2016 elk

[Lost River]

I had a cow tag, so naturally I saw 9 bulls separate from any cows in 4 days including these 4 guys:

Sorry for the terrible iphone pic.

They were maybe 300 yards, and were broadside for a good while.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2032_zpsuyt4afnb.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2032_zpsuyt4afnb.jpg.html)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2031_zpsclzxua4x.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2031_zpsclzxua4x.jpg.html)


On day 2 we managed to get up on a group, but I was the only one who connected. The last time I lasered they were 335 yards and heading up and away from us. Not a good shot opportunity for the kid, but I dropped one with the T3 .300 wm.

Goofy looking pic, making her look gangly/scrawny, but she was actually a fairly good size cow.


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010676_zps75j1ebld.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010676_zps75j1ebld.jpg.html)

[Lost River]

The kid did her part, field dressing, cleaning up the ivories, etc.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010679_zpsugq3wqtb.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010679_zpsugq3wqtb.jpg.html)

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010687_zpscnbg3svl.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/P1010687_zpscnbg3svl.jpg.html)

We are heading back this weekend so the kiddo and my dad can have another go.

It was pretty warm, in the teens during the day. It looks like it will be about 15-20 degrees colder this weekend. :)

[PNWTO]

Great read, thank you! Public land? I'm looking at hunting ID 2017 for elk.

Is that a brake on the Tikka? How do you like it? How do those standing by you like it? I'm looking at a T3X 300WM.

Forgive the questions, what load?

[Lost River]

Great read, thank you! Public land? I'm looking at hunting ID 2017 for elk.

Is that a brake on the Tikka? How do you like it? How do those standing by you like it? I'm looking at a T3X 300WM.

Forgive the questions, what load?


No worries on the questions,

Yep, strictly public land. I have never actually hunted big game anywhere else. That is one of the great things about the rural west, the vast amounts of public land that allow the average guy to be able to hunt animals that in other parts of the world would be limited strictly to wealthy.

The brake on the Tikka allows me to shoot far more precisely due to better recoil management. With a rifle as light as a T3, shooting a typical magnum class cartridge such as the 7mm RM, 300 WM, 338 WM, I consider brakes standard equipment if I am going to be shooting at any distance.

No typical hunting rifle is "hearing safe", so no matter if it is braked or not, hearing protection is mandatory in my book.

The load is a handload, pushing a 165 Sierra hollow point game king at about 3200 fps.

There is actually a thread about the rifle here: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?22976-T3-300WM

Good info in there. :)

[SMD]

Congrats!

[ldunnmobile]

Awesome

[okie john]

Well done. Thanks for the story and the pics.


Okue Jihn

[entropy]

Thanks for sharing the story. You folks out West are really blessed with the wide open space.

[LittleLebowski]

God, I miss the West. Thanks for sharing.

[Lost River]

God, I miss the West. Thanks for sharing.

Listen to some LeDoux, and head for where you belong!

When it is in your blood, no place will ever be an acceptable substitute.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/IMG_0250_zpslgyitijx.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/IMG_0250_zpslgyitijx.jpg.html)



Besides, kids raised in the rural west tend to turn out pretty decent.


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/IMG_0004_zps1b23b7bb.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/IMG_0004_zps1b23b7bb.jpg.html)

[Talionis]

Awesome. This year was my first time hunting elk (or anything) and I went out not too far from you in unit 23 up near Riggins with a cow tag. I did actually get on to a cow on the first night, but didn't have enough confidence in myself and the borrowed rifle to take the only shot that presented itself, 250 yard offhand only in the last available light. Next night I went back and stalked to within 20 feet of the young bull she had been with the night before, but she was nowhere to be found.

Of course, I went out in the Danskins looking for buck, and that's where all the cows were. A nice little herd of 20 cows followed by a couple spikes and a gorgeous 6x6 bull. Apparently that's how hunting works, right?

[Lost River]

Riggins is STEEP country. I have spent a fair amount of time around there, not to mention time rodeoing at the infamous Riggins rodeo.

[Lost River]

BTW, we ran into a traffic jam one afternoon:

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2035_zps3pjco3an.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2035_zps3pjco3an.jpg.html)

[luckyman]

It was pretty warm, in the teens during the day. It looks like it will be about 15-20 degrees colder this weekend. :)

Gulp.

First thing Lost River has posted that didn't make me start salivating about retiring to Idaho.

I lived in upstate NY for a while so not totally a foreign concept, but dang that is not my current definition of "pretty warm" :)

Luckyman, currently shivering in 65F temp.

[Lex Luthier]

I spent the morning out in 17 F temps with windchill bringing it down to -5 or so. You have (even more of ) my admiration if you can make a precision shot in those temps, Lost River.
Now, if the sun is shining and the wind is still, it's much nicer than this California boy would have thought.

[coldcase1984]

Good shooting as usual, LR!

[BJXDS]

NICE. Pretty warm in the teens..... WTF!

I have an opportunity to go to Kooskia, I have always wanted to do an elk hunt out west, but warm is the teens??

[MolonLabe416]

Waidmann's heil!

[SLG]

This sounds silly if you haven't really experiencednit, but dry cold is really very tolerable compared to humid cold. Parts of the West differ, but I think where LR is is fairly dry. Where I used to live, 0 degrees was about like 25 back on the east coast. Negative 40 was cold, but not intolerable. Negative 6 back east is tough on me.

[Lester Polfus]

This sounds silly if you haven't really experiencednit, but dry cold is really very tolerable compared to humid cold. Parts of the West differ, but I think where LR is is fairly dry. Where I used to live, 0 degrees was about like 25 back on the east coast. Negative 40 was cold, but not intolerable. Negative 6 back east is tough on me.

Doesn't sound silly to me at all. Usually here it's about 40 degrees and 100% humidity and it really sets a chill in person.

[Malamute]

Yes, the dry makes a huge difference in how it feels. The sun does also. I was raised in the Midwest and go back visiting. 20 feels ugly, 10 feels brutal back there. In the west, Ive sat on my porch in slippers, long johns and heavy shirt in the morning sun drinking coffee when it was 20 or 25 and it felt glorious. Things were melting in the sunshine, even though the ambient temp showed below freezing. Once the sun goes behind the mountain in the afternoon though it feels like somebody opened the freezer door. Time to go in and enjoy the fire in the woodstove.

Ive worked outside in winter in the upper 40s and low 50s in a dark t-shirt. The sun was shining and it felt great.

Great pics of the neighborhood and the critters.

[Lost River]

This sounds silly if you haven't really experiencednit, but dry cold is really very tolerable compared to humid cold. Parts of the West differ, but I think where LR is is fairly dry. Where I used to live, 0 degrees was about like 25 back on the east coast. Negative 40 was cold, but not intolerable. Negative 6 back east is tough on me.

100% spot on.

If the wind is not blowing, and the sun is out, it really is no big deal. In fact, nobody was even wearing jackets while we quartered up the elk. My daughter is scrawny and gets cold easily, but it was sunny out and we were just wearing sweaters or fleece pullovers. Plus it keeps our jackets cleaner, keeping them out of the blood.

[entropy]

Oh how true. Even in the far north midwest, I will take anything above 0F without a blink. An Underarmor heatgear, and a polar fleece or lined sweatshirt. The cold just doesnt stick. So right too on the sunset. As it gets tword the horizon, you can feel the change...its still dry but it bites.

Great thread!

[Lost River]

We just got back from round 2.

The kid got her cow (#2 for her).

A 155 Scenar from her .308 sealed the deal, and then the work began.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2068_zps9f88tde8.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2068_zps9f88tde8.jpg.html)

It ended up taking us about 8-9 hours to get it out. Naturally it was in a less than ideal spot for recovery, but that is just elk hunting.

In reference to our earlier topic of temperatures, and a dry cold. It ended up being a bit cooler, but not as bad as expected.

3 degrees was in the warm sun. Up the draw it was a bit cooler.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2070_zpswh8ikycz.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2070_zpswh8ikycz.jpg.html)


It was cold enough that while I was quartering, we ended up building a fire, to keep the kid warm. she is quite scrawny and at the temps we were working in, it is simply safer to make sure she is warm, and functioning.

[Lost River]

Scenery was terrible as usual:


http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2071_zpsfr6u7r8d.jpg (http://s18.photobucket.com/user/IV_Troop/media/2016%20deer%20elk/IMG_2071_zpsfr6u7r8d.jpg.html)


About fires:

There was a good "teachable moment" with my daughter as she struggled to light a fire with numb fingers.

The interesting/important thing about building fires for non recreational purposes is that the worse the weather, the harder it is to build a fire, and the worse the weather, the more important a fire is.

I let her struggle for a bit before I reminded her that prior to deer season I had given her a "secret weapon" for fire building.

Trick candles.

When your fingers are numb, and matches keep failing to light the tinder, use a trick candle that relights itself after a person "blows it out".
The trick candle got the difficult to light tinder going, and a nice little fire was going in no time. Once her hands were warm, she was motivated to get more wood, and keep it going.

Fires are a great morale boost when you have a bunch of work in front of you. The ability to stop and take a break while warming hands is pretty nice.

I suppose I should mention the trick candle thing in the other thread about "life hacks". They weigh nothing and really work well for situations like the one above.

[entropy]

What wonderful gifts you are giving your daughter.

[PNWTO]

It ended up taking us about 8-9 hours to get it out. Naturally it was in a less than ideal spot for recovery, but that is just elk hunting.

How true. I like to think those elk that ever live long enough to expire naturally drop dead right next to a forest service road just to spite us.