick. I told everyone to go back to sleep, and we’d get up when it broke light a couple hours later. There wasn’t any use hiking up the ridge in the dark when none of us had ever been there anyways.
After day break we started stirring, noticing that it was snowing decently. I grabbed the spotter and went outside to glass what I could while everyone got up. The guys were feeling much better with a bit of sleep and some food and coffee, and were smack talking back and forth when I glassed a couple of bulls across the valley feeding in a meadow 1,200 yards or so away. The dudes were being pretty loud so I hissed at them to “shut the fugg up. I got a couple of bulls”. One of them said “what?”, and I said y’all get your chit ready right now, we have 5 or 6 legal bulls across the valley. I kept the spotter on them, while everyone hurriedly got packed. 4-5 minutes later someone came out and I talked them on to the elk, with them watching while I grabbed my gear.








Once everyone got eyes on the bulls we discussed how to do the stalk. The valley that separated us from the elk was way too steep to cross in a timely manner, with TJ pointing out the only option to go up the spur we were on, as it looked like if we got straight across from them they would be in range. Yo and I took off, while OC was getting his pack settled with TJ staying with him. We crossed the few hundred meters of the meadow into the wood line and my calves were cramping a bit- probably from mild dehydration. I stopped and worked them out while letting the other two catch up. When they got there we made sure that everyone knew the plan, and we started climbing.

The only OC and I had elk tags. Yo and TJ had deer tags. Usually the way we work it is the person who spots the animal gets first choice at it. However, most of the time I don’t shoot anything until everyone else has had a chance. But, this time I told OC that I wasn’t going to wait for him- as soon as I had a shot I was going to kill one of the bulls. He looked at me like “duh” and said “kill the big bastard”.

We were climbing the spine of the spur we were on, with it dropping off pretty quick on our left and right. After 400- 600 feet of vertical we broke through the timber and hit the open area where we thought we would be able to see the elk. Just a bit higher and we spotted them through the falling snow.
We had two types of binocular rangefinders we were testing- the Nikon Laserforce and a European one that isn’t available in the US. OC and TJ had the Nikons and I had the Euros. Yo had Swaro EL ranges. Mine had been acting a bit cantankerous the second morning but I had switched batteries and it seemed to cure it. Now, they wouldn’t hardly range at all in the cold, and when they did only to about 200m. I couldn’t get a range on the bulls at all. There was a large rock about 50m above us that wrapped around the ridge that we climbed up to and I thought it might offer some concealment to get a bit closer. Once we got to the rock, my binos wouldn’t range the elk, but Yo said “666”. I said “are you sure?” So he tried to range again, but the snow had started falling a bit harder and he couldn’t be positive of the range, and I got a range of nearly 800.

We moved across the open meadow, directly across from the bulls, but it was obvious that they would spot us before we got any closer. Going down wasn’t an option. We would have needed climbing gear. So we backtracked around the rock, to the backside of the ridge, updated OC and TJ that we can’t move across here, but we’ll stay on this side and move alone the ridge top, which should put us directly across from them. OC asked “can’t shoot from here?” I said no, we can’t get a solid range, and the wind is whipping pretty good. I also told TJ to be ready; I might need his binos.


We moved another 100 yards across the spine of the ridge, peaking over a couple of times to check that the elk were still there, as I was pretty sure one of them had noticed us. When we finally got to a small saddle, the bulls were stacked in a line moving up the opposing hillside. I asked matt for the binos, and ranged right in the middle of them. “Under 700” I whispered to the guys. I moved back a few feet to be out of view of bulls, dropped my pack, popped the tripod up with the spotter, pulled the weather meter out to get a wind speed, and started donning my puff suit. I said “we’ll crawl up over to where we can clear the grass and get a prone shot”. “Yo, you’re on the spotter for me, TJ you’re with OC, pick out a bull, run the rangefinder for him and as soon as my bull is down, OC you shoot”. Yo, and I will spot if we can”.


“Suite up as we may have to wait a while for the snow to clear out”.



It was snowing hard enough that we could only catch glimpses every once and a while of the opposite hill. Once they were ready, we crawled up the 10-12m to the ridgetop and found a spot to shoot from. Yo, set the tripod up and I started trying to figure out which to shoot. I range them again and told OC to set his turret for 650 as that was the closet elk.

There were 7 bulls, none were monsters, but all legal. They were 4x4’s and 5x5’s. Two looked to be the biggest- one was bedded and had a wider spread, the other was standing and looked to have a bit longer main beams but was narrower. YO, TJ, and myself all discussed for a minute which one. With the snow falling, I couldn’t get a great look at them through the 30x Meopta spotter. I’m a sucker for shooting things while they sleep, so I chose the bedded one. I let everyone know which one, told OC and TJ to pick the bottom bull after mine was down.


I ranges the bull with the Swaros at 666, and TJ confirmed. Yo, got on the spotter, found the elk, and started asking about wind. I dialed 4.1 mils elevation, got the pack situated to rest on, places a spare Mag beside the rifle, and checked the wind again. We had a 8-12mph right to left where we were, and because of the falling snow with the spotter we could see that right in the middle of the valley it switched 90 degrees and was left to right at about the same speed from there to the bull. The bull was nearly broadside facing to our right, so I told Yo that the average wind call should be “either center, or right .2 on a pickup” and “center will be splitting the crease on the ribs”. Yo replied “got it”. “Ready”.





To be cont....