OK, here goes......
As I've done for the last several years, I took a week of vacation after Thanksgiving to hunt elk near the coast in one of our "any elk" muzzleloader areas. The season runs from the day before Thanksgiving through the 15th of December. I drove over from eastern Washington and got there on Sunday night (the 6th). I found out the place I'd been parking my tent trailer the last couple of years was blocked by a pile of dirt and rock with a no trespassing sign. Luckily I had another spot that I'd looked at before only about 150 yards away that worked OK, so I set up there. The next morning I drove about a mile to a pasture gate on some property that I have a permit to hunt on and parked. I walked across the field and hunted my way up through a logging unit and timber to a spot where I'd shot a cow a couple of years ago. I took a stand for a couple of hours and also worked my way around the ridge and logging unit that day. I didn't see much sign and no animals. The temperature started out around 13 degrees and got as high as about 20 that day. It was like that all week and if you know the weather along the Washington coast, that's pretty cold. It was also totally dry and sunny which is not the norm either, though I doubt anyone would complain! The next day I went to another area a couple of miles as the crow flies the other way from camp. I parked at the timber company gate and walked up the road to a newer logging unit. I happened to see some elk across the unit and ended up spending the day watching and slowly following the herd of 8 cows and 6 calves down to the edge of a refuge (at that point, about a 75 yard strip of trees and brush along the bay). They kept moving around in the trees and making noise, so I just waited, hoping they'd come back into the unit. They never did. Even though I saw elk, there still was very little sign in the area. The next day I went to the same area, but tried to go to a little peninsula I'd walked into last year and had found a huge amount of sign. For some reason the roads and trees looked different and I spent most of the day walking roads and logging units looking for it but finally ended up going back to the spot I had seen the elk the day before. I was getting pretty depressed not seeing any sign and while "shuffling" down the road happened to look up in front of me and saw a cow looking down from about 200 yards away in a part of the same logging unit as the day before. I didn't spook her or the calf next to her and as they fed over the ridge, I followed. I saw them next about 100 yards away, but it was a bit far and really no shot anyway. I only counted 13 elk this time, but since they were in the same area, I'm sure they were the same herd. They ended up moving into another timbered strip on the other side of the refuge boundary, so I missed out again. I spent the next two days in the same area trying find the herd and to get them to move to me, but I never saw them again. On Friday I again went looking for the place I'd been searching for the second day and walked right into it. It was right there, It just didn't look the same this year. There was some older sign there, but not a lot and not too fresh. I ended up walking up a fresh water delta off the bay that was frozen and got back to the unit with the elk herd, but again didn't find them. Did I mention that it was usually 13 - 15 degrees in the morning and no higher than mid 20's during the day! It was really cold!! I had decided early on that I'd hunt only about half of Saturday and then pack up and head home, so I figured I'd go back to the land that I'd been on the first day and give it another shot, so to speak. Even without much sign, it's such a nice looking area, it's worth a morning sit. Saturday morning I parked at the gate again and hiked into the spot I'd hunted on Monday. I ended up sitting on a dead log about 15 - 20 feet away from where I'd shot the cow in 2006. It was pretty cold, but a lttle warmer than the previous days with just a bit of wind blowing downhill past me. I could see uphill quite a way and if I turned around, I could see downhill pretty good too. There is a really good animal trail that comes uphill and passes by about 20 yards to one side, but as I said there was very little sign in the area. I figured I just sit and wait until noon and then head in. The trail basically comes out of the new logging unit and winds uphill through the timber to the ridge and then they can go into an old (super thick!!!) unit. About 10:30 while sitting there I think hear a small crack behind and below me, so I roll up the sides of my stocking hat to hear better. I'm not sure if I heard another noise or what, but I turned around and looked around the root ball on the end of the log I'm sitting on and saw an animal picking it's way up the trail. I turned around, grabbed my gun, and got to get ready to shoot. In my mind, my first thought was elk, but it was just a brown animal followed by another and looked small. For some reason, I suddenly thought...does...and maybe there'd be a buck following. I still had my deer tag and though the area's also open for any deer, the landowner only wants people to shoot 3 point or better bucks. That's OK, but I've only seen two deer over there in 5 years. In the next instant I realize that, no they are elk, just calves and there are more coming up the trail behind them. The 4 calves were leading a herd and they moved slowly up the trail before stopping right below me at about 35 yards kind of in a ball, not knowing which way to go. Did I mention that there happened to be quite a bit of shooting right then.....goose and duck hunters on the tidal flats and pasture areas. I ended up sighting in on a big cow but could still see more elk behind her. I think I was up to ten elk when I noticed horn on the last one, so my focus shifted in a hurry. I still kept my sights on the cow and I'd already cocked the gun, so I waited until the bull finally made it up to a spot about 50 yards away and stopped, perfectly broadside and in the open. I sighted in on him and squeezed the trigger, but only heard a small click! My first thought was that I'd misfired, but the cap hadn't gone off, so I reached up to cock again. It was still cocked, so I just sighted again and touched the trigger. It actually went off without me knowing consciously where I was pointed! (I had for some reason pulled the back trigger without thinking and just set the front trigger...that was the small click) My last sight of the bull before the cows and calves went back and surrounded him was that he'd fallen back on his rear end and then I thought I'd seen the horns moving in the ferns below where he had been standing. I tried to reload as quickly as possible as a cow and a couple of calves were still standing there, but before I could finish they just walked into the brush and around the corner of the ridge out of sight. None of them were spooked at all. I think with all the shotguns going off, they thought it was just another distant shot. I finished loading and took off my heavy coat so I was a little more mobile and looked for the bull. I went down to where the elk were standing and found their tracks but no blood or hair. I looked downhill a bit where I thought the bull had gone, but didn't see anything. I was mad as I thought I'd probably missed and then I thought, if they weren't too spooked, maybe I could get uphill and cut them off before they got into the thick cover. Did I mention that it was dry as a bone all week and very cold. The ground was super crunchy and every plant frozen and noisy against my legs and body. I managed to get uphill pretty quietly though and got up on a big stump to see over the brush. I couldn't see or hear them so a couple of minutes later I decided I couldn't run them down and went back downhill. When I got back to where I'd shot from, I was pretty disgusted for missing, so I figured I'd better make a better search where the elk had been and start making circles looking for any sign of a hit. I had another hour before my noon cut off so if I hadn't found anything by then I'd kick myself in the butt and then call it a season. As I stood where I'd shot from and looked down to where the elk had been, I thought to myself... he was standing right in front of that tree...just like looking for a quail I'd dropped in the brush. I held sight of the tree and walked down to it. Sure enough, I found the bull's tracks right there and also some that were scuffed that looked like where he'd turned. I didn't see any blood or hair, so I turned to look downhill to see which way he might have gone and toward where I thought I'd seen the horns above the ferns. I took about 5 steps and there he was laying head downhill behind a brush covered deadfall. I went from feeling lower that the dirt under a slugs belly to cloud nine! I went up and poked him in the back, but he was dead. I paced 14 yards from where I'd shot him to where he laid. The ball went in high behind the right shoulder and came out low behind the left shoulder. It hit a rib going in, one lung good, the tip of the other lung, and on out the other side. I was using my .62 green mountain barreled T/C Hawken that Ed Rayl had rifled for me (thanks for the idea Roundball). The home cast .600 ball in front of 90 grains of Goex 2f definitely did the job in a hurry.
Now the best part! After gutting him, I hiked out to my truck and as I was reaching for my keys, a guy in a truck came driving up, jumped out and started to unlock the gate. I asked him if he was going in and he said yes, he was going in to cut some firewood. I asked him if I could follow him in because I had an elk down on the hill and it would make the pack out much easier. He said he understood, but didn't have permission to let anyone else in. I said no problem, but then he said he'd call the landowner and ask. He tried his house and cell numbers, but didn't get him. He finally said to just follow him in. I ended up being able to park on the road right on the edge of the trees and had only about a 200 yard pack. I was able to get him cut up and packed out in about 3 hours. The guy was still cutting wood when I started out so I helped him finish up right at dark and then followed him out. I drove over to the landowners house to thank him and talked for a few minutes. I went back to camp, got packed up and left @ 7:20. When I got to Troutdale, east of Portland, I-84 was closed due to ice so I went back and over the Columbia to the Washington side as hwy 14 was still open. It was just as icy, but I drove back at 25 - 30 mph and made it this side of The Dalles before it got a little better. I ended up getting home at 3:45 Sunday morning. I'd only been up almost 24 hours. He wasn't the big bull of my dreams, but the last bull I shot was in 1981, so I'll definitely take him.
Sorry for the length of the post, but can you tell.....I'm still a little stoked!
As I've done for the last several years, I took a week of vacation after Thanksgiving to hunt elk near the coast in one of our "any elk" muzzleloader areas. The season runs from the day before Thanksgiving through the 15th of December. I drove over from eastern Washington and got there on Sunday night (the 6th). I found out the place I'd been parking my tent trailer the last couple of years was blocked by a pile of dirt and rock with a no trespassing sign. Luckily I had another spot that I'd looked at before only about 150 yards away that worked OK, so I set up there. The next morning I drove about a mile to a pasture gate on some property that I have a permit to hunt on and parked. I walked across the field and hunted my way up through a logging unit and timber to a spot where I'd shot a cow a couple of years ago. I took a stand for a couple of hours and also worked my way around the ridge and logging unit that day. I didn't see much sign and no animals. The temperature started out around 13 degrees and got as high as about 20 that day. It was like that all week and if you know the weather along the Washington coast, that's pretty cold. It was also totally dry and sunny which is not the norm either, though I doubt anyone would complain! The next day I went to another area a couple of miles as the crow flies the other way from camp. I parked at the timber company gate and walked up the road to a newer logging unit. I happened to see some elk across the unit and ended up spending the day watching and slowly following the herd of 8 cows and 6 calves down to the edge of a refuge (at that point, about a 75 yard strip of trees and brush along the bay). They kept moving around in the trees and making noise, so I just waited, hoping they'd come back into the unit. They never did. Even though I saw elk, there still was very little sign in the area. The next day I went to the same area, but tried to go to a little peninsula I'd walked into last year and had found a huge amount of sign. For some reason the roads and trees looked different and I spent most of the day walking roads and logging units looking for it but finally ended up going back to the spot I had seen the elk the day before. I was getting pretty depressed not seeing any sign and while "shuffling" down the road happened to look up in front of me and saw a cow looking down from about 200 yards away in a part of the same logging unit as the day before. I didn't spook her or the calf next to her and as they fed over the ridge, I followed. I saw them next about 100 yards away, but it was a bit far and really no shot anyway. I only counted 13 elk this time, but since they were in the same area, I'm sure they were the same herd. They ended up moving into another timbered strip on the other side of the refuge boundary, so I missed out again. I spent the next two days in the same area trying find the herd and to get them to move to me, but I never saw them again. On Friday I again went looking for the place I'd been searching for the second day and walked right into it. It was right there, It just didn't look the same this year. There was some older sign there, but not a lot and not too fresh. I ended up walking up a fresh water delta off the bay that was frozen and got back to the unit with the elk herd, but again didn't find them. Did I mention that it was usually 13 - 15 degrees in the morning and no higher than mid 20's during the day! It was really cold!! I had decided early on that I'd hunt only about half of Saturday and then pack up and head home, so I figured I'd go back to the land that I'd been on the first day and give it another shot, so to speak. Even without much sign, it's such a nice looking area, it's worth a morning sit. Saturday morning I parked at the gate again and hiked into the spot I'd hunted on Monday. I ended up sitting on a dead log about 15 - 20 feet away from where I'd shot the cow in 2006. It was pretty cold, but a lttle warmer than the previous days with just a bit of wind blowing downhill past me. I could see uphill quite a way and if I turned around, I could see downhill pretty good too. There is a really good animal trail that comes uphill and passes by about 20 yards to one side, but as I said there was very little sign in the area. I figured I just sit and wait until noon and then head in. The trail basically comes out of the new logging unit and winds uphill through the timber to the ridge and then they can go into an old (super thick!!!) unit. About 10:30 while sitting there I think hear a small crack behind and below me, so I roll up the sides of my stocking hat to hear better. I'm not sure if I heard another noise or what, but I turned around and looked around the root ball on the end of the log I'm sitting on and saw an animal picking it's way up the trail. I turned around, grabbed my gun, and got to get ready to shoot. In my mind, my first thought was elk, but it was just a brown animal followed by another and looked small. For some reason, I suddenly thought...does...and maybe there'd be a buck following. I still had my deer tag and though the area's also open for any deer, the landowner only wants people to shoot 3 point or better bucks. That's OK, but I've only seen two deer over there in 5 years. In the next instant I realize that, no they are elk, just calves and there are more coming up the trail behind them. The 4 calves were leading a herd and they moved slowly up the trail before stopping right below me at about 35 yards kind of in a ball, not knowing which way to go. Did I mention that there happened to be quite a bit of shooting right then.....goose and duck hunters on the tidal flats and pasture areas. I ended up sighting in on a big cow but could still see more elk behind her. I think I was up to ten elk when I noticed horn on the last one, so my focus shifted in a hurry. I still kept my sights on the cow and I'd already cocked the gun, so I waited until the bull finally made it up to a spot about 50 yards away and stopped, perfectly broadside and in the open. I sighted in on him and squeezed the trigger, but only heard a small click! My first thought was that I'd misfired, but the cap hadn't gone off, so I reached up to cock again. It was still cocked, so I just sighted again and touched the trigger. It actually went off without me knowing consciously where I was pointed! (I had for some reason pulled the back trigger without thinking and just set the front trigger...that was the small click) My last sight of the bull before the cows and calves went back and surrounded him was that he'd fallen back on his rear end and then I thought I'd seen the horns moving in the ferns below where he had been standing. I tried to reload as quickly as possible as a cow and a couple of calves were still standing there, but before I could finish they just walked into the brush and around the corner of the ridge out of sight. None of them were spooked at all. I think with all the shotguns going off, they thought it was just another distant shot. I finished loading and took off my heavy coat so I was a little more mobile and looked for the bull. I went down to where the elk were standing and found their tracks but no blood or hair. I looked downhill a bit where I thought the bull had gone, but didn't see anything. I was mad as I thought I'd probably missed and then I thought, if they weren't too spooked, maybe I could get uphill and cut them off before they got into the thick cover. Did I mention that it was dry as a bone all week and very cold. The ground was super crunchy and every plant frozen and noisy against my legs and body. I managed to get uphill pretty quietly though and got up on a big stump to see over the brush. I couldn't see or hear them so a couple of minutes later I decided I couldn't run them down and went back downhill. When I got back to where I'd shot from, I was pretty disgusted for missing, so I figured I'd better make a better search where the elk had been and start making circles looking for any sign of a hit. I had another hour before my noon cut off so if I hadn't found anything by then I'd kick myself in the butt and then call it a season. As I stood where I'd shot from and looked down to where the elk had been, I thought to myself... he was standing right in front of that tree...just like looking for a quail I'd dropped in the brush. I held sight of the tree and walked down to it. Sure enough, I found the bull's tracks right there and also some that were scuffed that looked like where he'd turned. I didn't see any blood or hair, so I turned to look downhill to see which way he might have gone and toward where I thought I'd seen the horns above the ferns. I took about 5 steps and there he was laying head downhill behind a brush covered deadfall. I went from feeling lower that the dirt under a slugs belly to cloud nine! I went up and poked him in the back, but he was dead. I paced 14 yards from where I'd shot him to where he laid. The ball went in high behind the right shoulder and came out low behind the left shoulder. It hit a rib going in, one lung good, the tip of the other lung, and on out the other side. I was using my .62 green mountain barreled T/C Hawken that Ed Rayl had rifled for me (thanks for the idea Roundball). The home cast .600 ball in front of 90 grains of Goex 2f definitely did the job in a hurry.
Now the best part! After gutting him, I hiked out to my truck and as I was reaching for my keys, a guy in a truck came driving up, jumped out and started to unlock the gate. I asked him if he was going in and he said yes, he was going in to cut some firewood. I asked him if I could follow him in because I had an elk down on the hill and it would make the pack out much easier. He said he understood, but didn't have permission to let anyone else in. I said no problem, but then he said he'd call the landowner and ask. He tried his house and cell numbers, but didn't get him. He finally said to just follow him in. I ended up being able to park on the road right on the edge of the trees and had only about a 200 yard pack. I was able to get him cut up and packed out in about 3 hours. The guy was still cutting wood when I started out so I helped him finish up right at dark and then followed him out. I drove over to the landowners house to thank him and talked for a few minutes. I went back to camp, got packed up and left @ 7:20. When I got to Troutdale, east of Portland, I-84 was closed due to ice so I went back and over the Columbia to the Washington side as hwy 14 was still open. It was just as icy, but I drove back at 25 - 30 mph and made it this side of The Dalles before it got a little better. I ended up getting home at 3:45 Sunday morning. I'd only been up almost 24 hours. He wasn't the big bull of my dreams, but the last bull I shot was in 1981, so I'll definitely take him.
Sorry for the length of the post, but can you tell.....I'm still a little stoked!
