archer58

He looks a little bigger than 100's
I'd say 120ish.
I have a 10pt on the wall that was 110, and 140's deer is much taller and looks thicker than mine. Width is about the same.
I'd give him more and I'd shoot him, but I don't know what else
may be roaming the property.
Either way , some good points for the team.

dayna0306

My internet was down b/c I am putting a new kitchen in. That buck might make the book bucheye.Try and get me a better photo. Is it an eight point frame?I am leaving in 8 days and I have to bust my ass to get all the work done I had planed .


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Howler

Well I'm back, but without any elk kills, but plenty of storys. I ended up hunting and camping alone for the whole 4 days, my friends had things happen that kept them from joining me. I had four close calls, nocked arrows four times, but lady luck was with the elk. On my first day, I hiked further than I had before in this area. I checked our usual spots on the "right" side of the mtn. and found that nothing had knocked the frost off of the grasses, so I decided to check the "wrong" side of the mtn., a place that I hadn't been before. When I got to the top, the "wrong" side of the mtn. wasn't at all what I had expected. It look more like sheep country than elk country. I glassed for a bit, and didn't spot anything so I decided to kick back and soak in some rays and eat a snack. About the time I decided to stick to the "right" side of the mtn., I heard a bugle down in the canyon, on the "wrong" side of the mtn. After some more intense glassing, I spotted a small herd of elk about 3/4 mile away, and way below me. As crazy as it seemed to me, I decided to drop down in and at least do a stalk, but I told myself that if I blew it, it would be the best screw up that I had ever done. Well, the stalk was actually pretty easy with the terrain and some wind, I got with in about 35 yards of a nice, not a monster, but a nice 6x6 bull, but THANKFULLY, a cow busted me and saved my ass, and the bulls too as I had decided to shoot if given the chance. I just couldn't fathom packing this elk3miles back to camp, by myself. Here's a picture that I took from where the elk were looking back up to the ridge that I came down. I came down to the left of the shear rock cliff, in the saddle.



By the time I got back to camp that night, I was hurtin' for surtin', and I discovered that I hadn't brought any pain pills. SO that was my only close call on Thursday. I had two close calls, was with in 100 yards of nice bulls on Friday, but I just couldn't do anything with them and all thier cows. And then lateSat. morning, I spotted a 5x5 bull bedded by himself in the timber only about 75 or 80 yards from me. I really thought I was going to kill this bull. First thing I did was to use my powder to check the wind, and it wasn't good, BUT I thought it was workable. Well, I only made it about 10 yards toward him when he stood up. He wasn't spooked, but he started walkin and I tried to flank him without spooking him, and well, let's just say that an elk can walk faster than man in the mtns. I lost him in short order. And then this morning, I only heard one distant bugle and never spotted any elk.
I'll show one more pic. of the snow that we got Thursday night on my next post.

Howler

Here was the view from camp late Friday afternoon. All the snow was gone by evening, but it's obvious that fall has arrived in the high country. It frosted every night, although the aspens haven't really started to turn.



I'll be headed back up after work on Wednesday again for some more good exercise. I did meet a guy from Ind. that had killed a nice little 4x5 last Monday. He had hunted this area for 8 years, and this was his 2nd bull. Not bad for a do-it-yourselfer from out of state. He told me that his cost was going to total about $1500., so for you guys that dream of doing something like this, that gives you an idea, that it CAN be done!!

By the way Chad, I also would need at least one of the pic., a side view, of that buck to really guess his score with any accuracy. It's very hard to judge with only a distant velvet frontal view,BUThe does look to have promise.

Howler

Here's one more pic. I took this pic. from the ridge looking down into the valley that I did the stalk on the elk on Thursday. The saddle that I dropped down into the valley in would be just to the right of me in this pic. and the elk would've been to the left of the valley, not in the pic. The far off high mtn. tops is where the snow is in the 2nd pic. that I posted.

archer58

Damn Tim,
That's what I call "rugged" hunting. I can't believe you were there alone.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done that by myself. No, I know for sure I wouldn't have done that by myself.
You have my respect. Congrats on the hunt. That is a feat in itself.

BUCKEYEhunter140

howler i bet that was some sweet country to be hikin in i went out again tonight lookin for deer n seen some but nothin worth much i did see wat i thought was the buck i posted. but he was out of velvet n i think he is a 8 i would say he is right at 125 mayb a touch more that pic was about 80 yds. away and he went runnin below the hill i was sittin on tonight but it was hard to say. i put the cam back up n layed out some trace mineral salt. so we will see if they tear that up BTW anyone else got some pics to put up i want to see some bucks i will try n take the still shots off my cam sometime and up laod them we have some sweet ones on there

dayna0306

Those photos got me drooling.Are you seeing any bucks in that high country ?


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Howler

I do love to hunt/hike/camp in the CO. high country. The solidarity just pulls my sole into places that a guy really shouldn't go alone, especially since I didn't tell anyone that I was going back there. My bad knees were shot after a day of hiking back there, I can tell ya that for sure.
I didn't see any deer dayna, not even any sign of deer. I did find a few piles of bear sign, but no bear sightings either. Come to think of it, through the years, I've never seen any deer in this area. We do see moose about every year, but none of them this trip either.

LittleChief

So Howler.... if I can come up with $1500.00 and transportation, I can go with you???? God, that's some beautiful country.