Just decided I am moving to Durango.  WOW!!!

Nice.......  

The town is really nice too...not to mention the outfitter.

Doh!...to think I passed on going to Colorado to elk hunt this year!  

A few photos from our NM elk hunt in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness. We were into elk every day but could not close the deal. I had a 6x7 at 40yds, no shot, blew a stalk on a big 6x6, had the wind ruin chances at three bulls and on the last evening stalked a spike, just a mile from the truck, but the evening breeze changed my plans. We did have a great time.

Mandatory stop by the VLA on the way down.



Checking out the spring on Spring Mountain.



A dried up wallow. The grass behind it was still matted down and soaked with urine. I put the camera up, walked to the edge of the rise and bumped a small 6x6 that had bedded just out of sight.

The view West from the mountain.



My hunting partner. His Indian name is "Dances With Trees"



An old hunting partner of "Twinkle-toes", from Oklahoma, came out and hunted bear for the two weeks around the elk season. I feel like an idiot for not getting a photo of him. Bob from Norman was a great guy to share a camp with. I just hope his feet have recovered.  

Noelkman,

   VLA is very cool. I have always wanted to go out there and work. I used to work on similar satellite dishes in the military.  


Love all the pics and stories everyone. Hope I'll add my own soon.

When life throws you for a loop,you gotta keep reaching towards GOD. RC

Good one RC.  

Great advice and pic  RC.    

did you attempt a shot through that?
i would just have to give that a go!

So man did not invent the wheel ?LOL

Just wanted to put up a few pictures of my North Idaho Elk trip. We did not shoot an Elk but had several very close calls.
It was a trip home for me so a few of the days were spent visiting family also. I got to hunt with my older brother, my favorite hunting partner!

This is the Panhandle National Forest between Lake Coeur d'Alene and Lake Pend Oreille.

We hunted for six days and the first thing we did each day was climb 2,000-3,000 ft of the steepest brushiest terain around just to get to the Elk. Then you can start hunting.

We found a nice shed, one of the big boys we were chasin.

Had a little time to fish, caught a nice little Steelhead.

Enjoy. Take care,

[  
 
 
 
 
 
Hope you enjoy.

Mark

That's one heck of a shed! What does it score?

My brother and I came across something special in the woods last year. We found some large nut husks that were all over an area. I took one home to look it up as I had never seen one before. Turns out they were Chestnuts.

 

All the nuts were gone at that time so I resolved to get back in there the following year in the early season. This year found us in there for a scout and sure enough they were coming down and the deer were all over them.

 

If you look carefully in the picture (taken from stand) you can see the grove of trees as there are two parallel rows. I am not sure if they were planted on an old farm or if it was done for wildlife long ago. Either way this grove is in the middle of a several hundred acre woodlot.

My brother and I had made one mistake when we were scouting though. We did not mark or bright eye our way to the stand      .

As you can see in this picture it is very thick and a long walk from where we park to get to this area. I was very fortunate to not only to find this area again but to also find the exact tree that we thought would be good. This picture is taken from the stand facing the direction the deer would hopefully approach from.

 

I thought it would take me a long time to find my way in the dark so I was setup pretty early. It was a nice early fall morning with 50 degree temps and clear skies.

At around 7:25 I was able to make out the body of a deer about 40 yards away. I watched as it meandered through the grove in my direction. As it cleared the brush I could see that is was a forkhorn. I knew I was not interested in shooting a forkie so I hoped he would wander off without getting my wind. There would be no such luck and he ended up 12-15 away over my left shoulder exactly in the spot in this picture.

 

He was okay there but eventually ended up too close to my tree and got my wind. He bounded away and proceeded to blow for a couple minutes warning everybody about the guy in the tree.

About 20 minutes later I picked out another body and hoped that it would follow the same path that the forkhorn did. Sure enough it slowly meandered its way through the trees and wound up in the same spot as the forkhorn just off my left shoulder.

I picked a spot and let the string fall from my fingers. The arrow hit just where I was looking and I listened as the deer crashed through the brush and came to a stop.

I called my hunting partners who also happen to be my brothers. Neither were hunting at the time but both graciously came out to help with the dragging and transport.

Good ol long nose. Great way to start a season!

Bob Lee Hunter 47@27 28" 1916s with 145 gr Bear Razorheads. (Love the Razorheads - Fred was a genius)

 

Congrats on a FINE Doe.  

I don't know what the shed scores, faily well I would guess though.
Thats my brother with the compound, I haven't convinced him yet. I had my Martin Hunter.

Mark

I have hunted for a lot of years, and have taken my share of deer in the past.  I have always been stuck in the trees however, and had never taken a deer from the ground.

Last year I did try it a few times, and had a couple of close encounters, but no shots.  This year I wanted to make even more of an effort, and last night, on my first trip to the whitetail woods for the season, I connected with a nice doe.  

She passed at less than 10 yards, and caught me when I started my draw.  But after a brief glance my way, she continued on her path without another thought.  Apparantly the ghillie did its job.