A Hunting We Will Go...

October was hunting season for our family.  The first two weekends of the month were the Elk Hunt.  Russell had never been elk hunting before so he purchased a Spike Elk tag this year.  Russell, Clint and my dad headed out opening day to try and get the big one (well the big spike).  I will let Russell tell you that fun story now.  Needless to say it was a deer camp (or elk camp) experience from what I heard. They sounded like a bunch of bickering old women when they came home.  My mom and I were glad we stayed home and watched conference!

My turn for what really happened on our fearless elk hunt. We left town at about 9 pm on Friday night and headed up to Indian Peaks where Clint said the big ones would be. We arrived there about 11 pm. After getting the trailer taken care of, Clint and I went off on a four wheeler ride up the road to see if we could hear the elk. As we pulled up to where Clint saw them when he was up there a week ago, we turned off the four wheelers and listened. The whole hill side was full of elk bugling, we got way excited for the morning hunt. The morning of the hunt, was early and cold. We woke up about 5 am and had pop tarts and water for breakfast, got everything ready to go and headed out about 6 am for a long hike. As soon as the sun was breaking through, the bugling began. We heard them all around us, but we did not physically see one. The closest we came was about fifty yards in front of us, we heard a big bull elk in the trees. There were fresh signs everywhere, but no real elk. We hiked till about 10:30 am and figured we would head back to camp for a bite to eat. Needless to say, every time Clint and I are together, we end up getting lost. We finally found the road and started hiking in what we thought was the right direction back to camp, but instead was the opposite direction. As we were taking our fun little hike on the road, it was just our luck to run into a Ranger from the DNR. Clint had his gun and no license, so the ranger asked for mine and I pulled it out and showed him. He asked for Clint's and Clint told him he was my guide and he was coyote hunting also. The ranger asked Clint what caliber his gun was, Clint answered a 270, and the ranger stated that is a big gun for coyotes. I finally piped in and told the ranger we don't plan on being stupid it is not worth losing everything for poaching. He agreed and that was that. We asked him if he saw a camp from the direction he came, he said no. He said have a fun hunt and off he went. As the dust kicked up around us we said to ourselves thanks for giving us a ride. About 5 minutes later, the ranger came back and said he found our camp about two miles up. Holy cow we thought we missed camp by a long shot, so we jumped in the back of his truck and he took us to camp. The whole trip was fun and relaxing. It was nice to be outside and doing whatever we wanted. After a long needed nap, food and water, we went back out about 3 pm and stayed out till dark with still nothing to be seen. There was a few shots going off around us but no shots coming from us. There were so many four wheeling trails up on that mountain, it was amazing to spend all day taking these trails. That night Clint decided to make a camp fire to cook hot dogs. The part that was funny about the whole trip was as soon as it was pitch dark the elk started to make their music all over the mountain. Clint and I just looked at each other and shook our heads. Sunday was our last effort to get the big one. Needless to say it was a good two hour hike with not a single sign. As my father-in-law says, "A good hunt is a hunt where you come home empty handed, because if you get one then the hard and dirty work begins." I would have loved the hard work and dirty work to say that I got an elk.Oh well it is what it is, we all had a great time.

As a last ditch effort to get an elk, we decided to head out as a family back to Indian Peaks.

Yes there is the fearless hunter (with babe in arms) scoping out the area for any signs of elk.

And here are Emily and Colby collecting sticks to use as swords and being as noisy as possible.  Yeah there was no way we were finding an elk this day.  Oh and to top it off, in the rush to load everything in the truck to make the trip, Russell forgot his rifle.  He remembered when we were an hour from home and there was no turning back.  Russell did have his 9mm so if by some miraculous chance we did see an elk he was going to use that!  About 5 minutes into the "hunt", the kids were being kids and were stepping on every stick and twig and throwing rocks and making noise.  Russell turned to me and said "We're just going for a hike, huh."  I said "Yep" and we kept on walking.

We saw many signs of elk including fresh prints and poop but no elk.  Darn it.  To tell you the truth I was kind of glad because I wouldn't know what to do with an elk if we had shot one with all of the kids.  After our hunt/hike, we headed back to the truck for hot dogs before heading home.  What a fun day.

The next weekend was the opening of the deer hunt.  Unlike two years ago, Russell didn't get a deer on the opening day so we were able to go "hunting" with him during the week.  I didn't take any pictures but the story was pretty similar to the elk hunt.  We went hunting out near the turkey farm road because that was where Clint shot his big buck a couple days before.  It ended up being a fun hike and 4-wheeler ride with the kids again.  Emily and Colby started complaining their feet hurt so we spent about an hour chilling under a tree while Russell hiked around.  Then we happened to meet up with Clint and Trevor and Russell took Emily and Colby on the four-wheeler in search for more deer.  With no luck we headed home at dark.

Russell went out on the final day of the hunt with Clint and my dad and like the fearless hunter he is... brought home the bacon or in this case venison:

The deer hunt was just as fun as the elk hunt. The opening day we went up to Utah hill and hiked and four wheeled all over that mountain looking for the big one.Tyler, Clint, Terry, Braden and I got going about 6:30 am. We went up to an area where we saw a herd of about 20 or so with a few good bucks in the herd. Clint said if we go up a little further and hike up to the next ridge we can get a better view and shot, so that is what we did. As we were hiking, getting tired and thirsty, trying to get up to the top of this hill, here comes Clint on his four wheeler saying, "Anyone want a ride." We glared at him and I thought to myself what was I thinking for walking. As we got to one side of the hill Clint saw to bucks in the trees. I looked at one and it was a big three point, so I took aim and fired. I thought I was right on, but I was off. I loaded again and took aim, now I was getting buck fever. I shot at the dirt in front of him. As I loaded the last bullet, it hit me holy crap I left my bullets at the four wheeler. Clint looked at me and said, "Are you kidding me." So after that little adventure, we hiked onward kicking myself that I forgot my bullets. Thank goodness I had Tyler, he ran back to the four wheeler and got my bullets, what a good brother. As we hiked on we push more deer out of the trees and saw the herd we were watching up on top of the hill. Now it was Clint's turn to take aim and fire. There was another big buck in the herd on top of the hill. He fired and missed too. The sad thing about watching that herd go over the saddle was, as soon as they went over, a few minutes later there was about five shots fired. Clint and I looked at each other and said that was our buck. For our last ditch effort to see if we could get the buck that was still hiding, we went to the top of the saddle. As we rested we watched the doe that went over come running back towards us. Once again the bucks were no where to be seen. The whole day was like this: we hiked and we saw three other good size bucks, but I could not hit a broad side of the barn and missed every single one. Terry told me the reason I was missing was because I never ran over my gun for good luck.We all laughed at his comment, because last time I got a deer I ran over my gun prior to shooting the deer. The rest of the day was fun Clint found a few good spots that he pushed some deer out of the trees. I even got him mad at me for a minute, he told me to look over this area and don't go anywhere as he went to the top of this hill to see if he could see anything. So I started looking and saw nothing, Terry started to go up the road a little, so I figured I could get a better view from the other end. As I was on the other end, I heard Clint on the radio saying "Get over here and why the heck are you over there." So I rushed over there and I saw a bunch of deer coming out of the trees, I am an idiot why did I move. Clint said I could have had a 100 yard shot but instead I was clear over there and because it took so long to get back it turned into a 400 yard shot. Clint looked at me and said "Stay right here by me, do as I do and you will get a deer." I was laughing and smiling when he said this because he was pissed. Oh well. All in all no luck on opening day and the next time I could get out was Friday. As you read from Tiffany's story we went out as a family on Friday and had a great time. Saturday, the day before the last day of the hunt, we went out again to Utah hill. As we got up there and prepared for our first hiking adventure, Terry said to me, "Russell you better run over your gun before we go anywhere." I said "You're right," so I laid my gun behind my four wheeler and threatened to run over it. Now we were ready to shoot the big one. It wasn't long after I christened my gun, Clint saw a buck on the mountain behind us, so we both took off for the four wheelers. We got to the place where he saw it and there it was a pretty good two point about 100 yards out. I took aim missed once, I was not having round two of last Saturday, so I took aim again, fired and it dropped. I was excited. The hike to it was tiring but it was worth it when I saw the deer lying there. There was some humor in this deer as you can see from the picture above. In the binoculars there looked like there were two antlers, but when I got up there and moved the head, one of his antlers were missing from what looked like it was shot off. After gutting it and hanging it in a tree to come back for it later, we went off to get Terry's deer. We did not get it until about 10 minutes before sunset. Terry got a two by three at about 70 yards out. The whole deer hunting season was a success we all got our deer and had fun while doing it. 

We spent Sunday after church butchering three deer and wrapping up all the meat.  Now our freezer is full of meat for the winter!  Yeah! 

There was one funny story about the deer hunt.  When Russell came home to tell us about his hunting experience, he said he saw a huge buck.  He said they could tell it was a huge buck because they could see its "crown jewels."  Without missing a beat, Emily said "Why was the deer wearing jewels, Dad?  Was it a girl?"  Russell and I could not stop laughing!  How do you explain that one to your 5 year old?