First buck (N/A)

citationxjl

citationxjl

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
212
Location
Chandler, AZ
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Jeff
Shot my first buck this year. A nice 4 x 4 (or 8 pointer for some of you). I was up in ND hunting with some friends. I love hunting, not for the kill, but just being outside and watching the wildlife without them seeing you. I watched a few does and a buck just grazing in the harvested corn field. They were a little too far away, but I just watched them for about 45 minutes. It is so relaxing. Now back to AZ for work :( but at least my work is flying :) :)

Jeff
 
Still to this day one of my favorite hunts was tracking a 10 point elk for 3 days. He may have heard me once but he never saw or smelled me. He was always just out of a clean shot. Finally about mid-morning on the 3rd day I had a real good shot. I was really excited about it and had to take some time to calm down. Just as I was squeezing the trigger he was spooked by a boar that rushed out of the brush, he jumped over a fallen tree and was gone! At that point I figured I'd just hike back out. It was a thrill nonetheless.
 
Way to go, Jeff. Sounds like a nice deer. I got unicorn this year. He had busted off the right antler and the left side looked like a "spork" (You know, that combination spoon/fork thing). Even if the rack is a little lacking he was a nice bodied buck. I figured he would be the first one to show up, because I had been watching him for the last month.
I agree, just hanging around outside away from phones and beepers and such is nice. I had a pair of pileated woodpeckers working around my blind and a nuthatch tried to join me inside.

Barb
 
Congrats! My week of hunting every year is my mental health recovery week. I get to retreat to nature, the stresses are forgotten and I feel whole and alive again. It's a succesful hunt just getting out of town and into the mountains; it's a great hunt if we see animals and it's a wonderful hunt when we bring home some meat for the freezer. This year we (3 of us) brought home a buck and two cow elk. Looks like I need to go buy a bigger freezer, because I have half a buffalo scheduled for the end of the year and the current freezer's now full again!

Oh yeah, icing on the cake - tricked a few brookies out of some beaver ponds with a beat up old fly as well!
 
You know Greg, Elk are not impressing me very much as I'm used to eastern Whitetail deer. My wife, dog and I were near Estes Park today scoping out some cabins to rent next weekend for a little getaway. The cabins we were looking at had four Elk around them just hanging out. I could walk right up to them and pet them if I wanted to, but knowing that wild animals can be unpredictable I gave them a good 20 foot berth. Ha! Are these Elk just humanized? I wanted to tell them, I'd close my eyes and count to 100, then try to find them. :)
 
Anthony said:
You know Greg, Elk are not impressing me very much as I'm used to eastern Whitetail deer. My wife, dog and I were near Estes Park today scoping out some cabins to rent next weekend for a little getaway. The cabins we were looking at had four Elk around them just hanging out. I could walk right up to them and pet them if I wanted to, but knowing that wild animals can be unpredictable I gave them a good 20 foot berth. Ha! Are these Elk just humanized? I wanted to tell them, I'd close my eyes and count to 100, then try to find them. :)
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Ah, the "city elk vs country elk" :) Estes Park elk just really anger me! My wife and I spent a weekend in a cabin near Estes one year after I spent a week hunting and got skunked. She really gave me grief about not bagging an elk after seeing the herd walking thru downtown, and having a couple of spikes fog the cabin windows in the morning.

Just spend a week in the woods trying to stalk one of their wily country cousins to get close enough for a muzzleloader, only to get scented, heard, spotted or something else that spooks them and you'll quickly see the difference. Estes Park elk could get bagged with a 5 iron on the golf course, or a purse or shopping cart on main street, but out in the wild, it's a whole 'nuther story!

I read somewhere that the average in Colorado for bagging elk is about once every 5 years or so. I know guys that skew that number drastically, as they seem to get one every year, but I'm about on the average.
 
gkainz said:
Ah, the "city elk vs country elk" :) Estes Park elk just really anger me!
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I know Greg, I was just kidding you. The Estes Elk crack me up. We may take one home as a pet. :)
 
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