2024 Hunt Adventures

[Elkslayer1125]

I’m starting to get more and more excited for the upcoming hunting season! My family and I have some unexpected really good hunts coming this season! We’ll start off in a couple weeks chasing bears, my Dad drew the same tag I had last year! Then for the fall we have our dedicated deer tags here in Utah. I also got lucky and drew a November New Mexico deer tag! I have a cousin that pulled a Utah elk tag so hopefully I’ll get to tag along for a few days on that hunt! I wish you all the best of luck this upcoming season! I’ll start posting photos once I make it out on some trips.

 

[Elkslayer1125]

Made it out for a quick overnight this past weekend to throw bait for my dad’s bear hunt! We got two sites set up and ready to go! Helpfully bears will be hitting the bait before too long.

 

[Elkslayer1125]

My dad got it done over the weekend on this great boar! He came into the stand at about 8:00 and he made a couple great shots and the bear didn’t make it very far! My sister and brother in laws and myself hiked in to help him pack it out! Super fun hunt! Congrats Dad!

 

[Elkslayer1125]

I’ve done a terrible job of updating my hunt adventures this year. The fall season started out quite slow for me. I went out for the opening weekend of the archery deer hunt but there was people everywhere with few deer sightings.

 

[Elkslayer1125]

After opening weekend I switched gears. My wife and I recently purchased some mountain property that also happens to reside in a general season elk unit. We hauled our trailer down and have spent the last 3 weekends camping and enjoying the property! Our dog Luna had also been enjoying the new property.

We spent the evenings driving around and checking out the area. I finally decided this past weekend I would go hunting for elk. I found a canyon on Google earth that looked pretty good so I woke up early Saturday to check out this canyon.

 

[Elkslayer1125]

I parked my truck at the top of the canyon and started getting my gear together. I threw out a bugle just for fun but immediately received a response from the bottom of the canyon. I wasted no time and started working into the canyon. I made it to the bottom where the bull hung up at about 100 yards. I couldn’t get him to commit all the way.

This bull began to work off just as I heard another bull bugling further down the canyon, I began working my way towards this new bull. I got into some thick timber and could hear the bull above me. He started working down towards me and I had one small opening where if he walked I would have a good shot.

Sure enough he began working down the trail I had hoped he would. I drew my bow but he stopped behind some trees, I held my bow for about 30 seconds and he took the one more step I needed. I guessed him at 20 yards but it ended up being 25. It didn’t matter though as my arrow hit right where I was aiming. I found first blood and knew the bull was dead on his feet.

I marked the spot and quickly hiked out to camp to let my wife know I would be gone for the day packing out the bull. I also let my dad and step dad Tim know I had killed a bull and they headed to the mountain to help me pack him out.

I returned to the spot with Luna that I had marked and began tracking the bull, there was a good blood trail that was easy to follow. 200 yards later we found the bull!

I took a few photos and began quartering the bull. Tim showed up just as I was finishing skinning out the bull. We loaded our packs and hauled the first load out. We dove back in for the second and final load, my dad showed up just in time to carry my bow and the head for the final stretch.

We got the meat back to camp and hanging just as an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in.

All in all it was a great morning of hunting, and I was finally able to arrow my first archery bull!

 

[Elkslayer1125]

Well I just spent 5 days hunting with my buddies Joe, Cole, and Cole’s son. Opening morning found us in a canyon where I had seen a herd of elk the previous week. We found the elk which were about 600 yards away, it was a cow, spike, and raghorn bull. Unfortunately as we closed the distance the elk disappeared. We hunted until Thursday morning but unfortunately did not see any elk the rest of the trip. It was still a great time hanging out with buddies in the hills. Here’s a few photos from the trip!

 

[Elkslayer1125]

After leaving the general season unit I headed out early Friday morning to help my cousin Brayden who had a mid season LE tag. I showed up at first light and started glassing with Brayden, and our other cousin Hayden.

About an hour after first light, Brayden glassed up a bull and decided this was the bull he wanted. He made a great 460 yard shot and the bull dropped in his tracks. This was his first big game animal and he was stoked!

We spent the rest of the day packing out the bull! It was another great trip in the books! My only big hunt left for the season is my New Mexico Deer tag which starts in November!

 

[Elkslayer1125]

I made it back from my New Mexico trip. I arrived 2 days before the hunt and scouted around. I ended up finding a solid 160 class buck and tons of does and small bucks everywhere I went.

The night before the opener my Dad and good friend Troy arrived to camp. Opening morning we got set up on a glassing point where we could see a lot of country. We heard a lot of gunshots and watched an outfitter and his client shoot a good 4 point. I ended up passing on a 140ish 4 point. That evening we went to some lower country and found a lot more deer and another good buck but couldn’t quite get on him.

The 2nd morning we went back to the same glassing spot from opening day. After glassing for about an hour we turned up a shooter buck. He was pushing some does and was about a 1000 yards away. We quickly scrambled off the glassing point and cut the distance. We got about 400 yards from where we last saw the buck and jumped a group of does that ran across the draw roughly 200 yards from us. We couldn’t see the buck so decided to sit down and glass, about 5 minutes later the buck came across the same trail that the does had used. I made a quick 200 yard shot which dropped the buck in his tracks! This is my best rifle buck, and I couldn’t be happier!

We made the 1 1/2 mile pack out and spent the rest of the day in camp! I couldn’t ask for better family and friends to join me on these hunts! The next day we packed up camp and headed out. Hopefully I’ll be able to pull this tag again because it was a great time!