This year we had a slightly different camp. The Old Goat I usually hunt and camp with didn’t draw a tag for our normal unit so I had to go it without the old man. As luck would have it my old Detachment One buddy was able to come out and hunt with me. Huge thank you to Hunts for Heroes and Fotis for lining up the tags for us. They do a helluva job for Vets. Anyhow, as luck would have it, my son was able to take two weeks of leave and my little brother also roger’ed up to go with us, even though neither drew a tag.
The boys and I left from the east coast to get camp set up and get some elk scouted.
The boys doing some amphib Ops to get into the hunt area.
We got up on the mountain as soon as we could and started trying to get some elk spotted up. The Colonel has never been elk hunting so I wanted to show him those awesome Rocky’s and what it looks like to do it yourself.
The evening my buddy was coming in we got onto a small herd Im pretty sure we could've put a stalk on, but we were nice guys and decided to put them to bed till Craig (the Colonel) was in camp.
The next morning found us all up on the mountain, with elk everywhere. It was awesome. Even a bit of bugling too. We waited till the elk were in the timber by 0900, then moved over to get within rifle range of them.
We set up with our backs against some old pines and started to glass. Well, I might have taken a snooze till 1500 or so..
The Colonel and I talked a bit to pass the time. We were Marines who served together a few times throughout our careers and know a lot of the same folks so it was great to catch up and tell fishing sorta war stories to the young lads. Who knows, they mighta slept through most of them!
Anyhow around 1600, the Colonel glassed up a bull coming outta the timber. I held him for a second to make sure we couldn’t get a two’fer then said fire when ready. The bull was at 325 yards by our RFs and he pounded him a few times before he gave up.
On the rifle side, one of our mutual friends found him a P64 30-06, topped it with a Trijicon with the Mildot reticle. Once he had the rifle in hand the only ammo he could get ahold of was 180 Remington CLRN’s.. He spent a few hours with Todd Hodnett zeroing and shooting dope out to 600.
Anyhow, back to the bull. Once he was down we ran/walked up to the beast.
To say I was walking on air was an understatement!
First bull, 325 yards, P64 M70, hunting with some of my favorite people on planet earth and some old Round Nosed Green Boxed Remingtons brought it all together.
Did a quick class on skinning and quartering.
Then started to load some packs.
The boys and I left from the east coast to get camp set up and get some elk scouted.
The boys doing some amphib Ops to get into the hunt area.
We got up on the mountain as soon as we could and started trying to get some elk spotted up. The Colonel has never been elk hunting so I wanted to show him those awesome Rocky’s and what it looks like to do it yourself.
The evening my buddy was coming in we got onto a small herd Im pretty sure we could've put a stalk on, but we were nice guys and decided to put them to bed till Craig (the Colonel) was in camp.
The next morning found us all up on the mountain, with elk everywhere. It was awesome. Even a bit of bugling too. We waited till the elk were in the timber by 0900, then moved over to get within rifle range of them.
We set up with our backs against some old pines and started to glass. Well, I might have taken a snooze till 1500 or so..
The Colonel and I talked a bit to pass the time. We were Marines who served together a few times throughout our careers and know a lot of the same folks so it was great to catch up and tell fishing sorta war stories to the young lads. Who knows, they mighta slept through most of them!
Anyhow around 1600, the Colonel glassed up a bull coming outta the timber. I held him for a second to make sure we couldn’t get a two’fer then said fire when ready. The bull was at 325 yards by our RFs and he pounded him a few times before he gave up.
On the rifle side, one of our mutual friends found him a P64 30-06, topped it with a Trijicon with the Mildot reticle. Once he had the rifle in hand the only ammo he could get ahold of was 180 Remington CLRN’s.. He spent a few hours with Todd Hodnett zeroing and shooting dope out to 600.
Anyhow, back to the bull. Once he was down we ran/walked up to the beast.
To say I was walking on air was an understatement!
First bull, 325 yards, P64 M70, hunting with some of my favorite people on planet earth and some old Round Nosed Green Boxed Remingtons brought it all together.
Did a quick class on skinning and quartering.
Then started to load some packs.
