Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

[Lostinthewoods]

With elk on the ground the meals started!

IMG_2299 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

IMG_2302 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

IMG_2305 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

IMG_2306 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

First meal was tenderloins, potatoes, and onions!

IMG_2308 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

Second meal was tenderloins, green chili & garlic mashed potatoes, and bread sticks!

IMG_2310 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

Final meal was flour tortillas, green chili eggs with pepper jack cheese, and diced up brats. YUM!!!


With Irma heating up and my family being in Florida, I decided to get out of the mountains so I could be reached if anything happened.
My wife told me they said our town wouldn't get hit, so she told me to go to Oklahoma and still hunt my antelope opener. If anything happened we could meet half way in Louisiana.

I packed up and left the beautiful mountains....

IMG_2311 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

IMG_2312 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr


I'll miss you NM.... see you next month! Onward to Oklahoma!

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Oklahoma Antelope hunt

I got out to Oklahoma late Sunday night and met up with my buddy Matt who had the same antelope doe tag that I had.
This was Matt's first western hunt and the first time he's chased anything other than whitetail. He had put a giant herd of antelope to bed on some private land that was surrounded by public.

We woke up early, got into place, and our day began!
When the herd started standing up we were maybe 100-130 yards away from them.


IMG_2317 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

They were all calm at first, but then the does started playing around, bucks started pushing them, and does were going everywhere.
I spotted one running our way and prepped Matt for the shot..... the doe entered public and Matt dropped her in place with an 80 yard shot!

IMG_2321 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

We celebrated, gutted her, and Matt got his first lesson on deboning an animal!

IMG_2327 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

We had to drive an hour away to check the animal in, so on the way there we grabbed a celebration treat and something to cool us down

IMG_2329 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

After we were all checked in we got back to it. We hit another piece of property and we found an antelope doe bedded down!
It was VERY VERY VERY flat with no cover, so I decided to get as close as I could. If she let me get within an effective shooting range then I was going to shoot her.
I got in and she stood up at 300 yards. Set up my sticks, picked my spot, and the rest was history!!!

IMG_2335 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

IMG_2366 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

Just like that we had both successfully tagged out on Oklahoma's opener!
We ate antelope tenderloins for dinner, got a quick nap, and then I drove 18 hours home with coolers full of meat.

To say this wasn't an amazing trip would be an understatement.....


End mileage and end of trip.....

IMG_2345 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

 

[sn.outdoors]

Tonight after work, I'm going to continue fulfilling my childhood dreams by blitzing down to northern AZ to help one of my best friends with his elk hunt (this is if he doesn't kill an elk before I get there...) I've never wished for someone to not have success, but..... it would be fine with me if he didn't kill an elk today

I'll be down there until Thursday at the latest, then I'll putting in a few more miles trying to fill my antelope tag. I have a vendetta out for one of those buggers.

 

[sn.outdoors]

GOOD MORNING ARIZONA!

I have pretty good 4g here, so I'll do my best to keep the action coming as close to love as possible. It's chilly, but so far no bugles.

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[Lostinthewoods]

Have fun, CJ! Tell Ryan I said good luck and to hurry up and kill.... that way you can go chase antelope. lol

 

[sn.outdoors]

My cell service is not nearly as good as I had originally thought it would be, but I'm sitting in a decent spot right now so I figured I'd pass along an update.

The rut activity has been..... slow. There's been very little bugling, and the elk seem to be spread pretty thin. We didn't see any elk yesterday, and I didn't even hear a bugle. Which, to my disappointed, was the first day I've spent hunting elk and not seen an elk. Oh well I guess. I know we're in a good spot, we just weren't in THE spot yesterday.

This morning started off a little rough. I woke up to my alarm and heard coyotes singing back and forth to each other, and they serenaded me right back to sleep... I woke up about 40 minutes later to be my buddy giving me crap about sleeping in. No worries though, I had all my stuff ready the night before, so I threw on my clothes and boots and was tripping over myself in just a few minutes and was going.

When we got to where my buddy had heard some bugles the night before, I realized k I forgot my bugle tube back at camp.... So we took full advantage of our RZR's awesome suspension system and power, but we were back to the spot just as light was breaking through.

We walked a little ways and we heard a bugle, and I responded. There were bugles in 3 directions and we picked the direction that had the biggest terrain feature. It sounded like the bugle was a long ways off, so we beat feet quick. Not more than 300yds into the walk my buddy had to perform and emergency bowel evacuation, and while he was taking care of it the bull bugled twice more; still very far off. So responded with a bugle, which was quickly answered by the bull. I moved to a spot that gave me a good view of the hillside and meadow the sounds were coming from. It was still fairly dark at this time, but I could vaguely see the outlines of a handful of elk about 1000yds away. I quickly figured out which one was the bull because he was considerably larger than the rest of the animals. I couldn't quite make out his antlers yet, but I could see he had a HUGE frame.

By the time my buddy was done, we could see that the bull was a mature bull with wide and tall antlers, and more importantly it was in a very stalk-able spot. So we started our flanking maneuver to try and cut them off.

We got to where we wanted to be and setup to call. I let out a few cow calls and raked a tree. Seconds later the bull responded, and I cut him off with a bugle. To which he responded. Awesome! We thought. A couple seconds later he was a few hundred yards closer and bugled at us again from the top of the ridge. It couldn't have been working out any better. I called a little, he'd call back. That went on for a minute or so when we heard a few cow calls near the bull. He went quiet then bugled at us from the other side of the ridge.... His cows pulled him away from us and we had no chance of keeping up. We followed the heard for a few hundred yards before we backed off. It was too thick and too flat to see much of anything, and we didn't get the sense the animals were spooked.

And that brings me to where I am right now. My buddy is sitting a waterhole nearby, and I'm up above where we last saw the bull. I heard him bugle twice so far and I think it's just a matter of time before he steps out.

Wish us luck, and happy new moon.

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[Lostinthewoods]

Some before season and current pics

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[sn.outdoors]

Things have still been pretty slow here in AZ. Yesterday morning the winds were calm, light and variable. We had a few bulls bugling, and we had to take a very cautious approach. As it happens far too often, the wind tickled the backs of our necks when the elk were about to come into range, and elk shut up and left.

We brushed in a few blinds midday and my buddy had 6 cows and 2 small bulls come into the water. They never even looked at the blind once.

While they were sitting water, I went into recon mode and covered some ground in a different area.... So of course I had a great encounter with a good bull. I heard some bugles around 5pm and the winds were perfect to move in and see what was up. The bugles were pretty far, but I could hear cow calls and animals moving all over the hillside. 300yds off the road I caught a nose full of bull stink so I stopped and watched for a second. Then without warning, the biggest bull I've ever been close to stepped out at 40yds.... And I had my hands in my pockets. I froze in awe of how beautiful he was. He was a fully mature 6x6 with long sweeping beams and good tine length. He was easily a shooter. I didn't move because I was afraid of spooking him, and I figured I'd be able to get close again for a pic.

I wasn't able to get any pics of him, but I did get a little bit of video of him bugling at me from behind some thick juniper. I'm heading back to that spot to see if I can reconnect with him and hopefully get a few pictures this time. I'll be ready.

The weather is supposed to get a little better for hunting over the next couple days. The theme for the hunt so far is "it's still early... It'll get better."

 

[sn.outdoors]

Last night, while scouting some new country, I had an experience I'll never forget.

And my buddy had a heck of a night as well.

When I get a moment I'll write out the stories, and get them posted. It was a magical night.

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[Lostinthewoods]

So this is a little delayed, but pictures were finally posted.....
I went out to a 3D charity shoot for the EOD Warrior Foundation.
The course was a 20 target set up for 3D and then at the finish you shoot 15 arrows at a 5 spot target at the max range for your class (40 yards for bow hunter).

It was an absolute ball and I was paired up with some great people. I was able to beat my previous 20 target score and I ended up winning the bow hunter (known) class!

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[sn.outdoors]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed with the lack of rut activity we saw the first few days of the season. In my mind I'd conjured up an image of endless rut crazed bulls who couldn't resist screaming at each call we made. But that just simply wasn't the case the first couple days. We did hear a few bugles and had some responses to our calls, but it wasn't rut activity.


The game plan for each day was to chase bugles in the morning and my buddy, Ryan, would sit water with Steve, his long time family friend who was basically our guide and mentor. Steve has hunted this particular area for about as long as I've been walking. While they were sitting water, I would either glass or walk different country to find elk we would chase the next morning. On top of that, I really wanted to get some pics of the elk doing their thing.


Tuesday morning we started in an area we heard a few bulls bugle the night before, and sure enough they were right where we expected them to be. The problem, as it is in most cases, was the wind. Everyday prior to Tuesday morning the winds were steady and about 10-15mph, but on Tuesday it was dead calm with light and variable winds. As luck would have it, as soon as the first bull came into view the wind switched for a second or two, cc and the elk were gone. Oh well, at least we had them bugling for a little bit.


Tuesday night my assignment was too scout out the hunting pressure in a different part of the unit. I found a lot of hunters, but that helped me narrow down the pockets with less hunting pressure. At 5 o'clock I had just gotten back to the utv after checking a trail camera, when I heard several bugles through the wind.

So I snuck in to get a look and found myself in the middle of the rut. One cow was clearly in estrus and all of the bulls wanted to see if they had a chance at her. But this old crusty bull was having none of it. He never let out a full bugle, just a low, raspy grunt. It sounded more like a moose than an elk. It was extremely difficult to get any photos of the elk. I ended up getting more pics of trees than anything else.

Nonetheless, sneaking in close and trying to get pictures was honestly just as exciting, if not more exciting than going in with a bow. My adrenaline was pumping! It was one of the coolest experiences I've had in the woods. I wasn't the only one that had the time of their life night.

I got back to camp well after dark and was surprised to see the other guys weren't back yet, but that's usually a good sign. So instead of starting dinner, I tidied up the camp a little bit. As the minutes ticked by, my anticipation grew more and more intense. This was the first time I'd beat them back to camp, and the wait was killing me.

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[sn.outdoors]

After almost an hour of waiting, the guys finally got back to camp, and I immediately noticed blood on Ryan's hands. He got "the one." Ryan's dad put out a few trail cams prior to the season and this nice 6x6 was one of the bulls Ryan immediately added to the hit list. He came into the water a few times during the season, but we weren't in the right place at the right time.

After a few high fives and congratulations we watched the video Steve recorded and they told and retold the story. It was a blast watching the two of them re-live the moment, and to witness the emotion of someone killing their first elk.

One heck of a nice bull for a first elk.

We had a long night taking care of the animal and getting him back to camp. The next day we headed back to town to butcher the animal, to clean up, and get some rest for the next day. It was still early, and Ryan really wanted to experience some rut action. Since the bugling was heating up, we headed back to woods to try to get some pics and video of the action.

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[sn.outdoors]

Things kicked off fast Thursday morning. We were in bugles almost immediately. The first bull to come in snuck in silently. He was a heck of a bull, and a one hell of a satellite bull.

One thing that really sunk in on this trip was how difficult it is to get good photos of rutting elk. I need to pick up my game, but I'm getting there.

What was supposed to be a quick and fun morning quickly changed when this bull walked past us with an arrow in his side. The hit didn't look good, but there was a good amount of blood as we tracked him backwards to try to find the hunter. We waited 2 hours before we decided taking up the trail and leaving flagging tape for the hunter to follow was the right thing to do for the situation.

It was not an easy tracking job, but we spend 7hrs following blood and tracks that covered 2.5 miles. It didn't look very good. We decided to call it a day when the bull finally crossed a road that we could easily mark and come back to.

There were many times we wanted to call it quits, but each time we ended up finding more blood. "Blood" was the word of the day. Toward the end of the day we lost the bull's track and couldn't find any blood, and after we decided to go back to camp, Steve found a tiny spec of blood. After we followed that track a few hundred yards and lost it again we called it quits, "for real" this time. As luck would have it, I found a tiny drop of blood in the middle of the road and we were walking back to the truck. We flagged it and decided to come back in the morning. It was 4pm and we hadn't eaten breakfast or lunch. We were a bit hangry.

No more than 100yds down the road where we had last blood, we ran into the hunter who shot the elk. He was extremely grateful that we'd spend an entire day trying to find his elk.

Unfortunately, the elk was never found, but we believe the elk is still alive, based off the fact he didn't bed down after 3 miles of walking and having not found much blood.

It was a bittersweet way to end my time in Arizona, but I wouldn't have traded it for anything (except of course finding the bull dead.)

It was a great experience to be able to hunt new country and using different tactics than what I'm accustomed to using. I had a blast spending time with great people, and I can honestly say I learned a lot.

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[sn.outdoors]

Can you tell I was just a little tired...

Had a great day of hunting antelope today, but couldn't seal the deal. I'm waking up in 4 1/2 hours to get back out there for the last day of the season. I'll post the complete story after it's finished.

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[Lostinthewoods]

I just got an interesting text message from CJ

 

[sn.outdoors]

I got another one of these today.

I'll get all of you the story tonight after I'm done editing the pics and video.

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[sn.outdoors]

I got home from AZ around 930 Friday night, and was back in the antelope lands by 0630 the next morning. It felt like I hadn't slept in over a month, but that didn't last long after I spotted the first group of antelope.

Hunting this spot is... tough. And that might be a huge understatement. I'm sure I could find an area more conducive to stalking critters, but I haven't found a spot that has more antelope or bigger antelope. The flats I decided to hunt have had antelope every time I've been there, which is the single most important factor I look for when selecting a place to hunt. My grandfather always said to hunt animals where they are, not where you want them to be.

After the first group of goats walked by outside of bow range, I passed these lost bulls on my way to the more hilly/less flat area. Idaho never ceases to amaze me.

Just after noon, I spotted an antelope head in the grass. He was in a hunt-able spot and the wind was perfect. I'll let the video explain how that worked out.

[video=youtube;lSofuuoBQ3U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSofuuoBQ3U[/video]

After the stalk didn't pan out, I spotted a really nice buck drinking water from some rock pools on the edge of the mesa. So I dropped down, meandered across a thick boulder and sagebrush side-hill, and popped up where I had last seen the buck. Unfortunately, he had finished drinking and was feeding his way back to the main herd.

I followed the buck from a long way off with the goal of figuring it where the herd was bedding down for the night so I could get back on them in the morning. After watching the herd get nestled into this secluded drainage, I had high hopes for the morning. Strictly based on numbers, I figured my chances of one of those critters walking close enough to me were better than zero.

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[sn.outdoors]

I slept like a rock last night, but waking up this morning was just as easy as it is on opening morning. It's the last day of the season. You gotta give it everything you got on the last day.

After 15 failed stalks and one missed shot the first 2 days of hunting I needed to change my tactics. I watched the herd of goats walk past the same pile of rocks every morning and afternoon. I got to the area well before first light, snuck into the goat bedroom, and setup next to the rock pile. I sat and glassed in the direction I had last seen the animals the night before.

The difference with this mornings hunt was the direction the animals came from... They came in from behind me and surprised me... The entire herd of 20+ animals was running straight to me and I didn't see them until they were inside bow range. I didn't have time to setup the camera or even snap a pic.

I scanned the herd and picked out the nicer bucks. If one lonely fawn had walked past me I would have gladly shot it, but it's hard to do that when there's several big bucks throughout the group. I let a doe, two fawns and a small buck walk past me, before this buck came to 35 yards! He was broadside when I started to draw, but he turned to face me after I started moving. Luckily he didn't bolt out of there and I was able to land the chip shot directly into his heart.

(This is the herd immediately after I shot my buck)

There are few things in life more satisfying than finding an arrow soaked in thick blood and knowing you made a good shot.

I still can't believe how fast it finished. Even though I only spent 2 1/2 days hunting these antelope, it was easily the most frustrating hunt I've done so far. I walked a combined 36.7 miles and did 15 unsuccessful stalks with 1 missed shot. Having this buck walk straight to me seemed too easy. I have a tendency to work harder and not smarter... So it was nice to see a plan come together so perfectly. Luck was definitely on my side this morning.

As far as the buck goes... I'm still in awe. He's far better than I initially thought he was, and I couldn't be more happy with him.

I like a little campfire in a bottle after I kill something. This bottle was cracked open after my buddy killed his elk last week. I guess I'm going to have to start sipping it to make it last longer.

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[Lostinthewoods]

I'm a week out from making my next road trip out to New Mexico. I'm super excited and can't wait to chase after some nice antelope bucks!


I'll hit Oklahoma on the way home as well and either hunt deer or more antelope. I was originally planning on antelope, but the whitetail bug is starting to eat away at me....



Here are a few pictures from some of my Kentucky cams. (My buddy was nice enough to check them for me and get me even more wild and crazy for the season)

November needs to hurry up!!!!!


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[Lostinthewoods]

Before I start my October hunts I figured I'd also recap my month.

September was my 3000 mile road trip from FL to NM, to OK, and then back to FL.
September 1-10th was my New Mexico elk hunt. I shot my bull on the 6th and was able to see my buddy fill his tag on the 7th.
It was such an amazing experience, great time in camp with friends, and it always kills me to leave the mountains.

IMG_2260 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

Then on the 11th both my buddy and I tagged out opening day on our Oklahoma antelope hunt. This was my buddies first western game hunt and my first antelope doe hunt. We had a ball!

IMG_2335 by Daniel Porter, on Flickr

September was 3K+ miles driven, two tags filled, and over 250lbs of meat for the freezer.




October 5th I hit the ground running and start my journey back out to New Mexico for my antelope buck tag. I cannot wait to have some fun!