3TOE
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,756
To start… I have to say thank you to every MM member that took the time to share their experiences in my hunting area. I sincerely appreciate ALL of the wisdom & advice that I received through posts, PM, phone calls & texts.
It’s been 3 days since I tagged out & everything is just now really setting in. It’s pretty surreal… it was a really tough hunt & being rewarded in the end with a mature animal like that, is emotional to wrap my mind around. I devoted a ton of time & research into the hunt & I’m amazed that I was able to find success with really very little knowledge & experience with elk. I really feel like God blessed me with the entire experience.
For hunters like like myself being from back east, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to go on a hunt like that. After just 3 days of climbing into the mountains, I was completely whooped & was seriously starting to lose a little hope. I was at peace with going home empty handed, because I just enjoyed being out there & seeing things I had never seen. You really get a sense of how small you really are out there when you see how big the country is & how rough the mountains can be.
After not seeing a bull to go after on Thursday morning, myself & my hunting party went back to camp, ate some breakfast & I decided to resort to plan B. We drove over to 115 South of Garrison & almost immediately located a herd of 38 elk in an ag field on private property on the UT side. We watched the herd bed for nearly 2 hours before getting up on their feet & feeding back into the field. As only dumb luck can predict, the entire herd started moving toward the corner of the ag. I drove the truck down the road maybe 600 yards & watched for maybe 30 more minutes, before I got my gear together & moved down a ditch where I found some cover & could still see them at maybe 800 yards. As luck would have it, after about an hour, they came down to the corner. When the lead cow jumped the fence, I knew it was going to happen. My bull waited until roughly 80% had crossed the fence & road into NV before he crossed himself. Once I was certain he was inside BLM, I ranged him at 368 & shot it for 350 yards. I fired 3 rounds from my 300WSM to put him down even though I was certain that the 2nd shot really hurt him & I'm sure he would have gone down. I just sat there for roughly a minute to collect myself before standing to my feet. I could hear my hunting party coming closer laughing & cheering for what they had just witnessed. As I walked toward the hill & saw them I was instantly hit with a flood of emotions. My eyes welled up with tears as I felt an excited smile get bigger & bigger. We all exchanged hugs & handshakes while I tried to grasp what had just happened. I’m grateful to have had friends & family with me on this hunt to share in that experience with me. I will NEVER forget one minute of this hunt, both the rough & the good.
It’s been 3 days since I tagged out & everything is just now really setting in. It’s pretty surreal… it was a really tough hunt & being rewarded in the end with a mature animal like that, is emotional to wrap my mind around. I devoted a ton of time & research into the hunt & I’m amazed that I was able to find success with really very little knowledge & experience with elk. I really feel like God blessed me with the entire experience.
For hunters like like myself being from back east, I never imagined I would have the opportunity to go on a hunt like that. After just 3 days of climbing into the mountains, I was completely whooped & was seriously starting to lose a little hope. I was at peace with going home empty handed, because I just enjoyed being out there & seeing things I had never seen. You really get a sense of how small you really are out there when you see how big the country is & how rough the mountains can be.
After not seeing a bull to go after on Thursday morning, myself & my hunting party went back to camp, ate some breakfast & I decided to resort to plan B. We drove over to 115 South of Garrison & almost immediately located a herd of 38 elk in an ag field on private property on the UT side. We watched the herd bed for nearly 2 hours before getting up on their feet & feeding back into the field. As only dumb luck can predict, the entire herd started moving toward the corner of the ag. I drove the truck down the road maybe 600 yards & watched for maybe 30 more minutes, before I got my gear together & moved down a ditch where I found some cover & could still see them at maybe 800 yards. As luck would have it, after about an hour, they came down to the corner. When the lead cow jumped the fence, I knew it was going to happen. My bull waited until roughly 80% had crossed the fence & road into NV before he crossed himself. Once I was certain he was inside BLM, I ranged him at 368 & shot it for 350 yards. I fired 3 rounds from my 300WSM to put him down even though I was certain that the 2nd shot really hurt him & I'm sure he would have gone down. I just sat there for roughly a minute to collect myself before standing to my feet. I could hear my hunting party coming closer laughing & cheering for what they had just witnessed. As I walked toward the hill & saw them I was instantly hit with a flood of emotions. My eyes welled up with tears as I felt an excited smile get bigger & bigger. We all exchanged hugs & handshakes while I tried to grasp what had just happened. I’m grateful to have had friends & family with me on this hunt to share in that experience with me. I will NEVER forget one minute of this hunt, both the rough & the good.
There was a 2 track running down along the fence, which put me about 40 yards from him. After locking in 4WD low, I had to plow through 8” tall grass & at least 1 sage brush bush. It was sketchy for sure, but saving 20 yards on the pack out was worth the wear & tear on the truck 
Thanks Kris.
