Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting camp cook kills a bull … on an OTC tag … on public land … using old levergun, factory ammo

Damn, just fantastic. Good on you and thanks for the great write up!

Great story and pictures. Don’t denigrate yourself or your rifle. Sometimes, especially here, l think the joy of the hunt is lost and it becomes all about the gear and gackery. And, at least for me, the older I get, the sweeter the success tastes!

A few days ago I killed an elk with my dad's old Rem 721 30-06 with a 4x Weaver scope. He bought it in '52 when I was 4 years old. The '06 is one of the most classic hunting calibers of all time and the accuracy of this one puts many of them to shame.

Lets see. You tracked the herd for three miles. At 10,000 feet. For 3 hours. An hour after dark youre packing meat. Are you crazy? What did they pay you?

Well, good job on the hunt, story and pics. Better luck next year, Al.

I know it's hard to turn off the tv and crawl out of that heated deer stand with the built in wine cooler and vibrating seat but in some states you just can't see for 500 miles like you're used to. Plus, porters in mountain country charge more than flatlanders do so we sometimes have to pack our own.

A most wonderful story!

The stalking in snow is my favorite style of hunting.

Do you think the thermal imagery could be incorporated into detecting game earlier in the stalk?

That was a relatively easy one.

I have skidded them down steep icy slopes above treeline, quartered one in a running creek, followed bear tracks to retrieve quarters that were stolen hanging from trees, quartered one hanging off a steep cliff, dropped loaded pack horses 4ft into an icy creek because that was the 'easy' creek crossing.

... and those are just the recovery and pack outs.
I would be embarrassed to admit some of the crazy stuff I've done to get a shot opportunity.

Nice!

It can.
Personally I don't think I'd go too far down that road.
I wouldn't feel good about having an animal on the ground that I had located with a thermal device.
I know rattlesnakes use thermal targeting but it feels like cheating to me.

I think the Leupold tracker is great for it's intended purpose. Worth the price many times over if it leads to a recovered animal.
I used to keep a pair of blue heelers in camp for the same purpose (recovery). They were sharp, totally understood the game, and would have been eager to help hunt. I know that in some places they hunt deer with dogs but not my style.
My favorite horse would alert me to elk. She would stop, then start rotating her ears in all directions, and then stare in the direction of unseen elk ahead.

One thing to remember about the thermal tracker is that it works best when you don't really need it.
If it is 70 degrees the thermal differential is going to be minimal and tough to get any image. The cold and snow conditions that I had were perfect for tracking. The elk tracks were obvious and the elk themselves would be very visible against the snow, so in either circumstance the imager is of limited usefulness. Even with those great snow conditions I only got one glimpse of that bull I was tracking and none of those smart cows never showed themselves. I happened upon a different bull whose tracks snitched on him but he made a dumb mistake that I don't think the first bull would have made.

Great report - Congrats on the bull!

Thank you for the reply.

Happy Holidays!

John

Hunting elk is on my "Bucket List".
I'm 71 and you look way younger than me.
If you'd like an assistant cook next year give me a holler !
I'd like to get some lessons from a man like you.

Nice job.

What a wonderful story with pics to match. I really enjoyed that.

Kind thanks for sharing, and congratulations!

I have always been a fan of your photos as well. Some great sportsmen's opportunities in your area.

Here are a couple more photos that didn't make the first cut.

A bull wallow





An empty outfitter camp.



Down on the desert lichens grows on a deer bone

Bear's playground

Congratulations I love the story and the great pictures. It was all better than most gun rags.. Sorry to hear about your health issues. Get them checked out. Look into platelet or stem cell injections. As a 42 yr old guy who just had his knee replaced I wish I could have done injections but mine was too far gone. Good luck to you sir

Great story, pictures and meat in the freezer.
All's well that ends well!

Takes quite a bit of time to compose a story and post pics to a thread like this. Very enjoyable read. Pic were icing on the cake. Congrats and thanks for the way you brought it to.life to share.