Post by BlueNorther on Nov 16, 2009 17:58:50 GMT -5
Just got home from a 4 day elk hunt with my nephew in southern Alberta. We had a great time even though we didn't get an elk. Saw over 75 deer, mule deer and white tails. But we had no deer tags left and had to be content to just watch some great bucks walk away.
We got camp set up by eight p.m. thursday night in a hard wind. It was quite a chore setting up a wall tent in 50 mph winds.
Friday morning and the wind is still blowing but even stronger, gust of up to 70 mph. I knew we wouldn't see any game feeding so we set up on a ridge and glassed the timber, saw a lot of deer and moose bedded down but no elk. Checked out 5 canyons where I usually see elk but saw none all day. The only thing out feeding in that wind were bighorn sheep and they were at about 8000 feet.
Got back to camp and had a couple beers, cooked supper and went to bed hoping the wind would quit for saturday.
Saturday morning we woke to calm conditions and light snow, finally!
Talked to a guy who lives down there and says he saw a 100 elk in Whitney canyon two days ago so we set off in search of them. The snow let up and we glassed that whole canyon and never saw an elk but did see their tracks and they had left that canyon over night. At about ten o'clock I finally found the elk about 3 miles east of where we were. I was glassing a high grass ridge and just about had a heart attack when I saw all these elk out feeding and laying down. Got the spotting scope out and started looking for bulls and saw 13 bulls. There were over 125 elk in that herd. Only problem was they were now on private land and I didn't know who owned it.
A quick phone call to a friend and I now had the name of the ranch and that they allowed hunting. Long story short we couldn't make contact with anyone who could give us permission and we had to leave that herd alone
Sunday and monday saw the wind come back up and just as strong as on friday. It was so strong it was pulling the 12 inch tent spikes right out of the ground. Good thing we had it tied off to trees as well or we'd have been chasing that wall tent to Saskatchewan.
Going to try again this weekend and this time I have confirmed permission on three ranches.
Here's a couple of pics.
This was home for 4 days, that's my nephew fueling up the chainsaw so we could cut wood for the tent stove.
This is the grassy hill the elk were on, 5556 yards as the raven flies. it would take me half a day to walk into there.
Now this pic isn't really any good but I posted it anyways.It was taken through my spotting scope on 60 X with a digital camera. I couldn't hold the camera still enough. There are 6 bulls there and all shooters.
We got camp set up by eight p.m. thursday night in a hard wind. It was quite a chore setting up a wall tent in 50 mph winds.
Friday morning and the wind is still blowing but even stronger, gust of up to 70 mph. I knew we wouldn't see any game feeding so we set up on a ridge and glassed the timber, saw a lot of deer and moose bedded down but no elk. Checked out 5 canyons where I usually see elk but saw none all day. The only thing out feeding in that wind were bighorn sheep and they were at about 8000 feet.
Got back to camp and had a couple beers, cooked supper and went to bed hoping the wind would quit for saturday.
Saturday morning we woke to calm conditions and light snow, finally!
Talked to a guy who lives down there and says he saw a 100 elk in Whitney canyon two days ago so we set off in search of them. The snow let up and we glassed that whole canyon and never saw an elk but did see their tracks and they had left that canyon over night. At about ten o'clock I finally found the elk about 3 miles east of where we were. I was glassing a high grass ridge and just about had a heart attack when I saw all these elk out feeding and laying down. Got the spotting scope out and started looking for bulls and saw 13 bulls. There were over 125 elk in that herd. Only problem was they were now on private land and I didn't know who owned it.
A quick phone call to a friend and I now had the name of the ranch and that they allowed hunting. Long story short we couldn't make contact with anyone who could give us permission and we had to leave that herd alone
Sunday and monday saw the wind come back up and just as strong as on friday. It was so strong it was pulling the 12 inch tent spikes right out of the ground. Good thing we had it tied off to trees as well or we'd have been chasing that wall tent to Saskatchewan.
Going to try again this weekend and this time I have confirmed permission on three ranches.
Here's a couple of pics.
This was home for 4 days, that's my nephew fueling up the chainsaw so we could cut wood for the tent stove.
This is the grassy hill the elk were on, 5556 yards as the raven flies. it would take me half a day to walk into there.
Now this pic isn't really any good but I posted it anyways.It was taken through my spotting scope on 60 X with a digital camera. I couldn't hold the camera still enough. There are 6 bulls there and all shooters.
