# 2017: A new beginning



## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Here's the start of my 2017 scouting and hunting adventures.

After the long wait of find out which tag I drew, if any. I found out I had drawn my first choice dedicated hunter tag. I'm also hoping to get an Any Bull tag for the same area this year too. Now that I won't be hunting with the "Wolfpack" this year, I found a new pack to hang with, my wife and kids. We made a camping trip to our new hunting spot over Memorial Day weekend with a little truck problems along the way. Thankfully it was only bad gas and after adding an additive and some fresh gas, we were good to go. We stayed Friday night at my in-laws and helped them with a project on Saturday. As we were unloading our personal stuff for the night, I realized that we had forgotten our sleeping bags. Ooops! Thankfully again, my in-laws had extras we could us.
May 29th
So on Sunday, we hiked up the mountain as a family (house dogs included) to set up trail cameras.We got the first one set up and were heading higher on the mountain when my son (the youngest) and our middle daughter decided they were done for the day. There was a pond nearby, so we decided they would wait for me, my wife and oldest daughter to meet them there after setting up the second camera. My daughter wanted to take my video camera with her and my son to the pond but I refused. On a side note, I had found what looked like a seep on google earth. That was our destination for setting up camera #2. We found the seep but there wasn't a good tree to attach a camera too, so I went looking around the area. When I returned to the seep area, my wife and daughter were gone. After about 20 minutes of me whistling, we met up again. Meanwhile I had found a dead young bull elk from a couple years past and my wife was having a severe allergic reaction to something. We think she must have got a high dose of oak pollen in her eyes because she is allergic to oak. She was sneezing a lot and her eyes were swelling up real fast. I told her and my daughter to head back and meet up with our other two kids at the pond and I would set up the second camera and catch up with them. When I met up with them back at camp, my poor wife's eyes were all but closed shut with the swelling. We were able to get some Benadryl into her and some eye drops. After several hours, her condition started to get better. My daughter also related how when she and my son were waiting at the pond, 4 or 5 bull elk came in and stopped a hundred yards away at the far side of the meadow the pond was in. If only she had the camera with her. Ooops again! 
That afternoon, while everyone else was resting, I went and set up camera #3 about a ½ mile away on another good game trail I found. 
Here's some pictures of the trip - from left to right
1- Me and the family heading up the mountain to set up the cameras on Saturday.
2- Even the dog was worn out
3- The dead elk I found
4- one of the game trails I set a camera on


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Awesome Ridge. Look forward to your reports that always seem to end with a huge buck or bull. I have no doubt that you will find some monsters in your new spot. Good luck man!----SS


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## stillhunterman (Feb 15, 2009)

New beginnings can be good things, fun and adventurous! Look forward to hearing of your escapades. It's great you will be doing so with the family, good times for sure. Am gonna be just north of you and will most likely grab an any bull tag as well. Would love to stop by yer camp and say howdy Koby. Best of luck to you!


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

stillhunterman said:


> New beginnings can be good things, fun and adventurous! Look forward to hearing of your escapades. It's great you will be doing so with the family, good times for sure. Am gonna be just north of you and will most likely grab an any bull tag as well. Would love to stop by yer camp and say howdy Koby. Best of luck to you!


It's definitely going to be a new adventure. I hunted this same area back in the mid 90s (after the big die off of the 92-93 winter and then again in 2001. I really got my butt kicked every time and didn't see many bucks at all. Now I have a new plan and ideas on how to hunt the thick stuff better.

stillhunter, send me a PM and let me know where you'll be hunting and what season.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

May 29th
The next morning my son and I headed back high on the mountain to set up my last and 4th camera I had brought with us. We were able to see the small group of bull elk that he had seen the day before but they were running and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough. We also came across two separate pairs of bucks. Three out of the four will be real nice ones when they are through growing their antlers later in the summer. I was able to get some pictures of these bucks. I can't believe how out of shape I had gotten in the last six months. By Tuesday, I could barely walk because of the soreness.
Here are some of the bucks I saw with my son and a patch of aspens we set up the 4th camera in.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

I was down that way this weekend having my first scouting trip as well. I had bad gas too, but surprisingly my truck was running just fine!


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

It's killing me to wait so long before I can go check on my trail cameras.
Meanwhile, here's a few trail cam pictures that another hunter shared with me of my 2016 muzzleloader buck.


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

Congrats on getting your first choice! Look forward to the story as it unfolds.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

July 8th
I finally couldn't take it any more. I simple needed to get up into the mountains again. 
I decided to go for an overnighter and scout for a friend of mine from out of state that had drawn a Northern Utah unit. 
He told me where he wanted to focus his efforts this year, so that was the direction I headed.
I started hiking up the mountain around 5 pm and it was still really hot. I had 120 ounces of water with me but it wasn't enough for the overnighter. I ended up feeling somewhat sick the next day. 
Anyway, I ended up doing more bush wacking than I had hoped but I finally got to my planned camp spot(per google earth) about an hour before dark. I was able to spot a group of 5 mature bucks, all between 22-27" wide. The best one of the bunch was already a 7x6 and had good mass. I was having a really hard time trying to use my new angled spotting scope and camera adaptor. So I didn't get any pictures of the nicer bucks.
Here's a few scenery pictures, the wild flowers were unreal.
Pictures
1st picture - My campsite, about the only flat spot around
last picture- An old forest service sign that had to have been placed over 50 years ago. All the lettering had faded.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

July 15th
I went out for a few hours with a neighbor friend of mine. We saw a good mix of deer from does to fawns to all ages of bucks. The grasses were about 5' tall. We ended up seeing about 20 bucks with a couple that had my buddy really excited to see how they grow out. I took a different tri-pod this time, which helped me use the angled scope a lot better. Right at first light, I had a real nice 5x5 standing on the skyline and after I got my camera adaptor on the scope. I hit record and instantly got the "no flash card" icon flashing.-O,-
I hate it when that happens, so no pictures to share this time. Hopefully next week.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

July 21st
I finally was able to get out for a few days and check my trail cams and do some scouting. But most importantly, be with my family. They had already been down there with my in-laws. 
I headed out after work in late afternoon but once I got to the base of the mountain, there was a pretty intense thunder storm hitting the mountain. With about 20 miles of dirt roads to travel, I decided to stay in the low country overnight and head up early the next morning. After letting the family know of my plan, I hit the sack.4:30am came awful fast after the long day I just had. I made it to my glassing spot right before sun up and instantly had two hen turkeys with 3 or 4 little ones fly up right in front of me. After glassing for about two hours and only seeing about 6 or 7 does and a couple small bucks. I was somewhat disappointed in not seeing more but I did see a couple big bull elk going over the top of a distant peak.
I then went to camp and had breakfast with the family. Later in the afternoon, I took my son with me to check cameras.The clouds were starting to build a little but not too serious. That changed in a real quick way,. Not even an hour later, as we were checking the first camera, the thunder could be heard in the distance. I asked my son if we should go back because we didn't bring any rain gear. He suggested we hurry to the next camera and then go. As we approached the next camera, now the light show in the clouds was really getting exciting. 
We hurried and changed cards and re-adjusted the camera which had been messed with by the elk. As we were about half way back to camp, the rain hit us. By the time I found a good enough tree to park the quad under, we were already pretty wet. I happened to have a garbage sack in my pack, in which I ripped in half to open up like a tarp. We put it over us to try and not get any wetter. After about 15 minutes, the rain let up and my son insisted we head down. I suggested we wait a little longer but he was getting impatient, so we took off again. We didn't even go a few hundred feet when another wave of rain hit us. Oh well, it was a good teaching moment and it was still warm enough that it really wasn't too cold. I decided to go back to my glassing spot right before dark and with light fading fast, a huge bull elk came out of the thick stuff. I was able to get some poor video footage of it. It had great tine length and long main beams but unfortunately, I was unable to spot a single buck and only a couple more does.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

July 23rd,
I headed out alone this morning to check out an area I hadn't been to in years and then worked my way towards a draw where I had seen some good bucks last year. I ended up hiking a couple miles and never saw a single deer and only heard one snort and run away in the thick oak brush.
After lunch, I took my older daughter with me to check on another camera. While hiking in, we bumped into a nice 3 year old buck, which I got some good video of.
I discovered the trail camera died on June 28th. After putting a new card and batteries in, I then discovered the camera wasn't working any more at all.I sure was getting a lot of elk on the trail cams, a lot more than I ever imagined but very few deer. In the afternoon we had another short but heavy thunder storm that put down a fair amount of rain. Afterwards, I started glassing the surrounding hills and finally picked up my first big buck of the trip. He wasn't very wide but had great mass and tine length. He also had a couple 3 year old 22-24' 3 points with him. 
I'll show video of the bucks after my 7/24 report.


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## blackdog (Sep 11, 2007)

Did your old honey hole get too crowded? 

Yea, the internet will do that.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

blackdog said:


> Did your old honey hole get too crowded?
> 
> Yea, the internet will do that.


Not sure what your referring to.
I sense some attitude in your statement!
Care to elaborate?


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

July 24th:
I decided to do the same loop hike as I did last year when I ran into so many nice bucks. It's amazing what one year can make. After over an hour into my hike, I hadn't seen a single deer or elk&#8230;.Nothing.
As I approached the peak that I had seen the big bull elk go over just a couple days before. I ran into a grouse, which gave a great pose for a photo. I was real careful not to scare it into flying and finally after about 5 minutes, it jumped down off its log and walked off into the thick brush. I walked no more than 20 yards and spotted a spike elk feeding only about 10 yards away. He jumped and ran about 20 yards away and stopped after I had moved trying to get my camera up for a picture.I still got a good shot of him but then he ran off in a very fast trot. I continued up the trail another 20 or 30 yards and as I rounded a big bush, I spotted three mature bulls staring at me, trying to figure out what had spooked the spike. I was able to get some good footage of those bulls but one of them started "barking", which I'm sure scared off everything on the mountain. I then left the area and went and checked my last camera and discovered a huge bull had come in just the day before, which I've nicknamed "whale tail".
It got real cloudy in the afternoon, so I went out a couple hours before dark and was able to get some good video through my spotting scope of a couple real nice bulls. One 6x7 with a cheater point and a 6x6 that looked like whale tails little brother. I also got video of a nice 4x4 buck that was fairly narrow but had good tine length. 
Here's video of the bucks and bulls:


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Aug. 4th:
I headed out to try a new spot that I'd never been to before . After getting a good 7.5 minute custom map made of the area and using google earth, I had some good starting points.  I arrived about 2 hours before dark and went up the canyon I planned on hiking into the next morning.  My plan was to figure out the best route to hike up the pre-planned ridge in the dark. After glassing the area for about an hour and only spotting one doe and two fawns, I was getting a little concerned about my choice of areas.
I decided to check out another nearby canyon during the last hour of light. I ended up spotting several elk but didn't really spend much time looking for bulls. I just didn't want to get side tracked because the only reason I was in this new area was to look for big bucks. I found a couple different water holes right off the trail, which someone had trail cameras on. So I wasn't the only one scouting this new area. 
I never did see a single deer in the canyon that had the elk. I had decided to camp low on the mountain at the junction of the two separate canyons in the drainage. It was a very warm night and I was getting very hot inside my sleeping bag. The mosquitos were out, so I put my jacket over my head, which made me even hotter and I was sweating, while trying to get comfortable in the back of my truck. I should have brought a tent as a backup plan. I even sprayed my jacket heavily with deet to keep those blood suckers away. I was ready to just pack up and try somewhere else on the unit in the morning but at the last minute, decided to stick with my original plan and hit the ridgetop that I had preplanned on hiking up and glass some of the upper basins.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Thanks for posting this Ridge, "its fun to follow along". Ive so busy this year with different stuff that I haven't been able to get out in the woods at all yet. 

GOOD LUCK!


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## BradN (Sep 25, 2007)

Man, that is some Any Bull area. Thanks for sharing.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Longgun said:


> Thanks for posting this Ridge, "its fun to follow along". Ive so busy this year with different stuff that I haven't been able to get out in the woods at all yet.
> 
> GOOD LUCK!


Thanks


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Aug. 5th:
The alarm went off at 5:00 am and I was on the trail by 5:30, I made it about half way to the ridgetop by the time it was getting light. Once I hit the ridgeline, the wind was really picking up but I was able to get out of it on the back side of the ridge. It took about 20 minutes but I finally spotted a group of 7 mature bucks high up in a basin. All about 22"-26" wide and scoring around 130"-160".I then spotted another group of 5 mature bucks about mid-mountain . One of them was a 24" wide buck with good mass and tine length, probably a 165-170" class buck. It seemed a little odd where this group of bucks were at, so I took out my map and noticed a spring was located within a few hundred yards of their location. It would be a good place to set trail cam someday. 
In all, I saw 12 bucks and 1 doe that morning. I went back to camp and packed up to check out another area much higher on the mountain. I couldn't bear the thought of those mosquitos for another night.I drove around for several hours checking out all the atv access trails in the area. About two hours before dark, I decided on an area where I could glass a big East facing cliffy area. Being in the shade early, I was hoping a big ole bucks would take advantage and get up from his bed sooner than most others. The air was very hazy, which made it tough to glass long distance. I was unable to pick out any bucks below the cliffs, only a couple does. With the sun about ready to set, 5 nice mature bucks came walking out of the timber just below a distant peak. They were well over two miles away but I still could see they were good bucks. The biggest was a 6x5 with one cheater on his right side that was at least 6" long. I got some video but not the clearest because of the distance. As I was picking up my gear for the hike out to my parked atv about a mile away, I noticed a young looking 5x5 buck staring at me about 400 yards away. He stayed put the whole time I hiked out. I also jumped a cow and calf elk at about 30 yards while hiking into this glassing spot earlier but saw no others.Back at camp, I had a mountain house meal and settled into bed, again in the back of the truck. I heard something rustle and when I looked up, it was a doe eating a bush about 15 feet away. I thought it must be some sort of tame deer but when I zipped up my sleeping bag, the noise caused the doe to bound off about 50 yards away. I was about 2,000' higher in elevation than the night before and it was probably 10-15 degrees cooler, much better for sleeping. 

Here's the video of the bucks I saw in the evening.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Aug. 6th
The 5:00 am alarm came too fast and the weather was much cooler in this new higher elevation camping spot. I went to a canyon I had scouted out the day before and I felt good about my choice, even though an atv trail ran right up the bottom of the canyon. I got to a good glassing point just after first light and it took over a half hour to pick out my first and only two bucks in the canyon. They were feeding on a rocky knob about a mile away. They were right out in the sunlight, which was going to make for some good video. I got the tines up camera adaptor positioned and hit record. Only to briefly see the low battery icon and then the camera shut off. Bummer, somehow the camera had turned on in my pack from the day before. After another hour of only seeing a few more does, I decided to rush back down to my quad and check out another canyon before it got any later. On my drive up the other canyon, I saw a couple smaller bucks feeding with does on a couple side hills. 
Review: In the two days, I saw about 25 bucks, with about 18-20 of them being three point or better.
I drove close to 300 miles in the truck, a little over 50 miles on the quad and about 4-5 miles on foot. 
I have a couple close friends that want to go back to find the elk again and see if they could find a few bulls, since it was in any bull unit. Just as I was leaving camp to head back home a guy pulled up to talk to me. Seeing me in camo, he thought I was scouting for the upcoming archery hunt and wanted to tell me about a nice 8x6 buck he had seen. Apparently, it was just on the other side of a peak I had been on the night before. Maybe I'll try to come back another time and check out that area and see if I can locate that big buck. It was kind of funny how the guy reacted when I told him that I was out camping and scouting alone. He felt kind of sad for me. Usually I love to be out scouting with other friends and family but sometimes it's nice to be out alone doing your own thing.


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## hazmat (Apr 23, 2009)

BradN said:


> Man, that is some Any Bull area. Thanks for sharing.


It looks like a limited entry elk unit to me that I am familiar with I could be wrong. 
Cool pics and videos ridge top I have enjoyed them good luck on your hunts


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

hazmat said:


> It looks like a limited entry elk unit to me that I am familiar with I could be wrong.
> Cool pics and videos ridge top I have enjoyed them good luck on your hunts


This last trip was on a completely different unit than where my trail cameras are. I probably should change my title to "year of the elk".
With my luck, I would head down to the Henry's to look at deer and end up running into more elk.;-)


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## JC HUNTER (May 18, 2015)

Thanks for sharing Ridge. Good luck this year!


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

JC HUNTER said:


> Thanks for sharing Ridge. Good luck this year!


Thanks


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Aug. 12th
I decided to go back to the spot I had scouted for a friend in July and see if I could relocate the 5x7 buck I had seen then. This time I found a spot further away to get more view of the canyons but the glassing angle wasn't the best and the wind was blowing about 20mph, which made it hard to look through the spotting scope. I did see about 12 mature bucks with one having a bigger body than the other bucks it was with. It appeared to have a large framed rack but I just couldn't see any detail. I set up my camera adaptor to get video of them feeding in the sun but right when I hit the record button, a cloud bank blocked the sun and it got a lot darker, too dark for the video to show any details in the bucks racks. 
In the afternoon I went to a place where my cousin had seen a great buck a week prior, he didn't get many details of how big it was and he had seen most of the deer and the big buck in the lower elevations. (6,000-7,000') I saw my first buck feeding about 6:15pm and then started seeing more bucks not too much longer after that. I ended up seeing about 20 three point or better bucks but nothing that had the "wow" factor. 
The crazy thing is that I was seeing all the deer between 8,000-9,000' and never saw anything down low until I was driving out and then I saw a couple small bucks cross in the headlights. 
Here's video of the first group of bucks I saw at about two miles away. That's why the heat waves are so bad. The three point in the lower left of the video was a nice buck, about 26" wide. Also, the big two point in the middle of the screen in the first 30 seconds was impressive.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 2nd:
After spending a couple weekends fishing with the family, it was time to get back up on the mountain and check the cameras again.
I spent the first hour glassing and was able to locate a cool 7x6 bull elk. It would be the only elk or deer I would see while glassing. 
Here's some video of it:




Then I hiked up to a good glassing spot I found a few years ago on a very brushy hillside. I marked out a route, which I planned on coming back Monday morning and cut a trail for better access and clear some of the brush around my new glassing area for better visibility. I then went and checked my trail cams removed one to be relocated on a small pond in the area. By the end of the day my ankle (which I had sprained at work earlier in the week) was really getting sore and swelling up again. After going through the sd cards, I was disappointed to see the big elk have moved out of the area and didn't get very many deer pictures either. There was just one nice buck but it didn't give me a good look at his antlers.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 3rd
At first light, I hiked into the next canyon to the South of where I had filmed the 7x6 bull elk the day before. I set up a trail camera and did a loop, hiking the ridgeline between the two canyons. Keeping the wind in my favor, I was able to walk within 40-50 yards of the same 7x6 bedded. If only I had an archery tag instead of a rifle this year. 
The video shows how well they can hide, I was only able to catch his outline of head and antlers when I spotted him. 
I hope he sticks around for a couple more months.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 4th
I took my son and daughter with me to clear out a trail to my glassing point I've decided to use during this years hunts. It's a 250 yard shot to a small pond in the bottom and 300-400 yards across to the other side of the canyon. This spot is only about 200 yards from a peak where I could also glass the country on the other side of the peak. The pond I speak of can't be seen from the peak, so that's why I've spent so much effort to clear out a spot I can shoot from at a closer distance. I also found a nice wallow that I put a camera on to see if I can get so pictures of some muddy bulls.
On our way in at first light, we saw a couple small 4 points that had their velvet all rubbed off. The one buck must have rubbed off within hours because of how red his antlers were. Unfortunately, I left my camera back at camp to save on weight. 
I forgot to mention that my son and I saw one real nice buck on the 2nd while we were checking cameras. I'd guess it to be in the 28-30" range and I'm pretty sure it's the same buck that I got a picture of from last year. Here's a picture of it from last year along with the wallow.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 15-17th

I spend the weekend helping a good friend of mine with his LE multi season Wasatch elk hunt. He archery hunted Thursday and Friday and had a chance at some raghorns and a small 6 point. Once I got to his area Friday evening, we went to a canyon where his wife had killed a bull a couple years ago but it was real quiet and we never saw or heard a single elk.
Not the start I was hoping for.
The next couple days we did get into some elk and heard a lot of bugles up in the thick timber but the herd bulls were holding tight and would not show themselves. I did see a couple nice bucks and satellite bulls, which I took some video of. The interesting thing about the two bulls I video taped, they both took the same trail all the way across the mountain and each passed a small group of bucks in the same spot each day.

Here's the video I took from about a mile away:


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Cool video! Those are impressive satellite bulls 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

Always a good read! 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 29
I finally was able to get out on the muzzy deer hunt. It was tough missing opening day but I was excited to see what I could turn up in two days of hunting. 
By the end of the day, I had only seen a dozen does and not a single buck. Needless to say, I was really bummed out by the results of the day. The only shinning moment was when I received a text from one of my "wolfpack" buddies that he had killed a 34" wide, 200" 10x9 buck on a different unit and he was about 4 hours hike and 3,500' elevation gain to where the buck was. His phone was dying and he needed me to give his brother directions on how to get to his location because I had been there in past. In the end, my directions were good enough and his brother was able to find him to help with the pack out.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sept. 30th
Well since the still-hunting through the thick stuff didn't produce any results on seeing a buck the day before. I decided to go high and glass from a nearby peak. After a few hours of glassing, I was only able to turn up one doe. This was turning out to be one of the toughest hunts in a very, very long time. In the afternoon I decided to hike into a known waterhole and wait until dark. As I was still-hunting my way into the pond, I spotted a couple 2.5 year old 4 points (about 18-22" wide). Once I got to the water, I waited for about an hour and never had a single deer come in but the wind was swirling and maybe I got winded by the incoming deer. So in two days of hunting, I was only able to spot two bucks. Since I am in my first year of ded. hunter and I still have a rifle tag. I decided to pass on those younger bucks. Now it's time to focus on the upcoming rifle any bull elk hunt. In which I'll be taking the whole first week off of work to hunt. The most days I've taken off in 11 years.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Koby - do you have a new found love of elk hunting, or is it that 6×7 or Whale TaIL that has you up at night? Those are definitely plenty good for an any bull area. Good luck on the remainder of the elk hunt and the upcoming rifle deer hunt.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

MWScott72 said:


> Koby - do you have a new found love of elk hunting, or is it that 6×7 or Whale TaIL that has you up at night? Those are definitely plenty good for an any bull area. Good luck on the remainder of the elk hunt and the upcoming rifle deer hunt.


Muleys will always be my passion. 
Saturday can't get here fast enough but my family really needed the freezer filled this year and they enjoy elk much more than deer.
I also committed on letting three first time elk hunters get their elk first before I tried for one myself. Lucky, it all worked out and I was able to kill a bull within 20 yards of where I helped a 16 year old kill his first bull the day before. 
Knowing an elks escape route is huge on being successful.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

ridgetop said:


> Muleys will always be my passion.
> Saturday can't get here fast enough but my family really needed the freezer filled this year and they enjoy elk much more than deer.
> I also committed on letting three first time elk hunters get their elk first before I tried for one myself. Lucky, it all worked out and I was able to kill a bull within 20 yards of where I helped a 16 year old kill his first bull the day before.
> Knowing an elks escape route is huge on being successful.


Can we please have a look at the court jester Ridgetop? Pleeeeaaase.........

Im trying to be patient...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

3arabians said:


> Can we please have a look at the court jester Ridgetop? Pleeeeaaase.........
> 
> Im trying to be patient...
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


Sorry but I've got too many "honey dos" to take care of in the next couple days before the rifle deer hunt. I'll have to write up a report of my elk hunt when I get back. 
Here's some video of my bull I took at about 1,000-1,200 yards, right before dark on opening day.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 7th
When I arrived in camp the afternoon of the opening day of the general season any bull hunt. I was greeted by my FIL, he had some discouraging news. In the past day and a half, they had only seen one raghorn 5 point, which was Friday afternoon. With 8 tags in camp, that wasn't good news at all. That afternoon things would change for the better. Once set up on a good glassing point about an hour before dark. I spotted a nice 6x6 with about 10 cows, then right before dark another bigger bull showed up with a couple cows. He had something goofy going on with his G-1 eyeguards, they seemed to drop down and cross each other. They were over 1,000 yards away and there was no chance at getting closer before dark. Once I got back to camp for dinner and showed everyone else my video of the bulls spotted that evening. We were all pretty excited for what may come in the coming days.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 8th
We have a somewhat of a camp rule to avoid hunting on Sunday, if we can. I did get back out in the morning at the same glassing spot as the day before. I was able to get some good video of a tall narrow 6x6 bull that I had seen earlier in the summer and had got some good pictures of it in the velvet. In the early afternoon I went and put out some cow in heat scent stuff near one of my camera spots (250 yards from my stand above). It has become tradition that we have a big dutch oven dinner on the Sunday of the opener. Also, a cold front had moved in from the North and the winds were howling at around 30+ MPH. No elk were seen that afternoon because they all were keeping out of the wind in the thick stuff.
Here's a picture of the tall narrow bull in velvet from back in July. He had a crazy big third point on the one side.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 9th
This day I would be taking a 16 year old friend of the family and his dad to my stand that I had created the past summer. This was their first elk hunting trip, so I was really hoping they could keep up if we needed to do some aggressive hiking. It was about a mile hike back into this spot and we were facing North, watching a canyon mixed with pines, aspens and oak. The North winds were still blowing about 20 MPH and it was bitter cold. We had to lay on our backs and use our packs as a head rest just to keep out of the wind as much as possible. I spotted a few cows and what looked like a branch antlered bull high up on the mountain just a few yards inside of a good sized aspen stand. Then I noticed that three guys from our group were only about 300 yards from the elk. I called them on the radio and asked if they could see the elk and bull. They could not because the trees were too thick. Instead of still hunting towards the elk (which they had the wind in their favor), they tried to call them in. Which didn't work and the cows took off and the bull followed. The hunters tried to follow the small herd for over a mile but could never catch up to them and the elk disappeared into the thick oak. That afternoon, the three of us went to watch a waterhole near where we had last seen the elk earlier in the day and the two other groups in our party split up and watched a couple other water sources higher on the mountain. My group had a couple cows come in and one of them feed within about 40 yards of us and a bull was bugling a few hundred yards up in the thick stuff but would not come in before it got too dark to see and legally shoot. We did hear 3 shots higher on the mountain and later found out that the two other groups in our party had shot two bulls on those other water sources. The other youth hunter in our group had killed a 320" class bull, with a 310 yard shot and grandpa had killed a smaller 6x6. Now things were really start to turn for the better.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 10th
I decided to try my stand again and take my 16 year old apprentice Justin and his dad Mark up with me again. The wind was still blowing from the North but not nearly as hard as the day before. While we were driving in the truck to the spot we would start hiking from, Mark commented that "he didn't want to put any pressure on me but they really needed to get a bigger bull than their cousin's 320" bull". I about swerved off the road at that point and made it very clear that was a top end bull for a general season tag and although I thought we had a good chance at getting a shot at a branch antlered bull if we're patient enough, it may not be quite that big but we can only hope. There's a pretty big competition between those cousins. We had only been sitting at my glassing/shooting spot for only about 5 minutes when Mark pointed down canyon. From my angle I couldn't see anything, so I got up on my knees and then I saw a very nice bull walking in our direction. I instantly recognized the bull from one of my more recent trail camera pics. He had a very unforgettable droptine on his left G-1. I knew Justin's 300 win. Mag. was zero'd in at 200 yards and the bull was about to hit a clearing at around 310 yards. While the bull was passing through a small group pines, I hurried and took my shooting V off my mono-pod/ walking stick and put it on my tri-pod that was used for my spotting scope. I adjusted the height so he could shoot while kneeling. He had a bi-pod but the legs were not long enough to clear the brush in front of us. Just as the bull started to come out into the open, I ranged it again and got 312 yards. I whispered to Justin that I would cow call to stop the bull and to aim right at the top of its back and he should hit it perfect. I had three calls in my pocket (two reed calls and one hochie moma). I grabbed the hochie and gave it a squeeze and it only produced a little squeak. So I squeezed it again and again a little squeak but suddenly the bull looked right up at us and I said as comely as possibly to Justin, "take the shot, RIGHT NOW!" Right then his rifle sent a 180 gr, bullet in the bull's direction.

To be continued&#8230;..
Here's some trail camera picture's of the bull he shot at.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sorry, I had to upload a video. Let's finish this story about Justin's bull.

As the shot echoed across the canyon, the bull lunged forward and ran into a thick clump of oak about 10 yards away. It seemed like he stood the an hour but it was only about 2 or 3 minutes. I told Justin to shoot again when the bull came out in the open again. Just as the bull was coming out of the oak, it stumbled and fell over dead. He had made a perfect double lung shot. I was able to contact someone in our group and they went to get us more help getting the bull out. It turned into a long day but I was sure happy for these new hunters.
Now that I had fulfilled my promise to help out the youth in our group first before I hunted for myself. It was time for me to try and put some meat in my freezer.

Here's a video of us first walking up on Justin's bull.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Sorry for the delay to get a story out on my bull but I had to share the story of me helping Justin get his first elk because his back story had a lot to do with me being able to get my bull the very next day. Here's my story.

Oct. 11th
I decided to go back to my stand again and be there at first light. I hoped that someone would push a bull in my direction. I was a little worried about not seeing anything because of all the activity in the canyon the day before but I knew this canyon was used as an escape route when the elk get pressured. The first hour of daylight went by with no sighting of any elk or deer. Then I heard some shooting high up on the mountain. A short time later I saw a line of about 15 elk, including a couple mature bulls, a raghorn and a couple spikes. They were coming from the area where the shooting had been earlier. The elk dropped out of sight behind the top of the ridgeline of the canyon I was watching. A short time later, I heard a shot in the area the elk had been heading. Then I hear a member of our party say over the radio that he had a bull down. A few minutes later, I started to see some elk slowly coming over the ridgeline into my side of the canyon. They stopped near the top in a stand of pines and began to mill around. Knowing that a few others in our party would be on their way to help get the downed elk out and they would be coming up the bottom of my canyon to the head of this canyon before going over into the next canyon. I decided to stay put and watch and see which way the elk went after they got spooked from the guys going through the canyon. I continued to watch the elk with my spotting scope and some of them bedded and others just were feeding. An hour later, the rescue party arrived and headed up the canyon. At one point they passed within 150 yards of the elk but the elk held tight and didn't move at all. With the trees being so thick, neither the elk or hunters could see each other. For the next two hours, the elk stayed right in that same spot. The elk were about 600 yards from my location but I had forgotten and left my rangefinder back in the truck but without my rangefinder, I didn't know how far they were for sure and I was really nervous about taking any shot across the canyon without knowing truly how far the target would be. Finally the guys started coming back over the ridgeline bringing out the elk. Instead of sneaking away from the hunters or staying put. They had had enough and started running in my direction. I did know the distance of Justin's gut pile from the day before and I was just hoping the elk would come close enough to that same area, so I could judge the distance correctly. The elk were angling a little further down canyon than I hoped but there was a mature bull coming straight down the hill right at me. I dialed my scope to 320 yards and got it in my crosshairs. I also cow called hoping to stop him for a minute but that didn't work. The bull did slow down a little and turned slightly, quartering towards me. Right when the bull was on the same horizontal line as the gut pile, I fired. I hit the bull high in the back, which dropped him but he tried to get back up a couple times before giving up and bedding down. I couldn't get a clear shot because a big tree limb was in the way. So I moved downhill a few yards to where I could get a clear second shot. After a second shot, he died right there in his bed. When I got to the bull, I noticed that he was exactly 20 yards from Justin's gut pile. So it must have been a 310 yard shot that I made. It was pretty awesome to be able to kill two really nice bulls in the same spot within back to back days. I think this escape route will be producing for years to come. I also noticed my bull was the same as one I had trail camera pictures of from the summer in which I had named him "the court jester".


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

That is awesome!! Way to go!! 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Tapatalk


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

When it came time to put in for a general season deer tag last Feb., I let my 12 year old son decide which unit we would put in for. Unfortunately it would be a unit that none of my "wolfpack" friends would be hunting. It's a unit that I have hunted in the past but not for about 12 years. It's a very hard unit to hunt because of how early the deer migrate but I was/am up to the challenge. As you probably already know, if you've read my report thus far. Scouting for deer year has not been too promising. Now let's fast forward to opening day of the rifle hunt.
Oct. 12th
It was pretty nippy when my son and I headed out on the atv, heading for the top of the mountain. It must have been in the low 20s. Although I was making a good wind break for my son, he still got very cold on the atv ride. I was hoping to get some good glassing in on top of a peak I had chosen to sit on but it was a lot brushier than I realized and it made glassing very difficult. Time to clear more brush next year. We only saw a doe and two fawns and a few elk. Nobody else in camp saw anything worth shooting either. So with a very cold and unsuccessful opening morning, everybody from camp headed home. Even my son decided to head back down to town and spend time with his best friend (his big sister). Which left me to spend the evening hunt alone, which I didn't mind too much.
To be continued&#8230;.


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## turkinator (May 25, 2008)

Keep it coming!! I really enjoy reading your adventures! Thank you for sharing!


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Congrats on another awesome season, ridge!


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

turkinator said:


> Keep it coming!! I really enjoy reading your adventures! Thank you for sharing!


Glad your enjoying it.
Yesterday ended up being a very busy day.
I'll try and finish up my opening day report tonight when I get home from work.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Vanilla said:


> Congrats on another awesome season, ridge!


It's nice to have the freezer full again. Very grateful!


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

About mid-day I went and collected my last two trail cameras that were watching a pond. I discovered that a really nice buck had come in just before dark only two days earlier (on Thursday). It was one that I had pictures of in Sept. 
It was very tempting to sit on that pond during the evening hunt but since that was the only daylight picture I had of the buck in over two months. The odds were against me that it would come in again during shooting hours. There was another pond higher on the mountain that had a huge 3 point come into it during the elk season , as told to me by another hunter. I also had seen a mid 170" class buck that was close to 30" wide in that same area over Labor Day weekend. So I decided to try sitting on the higher pond in which I arrived about two hours before dark. I sat about 150 yards from the pond, which was located at the upper end of a meadow. About an hour before dark, a small 3x2 came in for a drink and then feed around the pond for around 10 minutes but then he started walking straight at me and I quickly lied down on my side and covered my face with my hands, in which I was wearing camo gloves. The buck passed by me at less than 10 yards and when it got about 30 yards down wind, he busted out of the area. About 20 minutes later as light was starting to fade, a small 4x4 came in to the water. It fed for about 10 minutes just like the other buck before it headed back in the same direction that it had come in. It was getting cold fast and lying there on the ground hiding behind a big downed tree wasn't helping me stay warm. After it got almost too dark to see without a light, I snuck out of there as quiet as possible. 
I decided to stay the night and after a quick mountain house dinner and reorganizing my pack for the morning, I hit the sack. My plan was to check out the winter range and see what had already moved down into the lower country.
1st picture is of the big buck at the water hole a couple days before the opener
2nd picture is of the same buck a month earlier.
3rd picture is of my set up in the evening.
I had my pack resting on top of the downed tree for a gun rest and had my camera on a tri-pod to take pictures and video of anything that came in.


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## cedar (Jul 29, 2013)

I really enjoy and learn from your stories Koby. Im waiting for the next one.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 22nd
As I headed down the mountain in the darkness towards the winter range, I occasionally checked my location on an OnX map, which I had purchased the app for my phone a few weeks earlier and was excited to see how well it worked. The area I was heading to was checkered board with both public and private lands mixed together. My destination was a rocky outcrop where I could do some long distance glassing. It was only about a ½ mile off the road but up a really steep hill. I was able to spot several groups of deer out on the flats and then see on my app if they were on private or public. I ended up seeing 30 or so does and 4 or 5 small bucks. As I stood up to go look and glass the hillside behind me, I noticed a huge stag spike buck about 200 yards away staring at me. He stood there long enough for me to get my camera out and get a good picture of him. I could tell he was the same buck I had seen a few weeks earlier higher up on the mountain and several miles away. Now I had a good idea of one of the migration routes the deer take. If I hadn't already had a freezer full of elk meat, I would have thought real seriously about taking this stag buck. He had a huge body and was probably a 5+ year old buck but I want to hold out for something real special that had big time "wow" factor. Since I was in my first year of dedicated hunter and I still wanted to hunt for the next two years. 
It was time to get back to work for a few days and then head back up the mountain with my son on Thursday and stay until Saturday. 
- 1st picture is of the stag buck on the winter range
- 2nd picture is of the same buck high up on the mountain a few weeks earlier


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 26th
We got a later start than I had hoped but we still would have plenty of time for the afternoon hunt. We decided to try the winter range again and see how many more deer had moved down in the last few days. We unloaded the atv and rode a couple miles up into a brushy bowl. This seemed like a good spot deer would hold up in because it was a little out of the way from the more traveled roads. Right at the mouth of the bowl we came across a gut pile, probably from opening weekend. We decided to put out some doe in heat scents in a few spots within the bowl, hoping a buck passing through during the night would stop and investigate for a few hours. We didn't see any deer in this specific bowl but it did look good. We did see several does and a couple small bucks on our ride back out to the truck right before dark. So I was feeling somewhat positive about what morning might bring.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct. 27th
My alarm went off around 5:30 and I told my son "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and then to get dressed and ready for breakfast. He replied, "can I sleep in for my birthday". I said, "that's fine, I'll go checkout the brushy bowl for any bucks that may have moved in overnight and if I see something good, I'll be back and get you". Now being a Friday, I didn't think there would be that much traffic out on the winter range but oh was I so wrong. I had forgotten that all the schools in Utah were closed for some reason. There were several trucks driving around with a cab full of kids and some with a bed full of kids, I guess they were being spotters as the trucks would make circles around and around out on the sagebrush flats. I meanwhile climbed a steep hill and once at the top I glassed the brushy bowl and adjacent sage flats. I saw a couple groups of does with some small bucks out on the flats but not a single deer was spotted in the brushy bowl. I even tried to use a predator call to scare any deer that may be holding up, into moving but that didn't work either, neither did my scent idea. I did find a real nice 4 point deer shed from the past spring. About 9:00 am I headed back to camp to see what my son wanted to do for the rest of the day. He's a bigtime rock collector, so we went and did some exploring and found some cool looking rocks for his collection. In the afternoon, my oldest daughter joined us to look over a small hollow that was rumored to be within a migration route. We did bump a few does on our hike into our glassing spot. While I was glassing with my daughter, my son decided to go explore some more and a little while later came back very excited to show us a real good deer trail he had found just a few hundred yards away. Once we got to the trail, it was obvious that dozens of deer had used the trail in the past week or so. I just might put a camera on that trail next year during Oct. and see what type of deer travel it and when they are traveling. We had passed a small waterhole on our hike in, so I was hoping that we could get back within sight of it before it got dark. The hike out took longer than I thought and when we got in sight of the water, it was almost end of shooting hours. There was two small 4 points at the water's edge but they just didn't have the "wow" factor for me to give up hunting deer within the next two years because of my dedicated hunter tag and the fact that my freezer was full of elk meat. It was still fun to see them and take a few pictures. As we were hiking across a sage flat heading towards the truck, I kicked a dense stick that looked a lot like an elk antler. As I reached down to pick it up I noticed it was a small two point elk antler, in which my son quickly took possession of it. So that ended another fun filled day of hunting on the mountain. We ended the day with some cake and very soft ice cream and a happy birthday song.  Only one day left.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Oct.28th
My son and I went up high on a nearby peak where we could do as much glassing as possible of the surrounding areas. Right off the bat, I spotted a nice 23" wide 3 point bedded at 410 yards. He was really tempting but he just didn't have that "WOW" factor that I'm looking for and the fact my freezer was full of elk meat didn't hurt either. Off in the distance I could see the hollow and surrounding area where we were the night before. I then spotted three small bucks traveling the same migration route my son had found. I also saw a herd of about ten does and a small buck out on the lower flats. They were also heading towards the winter range. That would be all the deer we would see that morning and by 11:00 am, we were on our way back to camp to pack up and head for home. I had discussed with my son and daughter that we should take their grandmother out to dinner since she was in town instead of hunting during the afternoon. They liked that idea and thus ended the 2017 Big Game season. 
Thanks for following along and I'll post up some pictures of some of the bucks I saw along the way and in a week or two I'll try to get a video uploaded of some of the great bull elk I saw while scouting for my hunt and helping out on the Wasatch LE.


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

congrats on a great bull! thanks for sharing


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Most of my elk video footage is post velvet. Which will take longer to edit but here's a few of the velvet bulls I got on film last year.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Here's a video of some post velvet bulls I saw this year. What a year it truly was being able to see so many awesome elk. The last bull on this video was really cool, as I was able to call him in to about 50-60 yards. Sure wished I had an archery tag at the time.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Nov. 11th
This would probably be my last time getting out in 2017. I went looking for rutting bucks for a possible future LE muzzleloader hunt.
I saw around 15-20 small 3 and 4 points chasing does but only one that I would consider a big buck.
I'd be thrilled to run across this guy during hunting season. It sure was nice of him to pose awhile for me to get a few pictures.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

I was cleaning out some of my hunting stuff and came across this. It's the bullet I recovered from this years elk.
The 160 gr. 7mm mag. accubond mushroomed out really well. The bull was quartering towards me and I was shooting in a downward direction at 310-315 yards.
The bullet hit the bull high in the back about mid body and then traveled through the intestines and through the lower high quarter, resting between the meat and hide .


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## Springville Shooter (Oct 15, 2010)

Looks like about 50-60% weight retention, great penetration, and a dead elk. I’d call that good performance.———SS


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

So it seems like this years report was a success and a few people seemed to like it. So I'll probably do it again next year.
I'm not planning on elk hunting, so I will be focusing on general season deer. 
Unless I hit the expo lotto and get an unexpected LE tag.
I will be revisiting an area I hunting 30 years ago in 1988, in which my hunting partner and high school friend killed an upper 170" class buck. He hunted it the following year with no luck and I've never been back to that spot. In which I have really regretted it.
For those interested in following next year, what things would you rather see or here me talk about?
I'm planning on scouting an area known for a lot of bears, so it could get interesting.


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