Neither sleet nor rain nor hail nor snow could keep elk hunters from skunked

[Okanagan]

Terrible weather opening weekend of elk season.

Son and a friend went out two days early and my son found two bulls the day before the season opened.  The second bull was a 6 point that only has an antler on one side.   

Earlier in the day D had accidentally called a bull to within 40 yards.  Oops, season not open yet.  From the end of a high finger ridge, D had glassed awhile, then bugled once to see if anything would move into view to look his direction.  15 minutes later he felt like something was watching him so looked to his right and a 5 point bull was walking through open timber 40 yards away, looking at him.  The bull stopped and then started straight toward him.  D did not want to spook the bull so he edged backwards and sideways till he got a big tree between himself and the bull, and then he walked straight away. 

I got to camp late that afternoon in a rain whose drops were half ice.  It alternated sleet, rain, hail and rarely snow for the next two days and nights. Grandsons Code and R arrived before 11:00 that night and set up a tent with rain fly and two cots. 

No one could find either bull the next morning, opening day of elk season.

I glassed a canyon from a viewpoint the first hour and a half while two inches of sleet built up on the ground and limbs.  About noon the two grandsons and I set up a tarp that had blown down at camp, to heat lunch out of the icy rain.  A violent gust of wind tore grommets from the tarp as we finished, so we laid it down flat.  Temps stayed just above freezing, 32 to 34. I hiked 4 ½ miles of overgrown roads on opening day.

On day two I did a morning hike and glass, then tried to watch a section of road from inside my vehicle, but the sleet/rain/snow was so heavy that I gave it up.  An inch of the slush piled up in one 15 minute I timed, on the warm hood of my vehicle so it was building up faster than it was melting.  I gave up at noon on day two and headed home in 3 inches of sleety sopping wet snow/hail on the ground.  The others came home that evening.   

The sleet is worse than rain or snow.  Rain runs off and we can shake off snow but this stuff sticks to everything and is melting all the time.  If you get out of a vehicle you bring a LOT of water back inside no matter what you do.  We all stayed warm and mostly dry in good rain gear and we slept dry.  I think the elk were holed up in deep canyon wind protected pockets and barely moved from them to feed.

[nastygunz]

Sleets miserable for any kind of outdoor activity.

[FinsnFur]

Sounds like what I do when it's sleeting outside. Stay holed up and don't get far away from the food [emoji23]

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[Okanagan]

Sounds like what I do when it's sleeting outside. Stay holed up and don't get far away from the food [emoji23]

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'Swhat I'm doing today!

[Hawks Feather]

That does not sound like a good time to me.  I like sitting around a fire all nice and dry.  There was a time when I would have done same as your son, but those days are gone.

[nastygunz]

Id hit the sleet for a shot at an elk always dreamed about busting a big screaming bull!    they make Whitetail bucks look girly.

[Okanagan]

Son just phoned from the road.  He's on his way back out there tonight in pouring rain and high winds.
He's hoping the weather forcast is correct that it will let up tomorrow, out there right off the Pacific beach.  We hunt the first ridge that juts up into mountains from the salt water flats.   

Day after tomorrow is right back to sleet storm.

Correction of earlier post:  there was a tornado warning this afternoon in a county 40 miles SE of us, very unusual in our part of the world.

Deer were chasing each other all over this afternoon, rut activity plus maybe storm excitement.