2022 ELK MEAT POLE

6.5x284

WKR
Joined
May 7, 2015
Messages
1,064
Location
NW MT
380 yards 33 degrees uphill with the 6.5 SAUM and 156’s. Spicy pepper jack brats can’t get done soon enough! He’ll eat good!

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Joined
Aug 11, 2017
Messages
2,688
Location
Florida
I had the same situation play out as @mtwarden, single digits to negatives, couple feet of snow, wishing I had brought snow shoes. Finally figured it out and caught up with a herd after 12 days. All young bulls so took the largest cow in the group.
After dropping her, the group stuck around. I completely forgot I had another tag and could have taken another. Oh well, was glad to have the meat.
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Joined
Nov 26, 2022
Messages
12
I had the same situation play out as @mtwarden, single digits to negatives, couple feet of snow, wishing I had brought snow shoes. Finally figured it out and caught up with a herd after 12 days. All young bulls so took the largest cow in the group.
After dropping her, the group stuck around. I completely forgot I had another tag and could have taken another. Oh well, was glad to have the meat.
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Awesome job, way to keep after it. This is what its all about!
 
Joined
Nov 26, 2022
Messages
12
380 yards 33 degrees uphill with the 6.5 SAUM and 156’s. Spicy pepper jack brats can’t get done soon enough! He’ll eat good!

b6670c3a06746360d8dab8f705939e6a.jpg


0dc19db11728da258a951c6a1ff45fe4.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Awesome job!
Colorado 1st rifle. Opening morning. Outfitter had put a drop camp in my normal low camp, so I decided to head to a high camp about 3000' higher. 2 days of hiking through 45 degree oak brush and crossing high drainages later... Glassed up some plan B elk the night before the opener, and had 1 bugling in the oak brush I never saw. The plan B elk were about 3000' down, then 3000' up the opposite side of the canyon, and at least 2-3 miles away.... Woke up early, stuck my head out of the tent, just in time to watch a bull walk by in the pre-dawn about 50 yards away... Tossed on my pants, boots and binos. Got my orange on and my rifle and dashed out to the little ridge he disappeared over, didn't see him, but about 1500' down the ridge saw this guy about to disappear into another drainage. Ran down the ridge, bumped a big group of deer, which then bumped the elk... Guessed where he would run, and caught him climbing out of the next gully. 176 yards, dropped with one shot and rolled to the bottom of the gully.

Climbed down and confirmed he was dead, hung my orange on him and headed back to camp to get my gear, and break camp to move down. Boned him out in place, the moss on the river rock was so slick I fell and went for a slip and slide for about 50' on the way down to him, could barely move him without slipping. Had to lower meat and antlers over little cliffs to get him to where I could climb out of the ravine. Brutal pack out through oak brush and cliff bands to get him to my low camp. Took an entire day to get the meat down 1/2 mile to that camp, then got the text on the in-reach, my buddy shot his first 6x6 in another unit, and was coming to help as soon as they got out. 9 mile pack out, got lost in the ferns on the first trip out in the dark, in a steep canyon, within 50' of the trail, but was slipping and sliding with every step with a front and rear quarter in my bag. So, I spent a slightly unpleasant night tending a fire wrapped in a space blanket. Tolerable, but didn't comply with my plan to sleep at the truck that night, where there was cold beer, and an extra sleeping bag.

Best bull I've taken to date out of this heavily hunted, otc (except 1st rifle and muzzy) unit. Every one of them has involved some degree of misery, as I tend to shoot them in the bottom of canyons (and never learn to just let them walk to the truck, and then shoot them....) Needless to say, not my first night sleeping out with just my emergency kit...

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top notch kill site scenery right there!
 
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,075
Location
S. UTAH
I managed to get my first 6x6 on a Black Friday special. I headed down to AZ on the 19th with the plan to scout for a few days before the opener on the 25th. On Monday I located this bull with a glassing tip from a great Rokslider that hunted the unit last year.

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He had a pattern of walking the south side of the canyon so I put a plan in place to hike to the opposite side of the canyon for opening day. I didnt locate him at first and thought he must have slipped out the night before. About the time I was about to just head up a bit and sit for the afternoon something caught my eye. I looked over to the left and saw a rock that kept getting me all morning thinking it was an elk. I pulled up my binos anyway and it was the bull. The sun had just come over the ridge straight in my face and when I pulled up my scope the glare was overwhelming. I had to adjust my view a few times but finally made him out in the scope. At 500 yds I felt confident after practicing out to 800+.

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The 175 ELD-X folded him up and I got the scope back on him just to see him fall.

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Last edited:

Itsrybo

FNG
Joined
Nov 8, 2022
Messages
15
My wife got her first bull! She hunted super hard and we got after it everyday. When we were done I asked her how she liked it. “I liked it but like once a year type thing” perfect I’ll take it lol

She also said helping pack out was the hardest thing she’s ever done.

I did my first euro job on it too!
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