Forty Minutes of Chaos

The day that results emails started rolling out I received an email for myself, my daughter, and my second son… I thought it was odd that I didn’t receive an email for my oldest son at the same time. I had forgotten that when I did his application I changed the email address on his account to his personal email address, so I had to wait for him to get home from school to get his results. After he had been home for a couple minutes and had a chance to raid the fridge for his post-school meal I asked if he'd gotten an email from the DWR with his drawing results and if he’d gotten the usual general deer tag. His response was brief, “Oh, yeah. I was successful for deer and elk.” 

“What?!?” I ripped his cell phone from his hands… “You gotta be sh!tting me, hell yeah!!!” Sure enough, with 4 points he had drawn a Central Mountains, Manti limited entry muzzleloader elk permit. I was hooting and hollering, he and his mother watched me bounce around the house looking at me like I was a lunatic. Good thing CPS didn’t visit my house that afternoon because every time I walked past him I pushed him around or slugged him on the shoulder and let out a whoop. I was pretty darn excited because it was the exact permit I had in 2020. He was like, “Whatever Dad, I don’t get why you’re acting like a sweaty try hard.” Pointing to the euro mount of my 2020 bull above the cabinets in our kitchen I said, “You don’t get it… you drew THAT tag.” He just looked at me and deadpanned, “Oh, meh, I’ll shoot one bigger than that. Mom, can I go hang out with my friends?” Teenagers. 

We arranged to leave the Saturday before opening day to get a couple scouting days in. We ate a late lunch/early dinner at a local little diner and headed up the canyon to where we planned on camping. We quickly threw together camp and decided to hike down the ridge below camp just to listen for bugles and do some glassing. Logan had never heard an elk bugle. There were cattle everywhere on the ridge and they were making quite a bit of noise. But then, out of the bottom of the canyon came a sound that was far different than the cattle moos. Logan turned and looked at me, not exactly sure what he had just heard, “What was that?” 

“That’s an elk bugle, Son.” 

He smiled, and we listened to a couple different bulls bugle back and forth for the next hour or so. I decided to pull out my bugle tube and join in, but I let out one of the most pathetic sounding bugles I’ve ever heard and within a matter of seconds had three different groups of coyotes yipping and howling. It was as if they were mocking me. We headed back to finish setting up camp and went to bed, we could hear the elk bugling from camp and they bugled regularly throughout the night. In the morning we woke up and went for another little hike down another ridge near camp. From this ridge we could see the ridge that we were on the night before. On that ridge, out in the clearing, were 14 cow elk and a nice bull. The bull would bugle back and forth with another bull that was still down in the deep timber. We watched them until they went north over the ridge into the next canyon. 

I had seen and heard enough in this little area so we hiked back to camp and hopped in the truck to drive a couple canyons to the south to do some exploring. We drove as far as the road conditions would allow then got out and walked down the ATV trail with the plan to bugle and cow call every couple hundred yards and just mark any responses on my map. It didn’t take long to get our first bugle response, it didn’t sound like it was super close but it wasn’t horribly far away either. We kept walking down the two track occasionally bugling or cow chirping for probably another three quarters of a mile or so. We hadn’t gotten any responses in a while and the two track was now side-hilling into some steep and nasty country so we decided to head back towards the truck. We were getting pretty close to where I had marked the last bugle response so I let out a couple cow chirps and a soft bugle. My calls were met with an immediate and nearby bugle. “Wow, that one is close.” We walked another 30 yards up the road over a small rise and the bull bugled again, even closer. Through the trees at the edge of a small clearing I spotted the bull coming towards us and told Logan to freeze. It was a nice 5x6 and kept coming closer until he stopped at 30 yards and stared at us finally realizing that something was amiss. He stood behind a tree for several seconds then turned and trotted back to the trees where he had come out of.

“That was SICK,” was all I heard for the rest of the hike back to the truck. Apparently, that’s what the kids say these days. 

We found a spot for Logan to shoot the muzzleloader a couple of times and just double checked the zero and test some different shooting positions and off shooting sticks. He shot the muzzleloader well and we felt confident that given a clear shot he should do just fine.  In the picture below the number is the yardage with (p) = prone and (k) = kneeling, and the one shot marked with a 2 is a second shot with a fouled barrel simulating a follow up shot situation.

For Sunday evening we went back to the first ridge that we hiked out on the evening that we first got there. My plan was to confirm that the bull that was down in the thick stuff was still there and probably have him be our first play in the morning. The bull was still there but wasn’t nearly as vocal as the night before or early that morning. However, we spotted a large herd with multiple bulls going crazy on the hillside all the way across the canyon. Those elk were in the same area that I had shot my bull in 2020, which is extremely thick and harrowingly steep. We watched them through the spotting scope until dark and moseyed back to camp.

Our plan was set, we would go after the bull in the timber below camp at first light the next morning. The previous night was filled with bugling elk, however this night was filled with silence. I didn’t sleep well and while lying awake in my sleeping bag for prolonged stretches of the night I didn’t hear a single bugle. Nerves were starting to set in. 

The alarm went off and we got up, snagged a quick breakfast and hiked down the ridge below camp for the third time now in three days. Now the bull that had been bugling below camp was either silent or gone. But looking across the canyon the herd of elk from last night were still there with multiple bulls chasing cows around the hillside, in and out of the timber, and up and down the clearings. I hated to give up so quickly on this bull below camp, but my gut told me that if we wanted a chance this morning that we needed to get over onto that other hillside. We weighed the options… should we bail off this ridge, lose 1000 feet in elevation, cross the creek, gain 1000 feet back in elevation, probably get over by lunchtime? Then what happens if we get one? We’d have to do it all over again to hike back to camp… do we really want to do that? Or do we try driving the two track again? We had driven it briefly on Sunday morning but decided to turn around after the road got pretty rough & I didn’t want to risk it in my non-four wheel drive truck. 

We decided that we would try driving the road and we would go as far as we dared and then walk, figuring that a two and a half mile hike on a relatively flat two track would be better than a three-quarter mile hike losing then gaining 1000 feet in elevation. So off we went, and it turns out that once I navigated the section of road that had caused me to turn around the day before the road was quite pleasant and easily navigable in my pickup. I had marked a couple different locations on my phone and we were able to drive the truck to within a couple hundred yards of where I thought the elk would be. 

We crept to the edge of a clearing and I let out a couple of cow calls. This was a tactical error on my part, because almost immediately I looked down into a patch of aspens and spotted an elk locked on to our location. This was a big bull, but because of where I had cow called from, he had us immediately pegged and would come no closer than 164 yards. He turned and walked deeper into the trees. This was a scenario that I needed to learn a lesson from. 

We could hear several other bulls bugling in the next canyon to the south so we walked back up to the road and walked about a half mile before dropping down into the canyon. The elk were still bugling like crazy but they were now north of us to our left. We found a small ridge and walked down the spine of it looking for a location that would allow me to be smarter with my calling and drop off one side or the other depending on which side the bugle was coming from. It was thick and steep, and we found a spot where visibility wasn’t terrible… but it wasn’t great… we probably had a maximum of 75 yards of visibility but we were level in elevation with one of the bugles. The bull was bugling to our left (north), so I walked 30 yards off the right (south) side and cow called hoping that if he came in he’d have to come out and cross the spine in full view to check out the cow calls. Those couple cow calls would initiate 40 minutes of chaos that I would have never imagined or dreamed of. 

We had one bull bugling to the left at what we estimated was roughly our same elevation, then we had two or three other bulls also on the left (north) side that were probably a couple hundred yards downhill from us. My cow calls were immediately met with a nearby bugle from the left (north) & within minutes a 5x5 bull walked across the spine of the ridge at 50 yards. It crossed the spine of the ridge without presenting a clear shot then doubled back and started going back to whence it had come. I did a soft cow call to get it to stop but as luck would have it the bull stopped with it’s vitals partially covered by a large tree trunk. Enough of his vitals were exposed that I told Logan he could take the shot if he wanted but the margins for error were so slim that he had to aim so tight to the tree trunk that he’d either hit the tree or barely miss the tree and hit the elk. He never felt good about it so he never did take a shot. 

We sat there after that encounter and decompressed. Since we were in relatively close quarters I had told him to have the scope on 3 power, I had forgotten about that and told him that once he has the bull in the scope that he can dial up the magnification as much as he is comfortable with if we get another opportunity. After another couple minutes I walked again 30 yards off the right (south) side and cow called. An immediate bugle rang out directly below me on the right (south) side, we hadn’t heard a bugle to our right (south) yet so this bull had come in and surprised us. I called Logan over to my position and had him get set up. We spotted the bull coming up the bottom, but he wasn’t coming up to the spine of the ridge, instead he was staying down in the bottom parallel to us. We thought we had him and he’d walk through a small opening in the trees and give Logan a shot… so we waited. He never showed. I cow called again and he immediately bugled from about 50 yards uphill, he had made it through the gap before we had gotten set up. We moved uphill along with him for about 100 yards before he went silent. Dang it. 

We figured we had missed that chance so we went back to the spine of the ridge where we had left our packs and sat down. The bulls to our left (north) were still bugling in their usual locations. Logan and I started making plans for what to do next since the sun was getting high in the sky and it was getting warm, I thought the bugling would shut off sometime soon… we could sneak out and go get some lunch and come back in for the evening… we could tough it out and just sit tight getting by with the snacks and meager sandwiches in our packs… 

Then the woods erupted to our right (south), the bugle was so close that we could hear the air going through the throat of the bull. Logan looked at me and his eyes... rather our eyes... were huge. The bull had to be just out of sight coming up the ridge. Logan grabbed the gun and hopped up, I threw my call in my mouth and grabbed my tube and ran 15 yards uphill and to the left (north) before letting out a soft cow call. I watched as Logan shouldered the muzzleloader, then lowered it, then shouldered it again. I wasn’t sure what was going on so I whisper hollered to him if he could see the elk. All at once I saw elk, how I could have missed it I don’t know… but from my vantage point I looked just over Logan’s left shoulder and not 15 yards from him in some thick trees was a large tan body. Then, in my peripheral vision I caught movement coming up from the left (north) side of the spine of the ridge. I hollered to Logan… “Get up here… big bull!” “I know. I see him right here, Dad.” “No… get up here big bull on the left.” 

Logan looked at me like I was crazy as I frantically waved for him to come to me. In hindsight we laugh at the absurdity of the situation… we had two bulls within 50 yards at the same time & I was calling him off of a bull 15 yards away that neither of us had really gotten a good look at to see how big he was to shoot this other one that just showed up. By the time Logan got up to me the big bull had made his way across the spine of the ridge so I cow called and he stopped and turned around but had stopped behind another tree. He wasn’t alarmed but was definitely starting to question what was going on. I think the thickness and steepness of the area played into our favor. Logan said he was dialed in on him and was ready as soon as he got a shot. I told him as soon as the bull took a step he’d be in the clear and I’d hit him with a cow call. The bull took a step so I cow called and he ended up taking two more steps before stopping behind another tree! The bull still wasn’t acting super nervous or jittery so I told Logan that we’d do it again and I’d call as soon as he moved, this time our gap was bigger between trees, it would take the elk four or five steps to get through this gap and this was going to be probably our last chance before he’d drop too far off the spine of the ridge. I watched the bull in my binos as soon as I saw the bull starting to lean and the muscles in his front shoulders twitch hinting that he was going to start moving again I blew the best cow call that I’ve ever blown in my life. He took one step and stopped perfectly broadside. Logan fired. The bull lurched forward and took a couple quick steps downhill. “Great shot… reload.” 

I could still see the bull through a small gap in the trees and watched him go down. “He’s down, Son. Great shot… RELOAD!” 

Logan got reloaded, we gathered our packs and we bushwacked down to where I had watched the bull go down. I was a couple steps ahead of Logan and spotted the bull’s antlers sticking up above the brush… but I decided to mess around with Logan a little bit. “Wasn’t this where he was? You gotta be kidding me, you didn’t hear him get up and run off, did you? “How did you feel about the shot, where were you aiming?” All this while Logan was catching up to me and as I was rapid firing my panicked questions to him I could see the exasperation on his face. When he stopped next to me I laughed and said, “What’s that right there?” 

“Is that… that’s an antler!”

Well, let’s just say that he did it… he had shot one bigger than mine. I took some pictures and his smile tells the whole story. We packed the bull out over 3 trips… two that afternoon and evening and one more in the morning.

Then packed up camp and got a late breakfast/early lunch at the same local diner on the way home. The homestyle potatoes with sausage country gravy were something spectacular by the way. He wants to hang the antlers in his room above his bed and his mom told him that he better do it now and get that out of his system because odds are he’ll find himself a sweet young bride that probably doesn’t want antlers above her bed in her bedroom.

I could not have scripted a more epic experience to share with my son… we saw some awesome bulls, spent several days in some awesomely big and beautiful country, experienced 40 minutes of absolute chaos where we called in 4 bulls to inside 50 yards, had multiple shot opportunities, and ultimately my son filled his first bull elk tag by killing and fantastic bull. And to my son’s credit, he again proved himself as a strong, capable, willing, and humble young man… his mother has raised him well.

Subscribe to receive updates from The Glassing Tree, enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

---

Deseret Cow Elk

 My two oldest kids drew cow elk tags this year on Deseret Land & Livestock.  It’s not uncommon to see online forum posts asking for information about this hunt so I figured I’d share our experience.  We elected to do the DIY option, the guided option was more expensive than what I wanted to pay and I figured that I could navigate around well enough that we’d have reasonable chances at success. Historically the success rates for this hunt are 85 to 90 percent so I kind of had a “how hard could it be” mentality.  We received the emails and letters from the guide service that oversees the hunting on the Ranch with all the instructions to get prepared. We did not participate in the shooting class so the only requirement that we did have was to present the required signed release forms the first morning that we checked in. This year the DIY hunters were given a 9 day window between Nov 11th and 19th with no hunting on Sunday (13th) or Wed (16th) so we arranged our calendar accordingly.

Opening Day

I woke the kids up at 4am and we were out the door by 4:30am.  We stopped briefly at a Maverik to get a sandwich for lunch and headed back into Utah to the Ranch.  We arrived at the check point just after sunrise and the line to get checked in was rather long.  It took several minutes to get checked in because the guides were very thorough in providing maps and detailing the rules, open roads and gates, and communication expectations.  We drove through the gate and immediately it was combat hunting at its finest.  Every DIY hunter is required to enter through the same check point so everyone is bottlenecked into the same starting location.  This made for long lines of vehicles and mad scrambles to win the footrace to herds of elk.  It took several hours, probably until about lunchtime for everyone to disperse enough to feel like you were out of the rat race.  A herd of maybe 20+ elk was spotted out in a large meadow and there were dozens of trucks pulled off to the side of the road and dozens of orange vested hunters racing out into the meadow to try and get a shot.  We stopped the Expedition and watched the chaos briefly, Logan was a little mystified by this and said, “Dad, I don’t like this vibe.” So, we continued driving around for several hours exploring the ranch a bit.

A couple hours later we were driving around back by the meadow where that herd of elk was earlier and I spotted a calf running around searching for its mother which was certainly killed in the chaos of the morning.  We decided to try and make a stalk on it and started hiking towards the calf.  We were hiking along a small ridge and I noticed another hunter hiking towards the calf just below us down the bottom of the draw.  I pulled the kids back and conceded that we had lost the footrace.  

We headed out driving again and decided to make our way out into the eastern flats of the ranch.  We spotted a small herd that had a young bull and 4 cows.  Looking on the map, it looked like there was a 2-track road that would take us very near where the herd was heading.  We took that 2 track and sure enough it took us to within 300 yards of the little hollow where the elk had started bedding down.  We got to within 200 yards and I tried getting Lauryl set up on the shooting sticks but she never could get steady enough for a shot and the small herd eventually stood up and ran off.  I realized afterwards that I should have had her set up lower to the ground, she was standing but I should have had her kneel or sit. 

We were prepared to head back to Evanston and check in to a motel for the evening and come back in the morning.  However, throughout the day we noticed a growing odor of coolant and when we pulled into the parking lot at Walmart smoke billowed from under the hood of the car.  I popped the hood and noticed antifreeze dripping, not so slowly, from the heater hose.  Luckily there is an AutoZone near the Walmart. Unfortunately, they did not have the replacement part in stock. Ironically the nearest location that had the part in stock was in Utah just a couple miles from our house.  We took one for the team and cruised home as quickly as we could and got the replacement hose.  We debated whether or not to wake up early again on Saturday and do it all over again, but we were all very tired decided to sleep in on Saturday and try again another day.

The Last Saturday

The only other day that we could make work was the last Saturday.  None of us wanted to wake up at 4am again, so I booked a motel room in Evanston for Friday night.  We ended up getting sidetracked a bit Saturday morning because Lauryl got car sick on the way out to the ranch and we had to make a pit stop.  We arrived at the check in tent well after first light but it was obvious that the number of hunters was dramatically reduced and Logan liked this vibe a lot better.  We drove through the gate and didn’t make it very far before spotting a herd of probably 40 elk at the edge of the meadow in a little north facing hollow.  I could see two vehicles and hunters already making their way toward the herd but I figured there were plenty of elk out there for us too.  We spotted more elk coming up out of the creek bottom and I noticed that the other hunters had actually turned their focus to those elk and were no longer looking at the elk in the little hollow.  We made a gameplan to loop around to the south on the backside of the little ridge staying out of sight of the herd in the hollow and pop up over the ridge on top of them. If it worked we should have a chip shot.  The plan worked like a charm and when I peeked over the ridge and saw the tops of their heads they were 200 yards away and looking away from us.  Both kids got set up but neither had a clear or steady shot, and Lauryl eventually said her hands got too cold so she didn’t want to shoot.  The elk caught on to us so I turned my attention to Logan and we got him into a better position with a clearer shooting lane.  A calf lagged behind the herd as they slowly exited the hollow. I gave it a couple of cow calls that got it to stop and turn to look back at us. Logan made a great shot and she took 2 steps before toppling over.

We dragged it to the Expedition and tossed it in the back.  It was about 10:30 and we still had Lauryl’s tag to fill.  I wasn’t sure how much longer we would need to be out there hunting and driving around so when we stopped for lunch I unloaded Logan’s elk and skinned it while the kids ate and took a little power nap.

After lunch we drove around to kill time during the early afternoon waiting for it to get closer to evening.  At about 3:30pm we were pulled off the side of the road and I was just glassing a bit when a pickup truck pulled up next to us and rolled down the window. It was one of the guides and he asked if I was seeing anything. I told him that we hadn’t seen anything in a little while. He asked how many tags we had left and I told him that our only tag remaining belonged to my 14 year old daughter.  He said, “follow me.”  We drove for about 45 minutes (recklessly at times) across the ranch to where a herd of 200 elk had been spotted by another guide.  We arrived at the herd and there were a couple other guides there waiting for us. When Lauryl hopped out with the rifle and walked up to them they smiled and told her that they were going to help her kill an elk in the next couple minutes.  One of the guides went with Lauryl & I while the other guide stayed in his truck.  Things turned into a bit of a rodeo and the herd started running off before Lauryl and I were in position so we hustled back to the Expedition and hurried up the road to where the second guide had driven up to cut the herd off.  The second guide had split the herd after they started running and had pinned 3 calves down about 350 yards away along a fenceline.  I knew that I had to get Lauryl to inside 250 yards for her to be comfortable so the guide stayed at the truck and kept cow calling while I walked with Lauryl down to the fenceline.  We kept easing our way closer until Lauryl said that she felt that was close enough.  There was a wood fencepost that was the perfect height so I had her get set up with that as a rest but she struggled to get comfortable and she wanted to sit down to shoot.  We adjusted and she got set up in the sitting position and we waited, all 3 calves were standing looking at us straight on so none of them were giving us a shot.  The guide had identified one of them as a bull calf that was slightly bigger than the other two so we waited for him to give us a shot. It felt like it took forever and we were running out of daylight so I just told Lauryl that I wanted her to shoot the first one that gave her a broadside shot.  Eventually one turned broadside and I told Lauryl to shoot as soon as she was comfortable.  She made 2 great shots and the calf toppled over.  I wasn’t exactly sure how she was going to handle pulling the trigger then walking up to an animal that she had killed but she was excited and proud… the smile says it all.

The guide drove over and chatted with the kids telling them stories of the celebrities that he’d guided on the big bull hunts while I did the gutting… he didn’t spare me a good-natured ribbing as he watched me wrestle that calf by myself while he and the kids chatted & laughed telling me that I was taking forever and that if I had blood beyond my knuckles then I was doing it wrong.  Let’s just say I was pretty much covered in blood because I was trying to get the gutting done quickly before it got dark and really cold & I’m not exactly proficient at the traditional gutting method since most of the critters I’ve killed have required quartering and packing out!  And then to have to do all that with an audience, especially a guide watching me who probably could have had it gutted, butchered, grilled, and eaten in the time it took me to get it field dressed! He threw me and the elk in the bed of his truck while he and the kids climbed into the cab and he drove us back to where the Expedition was parked. We loaded the elk into the back of the Expedition and he escorted us through one of the locked gates so that we wouldn’t need to backtrack 45 minutes back through the ranch to get to the check station to check out. 

I have to be honest, I generally have some tentativeness when it comes to interacting with guides but these gentlemen were phenomenal and I really feel like they took it upon themselves personally to help a young lady fill her tag.  If those guides are an indication of the entire operation there at Deseret, it’s top notch.  

We decided to just hustle home and let me tell you the reaction that I got when I walked in the door to the house was something to behold.  I hadn’t taken the time to clean myself up after gutting the elk so I was still covered in blood & my wife was somewhat shocked to see just how messy I was.  My dog wouldn’t let me out of her sight and was typically right on my heels sniffing at my dirty pant legs and licking at the dried blood on my hands.  Then when I unloaded two elk from the Expedition onto the garage floor the dog spent quite a bit of time sniffing around the carcasses.  I skinned Lauryl’s elk and quartered both, using my two ladders to separate and cool the meat and called it a night at about 11pm.

My house is north facing so my garage stays nice and cold in the winter, we jokingly refer to it as our “three car fridge” this time of year so I let the quarters hang through Thanksgiving and took up the butchering process in earnest Thanksgiving evening. I butchered the elk and got all the roasts and steaks in the freezer over the course of that weekend & then spent another week making about 70 pounds of snack sticks and summer sausage that the kids really enjoy.  

With all the hype that accompanies tags like this I really wasn’t sure what to expect… looking at the success rates it’s not unreasonable to think a hunt like this would be easy.  The chances that we got we had to create using the knowledge of how to use the terrain to our advantage and even more importantly how to leverage the pressure of other hunters to our advantage.  We had multiple opportunities at elk in the sub-300 yard range over the 2 days that we hunted which made it a great experience for the kids.  There were two experiences that I’ll never forget. First, peeking over the ridge with Lauryl and seeing that herd of 200 strung out across the flat at 600 yards, turning to her and asking if she sees all of them,  watching her jaw drop and she whispered to me, “Oh my gosh, Dad, look at them all!” Second, watching Logan struggle with that calf dragging it downhill to the road after I had just dragged it three times the distance uphill and hearing him grunt and groan about it being hard work.  He’s nearly sixteen so all I hear about is how he’s “jacked” or “ripped” or “swoll”, or how tough he thinks he is, or how awesome or invincible he thinks he is.  I loved watching him go through that struggle of something that was difficult and get the task accomplished… but I also loved giving him a hard time that maybe he should show his dad some respect for being stronger than he thinks!

Rifles

- Logan used Grandpa's Remington Model 700 in .30-06 with some 180gr Hornady 180gr Interlocks that I handloaded.

- Lauryl used a Mossberg Patriot in 7mm-08 with 139gr Hornady Superformance GMX that I picked up from www.wideners.com several years back

Recipe: Mongolian "Beef"

I've had this recipe for a couple years and it is a good one for big game like deer, elk, bear, etc. It's also a convenient crock pot recipe but can be further expedited using an Instant Pot.  Here's how to pull together my version of Mongolian "Beef":

Ingredients:

2 ½ pounds steak or roast

¼ cup corn starch

1 tablespoon minced garlic

¼ teaspoon chili flakes

¾ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger

2 teaspoons olive oil

¾ cup water

¾ cup soy sauce

1 broccoli crown

3 medium carrots

 

Instructions:

Slice the steak or roast thin (~¼” thick) across the grain of the muscle I like a slice that has dimensions approximately 1” wide, 1.5 to 2” long, and ¼” thick

Put ¼ cup of corn starch in a plastic bag

Pat each slice of meat dry and put in plastic bag then toss to coat evenly with corn starch

Combine the minced garlic, chili flakes, brown sugar, grated ginger, olive oil, water, and soy sauce and mix in crock pot

Add the sliced meat coated in corn starch to the crock pot and mix to coat evenly in sauce

Cook on high in the crock pot for 2 to 3 hours

Chop the broccoli crown and shred the carrots and add to the crock pot 30 minutes prior to serving to steam and soften the vegetables.  More or less broccoli and carrots can be added depending on personal preference.  Use only fresh broccoli crowns, do not use frozen broccoli, frozen vegetables will add a considerable amount of excess water and water down the sauce

This recipe can be further expedited by using an Instant Pot.  Follow instructions exactly as outlined above but cook initially for 30 minutes.  After adding the veggies steam for about 5 minutes with the lid unsealed on the saute setting

This is an absolute family favorite and can be served over rice or noodles… my family is split, there are a couple of us that don’t like rice a whole lot.  I have used elk, deer, and bear for this recipe and each have turned out excellent… and I have found the eye of round roast to be extremely good in this recipe but as long as the roast is sliced across the grain of the muscle every roast that I’ve used has turned out tender and tasty.

I made this recipe in advance and placed in vacuum sealed bags and frozen to take on my elk hunt this last fall.  I made single serving meals and we would reheat them in the vacuum bags in a pot of boiling water… they were convenient and were great meals especially when we staggered back to camp after long days of chasing bugling bulls.

2021 Drawing Analysis: Limited Entry Elk

Last year prior to the application period opening up I took a close look at the information that we have available to do a species by species analysis.  This year I will do something similar, however rather than interpret data myself I will preface the information presented with a series of questions to provoke your own thought and digestion of the data.  Each of us has very different reasons for doing what we do and why we hunt, we are in varying stages of life and have differing goals and aspirations.  In the past much of my interpretation of the data has been biased towards my own strategy and I'd like to get away from that this year.  Hopefully this format accomplishes that.  I have tried to keep the same formatting and "look" because that consistency breeds familiarity.  Overall, I want you to look at the data and ask yourself probing questions about your reasons, goals, aspirations, and abilities and come up with your own interpretation of the data and use that as your basis for decision-making.  GI Joe says that, "Knowing is half the battle..." 

The data that I look at is published by the Utah DWR on their website and is public information.  I will take a combined look at the resident and non-resident data for the once-in-a-lifetime species and limited entry species.  Same as last year, I will start with moose and will proceed with the once-in-a-lifetime species and finish up with the limited entry species and I will do my best to follow the schedule below so that all my analyses are available before the application period opens on Jan 28th:

- Moose
- Mountain Goat
- Desert Bighorn
- Rocky Mountain Bighorn
- Bison
- Pronghorn

- Deer

- Elk - Today

Subscribe below to stay up to date and please enjoy as you research for your 2021 Utah Big Game application!

Subscribe to receive updates from The Glassing Tree, enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

---

Value of a Point

For residents, you can expect each bonus point that you have to increase your odds by about 0.406%. That means that with 0 points your average odds are 0.406%, with 1 point your average odds are 0.812%... basically take the number of bonus points you have and add 1, then multiply by 0.406. So if I have 9 points my average odds would be (9+1)*0.406 = 4.060%.

For non-residents the value of a point is less at 0.101% per bonus point. Follow the same formula to determine your average odds for non-residents take the number of bonus you have and add 1, then multiply by 0.101... so if I had 9 points my average odds would be (9+1)*0.101 = 1.010%.

Pay attention to the number of tags offered and the history of the specific unit that you plan to apply for, limited entry deer elk are generally pretty consistent.  Limited entry deer and elk tag numbers and allocations don't fluctuate like pronghorn tag allocations.

Elk tags are offered for archery, muzzleloader, and various any weapon hunts on most units.  Research these options, more primitive weapons generally require fewer bonus points to draw the bonus tags and can greatly reduce the number of years that you spend applying for a tag before drawing.  

New for this year the DWR will be implementing new HAMS (handgun/archery/muzzleloader/shotgun) hunts in a handful of areas. 

I was fortunate to draw a limited entry muzzleloader elk tag last year and had an amazing time with a couple of great friends there to help me out.  The hunt was a rollercoaster ride physically, mentally, and emotionally with some really low lows and some really high highs... check out my previous post about that hunt here.  I have friends and family that will be applying for that same tag and I will be excited to help them.  In the meantime, I unfortunately will be impatiently waiting out my 5 year waiting period before jumping back into the elk application pool with both feet.

---

Applicant Pool Evaluation

The best knowledge that you can have going into any application period is what the environment around you looks like and getting a feel for what the applicant pool has been doing based upon prior year data.  All of the following charts were generated utilizing this raw data taken from the 2020 Bucks, Bulls, and Once-in-a-Lifetime Drawing Odds Report:

The images that follow are a series of charts presenting the raw data in a more visual format.  Again, I will refrain from interjecting my own opinion and allow you to interpret the data shown on your own... we each approach hunting with their own strategy based upon different goals and aspirations so it would be unfair for me to attempt to influence or encourage or discourage anyone because I would be speaking based solely upon my own goals and aspirations.  That being said, I would encourage you to ask yourself the following questions as you look at each chart:

- Is drawing a tag for this species a part of my long term, mid term, or short term strategy? 

- Where am I on this chart... what point group am I in and what is happening in the groups around me?

- Is where I am at on these charts encouraging or discouraging?

- Are there any trends that are interesting?  Do I know what is causing that trend?

- How can "Point Buyers" impact me in the short term and in the long term?

- How do the answers to the previous questions impact my strategy? 

- Am I willing to stick to my strategy for this species or do I need to re-evaluate?

The first series of images shows the number of actual applicants (orange bars), the number of point buyers (blue bars), and the number of random numbers issued (gray line) for each point level:

This second series of images shows the distribution of bonus tags (gray bars), random/lottery tags (orange bars), and the number of applicants (blue line) in 2020. 

The final series of charts shows the percentage of actual applicants (orange bars) compared to the percentage of point buyers (blue bars).

2021 Drawing Analysis: Limited Entry Deer

Last year prior to the application period opening up I took a close look at the information that we have available to do a species by species analysis.  This year I will do something similar, however rather than interpret data myself I will preface the information presented with a series of questions to provoke your own thought and digestion of the data.  Each of us has very different reasons for doing what we do and why we hunt, we are in varying stages of life and have differing goals and aspirations.  In the past much of my interpretation of the data has been biased towards my own strategy and I'd like to get away from that this year.  Hopefully this format accomplishes that.  I have tried to keep the same formatting and "look" because that consistency breeds familiarity.  Overall, I want you to look at the data and ask yourself probing questions about your reasons, goals, aspirations, and abilities and come up with your own interpretation of the data and use that as your basis for decision-making.  GI Joe says that, "Knowing is half the battle..." 

The data that I look at is published by the Utah DWR on their website and is public information.  I will take a combined look at the resident and non-resident data for the once-in-a-lifetime species and limited entry species.  Same as last year, I will start with moose and will proceed with the once-in-a-lifetime species and finish up with the limited entry species and I will do my best to follow the schedule below so that all my analyses are available before the application period opens on Jan 28th:

- Moose
- Mountain Goat
- Desert Bighorn
- Rocky Mountain Bighorn
- Bison
- Pronghorn

- Deer - Today

- Elk - Jan 15

Subscribe below to stay up to date and please enjoy as you research for your 2021 Utah Big Game application!

Subscribe to receive updates from The Glassing Tree, enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

---

Value of a Point

For residents, you can expect each bonus point that you have to increase your odds by about 0.293%. That means that with 0 points your average odds are 0.293%, with 1 point your average odds are 0.586%... basically take the number of bonus points you have and add 1, then multiply by 0.293. So if I have 9 points my average odds would be (9+1)*0.293 = 2.930%.

For non-residents the value of a point is less at 0.059% per bonus point. Follow the same formula to determine your average odds for non-residents take the number of bonus you have and add 1, then multiply by 0.059... so if I had 9 points my average odds would be (9+1)*0.059 = 0.590%.

Pay attention to the number of tags offered and the history of the specific unit that you plan to apply for, limited entry deer tags are generally pretty consistent.  Limited entry deer and elk tag numbers and allocations don't fluctuate like pronghorn tag allocations.

Deer tags are offered for archery, muzzleloader, and any weapon on most units.  Unlike pronghorn and elk tags, there doesn't appear to be a huge benefit in selecting a more primitive weapon like archery or muzzleloader.  The number of bonus points needed to draw a guaranteed bonus tag is pretty consistent across the board regardless of weapon type.

The DWR has done a couple things in an attempt to reduce point creep within the deer applicant pool.  Recently HAMS (handgun/archery/muzzleloader/shotgun) hunts have been opened in a handful of areas. The DWR has also opened many of the general season deer units to a limited entry muzzleloader hunt that occurs in the pre-rut part of the calendar in late October to early November.

---

Applicant Pool Evaluation

The best knowledge that you can have going into any application period is what the environment around you looks like and getting a feel for what the applicant pool has been doing based upon prior year data.  All of the following charts were generated utilizing this raw data taken from the 2020 Bucks, Bulls, and Once-in-a-Lifetime Drawing Odds Report:

The images that follow are a series of charts presenting the raw data in a more visual format.  Again, I will refrain from interjecting my own opinion and allow you to interpret the data shown on your own... we each approach hunting with their own strategy based upon different goals and aspirations so it would be unfair for me to attempt to influence or encourage or discourage anyone because I would be speaking based solely upon my own goals and aspirations.  That being said, I would encourage you to ask yourself the following questions as you look at each chart:

- Is drawing a tag for this species a part of my long term, mid term, or short term strategy? 

- Where am I on this chart... what point group am I in and what is happening in the groups around me?

- Is where I am at on these charts encouraging or discouraging?

- Are there any trends that are interesting?  Do I know what is causing that trend?

- How can "Point Buyers" impact me in the short term and in the long term?

- How do the answers to the previous questions impact my strategy? 

- Am I willing to stick to my strategy for this species or do I need to re-evaluate?

The first series of images shows the number of actual applicants (orange bars), the number of point buyers (blue bars), and the number of random numbers issued (gray line) for each point level:

This second series of images shows the distribution of bonus tags (gray bars), random/lottery tags (orange bars), and the number of applicants (blue line) in 2020. 

The final series of charts shows the percentage of actual applicants (orange bars) compared to the percentage of point buyers (blue bars).