I had Jack stop by and we got to talking about both this current florida hunting season and the fact that I at my current age am no longer required by the state of florida to purchase a hunting licence....http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...-after-65-years-of-age-hunting-license.12797/
and we got to reminisce , a bit about older hunting trips. some hunts are very memorable even if you personally don,t get any game.
for most of the males I know , hunting is almost looked at as an anual right, like many guys might view watching football or having a cold beer after a hot afternoon spent mowing the lawn, theres never a second wasted thinking about why you do it, you do it because you damn well enjoy the process and look forward to particapating all year long.
Yes theres a few good memories like sitting around a camp fire watching coffee boil and elk staeks sizzle and the ineviatble work, in dragging a 60 lb back pack out of some damn steep canyon on your acking back muscles, that sure seems to be a good deal longer distance to travel in the fast approaching dusk of late afternoon in swirling snow and frigid wind, trudging back up slope to camp than you remember the distance being traveling down the slope , in the early morning still air and fog, where you could see your breath fog up in the freezing air, while you work out the kinks in the muscles from sleeping on the ground in your sleepmh bag, and your only carrying only a 3/4 empty back-pack and your rifle.
I remember this hunt mostly for its rotten cold and wet weather, and the extreme physical effort it took too be back-packing the meat and horns out of an area that made the physical effort approach and at times probably exceed my reasonable abilities.
Any successful hunt starts with research, and that generally requires buying several topo maps of the area and a few calls to the local game management office well before the season to inquire about recent historical success rates, game population density's and hunter pressure levels and access to the area with detailed maps showing private VS BLM or public access and getting the areas regulations in print.
It also helps to have applied early for area permits and owning a accurate GPS sure helps!
nothing replaces on the site scouting, and a good pair of quality binoculars, 7 x to 10 x power helps, high quality helps, cheap binoculars won,t work well for long!
I purchased a set of swarovski binoculars 40 years ago for $379, 10/50 ,now they are considerably more ....they are really a bit too big and heavy, but the glasses are good quality.
but keep in mind good binoculars last a lifetime if well cared for,
(something fairly light weight and small enough that your not inclined to leave them in camp due to the bulk and weight, and something that has the, high quality too too be used efficiently at dusk)
this is usually more productive from a high ridge on a canyon so you can use your eyesight rather than hours of leg work to patiently but thoroughly look over large areas of timber and slopes in that territory when you arrive at your hunt area at least a day or so early if its at all possible to do so.
the area was north of RIFLE and north of GYPSUM, south of MEEKER
one in particular was rather difficult, we had decided to try scouting out what on the map and topo maps looked like a very promising area, but we soon found that the access was very difficult for anything but foot or horse traffic.
the local wardens, BLM or some agency had blocked all the road access from all directions with large felled trees across roads with signs nailed on them declaring access was only on foot or horseback.
the area was mostly a mix of heavy timber and steep meadows , there was a few old logging access roads we could use on foot but we were forced to camp on the rather large areas perimeter.
we had found a nice camp sight in a small open area in a group of conifer that was only about 100 yards off one of the logging access roads we did have access on, up to the blocking tree , limiting further access.
each morning we got up at or a bit before dawn,and seldom returned to camp until well after dark. at first we scouted the area extensively and found well used game travel trails, so we concentrated on those areas.
Hunted elk are not stupid, they want to stay in the thicker timber and steeper slopes and avoid the open meadows, during day light.
with experience you can look over an area and in many cases you can easily visualize the areas elk will tend to travel, where they will be in cover the majority of the time!
while this is NOT the area the picture shows similar terrain
this meant we were a bit limited in the area we could reasonably limited in the distance we could reasonably transport any elk we shot so we obviously needed to think about the consequences of dropping game more than a few miles from our campsite.
we both decided to find an area to basically sit and watch , where several ridges and small canyons both limited easy game travel routes and allowed a good rifle shot to have a good chance of seeing any game traveling through the area.
on the plus side the area was being lightly hunted as we seldom saw other hunters, compared to the areas that were almost looking like a pumpkin patch due to the orange jackets on hunters every few hundred feet that was not too uncommon on opening day of the hunting season in some areas.
Jack and I located several good areas the first day that showed promise as there was many fresh elk tracks , in the areas we checked and after a light snow, that fell, on the third day, of the hunt we saw several groups of both mule deer and elk,
but not a darn thing worth wasting a cartridge on.
this area was rather large and not very popular with hunters mostly because access was limited and you were going to have to back-pack out anything you shot up and over several steep ridges, and a long walk with a 60 lb-80 lb back-pack plus a rifle wears you down , and tends to limit the distance you cover every day.
Jack was using his browning (A-BOLT 375 H&H)
I was using my (SAKO 375H&H carbine)
we were seeing game every day, we were just not seeing anything near exceptional or even having the minimum 4 point per side antlers, we were by this time we were both familiar with hunting in Colorado as Jack had come along on at least three prior hunting trips with me to drive out to Colorado.
on the fifth , day it was windy and it snowed intermittently most of the day and fairly steady after about 4 pm, this and the wind and the dropping temps made just sitting rather miserable as it was in the below 30F temp range.
Jack had found a location about 600 yards further down an abandoned logging access road from my location.
the logging road we walked followed the terrain contours and slowly went first upward then over several curves in the terrain down ward into a series of canyons.
just before I was ready to get up and walk over to talk Jack into walking back to camp and making some hot coffee, I heard the dull thump of Jacks 375 H&H, in the distance, I watched the area in his direction for about 30 minute but saw no running Elk or Jack, so I packed my gear in my back-pack and slowly walked in the rapidly descending darkness , brisk gusts and constant snow falling to the area Id last seen Jack sitting.
I stood there for several minutes looking over the surrounding terrain, eventually I saw Jack waving in the distance down a rather steep incline from my current location.
as we dressed out, the elk, and boned out most of the meat, and placed it in 2 gallon ziploc bags we placed in the snow too cool,Jack said he had been about 90% asleep and freezing his butt off when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, having gotten his attention , he slowly moved his rifle and bi-pod into position and judging the elk to be about 300 yards away and down slope about 20 degrees he had placed the horizontal cross hair in the scope on the elks back line, and squeezed off a shot, Jacks a darn good shot but there's no way to accurately judge range or declination on a rapidly moving target in the few seconds you'll generally have when hunting so experience and a good knowledge of your particular rifles trajectory helps a good deal! , now Jack sighted his rifle just like I sight mine at 3.5" high at 100 yards
so Jacks 375H&H rifle bullet impacted several inches higher on the elks shoulder than Jack had anticipated,
(Jack and I try hard to place shots that pass through the green area but in this case the shot hit the red area) Jack had mis-judged the range and hold on the target, this is hardly a rare deal when you have no way to accurately judge both the range and angle to a moving target.
but luckily for both of us the bullet had zipped through the lower edge of the spine between the shoulder blades, diagonally front too, off side,exiting too the rear a bit, and the elk had dropped instantly, it took a few seconds too expire from the shot ,according to jack, as the heart and lungs liver etc. were not destroyed with the high shot impact point, but It was dead when he got down the slope to it!
every time Jack or I used a 375 H&H or I used my 340 wby we were both impressed at the rifles ability to knock the hell out of the intended target and do extensive damage, which at extended range is not always the case with the smaller calibers like the 270 win or 30/06 , those calibers do deliver a lethal wound if the shot placements good but they don,t seem to have the same effect on game as rapidly as the 33-37 caliber rifles.
The next few hours were filled with dressing out jacks elk, roughly quartering it and packing it out with minimal lighting with at first flash lights then on the last couple trips a coleman lantern, as they provide decent light and a bit of heat to warm up your hands, which when your dressing out and packing out an elk, on your back-pack in 60 lb-70 lb trips over a couple miles of snow covered logging roads, is a small but pleasant help.
On that trip I remember I had used a KUKRI, knife, too cut several lodge pole pine poles, and drug those poles over to the dead elks location, to make a tri-pod and we used a small block and tackle, too lift his elk off the ground to make dressing it out much easier. after that trip Jack bought both a kukri and a similar block and tackle as he was more than a bit impressed with the ease of dressing out the elk with those tools.
I told Jack he should have talked the elk into standing next to a large oak tree with a sturdy branch at about 10-14 feet off the ground next time as it would have saved time and he was obviously just not thinking things through carefully if he shot an elk down in a narrow canyon with few trees.
the next morning we both decided that even though I had failed to see any elk worth shooting we would pack up and drive home.
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator
http://www.handloads.com/calc/index.html
http://www.millettsights.com/downloads/shootinguphillanddownhill.pdf
http://www.millettsights.com/resources/shooting-tips/mathematics-for-precision-shooters/
http://www.rifleshootermag.com/network-topics/tips-tactics-network/hitting-a-high-or-low-angle-shot/
yes the cost has increased a great deal,
,over the last 45 years, when I first started hunting in Colorado we would get 3-4 guys , too drive out in a truck too split gas cost and drive out, too Colorado, driving strait through swapping drivers every 4-5 hours this generally took 44-47 hours.
total trip cost including over the counter licences was under $1200, now the cost is about $2300 if we spit the fuel cost three ways and buy , $1100 in deer/elk licences
we would occasionally arrange too rent a second truck and have to pick up a couple other guys who chose to fly into Denver ,the guys driving out would transport the bulk of equipment even for the guys we picked up who fly into Colorado, we would all camp in tents for 7-9 days while hunting
this led quickly too a firm adopted rule,
each person was limited to what would fit inside a single military style duffel bag,
and one hard side rifle case(and your back-pack needed to fit inside that single duffel bag along with the other gear, if that rule was not firmly enforced you would not ever believe the amount of crap some guys wanted to bring or transport.
yes we also transported a couple large coolers and a large tent for common use, but nothing else or the amount of equipment guys would want to pack ,would quickly , and vastly exceed the area available in a pick-up truck bed.
CURRENT COLORADO Nonresident License + Fishing Combo*
Elk, Cow $ 484
Elk, Bull or Either Sex $ 644
Deer $ 389
Moose $ 2,149
Pronghorn, Buck or Doe $ 389
Bear $ 354
when I started hunting in colorado
a combo deer & elk licence cost about $300
yes they are effectively pricing themselve out of the average guys ability to hunt colorado, and several other states as well
http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/top-colorado-otc-elk-hunt-units/
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...f-the-longest-shots-ive-made.6154/#post-51351
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...om-friends-over-your-choice.10059/#post-50694
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ecent-carbine-on-an-elk-hunt.9932/#post-40035
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/elk-hunting-tips.1095/#post-25711
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/jack-stopped-over-last-night.9854/#post-37534
and we got to reminisce , a bit about older hunting trips. some hunts are very memorable even if you personally don,t get any game.
for most of the males I know , hunting is almost looked at as an anual right, like many guys might view watching football or having a cold beer after a hot afternoon spent mowing the lawn, theres never a second wasted thinking about why you do it, you do it because you damn well enjoy the process and look forward to particapating all year long.
Yes theres a few good memories like sitting around a camp fire watching coffee boil and elk staeks sizzle and the ineviatble work, in dragging a 60 lb back pack out of some damn steep canyon on your acking back muscles, that sure seems to be a good deal longer distance to travel in the fast approaching dusk of late afternoon in swirling snow and frigid wind, trudging back up slope to camp than you remember the distance being traveling down the slope , in the early morning still air and fog, where you could see your breath fog up in the freezing air, while you work out the kinks in the muscles from sleeping on the ground in your sleepmh bag, and your only carrying only a 3/4 empty back-pack and your rifle.
I remember this hunt mostly for its rotten cold and wet weather, and the extreme physical effort it took too be back-packing the meat and horns out of an area that made the physical effort approach and at times probably exceed my reasonable abilities.
Any successful hunt starts with research, and that generally requires buying several topo maps of the area and a few calls to the local game management office well before the season to inquire about recent historical success rates, game population density's and hunter pressure levels and access to the area with detailed maps showing private VS BLM or public access and getting the areas regulations in print.
It also helps to have applied early for area permits and owning a accurate GPS sure helps!
nothing replaces on the site scouting, and a good pair of quality binoculars, 7 x to 10 x power helps, high quality helps, cheap binoculars won,t work well for long!
I purchased a set of swarovski binoculars 40 years ago for $379, 10/50 ,now they are considerably more ....they are really a bit too big and heavy, but the glasses are good quality.
but keep in mind good binoculars last a lifetime if well cared for,
(something fairly light weight and small enough that your not inclined to leave them in camp due to the bulk and weight, and something that has the, high quality too too be used efficiently at dusk)
this is usually more productive from a high ridge on a canyon so you can use your eyesight rather than hours of leg work to patiently but thoroughly look over large areas of timber and slopes in that territory when you arrive at your hunt area at least a day or so early if its at all possible to do so.
the area was north of RIFLE and north of GYPSUM, south of MEEKER
one in particular was rather difficult, we had decided to try scouting out what on the map and topo maps looked like a very promising area, but we soon found that the access was very difficult for anything but foot or horse traffic.
the local wardens, BLM or some agency had blocked all the road access from all directions with large felled trees across roads with signs nailed on them declaring access was only on foot or horseback.
the area was mostly a mix of heavy timber and steep meadows , there was a few old logging access roads we could use on foot but we were forced to camp on the rather large areas perimeter.
we had found a nice camp sight in a small open area in a group of conifer that was only about 100 yards off one of the logging access roads we did have access on, up to the blocking tree , limiting further access.
each morning we got up at or a bit before dawn,and seldom returned to camp until well after dark. at first we scouted the area extensively and found well used game travel trails, so we concentrated on those areas.
Hunted elk are not stupid, they want to stay in the thicker timber and steeper slopes and avoid the open meadows, during day light.
with experience you can look over an area and in many cases you can easily visualize the areas elk will tend to travel, where they will be in cover the majority of the time!
while this is NOT the area the picture shows similar terrain
this meant we were a bit limited in the area we could reasonably limited in the distance we could reasonably transport any elk we shot so we obviously needed to think about the consequences of dropping game more than a few miles from our campsite.
we both decided to find an area to basically sit and watch , where several ridges and small canyons both limited easy game travel routes and allowed a good rifle shot to have a good chance of seeing any game traveling through the area.
on the plus side the area was being lightly hunted as we seldom saw other hunters, compared to the areas that were almost looking like a pumpkin patch due to the orange jackets on hunters every few hundred feet that was not too uncommon on opening day of the hunting season in some areas.
Jack and I located several good areas the first day that showed promise as there was many fresh elk tracks , in the areas we checked and after a light snow, that fell, on the third day, of the hunt we saw several groups of both mule deer and elk,
but not a darn thing worth wasting a cartridge on.
this area was rather large and not very popular with hunters mostly because access was limited and you were going to have to back-pack out anything you shot up and over several steep ridges, and a long walk with a 60 lb-80 lb back-pack plus a rifle wears you down , and tends to limit the distance you cover every day.
Jack was using his browning (A-BOLT 375 H&H)
I was using my (SAKO 375H&H carbine)
we were seeing game every day, we were just not seeing anything near exceptional or even having the minimum 4 point per side antlers, we were by this time we were both familiar with hunting in Colorado as Jack had come along on at least three prior hunting trips with me to drive out to Colorado.
on the fifth , day it was windy and it snowed intermittently most of the day and fairly steady after about 4 pm, this and the wind and the dropping temps made just sitting rather miserable as it was in the below 30F temp range.
Jack had found a location about 600 yards further down an abandoned logging access road from my location.
the logging road we walked followed the terrain contours and slowly went first upward then over several curves in the terrain down ward into a series of canyons.
just before I was ready to get up and walk over to talk Jack into walking back to camp and making some hot coffee, I heard the dull thump of Jacks 375 H&H, in the distance, I watched the area in his direction for about 30 minute but saw no running Elk or Jack, so I packed my gear in my back-pack and slowly walked in the rapidly descending darkness , brisk gusts and constant snow falling to the area Id last seen Jack sitting.
I stood there for several minutes looking over the surrounding terrain, eventually I saw Jack waving in the distance down a rather steep incline from my current location.
as we dressed out, the elk, and boned out most of the meat, and placed it in 2 gallon ziploc bags we placed in the snow too cool,Jack said he had been about 90% asleep and freezing his butt off when out of the corner of his eye he saw movement, having gotten his attention , he slowly moved his rifle and bi-pod into position and judging the elk to be about 300 yards away and down slope about 20 degrees he had placed the horizontal cross hair in the scope on the elks back line, and squeezed off a shot, Jacks a darn good shot but there's no way to accurately judge range or declination on a rapidly moving target in the few seconds you'll generally have when hunting so experience and a good knowledge of your particular rifles trajectory helps a good deal! , now Jack sighted his rifle just like I sight mine at 3.5" high at 100 yards
so Jacks 375H&H rifle bullet impacted several inches higher on the elks shoulder than Jack had anticipated,
(Jack and I try hard to place shots that pass through the green area but in this case the shot hit the red area) Jack had mis-judged the range and hold on the target, this is hardly a rare deal when you have no way to accurately judge both the range and angle to a moving target.
but luckily for both of us the bullet had zipped through the lower edge of the spine between the shoulder blades, diagonally front too, off side,exiting too the rear a bit, and the elk had dropped instantly, it took a few seconds too expire from the shot ,according to jack, as the heart and lungs liver etc. were not destroyed with the high shot impact point, but It was dead when he got down the slope to it!
every time Jack or I used a 375 H&H or I used my 340 wby we were both impressed at the rifles ability to knock the hell out of the intended target and do extensive damage, which at extended range is not always the case with the smaller calibers like the 270 win or 30/06 , those calibers do deliver a lethal wound if the shot placements good but they don,t seem to have the same effect on game as rapidly as the 33-37 caliber rifles.
The next few hours were filled with dressing out jacks elk, roughly quartering it and packing it out with minimal lighting with at first flash lights then on the last couple trips a coleman lantern, as they provide decent light and a bit of heat to warm up your hands, which when your dressing out and packing out an elk, on your back-pack in 60 lb-70 lb trips over a couple miles of snow covered logging roads, is a small but pleasant help.
On that trip I remember I had used a KUKRI, knife, too cut several lodge pole pine poles, and drug those poles over to the dead elks location, to make a tri-pod and we used a small block and tackle, too lift his elk off the ground to make dressing it out much easier. after that trip Jack bought both a kukri and a similar block and tackle as he was more than a bit impressed with the ease of dressing out the elk with those tools.
I told Jack he should have talked the elk into standing next to a large oak tree with a sturdy branch at about 10-14 feet off the ground next time as it would have saved time and he was obviously just not thinking things through carefully if he shot an elk down in a narrow canyon with few trees.
the next morning we both decided that even though I had failed to see any elk worth shooting we would pack up and drive home.
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-resource/ballistics-calculator
http://www.handloads.com/calc/index.html
http://www.millettsights.com/downloads/shootinguphillanddownhill.pdf
http://www.millettsights.com/resources/shooting-tips/mathematics-for-precision-shooters/
http://www.rifleshootermag.com/network-topics/tips-tactics-network/hitting-a-high-or-low-angle-shot/
yes the cost has increased a great deal,
,over the last 45 years, when I first started hunting in Colorado we would get 3-4 guys , too drive out in a truck too split gas cost and drive out, too Colorado, driving strait through swapping drivers every 4-5 hours this generally took 44-47 hours.
total trip cost including over the counter licences was under $1200, now the cost is about $2300 if we spit the fuel cost three ways and buy , $1100 in deer/elk licences
we would occasionally arrange too rent a second truck and have to pick up a couple other guys who chose to fly into Denver ,the guys driving out would transport the bulk of equipment even for the guys we picked up who fly into Colorado, we would all camp in tents for 7-9 days while hunting
this led quickly too a firm adopted rule,
each person was limited to what would fit inside a single military style duffel bag,
and one hard side rifle case(and your back-pack needed to fit inside that single duffel bag along with the other gear, if that rule was not firmly enforced you would not ever believe the amount of crap some guys wanted to bring or transport.
yes we also transported a couple large coolers and a large tent for common use, but nothing else or the amount of equipment guys would want to pack ,would quickly , and vastly exceed the area available in a pick-up truck bed.
CURRENT COLORADO Nonresident License + Fishing Combo*
Elk, Cow $ 484
Elk, Bull or Either Sex $ 644
Deer $ 389
Moose $ 2,149
Pronghorn, Buck or Doe $ 389
Bear $ 354
when I started hunting in colorado
a combo deer & elk licence cost about $300
yes they are effectively pricing themselve out of the average guys ability to hunt colorado, and several other states as well
http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/top-colorado-otc-elk-hunt-units/
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...f-the-longest-shots-ive-made.6154/#post-51351
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...om-friends-over-your-choice.10059/#post-50694
http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...ecent-carbine-on-an-elk-hunt.9932/#post-40035
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/elk-hunting-tips.1095/#post-25711
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/jack-stopped-over-last-night.9854/#post-37534
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