meatwad

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Hello again to everyone. My wife and I will be heading down to FHL tomorrow morning for our second elk hunt. If you were following our first post we had a hunt last October but due to base activity the hunt was pretty much a bust. We had some close encounters with elk but never sealed the deal. So FHL and the California department of fish and game are giving people from the OCT hunt a second try. We are stoked, the first hunt was a blast even though we did not get anything it was a great experience. We are very excited to have a second chance and we are both getting those jitters again.

Since last hunt there have been a few additions to our gear. As yall may have read my wife and I only had one Muzzle loader last hunt and I borrowed another MZ from a friend which did not end well (misfire at 100yds...BOOO!!). I went back home to Tennessee over the holidays (also shot a deer on the family farm,yay) and brought back my other Thompson center encore MZ. Now I feel very confident in our two TC encores, no more blasting caps, 209 primer all the way. Secondly I have a new truck, well new to me. We hunted last time out of our Subaru Baja and Toyota 4runner, which are both great vehicles but due to lack of space I also had to pull a trailer for the gear and to haul back any elk we would have got. Now I have a 1997 Toyota T100 4x4, which is quite a bit larger and I can put 2 elk in the bed without having to pull a trailer. So now we are really ready to get this hunt going.

I have been reading some of the other post and it seems the elk have come back together and have been working the lowlands. I hope that we will have as much fun this hunt as the last and fill our two cow tags. I look forward to reading everyone's posts and I cant wait to tell everyone how the hunt plays out.

With high Hopes!!

Thomas

The first elk hunt thread: http://www.jesseshunting.com/forums...-getting-ready-for-FHL-444-cow-hunt-OCT-20-28
 
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meatwad

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67041_585251025655_1261614608_n.jpg
The new truck the day I bought it, my 15month old son in the driver seat approves. Ready to fill the bed with 2 Tule elk!
 

jls456

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Awsome. Glad to see DFG is giving you a second chance. Do you both have tags? I'm heading to the Bay area tomorrow to see my kids. But I might be willing to head up there and give you a hand if needed later in the week. Scouting or help packing them out. (bring a tow strap,rain is forcasted)

I was there yesterday and seen a nice herd with a pretty decent Bull just north of the campgrounds. Not a open area,but enough to keep it interesting.
Anyway,good luck to you
 

meatwad

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Yes my wife and I each have cow tags. Also any help would be greatly appreciated, I will let you know how we are doing thorough out the week. I have chains and straps ready hopefully I wont be needing them but we shall see, that mud is the worst there at FHL. We will be leaving Monterey tomorrow morning at 0400 that should put us at the station by about 0530. I do not know what zones will be open but any intel on where they have been seen would help a ton. My go to zones are 13E, 15, 20 and 22 I know each of them quite well but not sure where the heards are working.
 

spectr17

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Hey Thomas, I just got back from FHL. I ran into another cow tag group that just go there for the same hunt as your, ex Army guy in a green Ford Ranger with young boy and older gentleman. I only saw cow elk by the runway but I didn't get to drive around as much as I usually do. I hunted 13E but didn't see any fresh sign or elk in there in the south and north end, didn't get into the middle at all. Roads were a mess from all the rain but were drying out, it was tough even walking in some places Sunday.

Good luck.
 

solus

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I believe the elk where taken out of 24 and 25. I saw a heard sticking around the area south of mission road.(the side with the range)
 

Mel Carter

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If I had a cow tag, I would be concentrating on area 20. I didn't see anything in 13E, only saw bulls in 25. 20 has a large herd in it with plenty of cows. Good luck!
 

meatwad

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My wife and I have begun the hunt...18 degrees this morning. We are in zone 10 now seen a lot of sign, working our way to the center. We will probably got to 15 next. We have 13e/w,29,10,15,12b,24 and 25 open. We will keep you posted.
 

gdt

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We saw cow herds in 15, 20 and 24, and 25/22 during our hunt. Good luck to you!
 

meatwad

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Well went all the way to the res in 10. We saw lots of sign near the edge of 13w. The temp has risen fast. We are making our eat back to truck, then we are going to try 15.
 

meatwad

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Yeah it is pretty muddy out here and the creek crossings are really deep. We are walking through 15 by the res. The water is really up and the dam has been redone. Lots of ducks out here too. Still no elk but we did see some next to the airfield near the campground.
 

ltdann

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If you've got ML's , don't forget to look in 13E. There's a herd in there as well, just stay out of the archery area at the end.
 

Live2hunt

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Meatwad,
The elk in area 10 always hang out close to Jolon Road.
 

solus

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nothing in 13E me and Jesse spent a few days there with no sign of anything fresh.
 

meatwad

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Really no new tracks in 15 by res. We are going to 10 this afternoon and set up on a hill top and glass. We will be right off of jolon rd over looking that large flat area.
 

Live2hunt

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How bout 25 in the flat after the reservoir and the border of the private properties? Also try 16A in the draws and fingers along River Road.
 

Punt42

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My daughter got her elk on Sat in 16A up in the draws with L2H and we also saw a group of about 30 in that flat over in 25. Also saw a group of bull and a bull with 6 cows up on the ridge just south of that flat in the NE corner of 25. Same place we saw a number of beds back on the trip in Oct. That whole NE area had a ton of sign in it.
 

meatwad

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Well last night we saw fresh tracks again in 10. The elk moved through sometime between when we hunted there in the morning to when we hunted that afternoon. We are about to head back out this morning. I know there are elk working 10 so we will go there first then we will go check out 25. Again the only place we saw elk yesterday was the airfield next to the campground. We have high hopes for today so wish us luck.
 

KTKT70

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good lucky buddy. real cool how much ppl try to help. i like this place.
 

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