Elk Hunt

JohnP · December 09, 2009, 01:26:12 PM

Not my hunt but I been "invited" to help a friend on his cow elk hunt. Leaving tomorrow night and will not be back until 17 Dec or sooner if he kills an elk. No coyote pictures for about a week.

weedwalker · December 09, 2009, 01:35:09 PM

We'll miss your pictures John. But good luck, have fun and be safe with your freind.

pitw · December 09, 2009, 01:40:56 PM

Sounds like fun John. I think your buddy has a pretty good chance with you along

. Coyotes are bound to enoy your hunt away

.

HaMeR · December 09, 2009, 01:42:00 PM

Have a safe trip & a good time. See you when you return with the pics!!

Silencer · December 09, 2009, 01:53:38 PM

I'm sure you'll have some good hunt pics, stay safe and cya on the return.

GunDog · December 09, 2009, 02:25:31 PM

Ya'll have a good trip and stay safe Mr JohnP. We'll be patiently waiting your report and pictures, grin ...

alscalls · December 09, 2009, 03:56:12 PM

Take yer camera.........

FinsnFur · December 09, 2009, 07:47:57 PM

He'll bring some coyote pics

You cant go Elk hunting and not see a coyote

Be safe my friend.

JohnP · December 16, 2009, 11:43:29 PM

Got in late this afternoon and despite some very terrible weather we had a good time. We hunted at about 10,000 feet, that is until the snow, wind and cold drove us down the mountain a bit. My buddy works for a major communications company and has one of them super duper phones that you can call anybody from anyplace. The nice thing about it was that his wife could call and give us the weather report - which wasn't good. Her first call was to tell us that a major snow storm was headed our way and we may want to cut our hunt short and come home. As soon as she hung up we headed into town and got us some more of that Tennessee bottled water just in case we had to sit this storm out. We weren't to concerned as we had a nice warm trailer, plenty of propane and enough food and drink to last us until the spring thaw. Openning morning found us out on the mountain glassing for elk when I noticed a small fence down in a remote ravine and with what appeared to be a headstone. Curiosity got the better of us so we hiked down and this is what we found.

Back up the hillside and resumed our glassing. About five minutes later I spotted a few mulie does

And a bit further back in the trees a small band of wild horses. There must of been about 20 of them altogether and they looked to be in good shape.

We saw a lot of elk sign but no elk. That seemed to be the trend for the next few days, lots of tracks but no much of anything else. We did see some coyotes but my buddy made me promise not to shoot any until we killed an elk. We took Sunday off and headed into town to get some more of that Tennessee water and take in a football game or two at the local VFW. We also got some bad news the forest service was thinking about closing the mountain if the storm got any worse, also that one hunter had been killed when a tree fell onto his tent in the middle of the night. When we got up the next morning this storm had just started to roll in.

We decided that this would be the day to kill our elk and get the hell out of there.

As the saying goes "Happiness is a Large Gut Pile"

We got lucky and short this gal atop a small rise and all we had to do was drag her downhill and we got the truck right next to her.

Now the work begans.

Almost done

We packed up and headed down the mountain as the forest service, game department and state police were advising people to get out as soon as possible.

JohnP · December 16, 2009, 11:56:35 PM

I just read what I wrote - please excuse the mis-spelled words and sentenance structure I'm tired and going to bed....

GunDog · December 17, 2009, 12:35:58 AM

Glad you made it home safe and sound Mr. John. Sounds like an eventful trip to say the least, although that Tennessee bottled water will make ya forget parts of it, grin. Storm or no storm I can't believe you didn't take time to shoot the first mutt before ya left.

Man those elk sure look a lot bigger when your trying to get them in the truck! As always I enjoyed your report sir. The pictures are great - one of the coolest headstones I've ever seen, the wild horses amaze me, and the gut pile made me chuckle. If those two dumb Mulies could have seen that gut pile before their picture was taken they would not have looked so content standing there for ya ..... Congrats on your outing .....

Now tell me please ... what part of the world did this great adventure all take place in?

Yotehntr · December 17, 2009, 01:46:44 AM

Awesome write up... heck I'm from TN myself John...didn't notice any bad spellin... I'm glad you made it back safe and enjoyed the read!

FinsnFur · December 17, 2009, 05:13:25 AM

I knew you wouldnt let us down John

Interesting little trip. That grave out there is kind of weird.

Looks like there will be some freezer getting filled now. I bet that thing was a real job to load into the back of the truck.

Thanks for taking us along.

pitw · December 17, 2009, 05:20:14 AM

Excellent read and wonderful pics John. Good looking gut pile to be sure.

coyote101 · December 17, 2009, 05:41:55 AM

Sounds like a great time Mr. JohnP. Thanks for the story and pictures, and congratulations to your friend.

Pat

KySongDog · December 17, 2009, 05:47:24 AM

Glad ya made it back OK and had a good time (I knew you would).

JohnP · December 17, 2009, 04:03:37 PM

"Now tell me please ... what part of the world did this great adventure all take place in?"

Well believe it or not it took place in northern Arizona.

"I bet that thing was a real job to load into the back of the truck."

As you can see my buddy is a rather stout man, over 6' tall and about 250 plus about half my age. He is also an excellent supervisor. Although you can only see a bit of my arm I'm in the bed of the truck cranking on the come-along. So if'n you were to ask him he would say, naw wasn't hard at all.

HaMeR · December 17, 2009, 04:15:57 PM

Glad you fellas had a good time & scored on that elk!!

FinsnFur · December 17, 2009, 05:36:08 PM

I've been told that Northern Arizona harbors some of the biggest Elk in this country.
Any truth to that?

JohnP · December 17, 2009, 07:01:04 PM

Absolute truth. They give out only 50 tags for the early bugle hunt (Sep) in the area that I hunt. Five go to non-residents and 45 to residents. Thousands of hunters apply. It is the only hunt I put in for, I now have 18 bonus points which means I haven't drawn an Az elk tag in 18 years..... As I am starting to wear down a bit, next year I may just apply for a general elk bull tag and hope I stumble across a BIG bull.