Once again I'll take the liberty of starting a thread about their hunt. Bug called me last night wanting to know if I had room to hang a couple elk. Well with renovations going on in the back of my shop and warm temperatures I wasn't sure where to put them where they would be "safe", but with cooler temps this morning the old cow shed across the road looked pretty good. So about 1030 this morning they showed up with their elk and a muley doe.  After a few minutes to catch up and getting to see gitano's "new" rifle we headed down to the cow shed to hang their critters. I had to give gitano a ride in the Bronco that was still up on stands in the shop last time he was here just so he didn't have to ride in the back seat of Bug's new truck. He looked a bit cramped back there to me .

We got the animals hung and now they should cool down nicely. The rafters in the cow shed are a bit short for hanging "full-size" elk in one piece but these had plenty of room.

After a short visit with them they were off to see if they could fill some more tags for the rest of the "wild bunch".

Good luck guys!!


RJ

Hmmm I wonder if they had any excitement like last year? I seem to recall some trouble with a stove and tent  anyhow I at least look forward to the story and of course the photos .

Sounds to be a good start byall. Keep us posted.

At least this time,

no tent fires
everbodies gun functioned as it was supposed to
they remembered guns/ammo/cameras
they haven't had to borrow one of my rifles/ammo/camera .  . . . . . . . . . yet.
But they know they could if they ABSOLUTELY had to.

But it ain't over yet!!!

That reminds me Bug still owes me beer for the forgotten rifle. It's actually his fault you know. I'm thinkin' some Werestiener Vernum MMMMMM.



RJ

Good to hear they are having a successfull  hunt.
 
Can't wait for the "stories" to appear!
 
Hunt hard guys and have fun

Well, here's the beginning, and I'll keep it short for the moment as I just got home yesterday afternoon, and I'm still settling back in.
 
Only HB and I got critters, and after the three we hung at RJ's, HB only got one more doe. The elk simply weren't there. We saw zero live elk, and the only dead ones were ones that had come off of high private property. As RJ mentioned, the weather was hot, and the elk were still in the high country. By the time the weather cooled, we were basically out of hunting time.
 
I shot my doe off of some State Trust land called Rattlesnake Hill. If you have google Earth loaded, the latitude and longitude coordinates are 40*22'29.11"N by 108*04'02.43"W.
 
I'll relate "the rest of the story" a bit later, with pictures. I will say now though that I am very pleased with the performance of the 8mm SLT with the 220 Sierra.
 
As usual, thanks to RJ - "our man in Craig" - for his very generous help.
 
Paul

Quote from: gitano;85572Well, here's the beginning, and I'll keep it short for the moment as I just got home yesterday afternoon, and I'm still settling back in.
 
Only HB and I got critters, and after the three we hung at RJ's, HB only got one more doe. The elk simply weren't there. We saw zero live elk, and the only dead ones were ones that had come off of high private property. As RJ mentioned, the weather was hot, and the elk were still in the high country. By the time the weather cooled, we were basically out of hunting time.
 
I shot my doe off of some State Trust land called Rattlesnake Hill. If you have google Earth loaded, the latitude and longitude coordinates are 40*22'29.11"N by 108*04'02.43"W.
 
I'll relate "the rest of the story" a bit later, with pictures. I will say now though that I am very pleased with the performance of the 8mm SLT with the 220 Sierra.
 
As usual, thanks to RJ - "our man in Craig" - for his very generous help.
 
Paul

Thanks for the hunting spot Paul.....
 
Sounds like you guys had a great time!  Congrats!!! :)

Good work, Paul.
I look forward to seeing some pics.

yes, patiently waiting to see some pics also. God Bless.

I'll let Gitano do most of the story telling as he does a better job than I do. The weather was hot for the first part of the season and the hunting was tough. I've never had to work so hard to kill a doe in my life. We were thankfull that RJ had a place for us to hang the critters to keep them cool and away from prying eyes. Having 2 elk hanging in camp can make you a VERY popular person when no one else is seeing them. This summer I may have to go up there and make a meat shed at RJs place for next year. Actually I have a trailer that I am planning on building a insulated box on the back to hang meat in.

 
I took off from Anchorage on Wednesday, October 29 at something like 0030 in the morning in order to arrive in Denver at approximately 1000. Things must be getting better with TSA, as I had no problems with guns or baggage. Hunterbug picked me up at the airport, and we went directly to the gun club to which he belongs so I could check the rifles, and let him get a chance to shoot them should he choose to use one or both when he was hunting. Neither rifle's zero was altered in transit, so we got 'on' pretty quickly, but we hung around the range for a couple of hours.
 
Those of you that have followed the development and building of the 8mm Steyr Long Throat and .375x.284 Win, will recall that I was working diligently to get both ready for this hunt with Hunterbug. Almost at the last minute, I was able to get both shooting satisfactorily enough to be willing to take them on a long-distance big game hunt.
 
It was a good thing I brought loads for "hot" weather, as it was easily in the 70's when we finished about 1400. I had loaded Sierra 220s for the 8mm and 260-grain Accubonds for the .375 for an ambient temperature of 70 degrees F. For an ambient temperature of 45 degrees F, I had loaded Hornady 195s for the 8mm and 300 BTSPs for the .375.
 
In spite of completely re-doing the .375's crown and glass bedding the forend, it still only shot about 2 MoA-ish. While that's OK for an elk-sized critter, it certainly wasn't confidence-inspiring. It was too hot to shoot the 300-grainers. Turned out, the precision of the .375 was irrelevant. The SLT shot very well for me (sub-MoA) with the Sierra 220 BTSPs, but it was too hot to shoot the Hornady 195s.
 
We spent the rest of the day getting various sundries we needed. We planned to leave HB's house about 1100 on Thursday morning. That would put us in camp at about 1600 to 1700. Another friend of HB's – Charlie – was going to meet us at HB's house at 1100, and we were going to travel together to the hunting grounds. We were also meeting some of HB's relatives – his father-in-law and one of his uncles-in-law – in Rifle where we would gas up and get Charlie an over-the-counter bull elk tag and HB an additional cow elk tag at WalMart.
 
As is often the case, the best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray. We got a later start than 1100, and the folks at WalMart were "under duress". I think it took us at least an hour to get out of WalMart when it should have taken about 10 or 15 minutes. Anyway that put us into camp at almost dark. Now setting up camp in the dark has never been much of an issue for me, as I travel pretty light when I hunt from a camp. That was not the case with Tom – HB's uncle-in-law. It would hardly be exaggeration to call Tom's camp the Taj Mahal of deer/elk camps, and Tom wasn't too happy about setting up in the dark. Tom had a new tent that he was sharing with Harvey – HB's father-in-law – and Bob – HB's other uncle-in-law. Bob wasn't going to be able to show up 'til Saturday.
 
HB, Charlie and I were sharing Charlie's new Cabela's 8-man dome tent. It fit the three of us pretty good with our cots, but wasn't room for much more. Charlie had to set up his portable kitchen outside. Tom et al had a kitchen and a heating stove in their tent. In spite of the dark, we got it all set up and 'it was good'. I think we had chili for dinner that night. (I'll come back to that later.)
 
Here's what Tom's tent looked like that night.

Here's what Charlie's tent and his kitchen looked like.
 

We didn't worry too much about getting up at oh-dark-thirty on Friday, as the season didn't open 'til Saturday, November 1. Friday was to be used 'scouting' the area. Charlie, HB, and I took off in HB's new truck, and Harvey and Tom took Harvey's truck. We went off to a local area – AxialBasin – to see what was to be seen. Not much, as far as game went. We had seen quite a few deer and antelope between Meeker and where we were camped. However, there was nothing to be seen in AxialBasin. Some time late in the morning we spotted four mule deer does on a distant knob. Over-all, Axial basin wasn't too encouraging, so we took off for a place called Rattlesnake Hill – a "PublicTrustLand" area. Harvey and Tom hung around for bit to look the place over from the parking lot, but left pretty quick in order to get the bar-b-que pit ready. Charlie and HB wandered off to have a look 'around the corner'. I found a nice cozy place in the sun and took a nap. When we got back to camp, Tom had ribs on "the barby" for dinner. Shore wuz good eatin'.
 
HB had drawn tags that allowed him to hunt private property, but no one else in the group had similar tags. So, come 0600-ish, HB took off for the 'ranch', and the rest of us headed for Rattlesnake Hill. Charlie and HB hadn't seen any critters the day before, but had seen 'good country', so we decided to give it the "ol' college try".
 
Harvey and Tom took the first ridge, and Charlie and I headed 'back in' to the more distant ridges and ravines. It was indeed good looking country for both deer and elk. Lots of scrub oak on the north-facing slopes, and juniper on the south-facing ones. We climbed up the farthest ridge out, one that curved around, formed a saddle and continued on to the peak of Rattlesnake Hill. We positioned ourselves in the saddle where we could watch two ravines, and waited for the sun to come up. I napped a bit.
 
Once the sun had been up for about an hour or so, we headed on up the ridge to the top of Rattlesnake Hill. We could see for miles and miles.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any game to see in those miles and miles. Actually, that's not completely true. We did glass a herd of about 20 to 30 antelope some 5 or 6 miles distant – on private land.
 
It was warming up, and I didn't see any game in our view, so I decided to take a little nap. I found a place out of the wind and in the sun, and curled up and slept for about an hour. When I woke, Charlie told me he hadn't seen anything sneaking up on us, so I took another half-hour snooze.
 
Charlie wasn't quite sure what to make of my 'snoozing', but I told him that I usually sleep in the middle of the day when I'm hunting – if the weather permits. It's rare that critters are moving in the middle of the day, and there's no reason to wander aimlessly about just scaring things. Many times I've had sheep sneak up on me while I was having a mid-day snooze in the sun. More often than not, it doesn't turn out well for the sheep. Anyway, Charlie thought it would be better to be somewhere else than the top of the mountain at dark, so I picked a flat spot in one of the ridges running off the peak of Rattlesnake Hill and we headed down toward it. Nonetheless, I didn't want to be too low at dusk, as I suspected that the deer or elk might be heading up or down the ravines when they started moving later in the afternoon.
 
As we headed for the ambush spot, I glassed carefully the ravines we were passing. This was very "deery" country, and I was pretty sure there just about had to be a deer or two hiding in the junipers or scrub oak. I decided to divert a ways down a ridge that took off to the east. Ravines on either side had very steep walls, and I could get a look down on both sides at places that looked very promising. Charlie was heading for the evening's ambush point.
 
I had to drop about 50 feet of elevation to get to a little saddle that would allow me a good vantage point to the ravines on each side of the ridge. As soon I settled in and started to glass, I saw a doe. She was sneaking her way up the shady side of the ravine, sticking to the edge of the scrub oak and in very tall grass. Very sneaky indeed. She wasn't moving very fast, and was being quite cautious, stopping after every step to look around. Charlie was too far back up the hill to call to without spooking the deer, so I popped the lens caps off my 'scope and lined up on her. Unfortunately, I wasn't in a good, steady shooting position. The actual saddle was about 10 feet to my right, and it looked like I might get a good prone position from there. I did, however... the brush completely obscured my view of the doe. I moved back up to my original position. I 'tossed' my rifle (one positive about having a plastic stock you don't care about on your rifle) onto a small oak and when it 'settled' I simply adjusted my body to the rifle 'til I had good sight picture. All of this may have taken 20 seconds or so.
 
The doe was coming directly at me at what I figured to be at least 250 yds. I really had no good shot except her head, which I don't consider a "good shot". Furthermore, I was so high above her, that I was pretty sure that if I hit her in the head, the bullet would go through (I was using the 220 Sierra) and hit her in the back. That'd be OK for putting her down, but very risky for 'bustin' the gut'. Given that a doe doesn't have a lot of meat to start with, I didn't particularly want to loose any more from getting guts all over it. I didn't have much choice though. I decided to shoot for her head, and hope that the bullet might stop there.
 
I put the crosshairs right between her ears and let fire. While the recoil of the 11-lb 8mm SLT is fairly 'tame', it isn't non-existent. When I recovered, I saw no deer. I wasn't certain I had hit her, but... it was a good shot, and I saw no deer running away. Too, I was pretty sure I had seen 'fur fly' at the shot.
 
At the shot, Charlie called out, and I confirmed that I had shot at a deer. He came over to where I was standing, and we discussed the shot and what might be the best route to take to see if she was down. It was way too steep to head directly at her, so we had to take a fairly circuitous route to get to her. It took about 15 minutes to get to the bottom off the ravine where I had last seen her.
 
There was a heavily traveled game trail running along the edge of the ravine bottom. The doe had been walking in that path in the shade. The grass in the flat part of the bottom of the ravine was at least 6 feet tall, and the deer would have been impossible to see from 'ground level'. However, the trail was easy to follow, and I found her in short order.
The bullet had dropped between two and three inches, and was about an inch left of center. It had blown the back of her head off, and unfortunately not stopped there. There was a sizeable hole in her back just barely left of the centerline of her spine and just aft of her diaphragm. I was very worried that the bullet had penetrated to her gut.
 
We took some pictures, and I got started on gutting her. I wanted to get inside as quickly as possible, as it was pretty hot, and if the bullet had perforated the stomach, I wanted to get it cleaned up as soon as possible. Good news! After blowing through the skull and the spine the bullet had hit the liver and stayed right there. No perforation of the gut. I lost a fist-sized piece of the right back-strap, but that was all, and she had been dead before she hit the ground.
 
According to Google Earth, the shot was between 280 and 300 yards and I was about 315 feet above her at the shot, making the angle about 18 degrees. I couldn't have asked for better performance from the SLT. (However, had that bullet been an HP, it wouldn't have blown on through into her back. ).
 
I got her gutted, but I had decided before I shot that since we didn't have any packs with us, that the best way to get her 'home' was to drag her, so I didn't take her apart. She was in the bottom of a ravine that would require us to climb at least 200 feet just to get her to the first ridge out of the ravine, and it would then be a couple of ridges back to Charlie's "FJ". Instead I thought we could drag her down out of the ravine. About a mile past the mouth of the ravine I could see a short private road that lead to the county road we had used to get to the Rattlesnake Hill parking lot. I intended to ask permission to drag her about 200 yds across private property to the road and then walk to the "FJ" and drive up and pick her up. Recall what I said about the "best laid plans of mice and men"? It didn't quite work out the way I hoped.
 
When we got to the boundary of the private land, I asked Charlie to stay with the deer while I walked across the property to some buildings where we could hear people talking. That path was about half a mile. When I got to the vicinity of the buildings – without crossing any fences – I called out to the people I could hear talking. I did that for about five minutes with no response, so I quit calling. A few minutes later, I saw a 4-wheeler (ATV) drive into the compound, and the driver came into view. I called out to him and got no response. While it was obvious that he could hear me, I called out "Can you hear me?" This time I got a response. It was in the form of sign language – a one-fingered salute. I took that as a strong indication that I would not be allowed to drag my deer a hundred yards across his land.
 
That was actually pretty bad news. I had considered this possibility before I shot the deer, but I thought the odds of getting permission were good. I was clearly wrong. What that meant was that I had a very long (about two more miles) drag on my hands, and the first half mile of it was all uphill.
 
I had shot at 1445. We found the deer at 1500. It was now about 1700. Dark was bout 1800. I started dragging. It wasn't fun. Charlie took my rifle and my day-pack, and I dragged the deer. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: It was a dry doe. She was fully mature and very fat. In fact, I've never personally seen a doe as fat as she was. Her back-strap and hams were even marbled. I'm pretty sure that gutted, she weighed pretty close to 150 lbs. Compare her size in the picture to the two young-of-the-year elk on either side. (That's RJ in the picture. I'll relate that part of the story later.) Anyway, as I said, "it was a bear".
 
Just before dark, someone from the ranch came driving up on a 4-wheeler. After a short conversation in which he informed us – three times – that he could have us prosecuted for trespassing he agreed to assist us get off his land. (We were by then actually on his property, but unavoidably so as to the left of our path was an almost vertical wall and to the right was his property). We assured him we were just trying to get our deer off his property. When he realized how far we had dragged the deer by then, he agreed to carry it on his 4-wheeler about 150 yds to get us off of his property. That put us about a mile from the county road.
 
Charlie took off with my rifle and pack to get to the county road, and then walk to his vehicle. I continued to drag the deer thinking that I would likely be to the road by the time he got back with his vehicle. However, by the time Charlie got to the county road it was dark so he flagged down a fellow in a truck. By the time it was 'all said and done' this fellow came out and helped me drag the deer the last 200 yds to the road and took Charlie to the parking lot to get his truck. We stuffed the deer in Charlie's "FJ" and headed back to camp. You can see the path the deer was dragged in the picture below.

 
When we got back to camp, HB was there and just finishing skinning the two elk he had shot. Tom and Harvey had left Rattlesnake Hill before noon. HB will have to relate his elk-killing story as he was alone on the ranch for his murdering.
 
Day two follows.
 
Paul

Kinda earned that old girl did ya.Good story, too bad some folks are ornery that way

That was one heck of a drag, I wouldn't have wanted to do it.  Nice shot by the way.

It was 'a heckuva drag', but it was more like the hunting I'm used to than most of what we did there. In general, unguided hunting in Alaska is pretty hard work. Where my family has hunted caribou for the past 48 years, it's pretty common to have to pack a caribou about a mile - four times. One for each quarter plus the "goodie" bag. Packing a moose a mile - six trips - can be a real back-breaker. That's why I don't like to hunt moose.
 
Anyway, it was good of you to wade thorugh the whole story. I've got more to tell, as we didn't leave 'til the following Wednesday, and HB still has another deer to kill. :)
 
Paul

Here's my side of the story.
 
Gitano flew in to Denver from Alaska the Wednesday before Halloween for a deer and elk hunt. I picked him up at the airport and we headed straight to the range to check his rifles. After the sudden demise of my 4Runner I was driving my new to me Toyota T-100 truck. We spent the rest of the day getting my oil changed and buying supplies for the hunt. That night we had a good diner and the next morning we got everything packed. The next morning we finished packing and after Charlie showed up we headed to Rifle where we were to meet my wifes father and uncle. We met up and finally got to the camping area about 1600. We picked a spot and set up our tents. Tom, my wifes uncle BBQed some great ribs for dinner. Friday we got up and scouted the area. We didn't see squat! I had a tag for some private property and would be hunting there opening morning for elk. The opening day I headed for my area and they headed for an area that we had scouted the day before. I met up with my 2 friends that I would be hunting with opening day and we headed up to a spot that we knew. 3/4 of the way there they stopped and I went back to see what they were looking at. It was a heard of elk but they were too spooked and moving too much to try a shot. So Bob and Dean went right and I headed up hill. After about 500 yards I could hear the elk off to my right and I cut over that way. I could hear the cows calling to each other but they were over the edge of the hill so I cut over. I saw one cows head crest the hill and that told me which way they were headed and I followed. I found the elk about 1/2 a mile further hanging out at the edge of some aspen and sage. They were too far for a shot but there was a draw then another ridge between them and I. If they were still there when I got to that ridge they were in trouble. So I picked out the opening in the oak brush that I wanted to be in and headed closer. When I got there the elk were still there but they had spotted me and were getting nervous, and with good reason. I got the bipod down and settled in behind my 338. There were at least 2 bulls, a rag horn and a big bull but I only had 2 cow tags as it takes an act of God to get a bull tag in this area and there was only one cow presenting a good shot so I took it. As soon as I shot she dropped but got back up. I could see that she was hurt bad but I couldn't get another good shot. I tried a couple of not so good shots but failed to connect. She headed behind some aspen and layed down so I figured that she was done. I couldn't get a shot at any other cows and the whole herd headed over the hill. I heard some other people shooting a short while later but I never saw them. I went over to find my cow. I found her and then went back to get my truck. On my way I mey up with a guy that had a winch on his truck and gracously offered to help. So I dressed the animal while he got close. He was able to winch her up the hill then we loaded her in back. She wasn't a big cow but it was an elk. So he helped me load her into my truck and headed on his way. I headed down a little 4X4 track to the bottom of the hill to try to meet up with my friends. 1/2 way down I saw a lone cow elk. I stopped the truck and grabbed my rifle and went to have a look. I could only see the one cow and I could see that she had been shot. I didn't really want to use my tag cleaning up someone elses mess but I also didn't want the animal to suffer so I got ready for a shot. She was about 400 yards and further than I would normally shoot but it was a wounded animal. I fired twice and missed but I knew where to hold. Only one problem, I only had 2 rounds in my rifle and th rest were in the truck 50 yards away! So I ran back to the truck, grabbed some more shells and ran back to where I could see the elk to shoot some more. I loaded the rifle, got ready, and fired. I was sure that I hit but she still headed up the hill. I fired again she she dropped behind some oak brush. The final shot was about 450 yards by laser range finder, well over what I would normally shoot. Just then I looked over and here came Bob and Dean, just in time. Bob directed Dean and I to where the elk was at. The wound that she had when I saw her was her right hind quarter. Who ever had shot her had taken a frontal shoot and missed, mostly. I could see where the bullet cut the hair before hitting the quarter. I don't know what they were shooting but it made a mess. I lost about 10 pounds of meat. My first hit was low and broke the sternum and left foreleg at the knee. My second hit was fatal. We got her dressed and drug down the hill to load her in the truck. This was a small elk, probably this years calf. I stayed with Bob and Dean to try to help them but we saw no elk the rest of the day. I didn't get any pictures of my elk since my camera was in Charlie's FJ miles away.