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My 2020 season

Just wanted to share my hunting season from last year. Wanting to be honest in my story. I drew an archery antelope tag for Hart Mt in Oregon with my good friend Mike. He was able to get there a week early and get us a waterhole to sit. It ended up drying the first day of our hunt. We were able to get a great spot that afternoon and Mike sat it for the next couple days while I hunted about 30 miles from camp. On the fourth night my wife got injured at home by our horse and I told her I would be home the next day. For my last morning Mike let me use his blind and this representative buck came in. I did wound him but then he laid down and I was able to sneak in after an hour or so and put him down.

I did put this story in the Elk category so let’s talk elk hunting. For my Oregon archery elk we always camp in ne Oregon and have a fun early season camp. This year I had a cow tag and a Wyoming general tag then a hunt that I guided at the end of season and I guided another gentleman for rifle season. So my wife was hunting with me and we found this waterhole late in the day so we decided to sit and see what happens. Just before dark 2 cows and calves came in and I was ready but then she asked if we could just watch them. You see we have stories and she wanted to experience one of those like when my buddy put up a stand above a pond and right at sunset here comes a cow and 3 spikes running into the pond and swimming around. When the cow stood up and started walking towards stand he shot one of the spikes. And then there’s Whirlpool pond where like 20 elk ran in and started going in a circle creating a whirlpool.

After that Mike’s son had a bull tag and so on my last morning I left early and my wife stayed at camp but her last words were “ don’t do anything too complicated “ as we needed to get home. We ride the in a new road to us and right before an opening we stopped to bugle in the dark. My thought was how much it looked like lion country but we let out a bugle but nothing. We rode about a 100 yards and see 7 bulls right in front of us and of course they went straight up! But up we went and we got close to a couple on top of a finger ridge but they spooked.well when my friend gets up there he starts waving me up and when I get there I see a Mt lion just walking away at about 250 yards. He was really black and I thought he was wet but then he went into a burnt log and now we think he had black soot on him. We continued up and finally caught up to the elk and I ranged a bull and when I said 80 yards my friend shot which really surprised me but it looked like he hit it good. As a guide I have learned so much about paying attention to every little moment and this was a new one to me. Also I learned that he shoots expandable broadheads. Well we wait and finally start tracking but after about 300 yards we lost all blood. A couple of things to touch on, a very long shot but after he told me he practiced 80 yards, and the arrow did not pass thru which I feel is very important. We spent the day looking but to no avail. A week later another friend of ours found the carcass and my friend called fish and game and then tagged the bull.

Good Eats and great memories!

Congrats,

Robb

Well then it was off to sw Wyoming with my nephew and two general tags. I wanted to not hunt with grizzly bears this year but we certainly found plenty of people. It was hard hunting but we finally found some elk later in the week and started following a couple screaming bulls. We were catching up to them and I believe the lower smaller bull heard us and came looking and he bugled and stop broadside at 50 yards and when I cow called he stopped perfectly behind a tree of course. Then he stepped out and I stopped him in the open this time. The lighted nock zipped right through him and he ran about 30 yards to our right and stopped again stood there while we looked for another shot then fell over dead! My nephews first bull and with a bow.

What a great first bull! Congratulations!!!

Nice.

Great stories. Thanks for sharing.

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

Sorry I stopped over the weekend but I have two more hunts to share, Fred

Great hunts so far, way to go!

ElkNut

Good stuff so far! Keep it coming, Fred!

Thanks for the stories so far - looking forward to the rest.

Awesome stories.. Keep em comin, almost elk season again

So after Wyoming it was back to Oregon to guide a couple hunts. First hunt was the last week of archery with a guy that also hadn’t killed a bull with his bow. The ranch I guide on is 12,000 acres so about 4x5 miles and surrounded by other private lands. It’s about 2/3 rds juniper and 1/3 rd pine with good access by road. I said earlier I wanted to be truthful so I’ll tell the whole story. Here’s a video of a bull that came by and a real nice one at that. My mistake as a guide was watching my hunter do a fake draw without his bow and when the bull came in he couldn’t draw from his position.oh bummer I can’t get the video on.

I put my guy in a tree stand and awhile later got a text that he had shot a good bull calm and broadside at 40 yards and I had him wait till I got there. We found good blood initially but soon lost blood. I found one drop about 200 yards past last blood but that was it. We searched till dark then came back in the morning . We searched trying to follow tracks and birds but not till late in the day we found him hidden in some thick brush. About 24 hours later and the meat was bad ,so sad. Hardest thing for me and now two lost bulls this year. And yes he used an expanding head and it didn’t pass thru and on a tree stand shot only one hole up high and no exit hole down low.

Check out this broken bull,kinda crazy

Sorry I stopped over the weekend but I have two more hunts to share, Fred

For my last hunt I had a gentleman that obviously had saved up and this was his dream hunt. We do five day hunts and we were having a hard time getting on elk. On the last day and the last couple hours I decided to sit a nice meadow and hope for the best. In the beginning most hunters want a big bull but after a couple days the standard gets lowered pretty quickly and no different here. Well we were hanging out and feeling pretty low and with about 20 minutes of light left here came a bull. Sometimes when hunters tell you they are good at this distance or that distance as a guide you can only hope they get the last piece of the puzzle correct. The bull was at 230 yards and he wanted to shoot him face on but I told him to wait until he turned broadside. When the bull turned he made good on his only chance and got his first bull!

So even though I didn’t kill an elk myself I felt this year was on of my best. I got myself an antelope and helped four people that had never killed a bull. Also fyi I didn’t call in any of the bulls I just find a way to find ELK! Fred

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