Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Roughest and Easiest Elk Country

Agreed.

Beav, that looks like my kind of elk country.

I got on one here a few years ago, then he moved, as I went down, low clouds set in and he was gone forever.....

Kinda like he knew what he was doing.

Beav is probably on a WhiteClaw bender and we will here nothing until it wears off…

deja vu...and God was hating on you and me then.

Laffin

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Claws were going down fast and furious with no fun buzz. Sad 😞 face

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Whiskey 🥃 then…

Continued....

After 22 minutes the fog began to slowly dissipate exposing the area where the elk had been. I felt like I was playing, and losing, at the game of “Where’s The Elk” with a mountain side. They were gone ~ vanished into the ether....

I guessed they had either busted over the top of the ridge or went South into a stand of dense cover that was another ridge away from me....I was almost certain it was the latter and I had an idea why.

After the fog cleared, the sun followed and lit everything up. As I was looking at the dense cover I figured the elk had dived into, I see the orange hat of my hunting partner, Dan. He’s on the top of the ridge that had the best angle for seeing the edges of the cover. I’m watching him through my scope ——-Kidding ! Through my bins, and I see him paying a lot of attention to that area, then he drops his pack, goes into Elmer Fudd stealth mode by starting to move down the draw slowly. He’s seen something for sure.

I got front row seating to watch my partner kill a bull....I’m waiting for the shot to break and ruin the mountains silence, but nothing happens. Dan, walks back to his pack, hoists it up, and starts climbing out to the top cat road. I ditch my hopes at my spot, climbing down to the bottom cat road to start the long walk up to meet with him.

It’s a little past 8:30 AM when we finally hooked up. Both of us are pissed at being cursed by the fog and we share our mutual feelings about it with F bombs, and other tasteful expletives. Dan, did confirm that the elk went into the cover, and he saw the unmistakable single beam of a bull through the trees as it was disappearing from view. #Winning #Sorta

Here’s a picture of the area that shows a portion of the small, but dense standing cover that feeds up on the right side with the nearest clear cut to the left.



Dan, asked, if I had any idea why the elk would hit the timber so quickly just from light wind and fog rolling in? I figured the elk, being pressed hard by the weather the past 3 days, had sensed it was about to happen again, so they took to cover. It was a guess, but a good one...

I knew the elk were hungry and wouldn’t have stopped feeding unless spooked. I told Dan, I believed they would pop out at some point today or tonight ~ we should stay on this cut, cover it from two positions, and wait.

Dan, agreed, but it was the waiting part of my plan that was going to be tough on him. I asked him to choose which side he wanted to be set up. (Position A) was on the opposite side from where I took the above picture. It had a bigger part of the clear cut to look at, and it was where the elk had entered earlier. (Position B) was the small cut area to the left of the cover in the picture...I really didn’t care where I was going to be ~ both had to be watched, it was up to the elk to decide where they would come out.



Above picture is basically the same pic, but now to be known as Position B that I was left to guard after cock sucker Dan, picked the better of the two spots. I did make some structural improvements by adding timber across the cavernous opening of the cedar stump to place my pack. #GoodHouseKeeping

Quick Footnote. Dan, and I have a standing agreement when hunting together. If either of us has the opportunity to umm, find a creek, we should definitely fill the others persons canteen. Especially, when clean water sources are hard to find on the Coast.

It’s now almost 9:30 AM. I suggest Danno might want to make his way over to Position A to see what it offers him for a place to shoot from. That suggestion was met with “Yeah, that’s a good idea, but it’s only 9:30 and if the elk don’t come out until tonight”...”I think I will check a couple of places before I go there”.

Dan, asks me what I’m going to do? I’m laffin at him, because he knows me, if there’s animals in an area, I have patience to wait them out. I said I’m gonna watch for them....My final parting words to Dan was “I’ve seen a lot of nice Bulls be a no show at first light, only to step out around 10AM”....Then Dan, left.



Continued.....




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Cheers ! 🥃 🥃


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I think I know Dan!

Funny shít there, Beav.

Continued...

Dan’s gone, and I’m standing there in the bright sun, wishing I had my sunglasses, knowing just how coolio I’d be looking in my Maui Jim’s, hunting elk in November. #VogueHunter

Ok, Beav is a planner, I like known things, if possible, especially hunting. I throw the Zeiss bins up looking into the small clear cut. I start snapping yardages out to the farthest point of the cut I could be shooting. Then doing the same with the closet point. 219 yards would be my longest poke. Closest would be 157 ish yards. I decide a 200 yard zero will be fine....So would a 100 yard zero. It’s really a moot point between the two, but 200 let’s me spin my turret, so, a 200 yard zero it will be.

I’m actually laffin to myself at this shooting situation before me....I’ve spent years telling anyone curious that 400 yards is a good baser starting point for shooting distances at the Coast, and here I am looking at half that at the very farthest edge of my shooting landscape. #2MuchGun

I’m hunting with one of my favorite elk rifles the MeanGreen Fist, built by APR in 300 Wby.

I have a large area to view away from the small clear cut I’m guarding against any Wapitis attempting an escape to their cafeteria. It at least keeps me entertained and feeling like I’m hunting by checking 180* degree of available clear cuts. I spot a couple of deer, Blacktail does ~ I wonder where the horny buck is? It’s still their rut. Damn, Beav, can’t even pull horns on deer during a rut. #Loser

I check the time, it’s after 10AM. So, much for my parting words to Dan, that bulls will show themselves. I’m looking naked eyed into my little world of clear cut hope, when I see the entire clan of elk fur dump themselves into my small cut somewhere between 219 yards and coming right at me.

Drafting behind one another into the open, one elk behind the next elk, they’re all coming out at once...I’m not counting them, because I suck at math, but I know there’s more than 15 and less then 20. Should you ask ~ did I have my scope covering them ? Absofuck’nlutely !

I’m just tracking each one, canceling cows, until I see bone. Something happened to the first bull, a small spike. He died from one shot from somewhere. That shot kicked the elk into a higher gear. Everything went to a fast pace with elk flying all over. I’m pretty calm behind a gun, not chest banging, I just don’t rattle very often...If I’m going to get spooked, it would be on a good sized animal, that’s running balls, stretched out, and tearing the ground up getting himself gone. I try hard to pass on those shots, simply, because I’m not good enough to consistently take a game animal at high speed. #NoShame

With most of the elk moving across from me, right to left, I also have several elk moving away from me. My scope is moving to cover each head, but I’m not seeing any racks. Eventually the splintered herd is starting to find one another out into a distant clear cut. I kinda got the impression that the lead cow was performing a head count to see who she had left in her group and who was missing.

Satisfied they were all cows. I turned my attention back to the spot where the elk started coming out from. Right there was a small 5x5 that decided to bring up the rear of this fur train. He was at a full trot, and closing straight on me, but he’s beginning to angle down and away when he hit a steep side hill. That hill stopped him from getting hit with a front chest cavity shot. Now a left broadside shot was available...

I’m just following along with him while the crosshairs are covering his vitals, waiting for him to slow up, or better, stop altogether. Finally, he held up, looked over his right shoulder. I let one 180g Abond go. Thawap!!

He dropped like a bag of concrete ~ hard....I already had pushed another round into the chamber and had the scope tight on him should he try to quickly jump up ~ somnabitch, he’s trying to get up. He’s digging in with his back legs while his shoulders are working to push himself up. I got a full neck shot in view. I took it, sending an ender into it. That laid him down for good.

Dan, showed up unexpectedly wearing a big grin... All I said to him was, that was a nice shot you made on that spike.

Two bulls down and it’s 10:45 AM.

Embracing The Suck is about to begin.....Continued












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There’s a lot of them damn Dan’s around!

Grins

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Thrive ?

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You are definitely one sexy and classy whore.

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I use a Luffa and meat tenderizer for that skin tone and texture.

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Love you, more !

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Too cool, dudes!

Congrats. Great story.

Good stuff beav’.

Good job! "Embrace the suck" indeed...

Congratulations. The suck is always worth it.

Hell ya, great trip and write up. Pics never do extreme [bleep] we endure over here. It truly is miserable. 😂