2023 Hunting Season

Bummer, but you certainly had a skookum looking camp. I remember one hunt in the Big Bend area of TX. I awakened to observe three separate hunting parties in the valley below our camp. At sunrise, it sounded as though a major action taking place as everyone was shooting at mule deer or what they hoped were mule deer.
 
It was Skookum Dr. Mike. That’s a lot of rain to fall on any tent much less one thats over 20 years old. We stayed dry and very warm, but I know I’ve never hunted elk in eastern Oregon where it rained so much. Biggest problem was forked horn elk. Never saw that that 20 years ago up here but see it often now. My pic of the three we shot last year all had forks on one side, this year I saw several at longer range that had an obvious fork, 4 or 5” but just couldn’t garantee the other side was a clean spike. Under Oregon law all the warden needs is to be able to hang a ring on a bump to call it a fork. Just not worth taking the chance.
 
Idaho53 said:
Morning from Idaho. I am up in Stanley hunting bull elk with my family. My son in law and I have OTC open bull tags, and I was able to harvest mine last night. He's only a spike...but I am happy to fill our freezer. This is my 1st harvest with my 300 PRC. Shooting the 212 ELD-X bullets...bull was 485 yards. Two shots to the lungs and he was down (on elk, I have learned to keep shooting until they are down). Both bullets were complete pass thru's with large exit wounds. We quartered him up on the mountain and walked out in the dark (one of those hunts you remember) We are heading back it this morning to see if we can find one for my son-in-law. I will post pictures later.
Sure do love the outdoors and Public Land we are blessed to enjoy in this Country. Let's work hard and stick together to preserve it.
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Congratulations on filling your tag. Sounds like your 300 PRC and 212 ELD-S's did the job.
 
salmonchaser said:
Home from elk hunting; no joy for me. Weather was pretty awful, almost 5 inches of rain in three days on top of a foot of snow. Saw plenty of elk on the side of a mountain about 4 miles away, decided to make a play on them. We counted at least 150. Left the tent at 0300, dropped 3000 feet in 2.5 miles then hiked down a horse trail for another couple of miles, climbed 3000 feet in about 2 miles crested the ridge at about 0800, a little latter than we hoped. We had to negotiate a draw for about 700 yards and we would be in position. We were in the bottom of the draw when all hell broke loose. A couple of guys on horses had also seen the elk and ridden down to them. 8 shots later they had collected two bulls. Oh well. Now it’s time to get ready for Montana.
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Too bad about the awful weather and other hunters. At least you got the opportunity to be out and about and make an attempt.
 
NYDAN said:
Too bad about the awful weather and other hunters. At least you got the opportunity to be out and about and make an attempt.
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What I value most is a week in the tent and the opportunity to hunt such amazing country. I killed my first bull about 1 1/2 miles from the tent, 55 or 56 years ago. I’ve spent time in other parts of the state but keep coming back here. I’m grateful to lace up my boots, pick up my rifle, and go give it a try. Don’t recall having ever lost sight of the fact I live just under two hours from my tent. Every day in camp puts a smile on my face.
 
I took this nice 9-point buck yesterday with the crossbow. About a 12-15 yard shot. It was about my 9th time out hunting with the crossbow this year.

I would like to thank the landowner, Caleb C., for permission to hunt his property and Caleb T. for his help in locating the deer after the shot. Both of them helped with the field dressing and transport out of the woods.

We had NOT seen this buck on any of our trail cameras. So, we are viewing him as a bonus to the other bucks we know are running around here.

This is about my 82nd deer. They slowly add up through the years. :)

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Another great day afield with the wife trying to find her a moose (last day for this year), a whitetail buck, or a mulie buck.
Started off promising for mulies; saw over 40 today, but none of the bucks were legal. Was fun watching the young bucks cruising the does and lip curling, or pushing one another around. One fair sized mulie that may have been legal seen on a previous scouting trip was found this morning with the side that may have had the 4th point broken off at the base. Of course he lay in the field and allowed us to get within 150 yards, soaking up the morning sun! LOL Of course he must have known now that he was safe from hunters! ;)
In another field we found the whitetails; and while glassing the does who were watching us, a very nice whitetail raised his head allowing us to see his very nice rack shining in the morning sun!, But alas, as we could only see his head facing directly to us over the riseback , I couldn't get a point count, and then he turned and drifted into the thick bush at the field edge, not to be seen again. We did spot the does sneaking out the north end of the bush through the neighbours cutblock a while later, but did not spot the buck again.
This was the first big whitetail Susan has ever seen and she was was some excited to see it! Heck, I was thrilled to see it!
We did spot a moose calf sneaking across the road from one property to another, but no bulls.
We spent the rest of morning watching the mulies and hoping the whitetails would reappear for the major activity time window today.

As we only had permission to hunt that property for this morning, we went to another area to hunt that has produced deer and moose in the past. We only saw a few whitetail does and fawns, and then just before last light we came across a nice young bull moose. Perfectly broadside at 50 yards, he watched us for a while, and he would stop and turn back to a cow call every time he moved. But he had 3 tines on the left and 4 on the right; too many to legal on one end, and too few to be legal on the other end of required number of points! Poor Susan; this is the third time she has seen a bull moose in the waning hours of the season, and to have the bull standing perfectly broadside inside 50 yards, only to be not legal for her to shoot!

I have this next week off work, so we will spend some more days in the field trying to find her, her first buck!
 
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Dang. Sorry your wife wasn't able to fill one of her tags yesterday. At least you guys got to see three different species of big game animals in one day. We don't have that opportunity here.

Good luck next week. I am confident your wife will fire her rifle.
 
NYDAN said:
Dang. Sorry your wife wasn't able to fill one of her tags yesterday. At least you guys got to see three different species of big game animals in one day. We don't have that opportunity here.

Good luck next week. I am confident your wife will fire her rifle.
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While she was somewhat disappointed to not be able to shoot something, she did enjoy a beautiful day in the field seeing lots of game!
 
I took this doe in the pasture behind the house opening morning. She's not very big but she appeared to be around 5 years old. She was barren and her teeth were worn down to nearly nothing. No. 1 220 Swift did the job. I'm picking up sausage at the smokehouse saturday.20231104_073618.jpg
 
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