There are no big elk in the frank, the wolves ate em all

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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Just to set the record, I know the wolves are a problem. I am sharing this because I no longer live in the frank and my honey hole will still be my honey hole. And I will hunt a few more times ( bought my lifetime licsense ) at this special place. And I am sitting in a hotel room waiting for my appointment to rush my passport so I can drive the 2600 or so miles to Fairbanks. So I will share these hunts, mine was solo and helped mine friend with his.

My camp in the Frank was 7 miles in and 5000 feet of vertical off the salmon river. Living back there allowed me the time to make and supply my camp in the summer. I arrived at camp three days after opening, set up the eight man teepee I had packed a week earlier with two cases of beer and some whiskey. I was waiting for two buddies to show up and they did around ten that night. The next morning was casual. I showed them the spring we could get our water and chopped some wood for the stove and fire pit. Around ten we heard that most beautiful sound all elk hunters want to hear. "the bugle". Right after that the forest lit up. there were two heards with seven or eight mature bulls. All pissed and singing!(when i get to the pictures my friends bull was the first one we call in to us) We called him into camp! Messed it up! I love hunting.(wolves have a lower percentage of killing than i do with a 7 saum or 300 at 100 yards) If they were watching they were laughing! So after a quick lunch we decide to get back at it. We start climbing through that nasty lodge pole down fall up a through the beautiful frank. About forty yards below a bench the woods start screaming that beautiful elk talk again. Wind busted us. So we just start looking for elk sign again. its everywhere. Decide to let a locater bugle go. Nothing. Twenty minutes later we sit down to regroup get some water. We are sitting on a log and I glance at my buddy, his eyes are like saucer plates. He is discretely pointing to left mouthing "big bull"! I look to my left and sure enough there is a bull staring at us at thirty yards.! Naturally ( if you have hunted whole life you know this to be true) our rifles are no where to be useful. I think this is where the wolves were watching and laughing! WE screwed the pooch! Head back to camp for a beer and some gut wrenching mountain house. unfortunately shit happened that night and they had to leave and stumble out in the dark through a down pour.

The next morning I am up early, ready to go. It is dumping cold rain. But I go back to the area where we saw that bull staring at us. It is dumping rain. Let a locater bugle. Nothing. Decide to sit down for a bit longer. Getting ready to hike other places and just let a bugle go. Instantly a response! Maybe three hundred yards below me in thick timber. Sit quietIMG_0226.JPGIMG_0227.jpgIMG_0229.jpgIMG_0229.jpg and wait. Not thirty seconds later a raging pissed off bugle two hundred yards below me. (thank you elk nut. I knew how to work this bull because of your help!) Two cow calls that probably didnt matter, but one good challenging bugle. This bull broke 120 yards below in old growth but through little spruces. He was running right at me. Drooling and pissed! He got to around 20 yards and I was set up but hate frontal shots. So I waved my hand. He stops dead in his tracks,. I know what he thought, OH SHIT! 30 feet a 160 grain accubond from a 7 saum turned him into good eats!


My packout was by myself. 7.5 miles and 4500 vertical one way. So it waa three trips back and forth. It was hot out too. So after I got everything to camp I would do trips to 2500 below at the creek and take the game bags and put them in dry gags and stuff them into the creek(its fall so the creeks are cold) And I packed out the cape. On my last trip my friend showed up and helped with a quarter. But he wanted to go hunt.

Sooooo, we loaded up again and went back up and got hijm a dandy.
IMG_0236.JPG
His bull actually scores bigger, but it was the same heard and mine was the bad ass bull. The neck on mine was 35 and 3/4 inches. I am just saying, there are no big bulls in the frank.


Overall I did 130 plus miles and 70 thousand feet of vertical packing elk that year.
(the last day of the season my friends shot one right out my camp. He was a beautifu;l 6 x 6 around 300.

But, there are no big bulls in the frank.
 

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Nice! You win badass of the year award packing that much elk.

Your camp is not your cabin in the picture where you live, right? Because you mentioned setting up a tipi? But you mentioned living up there. I want to live up there
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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No we shot them two years ago. plus another 6x6 around 300.. So I will finish the story. The last day of the tag (B-tag or a Tag ) I dont remember but it was all legal., my good friend shows up and ask if his son can run five miles in the frank (he has seen the picts of our bulls) and hunt the last twilight. Sure, go for it. So me and his dad are getting drunk when we get the in reach , bull down. He had shot a nice 6x6 right out of my camp. We leave at dark and hike all the way up there in the dark, drunk. Get there at 3 in the morning. So cool. Next morning we get up and finish dressing his bull out. I go down to our spring below camp to get water and come back up. bout that time the whole forest where i just walked out of lit up with wolf howls. it was surreal. You could here the adults putting the pups in there place. I will never forget that experience. And yes I do know these wolves shouldn't be here. But that was really awesome hearing that!. And yes, I would of shot every one of them.
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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Nice! You win badass of the year award packing that much elk.

Your camp is not your cabin in the picture where you live, right? Because you mentioned setting up a tipi? But you mentioned living up there. I want to live up there
no my camp was seven miles up off the salmon. I was just fortunate to live back there i could hike all that anytime I wanted too.
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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And no bad ass. Lots of folks work at this. It is just when you commit to something and follow through on that commitment you have to commit.( we owe it to the beautiful animals we chase) Hunting to me is not about the kill. It is about the time spent enjoying the whole expeirence
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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Sweet bulls, but come on, those are decades old pictures. I mean, we all know there are no more elk in the Frank.
wink, wink, and just get off your ass hunt.. yes i like shooting wovles that dont belong here., but competion makes me better hunter.
 
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wink, wink, and just get off your ass hunt.. yes i like shooting wovles that dont belong here., but competion makes me better hunter.
I don't disagree with you. My norm is to spend an ungodly amount of time hunting, more time scouting year rould, backpacking, fishing and ocassionally camping. I am no stranger to long pack in hunts for extended time. However, getting a diagnosis of leukocytosis a few years back with suspected PV, simply slows one down a bit. Then from this past December, I have had 4 different surgeries, one more coming up at the of this December. All these surgeries has significantly impacted all my outdoor activities. However, I have still managed to get out. After this next surgery at the end of this month, I will need recouperate. But I am hoping to get in a few backpacking trips this upcoming summer, armed of course.

I may have slowed down on the hunting, but that slowdown is a temporary thing, if I have any say. I also have no issues with wolves being taken. Hell, I'd share a camp with you anytime!
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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Right on my friend. I wish most folks could experience the "pleasure" of the "hunt". The bond that comes from camp and that two to seven weeks of hanging with friends in that enviroment.
 

hobbes

WKR
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Congrats on the bulls. If I lived near the Frank, I think I'd be okay with folks thinking there were no big bulls there.
 

eye_zick

Lil-Rokslider
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I like the way you played your hand.

step 1: make rok account as "frank church guy"
step 2: post ungodly amount of elk hunting as being out of the frank church.
step 3: continue hunting wyoming while online guys think there are elk in the frank.
 
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I like the way you played your hand.

step 1: make rok account as "frank church guy"
step 2: post ungodly amount of elk hunting as being out of the frank church.
step 3: continue hunting wyoming while online guys think there are elk in the frank.
Exactly. I thought the same thing 2 days ago when I read this. I thought to myself I wonder if he’s with an outfitter over there. The other 99 posts about the Frank tell a different story.

I will say this… I know a few areas, not on the Frank or the Selway, that are tough hunting. But I know them really well so I can kill bulls there. But most people would really struggle and probably not see very many if any. I learned those places when the hunting was good. As they went downhill I always used to say I don’t care if there is only 1 bull here I’ll still punch my tag. But I sure wouldn’t suggest those spots to others saying it was worth hunting.
 
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Awesome, awesome, awesome!

I have been dying to hunt elk my whole life. Was lucky enough to get a Middle Fork A tag for the 2023 season. There have been so many highs and lows so far. Excited I got in, disappointed to see what was left when I got in, got a tag, reading about the difficulties hunting the Frank is, chalked it up to an adventure with a tag and a rifle, excited to read your great adventure leaves me excited again!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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frank church guy

frank church guy

Lil-Rokslider
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I am not with an outfitter. I am friends with an outfitter in the frank. He doesn't need me to talk it up for him. He is booked three years. He actually might be pissed that I posted this. Those elk were shot four days apart around around 200 yards apart. If I actually posted some pictures of the creek drainage we were in, I bet some on here would recognize it. It is the same fore the pictures I posted with my moose hunt. Don't want back ground shots, less some will notice.

As for wyoming I have never hunted anything in that state. (I do have 8 point for speed goats.) And right now I am typing while sitting in a hotel room in Dease Lake BC, around 150 miles from the Alaaskan highway, But you know I might be trying to help an outfitter in bc/yukon after posting my moose hunt. But you all who think that way go right ahead. I don't cxare. Those of who appreciated the post, thank you. I justed wanted to share a hunting story
 
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