Addicted to Hunting

Whats that saying a picture speaks a thousand words. Last weekend I was able to go and retrieve my stealth camera. I still need to learn more about them because there was only one additional photo on the camera since I had checked it a week before. But that one picture spoke a thousand words.

This was the one photo that was on there. I would love to come face to face with this buck. He’s got a nice spread. So if you have any tips for me I would love them. I’m setting the camera up on a heavily used game trail and don’t believe that this is the only buck walking in front. It could be the case because we discovered on opening morning that the bucks seemed to be hanging out 100 yards further down the hill. But with that said I can’t explain the heavy traffic around the area. Anyway if you use a trail camera and know some tips I would love them. We are leaving tonight to go back up there and I hope to get my deer this weekend so I can get focused on Elk. This year Utah combined the Deer and Elk seasons and made them a month long. I love to hunt Elk it makes the hair on my neck stand on end. Next week I hope I’m posting a photo of me holding the head of this buck up.

So we made it back. It was a tough opener, we had a full moon and that really threw off the deer movement. The majority didn’t see a thing the opening morning. Dad had set up a little further up the hill from us and he saw several good size buck towards the bottom of the hill we were hunting. The hill we hunt runs at a 45 degree angle down hill. As they say what goes down must come up, that is the main reason we don’t go down too far. After we met back for lunch Dad told us what he had seen. We decided to break up in two’s and have two go down to the bottom and then two sweep towards the bottom and see if we could push anything towards us. Dad and I went down to the bottom, as well started down we separated about 30 yards apart. As we went down I saw movement at the bottom, I pulled out my binoculars and saw it was a buck. I signalled to my Dad and we started moving in. The wind was perfect blowing to our faces and making a lot of noise. I was directly above the buck so I started to slowly make my way within shooting distance. I lost track of my Dad as he headed down in front of the buck. I got within 50 yards when I heard a thud, I thought it was the deer stepping on a stick. I had a decent 50 yard shoot but the buck showed signs of heading up towards me. He had no clue that I was there so I waited for him to move. He made 3 steps and then stopped. My Dad was right there and the buck had busted him. He ended up taking off down the hill. I later found out that my Dad had taken a shot but hit a small tree. That was the thud I heard. It was a fun stalk it took 20 min to make it down there moving slowly with the wind. It was a lot of fun we will be back up there this weekend and Travis will be able to join us. He has been real busy with his new arrival. His son was born on Sunday and he was unable to get up and hunt with us.

Our newest Addict!!!

Wow, where do I begin. So much happened on the opener and theres so much that I can work on I really dont know where to start.  Being fairly new to bow hunting I have a lot to learn but I am catching on to new “tricks” every time I go. I felt more prepared than I really was on opening morning and with bow hunting, preparation is most important. I found myself shivering and getting up every 30 minutes just to stay somewhat warm, an extra pair of socks, warm gloves and a sweater are a necessity when on the mountain trying to wait out deer. Weeks prior I had marked my area with a log so I knew thats where I needed to cut down the mountain to get to my spot, unfortunately something happened to my log and I ended up overshooting my spot by 100 yards. Another helpful tip is to know the area where you will be hunting and if you use something as a marker for your spot then it would be wise to use something more stationary than a log.  So those are just a couple things that I learned opening morning but all in all it was a great day of hunting and being out in the woods with family and friends. We sure missed Travis (who was busy getting ready for lil Hunter) but look forward to the other days we get to go hunting with him.

As my brothers and Dad are headed up to our favorite hunting spot today, I am left in the city waiting for my son to decide he is ready to join us. My wife’s due date was August 13th, and 2 days later still no Hunter. Our daughter, Lexi, was 3 day’s early so I thought Hunter would come early as well. While making plans for the hunt I knew it would be tricky with a new baby, but we live close to both of our parents and I figured we would have plenty of help. I had planned to leave early Saturday morning on the opener, hunt for a few hours, and be back before noon. I never even considered the fact that he could be late.

I am going to miss the opener of this year’s hunt, but I could not be happier. I am going to have a son to enjoy the outdoors with and take hunting (I would love to take my daughter hunting as well, but if she is anything like her mother she would rather get a pedicure). Missing the anticipation and excitement that comes with the opening morning of the hunt is killing me right now, but thanks to the extended season archery hunt in Utah I will be able to hunt a lot this year. My best wishes go to my hunting group, but right now I am focused on the birth of a healthy hunting addict!

I am so excited that my son will be born around the opener of the deer hunt as well. I have already thought of different ways I can celebrate his birthday with him while we are up hunting. We will have a blast… if he ever decides to show up.

My wife has a baby blog set up detailing what is going on with Hunter, check it out if you would like to follow Hunter’s progress. My wife’s Doctor will induce her on Monday if Hunter has not arrived by then.

We we head out tomorrow for the opener, we’ll head to an area we know there are some good sized buck however it is a very open area, steep terrain and other hunters always seem to change the patterns of the big boys!  I just want to say that I love this time of year, I love the anticipation of opening morning.  Tag filled or not hunting is exciting!  I love the day before, getting all set up, quietly watching the hills to see what’s going to be in your spot the next morning, the final hours or practice with your bow in camp, the talk of camp, everyong asking the others if they are ready to help drag out their deer in the morning and offering to come back with them next weekend with a camera so they can get theirs!! Then the morning of, getting up before the sun, freezing your tail off as you wipe down with scent blocking wipes, gearing up for a cold morning in the shade, almost no talking as we head out to take our spots before the deer start moving.  Sitting there in silence listening to every sound, wondering how close that movement was to the others, catching glimpses of animals, and then the buck that comes through and your chance is in front of you.  I didn’t grow up in a hunting family and until I got married I had never been on a hunt but it doesn’t take long to become Addicted!! I have yet to tag a deer myself but I can’t blame it on the spot we hunt, every year I have had an opportunity, learned something that will help me for the next year, gotten a good story, but no tag on a deer.  I hope to change that trend but either way the time spent in the woods, time to reflect on life and the beauty of the forest is priceless and worth every minute I spend up there.  Hunting gets us outdoors to enjoy the beautiful world God created, it gives us time to refocus and reflect on how blessed we are to live close enough to the great outdoors and are able to get out and enjoy it, add an element of challenge in the hunt and I’m anxious to be on the hill!!

A buddy at TSI Outfitters made a list of things you may want to make sure you have here it is:

Game bags, head lamp, extra batteries, knife sharpener, optics lense cleaner, range finder, binoculars, extra peep tubing, a back up release, extra d-loop rope, first aid, knife, GPS, two way radio, fire starter/lighter, toliet paper, wind checker, bow string wax, allen wrenches, 2 energy bars, trail marking tape, scent elimination/cover up scent, game calls, extra rope, string to tie tag on, face mask/face paint, extra socks, bear mace, bone saw, and a camera!

Good luck for those in Utah or who’s hunts start this weekend!!

OK we are two days away, we actually leave tomorrow morning.

So in one of my recent posts, Rookies ??? I mentioned the importance of checking the fletching on your arrows. Last year I had a friend draw out in a real nice Elk unit here in Utah. He and another friend of mine had been up there the past two weeks working the bulls in the area. He had a shot on a real nice bull “Hank” but didn’t have the yardage right and shot over his back.

It was the last weekend of the hunt and I was planning on going to a favorite spot of mine to hunt. Allen was going to go with me until he decided to go to a father and sons camp out instead. It looked like it was going to be just me. I came into work on Friday for the afternoon and planned on heading out after lunch. I received a phone call from my friend that morning, he had just spoken to my wife and found out that I was hunting by myself. He wanted to invite me up to help bag a big bull for our friend. I had a difficult choice, either I go and hunt by myself and go after a good size bull for me or I could go help a friend get a record book bull. This area that he was hunting was a Spike only area for regular permit hunters, so I could still tag a spike bull. He assured me that they had been in the middle of the elk every single day and that they had seen plenty of spike bulls. I decided to go help a buddy out and headed down to meet them and head up.

 That evening we went out to a place the locals call “the Hotel” this was an area where the Elk were known to hang out. We set up by a stream, the minute we got there a bull started down the hill. We got set up and watched him head to the stream. It was a small two point nothing any of us could or wanted to shoot. He walked in front of us at 7 yards and we let him go. We had another Spike bull come in but he hung up at 100 yards. I was excited, finding Elk in Utah is not an easy thing and we were in the middle of them.

The next morning we started hiking in to our spot and we were about 100  yards from “the Hotel” when a Elk bugled 70 yards in front of us. Before we could get our bugles out another bull bugled a little further away. We hurried and tried to get positioned in the middle and catch one of these bulls in a fight. And if we were lucky there would be a Spike hanging out with them. As soon as we set up I saw one of the funniest things I seen in the woods. A Rag horn bull 5×5 came running through the clearing pushing 4 cows. He was running for his life, as he was running for his life a much large bull lets out a mad scream not to far from this clearing. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up. We could hear this bull thrashing and coming quick towards us. We had to reposition a little so we quickly moved. Just before the shooter could sit down this massive bull, every inch covered in mud from the tip of his antlers to the bottom of his feet, was standing 15 yards from the shooter. He was fairly new at archery and was not ready, he didn’t want to make the mistake of guessing the wrong yardage instead of pulling his bow back he grabbed his range finder. It didn’t take long before that bull realized something wasn’t right and he took off. Its my guess that the rag horn came up and stole his cows while he was wallowing. My friend let out a bugle to see if he would come back, as soon as he did another bull answered right behind us about 200 yards away. We turned around and set back up, the shooter dropped down the hill ready to intercept. I went up the hill and sat behind a tree. This bull decided to circle around quietly before coming in. When he did that he ended up walking within 15 yards of me, he was a 370 class bull, a definite wall mount too bad I couldn’t take him. He started going down hill towards the shooter when the wind shifted and he caught our sent. He took off down into the bowl we were sitting on. We bugled and he would answer but he insisted on staying about 200 yards away. We decided to split up we I was going to stay right where we were and cow call, while the shooter worked his way towards the bull. The bugler was going to move away and see if the bull would follow.

It hadn’t even been 15 minutes when a nice spike bull came wondering over to see what the ruckus was. He came right at me, 50 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards, all he had to do was clear the last group of trees and I was ready to release at 20 yards. All of a sudden he stopped right behind those trees, I wasn’t worried the wind was right I was covered by the trees. We had set up a Montana decoy called “Bessie” she was about 10 yard to the right of me. For some reason the minute he saw her he jumped and ran straight down the hill. He stoped broadside at what I figured 60 yards. I set my pin and let her fly, It seemed forever but I watched my arrow go, go, go and then go right under his chest. I was off 10 yards, he took off but was running right towards the caller. My friend had the spike come running in at 40 yards and stop. He pulled back lined his pin up and released. As soon as he did he heard a loud whirling sound like a sage hen (or” Damn Bird” as we call it) taking off. He arrow went straight for 10 yards and then made a U turn and totally missed the bull. When he found his arrow he discovered that one of the fletchings had come loose and that was what made the sound. We didn’t end up bagging anything that round but had a lot of fun. I look forward to sharing some stories next week about this weekend. Hopefully we can also share some success. Until then stay ADDICTED!

     I was talking to a friend the other day and he told me that he had been up scouting for the hunt. He told me he had seen several nice bucks. He was excited but he told me he was nervous because he just knew that he was going to blow it. He just knew that he would pull his bow back on a nice buck and then make a mistake. That reminded me how important it is to prepare, especially using archery, for the hunt.

    Of course it is important to shoot your bow and shoot it at several distances. It is easy to stand at 20 or 30 yards and put the respective pin on your sight on the target, but once you have your sights set you should just stand in a spot, figure out the distance and then shoot. It used to be a tradition of ours to go out and “stump” hunt, where we would take turns shooting at rotten logs. Another thing to do is practice shooting sitting down, either in a chair, or on the ground with your back to a tree. I remember a hunt where I was sitting down on the ground with my back to a tree and a nice four point (eight point Eastern count) buck came by about fifteen yards in front of me and I went to pull my string back and I wasn’t sure I could do it. Needless to say that buck got away. We also used to climb up on the roof and shoot, it is a rarity when you are able to line your sights on a buck on level ground, so you need to practice the actual conditions you will be facing. If you prepare thinking of all the different situations you will or may face you will not be nervous when that once in a lifetime buck comes by.

    But like I told my friend, if you do make a mistake, you will have a great story.

So today I was reviewing our blog posts and had to laugh a little. Man we come off like a bunch of rookies. With Travis loosing his sites, Fred (Tim) breaking the limbs on his bow, and me not knowing how to place my trail camera. As they say all things come in threes, so maybe instead of looking at the glass half empty I will look at it half full. Since we have gotten all three out of the way nothing can go wrong on the hill right? I hope that is the case.

We are 4 days away from the opener and I hope 4 and a half days away from dragging 4 nice bucks up the hill. With everything going on I thought I would give all my equipment a once over and get everything ready for the hunt. I started with my clothing made sure it was all ready to go no holes that needed mended made sure that I had two sets cleaned and ready for the hunt. I then put them in bags with scented cotton balls. Next was going over my arrows and broad heads making sure the carbon wasn’t stressed and the broad heads were tight. The other thing I checked were the Fletch’s (I have a funny story about Fletch’s I’ll share sometime) its important that you check them and make sure none have come loose. I cleaned my bow and then made sure the string was nicely waxed. I then checked my radios, range finder, camera, head lamp, and flashlight to make sure they had new batteries and then made sure I had some extras. The next thing to check was my pack. You hear a lot of stories about people that get turned around in the woods and get lost. Some of us say we know this area like the back of our hand. That may be true but it is always best to be prepared for anything. I check my pack and make sure that I have a survival kit, bandages, any medication that is needed, compass, Identification, gutting gloves, meat bags, scent sticks, matches, Knife (make sure its sharp), wet wipes, and most important licenses. I will make sure that food and water make it in there before opening morning. Everything looked good and now I can relax and know that I’m ready for the hunt. It can take alot of time to check this stuff but in the end its nice to know that you are ready to go and ready for what may or may not happen.

My Dad, Tim, was shooting on Friday night when one of the worst things that could happen a week before the hunt happened. He had worked so hard all summer to tune his bow and make sure it was sighted in perfect. He had just finished making a couple of final adjustments, when his bow limb snapped while shooting. Luckily his bow was under warranty and he was able to get it fixed, but he has to start the whole process over again. Last I heard they were going to have his bow ready to go today, so hopefully he can get a bunch of shots in this week!

This makes my problem with my sights falling off seem so small and uneventful! I hope everything works out for him, but this goes to show the importance of practice. It is much better for stuff like this to happen in the backyard, rather than while you are pulled back on a nice buck!

 I don’t get how anit-gun activists don’t see this one coming.  Pot is illegal but who can readily get pot??? The pot heads and pot dealers.  Now if guns were illegal who would be able to get guns…the criminals, oh and me. haha.  Maybe we just need to publish a list of the top anti-gun activists, their address’ and their most recent large purchase…hmmmm… Is that playing fair?