# bigbean scores



## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Bigbean shot a 23" 4 point buck this morning and a 6 point bull elk tonight. Story and pics to follow. We are in camp now exhausted beyond belief. Deer is out. Going back for the rest of the elk in the am.


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

Woohooo. 8)


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## fixed blade XC-3 (Sep 11, 2007)

Sweet, what a hunt. Cant wait for the pictures. Why have you shot anything nate?


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Good work!! Cant wait!!


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Day 2. Elk is out and hanging in a tree. Had AWESOME philly cheese steak for dinner (orvis pictures to follow). 

Huge29 is out tummy thumping by the fire. (Pictures to follow). 

We are going to find a buck for Huge to shoot tomorrow.


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Holy heck where are the pictures I'm dying here.....


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Day 3. Still on the mountain. I am posting from my phone. Tough day today. Lots of walking no buck deer. I did see a big bobcat on a gutpile. It may have been a lynx. It was big and gray. Huge has been a trooper. Still trying to get him on a buck. We are hunting tomorrow and then heading home. I should be able to post pictures tomorrow night. I'll let bigbean tale the tale. It was awesome. The bull only went 50 yards after the shot and then piled up.


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Okay. Made it home. Finished helping bigbean cut and wrap a deer and elk. I don't recommend doing that in one sitting. I am beat. But what a trip. I had the priviledge of witnessing a very rare event. I am not aware of anyone else doing this ever on public land 100% DIY the hard way. No horses, mules or possee. I'll let bigbean tell you the specifics. Here are a couple of pictures:

~11:00 AM September 23, 2009:









~6:30 PM September 23, 2009, approximately 300 yds east of the first picture:









My ugly mug with my cousin:









Yummy dinner:









Pretty picture:









Another pretty picture:









Steep country:









A dang good hunter, cousin and friend:









Enjoy.

p.s. Thanks Huge for your help. Sorry we couldn't find you a buck to shoot.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

NHS said:


> p.s. Thanks Huge for your help. Sorry we couldn't find you a buck to shoot.


On the contrary, thank you both for letting me tag along! I even made some fajitas tonight with the elk, good stuff!!


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Very nice guys! You can feel the camaraderie that was had through the post. Great looking animals. Hope he shares some steaks with you. 8)


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

I was lucky enough to see and heft the beasts myself yesterday. The pictures don't do the elk justice--it is a heavy bull with great curves on the main frame. Congrats to Bigbean--he's gone from legend to near diety status. I have never heard of someone harvesting a nice buck and a great bull in the same day!


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

AWESOME!!!!!! If you don't mind what tags did he have? Congrats, a trip you'll never forget...


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## BIGBEAN (Apr 16, 2008)

Thanks for all of the comments. I am just now getting my tired arse out of bed just in time to get ready to go to bed.

It still hasn't hit me what NHS and I accomplished this last week. Yes I was the one with the tags but couldn't have done it without NHS's push and expert calling. Of course we were given a hand by a fellow Carbonite named HUGE29.

I am not good at telling stories or relaying thoughts so if you want to save yourself alot of non sense I would stop reading now.

Tuesday the September 22nd.
We arrived at our camping spot and set up NHS's tent trailer and other ammenities and began discussing our plan for in the morning. I had set up a trail cam in early August and had captured pictures of several different bulls. This is where I wanted to go in the early morning. So to pass the time we decided to go call in a few other locations befor dark to get an idea of where elk were at. Having the only Muzzleloader tag for the Range Creek area was nice because your area is limited on where you can hunt, and not all the areas hold elk. The first spot we stopped at was promising, NHS's cow call was answered with a loud deep growl which turned into several loud bugles. Satisfied with the outcome of the calling and not wanting to get busted we left the area. We went and tried another canyon that I am sure holds elk, but with the wind blowing fairly hard and wanting to go try another sure spot we left without hearing a thing. The next location we were greeted with an answer within a couple of minutes of calling. This bull didn't sound all that impressive and only answered once. From this ridge we were able to watch a pretty decent bull herd up 5 cows and feed on a hill side on a CWMU area. We left happy knowing that there was another spot which held elk. We had one more spot to try before it got dark and it didn't produce anything so back to camp we went full of excitement.

September 23rd
The night seemed long as I tossed and turned dreaming of all the things that could go wrong hunting along the boundaries of a CWMU. The daylight was a couple hours away as we awoke and prepared for our morning hike into the honey hole. 
We stumbled down a fairly steep hillside and then was rudely greeted with meeting the other side of the canyon which we had to climb. The hill slowly slid behind us as we huffed and puffed our way to the top. As we slowly and quietly approached the spring (wallow) area that I had placed my trail cam at a month earlier we were greeted with elk sign all around. As we positioned ourselves in the brush with clear shooting lanes from the directions of where the elk would come we began calling. As the minutes passed and the anticipation grew we were greeted with nothing but the sounds of howling coyotes and wind gusts. The wind kept up all morning as we tried several different areas on this ridge but nothing would answer or at least we couldn’t hear it. We decided to head off this ridge and go to another spot in the evening. As we hiked down the hill that we were so slow to climb my hopes were brightened by all of the rubs and sign that was all around. We split up as NHS was following a well used trail that had a lot of deer sign and I went into the bottom where it seemed to be an elk highway. I knew this is where we needed to hit in the evening. I had climbed ½ way up the hill and hit a little bench that contain pines and buck brush and quakies. It also had a well used trail heading to a spring about 200 yards away. As I pictured where we would set up this evening I was rudely interrupted by a sleeping buck who thought is was necessary to snort and jump up and run from literally under my feet. He ran about 80 yards and stopped to look back. I really thought hard about whether to shoot him or not. Would it ruin the area for the evening, would he run back down to the bottom of the canyon from where I had just hiked. None of the scenarios played out as my TC omega dropped the buck to the ground. NHS was on the radio wanting to know if it was a Buck or a Bull. He seemed relieved that it was a deer. We quickly quartered it out and packed it out in one trip and was to camp by noon.
We made it back to camp to be greeted by my parents who live only about 15 miles from my hunting spot. We hung the meat up and decided to go back to town to get some more water and a generator. On the trip off of the mountain we ran into a good looking Ford with a license plate that read HUGE. We stopped and chatted and confirmed our camp location and made plans to meet up in about an hour. We returned and made plans and rested until about 5:30. We decided to head to where we had heard the grunting bull. We crept (as much as a fat man can creep) down a hill and sat next to some thick brush. Our attention was quickly focused on a few does and a little buck in the edge of the trees. They slowly fed off as we began calling. The wind was blowing hard and was shifting every minute. We eventually made out the distant sound of a bugle. We decided to close the distance since this area is hit hard by road callers the elk won’t leave the comfort of the bottom of the canyon. We started walking down the hill when HUGE noticed a rather large buck (not exactly sure on the point count as he was walking away from us) I think it was a 2x3 about 26” wide. NHS and I kept following the screams of the elk. As we made our way toward the bottom and into the pines NHS held up as I moved silently through the trees. I was quickly able to make out am impressive elk rack about 80 yards ahead. I inched my way closer trying like heck to find a good shooting lane. As I had closed the distance to about 40 yards I found a good shooting lane only to have a cow directly in front of the bull. The cow had its head down feeding and the bull just had its head up looking back in the direction of NHS as he cow called. All I needed him to do was take a couple of steps ahead and he would be mine. I suddenly felt the wind blow from my back and I knew that he would be leaving soon. I pulled up waiting for either him or the cow to move so I could shoot. The bull turned and ran straight away from me not presenting a shot as the cow just stood there wondering what was going on. I would say this bull probably a 350” bull. He bugled as he ran away eventually the cows would follow. The last I heard him he was well onto private property taunting me with several screams. As I relaying the events of what happened to NHS we heard another bull which sounded fairly close and he sounded decent. As daylight was running out we made a quick play for this bull. We walked down a well used trail that was within feet of where I had dropped my deer just about 7 hours earlier. We were cow calling and walking towards a wallow and I knew this is where the bull would be. As we got closer we were treated with a loud scream coming toward us. NHS went uphill to cover as I stayed on the trail and made my way around the bend of a hill. I had to duck to get under a pine tree and as I looked forward I could see the bull walking up the hill toward me. I think we spotted each other at the same time. As he readied himself to run I pulled up and shot. He was only about 40 yards away. I saw a puff of smoke and saw him run away. I could see other elk moving off as well. As we went to where he was standing when I shot, fear and doubts began to rise in my head that I had missed. He was only 40 yards away and downhill. I thought I had shot over him. We followed his tracks for about 30 to 40 yards without a drop of blood. My fears were becoming more real every step the elk had taken without leaving any blood. As we cleared a last big pine tree I looked a head into a clearing that was filled with rose hips and other brush I could see the rack sticking up. Man what an awesome feeling. After snapping several photos (which I will post when I am not so tired) we inspected the animal for an entry wound and found I had hit him right above the right front shoulder next to the spine and it went into his left front shoulder. We quartered him out and hung the quarters up as high as we could to keep them safe from the bears and coyotes (and bobcats). That night we packed out the head and the backstraps. We returned the next morning with NHS and HUGE packing heat to ward off any possible predators that might be on the kill. We made the climb up the hill fairly easy and was glad to have it done.
A very large thanks to a great cousin who I love to hang out with and look forward to sharing many more hunts with. Also another thanks to HUGE, for his help packing and the Tummy Thumping dance he demonstrated around the fire. For being a Carbon Dino HUGE you are ok. Also a large thanks to my dad who lends us all of the gear we need and I know you would be there if you could. 8)


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Not a bad job writing there for a product of Carbon School District! :wink:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Fantastic, just awesome guys!


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

I would say you did a fine job of relaying your story. Would like to see more pics. 8)


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Great story. That sounds like a lot of work!


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice write up bigbean. Just as I remember it. I am ready to do it again! I learned a few things from this hunt:

1. Deer are easier to carry out of a hole than elk.
2. Sauteed onions, peppers and roast beef with provolone are divine.
3. Huge29 grunts and farts all night in his sleep.


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## TAK (Sep 9, 2007)

Very well done!


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## jahan (Sep 7, 2007)

Congrats! Nice story, I really liked it. See some of us Carbon graduates can read. :lol:


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## TAK (Sep 9, 2007)

jahan said:


> Congrats! Nice story, I really liked it. See some of us Carbon graduates can read. :lol:


But thank GOD for the pictures!~


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## HJB (May 22, 2008)

So this was a LE elk hunt and a bonus deer with your muzz right? Sorry, I got lost somewhere along the way. I don't know of any other elk season that is open other than the LE muzzleloader.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

I'm not so sure why you guys got so tired cutting up a little deer and an elk..... :roll: 

Looks like either one of you could have carried them animals, whole, all the way to the butchers !!!

Great post guys !! Congrats to all of you....even that stinky guy, Huge29 !!!


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## Fly22 (Sep 16, 2007)

Great acomplishment. Its a lot of work. I know another guy who did the same thing last year. Quite the feat.

Congrats!!!


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## elk22hunter (Sep 7, 2007)

Great Job Nathaniel!


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## shotgunwill (May 16, 2008)

Great story! And congrats on the totally righteous harvest!

BTW, I really liked the two racks together pic, *FREAKIN COOL*!!


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## BIGBEAN (Apr 16, 2008)

Here are a couple more photos from the hunt. It was a limited entry Muzzle Loader Elk hunt and a General Muzzle Loader Deer Hunt.


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

Good going! Nice story!


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

HJB said:


> So this was a LE elk hunt and a bonus deer with your muzz right? Sorry, I got lost somewhere along the way. I don't know of any other elk season that is open other than the LE muzzleloader.


Your assumption is correct.


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