Elmer Fudd stories from the 2025 season?

Getting my bear validated at fish and game, shooting the shit with the biologist after she pulled the tooth and ole boy comes waddling up and asked what I shot said bear with. I told him and he said “that’s too small for bear, you need to bring enough gun…”
The bio looked him in the face and said “it was enough for this one”

Undeterred he then says I’m playing with fire with my truck tires (bfg AT KO3s) because he got stuck in some mud in his k5 back in 1989 with all terrains and he’ll never use them again. Thanked him for his generous insight.


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For some reason I feel like I’d be on the old timers side on this one….
Well I can add we took our chains off the first day, camped in the unit that had 2' of fresh snow, and we broke 50% of the trails in the unit the 4 days prior. We just laughed as they came in from a town north of the unit and didnt camp in the snow. We did fill 3 of our 4 tags and had to cross a river at night to skin out a cow elk. Then never left the rig to hunt they said.
 

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Imagine the stories you would hear working at a gun shop
 
A friend of mine drew a cow elk hunt this year and I volunteered my time to try to help him out. Despite growing up in northern nevada and southern Idaho, he's been removed from there for 30 years and has very limited hunting experience. No big deal, thats what friends are for.

We got out opening morning to glass for elk from a great glassing tit that I've found elk from many times before and wait for twilight to turn into glassing light and we're kind of spread apart. I'm set up on my bog-pod glassing a few sages meadows for the critters and slowing start moving around for different angles and he see's me and asks what i'm doing. I explain the glassing process and move on.

5 minutes later, I come back and find him rested up on ponderosa branch, stormy kromer and all, with grandpappys ole -06 with a plum colored leupold and ask what he's doing. He proceeded to explain that he was looking for elk too... fortunately thats the only time on the hunt i had to chew his ass on the trip.
 
During archery season I found a spot about 50 yards off this dirt road. It's an old overgrown logging trail on the edge of a clear cut. It was all tore up with rubs and scrapes and was loaded with acorns. My dad can't get around very well anymore so I took him in to check it out for rifle season. First thing we see is someone took a weed eater and cut a trail through the tall grass. He setup a cell cam on the biggest scrape 3ft off the ground. He had a piece of sock hanging from a string on the same tree soaked in deer pee. 20 yards away was a ladder stand and he had about 5 of those scent wicks hanging all over. We never actually saw Elmer, but we were sure that was him.
 
That was nice of your cousin to do that for you, while you waited..
Absolutely. We make a great pair. He missed 2 opportunities at 45 and 65 yards off hand, his knee gave out and I had to pack more, hes doesnt work on fitness or e scout, he ate tag soup and hes not up to speed with how to build a rest, rifle up or quality gear. He does the cooking and driving. We have our strengths and weaknesses, and they work great together. I've been pinned down in the snow at 13,000' mountainnering and slept in the woods on broken-down dirtbikes...I wasn't crossing that river that night, I saw where it could go if I slipped. He was the man that night.
 
Its how you hunt blacktail in the rain in Southern Oregon. The key word is "rain." When its not raining we hike decommisioned logging roads and old cuts.
I'm just busting balls. As long as it's legal and you're having fun, that's all that matters.
 
During elk season, my buddy, my dad, and I rolled up to a trailhead in my truck in early afternoon. The trail head is basically where a FS road ends and is pretty cleared out with sparse trees. There are a couple guys with a camp setup there and we park 30-40 yards away while my buddy and I gear up. The plan is for my dad to drop us off and go up to a closed FS road for him to hunt. The guys camping come out as we are gearing up and say “you mind not parking in my driveway?” I tell them we will be gone shortly. Trying to make some light conversation I ask how their hunt is going and if they’ve seen anything. Get a big “NOPE”. I ended up shooting an elk up the mountain on that trail that night.
 
Two weeks ago in MT. Glassing a large canyon and finger ridges for elk. Spot a small raghorn bedded ~900 yards away and 600-800 ft vertical drop into the canyon. There are 6 guys (yes…6) on an adjacent ridge with a spotting scope. They also spotted the bull. 2 of the guys are not wearing orange so they are either guides or have tagged out. They send a guy down after the bull (clearly directing him to the bedded bull).

This is a VERY steep hillside with ~4” fresh snow. Elmer Fudd uses his rifle, with bipods extended, as a walking stick all of the way down the hill. Falling several times on the way down. Not sure, but I assume the rifle was also loaded. When he gets to ~100 yards, the bull jumps up and runs. He shoots 3 times and then Elmer Fudd drops out of sight into the canyon looking for the bull. His 5 “friends” stay on the gated road 1000’ up and don’t go down to help or check on him. We left to continue our hunt (ended up shooting another bull about 1 hour later, in a much better spot to pack out). I assume he did not recover the bull, is still down there, or more likely missed after using his gun as a trekking pole since their truck was gone when we returned to the parking area a few hours later.
 
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