Ive got a good friend Ive known for many years that wanted to get his first ELK,hes a decent hunter, but he tends to need help, the problem, is FRANK, is just not all that comfortable being out on his own and hes got lets say less than a great sense of direction, once hes a few hundred yards into an area where he can,t see camp.
this hunt took place in the 1970s, so Ive got to say things have slowly improved, but let me set the stage....
its still dark on the night before opening day of elk season and several friends of mine and franks have arrived in our ELK camp with a goal of getting frank his first ELK,we drove up 20 plus miles of old logging roads, and parked our trucks at the upper reaches of a series of canyons,we walked across, a mile of rolling hills and down into the upper canyon area.we have backpacked into our main hunt area, starting at about 3AM into the upper reaches of a series of steep canyons in good elk country that we have hunted for over a dozen years to an area where three separate canyons converge in a meadow, and a larger fourth canyon slopes away, for about 7 miles to an area where the majority of the areas hunters park and camp where two of the canyons have decent size streams flowing together and the third canyon has a much smaller stream that flows into the meadow. we placed frank about 200 yards up from the valley floor on a large rock ridge that borders a very steep side canyon in one of the main canyons, we also placed a old vest smeared with vicks and gasoline several hundred yards up the far canyon slope from franks position so any deer or elk that get that far will tend to double back past frank, we covered frank with a camo tarp and told him to remain on the ledge and keep quite as we drive ELK up canyon, knowing from past experience that on opening day that there will be a small army of hunters that proceed slowly up the main, lower canyon ,slowly sweeping thru miles of sage and aspen,many miles down stream and while those guys will drop several elk and mule deer, during the process their main, contribution will be to push the vast majority of the elk in the drainage's, up thru the main wide canyon and up into the three higher, narrow canyons, one of which is covered by franks rifle.
what frank does,t know is that the day prior I walked in and hung a couple orange vests, smeared with vicks and several cheap wrist watches with alarm buzzers, on trees in the mouths of the two other canyons with the watches in the vest pockets set or buzz at 30 minute intervals, starting at 15 minutes before dawn , that should scare the crap out of any game channeling them up the target canyon frank guards.
come dawn,three of us are watching the same canyon franks watching but further up canyon to drop any mule deer, or elk frank missed . as its still easy for ELK to bye-pass frank walking up the far slope in the conifers, but at about 7am, frank sees his first ELK, and I'm beside him, he is nervous, and excited, but he knows nothing about our plans,
as the barely legal 4 point elk starts to sneak past frank, he gets into a sitting position, remembering to use his bi-pod and sling only when I remind him, he raised his Winchester 30/06 loaded with 190 grain hornady bullets over a stiff load of H4831, and looked thru his 4x weaver scope at the ELK at about 70 yards as it trotted thru sparse aspen along the lower slope, never noticing frank
At the rifle shot the ELK staggered but retained his feet and burst into a run, frank stood and fired twice more at the departing cream colored elks butt, as it disappeared up canyon.
frank was very upset, until I calmed him down and assured him that I saw a decent hit, on the ELK, while franks not a great shot, he had managed to put the single decent bullet hit into the lungs and the elk only made it about 80 yards before dropping, he had hit the elk a second time in the lower left rear leg, but it was the first,lung shot that counted.
I and two of the other guys in camp,helped frank dress and back-pack out his ELK, while listening to him recount his hunt, we all grinned, yes we rigged the game, but I felt good to get a fellow hunter addicted to hunting ELK and finally become successful after 5 years of hunting ELK without success
this hunt took place in the 1970s, so Ive got to say things have slowly improved, but let me set the stage....
its still dark on the night before opening day of elk season and several friends of mine and franks have arrived in our ELK camp with a goal of getting frank his first ELK,we drove up 20 plus miles of old logging roads, and parked our trucks at the upper reaches of a series of canyons,we walked across, a mile of rolling hills and down into the upper canyon area.we have backpacked into our main hunt area, starting at about 3AM into the upper reaches of a series of steep canyons in good elk country that we have hunted for over a dozen years to an area where three separate canyons converge in a meadow, and a larger fourth canyon slopes away, for about 7 miles to an area where the majority of the areas hunters park and camp where two of the canyons have decent size streams flowing together and the third canyon has a much smaller stream that flows into the meadow. we placed frank about 200 yards up from the valley floor on a large rock ridge that borders a very steep side canyon in one of the main canyons, we also placed a old vest smeared with vicks and gasoline several hundred yards up the far canyon slope from franks position so any deer or elk that get that far will tend to double back past frank, we covered frank with a camo tarp and told him to remain on the ledge and keep quite as we drive ELK up canyon, knowing from past experience that on opening day that there will be a small army of hunters that proceed slowly up the main, lower canyon ,slowly sweeping thru miles of sage and aspen,many miles down stream and while those guys will drop several elk and mule deer, during the process their main, contribution will be to push the vast majority of the elk in the drainage's, up thru the main wide canyon and up into the three higher, narrow canyons, one of which is covered by franks rifle.
what frank does,t know is that the day prior I walked in and hung a couple orange vests, smeared with vicks and several cheap wrist watches with alarm buzzers, on trees in the mouths of the two other canyons with the watches in the vest pockets set or buzz at 30 minute intervals, starting at 15 minutes before dawn , that should scare the crap out of any game channeling them up the target canyon frank guards.
come dawn,three of us are watching the same canyon franks watching but further up canyon to drop any mule deer, or elk frank missed . as its still easy for ELK to bye-pass frank walking up the far slope in the conifers, but at about 7am, frank sees his first ELK, and I'm beside him, he is nervous, and excited, but he knows nothing about our plans,
as the barely legal 4 point elk starts to sneak past frank, he gets into a sitting position, remembering to use his bi-pod and sling only when I remind him, he raised his Winchester 30/06 loaded with 190 grain hornady bullets over a stiff load of H4831, and looked thru his 4x weaver scope at the ELK at about 70 yards as it trotted thru sparse aspen along the lower slope, never noticing frank
At the rifle shot the ELK staggered but retained his feet and burst into a run, frank stood and fired twice more at the departing cream colored elks butt, as it disappeared up canyon.
frank was very upset, until I calmed him down and assured him that I saw a decent hit, on the ELK, while franks not a great shot, he had managed to put the single decent bullet hit into the lungs and the elk only made it about 80 yards before dropping, he had hit the elk a second time in the lower left rear leg, but it was the first,lung shot that counted.
I and two of the other guys in camp,helped frank dress and back-pack out his ELK, while listening to him recount his hunt, we all grinned, yes we rigged the game, but I felt good to get a fellow hunter addicted to hunting ELK and finally become successful after 5 years of hunting ELK without success