Pit Stop

Well, back from elk hunting for a whole day before heading out tomorrow morning with my daughter for her deer hunting season.

Obviously, if I was successful, there would be victorious pictures of dead animals.  Instead...no pictures right now.  It is a case of close, but no cigar.  This is one of the first times I have burned enough leave to actually hunt the middle of the week(usually, I take a day or two off to hunt long-weekends. 

It's a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, I had the better part of 50,000 acres basically to myself...but, there was no one else to help push animals around.  For the better part of 3 days, I chased a herd of 18-20 elk from ridge to ridge, and was constantly outguessed by them.  With no other hunter pressure, there were just too many options open to them, and I was never able to properly 'head them off at the pass'. The closest I ever got was about 300 yards, which is no easy shot even with a scope, let alone a muzzle-loader. 

It doesn't matter.  I was frustrated enough I actually packed up and came home late Thursday night instead of hunting Friday...I wasn't enjoying myself anymore, and I was sore, and wore out from spending 13 hours a day sitting in the 80+ degree afternoon sun.  All along, I have said the most important hunting season this fall is taking my daughter out...and I didn't want to go into that season in the mood I was in Thursday.

A day at home has helped.  The alarm is set to go off at 4:30, and I am excited.  My daughter appears to be excited, but my wife also said she has expressed some doubts to her about her ability to actually kill something.  Not sure how I will handle that yet if it becomes an issue.  Deep breathes and patience are the word of the day.   

Regrets.

What is the better story:' Last day of the season I saw a buck, but decided the shot was not within my capabilities', or 'Last day of the season I took a shot I was uncertain I could make, and missed'. 

Well...if you read a lot of Field and Stream and Bugle, you know the answer to that one...those magazines are full of ethical hunters, and 'Yeah, it was the last night of the season, and it was the biggest buck I had ever seen, but there was a twig in my way, so I passed up the shot'. 

I guess I am not that guy. 

My moment of truth was not at closing light, but rather the morning of the last day of the season.  For a couple of days, I had been playing hide and seek with a group of deer...there was a doe, a spike, and then a larger buck I hadn't properly ID'd.  A few times I saw them in the distance, and a time or two I jumped them out of their beds and couldn't get a clear shot through the shoulder high sage brush...but the last day of the season, I guessed right.  Or close to right.

I picked a nice spot on one side of a draw, looking across at a few game trails...and right around 8 am, a doe and spike walked out onto the ridgeline, followed about 10 minutes later by the mystery buck, who turned out to be a nice looking 3 X 4.  Nothing trophy worthy, but a nice legal buck. 

Folks...I had that buck gutted, skinned, and dropped off at the butchers in time to make it home to watch the Patriots...in my mind. 

However...after about 15 minutes that seemed like a lifetime, it because apparent that the deer were slowly but surely working their way up the draw away from me, extending the range. 

Poop.  I started trying to butt-slide my way across the slope...but sage and sharp rocks are not your friend when you are trying to be quiet.  At best, I was able to keep pace with them, but I was not gaining distance...and I had a choice to make.

I figure my ideal range at 100-120 yards on a deer sized target.  I figured this buck to be about 150 yards away, and uphill.  Previous times I had seen him, he was 300+ yards away, which is an easy call to make.  But...just 30 yards or so past my comfort level?  Standing broadside? 

I took the shot. 

In a situation like this, the 'worst case' isn't a miss...it's a bad hit.  Luckily...I didn't have to deal with that worst case...I saw the dust kick up a foot below the buck...but I was so far away the deer really didn't spook.  Of course...now my reloads were 25 yards back down hill, where I had left my back pack before I started butt-crawling. 

Well...the deer didn't stick around for that. 

Dang, and double dang.  I did some looking, just in case I had hit the deer, but there was no blood.  By the time I paced things off, it looked like the shot had been closer to 200 yards than 150 yards...but...I still feel pretty lame.  By taking the shot and missing...it's my skill and judgment that were lacking.  If I had passed up the shot....well, then I would be a great sportsman who surely would have made any shots inside my range.

Poop, Poop, Poop. 

Oh well...I'm home for the night for a shower, to wash some clothes, and reload the cooler.  I head back out tomorrow morning to finish out the last 4 days of elk season.  Opening morning of elk season, I saw a herd a 35 head out a distant ridgeline while sitting and glassing.  It's a good 1.5-2 mile hike...but I figure I will load up my backpack with snacks and PLENTY of water and hike in...and sit, and sit, and sit. 

And this time, I'll wait for the right shot.

Hmmm...that looks nice.

Kind of jealous of the cats...

And the worst part is that I know my wife is going to make me take a shower before I get to sit on the couch when I get back from hunting.

Everyone have a nice weekend...and be safe out there. 

11 days!

I'm taking all of next week(and the following Monday) off, so that adds up to 11 days off before I have to go back to work...and I'm going to spend most of that time hunting: sweating in the afternoon(because it's still supposed to be in the low 80's) and sleeping in a tent at night...missing football...

Wait a minute...who's idea was this? 

Tonight, it's re-organizing all my boxes, making sure I have the clothes and supplies to make it 3 or 4 nights, before I finally break down and drive the 2 hours home for a shower.

Hopefully, a few of those fork-horns I saw last weekend grew another antler-point in the last 5 days...

Now it's an 'Engineering Principle'.

In the STEAM workshop my daughter is participating in, her assignment for the week was building a 'gear car'.  The were given a little electric motor, a rectangular form, and a box full of gears, axels and 'fiddly bits', and told...go make a car that moves. 

When I got home from work, my wifetold me my daughter might need some help.  My wife and her had spent a few hours trying to get something put together, and they were having major issues with gear alignment. Basically, they were trying to put the motor in the middle, and have gears run both directions to the front and back tires. 

All I had to do was ask one question to simply my daughters life...'Does it need to be 4-wheel drive?'

That caused the light to go off, and she got back to work.  When I came back to check on her 30-minutes later, she was done. 

Her big concern was that her design might have gone too basic.  She moved the motor down and back, and went right from one big gear off the motor, to a small gear on her drive axel.  'It's not very fancy' she felt...at which point I educated her on the K.I.S.S. engineering principle.  I said...hey...if the goal is to move the car...will this design do that?  If the answer is yes...why make it tougher than it has to be.(the gear sticking out the top is just for looks.) 

What impressed me the most is he she dealt with an issue she had keeping her gears aligned. She simply doubled up the drive gear so that it didn't mater if the axel didn't stay 100% centered.

There are only two concerns.  While they have the motors, they have didn't give the kids a way to run the motor, so she doesn't know which way the motor will rotate...so we don't know if it's front wheel drive or rear wheel drive.  And then...there isn't much ground clearance.  If they test them on a floor....that's fine.  If they have a more...interesting test, well...she's just going to have to take that chance.

Stupid wild life experts.

Grrrrrr.

I keep trying to tell myself that it doesn't matter.  That while it was technically deer season this weekend, I was going out to scout for elk season...deer was more a target of opportunity. 

Then I kept seeing those targets of opportunities. 

This might not sound like a lot for whitetail hunters who are out working over feeders or nicely groomed food plots...but I saw 12 deer before 0930 Saturday morning...and 5 of them were bucks.  They just weren't bucks with the correct number of antler points.  The area I am hunting in has a 3-point minimum for legal bucks...so I saw 4 fork horns and 1 spike.  A few of them would have taken some work on my part to get closer...but two of them would have been fairly realistic shots. 

So...instead of being home in my bed Saturday night...I had to camp out.

It wasn't bad...the weather was perfect for camping...not so perfect for hunting.  Overnight lows right around 50...highs right around 80.  Made for sweaty afternoon's humping the hills.

Action slowed down as the weekend went on...but the bad news is I still haven't seen any elk. 

The good news, when I go up Friday, the last two days of deer season ovelap with the first two days of elk season...so...positive thoughts...positive thoughts. 

Ugg.

Well, the truck is finally packed, and everything is tarped down.  Heading out the door very shortly to spend a few days camping/deer hunting/elk scouting on Umtanum Ridge.

Should have been out the door 5 minutes ago, but it's funny how those 'last minute things' like filling the cooler, and strapping everything down(and blogging) take longer than you think they will. 

I'm planning on being out until Monday afternoon, but I've got to say...I wouldn't mind shooting one today and never having to spend a night in a tent.