It was nice to pack the thunder stick around a little. To bad I didnt let her thunder a little. :depressed:
Hiked for a hour in the dark saturday morning with a flashlight to get to the high meadow I wanted to hunt at daylight. The good news is I had the place to myself, the bad news is I didnt so much as see a track.
After I see a dozen elk with a nice bull across the canyon, I stumble back to the truck where I had my bow and bow tag for elk. I drive around the hill to find my brother to see if he is packing buck yet. I find him parked along the road with a buddy from Tillamook and they are watching a nice 4x4 buck bedded in the Ceanosis (sp). I would guestimate the width at between 18 and 20 and he was a little taller than wide, very spindly horned. The buddy from tillamook had sent 3 people down the hill trying to get within shooting range. My brother had let a little forked horn go earlier (he is a logger and will see lots of buck before season is over
). We are looking right at 1000 yards and shooting across the canyon was the only chance to get a shot. The 3 "gunners" (I would use s-h-o-o-t-e-r-s but the word filter wont let me) over the hill trying to get closer, finally they radio they are 475 yards (range finder) and cant cut anymore off the distance. The buck kept standing up and turning around and laying back down while the gunners went down the hill. Finally the buck stood up again when the gunners were set they take the first shot. The buck takes a couple steps and goes in the brush. We are all chatting on the radio trying to decide if it was hit. It is a concensus he is not hit but we are not sure. The buck has to cross several openings to get to the timber. The buck had ducked into a little patch of brush about the size of a bedroom. We wait and wait and nothing is going on. Finally we see brush flailing in the lower edge. We can see horns thru the spotting scope in the patch of brush. We wait paitently for another 5 - 10 minutes as we see these horns and brush moving. We cant see the animal just the horns as he moves around. Finally the buck steps out and is eating that brush he was moving around. The buck didnt even know he was being hunted. :whazzup:
The gunners open up again. It probably sounded like WWIII for a couple minutes. My brother had drove around and got on the top of the clearcut the buck was in while we waited. One guy had stopped and looked over the edge and couldnt see anything and got in his truck and drove off, he didnt even know there was buck below him that had just been shot at. My brother is about 150 yards from the buck but he cant see any of the hillside below him as the brush is too deep to see over/around. When the gunners opened up the second time, my brother ducked in behind a log
One gunner shot 7 times, the other shot 5 times and the third shot 8 times I think it was. I dont know all the calibers, but one guy had a 378 necked down to a 338 he told me. :shocked: It sounded a little big for a deer, but I guess he was trying to kill, clean and process the steaks with the shot. This buck walks down the hill, and into the timber without really ever running. The gunners couldnt touch it.
They spend the next couple hours looking for blood to no avail.
late Saturday night my bro and I go up on a ridge just before dark and bugle for elk. We have 3 bulls answering us and one was really hot. The problem was it was almost dark and he was in the bottom of the big deep timber canyon. We bugle back and forth for about 30 minutes. This one bull is ticked, :smile: He is just screaming down there. We get back to the truck right at dark and the bull is still tearing things up down there. This morning I take the bow and go back up on the ridge and couldnt so much as rustle up a single elk, chirp, bark, bugle or bad scent. Came home seeing only a couple does today. Where did they go?????????
Saturday, we had a bear cross the road in front of us. He stood on the side of the road for several minutes, as my brother and myself kept trying to talk the other into shooting it. I guess I just didnt have any desire to kill a bear. The tag comes with the sport pac, and I guess I wont be using it again. The bear was pretty cool looking as he walked back and forth on that log at 50 yards. :smile:
Saw several grouse again, to bad I didnt throw the shot gun in this weekend.
High Cascade hunt Whos going out?
In other words GOOD LUCK!
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