Country Bumpkin
Well-Known Member
I'm a very proud dad right now. I'm about to head out on my 5 day mule deer hunt, but my season has already been fulfilled, this is just a bonus round.
2 weeks ago my Son and I did a 4-day mulie/elk hunt in an area with fairly high elk densities, low deer densities and apparently Very high Hunter density (different than the last three years). We had a regular struggle-fest. Between a very bright half-moon, really warm temps, no cloud cover and too many hunters, we couldn't seem to hike far enough away from the pressure. Most areas that I hunt don't have a lot of roads or trails, but this particular area holds a lot of elk and there's too much access, so after opening day things get really tough (most critters are nocturnal after that). I've been able to get my bull opening day 3 years in a row. We bumped a small 5 on opening morning and that would be the only elk we saw. Each morning we'd find fresh elk and deer tracks on top of our tracks, which was encouraging and frustrating at the same time. We had some jerk ruin a good setup on a bull that I had bugling around me later that morning. We got set up and we're waiting for him to step out of the timber on the other side of the draw. A Hunter popped over the knob on the same ridge the bull was on. I whistled to make sure he saw us and he immediately ducked down behind a log. I could see him pull up his binos and locked onto us. Right then the bull bugles again and he took off nearly at a jog headed down the ridge (originally he was about 500 yds from the bull, we were at 225). We were disheartened as he bashed his way down to within 70 yards above the bull… thermals we're going straight down the hill! Ruined it for everyone, a terrible "sportsman".
For a 10 year old, he hiked a lot, more than most adults that I run into. I was proud of his persistence and his demeanor, he didn't quit and he worked hard with a positive attitude. We reluctantly packed up and got him back to school, and then I had to travel for 3 days.
This last weekend, I landed at 10:45 PM Friday night, drove the hour trip home and packed a few things before hitting the pillow at midnight. Out of the house at 4:30, we drove 2 hours to meet up with our good friend and his son, our boys are friends and played lacrosse together.
We had planned to hike a closed logging road along a river for a mile and a half before ascending a steep knife ridge, but we ran head-first into a flock of about 150 sheep. We tried to skirt past but their dogs were making it difficult and we didn't want to cause a ruckus. We ended up backtracking and heading up a ridge closer to the trailhead (which didn't make me happy, put us closer to all of the hunters parked at the trailhead). On the climb up one of the sheep herders shot a deer (that was discouraging to my son but he rebounded quickly and we pressed on. Towards the top of the ridge we ran into a Hunter that beat us up there. He was watching the entire basin to the left and looked like he could shoot. We said hello and he said he wouldn't care if we pressed on up the ridge. We ducked off to the right so that we wouldn't skyline ourselves and blow out his hunt as we tried to climb up to the backside. Immediately after we caught two other hunters that were ambling up the ridge. It was immediately apparent that they didn't want to be caught, they started huffing and puffing to keep their advantage (we weren't racing them, apparently two dudes and two 10 year olds is threatening to two adult hunters). They immediately jumped a small buck and didn't know it.
He quickly ran through the basin to the left and up over the top. The first Hunter had no intention of shooting it, so we hustled up to the top of the ridge and around the back side. We put space between us and the two hunters above us and then slowly edged over the ridge into the other basin (really, just a narrow but steep draw). I quickly spotted the buck, and since it had taken us nearly 20 minutes to cover that much ground, he was bedded down and quartering away. My son isn't tall enough to shoot from there, so we shed our packs and butt-scootched down into the draw about 25 yards. He did great, stayed low and quiet. We set up the shooting sticks and I placed the rifle on it. My son slowly stood and spotted the buck. As he looked through the scope I dialed up the magnification. He clicked off the safety and then went through the process of trying to calm down. Every time he'd get his finger on the trigger he'd start to shake. After about 4-5 iterations of this he finally squeezed through the trigger.
The buck never moved!! 150 yards, 6.5 CM, one shot. Very proud father and son.
He and his buddy both packed out a quarter and I got the rest! My season is fulfilled.
2 weeks ago my Son and I did a 4-day mulie/elk hunt in an area with fairly high elk densities, low deer densities and apparently Very high Hunter density (different than the last three years). We had a regular struggle-fest. Between a very bright half-moon, really warm temps, no cloud cover and too many hunters, we couldn't seem to hike far enough away from the pressure. Most areas that I hunt don't have a lot of roads or trails, but this particular area holds a lot of elk and there's too much access, so after opening day things get really tough (most critters are nocturnal after that). I've been able to get my bull opening day 3 years in a row. We bumped a small 5 on opening morning and that would be the only elk we saw. Each morning we'd find fresh elk and deer tracks on top of our tracks, which was encouraging and frustrating at the same time. We had some jerk ruin a good setup on a bull that I had bugling around me later that morning. We got set up and we're waiting for him to step out of the timber on the other side of the draw. A Hunter popped over the knob on the same ridge the bull was on. I whistled to make sure he saw us and he immediately ducked down behind a log. I could see him pull up his binos and locked onto us. Right then the bull bugles again and he took off nearly at a jog headed down the ridge (originally he was about 500 yds from the bull, we were at 225). We were disheartened as he bashed his way down to within 70 yards above the bull… thermals we're going straight down the hill! Ruined it for everyone, a terrible "sportsman".
For a 10 year old, he hiked a lot, more than most adults that I run into. I was proud of his persistence and his demeanor, he didn't quit and he worked hard with a positive attitude. We reluctantly packed up and got him back to school, and then I had to travel for 3 days.
This last weekend, I landed at 10:45 PM Friday night, drove the hour trip home and packed a few things before hitting the pillow at midnight. Out of the house at 4:30, we drove 2 hours to meet up with our good friend and his son, our boys are friends and played lacrosse together.
We had planned to hike a closed logging road along a river for a mile and a half before ascending a steep knife ridge, but we ran head-first into a flock of about 150 sheep. We tried to skirt past but their dogs were making it difficult and we didn't want to cause a ruckus. We ended up backtracking and heading up a ridge closer to the trailhead (which didn't make me happy, put us closer to all of the hunters parked at the trailhead). On the climb up one of the sheep herders shot a deer (that was discouraging to my son but he rebounded quickly and we pressed on. Towards the top of the ridge we ran into a Hunter that beat us up there. He was watching the entire basin to the left and looked like he could shoot. We said hello and he said he wouldn't care if we pressed on up the ridge. We ducked off to the right so that we wouldn't skyline ourselves and blow out his hunt as we tried to climb up to the backside. Immediately after we caught two other hunters that were ambling up the ridge. It was immediately apparent that they didn't want to be caught, they started huffing and puffing to keep their advantage (we weren't racing them, apparently two dudes and two 10 year olds is threatening to two adult hunters). They immediately jumped a small buck and didn't know it.
He quickly ran through the basin to the left and up over the top. The first Hunter had no intention of shooting it, so we hustled up to the top of the ridge and around the back side. We put space between us and the two hunters above us and then slowly edged over the ridge into the other basin (really, just a narrow but steep draw). I quickly spotted the buck, and since it had taken us nearly 20 minutes to cover that much ground, he was bedded down and quartering away. My son isn't tall enough to shoot from there, so we shed our packs and butt-scootched down into the draw about 25 yards. He did great, stayed low and quiet. We set up the shooting sticks and I placed the rifle on it. My son slowly stood and spotted the buck. As he looked through the scope I dialed up the magnification. He clicked off the safety and then went through the process of trying to calm down. Every time he'd get his finger on the trigger he'd start to shake. After about 4-5 iterations of this he finally squeezed through the trigger.
The buck never moved!! 150 yards, 6.5 CM, one shot. Very proud father and son.
He and his buddy both packed out a quarter and I got the rest! My season is fulfilled.
