What I did this year...

[Mtnboy]

2015 has been pretty good to me, figured I'd share some with you guys since I always enjoy reading other threads like this.

I was lucky enough to go to Sheep Show in January, what a site to see and atmosphere to experience. The comrade among the people and the passion they share is truly special. Can't wait to go back next year. Unfortunately, this bad ass Marco Polo mount is the only picture I took.

During the spring I had my Tikka bolt fluted, pretty happy with how it turned out.

Most of my Spring was spent with camping trips with my future hunting partner pictured here!

By mid-June cabin fever was kicking in bad, so I organized my crap and went on a Spring Bear/Scouting Trip to an area that I typically hunt yearly for deer or elk and a lot of years both. I've seen some nice Bear in there over the years so my hopes were up I'd be coming home with some breakfast sausage!

 

[Mtnboy]

This was home for the weekend trip.

Right off the bat my first morning of glassing, I saw these 2 playing Mtn Goat

I didn't turn up any Bear the first day, but I did find quite a few elk, including one Bull who seemed pretty good size for it only being Mid/Early June.

 

[Mtnboy]

Not a bad spot to sit whether you are seeing anything or not.

I did stumble on a new water source I didn't know about before, so that's always nice!

What you lookin' at fool!

I didn't end up with a bear, but the trip was definitely a success in my book.

 

[Mtnboy]

In August my wife and I got a chance to get out for a weekend and bag one of Idaho's 12ers. This was number 4 out of 9 for us, we will get them all eventually as kids and life allow!

This area holds a lot of Mtn Goats so I was constantly scanning, hoping to catch some good digiscope shots.

It was some scenic country for sure!

 

[Mtnboy]

If I'm ever lucky enough to head up North on a Sheep hunt, I'll definitely be doing this hike for some training.

We only saw a few goats a long ways off that I wasn't able to get good pics of, but I did find a souvenir at least.

View from the top.

The wife making her way back down.

This was a great trip overall, I always enjoy backpacking with my wife.

 

[Mtnboy]

Hunting season for me kicked off with tagging along on my buddies Bighorn Sheep hunt (I did a lackluster "live" hunt that had some of these same pics). We rolled out of town 2 days before opener loaded for anything and everything.

The drive always flies by with the excitement of the first hunt of the Fall on your brain!

The day before opener we were covering as much country as possible, getting one last lay of the land and looking for any sheep/sign/Intel we could come across. These 2 cubs walked right up on us while we were glassing and having a "normal voice" conversation, it was pretty cool, although we quickly bailed just in case mama came up on the other side of us!

It was sheep country.

 

[Mtnboy]

 

[Mtnboy]

Combing the earth...

When it's time to sheep hunt, it's time to bust out the big glass.

We covered some serious country, trying to make sure we saw as many of the sheep in the unit as we possibly could.

How did those rocks get like that?

 

[Mtnboy]

We didn't find any sheep worthy of hanging a tag on during the first week of the season, but my buddy did shoot this nice bear on the second to last day we were there.

The skull after it was boiled.

The following weekend I spent a day scouting some areas for my wife's elk tag.

About 30 minutes after getting home from scouting, I got a call from my dad that they had an elk down and could use a hand getting it out. So much for a good nights sleep, I figured I'd drive the 3 hours right away rather than having to leave at 3am.

Here's what they led me to the next morning. My kind of work!

 

[martin_shooter]

Very nice!

 

[Mtnboy]

A few weeks later I got a late night call from my cousin to help him out with a bull, he was solo and shot it at last light on the last day, we had to get it out so he could catch his flight to Mexico in time!
It was a 2am departure for me for the 5 hour trip to his area.

I saw this guy on the way over to my (not that educated) eye, he looks like a pretty good speed goat for Idaho, seems like good mass to me at least.

Scenic drive.

His elk was about 4 miles from the truck. 3 miles of that we could ride a motorcycle, the last stretch was some pretty nasty blowdown, but that's elk hunting! After we got him all quartered up I ferried the quarters to where he could get the bike and he rode them out. The last trip I had a hind quarter, the cut meat, all our butchering supplies, a chain saw and the horns. No problem for the Stone Glacier.

 

[Mtnboy]

Next up for me was opening weekend of rifle deer season, I was REALLY hoping it wasn't going to be a complete zoo, but with opener on a Saturday I knew the odds weren't in my favor.

Home for the weekend.

Luck appeared to be on my side, only one other truck at my trail head. However, that changed about 8:45am as I crested into a new basin and immediately found a good 4 point...only to see the other guys getting set up to shoot! I watched through my binos as they dumped a great deer for this area, my jealousy quickly faded with each roll it took, that big boy musta added 500 vertical feet to their pack out before he stopped! Those boys earned him before it was over, I'm sure of that!

The rest of that trip was uneventful, no more people, but no more shooter bucks either.

 

[Mtnboy]

The following week, we spent 4 days looking for a bull for my wife.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. We did see quite a few deer though, she even passed up some smaller bucks as she was hoping to get a nice whitetail in November in North Idaho.

She got to see her first Badger one afternoon when we were moving spots, so that was cool!

 

[milunchbox]

Nice pictures and write up, what did you do with the chain saw it looks like it had some blood on it.

 

[Mtnboy]

Well, we cut our way in there with it and then we quartered the elk with it, it's an old school North Idaho trick ha. You can take the boy out of North Idaho but you can't take the logger out of him I suppose.

 

[Mtnboy]

During the week I helped my buddy butcher his Deer.

The next weekend I was out on a mission to fill the freezer with my rifle Cow tag. I was happy to have my cousin with me on this hunt, an extra set of eyes is always nice and hopefully I could put him to work packing some meat!

The essentials.

Working down to a spot we were hoping a herd would feed into during the evening.

Alas, I couldn't get it done. I had some close calls and one shot opportunity that a lot of guys would have probably taken, but I wasn't 100% confident so I passed. As my Dad always said "That's why they call it hunting, not killing"

 

[Mtnboy]

After getting home and sitting on it for a few days, I decided I couldn't accept not getting one without one more shot at it. At 10pm Wednesday I made the call that I'd be headed up at 3am the next morning for a Banzai run!

After hiking for 45 minutes in the dark, this was my view...snow! I couldn't have been happier, not to mention there is a herd of 30 elk in that picture that are too far away to make out, the hunt was on!

I ran up the valley as fast as I could and started the 1,500 foot climb to where I could last see them, hoping like hell I'd catch them before they made the timber I know is on the back side of the ridge up there.

It was not meant to be, I got within 350yds but again didn't have a shot I liked.

I went back out to a high spot to ponder my options. I wasn't sitting/glassing for long when I spotted some deer feeding 400yds away, one was a buck, I didn't get a great look before they fed out of site, but with only 2 days of rifle season left and 2 un-notched deer tags in my pocket, he was good enough.

I closed the gap and got above where I could see the does feeding and waited for him to step out. It took about 15 minutes but when he did the .270wsm hit him hard. He didn't make it far before piling up.

I was more than happy with what I found.

I got him quartered up and into my pack in one load, it was 4 miles back to the truck so I didn't want to do it twice. I was also trying to be as quick as possible so I could still find an elk...which yet again wasn't meant to be.

That's it so far. I'm hoping to make it out for some late archery Mule Deer, but we'll see how that pans out, life is rather hectic right now!

Boiled out.

 

[MuleyFever]

Looks like you had a fun year so far. Its fun to relive our seasons as they go so fast.

 

[realunlucky]

You took some great pictures. Congratulations on a great year

 

[jwb300]

Great pics! Thanks for posting!