Fuzzy
September 23, 2002, 12:05 AM
I posted earlier that I was going on my first elk hunt. The trip had great potential but in the end, was a total waste of time, money, and effort.
A friend and I put in for an elk hunt together. We went quail and dove hunting several time last year and talk regularly in the gym. I thought he was a pretty good buddy but I'm thinking I was wrong.
Our tags were good from sunrise Friday through sunset on Monday and our agreement was that whoever got an elk first would 'bird-dog' it for the other guy until he got his. These were 'any elk' tags so we could take cows or bulls.
I wanted to camp but, since he was bringing his son who for some reason is afraid of such things I agreed to split a motel room with them.
We headed up there Thursday morning, taking 2 trucks since neither of ours could hold 2 elk. We get in right after lunch, put our stuff away and then head out to the hunting area, about a 30 minute drive away. We scout around a bit, trying to figure out which part of the area the elk are in now. We find a few promising areas and head back at sundown.
We get up on Friday but his son is pretty sluggish in getting going and we don't get out there until after 7 am. We park and head out to the canyon that looked promising. We glass the canyon for several hours, moving a few times to try to different vantage points. We stay about 1/2 a mile apart and keep in contact via our 2 way radios. At about 10:30 we hadn't seen anything and decide to head back to the trucks for a quick snack and then head to another area. The area is fairly heavily wooded with lots of short fat trees which limit visibility fro a maximum of 80 yards or so. We follow a game trail back and as we head around a corner we see a small heard of elk with two huge bulls in it. They see us at the same time and bolt so we split of to try to stalk them down. We ran into them one more time, my buddy getting a desperation shot off which missed.
We decided to stay in the area and try to hook up with that heard again, keeping near the one water source that we had found. As dark approaches, we are waiting in the field next to the tank, about 150 yards apart. We hear some cows calling off in the field and moved in to investigate. Two cows were calling from my buddy's side of the field. He had a nice 200 yard shot at one but they were both too far for me. He takes a shot and sees it trip, just as the sun is setting. I move in to try to get a shot at the other cow, but she spooks and moves further back. By now the sun is down and hunting ends for the day. We looked for his cow but couldn't find it in the dark. We though that he killed it, but he could have missed and it just tripped while running away.
We came back the next day (Saturday) and found he cow, shot through the heart, and by now very bloated. After taking a few pictures we start to gut her. After he starts I point out to him that he had forgotten to cut around the anus but he just says something and keeps doing what he is doing. When he pulls the guts out, the colon tears apart spilling a lot of feces inside his kill. He does nothing and goes to get his game slide. We are on a private ranch next to the national forest. The rancher allows hunting but doesn't allow vehicles so we get the elk on the slide and start pulling her the 1/4 mile to the boundary. The ground is pretty rough, she's pretty heavy, he not in great cardio-vascular shape, and he didn't bring a deer drag so this whole ordeal takes the better part of the morning. Finally we get her to the trucks and he ask if he can use my pickup to take her to the processor so he won't mess up the inside of his SUV. I agree and he heads off to the processor. By now it's getting pretty hot so I head off to try to figure out where the elk are sleeping. I have no luck and he gets back just as I'm finishing lunch, at about 1:30 pm. By now it's getting close to 80 degrees outside so we decide to wait out the heat and to try to catch that other cow that we had seen the night before near the water tank. We wait for her, but she doesn't show up. Oh well, I still have two more days - or so I thought.
After we get back, he announces to me that he needs to get his son back to Tucson and that he would be leaving first thing in the morning. I try to contain my anger since he's basically ruining my hunt. I keep my cool and don't say anything since I don't want to embarrass him in front of his son. With the temperatures as high as the were, I severely doubted that I could get an elk to the processor before it spoiled by myself. I figure the only way I could salvage my hunt is to get out there in the morning and try to get a kill before he leaves. Then I could get him on the phone and get him to come help.
The next morning (sunday) I get out to the field at sunrise and start checking the places the we'd seen elk. Everything is coming up dry but, at about 7:15, I hear a cow, then I hear a bull bugle in return. This goes back and fourth a few times and I'm able to get a real good idea where that bull is. I move in quietly, not being able to see him through the trees but figuring that I'm about 200 - 300 yards away. Then, I hear a rifle shot and a few seconds later, I hear another. I figure that either the bull or the cow is dead but I keep moving, hoping that I can catch the other. Two minutes later, another rifle shot. I figure that both are either dead or too far away for me to get to in time. I check out a few other areas and for some reason, head back to the hotel to see if he's had a change of heart. I catch him as he's leaving and he invites me to go to the processor with him. I agree to go, mainly to ask the processor if it's worth trying to finish the hunt alone.
We get there and find out due to the heat and the smearing of feces inside his kill, that a portion of the back end of the animal was infected with e-coli and had to be cut out and thrown away. He warns that it might have spread to other areas and that if it's in the bones, the whole animal might be lost. My partner asks for a few steaks to be cut off for him to take home and I ask the processor how quickly a kill must get to him in the heat. He tells me that in the current conditions a kill should sit no more than 2 - 3 hours in the day time before it get to his cooler. He says that he's had guys bring in kills older than that and he's had to send them away because the meat was already rotten.
So my hopes of a good hunt were killed. Dejected, I got back in my truck and headed home.
So, my question is, am I being too harsh by deciding to never hunt with this guy again? I don't think so, I thought that I worked with him on every aspect of this hunt and then he just abandoned me, ruining my hunt. I'm supposed to go on a deer hunt with him in November, but I'm thinking that I'm going to do that one alone and put in with some other hunters next year.
A friend and I put in for an elk hunt together. We went quail and dove hunting several time last year and talk regularly in the gym. I thought he was a pretty good buddy but I'm thinking I was wrong.
Our tags were good from sunrise Friday through sunset on Monday and our agreement was that whoever got an elk first would 'bird-dog' it for the other guy until he got his. These were 'any elk' tags so we could take cows or bulls.
I wanted to camp but, since he was bringing his son who for some reason is afraid of such things I agreed to split a motel room with them.
We headed up there Thursday morning, taking 2 trucks since neither of ours could hold 2 elk. We get in right after lunch, put our stuff away and then head out to the hunting area, about a 30 minute drive away. We scout around a bit, trying to figure out which part of the area the elk are in now. We find a few promising areas and head back at sundown.
We get up on Friday but his son is pretty sluggish in getting going and we don't get out there until after 7 am. We park and head out to the canyon that looked promising. We glass the canyon for several hours, moving a few times to try to different vantage points. We stay about 1/2 a mile apart and keep in contact via our 2 way radios. At about 10:30 we hadn't seen anything and decide to head back to the trucks for a quick snack and then head to another area. The area is fairly heavily wooded with lots of short fat trees which limit visibility fro a maximum of 80 yards or so. We follow a game trail back and as we head around a corner we see a small heard of elk with two huge bulls in it. They see us at the same time and bolt so we split of to try to stalk them down. We ran into them one more time, my buddy getting a desperation shot off which missed.
We decided to stay in the area and try to hook up with that heard again, keeping near the one water source that we had found. As dark approaches, we are waiting in the field next to the tank, about 150 yards apart. We hear some cows calling off in the field and moved in to investigate. Two cows were calling from my buddy's side of the field. He had a nice 200 yard shot at one but they were both too far for me. He takes a shot and sees it trip, just as the sun is setting. I move in to try to get a shot at the other cow, but she spooks and moves further back. By now the sun is down and hunting ends for the day. We looked for his cow but couldn't find it in the dark. We though that he killed it, but he could have missed and it just tripped while running away.
We came back the next day (Saturday) and found he cow, shot through the heart, and by now very bloated. After taking a few pictures we start to gut her. After he starts I point out to him that he had forgotten to cut around the anus but he just says something and keeps doing what he is doing. When he pulls the guts out, the colon tears apart spilling a lot of feces inside his kill. He does nothing and goes to get his game slide. We are on a private ranch next to the national forest. The rancher allows hunting but doesn't allow vehicles so we get the elk on the slide and start pulling her the 1/4 mile to the boundary. The ground is pretty rough, she's pretty heavy, he not in great cardio-vascular shape, and he didn't bring a deer drag so this whole ordeal takes the better part of the morning. Finally we get her to the trucks and he ask if he can use my pickup to take her to the processor so he won't mess up the inside of his SUV. I agree and he heads off to the processor. By now it's getting pretty hot so I head off to try to figure out where the elk are sleeping. I have no luck and he gets back just as I'm finishing lunch, at about 1:30 pm. By now it's getting close to 80 degrees outside so we decide to wait out the heat and to try to catch that other cow that we had seen the night before near the water tank. We wait for her, but she doesn't show up. Oh well, I still have two more days - or so I thought.
After we get back, he announces to me that he needs to get his son back to Tucson and that he would be leaving first thing in the morning. I try to contain my anger since he's basically ruining my hunt. I keep my cool and don't say anything since I don't want to embarrass him in front of his son. With the temperatures as high as the were, I severely doubted that I could get an elk to the processor before it spoiled by myself. I figure the only way I could salvage my hunt is to get out there in the morning and try to get a kill before he leaves. Then I could get him on the phone and get him to come help.
The next morning (sunday) I get out to the field at sunrise and start checking the places the we'd seen elk. Everything is coming up dry but, at about 7:15, I hear a cow, then I hear a bull bugle in return. This goes back and fourth a few times and I'm able to get a real good idea where that bull is. I move in quietly, not being able to see him through the trees but figuring that I'm about 200 - 300 yards away. Then, I hear a rifle shot and a few seconds later, I hear another. I figure that either the bull or the cow is dead but I keep moving, hoping that I can catch the other. Two minutes later, another rifle shot. I figure that both are either dead or too far away for me to get to in time. I check out a few other areas and for some reason, head back to the hotel to see if he's had a change of heart. I catch him as he's leaving and he invites me to go to the processor with him. I agree to go, mainly to ask the processor if it's worth trying to finish the hunt alone.
We get there and find out due to the heat and the smearing of feces inside his kill, that a portion of the back end of the animal was infected with e-coli and had to be cut out and thrown away. He warns that it might have spread to other areas and that if it's in the bones, the whole animal might be lost. My partner asks for a few steaks to be cut off for him to take home and I ask the processor how quickly a kill must get to him in the heat. He tells me that in the current conditions a kill should sit no more than 2 - 3 hours in the day time before it get to his cooler. He says that he's had guys bring in kills older than that and he's had to send them away because the meat was already rotten.
So my hopes of a good hunt were killed. Dejected, I got back in my truck and headed home.
So, my question is, am I being too harsh by deciding to never hunt with this guy again? I don't think so, I thought that I worked with him on every aspect of this hunt and then he just abandoned me, ruining my hunt. I'm supposed to go on a deer hunt with him in November, but I'm thinking that I'm going to do that one alone and put in with some other hunters next year.