Shrek's armed camping trip 2015 ;)

[good2eat]

Congrats Shrek on a well earned bull. I knew if you got to know that area you would seal the deal. I never had a doubt. Also glad to help you get him out. It was the end ot a good day of helping hunters around the ranch. Your bull made elk number 4 yesterday I hauled out through the ranch from the public lands borders for hard working public land hunters. Hunters that are not afraid to leave the road and the truck seats and really hunt like a man.

So happy for you friend.

Jeff

Well done!

 

[Redside]

Nice Job! Its been fun watching/reading your story the past few years to get your first elk.

 

[weaver]

Congrats Shrek!

 

[BroodBuster]

Very Cool

Congrats!

And always nice when there's a friendly rancher near by!

 

[dreamingbig]

Two thumbs up to Jeff for helping you get him out.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Well done Dave... and a stand up move there Jeff.

Congrats!

 

[Greg Beck]

Congrats! Been following this with interest!

 

[Jdog]

!!!!!!

 

[orionsbrother]

Jeff - Props to you for hauling out Dave's elk and other hunters' elk. Very nice to hear about someone on a private ranch willing to allow transit for a pack out let alone actually hauling. Seems like stories of animosity and adversity are all too frequent.

I am sure that Dave is very grateful.

But I have to admit that I returned to this thread looking forward to reading the epic tale about Shrek's hard won elk being wrestled from the wallow with great struggle. His meticulous attention to detail to keep the meat clean while breaking down the elk. The taxing round trips to get the meat and head back to camp and squared away. The watch showing two in the morning when he finally crawled into the sleeping bag, physically drained but extremely happy.

Instead, you hauled the elk out whole.

Sorry to say this Shrek, but I realize that I was actually looking forward to you suffering more, overcoming adversity. There's something wrong with me.

Congratulations on sealing the deal, brother. Enjoy.

 

[Manosteel]

Congrats!

 

[Roy68]

Jeff - Props to you for hauling out Dave's elk and other hunters' elk. Very nice to hear about someone on a private ranch willing to allow transit for a pack out let alone actually hauling. Seems like stories of animosity and adversity are all too frequent.

I am sure that Dave is very grateful.

But I have to admit that I returned to this thread looking forward to reading the epic tale about Shrek's hard won elk being wrestled from the wallow with great struggle. His meticulous attention to detail to keep the meat clean while breaking down the elk. The taxing round trips to get the meat and head back to camp and squared away. The watch showing two in the morning when he finally crawled into the sleeping bag, physically drained but extremely happy.

Instead, you hauled the elk out whole.

Sorry to say this Shrek, but I realize that I was actually looking forward to you suffering more, overcoming adversity. There's something wrong with me.

Congratulations on sealing the deal, brother. Enjoy.

when you look at it that way, .....you do kinda feel cheated.


like I said earlier congrats

 

[TheJuice]

Congrats Shrek!

 

[Chad E]

Congratulations on a hard earned trophy

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

Jeff - Props to you for hauling out Dave's elk and other hunters' elk. Very nice to hear about someone on a private ranch willing to allow transit for a pack out let alone actually hauling. Seems like stories of animosity and adversity are all too frequent.

I am sure that Dave is very grateful.

But I have to admit that I returned to this thread looking forward to reading the epic tale about Shrek's hard won elk being wrestled from the wallow with great struggle. His meticulous attention to detail to keep the meat clean while breaking down the elk. The taxing round trips to get the meat and head back to camp and squared away. The watch showing two in the morning when he finally crawled into the sleeping bag, physically drained but extremely happy.

Instead, you hauled the elk out whole.

Sorry to say this Shrek, but I realize that I was actually looking forward to you suffering more, overcoming adversity. There's something wrong with me.

Congratulations on sealing the deal, brother. Enjoy.

And defending his meat by fighting off a grizzly with only his havalon with a broken blade!!

 

[realunlucky]

And defending his meat by fighting off a grizzly with only his havalon with a broken blade!!

Haha

 

[orionsbrother]

And defending his meat by fighting off a grizzly with only his havalon with a broken blade!!

...with the 66 year old hotel clerk swooning in the background as she bats her eyes...

 

[William Hanson (live2hunt)]

...with the 66 year old hotel clerk swooning in the background as she bats her eyes...

Exactly!

 

[gelton]

To a guy that always congratulates everyone, and from a guy that rarely congratulates anyone - CONGRATS man, always nice to see a fellow flatlander punch an elk tag. Way to close the deal!

 

[El Gavilan]

Way to go Shrek, persistence pays off big time. You were very lucky to get the elk hauled out like that, you should buy that guy a nice steak dinner!

 

[Shrek]

So , the story. For the first time I was surrounded by elk ! A big group had moved off private and on top of me the evening before and I had been blocked by cows from chasing a screaming bull right at dark. Then a brutal climb in the dark up to camp all the while listening to three bulls bugling and moving away. Then I had elk barking at me in camp.
Woke up at 5 am to a bunch of elk running 25 yards above the tent in the dark. I waited until shooting light because I didn't want to blow anything out in the dark. As soon as I clear the slight rise behind the Sawtooth I can see a group of thirty or so elk with two branch bulls half way up the other side of the gulch. They're not far off the the line so I sit and think how to get at them. While I'm watching I see a second group a little higher up and up the gulch. I decide the best idea is to hunt up the gulch the way I had last heard the big sounding bull the previous evening and work around above the elk I could see. I would have the wind and the elevation advantage and no chance of being picked up and spooking them back to private. This is going great until at the top of the gulch I run into another hunter moving down my side of the gulch. Frick !!! Nothing to do but carry out my plan as hope he doesn't blow them out. Twenty minutes later I hear him empty his magazine and reload for two more ! I didn't hear any hits but I'm sure in my mind that he's blown them all out. Oh well . I'm on the elk side and gaining elevation as I work down the gulch. Twenty minutes later I spot the first cow above and ahead through the timber. Next hour I keep trying to work above the cows and keep my scent out of them and not blow them out. Not sure how many cows I was working around but at least ten. A couple got above me and spooked over the top because they just knew there was something wrong but they didn't blow out and spook the herd. I didn't move two hundred yards in the whole time. Then it gets real really fast when I see antlers and elk parts through the timber below me moving sidehill 80 yards below me headed my way. He stopped almost directly below me behind a bush and a tree for a minute or more and the spins and bolts back the way he came. I needed him to take one or two steps for a clear shot. He didn't spook bad because a few minutes later I see him even with me about 200 yards through the timber walking slow with a couple cows. I decide to go up and try to get above the next draw and listen. After a while I hear and then see three cows slip over onto private and a little later the sounds of a couple more going over the top. That's not near all the elk but I didn't hear anything for a couple of hours and I'm thinking I had caught the last few going over onto private. I sit and think about what to do for another hour until 16:10 when I decide that I need to get down to water and get below before the air starts to sink since the wind had died. I slipped down along the property line and got set where I could see two wallows along the creek. I hadn't been there five minutes when I hear the thud of hooves and branches breaking under hooves. A few minutes later I have four cows in the creek. They are silent and don't look back so after about ten minutes I was thinking that they were all that was coming. Then I hear a few thuds and breaks and know more are coming. Then dead limbs snapping off trees ! Bull ! I hear him working my way and my heart starts to pound ! Rifle up and my eyes searching ! Then he steps into the wallow. No doubt about legal or not ! BANG ! He dropped and never even kicked...right in the mud ! I got the shakes after the shot like delerium tremors ! I haven't been that shook up about an animal in twenty years. I'm really proud of this one. I hunted hard and smart all day and despite all the shooting and busted animals I kept at it with discipline and kept my head in the game. I could easily have started by trying to go straight at them in the morning and blown them out or folded when I didn't hear them after the bull blew out. It was tempting to just hike back up to camp in the daylight and get some wood broke up for the stove and get comfortable. I was leaving the hellacious 680' elevation gain super steep climb for after dark and hunting it out when I was sure the elk had all blown out to the ranch.
I was shook up and washed out with the bull down in the muck. It was going to be a mess trying to clean him where he was. I tried to pull him out but that wasn't happening. Lucky for me I had one bar of 1x service and could get texts out. Texted Jeff for help dragging him out of the wallow and lucky for me I was only 300 yards from the ranch and Jeff was able to get the mule tape to him. He was surrounded by downed timber so it was interesting getting him out over all the logs. Jeff dragged him with the tape to the ranch and we loaded his gutted carcass up and drove the two miles out. I backpack hunt as a means to an ends and not packing the elk out on my back or cleaning him in a wallow didn't deprive me of any experience I wanted. I hunted hard and smart and got my bull and at that point if there was a Star Trek transporter beam that could beam me out that would be fine by me ! I love to hunt and kill things but I have no love for the human pack mule part.