One time several years ago I shot a rag bull in the Bitterroot Valley. Got it broken down and went back for the horses, which were 3-4 miles away down a gated logging road. No big deal but a decent jaunt. When I got back to the elk, I had it all loaded up on the pack mule/riding horse and I was about to start leading them out when I heard a vehicle…
There was a damn road open to traffic that I had no clue even existed within a couple hundred yards. This was in the early GPS/mapping app days and I have never been one to have the latest technology anyhow.
So I’m up on the Idaho , Montana Border with a muzzle loader.
I’m wandering around exhausted, thinking I should check another bench or go find the mules.
I’m whipped, I like talking to my self when. So I says. “ I better get out the GPS because I got no idea where I am.”
I sits on a stump thinking about getting a drink from my pack as the satellites lock in. I use a rhino.
I looks up, movement, it’s close………..It’s my pack mule Scooter tied to a tree!
He has chilled adult beverages in his panniers……
Awesomeness!
I can turn the rhino off!
And I can leave that canteen of water in my pack be.
Way back when GPS technology was new I came out to a road and the GPS said go left to get back to the truck. I started walking. After a few hundred yards I recognized where I was at and turned around. 1 /2 miles the other way there sat my truck.
I have no idea why the GPS sent me the wrong way.
_______________________________________________________ An 8 dollar driveway boy living in a T-111 shack
Not an Elk, but a deer. I was bow hunting and had a Whitetail doe slip into range from my stand. I took the shot and came down pretty quick since I thought I heard her crash. Walked over, picked up my arrow that had good blood on it. I never bothered to look for a blood trail since I thought I heard her go down. It was about dark and couldn’t find her. I wandered around looking and realized I was really turned around. I could still see some light coming from a power line right of way opening that I was familiar with and walked toward it. I was about to step out into the opening when at my feet was the dead doe. Drove my truck to her and went on my way!
Faith and love of others knows no mileage nor bounds. That's simply the way it is. dogzapper
After the game is over, the king and the pawn go into the same box. Italian Proverb
We shot a cow during archery season. Not too familiar with the area before GPS. We broke it down hauled it out 3/4 of mile went back for next load and as we started out my buddy says hey wait is that a truck what the heck. Sure enough there was a road about 100 yards away. Duh now I when I scout I do the road systems first. 😀
If there is any proof of a man in a hunt it is not whether he killed a deer or elk but how he hunted it.
I get up this morning kinda moping around, ain’t been seeing any. It’s 15 degrees. I finally get it together and get my bike outta the garage. Oh snap! I need my rifle! I went back into the dark man cave to grab a model 70 7 mm mag outta the rack. I only had my dim hat light on.
I go grab it and mount up. The road ain’t as slick as I figure. The full moon lets me ride with no lights.Trying to dismount the e-bike my rifle begins clunking around. Snap! My bolt is open, holding it with my left mitten, I close the bolt ( it chamber’s flawless) and swing the model 70 on safety. I really like the safety. In cold weather when done hunting I open the bolt so moisture drys out of the barrel. I didn’t notice it still open when I grabbed from the dark room.
As I am walking up the fence line in the moon light the snow and frozen gravel is crunchy. On my left I hear a light crunchy trot. I am face to face with a yearling or 1.5 year old mule deer. It appears to have a collar. I stare at it awhile. Then walk on working uphill. I stop to rest……..it’s following me.
Finally I gain enough elevation to see my destination, The fence corner has elk standing next to it. I take a knee. The deer stands on the other side of the fence next to me. It then jumps the fence and walks right up to me.The elk are about 100 yards away. The moon went behind a cloud I could tell then it wasn’t legal shoot time. I didn’t have a time piece. So as I rubbed the deers ears the five elk wandered past us.
The deers collar was old vet wrap and I could tell it was constricting her neck. I opened my Fanny pack to cut it off and she buried her nose in it. When I cut them off her she started to eat one. I jerked it outta her mouth.
It was Erie in the moonlight with my new friend. It’s claimed where I was is loaded with unmarked Native American graves. Up to the corner posts we went. A coyote howled, then below me a bull bugeled!
I looked to the east, still dark. I could see them, my new buddy was gazing their way. They were 170 yards. I waited, waited, waited. My friend wanders off, I ease my binoculars out. Pick a cow, it’s hard to tell they aren’t spikes as they are in medium height sagebrush below me . The moon has set.
Finally I take off my mittens, use them as a rest, setting them across the horizontal fence cross rail. I take the rifle off safety, nestle the Burris ballistic plex on the intersection of the front leg and center of the cows neck.
Squeeze……………..nothing!
Pull the rifle down check the chamber……it cocks!
The elk are milling now, I choose to not to shoot.They are bunched up tight. Try to catch up to their escape but I have only long shots with no backstop.
I must have had the trigger engaged with my mitten when I chambered the round.
Last edited by Angus1895; 10/28/23.
"Shoot low sheriff, I think he's riding a shetland!" B. Wills
After a tough opening day my brother-in-law persuades me to hunt with him the next morning. This involved hiking a couple miles down a railroad track and a couple miles more of winding and twisting through the woods - all in the dark. He sat me down on a small rise and informed me a swamp was below me with a well-traveled game trail along the edge. To be fair, I'm pretty sure I heard a deer walk through, but it was too dark to know for sure.
About mid-morning the church bells started to ring out. We had driven outside of town only to walk most of the way back in. The church parking lot was about 75-yards away across the swamp. We got shut out. Apparently hunting next to Jesus' house is no guarantee.
Forgive me my nonsense, as I also forgive the nonsense of those that think they talk sense. Robert Frost
