Elk, its whats for dinner

[ltdann]

Gang, just put the last of the elk in the freezer and I'm whipped. This was a mentally challenging and frustrating hunt. The elk had already gone into their winter herds and moved into normally restricted areas. I'll give a blow by blow tomorrow, but for now here's a coupla teasers.

 

[weekender21]

Cool, congrats! I heard they opened the archery areas for muzzle loaders. That's the biggest herd of Tule elk I've ever seen, impressive!

 

[acousticmood]

Wow - nice pics - congrats on your success. Elk medallions....mmmmmmm.

 

[Glass eye]

Good job! opcorn:

 

[CaliJeephuntr]

Hey Riverboy! Saying it was mentally frustrating doesn't even begin to describe how challenging it was. lol Glad we were able to connect on the elk though... never been more satisfied to succeed on a hunt before. :smiley_yahoo:

Here's some more teaser pics...

 

[pkkmc96]

ltdann,
Congratulations on the elk. I'm close by in Oceanside and pulled the late season bull up at FHL. I need the gouge, bad. Been literally dreaming about elk.... What do you drink?

Phil

 

[Live2hunt]

Right on Dann!!........I knew you could do it. Now let's hear how you did it. Sorry I had to ditch the two of you on Thursday night, but the wife left several voice message on my cell phone that the turkey will be ready by 7pm that night. Then off to the in-law's place in Sacramento on Friday to spend the weekend.

L2H

 

[bowslinger]

congrats LtDann... Keep that freezer stocked!

 

[don766]

Congratulations! I can't wait until the 29th

 

[hank4elk]

Breakfast,lunch,and...Good job on the Tule cow Dan. All those eyes..there where 60 cows in the herd I hunted last year on the Carrizo plains.Not easy to get in rifle range.

 

[ltdann]

Cool, congrats! I heard they opened the archery areas for muzzle loaders. That's the biggest herd of Tule elk I've ever seen, impressive!

Dude, that was the little one that joined up with the main herd in 22. THAT herd was over 200 strong.

 

[ltdann]

ltdann,
Congratulations on the elk. I'm close by in Oceanside and pulled the late season bull up at FHL. I need the gouge, bad. Been literally dreaming about elk.... What do you drink?

Phil

IM me or e-mail me. You need the maps for areas 22, 24, 16B, 13A and 25. Google FHL maps and you'll find them on the old JHO website.

 

[ltdann]

dang it. the computer ate the story. I'll do it at home, again.

 

[ltdann]

ltdann,
Congratulations on the elk. I'm close by in Oceanside and pulled the late season bull up at FHL. I need the gouge, bad. Been literally dreaming about elk.... What do you drink?

Phil

You down at the air station? Come see me at bldg 16142, first deck. Ask for Dan, the hunter.

 

[ltdann]

Lets try this again.

Orientation- the night before, 16 hunters and recovery teams.
On hand was 2 base biologist, staff from the base game warden, the warden himself and a CA DFG officer. They gave a good intel brief and assigned us "prime" elk areas. They gave us areas 9,12B, 15,16, 24, 25, 29, 10, 13w, 13E and 29. For archers, they added 13A and 16B.
They must have said 10 times, "this is a management hunt, we want you to shoot mature cows, not little ones, not spikes". No military training scheduled or expected, no interence from other hunters.

Day one- Based on the intel brief and the results of the Oct hunt, almost all of the hunters hit the roads trying to bag an easy first day kill. Spent the whole day driving ALL the areas, finding the high spots and glassing. Not one hunter reported seeing a legal elk in a legal area.

The elk had already grouped up into their winter herds and were in either 22 (tank range), 20 and 21 (tank impact range). End result was NIL, no elk taken the first day. The biologists were suprised and recieved more than a little abuse about the "prime" areas. They began to make noise like maybe they could open 22 up to archery in order to scare some out.

Day two(turkey day)- Began much the same, hitting the roads, glassing from up high. About 10, the biologist called me and said 22 was open for achery. I cammied up and headed to a small herd at the far end of 22. Waded the river (cold and deep) and got busted by a bachelor herd of 18-20 bulls.

Tried the other end, near the oaks and spotted some cows down in a ravine, about 300 yds out and began the stalk. About 100 yds out, I came over a small fold in the ground and there lay a 5x5 bull, between me and the cows. Realizing I couldn't get past the bull without getting spotted, I said "what the hell, lets see how close I can get". With the wind in my face, sun at my back, arrow nocked and trigger hooked, I closed to within 38 yds before he noticed me. We stared at each other for 10 minutes before he gave a bark, then a few minutes later, another bark and they were gone. Found a nice skull on the way out. The biologists were starting to panic, no elk taken that day.

Day three- Spent the day learning that a running man cannot outrun a walking elk. Learned quite a bit by watching herd dynamics, when they feed, when they bed, the folds in the terrain, where the ravines etc. Also learned that out on the plain, a man can't hid in 6 inches of grass.

I'm guessing that about a third the hunters quit this day. A couple of archers scared some bulls out of 13A into 13W where 2 cows were taken. Not enough for the biologists.

While I was at the game shack, one of the wardens staff annouced that 22 would be open for muzzle loader and shotguns with slugs in the morning. GAME ON!

Day four- We hit the oaks in 22 at daybreak, looking for the big herd in the middle. I choose the auto shotgun, rather than the muzzleloader. I figure 3 is better than one and I'm pretty comfortable with a rifled shotgun.

We could see them way out in the middle, milling around, kinda staying in place. We hear a shot back behind us somewhere and off to the left and see some elk in the distance.

I had this itching feeling at the back of my neck and kept looking over my shoulder while keeping an eye on the big herd (200 head). I looked at about 0800 and there's a herd of 40 crossing behind us. We put the moves on them, trying to close and succeded in closing on the hunter that had made the shot that morning. I backed out to the road where the other guys were.

The fellas were making noise like, "I'm hungry...lets get some water etc" I told them to go ahead, I wanted to take one more look at the big herd. I walked to the lookout berm and the big herd had halved the distance in the plain and were heading to a large drainage area in front of me.

Snap decision, if I could get into the drainage without being seen, I could run about 400 yds below ground level and be able set up before they got to the edge of the drainage. I HAULED BUTT!

I about sprinted across the drainage. They couldn't see me and vice versa. I made it to a fallen tree at the far side, just below the crest of the drainage, did a quick field of fire check and waited. I was just beginning to wonder how I'd be able to tell when they arrived when I saw antler tips at the edge.

The herd bull bugled and it was so close I could feel it in my chest. Then the ground began to shake and over the crest came the herd, right in front of me. The first 5 elk were 4 cows and the herd bull. Number 4 in line was a good sized cow. I snapped one shot, they spun around and I took another shot. Both felt good, but she still ran off. WTH? Two 12 ga slugs?

I snuck to the crest, just so my head peeked ove the edge and there was the ENTIRE 200 head of elk. Needless to say, my cow was in there somewhere. No chance of finding her in that mess. I knew that there were at least three hunters behind me somewhere, I backed away, allowing the herd to go into the drainage. It gave the other hunters a chance and hopefully, would allow me to find my dead cow.

She wasn't dead. She was standing there with the herd bull and he was trying to get her going. No joy, so he left. I had hit her both times, low in foreleg and low forward of the rear quarter. Not my best shooting.

I put another one into the breadbasket to no effect. I figured I missed and shot again. I could see the slug impact and dirt kicked up about 50yds beyond her. She stood for another 5 minutes before doing a nose dive and I put a final one in the neck. She took FIVE 12 ga Barnes slugs. My two breadbasket shots were 2 inches apart. Tough animals.

Thanks to Eric and XAO for showing me the boundries, thats all I really needed in order to put boots on the ground and work the problem.

My apologies to CALIJEEPHUNTER and his crew for accidentally blowing their setup on day 3. In my defense, I was pretty much whipped that afternoon, those elk ran me ragged.

 

[don766]

Great write up. Sounds like I will have my work cut out for me during the bull hunt. I had better practice wind sprints

 

[CaliJeephuntr]

No apologies needed Dan. You had no idea we were there or what we were doing. I'm just glad you got your elk along with my friend. Definately learned a lot this trip on those elk.

 

[pkkmc96]

You down at the air station? Come see me at bldg 16142, first deck. Ask for Dan, the hunter.

Dan,
Yes I'm down at the air station and I'll come by tomorrow and try to link up.

Great write up...I can't sleep already and I got another 4 weeks to go. I'm definitely going to bring my bow, shotgun and rifle now.

I need to start shooting a quiver every night.... Going to get everything set for tomorrow's session!

Thanks and look forward to meeting you tomorrow.

Phil

 

[bsandls]

great read and pictures. thanks for sharing

 

[dglover]

Great story! Thanks for sharing! Elk meat is awesome.