Posted by: j 7
Meat was the objective - 10/17/09 12:59 AM
Well the job I have is great when you want to take time off but all the work you miss is waiting for you when you get back. Caught up a little and now its time to post. My hunting partner and I went in on group tags and got drawn for antlerless on both deer and elk. This hunt was two weeks of muzzeload'n meat stackin fun.
Opening day of deer I got up early and headed to my pre planned spot and I was the first one in. About a half hour into shooting hours an awsome 5x5 whitetail buck comes over the hill and heads in my direction. I slip off my seat to get a better rest but the buck hears me and stops. Then he seems a little curious and steps toward me giving me a 60 yard quartering too shot. Most folk would say take the shot j7 you have frickin 50 cal muzz in your hands. Well being a bowhunter I did not think in those terms and wanted a better shot. He never offered the shot I wanted and when he finaly moved he did not stop, so I did not shoot. About an hour later 3 mulies came over the same hill (two bucks and a doe). THe bucks go to my right and the doe start to my left but stops behind me. This doe knows something is up and puts the evil eye on my posititon. I cant make a move on the bucks because this old gal has me pinned. So I watch the second legal buck of the day cruise on by without the cloud of muzzeloader smoke that I so wanted to deliver. Nothing delivered on opening day. Went out day two and nothing came within range.
Next two days had to work. Got done early on the Wednesday and decided to go out for an evening hunt. 15 minutes into it I found 4 whitetails hanging out in the spot I wanted to sit in. So I snuck up and shot one. Nothing glorious or spectacular about it except that I was by myself so no glory shot of hunter and kill. Just kill here and the fridge shot after my wife and I get it quartered and stacked in the fridge.
Next day I had to go pick my hunting partner up but not before a nice breakfast of thin sliced back strap, eggs, and garden fresh green peppers.
After I pick up my partner we head out the next morning and check out the spot I went to on opening day. Nothing was moving so we decided to do some spot and stalk. We located some deer but we were limited to time as I had to be at a meeting later that afternoon. I told my partener that we could not shoot them after 9:00 am because we could not make it back in time. I said you got 45 min to shoot. So he put the sneek on and 20 min later................................BOOOOOOOM. He shot a great big mulie doe. We get her gutted, skinned, and in the truck. I make my meeting and two deer down for deer season.
The next day is opening day of our elk hunt so we take it easy and just take a day trip to the hills and scout out the competition and pick a suitible camp. To our suprise there was a little snow falling.
We did not see any elk on opening day so we went back and opened up the J7 cut shop. Here are some shots of the operation and the fridge filling with meat.
Two deer cut, ground, and wrapped with some good cuts for camp (yes take'nbake pizza ta boot)
After we got everything cut, wrapped, and frozen we packed the rig and headed for ELK CAMP. We saw one elk the first day up and we jumped some bulls on the second day. Third day we got up a little late and found that there were three parties hunting the area we wanted to hunt so we went way up high and went on a hunt way back on a closed road.
Sure as chit we spot elk at the furthest point away from the truck. We decide that if we kill one on top of the ridge we can get it to the rig in pieces with relative ease. So we work out a plan to sneek down to a clearing and perhaps a shot will openen. We get to the clearing and find that we must close more distance in crunchy noisy snow. We work our way nice and slow then I spot some of the heard milling around. The heard bull is bugling and they dont seem allarmed. I had about a 1 foot diamter shooting window and a stump to rest on. I held steady on a nice cow and......................BOOOOOOOOOOOM. The smoke cleared and I expected the the whole herd would be smashing down the forrest and headed straight for the bottom. But they did not move, the herd bull bugled again and I'm like "what the F". The cow I shot just walked a few steps and the rest of the heard continued to mill around. We waited about fifteen minutes and we heard my cow dropp and slide down the hill a little bit. The herd just moved off slowly and not alarmed. Here is the cow. A nice young eater not sure how old but the ivories werent warn down that much.
I shot her at 1:00 PM and we did not get her out of the woods and back to camp until abot 10:30 pm. Here is the quarters and loose meat. I made about 30 pounds of sausage with the loose meat.
I picked up the rest from the butcher yesterday and now both of our freezers are stacked with meat. Cant see the steaks and roasts but they are buried under the grind.
This was the first time that I have harvested both a deer and an elk in the same season. Throw in my partners deer, and this is our best effort in years.
Opening day of deer I got up early and headed to my pre planned spot and I was the first one in. About a half hour into shooting hours an awsome 5x5 whitetail buck comes over the hill and heads in my direction. I slip off my seat to get a better rest but the buck hears me and stops. Then he seems a little curious and steps toward me giving me a 60 yard quartering too shot. Most folk would say take the shot j7 you have frickin 50 cal muzz in your hands. Well being a bowhunter I did not think in those terms and wanted a better shot. He never offered the shot I wanted and when he finaly moved he did not stop, so I did not shoot. About an hour later 3 mulies came over the same hill (two bucks and a doe). THe bucks go to my right and the doe start to my left but stops behind me. This doe knows something is up and puts the evil eye on my posititon. I cant make a move on the bucks because this old gal has me pinned. So I watch the second legal buck of the day cruise on by without the cloud of muzzeloader smoke that I so wanted to deliver. Nothing delivered on opening day. Went out day two and nothing came within range.
Next two days had to work. Got done early on the Wednesday and decided to go out for an evening hunt. 15 minutes into it I found 4 whitetails hanging out in the spot I wanted to sit in. So I snuck up and shot one. Nothing glorious or spectacular about it except that I was by myself so no glory shot of hunter and kill. Just kill here and the fridge shot after my wife and I get it quartered and stacked in the fridge.
Next day I had to go pick my hunting partner up but not before a nice breakfast of thin sliced back strap, eggs, and garden fresh green peppers.
After I pick up my partner we head out the next morning and check out the spot I went to on opening day. Nothing was moving so we decided to do some spot and stalk. We located some deer but we were limited to time as I had to be at a meeting later that afternoon. I told my partener that we could not shoot them after 9:00 am because we could not make it back in time. I said you got 45 min to shoot. So he put the sneek on and 20 min later................................BOOOOOOOM. He shot a great big mulie doe. We get her gutted, skinned, and in the truck. I make my meeting and two deer down for deer season.
The next day is opening day of our elk hunt so we take it easy and just take a day trip to the hills and scout out the competition and pick a suitible camp. To our suprise there was a little snow falling.
We did not see any elk on opening day so we went back and opened up the J7 cut shop. Here are some shots of the operation and the fridge filling with meat.
Two deer cut, ground, and wrapped with some good cuts for camp (yes take'nbake pizza ta boot)
After we got everything cut, wrapped, and frozen we packed the rig and headed for ELK CAMP. We saw one elk the first day up and we jumped some bulls on the second day. Third day we got up a little late and found that there were three parties hunting the area we wanted to hunt so we went way up high and went on a hunt way back on a closed road.
Sure as chit we spot elk at the furthest point away from the truck. We decide that if we kill one on top of the ridge we can get it to the rig in pieces with relative ease. So we work out a plan to sneek down to a clearing and perhaps a shot will openen. We get to the clearing and find that we must close more distance in crunchy noisy snow. We work our way nice and slow then I spot some of the heard milling around. The heard bull is bugling and they dont seem allarmed. I had about a 1 foot diamter shooting window and a stump to rest on. I held steady on a nice cow and......................BOOOOOOOOOOOM. The smoke cleared and I expected the the whole herd would be smashing down the forrest and headed straight for the bottom. But they did not move, the herd bull bugled again and I'm like "what the F". The cow I shot just walked a few steps and the rest of the heard continued to mill around. We waited about fifteen minutes and we heard my cow dropp and slide down the hill a little bit. The herd just moved off slowly and not alarmed. Here is the cow. A nice young eater not sure how old but the ivories werent warn down that much.
I shot her at 1:00 PM and we did not get her out of the woods and back to camp until abot 10:30 pm. Here is the quarters and loose meat. I made about 30 pounds of sausage with the loose meat.
I picked up the rest from the butcher yesterday and now both of our freezers are stacked with meat. Cant see the steaks and roasts but they are buried under the grind.
This was the first time that I have harvested both a deer and an elk in the same season. Throw in my partners deer, and this is our best effort in years.
