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Dallen hunting in the snowstorm on opening morning of the 2011 Utah rifle elk hunt.
I had high hopes of taken my oldest son Dallen back into the area I had hunted during the archery season. I had a couple of bulls patterned pretty well and I didn't think anyone would bump them out of the area because of the remoteness of the location. I also hoped that we could find the young 4x5 bull that I stuck an arrow into below the spine and above the lungs during my archery hunt. The shot has haunted me and I kind of hoped to find the bull alive and well and possibly have Dallen take him so I could dissect exactly where the arrow struck the bull etc.
Well as luck would have it the day before the opener of the season a whopper of a snowstorm moved into Northern Utah. It dropped a lot of snow in the high elevations. Well, this would push the elk out of this high country and it would also make the jeep trail into the area inaccessible. In most cases, I really like the snow to hunt with but in this case, the snow was not good.
Our tent collapsed from the snow while out hunting elk on the opening morning.
With the snow, we decided to head back to the area in the Uinta mountains where we elk hunted the previous year. We made the three-hour drive the day before the opener and set up the tent in the snow near one of the trailheads that lead to the area we wanted to hunt. All that night I could hear the snow falling on the tent and I would knock it off to keep the tent from collapsing on us.
The next morning we set out early in the dark through the snow and ongoing storm. With the conditions the way they were I got a little messed up in the direction that I wanted to head. As it got light we corrected our course and started slowly working our way around a park with burnt-out timber to our back and side. All the time a moderate amount of snow was falling.
After about a half-hour I looked back to the burnt timber and spotted a herd of elk that was slipping right past us at about 60 yards. I quickly noticed that there looked to be two four-point bulls in this small group of elk. As I got Dallen's attention I also got the attention of the elk and they started to clear the area at a faster pace.
Can't find your snow gaiters? I found that a little duct tape works pretty darn well at keeping the snow out.
We can laugh about it now but in the excitement Dallen fell apart so to speak, buck fever might be the correct term. Once he had his heavy gloves off he short stroked a cartridge that didn't want to feed well (I have since tweaked the magazine so this shouldn't happen ever again) then he pulled the bolt all the way back which in turn placed the bolt behind a second cartridge in the magazine. I quickly cleared the jam and handed him the rifle. I then hear, "Dad the gun won't shoot." I look back at the rifle and somehow the bolt handle was lifted up. I shut the bolt on the rifle and was expecting to hear a bang... "Dad! I can't see through the scope!" I quickly wipe off the scope lenses. By this time the elk had made it over a rise and out of sight.
He is young and I remember a few missed opportunities in my youth that can be chalked up to lack of experience and buck fever. But now that the season is over we can laugh a little about the experience and know that he will be better mentally prepared in future hunting encounters.
The mountain was a winter wonderland that day. It was a really beautiful sight to see. When we were off the trail there were somewhere near eighteen inches of snow that we had to push through.
Here a photo of my Montero at sunrise as we are preparing to go glass for mule deer.
We had no trouble in finding many small bucks but larger ones just weren't showing up anywhere.
Weston with his 2011 mule deer taken with a buck/bull combo tag.
Hiking the boned out buck up and out of the canyon.
With Dallen in school, my brother asked if I could help him with getting a mule deer during the week. He had drawn the buck/bull combo tag. This allowed him to hunt mule deer during the rifle elk hunt. I had the tag in 2010 and took a pretty nice buck on the last day... if only he hadn't broken his antler.
After the snowstorm ended on Saturday things really started to warm back up. By mid-week we headed up the mountain hoping to hunt the general area that I had during the muzzleloader season. Once we got to the high country we found that even with chains my old Montero couldn't make it through the remaining snow. We would have to improvise and hunt in some different canyons than I had planned.
The next morning we were out on a ridge glassing. It didn't take us long to start finding deer. We glassed many a deer and quite a few bucks but we only found one four-point and a young one at that. He looked to be almost the exact twin to the buck I took during the muzzleloader season. We decide to pass on him and spent the afternoon napping and the evening glassing again but only more small bucks could be found.
That night Weston decided that if the small four-point was in the area again he would take him. Early the next morning we were out glassing the area again. It didn't take us long to find the buck again. We slipped around to some cliffs to take the shot. The buck was at 401 yards and Weston dropped a 140g Accubond from his A-Bolt 270 WSM right through the guts, oops! He said he wasn't as steady as he would have liked to have been when he pulled the trigger. I was on the spotting scope and quickly got my brother back on the buck again. This time the buck was at 450 yards facing away from us offering a great butt shot. Weston made a prefect shot right past the side of his butt and into the front shoulder and down the buck went.
After a few pictures out came the knives and we spent the rest of the day boning out the meat and hiking it back up the mountain.
For the second weekend of the elk hunt, Weston was able to join Dallen and I. We headed back to the same area in the Uinta mountains that we hunted the opening weekend. Once there it was amazing the change had taken place in six days. The snow was gone! Every last flake, gone.
Saturday morning we hiked back into the area we hunted the first weekend. This time we were able to cover and lot more ground with the snow gone. As I was afraid the elk had pretty much cleared out of the area. We found a few fresh tracks but that was it.
The season ended on the following Thursday and as luck would have it Dallen had the day off from school. With the warmer temps, we had been having I figured that we could make it back into the area I had archery hunted.
We headed up Wednesday night and were able to drive back into the area. We slept in the front seats of the Montero as we could not find any suitable place to set up the tent in the rocks at the end of the jeep trail we parked along.
Early the next morning we were scaling down the boulder slides and rough terrain to get to where I wanted to be before shooting light. I wanted to slip over a saddle and be waiting for it to get light as we watched out across a small bowl that was formed in the canyon. The elk like to feed out in the bowl before heading into the pines to bed for the day and we had high hopes of catching them there.
Sunrise in the burnt timber elk hunting the Uinta mountains.
As we crested the ridgeline and sat down the stampede began. We could hear elk vacating the area. No, no, no, NO!!! This can't be happening. The elk are never up near this saddle. It was about twenty minutes before shooting light and I pulled out the binoculars. There was just enough light for me to make out the figures of a bunch of elk out in the bowl, but they weren't feeding, they were headed out. I could see two elk that looked to be fairly large bulls but again the light was just a little to dark to tell positively if they were bulls let alone how big.
As the elk neared the opposite ridgeline in the canyon we were in a bull gave of a small bugle that perked Dallen up a little. In the light we were able to watch 4 cows go over the ridge and we chased after them to no avail. In the light we also started looking at the ground around us in and near the saddle and it was covered with fresh elk tracks. We had walked right into the middle of them in the dark.
I felt pretty bummed for Dallen. We could have been in the perfect position for him to get a bull if we had slowed our pace in getting to the area by about twenty minutes.
We are going to have to chalk this elk season up to plenty of lessons learned for both me and Dallen.
Smiling even after spooking the elk in the dark on the last day of the hunt.
Dallen hunting in the pines on the last day of the elk hunt.
Above are a couple of panorama photos I took when we were hunting in the Uinta mountains.
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Here are a couple of bucks I watched a couple of times before the muzzleloader hunt. These bucks would require a very hard hike up and over a mountain and other planets to align to be able to get them. I decided the best buck in this group of bucks (4-5 bucks) I watched was not big enough to try and get... this year.
This year for mule deer I was using my muzzleloader. This was going to be my first hunt using my Nikon Buckmaster 1x20 rifle scope. I had been on the range and really like using the scope over open sights and I was looking forward to trying it out on a mule deer.
For this hunt, I decided to pack in three to four miles along a single-track trail and camp near a spring where I could use my water filter to get clean drinking water.
Once in the area, I would hike out and along ridges and glass for a buck that I would like to go after to put my tag on.
Right after taking the buck Coby, another hunter snapped this photo of me with my CVA Firebolt muzzleloader with Nikon 1x20 scope. Later that day it dawned on me that he had to of been watching the bucks before I came around the ridge. I hope I didn't mess him up in taking the buck himself... that is if he wanted to take this young buck.
I had a few days off for the hunt and had some heavy demands with work so I was hoping I could get the job over fairly quickly so that I could get back to work. I also knew that I would probably shoot a smaller buck than I wanted if the opportunity arose because I didn't have much time to hunt.
My young 2011 Mule deer buck. I took the shot at 175 yards away from the cliffs right above the tip of the muzzleloader barrel.
The first evening I glassed some does and a small buck before setting up camp. The next morning I was up early out glassing the mountain for any bucks with decent antlers. At this stage in my life, I still love pulling the trigger but like to try to get a buck in the 4+ year old maturity range if possible. After watching a few small bucks feeding their way down one canyon I decided to cross-over the ridge and glass the next canyon. After watching a few does I worked my way around to some cliffs and peaked over... and staring right at me below the cliff was a small two-point buck. He could only see my face and hat so I slowly ducked back behind the cliff and slowly started looking around below the cliff and found another buck, a larger two-year-old two-point that was feeding around some cliffs further down the ridge. I figured there might be more bucks around the cliffs that I could not see so I slipped back around the ridge and down to a lower cliff hoping to catch the group of bucks going around below me.
After packing the meat in my pack back up to my base camp I hung the meat in the shade to help it cool. Here you can see my homemade canvas meat bags with all the boned out meat in them. I have found that boning out meat and placing it in the breathable canvas meat bags has always bought me enough time to get an animal off the mountain before the meat spoils.
As I got around to the next cliff I realized that it wasn't quite as close as I hoped to get just as bucks started swinging around through a fifty-yard opening below me. I pulled up my range finder and ranged 154 yards to where they were coming out then I switched to my binoculars. Two-point, two-point, larger two-point... four-point. I took a quick assessment that he wasn't very big but that he had pretty even forks. I didn't have much time before they were going to go around the ridge and out of view so I made note that he was now the second to last buck as they filtered around the slope below and I pulled up my muzzleloader. I laid up against the cliff to get a steady rest with my muzzleloader hanging over the edge. From my time on the range I felt very comfortable out to 200 yards and for this steep downhill shot, I held for what I figured a 150-yard shot as the buck had moved further away than where I had first ranged (actual range was 175 yards that I verified after the shot) and he stopped one last time before he crossed around the ridge below. As he came to a stop I squeezed off the trigger and watched him topple over and roll down the mountain for a good forty yards before coming to a stop.
After a few pictures, I boned him out and put all the meat into my homemade canvas meat bags placed them in my internal frame pack. I packed all the meat straight up a wickedly steep canyon and back around to my base camp.
Once at camp I hung the meat in the shade and rested for a little while. After drinking plenty of water and eating some snacks I loaded up with the deer and the rest of my gear and off along the trail I headed, coming out extra heavy.
I was really pleased with the performance I received from both my Nikon 1x20 scope and the Powerbelt 295g bullets. The scope is a pleasure to shot compared to having open sights. The 295g Powerbelt just flat out canned this buck with a high shoulder shot.
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Doing my best impression of a quaking aspen with Mossy Oak Treestand camouflage.
Here are a few more photos of Mossy Oak Treestand camouflage while I was out archery elk hunting in September of 2011. Most of what I have been wearing lately is Mossy Oak Treestand camo. I think it gives me one of the most versatile camo patterns for various high altitude terrains that I primarily hunt in Utah.
All of these photos are taken within about a half mile area that I like to hunt elk in Northern Utah. An area like much of the west with widely diverse colors of vegetation and terrain. Step over the ridge and I step out of heavy pines and into sage brush then swing around onto the east facing slopes and I find myself in mixed quaking aspens and maple trees.
As you will see in many of the photos I have started wearing shorts for easy access to adjust my knee braces. My compression fit undergarment pants and shirt are the notoriously dark Mossy Oak New Break-Up.
You can read more on my thoughts on camouflage patterns effectiveness in my Camo Pattern Comparisons Article.
Here I am in the pines, some variety of fir.
Again you will notice the Treestand shorts and t-shirt and the darker New Break-Up sleeves, legs, bow and backpack.
Mossy Oak Treestand in mixed short sage brush and granite rock.
My arm in Mossy Oak Treestand camo on a granite boulder where I was taking a mid-day nap.
Mossy Oak Treestand camo in quaking aspens mixed with maple trees.