Muzzleloader Hunting

The aspen trees were just barely starting to turn color last week as my friend Steve Hiebert and I headed up to Pauls cabin for a long deer and elk hunt. It's been a pretty hot fall so I think the season is a little out of whack, but compared to last year there was a lot of rain in the mountains. The service berry and choke cherry bushes were loaded with berries and, while that's good for the animals, the undergrowth is so heavy it's much harder to find them. It's also good for Paul and Carol who collect the berries for jams, jellies, and wine.

We decided to spend the first three days at Paul and Carols, and then move over to public land if the animals weren't plentiful. Opening morning was encouraging when Paul had a cow elk literally walk right up to him about 9:00am. After a little work we hauled that meat out on a 4 wheeler. Next morning Steve and I had a close call when 4 elk came out of nowhere and ended up running right between us. Unfortunately, they managed to stay just on the other side of some bushes and there was no shot for either of us. After that the next couple of days were pretty dead with the exception of a lot of grouse running around. While these make for some good eating (tastes just like chicken) we didn't want to possibly spook the big game animals by harvesting one of these guys.

Steve and I decided to move venues over to another part of the national forest to an area we know usually holds lots of deer and elk. We left the comforts of the cabin and based out of the camper near the foot of Saddle Mountain. The first evening there was amazing. Right about 6pm I had big bull elk about 50 yards away in some heavy cover thrashing a tree and stamping the ground. We had another 4 or 5 bulls bugling up and down the short valley above and below us. I had a small herd of cows come right up to me within 30 meters and offer up a great shot but because of the licenses we were holding, elk were off the table in this area. Next day I managed to get my buck deer up on top of Saddle Mountain, and Steve got his deer the following day on the way back to the camper. It's a tougher spot to hunt but I guess that's why the animals are in there...rough country makes for fewer hunters.

After filling our deer quota we headed back to Paul and Carols cabin for another "shot" at the elk. Long story short... we had a couple of fleeting sighting, but no real action. Even so we filled 3 licenses so not a bad outcome, and we got to enjoy some great late fall weather.