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My Alps Outdoorz Pathfinder pack and Ultrec Carbon Fiber tripod while scouting for elk. I will always remember this photo because of the large cougar that walked right in front of me minutes before I took this photo.
I was finished glassing from this location and had my camera and gear all back in the pack. While I was sitting there a cougar walks through an opening below me at around 30 yards. I quietly scrambled to get my camera back out to take a photo of him but was too late. So I took a photo of the pack while I had the camera back out.
This cow elk fed around the hill below me while I was glassing for bulls.
The marks on the back and side of this elk are interesting... could they be the claw marks of a cougar?
After nine years I finally drew Utah's Wasatch Limited Entry archery elk hunt. I figured I should have drawn the tag a few years sooner but, my luck apparently wasn't very good, in fact down right poor according to the supposed number of points needed to draw an archery tag on this unit. Oh well, I'm hunting it this year!
On my first trip to scout the unit with a friend who also drew the tag, we watched at least 23 bulls and many cows and calves. There are a lot of elk on the unit. I believe I saw more bull elk in this one day than I have seen in all of my combined personal elk hunts my entire life. We didn't however see any super dandy bulls. But there were two that we watched that I would shoot if the opportunity arose. I'm not going to be that picky, I've never shot an bull better than a couple small five point bulls, two with a bow (2004, 2007) and one with a rifle in 2010. If I get a bull in range that looks to break the 300 point mark I'm putting an arrow in him.
Below is some video of a few of the bulls we watched on my first scouting trip to the unit.
See how my hunt went in this article: 2012 Archery Hunting for Elk in the Utah Wasatch Limited Entry Unit
The weekend before the opener I took my family out camping in the area. in the mornings I would sneak out of camp early to glass for elk. Here is some video of some of the same bulls and some other bulls I found in the area on this trip. I am surprised that most of the bulls still have their velvet with only a few days to the opener.
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One of the small groups of cow elk that we debated about going after.
The built-in 30x zoom on my FujiFilm HS20exr camera works great for getting pictures of critters that are at long distances.
After harvesting my cow elk in early January, we received a couple of really good snowstorms. Dallen my oldest son who also had a cow elk tag, had a horrible cough and breathing problems throughout most of January. After several trips to the doctor the x-rays showed pneumonia with his left lung full of infection. I felt really bad for Dallen and at the same time, I felt like a horrible father for not even getting him out to hunt a single time for his cow elk.
With about a week left in the hunt my brother and I set out to fill his tag. Right at first light, we started hiking up the same canyon I had taken my cow elk in two weeks earlier. This time the canyon looked completely different with a heavy layer of snow covering everything.
With the snow, we had high hopes that the elk would have moved further down the mountain... well that wasn't to be the case. As we reached about three miles in, near the area I shot my cow elk a few weeks earlier we started to spot different small groups of elk. Every group of elk was going to require hiking considerably more to get into position and range for a shot at one of the cows.
We accessed the different groups of elk and decided our best option was to continue hiking up the mountain and then swing around through a north-facing slope to get to a ridgeline that we could follow. This would hopefully place us swinging above a small group of cows that we hoped we would be able to get within range of.
This was just a fun picture I took of my brother glassing a small four-point mule deer buck.
The plan was good but we had no idea how deep the snow really was until we started to cross to the shady north-facing slope of the mountain. Luckily we were able to find where a horse hunter had crossed the draw a few days earlier. It had snowed six or so inches on top of the horse's trail through the snow. The snow was so deep that you could see the riders foot and stirrup dragging, leaving a groove in the snow a foot down from the top.
As Weston and I made our way around the trail we did our best to stay on top of the horse's hoof prints without sinking all the way to the ground. As best as we tried we found ourselves stuck in snow up to and above our waists on many occasions. After crossing the first of two draws we spotted a spike and cow and we hoped to move in for a shot, however, a couple of mule deer had other ideas as they busted from the second draw and spooked the spike and cow.
Can you see the shooting sticks? The snow was deep... snowshoes are going to be added to my list of needs for hunting.
I like to carry a set of Stoney Point Steady Stix even if I am not shooting myself. With a small hook and loop strap on the bottom to hold them together, they make pretty good walking sticks. And if I need to help my son or brother out with setting up for a shot, I can quickly hand them the shooting sticks.
After we spooked the spike and cow we finished working our way around the second draw placing us above the location we had last seen the group of cows from earlier in the day. As we worked our way down the ridge-line we spotted a cow on the backside of the ridge where we didn't want to shoot a cow. This cow was safe... a little further down the ridge and a cow and three calf elk showed up on a finger ridge below us at 230 yards. Weston dropped to his Stoney Point Steady Stixs and dropped the cow with my 140g Accubond hand load from his A-Bolt 270 WSM.
It was now four in the afternoon and we were a long way from the truck. After a few photos, we quickly went to work on boning out the cow. To get the elk off the mountain we had packed my homemade canvas meat bags and two of my modified meat hauling saucer sleds. After boning out the meat and securing the meat bags to the sleds we started our way down the mountain in the dark. At eleven o'clock we made it back to the truck. As always the sleds worked great. Each of us pulling half of the 150lbs of meat.
Thanks for the opportunity I had to help you with your cow elk Weston. It was a great day on the mountain.
I wish Dallen could have been well enough to go out for a cow elk himself this year. I really enjoy the memories I share with my son while out hunting.
Weston with his cow elk taken with a Browning A-Bolt in 270 WSM.
The 140g Accubond fired from my brother's A-Bolt 270 WSM exited the cow elk just behind the shoulders with a 230-yard shot.
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Using my new wireless shutter release (in my right hand) to take a photo of the cow elk I took in January of 2012. I used my X-Bolt Stainless Stalker in 270 WSM with 140g Accubond handloads to take this elk.
Through November and December, I had my fifth knee surgery and surgery to fix my exhaust pipe (no more hemorrhoids!). My "good" left knee had been giving me a lot of trouble since this past summer. Mainly catching when I bent it past around 110 degrees. I was able to make it through the fall hunting season thanks to my DonJoy knee braces. After the fall hunting seasons, I had Dr. Harrison go in and remove the offending problems behind my knee cap.
I have been having extra problems with the knees this year (could I be getting old) and Dr. Harrison let me know that jogging was off-limits to prolong getting a total knee replacement for hopefully another 10 years. Anyway with jogging off limits I have been riding my bike to stay in shape... well this just seemed to complicate my hemorrhoids and I decided to have this taken care of also... not a fun surgery and recovery at all! I'll never forget that first BM... thought I'd die.
With the surgeries combined with the holidays I have put on a few pounds and am not in as good of shape as I like to be in. Well enough of me being fat and out of shape and... my hemorrhoids.
Dallen my oldest son, my brother Weston and I all drew cow elk tags for a region in Northern Utah this winter. With my surgeries and the lack of getting much, if really any snow, has prolonged me from getting out as soon as I would have liked to hunt. I normally like to hunt when there is a good cover of snow on the ground. By hunting in the snow it helps bring the elk lower on the mountain, makes them easier to find, and my modified saucer sleds work great for hauling out boned out elk meat. See: The Meat Saucer — Sled System for Hauling Deer & Elk in Snow
I snapped this photo of my X-Bolt 270 WSM rifle just after taking the shot across the canyon to put the cow elk down.
As my permit is progressing to the last three weeks I decided to make a trip in myself to hopefully get one of our tags filled and assess the location of the elk if they had even moved into the public ground we hunt. Then I can come up with a better plan for taking Dallen and Weston back in to hunt later. See: Cow Elk Hunting Jan. 2012 — Helping My Brother in Northern Utah
I showed up before light and slowly started working my way back into the property. I found only a little snow on the north-facing slopes and the rest of the ground bare. With so little snow I knew that I would have to go in a few miles, probably near the end of the public ground to find any elk. To be prepared to get an elk out by myself, if I was fortunate to harvest one, I decided to carry a couple of saucer sleds.
At around three miles in I started watching a group of bull elk feeding in and around a ridgeline above me. I started working my way in their direction hoping to find some cows somewhere in the near vicinity. As I worked my way up a canyon I spotted two cows that were moving across the canyon I was in. They were working their way through some really heavy oak brush. When they got near the 200-yard range I patiently waited for one of them to offer a good shot through the oak brush. Finally, the lead cow stepped partially into a sliver of an opening right at 200 yards away. She only offered a shot at the head or neck back to the front edge of the shoulder. I centered up the crosshairs just off the edge of the tree she was behind and let an Accubond fly heading for the front edge of her shoulders. The shot was quickly answered with a loud whopping sound and after I re-acquired the cow in the scope I could see her piled up right where she was standing.
The recovered 140g Nosler Accubond bullet from my cow elk. This recovered bullet surprisingly weighs 87 grains. At first glance, I would not have thought it was that heavy, as there isn't much left. Even though there isn't much left of the bullet I really like the effectiveness of the 140g Accubond at putting elk and mule deer on the ground. You can read more of my thoughts on this bullet near the end of my Recovered Triple Shock page. See: Recovered Barnes Triple Shock Bullets in Elk from 243 WSSM and 270 WSM Rifles
The bullet entered the elk just in front of the right shoulder and the bullet stopped against the ribcage directly under the left shoulder blade. The recovered 140g Accubond bullet weighs 87 grains. This 270 WSM, 140g Accubond hand load has a muzzle velocity of 3,300 fps from my Browning X-Bolt Stainless Stalker rifle. This bullet has been doing a great job for me at putting deer and elk on the ground.
I snapped a few photos and started to work on boning out the elk. I was able to use my new wireless JJC shutter release with my camera for the first time in the field. It was nice not to have to run back and forth with a 10-second delay on the camera to take pictures of me with the elk. What a cool accessory for my FujiFilm HS20exr camera. It will also work well at keeping the camera still when taking photos with my teleconverter attached.
I spent the next four hours boning out the elk and placing the meat into my homemade heavy-duty canvas meat bags.
Given some snow and my saucer sleds I can hunt by myself and bring an elk or deer out without making extra trips or calling for help. Just my style of hunting, no horses required, no asking for help, and no extra trips hauling the meat out on my back.
After getting home the scales showed 149 pounds for the meat and bags that I brought off the mountain.
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