Game Plan 2020 – Episode #1

[WapitiTalk1]

Tag: Bull tag
Season/Hunt: Archery, partner hunt
Time/Date/Location: Mid-September, 7:30ish AM, in an elk state
Camp/gear: Spike Camp, 3 ½ miles in on an old, un-maintained FS trail.

Dang bulls have been bugling all night down in the draw below camp. When morning comes, you head out of camp, and before you enter the alder wall/jungle (standing right on the red arrow), you hear at least two bulls. They sound/appear as though they’re heading in the direction of the yellow line/arrow to bed. No major weather today so the thermals are pretty much normal for the mountain states (downhill in the morning till around 9:00 – 9:30ish, then, they move uphill till some point in the late afternoon. Shooting light ends around 6:45ish on this hunt.

I know it’s not a lot of information but sometimes that’s all you’ve got to work with. For the sake of this scenario, you have never hunted this spot before.

What’s your tentative game plan to let the air out of one of those distant bulls?

Scenario Image 1.JPG (291.15 KiB) Viewed 5991 times

[saddlesore]

Go find other ones. I am not about to try to haul one out of that deep canyon.

[Swede]

You point out that this is "partner hunt". Well I am with Saddlesore. As we get out of that area asap, I am asking how he got me down in that hole. From this point on, I am watching my coffee as I know somehow something was spiked. Live a nice long life bulls or come out much closer to the road.

[Indian Summer]

That place looks so familiar I know what to do. Hang a hard right out the finger I am on. Maybe even get on the backside away from the bulls. Cover ground and drop down until I hit a big game trail that I figure is at about the same elevation or a little lower than the elk. Then if I think I have time roll back around to the spine of the ridge where I can hear around the corner and stop sit and listen. Call or make a game plan accordingly from there but I think they’ll walk right to me. I don’t think they’re going to stop in that steep sided hole. I think they’ll roll out around onto my finger and find a flatter spot to camp out on.

Oh and I wouldn’t sit right on the trail. I’d get 20 yards above or below based on the wind.

Why is it easier to make these decisions when I am sitting on the couch than when I’m on a mountain?

[WapitiTalk1]

That place looks so familiar I know what to do. Hang a hard right out the finger I am on. Maybe even get on the backside away from the bulls. Cover ground and drop down until I hit a big game trail that I figure is at about the same elevation or a little lower than the elk. Then if I think I have time roll back around to the spine of the ridge where I can hear around the corner and stop sit and listen. Call or make a game plan accordingly from there but I think they’ll walk right to me. I don’t think they’re going to stop in that steep sided hole. I think they’ll roll out around onto my finger and find a flatter spot to camp out on.

Oh and I wouldn’t sit right on the trail. I’d get 20 yards above or below based on the wind.

Why is it easier to make these decisions when I am sitting on the couch than when I’m on a mountain?

I like your thinking mister.

[>>>---WW---->]

Looks kinda fishy to me. Why are they headed down hill at 07:30? I think I'd just sit there and listen to the music. Maybe they'll tell me where they are going to hole up for the day. And maybe I can figure out a plan to ambush them in the evening.

But I'm with Vince. If he isn't willing to go down in that hole to pack one out with his mules, I sure as heck ain't going in there to pack one out on my back!

[Indian Summer]

You guys! Since when do we pick and choose where we would like to kill elk? If they’re heading down then that’s where they will be shot! I’ve killed elk in places I almost wish I didn’t. But at the end of it all I survived and they were in the freezer. No regrets!

[saddlesore]

You guys! Since when do we pick and choose where we would like to kill elk? If they’re heading down then that’s where they will be shot! I’ve killed elk in places I almost wish I didn’t. But at the end of it all I survived and they were in the freezer. No regrets!

Add a 10-20 years to your age and you too will see the wisdom of choosing where you kill elk .

[>>>---WW---->]

[quote="Indian Summer"]You guys! Since when do we pick and choose where we would like to kill elk?

Answer to your question. When us guys get old enough to know our limitations! There is a difference between hunting hard and hunting smart.

[Swede]

I will not go hunting and kill an animal where I do not have reasonable confidence I can get it out unspoiled. Killing an elk is one thing. Getting it back in edible form is another. Three and a half miles plus maybe another half mile past spike camp, all uphill and some through heavy alder brush, just to get to a drivable road, is too much for me. I am hoping my new e-bike will allow me to go farther back in the elk woods, but this does not sound like it was an e-bike hunt.
I know many of us think we are Rambo in the elk woods, and things seem easy when we are in our den, but somewhere between one mile and four miles there are cramps, fatigue, slips and falls due to difficulty of the situation.
Depending somewhat on the unmaintained trail situation I would have been tempted to go on this hunt in my 20s, 30s, 40s and likely even in my 50s. It is a no go for me now in my 70s. Go get em Rambo. Just don't come back with a light load and plan to tell me the coordinates to where the second load is. I don't even care to know.

Saddlesore & WW: While those idiots go busting off through the brush, why don't we brew a pot of coffee and fix a good bacon, eggs and toast breakfast? We can go out a little late today, Just thinking about their hunt gives me a pain.

[WapitiTalk1]

No time for eggs and toast mister, grab your pack...let’s go!

[Swede]

Ok, Ok! I'll join you idiots. I must be crazy, but I have my boots on and I had a regular breakfast if you can call that slime in a sack "breakfast".

[WapitiTalk1]

Ok, Ok! I'll join you idiots. I must be crazy, but I have my boots on and I had a regular breakfast if you can call that slime in a sack "breakfast".

I’ve seen you hike before, you are the best “in shape” seasoned elk hunter I’ve seen.

[Indian Summer]

I’m a young 54 but I’m only 5 foot 6 and 200 pounds. Plus I have arthritis and me knees are in terrible shape. If I can do it anyone can. I would never kill an elk, especially in warmer weather, where I couldn’t get it out without losing all or even some of the meat. Other than that I’ll kill them anywhere. If it’s gun season the weather is usually good enough that it’s just a matter if time until that bull is in camp. Horses help too! So I shoot first and ask questions later.

[saddlesore]

In ten years Joe,you are going to see a lot of difference. In 20 years even more so. In my 50's I was still running up and down mountains killing elk anywhere they were. I'm 5' 5" and don't weigh 150 even if I fell in the water, but I could hump and elk quarter up the mountain and write my name in the snow when I whizzed.
Now on the back side of 70's I can barely slide a quarter down the mountain in the snow and can maybe write my in initials in the snow.However I can do that 10 times in an hour.

[Swede]

[quote="saddlesore]I can barely slide a quarter down the mountain in the snow and can maybe write my in initials in the snow.However I can do that 10 times in an hour."

And we get up four times in the night to pee about 1 1/2 oz. each time.

I know I.S. would not go kill an elk where he could not retrieve it in total. What I was saying is that for each of us it is a different problem, and I don't want to talk myself into a situation where I ever wish I did not kill the critter. I know a man that was younger than I am now, and he could never come to grips with a very real health issue. He planned and tried, but just held others back on a hunt because he could not go where he had in earlier years.
As for the situation at hand, I would go if I had good help like RJ and/or his more than capable friend. I keep up year round with a good exercise routine. I can keep up a decent pace if I am not loaded down with too much.
My son wants me to hunt several miles in on a closed road this coming September. He and his friend will be there to assist if any of us score. I can handle that. When they go home, I will return to my old haunts. Based on visual observations and trail camera coverage, I think there are some bigger bulls where my son wants to hunt. I would like to get a big bull, but mostly I like being out hunting with my son.

[Lefty]

Downhill is on the way out,..right

Well did it a few times,..this year. spotting them a mile plus away and 12-1500 feet below,.. here we go

If its too much work Im calling my wife to bring the horses,.. I tak caqre and feed those things all year

[WapitiTalk1]

No horses are getting in or out of that hole. But, it’s only 3ish short miles to the parked truck thru the thickest, steepest, stuff you’ve ever seen.

[Swede]

It's the only place on the planet I know of where elk die from solitude, boredom and loneliness. Even the buzzards bypass the area for fear they will never get off the ground, through the brush, if they drop to investigate a carcass. While hunting there a couple of season ago, I packed my 357M a couple times and borrowed RJ's 44M for a few days. I hunted at the extreme upper edge of the area. All at once it dawned on me that there was no reason to worry about grizzly bears being in the area. They are just not crazy enough to enter that zone.
Now I just agreed to drop down in there because a couple of nuts heard noises in their sleep last night. I should have learned from griz that stay north and east of there.

BTW: Those "openings" you see in the picture. They are not openings. They are brush fields where the timber and brush changes over to 100% old growth brush about 15 feet tall and so thick you can almost walk on top, but just not quite. You will fall through and get hung up by your pack or bow. Why do you think RJ's friend lost his bow down there last September and had to go back and find it?

My plan for the hunt, if it matters is to go down the old trail, close to the critters and holler "come elk". I figure they will come in so we will put them out of their misery. The bulls were bugling to try to coax some nuts to come around. I think they are probably suicidal, and in luck. For once they have called up some desperate hunters.
The locals avoid the area. No kidding.



In all seriousness, I hunted around there with RJ and had as much fun as anywhere I have set a camp. I did not over exert myself and there are elk around. The published success rates are about average. The elk are never easy, but no worse than other locations I have hunted. Elk are elk wherever you go, but hunting buddies are precious.

[>>>---WW---->]

You guys can debate this all you want. But Clint Eastwood said it best when he said, " A man has to know his limitations"!

[Tigger]

A situation like this is where having your elk hunting buddies be younger, stronger, and taller gents is a distinct advantage! I go after him in much the same way Indian Summer would. Elk opportunities are too valuable to squander just because it will be hard work for your buddies! Of course this strategy is temp dependent due to spoilage issues.

[jmorr]

This looks like a nightmare but I guess at 40 I'm still young and dumb enough to try.. I would follow the finger ridge on the right close to the red led line drawn, trying to keep tabs on the vocal bulls as I go. The more likely track in this country is the yellow line however, trying to avoid all the deadfall and walls of alder. I would like to get to about the red "x" to sound check the bulls around 9-10 am as they are settling in to bed. After the thermals are switched and I have a decent idea where they are bedded, (I'm guessing there's a nice little shady bench somewhere around the blue target that has some heavily used trails and wallows nearby) I'm going to spend the next 2-3 hrs trying to get even or above them. The green line is my likely path. The pink line is the path the elk take after they catch my wind and bolt into the next drainage and out of my life forever. The white line is my walk of shame that I took because it looks open and easy, but in reality is a switchback nightmare because of the deadfall and jungles of brush and alder. Ask me how I know in such detail how these scenarios play out..

[Tigger]

jmorr,
you aren't the only one. For every success, there are quite a few stories like you just prophesized!

[Lefty]

You guys can debate this all you want. But Clint Eastwood said it best when he said, " A man has to know his limitations"!

Unfortunately all too often mental limits are different than physical abilities. Im finally figuring that out sorta.If I have all day , ill pack extra gear for overnight. Of alone send a text before I head down.
Im still going down, thats what I came for.

I believe Ive mentioned this before: a neighbor and friend told me I had to let others know where Im going because they're the ones that will need to come and get me,... and my meat

What about life flight?

[Indian Summer]

Saddlesore that is hilarious!

I forgot to say that there is a method to my madness. A philosophy. No matter what it’s gonna hurt getting an elk out of there. But still.... it’s just putting one foot in front of the other until it’s over.

But you know what else hurts? Getting up so early and getting dressed to hump up the hill to even be able to hear that bull bugle. 10 mornings in a row of early starts and long hard days will wear me out as much as carrying that bull out.

But! If I kill him today and then pay the price I’ll have my bull and I can really enjoy the place. Most of the time means helping my partner get himself into the same dreaded predicament! Haha. But that’s certainly fine with me.... and him. Time is valuable and it’s not just about me killing an elk. It’s seeing if we can all tag out. For that to happen we need to have some success as early as possible in the hunt. If we can all punch our tags the fun really begins. That is the goal. So let’s kill that bull, get it the heck out of there and move onto the next one!