Govt shutdown and elk hunts

[dennishoddy]

Its not exactly a "paid vacation" as many of those employees live check to check (like the rest of America) so they can't really afford to do anything except cutback and survive.

But yea I totally understand your frustration about employees not working and still getting paid! However I try not to take it out on the employees themselves as it isn't their fault, they are just playing the hand our stupid congress/government is giving them.

I hate to see anybody out of work that wants to be there.
The problem beingThe Congress, even under GW Bush later in his term has failed to bring and/or pass a budget.
The government has been operating on a drama created by the continuing resolutions they pass like petulant school Children to fund the government just a little longer while wrangling concessions from the other side, and frankly the American Public is tired of it.
That’s what this entire fiasco is about. The inability of the congress to pass a budget.
I know it’s tough out there to rathole some money away, but if I had to live under the threat of these continuing resolutions, I’d do what it took to make provisions for this very scenario.

 

[PiedmontGuy]

 

[PiedmontGuy]

First of all, so that you can understand my situation, I have a full left hip replacement scheduled for 2/14. When I applied last spring, I didn’t know I had a hip problem but since then it came on with vengeance. Second, after 20-plus years of always applying for BULL-ONLY tags, I messed up and accidently put in the cow-hunt number. With all my preference points apparently, I was a Golden Ticket winner for that cow hunt. After the initial disgust with my mistake I moved on and was really excited about the trip except for the problem with the hip.

I actually talked with someone at the Wildlife Department to see if my scheduled surgery was a way to get pushed to the following year but was told that I would need a written request from the Governor, like a stay of execution to move the date. I actually started wondering if the GOVT shut-down would cause it to be moved to the following year. They found a way to get the hunt staffed and kept our dates.

I didn’t know what to expect but I tried to drop hints that I was sort of ‘hobbled’ but I really didn’t hold a candle to some of the other guys there to hunt. There were several guys over 70 years old. One bull tag recipient in my group was 82 years old (I think). He tagged out on a nice 6X6 bull 18 minutes after shooting light and had 3 people for Rocky Mountain Elk Federation help him pack it out.

Day zero was orientation. Meeting at the visitor center, completing your check-in paperwork and getting your assigned GROUP/AREA and then a cold bumpy ride in the back of a truck driving the whole perimeter of your assigned hunt area with the 9 other guys in your group. My area was Zone G. There were 3 bull tags and 7 cow tags in each group/truck. Supposed 30 bull tags and 70 cow tags but I think there were several no shows, so they only hunted 8 regions/areas. That day the wind came in fierce and the temperature dropped all day long. We all froze our tails off in the bed of that truck. But we saw some cool terrain, several elk, several buffalo, and we all got to pick out our drop off points along the way. I picked my spot based on the amount of extra truck traffic at this “Y” in the road because two other group leaders would pass by there and so my wait might not be too long. My cell phone was not working in most of the areas along the road.

Day one, they dropped two guys along the highway, and I was the first one dropped off along the gravel road. I did more walking that I thought I could. The wind was blowing like 25-30 MPH and it was colder than I expected. I had an opportunity at a cow about 9:30am but it was 400 yards with no cover to stalk around between us and I can’t crawl. I took the 400yd shot and I missed. That’s not a shot I practice much. Most of my whitetail deer have been under 125 yards away, and most much closer than that. I still went to the spot she was standing and looked for blood. No blood. I followed her path up the hill to see if they were possibly just over there out of my sight but when I got to the top of that hill, they were already across the road out of my area and ½ way up the big hill to the North. Everywhere I hiked I would run in to a group of buffalo. I never saw any more elk until 3:30pm and they were 750 yards away across a big canyon and ½ way up the side of Black Bear Mountain. I glassed them for a long time to finally see the light on a decent bull and a spike bull. In all I saw about 60 buffalo, 5 cows, and 2 bulls. Using google maps, I tracked my path and it appears that I walked about 4.5 miles up and down those hills. The pain started coming on so I decided to stop a little early that day, so I could be prepared for day two. I got picked up about 4:30pm and rode back to the check station. The check station is where the livestock corrals are located on highway 49. That’s where all the helpers wait to hear news about harvested elk and where they get a ride out to be a helper/pack-mule.

Day Two, I asked my group leader if he would drop me in a spot that I might see some cows. Since 4 of our group of 10 had already tagged out and another guy had one down but was just back to look for it and pack it out, there were several areas open. My group leader was great. He dropped me in the dark, gave me info to get my bearings set on the map and told me which direction to hunt and where other hunters would be. There was lots of flat ground to start me out, so that was big help also. I was out at the far west of the Wichita Mountains refuge and north of the highway 49, not too far from Panther Mountain. I got my GPS sync’d with enough satellites and marked my drop-off point and started my daily track log. The wind had died down to 3MPH that morning. It was so still that you could hear every step you made so I had to be deliberately slow and careful. I was 100 yards away from my drop-off point and just creeping in to the tree line. It was still a little dark especially in the trees, but we were past the legal shooting start. I was scanning this big field on the other side of the trees but something much closer caught my eyes. There was an elk moving in the trees maybe 50 yards away. I had some brush in front of me, so I pulled up my binoculars to start looking to see if there were any spikes on top of the head. I had to side-step to get these shrubby trees out of my view and when I did, apparently another elk noticed me and these four took off. I didn’t see spikes on two of them, so I put down my binoculars and waited with my rifle for them to stop for a shot. Before I lost them, I had I though was an opening and fired off a round. I thought there is no way I missed but I never found blood. There was so much brushy undergrowth, I can only imagine that I must have hit a tree. I followed their path as long as I could but never found blood. I was going in to the wind so I thought I might find them, but I never did. I found a good shoulder (pinch point) between hills and got on a high spot to glass. I must have stayed there for 3 hours. Seemed like a great spot for traffic and the wind was in my favor. I saw a buffalo, 5 deer, and a long-horn bull come through but no elk. That feeling of “what’s over that ridge” finally got to me and I moved over to the other side and glassed over there for a long time but most of what I was looking at was on the other side of my boundary or in the territory of the hunters that were dropped out of the truck before me. I returned back and pushed further to the NE and found a spot to climb up and over part of the Panther Mountain “tail”. I glassed over to the North and spotted someone that appeared to be gutting an elk about 500 to 600 yards away. The slope in front of me was too steep for me and I knew that shooting an elk over that direction would make a pack out very difficult for anybody. I decided that my original vantage point was probably a great spot, so I worked with the wind and went back to that pinch point vantage point. I stayed there from 1 to 2:30 but found myself falling asleep and didn’t want to roll off that high point. I knew I had to got find a spot to nap or start moving again. That debated napping or hiking for several minutes and decided to start moving again. They aren’t coming to me, so I needed to go to them. I ate another protein bar, took some pain meds, and washed it down with ½ of the water I had left while I studied my map. I decided to make small loops around to try to take advantage of the wind and look for low spots back to the west of me. By 3pm I had found a group of four, but they saw me at the same time and took off. All cows. I watched them run for 400 yards before I lost site. They can move through that terrain easily and I was not even going to try to play catch up with them. I still had two or three more spots on the map that I hadn’t investigated yet.

Another loop and back in and two more cows bolted through the brush. I tried running back to the NE around the top for a possible shot on the other side, but they quickly were out of ranges.

Another loop. I’m learning each time. This time one step, then stop and look. One step, then look. I’m running out of this unique wind-protected low spots. I see movement. I’m within 80 yards of three. Are they bulls or cows? Binoculars up. I see no antlers, no spikes. I crouch behind a shrubby tree and make my way up another 25 yards one step at a time. The wind is perfect for me. I’m thinking should I shoot the big one or one of the two smaller ones. I’m 50 to 55 yards away and the big one is pointed my direction but downhill with her head down grazing. It was a great spine shot at the base of her neck from up above her. She never took a step. I loaded another round just in case, but she never moved.


I pulled out my phone and because I was up kind of high, I had one bar of reception on my phone. I texted my brother who had came to be my helper/pack mule. That text failed. I texted my group leader and also called him number and left a voice mail. I called the Wichita Mountain office number that they gave us and left a message. I decided the best thing was to mark a path back to the road and dump my extra weight by the road with my extra orange hat to mark the spot, since it was a different spot than my assigned drop-off point. After finding the road and dump my extra weight/gear, I used my toilet paper to mark a trail. Before I was back to my cow, there was my group leader with one of his co-workers to help me. They were busy trying to find a path for their UTV because I had described where I was and that I was 200-300 yards off the road. My guess was accurate. It was just under 250 yards to the road and 1/3 of that was across a grassy flat field. They checked her out and said, “finished field dressing her, and we will get the UTV over here.” I had her field dressed when they returned. The last 60 yards through the creek and up the hill was the only difficult terrain for that UTV. I was extremely happy that they were able to get to me with that vehicles. The winch did most of the heavy lifting into the bed of the UTV and we strapped her down and got her out. I didn’t have to leave any of the meat behind since I took her out in one piece.

Amazing adventure! Amazing people there to help you. Incredibly kind people that I hunted with in my group.

My brother that came to help helped three people pack out their elk on day one and then came back on day two and helped two others pack out. He got to do some ride along loops with the group leaders. He was super excited to get that fun experience as a non-hunting visitor. I’m 52 and he’s 59 but he is in much better shape than I am and loved getting other to help and see the mountains. He took photos of buffalo and elk and a large cat track. He said he might go back just to volunteer as a helper in the future even though he doesn’t know someone drawn. In his mind he thinks he had as much fun as I did but I would disagree. It was the experience of a life-time. I loved it all.

 

[dlbleak]

Awesome story peidmontguy. I’ve talked to a few guys that have been on the hunts but your write up gave me a better idea of the terrain and what it’s like to hunt there.
Congrats man!

 

[retrieverman]

Piedmontguy, Excellent write up and CONGRATS on the successful hunt!!!

 

[Toothpick]

Congratulations PiedmontGuy
Thank goodness for the UTV
Thanks for the detailed story

 

[dennishoddy]

Awesome write up of your elk hunt. Congrats on the nice cow. Great eats there.
I too have been a helper on a hunt, getting others elk out while waiting on my friend to get his.
I agree with your friend, it’s a great way to see the back sides of the refuge and helping others is a bonus.

 

[dlbleak]

Question, can a guy show up and volunteer to be a helper? Just figure it would be a great way to see the layout of the refuge for future reference.

 

[PiedmontGuy]

Question, can a guy show up and volunteer to be a helper? Just figure it would be a great way to see the layout of the refuge for future reference.

Yes. There were three volunteers from Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to just help pack out quarters for anyone that needed help. Volunteer to help on the first one reported. Ask around with the guys driving the trucks with tarps and ask if you can ride along. They need someone to open and close the gates. They are making rounds to be close to their group hunters that might not have cell service. If one of the hunters has an elk down, you can grab a meat backpack out of the truck and go help right then. They especially needed more helpers on the second day, because a lot of people tagged out and left after day one.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

Awesome PG! Thanks for sharing!