2017 Hunt Report and Meat Pole Contest - Win a $300 or $100 Gift Certificate

Well, to say the least, I've been living the dream this year! I won an Alaskan hunt through a random draw on the Facebook page for DiamondBlade Knives (they say this might become an annual contest so you might want to check it out) for either moose or brown bear. My first choice was moose but they did say that if the moose weren't in the area at the time of my hunt that we would go after brown bears; needless to say, brown bear ended up being the right choice! We hunted the Tsiu River in southeast Alaska; I shot my bear on the fifth morning of a 6 day hunt after looking over many bears. With the wind in our face, he came from upwind and stopped at our trail we had walked in on and stood up. I shot him in the chest with a .338 Winchester Magnum at 89 yards. He squared between 9 and 9 1/2 feet and after 60 days drying he will qualify for Boone and Crockett.

The accommodations and fishing were also beyond belief. The silver salmon fishing was unbelievable; I hadn't fly fished in over 30 years and I began catching silvers regularly. My largest was 10 1/2# with the largest I saw a fishing guest catch that week was 16 1/2#. The lodge was accessible only by plane (www.alaskaexpedition.com) and is on my list for going back fishing sometime. The toughest part of the trip was leaving behind the family (like we all do)! My adult daughter has special needs and it is hard for my wife to handle her by herself but they made it by for the 1 1/2 weeks I was gone. A once in a lifetime trip that exceeded any expectation or dream that I could have had and then some!

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Unbelievable trophy beyond anything I could have dreamed!


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View from looking down from a trailer shows how massive he is.

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The size of the paw tells it all.


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Teeth were really worn down except for the canines.


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Awesome shot! Credit for this photo goes to Caleb Copeland.


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Wow!


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Great going away by the family at the airport.
 
Tulsa, What is that bulge thing on your rifle barrel?
Sims Limbsaver Barrel De-Resonator - I had a devil of a time trying to get a decent grouping and resorted to using one of these to try and help. Contest supplied rifle and ammunition; finally got to change ammunition and started getting the ammo to group. I went ahead and left it on.
 
Spent the last working hunting hard in south east Idaho. I Hiked over 30 miles in the search of mulies. Winter kill was really bad here. Areas that were normally crawling with deer were totally barren. We saw more moose than deer all week.
So this week I changed my focus and decided to try a totally new area for white tails to try and fill my doe tag that I drew. I found a good spot to set up for the evening and began my wait. About two hours in I see movement through some brush about 250 yards off. To my surprise it had horns! Once I got a clear shot I squeezed of a round with my recently finished 6.5 grendel. He disappeared. The shot felt good but I expected some kind of reaction. I walked up to look for any sign of blood and there he was. Dropped in his spot. He wasn't as big as I had initially hoped. But I'm loud if it none the less.
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Just finished looking at all the pictures and reading their stories...soon great hunts for sure. Also some equally good photos!

My "Big hunt" doesn't start until after (01/05/2018) the deadline for stories but I will be sure to post it.

I was drawn for a state hunt here in Texas. The main game animal is Aoudad. The property is semi mountain/semi desert so there should several opportunitis to make some long shots. As with most state run exotic hunts there will be not limit.

There is also a few other species of sheep, goats and exotic deer that we will be able to hunt.

I will be taking my VZ-24 mauser 300wm build to handle long shots from the rim rocks. If stalking comes into play I will have my Savage 110 LA 264wm build to handle shorter shot.

Any way. Looking forward to reading more story and seeing more photos!
 
This is my Idaho 2017 Muzzleloader Antelope. This is my first antelope. I shot him at 177 yards with my Knight Disc Extreme using 295 grain Powerbelts.


Nice goat!!!
We are looking to move to Idaho this spring and have been looking at their hunting laws. From what I've read, muzzle loaders must be "OPEN" sights only, no type of sighting device is legal as well as open ignition, no closed systems at all... Have they changed those laws starting with this years season??? I sure hope so!!!
 
Nice goat!!!
We are looking to move to Idaho this spring and have been looking at their hunting laws. From what I've read, muzzle loaders must be "OPEN" sights only, no type of sighting device is legal as well as open ignition, no closed systems at all... Have they changed those laws starting with this years season??? I sure hope so!!!

i thought the exact same thing haha. I believe its no sabot type bullets as well and no pellet powder. loose charge only..
 
First of all I want to let you all know I have never posted on this website or any other. I joined this site several years ago after reading some of the posts on here in regards to load development and long range shooting tips. They all seem to make sense to me and were practical. I was raised hunting and shooting guns, however my dad was old school and only gave me this advice when shooting. "Don't flinch", that's all he would say. Bless his heart, he just didn't know how to teach me how to shoot. I have spent years learning and practicing and believe I can hold my own now when shooting 600 hundred plus yards. The information I gained from this site assisted me greatly in accomplishing this goal.

I'm from South East Idaho and I've hunted here most of my life. I've been lucky in drawing controlled tags in the past, but I have spent the last five years trying to draw a Moose tag. I still haven't drawn that tag yet. I have an area that has always been good to me for Elk and Deer. The blessing in not drawing is that I can't put in for any other draw hunts due to putting in on Moose and because of this I've had the opportunity to hunt with my daughter and two sons each year I haven't drawn. Not that I wouldn't allow them to go with me, but typically a hard to draw tag would require me to take some time and stay in the hills until I was able to fill the tag.

This year found my son and I hunting this particular area for deer on opening morning. We were not successful and we planned a weekend hunt. We had another two days to hunt deer before elk season opened. We hunted the two days before the elk opener and was not able to locate any bucks. We also were not able to locate any elk. The evening of the 14th of October found us high on a hill side looking for deer. I was looking over a high bench. As I studied the hill side I discovered a young 5 point bull elk laying in some scrub brush 249!yards away from me. I was surprised because he never once stood up and ran. I backed out of the area and located my son. I told him about the elk I saw and he told me about the bull and handful of cows he had located as well. We made a plan to return to this place at first light the following morning, opening day of elk.

On the 15th of October after several morning of waking up early took its toll on us. We sat in the camper and drank coffe and realized we would be getting out of camp late. My son and I made our way to the bottom of the hill just as it was light enough to see. In my opinion we were late as we had planned to be sitting on the hill side at this same time. We began our climb up the steep mountain. We had to fight our way through young maples and aspen trees. When were were about 500 yards from where we wanted to be we took a short break to catch our breath. I looked in the direction of a ridge we believed the elk may have tried to go up. I was looking through my Vortex Diamondback 12X50s and I saw two elk. I was breathing hard enough that it was hard to steady and see if they were cows or bulls. Having been in this position before I knew we needed to get to our vantage point. So the hike (jog) resumed on a hill side we had to hold onto so we wouldn't fall off the mountain. I'm 6'4" and weigh 240 pounds and am 42 years young. I jog 4 Miles a day four days a week in 30 minutes, plus I have a good weight lifting program for myself. I thought I was in good shape. Nevertheless leave it to my 17 year old son to show me up. We made it to the vantage point and my legs and lungs were in fire. I told my son I couldn't go any further and had to sit down.

As I sat on the ground with sweat running through my beard and my heart beat pounding in my ears I began looking for the elk I had located earlier. To my luck they were coming out into a large opening of sagebrush. This was the last vantage point I would have before they crossed the hill and disappeared. First two elk came out, both cows, then a spike and then a rag horn bull. I told my son he was up and to pick which bull he wanted. He passed on the opportunity and told me that he would gladly sit this one out knowing that in Idaho he can hunt a cow elk later in the year with his youth tag. I still can't believe the maturity he showed. While we were having this discussion I saw a large bull walk out of the maples into the clearing. At the distance we were from it I could tell he was a mature bull. The white tips of his Horne's stood out from across the canyon. I quickly grabbed my Leupold 1200 Range Finder and ranged him at 586 yards. I gathered my Vanguard scout B62 shooting sticks and got my rifle ready.

I was shooting a Remington 300 Ultra Magnum rifle and the bullets were Barnes TTSX 168 grains. I put a Timney Trigger in this rifle to fix any safety issues it may of had and I floated the barrel. The rest of the rifle is stock. I've worked a load up in this rifle that has worked for four years now on bringing home elk and expanded ranges. The rifle is topped with a Vortex Diamondback HP in a 3X12 power with a BDC reticle. My third has mark is good for about 547 yards and my fourth is good for about 674 yards. When I placed the reticle on the elk he fit right in between the third and fourth hash mark. I steadied as best I could given the hike I just made and when I was ready I touched the trigger. I don't have a break on this rifle and I've noticed as I shoot it off the sticks it's a little difficult in seeing where I hit due to recoil. However with my son sitting next to me all I heard him say was "dude you dropped him right there!" I looked trough the scope and I could see him laying where he had been standing.

After a few high fives and a memorable hike through some thick brush and maples we were able to Put our hands on this bull. As luck would have it, due to us being late and rushing, we discovered that we did not have water or snacks with us. That would be Murphy's hunting lawnfor sure.

The two of us cleaned quartered and packed him out that same day. I shot him at 7:30 am and we made it back to camp for dinner at 8:00 pm. What a great hunt and an great weekend to spend with my youngest child.

I apologize for the picture. For some reason I keep getting an error code when I tried to upload the field
Picture of this elk.
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