The DIY Hunter

5x6 Bull Elk on Browning Recon Force Trail Camera

This 5x6 bull walked by the camera the day before the opener with his velvet shed. Yes! The elk are still here and I highly dislike velvet.


Huge Wold Spider

I found this huge wolf spider the night before the archery opener. This critter is about the size of the palm of my hand.


Checking the Browning Trail Cameras

This camera captured the nice 3x4 mule deer buck I had the previous time out.


Lots of Ruff Grouse on the mountain this year.

It's nice to see lots of Ruff Grouse on the mountain this year.


Opening day of the archery elk season is finally here. After reviewing the patterns of where the elk had been all summer, thanks to my Browning Trail cameras, I was hopeful to get into some on opening day. Opening day also marked two weeks out from the last time checking my trail cameras so I pulled SDHC cards come mid-day.

The night before the opener found me driving up the mountain in my old Montero. I spent the night across the two front seats of the Montero and awoke early to hiking up into the area I have watched the highest concentration of elk over the summer.

After spending all morning in the baking heat not finding any elk or sign of them to speak of I started hiking to all of my trail cameras to pull the SDHC cards and see what activity was in the area over the past two weeks. As I suspected the elk had all but vanished. Where I had been getting daily elk activity on about three of the cameras there were only a couple of elk passing by in the past two weeks.

The five or more spike elk and the two 4&5 point bulls that had been in the area were not on a single camera. They were all gone. Although the cows and younger bulls had vanished the two largest bulls we had on camera made a couple passes by the cameras. Yes!

The bull that both Dallen and I want to shoot passed by one of my trail cameras the day before the opener with it's velvet already shed. This gave me needed encouragement to get back in there. If I didn't have the trail cameras to show me a little of what is going on in the area I might have completely given up on the area and hunted somewhere else. Thankfully the cameras work great at capturing the activity of the elk.

I'll be back soon.


Young Rubber Boa Snake

These snakes are so cool. This a a very young Rubber Boa. The third Rubber Boa I have found on this mountain while hunting over the years.


Resting in some cliffs while archery elk hunting

Taking a break in some cliffs after hunting the opening morning.


Real Tree Max-1 in black and white

The Real Tree Max-1 looks really good in black and white.


Getting ready to check one of my Recon Force trail cameras

Walking up to check one of my Recon Force trail cameras.