Aeromancy®
Member
When most people draw the six thousand pound elk tag they laugh and hang it on the mantle and say that if there was one that big people would just figure it would look like a cow.
Well I drew that tag back in 1999 in Tuscon Arizona. I heard the cows and not to get drunk and shoot a cow by mistake. I had been jerked off leave every time before when I went on leave so I went to the base commander and said I need to hike at least two weeks into the back country of Arizona and only a gpsat phone is going to reach me there. So he asked me what I was asking for. I said I want to be sure I can spend my leave trying to track down a 6400 lb female elk. John McCain looked at me and said show me the pack you plan to take and if you can shoulder it with proper stuff added and the radio I can make sure that you can spend two weeks with out being yanked off leave. He sighed and said but no guarantees. So I drove back off base and packed what I thought I would need and brought the pack back to his office. He was on the flight line and coordinating something so I had to wait half the day before he had time for me. He said dump it out right here. I blinked and started pulling stuff out and he said either dump it out or stop wasting my time.
So I dumped out the pack and two gunnies who were there for something else went through the pack and decided it was short food and cold weather gear. I had some of the gear I planned to use on at the time and they borrowed my star card to go to the BX/PX and buy beef stew and butane lighter kit to cook it on. Once they got done adding stuff to the pack they added back in what I had packed and said there was way too much ammo and McCain said leave it in and see if he can shoulder it. So I shouldered the pack and they added the radio and said sure he can wear both packs but hiking with those double straps is a problem. McCain said take all that stuff home and wash it and repack it. So I drove home and washed the cold weather clothing making a point of writing down how many of what piece of clothing they thought I needed. I took the radio back pack apart and wired it to nine volt batteries.
The next day in new clothing and a few extras I thought of and smaller lighter weight radio with a modern ipx rj11 jack attached to the sat phone I dumped it out in front of them. McCain said it is creative looking but if you broke a two hundred thousand dollar phone to avoid the pack. I grinned and said I called your office from that phone this morning. He blinked and said how did... then he said never mind he could see that the jack on the sat phone was the same as the phones in his office.
The gunnies went through the gear and laughed and they said so where is the can opener. I held up my leather man and they laughed and asked for the star card and got a mechanical can opener and gloves which I had some how managed not to bring twice. McCain looked at them and said what do you think? They said he needs to buddy up for safety and they had copies of everything and I sighed and said either April Wilson or one of the other weather trainees should get a shot at taking leave far enough from the dorms that were being run like a tech school instead as homes.
I ended up buddied up with Christine Savage and they laughed and were going to go shopping for her since her bag was a duffel bag and not at all correct. I looked at her and said the first two times they borrowed my star card there have to be two females on the base that have gone on two week hikes before. Christine said that she was out she could not afford it. I looked at McCain and he said if she is out she is out but if you want to pay for it out of pocket that is up to you. I looked at Christine and asked if she had hunted before. She said she used to hunt with her brothers. I looked at her and snickered and said way before your brothers heard something I would be dealing with marines like those if I hurt a woman. She blinked and said oh. Then she said she had no idea what was going on between me and april but why were we getting help from the base commander. At which point one of the gunny sargents started to say something and McCain said leave it be I need to know if is just a money issue. Christine said what are we hunting. I grinned and held up the elk tag. Then she blinked and said it is a stupid snipe hunt? I laughed and said they call them sea gulls now. Then she blinked and said wait what? I said I am pretty sure from an old map I saw in the gun store is a logging map used to track elk. Henry the owner of the store said that it said treasure map and Henry said it is foolsʻ hunt.
Christine said start from the beginning. I said I have more than two months of leave saved up and she said wait how long is this going to take? I replied that the area is about two weeks in and maybe a week there then two weeks back a month give or take. She blinked and said she did not have then she stopped and said to McCain why am I getting to go on a months leave again? He said the game tag lasts one hunting season and Solheim thought one of the weather trainees should get a chance to get away from the dorms and go on elk hunt. She looked at me and said an indian hunt? I blinked and started giggling saying kikki is never going to let me live that down, I said elk is a really big deer like a caribou or rain deer. Someone said it is like a moose. I snickered and said the taste of medium rare elk verse most game is no contest.
Then I got to the point of the thread the treasure maps Henry Cogswell was selling out of the gun shop where Scandinavian game trail maps. So I had to explain to her about the map ...I would buy one then explain why I wanted it. He sold it to me and I grinned and when I get back I will tell what I think it is. He laughed and told me not to get dead chasing some logger fake map.
I grinned and said I have seen one of these before just in tronheim norway. He said that rifle I sold you should take down anything short of grizzley or kodiak. I blinked and said there are kodiak around here. He laughed at me for being a darn idiot for not knowing the wild life but the grizzley was far bigger than any kodiak... and the gun dealer thinking it was fake while McCain found two female marines that went shopping for Christine and then went through my stuff and Christine and swapped stuff between the two bags added more food this time mre style packs of food and Christine wanted the pack as heavy as mine and I sighed and said if she was carrying the full size radio and I could not carry more it would make sense but if she was trying to out macho me I did not want to have to worry about her injuring her feet and not saying anything. Clue likely wants to go but it would hurt him to ask to go. At which point Christine starting laughed and if you idiots go out there no one will know how to clean the kill. I snickered and said what he has never been hunting? She sighed and said he father cleaned the kills. At which point McCain said actually if you find one and kill it call the park ranger at this number and they can fly a helicopter out to make sure it is big enough. If it is not close to six thousand lbs do not shoot it the fine is twenty five thousand and you lose your game tag privileges for ten years. Christine finally decided to let me carry more weight than her and the gunnies gave us a ride to the trail point I wanted to start from to follow the fake treasure map.
A couple times my buddy nearly got herself killed on screen because she was wearing hiking books instead of field two books like I was wearing. A couple times I ended up having her stuff extra socks in my books and I ran across the scree in socks. She tried and nearly ended up sliding down the scree as the gravel was way too sharp for someone too used to wearing shoes every where for the previous six months.
So once we got down into the area we found the old loggerʻs cabin and old tools but after a week we ended up climbing up the side of the valley until we could see further. At this point we had been hunting and hiking for three weeks. The food was running out and the clothing was fourth reruns of use and I sited on the other side of the cayon trying to get a good feel for the range and I asked her what the fluff was on the other ridge. Christine looked through the rifle and then through the scope the two woman and picked up and said I can not even seen the other side with this one. I looked through it and realized the cheap baraski was 7x to 10x and hers was a 4x. So I looked around for a better vantage and sighed and realized we were at the best vantage. I shrugged and said what ever it is, is too far away to shoot at. She said because you can not see it or because the bullet would not hit. I sighed and said the bullets might drift but because I can not be sure it not a person. She asked me why that was a bad question. I blinked and said you are starting to read me a bit too well, but that the ethics of shooting something I might not be able to id as an animal is always a valid question but that she should not feel she needed to ask me.
She yelled something at me but the sheep spoked and started jumping around. I was snickering and said it is sheep and the tag says elk so onward. She sighed and even mutton. What is it all beef stew and beef stroganoff? I grined and said it could have been chickencatario... She said but you ate that in basic training. As we were arguing I leaned back and nearly fell over when I said double check this she blinked and said itʻs a deer. I said that is an elk but how far away is it. She said wait what then looked through and said that has got to be then looked at the map she was making notes a half a mile. but that makes it twelve feet at the shoulder. I grinned and said that is our elk. She said so half horns? I laughed and said I want the beef sections for steak and cheese burgers. I said the state of arizonia takes the animal and tests it if you ask for meat the party of hunters gets some much the state uses the rest to help hungry families. If you ask for the trophy you end up paying the state contract for the head. She sighed and said you had to say cheese steak and chesse burgers. I said I do think I can track it while down in the valley and leaving your buddies is always a mistake so I have to figure out if I can hit it or try to find another that size. She laughed and said we should have brought a camera it would be more likely not to be a fish tale.
I grinned and said now I have to take the shot. I laid down the scree and took the shot. She grabbed me by the ankle and hung onto the rope as half the scree dropped off the shelf. I blinked and said remind me not shoot on scree. She snickered and said did you hit it. I sighed and said It looked like it but I was trying to figure out if I was going to pull you off the mountain. She laughed and we called the park service and the chopper he flew out was really same so he could land on peaks to rescue stranded climbers. Christine and I had to climb back down into the valley hick the mile or so across the valley and back up once we got up close the park ranger winched us up to the peak and had us sigh the paper work that I had shot it roughly what time and so forth. He was standing there asking me how many times I had gone hunting and reported the kills. I sighed and said I was stationed at davis mounthan and this was the first leave I had not had interupted but they can verify where I was. He said someone else can not fill out the form for you. I sighed and said then to continue. He collected a bunch of details and then said meat or trophy. I said venison from that kill if the state finds it clean but not some random meat. He blinked and said the difference? I said that is female which means it can be ulev or halal and some random meat is some random meat. He grinned and said could I tell before I shot? I grinned and said if the tab is up it is someone elseʻs trophy if the tab is down maybe it is safe to eat. He laughed and they had to take the elk with a bigger helicopter and still could not carry us at the same time. Christine got a cooler of cuts and ground venison and I got a white cooler of cuts and ground venison, and state of Arizona got a trophy which is likely still in the conservation museum in Arizona.
Which leads me to break down of the useful info.
One no matter how well prepared you are it is usually a good idea to have someone else look over your gear that is not your rifle and ammo.
Two hiking in boots that are not mid calf is a bad idea.
Three shooting on scree is really bad idea.
Four the fake treasure maps sold all over the mid west are usually hunting trails that most people do not understand the symbols on.
Five have a way to call for help that works out in the middle of woods.
In back country of Arizona a ten x 40 mm was not really a good enough scope. I am biased because I make scopes in Nokia Finland but if the game is more than six hundred feet a motorized optical zoom is the better design. I use a fixed middle lens that moves between two or more lens arrays that get closer while being further from the viewing lens near the eye.
Last there are some really large elk that as long as we treat the back country with respect and do not litter out there and or pee over all the trees people will be able to find and use the largest elk tags.
Well I drew that tag back in 1999 in Tuscon Arizona. I heard the cows and not to get drunk and shoot a cow by mistake. I had been jerked off leave every time before when I went on leave so I went to the base commander and said I need to hike at least two weeks into the back country of Arizona and only a gpsat phone is going to reach me there. So he asked me what I was asking for. I said I want to be sure I can spend my leave trying to track down a 6400 lb female elk. John McCain looked at me and said show me the pack you plan to take and if you can shoulder it with proper stuff added and the radio I can make sure that you can spend two weeks with out being yanked off leave. He sighed and said but no guarantees. So I drove back off base and packed what I thought I would need and brought the pack back to his office. He was on the flight line and coordinating something so I had to wait half the day before he had time for me. He said dump it out right here. I blinked and started pulling stuff out and he said either dump it out or stop wasting my time.
So I dumped out the pack and two gunnies who were there for something else went through the pack and decided it was short food and cold weather gear. I had some of the gear I planned to use on at the time and they borrowed my star card to go to the BX/PX and buy beef stew and butane lighter kit to cook it on. Once they got done adding stuff to the pack they added back in what I had packed and said there was way too much ammo and McCain said leave it in and see if he can shoulder it. So I shouldered the pack and they added the radio and said sure he can wear both packs but hiking with those double straps is a problem. McCain said take all that stuff home and wash it and repack it. So I drove home and washed the cold weather clothing making a point of writing down how many of what piece of clothing they thought I needed. I took the radio back pack apart and wired it to nine volt batteries.
The next day in new clothing and a few extras I thought of and smaller lighter weight radio with a modern ipx rj11 jack attached to the sat phone I dumped it out in front of them. McCain said it is creative looking but if you broke a two hundred thousand dollar phone to avoid the pack. I grinned and said I called your office from that phone this morning. He blinked and said how did... then he said never mind he could see that the jack on the sat phone was the same as the phones in his office.
The gunnies went through the gear and laughed and they said so where is the can opener. I held up my leather man and they laughed and asked for the star card and got a mechanical can opener and gloves which I had some how managed not to bring twice. McCain looked at them and said what do you think? They said he needs to buddy up for safety and they had copies of everything and I sighed and said either April Wilson or one of the other weather trainees should get a shot at taking leave far enough from the dorms that were being run like a tech school instead as homes.
I ended up buddied up with Christine Savage and they laughed and were going to go shopping for her since her bag was a duffel bag and not at all correct. I looked at her and said the first two times they borrowed my star card there have to be two females on the base that have gone on two week hikes before. Christine said that she was out she could not afford it. I looked at McCain and he said if she is out she is out but if you want to pay for it out of pocket that is up to you. I looked at Christine and asked if she had hunted before. She said she used to hunt with her brothers. I looked at her and snickered and said way before your brothers heard something I would be dealing with marines like those if I hurt a woman. She blinked and said oh. Then she said she had no idea what was going on between me and april but why were we getting help from the base commander. At which point one of the gunny sargents started to say something and McCain said leave it be I need to know if is just a money issue. Christine said what are we hunting. I grinned and held up the elk tag. Then she blinked and said it is a stupid snipe hunt? I laughed and said they call them sea gulls now. Then she blinked and said wait what? I said I am pretty sure from an old map I saw in the gun store is a logging map used to track elk. Henry the owner of the store said that it said treasure map and Henry said it is foolsʻ hunt.
Christine said start from the beginning. I said I have more than two months of leave saved up and she said wait how long is this going to take? I replied that the area is about two weeks in and maybe a week there then two weeks back a month give or take. She blinked and said she did not have then she stopped and said to McCain why am I getting to go on a months leave again? He said the game tag lasts one hunting season and Solheim thought one of the weather trainees should get a chance to get away from the dorms and go on elk hunt. She looked at me and said an indian hunt? I blinked and started giggling saying kikki is never going to let me live that down, I said elk is a really big deer like a caribou or rain deer. Someone said it is like a moose. I snickered and said the taste of medium rare elk verse most game is no contest.
Then I got to the point of the thread the treasure maps Henry Cogswell was selling out of the gun shop where Scandinavian game trail maps. So I had to explain to her about the map ...I would buy one then explain why I wanted it. He sold it to me and I grinned and when I get back I will tell what I think it is. He laughed and told me not to get dead chasing some logger fake map.
I grinned and said I have seen one of these before just in tronheim norway. He said that rifle I sold you should take down anything short of grizzley or kodiak. I blinked and said there are kodiak around here. He laughed at me for being a darn idiot for not knowing the wild life but the grizzley was far bigger than any kodiak... and the gun dealer thinking it was fake while McCain found two female marines that went shopping for Christine and then went through my stuff and Christine and swapped stuff between the two bags added more food this time mre style packs of food and Christine wanted the pack as heavy as mine and I sighed and said if she was carrying the full size radio and I could not carry more it would make sense but if she was trying to out macho me I did not want to have to worry about her injuring her feet and not saying anything. Clue likely wants to go but it would hurt him to ask to go. At which point Christine starting laughed and if you idiots go out there no one will know how to clean the kill. I snickered and said what he has never been hunting? She sighed and said he father cleaned the kills. At which point McCain said actually if you find one and kill it call the park ranger at this number and they can fly a helicopter out to make sure it is big enough. If it is not close to six thousand lbs do not shoot it the fine is twenty five thousand and you lose your game tag privileges for ten years. Christine finally decided to let me carry more weight than her and the gunnies gave us a ride to the trail point I wanted to start from to follow the fake treasure map.
A couple times my buddy nearly got herself killed on screen because she was wearing hiking books instead of field two books like I was wearing. A couple times I ended up having her stuff extra socks in my books and I ran across the scree in socks. She tried and nearly ended up sliding down the scree as the gravel was way too sharp for someone too used to wearing shoes every where for the previous six months.
So once we got down into the area we found the old loggerʻs cabin and old tools but after a week we ended up climbing up the side of the valley until we could see further. At this point we had been hunting and hiking for three weeks. The food was running out and the clothing was fourth reruns of use and I sited on the other side of the cayon trying to get a good feel for the range and I asked her what the fluff was on the other ridge. Christine looked through the rifle and then through the scope the two woman and picked up and said I can not even seen the other side with this one. I looked through it and realized the cheap baraski was 7x to 10x and hers was a 4x. So I looked around for a better vantage and sighed and realized we were at the best vantage. I shrugged and said what ever it is, is too far away to shoot at. She said because you can not see it or because the bullet would not hit. I sighed and said the bullets might drift but because I can not be sure it not a person. She asked me why that was a bad question. I blinked and said you are starting to read me a bit too well, but that the ethics of shooting something I might not be able to id as an animal is always a valid question but that she should not feel she needed to ask me.
She yelled something at me but the sheep spoked and started jumping around. I was snickering and said it is sheep and the tag says elk so onward. She sighed and even mutton. What is it all beef stew and beef stroganoff? I grined and said it could have been chickencatario... She said but you ate that in basic training. As we were arguing I leaned back and nearly fell over when I said double check this she blinked and said itʻs a deer. I said that is an elk but how far away is it. She said wait what then looked through and said that has got to be then looked at the map she was making notes a half a mile. but that makes it twelve feet at the shoulder. I grinned and said that is our elk. She said so half horns? I laughed and said I want the beef sections for steak and cheese burgers. I said the state of arizonia takes the animal and tests it if you ask for meat the party of hunters gets some much the state uses the rest to help hungry families. If you ask for the trophy you end up paying the state contract for the head. She sighed and said you had to say cheese steak and chesse burgers. I said I do think I can track it while down in the valley and leaving your buddies is always a mistake so I have to figure out if I can hit it or try to find another that size. She laughed and said we should have brought a camera it would be more likely not to be a fish tale.
I grinned and said now I have to take the shot. I laid down the scree and took the shot. She grabbed me by the ankle and hung onto the rope as half the scree dropped off the shelf. I blinked and said remind me not shoot on scree. She snickered and said did you hit it. I sighed and said It looked like it but I was trying to figure out if I was going to pull you off the mountain. She laughed and we called the park service and the chopper he flew out was really same so he could land on peaks to rescue stranded climbers. Christine and I had to climb back down into the valley hick the mile or so across the valley and back up once we got up close the park ranger winched us up to the peak and had us sigh the paper work that I had shot it roughly what time and so forth. He was standing there asking me how many times I had gone hunting and reported the kills. I sighed and said I was stationed at davis mounthan and this was the first leave I had not had interupted but they can verify where I was. He said someone else can not fill out the form for you. I sighed and said then to continue. He collected a bunch of details and then said meat or trophy. I said venison from that kill if the state finds it clean but not some random meat. He blinked and said the difference? I said that is female which means it can be ulev or halal and some random meat is some random meat. He grinned and said could I tell before I shot? I grinned and said if the tab is up it is someone elseʻs trophy if the tab is down maybe it is safe to eat. He laughed and they had to take the elk with a bigger helicopter and still could not carry us at the same time. Christine got a cooler of cuts and ground venison and I got a white cooler of cuts and ground venison, and state of Arizona got a trophy which is likely still in the conservation museum in Arizona.
Which leads me to break down of the useful info.
One no matter how well prepared you are it is usually a good idea to have someone else look over your gear that is not your rifle and ammo.
Two hiking in boots that are not mid calf is a bad idea.
Three shooting on scree is really bad idea.
Four the fake treasure maps sold all over the mid west are usually hunting trails that most people do not understand the symbols on.
Five have a way to call for help that works out in the middle of woods.
In back country of Arizona a ten x 40 mm was not really a good enough scope. I am biased because I make scopes in Nokia Finland but if the game is more than six hundred feet a motorized optical zoom is the better design. I use a fixed middle lens that moves between two or more lens arrays that get closer while being further from the viewing lens near the eye.
Last there are some really large elk that as long as we treat the back country with respect and do not litter out there and or pee over all the trees people will be able to find and use the largest elk tags.
