Wet and Wild Doe Hunt

Well, these hard economic times made me think I better get an animal in the freezer. Plus, Russell's enthusiasm can be persuasive. (I don't think Bull Creek is in my near future, though. Sorry, Russ.) Yes, this Californian went hunting. Russell thought it would be fun to go get some does on a ranch about 10 miles south of Ulm. He asked after the BYU-Utah game if I wanted to go the next Tuesday. The way he made it sound I thought it would be an afternoon hunt. But Monday afternoon rolls around and he finally calls and asks if I can meet him in Ulm at 6 am with waders. So Monday was a scramble to get a tag, a gun, and waders, not to mention the rest of my gear together. I managed to get it all, but only one set of waders.

I met Russ the next morning and we made our way to the ranch. The landowner then gave us a very rough description of the property. We thought we could handle it and proceeded to walk out toward her meadows. Almost immediately we spooked two whitetail does, and not having a good handle on how Ryan's gun worked (bytheway, thanks for the gun use, Ryan), I couldn't get the safety off in time to even try at a running shot just as it was getting shooting light. We then moved on, spooking a few more but getting a good idea of where they went. We then saw a whitetail paying little attention to us, just feeding and making its way to the Smith River for a drink and swim. I could have had a good shot at HIM, but couldn't (no shooting antlered deer as per landowner request). So we ignored him as he went back into the trees.

As we worked our way to the river crossing (still hoping one pair of waders would do it) we saw another deer on our side of the river and we got down and crawled, slid, grunted and worked our way to get closer. As we lined up on it, sure enough, a buck. A small 2-point; probably the same one as earlier. He knew he wasn't going to get shot, so even as we stood up and moved to the river he didn't pay any attention to us.

Ahhhhh, the river. There was a nice place to cross the river. It was running low and slow, but you still needed waders to get across dry. Russell put the waders on and carried the guns and his boots across. But the river was just too wide to try and toss the waders back to me. Russ got one of his great ideas and found a couple of good sticks. He took one wader off and told me to put it on and we'd "hop" across. So you know what happened next. Russ got across with just getting the tips of his toes a little wet. I got part way out, started losing my balance, and put the other foot down. I just waded across after that.

After ringing out my sock and dumping the water from my boot, we split up. I moved to stay in the brush along the river while Russ worked to scare toward me the few we saw run into the trees earlier. Russ scared them alright. Right up the side of the bluff, running away from me. But we noticed they didn't stay on top of the bluff. They moved along a bench just below the top and then mingled in with a group of mule deer. Our wind wasn't good and we'd be in the open too much to go straight at them, so we followed an old fence line up to the top of the bluff. The top was flat and open. It was easy to see why the deer wouldn't stay up there. We then followed a fence along the top trying to work our way around so our wind would be better. We saw a couple of does up on top but weren't sure if they were on "our" property. We moved to get around to where we'd seen the deer before and up out of a coulee, a mule deer doe, 2 fauns, and a whitetail faun popped up and two whitetail does hightailed it out of there and across the river. At about 200-250 yards, we could have had that doe easy. But we were unsure again as to boundaries. We sat down, called Ryan, talked it out, took a doze, while that doe just watched us, standing pretty. We decided we better not shoot her. After she disappeared into the coulee again, we moved on, unsure of what was next. At least my leg and foot had dried out by this time.

As we rounded down off the bluff onto the bench we saw at least two groups of mule deer along the bench, back the way we'd come. We decided that I would sneak around by going back up on the bluff then come down slow and move them back toward Russ. As I moved along I thought I was near where I needed to come down and ended up spooking a group up onto the bluff. I thought that had done it. I screwed that up. But I kept moving to get behind a group I thought was closer to Russ than the ones I scared. So I started moving back toward Russell.

Meanwhile, Russell thought I was doing a great job as the second group started moving his way. I think they could smell me. He just didn't want to shoot yet because as he looked through his scope, my head kept popping up right in the line of his fire. (I didn't know this, of course.) I kept wondering why he hadn't shot yet. Finally I got smart and decided I better lay back, be patient and stop moving toward him. Shortly thereafter, Russ shot. Several seconds went by and he shot again. I'd moved those deer to within 40 yards of Russ and even after his first shot, the doe ran right at him. He thought he missed the second, running shot. But he got her both times in the lungs and once in the heart. She didn't go very far.

As we went to get her we saw two does that had been with her, lingering about 100 yards away. We quickly got down and decided it was my turn. I slipped down the slope a little to get out of sight, then moved behind a bush and crawled on my belly to get right up to the bush, using it for cover. I rested the barrel on some branches of the bush and had a clean view of the two, who couldn't see me. One was lying down, the other was standing and looking my way. I just lined up on the one standing and waited for her to turn. After several minuted she did and I squeezed off my shot. Both deer took off, but I didn't think I needed a second shot. We went and looked where they'd been and I'd hit her, but there was "grass." We decided to not go look for her yet.

We went back to Russell's doe and cleaned her out. I tried to pay attention hoping to learn how it's done. Then we went looking for my doe. She left us a good trail in the grass and we quickly found her. She'd only gone about 100 yards around the edge of the ridge. I had not gut-shot her as we'd thought. I got her right through the lungs. Russ had agreed before we started to clean out my deer, but I decided I should do it. I'd paid attention to Russell on his deer and he talked me through it as he worked. He talked me through the second time with me doing the work.

The rest of the story is just dragging them out. We dragged them back to the river. Russell wore both waders this time, so I got both feet wet as we took them across, carrying them out of the water so we didn't have the additional wet fur smell to drive home with. I had been smart enough to leave a dry pair of socks and boots in the car so it wasn't too bad driving home.

We had a good time and walked quite a bit, but eventually got the job done. There's meat in the freezer. The only disappointing thing was Russell so badly wanted whitetails. He wants to do some tanning and wanted whitetails. Maybe next year Russ. Thanks for a great hunt.

Ross

Just a picture from my cell phone. But you can tell it was a pretty river bottom to spend the day in. (Russell made that vest on his own, bytheway. He's so domestic!)

Here are a few pics. More to come later

And now... The rest of the Story

Well Ken and I worked our tails off all day Wednesday first to get his bull to the top of the mountain and then to get the front shoulders one hind quarter and the head down the mountain to the truck. It was getting dark and we didn't feel like hiking back up the mountain so we decided to drive to Helena and get a good nights sleep on a soft warm bed, fix his truck tire, and come back up Thursday morning to pack out the last hind quarter and a sack with about 50 lb of meat. Well we weren't able to get out of Helena until about 12:30 or so, and Ken decided he was coming back to Helena once he got his elk out, so I called around and then Dad said he would come up and Thursday night and hunt with me on Friday and Saturday. Kathy decided that since Ken was comming back that evening, and she was curious about Bull Creek (never having been to our "little slice of heaven" before) to come with Ken and I up the mountain. I was really excited for Ken but feeling a twinge of desperation for myself. I left Ken and Kathy at camp and hustled up to Uncle Daves log to see if by chance anything was out in the basin. Well I had only sat at uncle dave's log for a minute or two when I noticed a little tan spot WAY WAY down in the bottom of the basin. So I put the scope on it and sure enough it was an elk! Then sure enough it was a bull elk! I couldn't tell how big the antlers were but I knew that if there was enough there that I could see them flashing from almost a mile away that he was legal to shoot. So I SPRINTED down the trail to ask Ken if he minded if I bailed on packing out his bull and went after another bull I had spotted. Ken of course was awesome and said something to the effect of "Russ I can't believe you even came to ask my permission, Hunting is what we came here to do, go get him!" So I RAN up the mountain to the top, made sure I could still see the bull and then RAN like the last of the mohicans guy down the ridge on the left side of the basin as you look down. I made it to the edge of the trees, right about above where the elk was and dropped down the face of the mountain through the spotty trees and open areas. I slowed way down once I was dropping in on him off the ridge to keep from sending a rock rolling down the hill and scare him. The wind was blowing down the basin so my wind was going at about a 90 degree angle away from him. I got about half way down between the ridge and the bottom to a rotten stump where I could lay down on my belly, and not be totally upside down, and where I could see the bull clearly through an opening in the trees. I judged the distance to be about 200 yards, but then all of the sudden I just knew that I needed to aim about 4 inches below the top of his back. I shot once and couldn't tell if I had hit him, but he was still just standing there so I quickly put in another shell and shot again. This time I could tell that I had hit him, but he still was on his feet and I didn't want to take any chances with a wounded elk getting away so I shot a third time, and with that shot he went down. I was way excited! I said a little prayer of thanks and went down to him. He was a pretty good bull!!! Ken ran down the mountain and we hugged and took some pictures. Then Ken had to get back up to Kathy, and I was left to field dress the elk. (you forget how big they are until you have one down) I got him all cleaned out, and just before I was about to leave I heard a rustling in the bushes a little ways away from where I was. Boy did that put the fear in me! I was just sure that I was going to be toe to toe with a grizzly bear in the dark. I ran up to the elk and grabbed my flashlight and the rifle. I didn't see that pair of beady yellow eyes like I thought I would, but just the same I high-tailed it back up the mountain to camp. Dad came up and spent the night and then Friday morning we packed out camp and then went down to the switchback and went in to my elk from below. Dad and I worked on getting the elk ready to pack out, and we were pretty tired from all the exertion. Then the cavalry came. Jared and Micah Christensen came out of the brush about 200 yards down the hill and helped us pack the bull out. We were stoked! I was sooooo grateful to them for the help. After we got the elk all packed out we all went down to the "Shake 'N Burger" down in Lincoln, and I treated everyone to a hamburger and a milkshake. In the end it was perhaps the best week of hunting of my life. I have a great family and now I have a great elk!

Well here's the story...

OK the week started out a bit rough what with Ken and I meeting in Lincoln eight and a half hours later than originally planned, and then Ken getting a flat tire just before we got to the switchback, and having to go back to Lincoln for a jack and loosing Ken's cell phone. Actually it got kind of funny when neither of us had a watch and the battery on Ken's laptop died. Other than seeing some cool HUGE grizzly bear tracks and some mountain lion tracks, Monday the 27th was a bit of a write-off.
Tuesday morning we woke up a bit late since we didn't have any way to tell time, but we scrambled up to the top of the Rocky Basin as soon as we were concious. We didn't see anything that we couldn't resist so we just chilled at Uncle Dave's log most of the morning. After we went back to camp, Ken had to run in to Lincoln again to call Kathy, and I dropped down to the bottom of the Big Basin to my tree stand by the spring. (which by the way is probably a better bow stand than rifle stand I decided) Anyhow I had only sat in my stand about 40 minutes when I realized that I had lost both of my coats on the way down the mountain. So I decided to hike out and retrace my steps up until I found my coat and I'd just sit the rocky point that evening. Which I did, but only saw one mulie doe. I did hear some elk cow calling, but wasn't able to move on them. So I hiked out of the big basin Tuesday night in the dark, and a bit discouraged. I got to camp and the first thing I said to Ken was "Dude what in the heck are we doing here?" To which Ken replies "well Russ take a look at me." So I shined my flashlight on him and doggonit that stinker was covered in blood from head to toe!! So Ken told me the awesome story of having to drive to Lincoln and then hike his tail off to get up the mountian and just as he peeked his head over to see into the Rocky Basin there.. out in the middle of the basin was a 5-point bull elk! So he backed away took off all his pack and gear etc. and crawled out to Uncle Daves Log. He ranged the bull at 140 yards and with one shot of his lethal 270 short mag Ken had himself a nice bull elk!!

Way to go JAYDEN!

Jared has reported more success from his family! Here is what he said:
Here are some pics of Jayden's 1st hunt. She was a real trooper and shot this buck from about 150 yards. It was a creative effort from the both of us to get her over the tall grass. I'll write more later for the blog.

Well, here are the pics of what appears to be a very successful week at Bull Creek. Ken and Russ were really able to pull it together and make things happen! Congrats to them both. Ken shot his at the top of the rocky basin on Tuesday. Russell shot his at the bottom of the rocky basin on Thursday. I will let them fill in the details later.
Here is some additional info from Russell:
Friday, November 7, 2008
Ryan I haven't had time to write up the story of my bull yet, but here's some other tidbits of info for all concerned Lay family hunters. Just so everyone is aware I put a Mouseproof Mailbox in the cache at Bull Creek so that next year the cache will not be filled with nasty mouse-poop. Dad and I inventoried the cache up at camp, and it contains the following items. (all food items are protected inside the mailbox)
4 cans Tuna, 2 cans Salmon, 4 cans Chili, 2 cans spagetti, 1 can clam chowder, 1 can campbells soup, 1 large can Beef ravioli, 3 cup-0-noodles, 2.5 gallons drinking water (in a store sealed water jug), 2 gallons dishwater (in old gatorade jugs (from 2007 but still drinkable), 1 enamel covered steel plate, 1 plastic plate, about 50 ft of yellow nylon rope. We're kind of a bunch of rednecks aren't we?

Jared draws first blood!

Well, we have our first confirmed report of blood. Here is the brief version of the story from Jared:

"I shot this deer last night (Monday) with Cooper at Nonya Creek (near Toston). The deer spooked past me, ran about 30 yards, and stopped within 5 to 8 yards of Cooper. Cooper was able to see the arrow pass through the buck when I shot. Don't worry, he was safe and out of the line of fire:)

When we got to the buck we noticed an old Zwickey broadhead with a cedar arrow that had passed through the buck's snout and stuck out the side of its face. We couldn't believe that this did not affect the deer, and he seemed to be fully functional until my arrow poked him.

It was a great experience, and having Cooper there to witness the whole thing made it even better; a hunt neither of us will ever forget."

Jared said that there appeared to be some infection inside the buck's chest cavity. He is having it looked at tomorrow to make sure it is safe to eat. Way to go Jared (and Cooper)!

Good luck to everyone else,

Ryan

Introduction

Brethren,

Welcome! My wife has introduced me to the world of blogging. I thought that this would be a great forum for us to communicate, share, and save for posterity, our hunting experiences and photos. My whole life I have found myself waiting, calling and asking for you all to let me know how the hunt went that day. I guess I have never grown out of my childhood obsession. We can now do this via the internet and that way we don't actually have to talk to each other (ha ha).

Anyway, let the blogging begin!!

Well, so far this year I have bagged one new son and some permission to hunt in a couple weeks on about 6000 acres next to the Dearborn Ranch. That is all I have so far. Feel free to post pics and tell stories from years past.

Enjoy,

Ryan the BlogMaster

P.S. Here are a few of the pictures from last year's exploits. Russ, sorry I don't have any photos of your doe from last year. That was one of my favorite stories.