2017 in Review

The highs were high, and the lows were really low in 2017… so low in fact that if you have followed my blog at all in the past you’d know that I usually do the November any bull muzzleloader hunt here in Utah and I hadn’t felt like that hunt was even worth posting about this year. It was tough, but I’ll share a few things about it here.
Back to the beginning of the season though…
My first hunt this year was the muzzleloader deer hunt with family and friends. It was the first time my 10 year old son tagged along. It was fun and challenging… challenging because I tried my best to hunt the way that I like to but still be realistic with a youngster’s ability (both physical and mental). In the end, it was a great hunt. I ended up tagging out on a young buck and we have since enjoyed some hickory smoked venison snack sticks and some steaks.

Next up was the doe/fawn pronghorn hunt up in Wyoming. This was really fun, and made me wish that a guy was able to get more than two tags. I was left with the feeling for several days that the hunt was too fast and too fun to be over… but with both tags filled it was. Four of my sons, aged 3 to 10 at the time, came with me and we had fun chasing goats through the sage and cactus.
Adding these two experiences to the previous experiences my 10 year old has had, he is anxious to get started himself. He is hoping to be taking the Utah Hunter’s Education course this winter and we will be looking into some mentored whitetail deer tags up in Idaho for the fall of 2018 where he will be able to carry the rifle himself.
My last hunt of 2017 was the aforementioned muzzleloader any bull elk hunt…
Over the course of the past several years I had been quite successful at patterning the elk in the area that I hunt. It was never difficult to find elk… never. Because of this I took a lackadaisical approach to scouting this summer and didn’t worry about setting up any trail cameras or make any special trips up to glass. I figured the elk would just be where they had been the last several years.
On the muzzleloader deer hunt I crossed paths with more than a couple guys that mentioned to me that the elk had moved out for some reason and just hadn’t been in the area at all throughout the summer. Over three days deer hunting in areas where bugling bulls and cows were often easy to come by, I confirmed what they were telling me. I didn’t see a single elk, and only heard one faint bugle.
This year I was also going to be hunting with a new hunting partner, a neighbor who was pretty green when it comes to big game hunting. So I felt is measure of responsibility to show him a good time… not to mention I had talked up the area pretty good and after telling him we should have no problem finding elk (I always made it clear that finding and killing were very different… it would still be difficult to kill an elk) I was getting worried that I would be eating some crow.
The four and half weeks between the deer and elk hunts were filled with worry for me. In that time the rifle elk occurred and several other hunters shared reports of no elk. I was really banking on lots of pressure moving elk around and the elk ending up where they have been over the past several years even though they hadn’t been there all summer.
On opening morning of the hunt we set up to glass and within the first 30 minutes we spotted a lone elk and watched it settle into a day bed. We tried to make a play on it but it vacated the area before we could get in range. That would be the only time we would see an elk over the next three days. We hiked into old areas that previously held elk, new areas that I thought might hold elk now if they were pressured out of those old areas… and saw & heard nothing. We tried glassing far off areas but found our optics lacking. We also had some weather roll in later in the hunt and found that some of our gear was also lacking.
When it was all said and done my friend left frustrated and humbled… I left angry and humiliated. It has been several years since I felt like this after a hunt concluded (my grandfather’s 2014 Manti elk hunt still ranks as the most frustrating experience I have ever had while hunting). I have a glimmer of hope though because my resolve to not let that happen again has driven me to success in the years following… I hope I haven’t lost that resolve! There will definitely be some changes made this next summer, I have to relearn where these elk went. I have some gear that needs upgrading… spotting scope and even more importantly cold weather/wind/rain gear.
In the end though it was fun to get to know a new hunting partner, and even though he was frustrated when we spoke a couple days later he told me that was the first time he’d seen an elk while elk hunting and he can’t wait for next year. That was a relief, I was afraid that the experience may have soured him.
In spite of the ups and downs 2017 was a great year and I look forward to the adventures of 2018.
Here are a couple pics from the late elk hunt...

Wyoming Doe/Fawn Pronghorn

I've been fortunate to draw a couple of Wyoming doe/fawn pronghorn tags each of the last three years and this hunt has rapidly become a family favorite because I can take any and all of my kids that decide on that day that they want to come along.
Loaded up the ol' Chevy Equinox with my 10, 7, 6, and 3 year old boys and headed over to Wyoming, my 9 year old daughter on this day decided to stay at home with Mom and her 20 month old baby brother to have a "girl's day." We got out of the driveway about 30 minutes later than I had wanted, but we would find later that wouldn't matter one bit. Critters were in no short supply and we basically just bounced from bunch to bunch... action was fast enough to keep the boy's attention all day which was extremely considerate of those goats to do for me. Now, as one might guess, putting on a stalk with such an entourage can be quite problematic but if nothing else it's entertaining.
Shortly before noon I spotted a little herd just up on an alfalfa bench and parked the car. We bailed out and started walking down the old two track that would lead to the creek where we would need to cross. Fifty yards or so down the two track a pickup pulls off the road next to my car and a guy jumps out and hustles his way down to me. He let's me know that they had just shot one in the field to the north and they were going to take an old ranch road that goes right between my current position and the pronghorn herd. He wanted to catch me before we got too far because he didn't want to ruin my stalk. I thanked him for his thoughtfulness and told him to just go ahead... if it worked out it worked out but animals were so frequent that I figured one more blown stalk wouldn't really matter.
Off he went back to his truck and I turned to the boys and told them that if this was going to work we were going to need to hurry. So off we went, I quickly ferried the boys across the stream and made it through a ranch gate quickly enough. Nearing the edge of the alfalfa field the little herd wasn't alarmed but they were alert to our presence. I didn't look like too difficult a shot and several hundred yards to our south I could see the pickup truck driving slowly on the ranch road towards us... we had made good time and had beaten them to the spot so we were definitely going to have a chance.
I told the boys to lay down next to but slightly behind me and I took a prone rest on my pack. I picked out one doe and she stood statue still long enough for me to take several good breaths and took the shot.
The herd took off on a dead run with her trailing but after just a few yards she stopped and toppled over. The boys were thrilled and started running towards the downed doe. I turned and picked up everything that they had left behind in their excitement and began to make my way over. I have a funny image in my mind of four little boys in hunter orange hats running single file, tall to small, across the alfalfa field. They had to negotiate a barbed wire fence, which the littlest two got tangled up in pretty good, but they were able to work themselves free and run up to the doe.
They stopped several yards short because of the graphic nature of the bullet wound. As I'm trying to negotiate the barbed wire fence and cover the last 100 yards or so to catch up with them my 7 year old turns and yells to me, "Dad, she's not in good condition!" Well, actually it was a perfectly effective shot... she expired quickly and there was very little meat loss. The doe had expired not 40 yards from the old ranch road and before I had even reached the doe and my boys the pickup truck finally drove past and gave me a couple quick congratulatory honks and thumbs up out the windows and they continued on to their kill.
I began to work quickly getting the doe quartered. As I was working my 3 year old started to feel sick, he wasn't handling the butchering process well and he laid down hiding behind my pack. He ended up throwing up then falling asleep while I finished quartering.
When I was little more than halfway done the guys in the pickup drove by again and they got out and came over and chatted with me. They thought it was pretty awesome that I had brought all the little kids and congratulated me again. They had watched the whole thing play out from about 400 yards away and had stopped the truck when they saw that I was getting ready to shoot. They offered to throw what was left in the back of their pickup and take it back to the car for me which was a generous offer. Since I was quartering it out I figured I could just get it all taken care of right there and leave all the pieces on the mountain. I thanked them for their offer but declined, they did let me know that my car would have no problems on the old ranch road. Off they went on their way... good guys.
I didn't want to haul back a bunch of quarters and a sick/sleeping three year old... so I decided to leave the boys there at the kill site and run back to the main road and get the car. By the time I got the car up to the kill site the 3 year old had woken up and was feeling much better so they were chasing each other around the field when I got up to them. Just a few short minutes later we were loaded back in the car and headed off looking for another doe to fill my second tag.
A couple close encounters later we came upon a good sized herd less than 200 yards from the road. I ran over to one of the fence posts, and waited for a clear shot on anything legal. A fawn near the rear of the herd lagged behind just a little too long and gave me the opportunity I needed.
I turned to the car and told the boys we were done. We walked over to where it lay and I was a little leery of starting the butchering process with the 3 year old nearby so I made a deal with them that I would drag it over closer to the road and they could sit in the car and play on their tablets while I did the butchering.
In short order I had two pronghorn in my cooler and we headed for home.

On the drive home the boys remarked that they are my "good luck charms." Every time my oldest son has come with me we've shot something... a cow elk a couple years ago, a little buck deer this year, and a handful of pronghorn does/fawns spanning a couple years. Somehow I've got to get it into his head that we're not always going to be so fortunate and in my lifetime there have been far more days that I've come home with just memories.

I've got some processing to do at home now... the boys can't wait for the hickory smoked jerky and we're going to give the new Hi Mountain Spicy Lime flavor a try this year. Thanks Wyoming!

2017 Muzzleloader Deer Hunt

What an interesting year leading up to the deer hunt this year. For those that recall last year I ended the deer hunt pleased with shooting the nicest buck I’ve taken to date, but also frustrated at the new boundaries that I had to negotiate due to a portion of the landowner association that my family is part of breaking away and preventing me from accessing a handful of my favorite spots. Through the summer I was privileged to work with the folks at the Utah DWR as they negotiated to purchase that parcel of land and incorporate it into the current WMA… making what was previously private, then off limits to me last year, now public land for everyone to enjoy. Not having the boundary hurdles was liberating, but I digress… back to the hunt.
I decided to take my 10 year old son, Logan, with me this year. He proved his mettle a couple weeks ago on a backcountry fly fishing trip in Idaho where we logged 11+ miles per day fishing one of my absolute most favorite streams on this Earth. Following his soccer game on Tuesday night we loaded up the car, picked up my friend Cody who was waiting at his parent’s home after arriving earlier in the evening from Albuquerque, and headed up the canyon to the family cabin where Grandpa, Dad, my brother Darren and his two boys, and my uncle were already settled in for the evening.

Opening Day
Just like last year we wanted to use all other hunters to our advantage and knew that a large number of hunters would work from the top of one canyon so we woke early and hiked in the dark to a point about 2/3 of the way down from the top. As the sun rose it was pretty easy to spot small clusters of hunters working the ridges above us… and watch the deer stay two ridges ahead of them as they pushed down the canyon. We were in a good spot and Logan and I watched the deer gradually get closer and closer to our position. There were four very respectable bucks in the group and Logan and I did our best to get into their path. Cody couldn’t see the deer from his vantage point and unbeknownst to me he began dropping off his vantage point. The bucks nailed him and I watched as they circled between him and the other hunters above him, through some thick aspens and over into the next drainage… smart.

We milled around there until late morning and decided to head back to the cabin for a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich. On the hike back to the car we spotted a hunter walking back to his vehicle through a small clearing and then spotted a nice 4pt buck run probably 40 or 50 yards across the same clearing right behind the hunter. It was rather comical to see… the hunter was completely oblivious to the deer running in plain sight just a short distance behind him. Makes me wonder how often that happens to me!
After a nice late breakfast we jumped on the ATVs and then hiked into one of my favorite elk spots. We sat in the shade of a large pine tree for several hours and without seeing anything.

At about 5pm I stood to “take care of some business” and a doe burst from a clump of small aspens about a hundred yards away. She snorted, stomped, and carried on as she made her way up the hill in front of us. From the amount of ruckus she was making we figured she wasn’t alone and within a matter of seconds a small 2pt was spotted trying to sneak out the opposite side of the aspens. I nudged Logan and told him a little 2pt was standing there and asked him what we should do about it. His eyes got about the size of dinner plates and he just smiled… “shoot it.” I grabbed my muzzleloader and Cody gave me a range of 112 yards. I was facing directly into the setting sun and it was very difficult to even see the buck in my scope, but finally I was able to get a clear enough sight picture and pulled the trigger. The buck jumped and ran but Cody reassured me that I had hit him. Logan jumped up and we made our way over to where the small buck was standing. Logan led the tracking expedition, following the patches of blood for only about 20 yards and up over a slight rise the small buck laid expired on the trail. He was pretty excited and I took a picture or two of him with the little buck.

We got to work immediately on skinning and quartering and in 30 minutes we had all the meat in bags and in packs ready for extraction. Logan supervised the entire process making sure I took as much meat as possible and indicated the portions he would pack out. He said he was going to carry out the steaks so I loaded up his little pack with the backstraps, tenderloins, and I snuck in a couple extra pounds of other trim meat. Off we went on the 3/4 mile hike back to the ATVs.

I often feel guilty because I underestimate what my 10 year old is capable of… he didn’t stop once on the hike back to the ATVs and when he tossed his pack on the front rack of the ATV he just smiled and said that was easy & next time he wanted to carry more. He’s got big plans for the meat from this buck. He wants to make snack sticks and we want to try a pastrami recipe that we found in a Cabela’s magazine that came in the mail a couple weeks back. He also said he wanted the little buck Euro mounted for his bedroom (here it is so far... it still needs to be soaked in peroxide).

Thursday
With two more full days of hunting and Cody still with his tag, there was no time to sit back and relax for Logan and I… we would spend the next two days hunting for Cody and following him around. Throughout this whole exercise I wanted to teach my son Rule #1 of my unwritten “Hunting Buddy Code”… just because my tag was filled the hunt was not over.
We woke early and made the same hike that we did opening morning, however as we should have expected there just wasn’t the same amount of traffic as the previous morning and we saw only a handful of does. We made our way back to the cabin late in the morning for more sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches. Following that breakfast I absolutely crashed and ended up napping for a couple hours. It was a nice recharge needed by everyone… except Logan who spent the entire time running around the cabin area with his cousins shooting grasshoppers with BB guns. They burst into the cabin after several hours of that telling stories of the “Trophy Hoppers” they’d dispatched of.
After I shook the cobwebs loose from my afternoon nap we decided to hike into the same bowl where I shot my buck last year. We made the short drive and short hike and sat in the exact same spot as last year… as Cody sat down he even found the rubber eyecup from his binoculars that had fallen off last year. We sat until the sun went down and didn’t see a single critter, although we did hear a couple faint far off bugles.

Since we hadn’t seen anything in several hours we decided to hustle out of there so that we still had a little bit of light left to drive around for a bit. We saw a couple more does but no bucks.
Thursday night my cousin, Devin, and his nephew who had expressed interest in getting into hunting came up and joined us.

Friday
Cody, Logan, and I jumped on the ATVs and headed over to the most northern border of the property and hiked down along a couple small canyons. We saw a couple bull moose, a handful of does, but no bucks. So back we went to the cabin for breakfast. (When my kids are driving the ATVs I find it best to ride with my eyes closed, that way whatever we hit will be a surprise to me.)

Devin talked the group into a plan… he would go with a couple other guys and get dropped off on top if Cody and I would hike up to a small saddle and they would brush deer out to us. About halfway up to the saddle we noticed a group of guys already up there. They seemed to be working slightly to the north though so we continued up to the saddle. Just as we reached the saddle a shot rang out close by. Neither Cody nor I could see what they were shooting at, but soon the group that had been above us emerged below us and walked out into the sagebrush flat. We could hear them talking and sure enough, right there in the sagebrush flat they had shot a nice 4pt buck… I’m not sure how we missed it… I thought back to opening morning and watching that buck run right behind the hunter… we watched through binoculars as they admired the buck and took a few pictures.
Once we got settled into a good spot to watch the escape routes we had a doe and fawn run across the hillside in front of us. We used those two deer to get good yardages on that main trail and continued to sit back and wait. A couple minutes later a nice little 3pt burst out of the trees and across that same trail. Just like the doe & fawn, as he reached the ridge on the other side of the clearing he slowed, stopped, and looked back. At that point Cody took the shot, and through the binoculars it was pretty clear it was a miss.
We waited for Devin and rest of the group to make their way down to the saddle where we were sitting and Cody went over to closely inspect the area where the buck was standing. A few minutes after we watched Cody go over the ridge we heard him shoot again. So I took Devin and his nephew and we hiked over to try and find him. Cody ended up busting the little buck out of its bed and missing an even better chance.
Friday evening we headed back over the same area we hunted Wednesday and Thursday morning.

I will be doing the muzzleloader elk hunt in November in this area and I had heard some discouraging reports for the area from other hunters I had talked to so I wanted to spend some time glassing some of the elk hot spots from previous years. So Logan and I sat and glassed while Cody did some more hiking around. Sadly, I wasn’t able to glass any elk that evening but I’m not overly concerned because they will get pushed around plenty on the general rifle hunt and probably even some more on the rifle deer hunt.
Everyone else had chances to fill their tags throughout the first half of the hunt but only my grandpa was able to close the deal and tagged a nice little 2x3 late afternoon Friday.

Saturday morning I needed to be back home as early as possible so we cleaned up the cabin and headed for home. Logan says he had fun and can’t wait to go again. His younger siblings are looking forward to the doe/fawn pronghorn tags that I have for their turn to go hunting this year.

Value of a Point - Part 3: Season Choice Matters!

In part two I addressed how your weapon selection can affect the value of your bonus point, with archery providing you the highest value. For both residents and non-residents in virtually all cases the any weapon (rifle) hunts provided the lowest value however especially in the Utah LE elk drawing there are several options that can increase the value of a bonus point even within the rifle hunt options. I will focus the rifle elk because the other limited entry and once-in-a-lifetime hunts don’t have early, middle, late, and multi-season options.

The early rifle season is the most popular option in the state of Utah, the opportunity to hunt big bull elk with your favorite centerfire rifle during the elk rut is often the experience craved by big game hunters. It’s a marvelous opportunity, I helped my grandfather in 2014 on an early any weapon bull elk tag and we had a great time. However, it took many years of unsuccessful applications and a pretty handsome pile of bonus points to draw the tag. I’m not certain whether he drew a guaranteed tag or a random tag because the year that he applied and drew about half of his point group drew the guaranteed tag as highest point holders and another handful of the point pool drew random tags… either way, he had a tag in his pocket and we went hunting.

The middle rifle season is a new addition as of the last couple years. This season coincides with the general rifle hunt and in my opinion is a great option for a large family camp with numerous tags in camp since spike tags can be had over the counter. The number of units where these hunts are available are limited so we’ll continue to learn about these middle season hunts over the next couple years.

The late season is a great option and generally occurs the middle part of November. Virtually all units that have an early rifle hunt also have a late rifle hunt. There is also a multi-season premium option that affords the tag holder to hunt during any open season date with the weapon associated with that season date.

So if you’d prefer to hunt with your rifle let’s look at how choosing between the early, middle, late, and multi-season options impacts the value of your bonus point.

Weapon Type	Utah Resident	Utah Non-Resident
Early Any Weapon	0.525%	0.413%
Middle Any Weapon	1.702%	1.496%
Late Any Weapon	1.666%	1.170%
Multi-Season	0.240%	0.230%

In terms of the early, middle, and late seasons… the middle and late season provide roughly the same value, which happens to be about 3x that of the early rifle hunt for both residents and non-residents.

For most applicants the real key in this choice is the opportunity to chase bulls during the rut with the early any weapon hunt. If that’s the experience you desire, the key in my opinion is having realistic expectations in terms of when you will draw the tag. For many of these hunts be prepared for potentially a multi-decade period of unsuccessful applications prior to drawing the tag. In fact, on my spreadsheets I have a pair of columns titled “Years to Draw” that indicate the number of years it will take for you to reach the highest bonus point pool based upon the previous year application pool… in the most popular units this can be a disheartening thing to see.

Multi-season hunts are a unique situation because of the few number of tags offered so it’s understandable that the value of a point for these types of hunts is really, really low.

If you are looking to maximize the value of your bonus point and would prefer to hunt with the centerfire rifle I would definitely consider the middle or late season options… especially as we learn more about and gain more experience with the new middle season hunts. I know I will be keeping a close eye on how the drawing odds play out with these middle season hunts.

Value of a Point - Part 2: Weapon Choice Matters!

So what are the factors or variables within the “micro” environment that have the greatest impact on the value of the bonus point?
The limited entry elk application pool has the most factors/variables so we’ll spend most of our time discussing the concept of “value of a point” related to the Utah LE elk drawing. I’ll also do my best to provide information for both the resident and non-resident. You have a number of different weapon types to choose from (e.g. archery, any weapon, and muzzleloader)… that’s the easy one to identify first. Secondarily, you also have multiple choices within the any weapon hunts with early, middle, late, multi-season options and CWMU options for Utah residents.

In this second post let’s discuss how the value of a point is different between the different legal weapon types… archery, any weapon, and muzzleloader. Within the any weapon option there are multiple seasons… but I want to save that for the third post so I’m going to consider all the any weapon season (early, middle, and late) in the any weapon category for right now and I’m also going to exclude the multi-season and CWMU options in this discussion.

This table shows the average value of a point (the percentage by which each point increases your chances of drawing one of the random draw tags) for the three primary legal weapon types in Utah for LE elk:

Weapon Type	Utah Resident	Utah Non-Resident
Archery	3.746%	2.800%
Any Weapon	1.109%	0.800%
Muzzleloader	1.745%	2.600%

For both residents and non-residents choosing to apply for an archery tag provides you with the highest value of your bonus points… short and simple, archery tags are easier to draw than any weapon and muzzleloader tag. In fact, as a Utah resident, if I were to apply for an any weapon tag it would take 3.4 bonus points to achieve the same value as one bonus point if I were to apply for an archery tag. It is similar for non-residents, it would take 3.5 bonus points in any weapon to achieve the same value as one bonus point in archery.

Interestingly to me, the muzzleloader option for non-residents provides virtually equal value as the archery option. If I were a non-resident and looking to maximize the value of my points but uncomfortable with archery equipment, I would be seriously looking at the LE elk muzzleloader option instead of any weapon.

On the individual species pages I also mention a concept that I call “Year Savings”… the way Utah’s LE and OIAL drawings are set up one-half of the tags are guaranteed to the applicants with the highest number of points for that particular unit. For Utah residents, on average an archery tag can be guaranteed at 6.6 points, an early rifle tag at 15.8 points, and a muzzleloader tag at 11.9 points. The trends typically hold quite well that an archery tag can be guaranteed ~9 years sooner than a rifle tag and ~5 years sooner than a muzzleloader tag. Let’s look at a specific example in a middle of the pack type unit… say the Central Mountains, Manti unit. For 2018 I am projecting 4.6 points for the archery, 15.0 points for early rifle, 10.7 points for muzzleloader, and 12.0 points for the late rifle. Just looking at these numbers at face value one could realistically draw the archery tag, endure the 5 year wait period, and draw a second archery tag prior to drawing the early any weapon tag once. This has definitely changed my view on the current drawing environment. My current plan right now is to draw a muzzleloader tag, however when I’m able to apply for elk again I’m definitely considering applying for archery so that I won’t have to wait as long between tags. And notice the difference between the early and late season rifle hunts… we’ll discuss the different options available for the hunter who prefers his rifle in the next part.

On many of the forums that I visit there seems to be an almost overwhelming movement to “burn points” and have more opportunities to hunt rather than to wait year after year for that one highly coveted premium unit hunt… I tend to share that opinion and looking at variables like weapon type helps me see that if I choose to hunt with archery or a muzzleloader I can theoretically have an increased chance at drawing a tag and therefore have more opportunities to be in the field with a LE elk tag.

Value of a Point

I have an entire page on this blog dedicated to what I call “Value of a Point.” Many times throughout the years as I have frequented a random handful of hunting forums I have come across questions asking what bonus points are worth, how much they increase odds of drawing, or something similar. Questions like that led me to see if the actual value of a bonus point could be quantified… and without too much trouble I found that it could. I also found that bonus points could be assigned two different values based upon a “macro” or “micro” definition. Macro means considering the value of the bonus point relative to the entirety of the applicant pool, and micro means considering the value of the bonus point relative to the individual hunt unit. I have found that the easiest way to represent this value is to express it as a percentage, so the value is that each point increases your chances of drawing by “X” percent.
For example, I’m sitting on a pile of elk points… the macro value of my bonus points considers the entire applicant pool for elk while the micro value considers the smaller applicant pool in the unit that I’m applying for. Out of the 49,762 resident applicants in the 2017 Utah drawing, each point I have increased my chances of drawing an elk tag by 0.432%. Now let’s suppose that for 2017 I applied for the San Juan early any weapon hunt. With 1923 applicants for only 20 tags, and taking the number of bonus that the other applicants for that same hunt have, the micro value of my bonus points ends up being 0.055%. Whoa… wait a minute… the value of my bonus points was reduced from a macro value of 0.432% to a micro value of 0.055% just based upon the unit that I selected?!? That is absolutely correct! Consider instead that I applied for the Paunsaugunt early any weapon tag… a tag with only a fraction of the demand compared to the San Juan early rifle tag. The macro value remains the same at 0.432%, but the micro value of my bonus points increases to 1.592%. Nothing changed in my bonus points… but how I choose to utilize them in the application cycle (i.e. the unit that I select) dramatically changes their value.
Since the “macro” value is static and will not change, over the next couple posts let’s take a look at some of the “micro” factors that affect the value of bonus points.

Public Land Conservation - My Maiden Voyage

Last July I threw a Hail Mary…
Early July 2016 my brother sent me a link to a real estate listing for a 2000 acre parcel sandwiched between the landowner association where my family has a couple cabins and a Wildlife Management Area here in northern Utah. This was a parcel that for many, many years I had access to hunt through a second landowner association that my family held a share in. Legal proceedings had been ongoing for several years due to the majority shareholder wanting to break away from the minority shareholders and with those legal proceedings finalizing earlier in 2016, the writing was on the wall and I would lose access to hunt that property. I would also lose access to the more remote reaches of that WMA… and selfishly, some of my favorite spots to hunt would become exponentially more difficult to access. I had always known that once the legal proceedings were finalized this would unfortunately be the case.
I decided that I would reach out to the state and the DWR because since I didn’t have a cool $3 million in cash just laying around that having the state buy the land and incorporate it into the current WMA was the easiest (and probably only) way for me to ever gain access to those places that I had hunted for years. I sent the DWR an email through their general comment/contact email address and got no response. I’ll have to admit that after a couple days frustration began to build with not getting even an acknowledgement that somebody had seen the email and I would dare say even a little panic set in.
I decided to get a bigger hammer… I needed somebody with a little more sway and clout when it came to the politics to help me. I don’t know anybody personally with that kind of influence so I decided to reach out to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation because from my experience they appeared to be one of the more reputable (my opinion) conservation organizations in the current environment. From their website I found the contact information for several members of their leadership and I sent them virtually the same email that just days before I sent to the DWR. Within two hours I received a response from the Senior Lands Program Manager (Mr. Hammond). He requested some additional information from me and I shared everything I had with him.
The fall hunts came and went, and for the first time hunting from the family cabin there were areas of the mountain that were posted “No Trespassing” and as I mentioned before, many of my favorite spots were off limits. It was frustrating to look and see game in areas where in previous years I would have given chase but now was off limits. I had a muzzleloader deer, general muzzleloader elk, and a late season cow elk tag for the unit and by the end of the season I was discouraged trying to navigate these new boundaries.
I didn’t give much thought to my previous contact with the guys at RMEF until after the Utah application period had ended and the prospect of a second year with the same hurdles weighed on my mind. I reached out again to Mr. Hammond and the next day I received an email from him stating that he had spoken with a member of the DWR and the state was working to acquire the property. It was definitely an unexpected response, and I immediately tried to get in contact with somebody in the DWR with any knowledge of the situation.
I eventually obtained the contact information for the Land & Water Assets Manager for the DWR (Mr. Hansen) and arranged to have a phone call with him. On the call I introduced myself and he said, “Ah, the guy responsible for all this…” He told me of the process that the state went through, that there were four properties that had the state’s attention and that after several presentations and committee meetings that this property had received almost unanimous approval for a proposal to purchase. There were still a few hurdles yet remaining but he was hopeful that the sale would close by the end of April 2017.
The end of April came and went with the closing being delayed due to a change in the application process for grant monies. The funding for the purchase of this land would largely come from Pittman-Robertson Funds which are taxes collected on sales of rifles and ammunition (at least in part), and with the change over to the Trump administration there were new requirements to be met before funding could be granted. Mr. Hansen asked that I reach out to the landowner association members and request that they send him letters in support of the purchase. These letters would be included in the closing packet and reviewed by the governor prior to him officially signing the closing documents.
From the end of April, through May and June I continued to reach out to landowners and request their support. I continued to correspond with Mr. Hansen regularly as he negotiated new and unexpected hurdles. I was extremely optimistic but realized just how quickly navigating the political labyrinth of the government can sap that optimism and by the end of June I was honestly doubtful that the purchase would ever get closed.
On July 5th I received an email from Mr. Hansen that said, “I wanted to drop you a note and let you know that DWR's effort to purchase the (parcel) as part of the Wildlife Management Area was successful the latter part of last week. Thank you very much for your support and the support of your friends and neighbors; it very much made a difference.”
It is still difficult to describe the magnitude of the emotions that I felt when I read that. Of course I texted everyone that I knew the news and many of the responses were congratulatory in nature. I felt foolish in taking credit for any of it because the whole idea originated from a fit of selfishness in losing access to some of “my hunting spots”… and so much of the actual heavy lifting was done by Mr. Hansen and others. I am grateful for the initial efforts of the RMEF group. I feel that they were instrumental in getting the ball rolling and at minimum getting the DWR to initially consider the proposal. I am extremely grateful for the efforts of Mr. Hansen at the Utah DWR, the hurdles and red tape that he negotiated with the administration changes and acquiring the funding was no small task. We owe him a debt of gratitude for the countless hours and late nights (I spoke with him a number of times on the phone late in the evening and he was still at the office).
I am happy to have played a role in the acquisition of 2000 acres of now public hunting area that was previously privately controlled. It is beautiful country that I am proud to say is now open to any and all who desire to recreate on it. Personally, I cannot wait to hunt it again (and forever in the future) after being unable to last year.


Here are some images from the parcel that was purchased:

2018 Projections Updated...

Friends, the updated spreadsheet is now available via the link on the left sidebar. All 2017 data has been entered and the 2018 projections are calculated. There will be one more update to the spreadsheet... the Utah DWR provided a separate report for general buck deer youth applicants and I have yet to determine how to present that data. I'm open to suggestions as to how to do this... but like the change that I made to the spreadsheet format a couple years ago when I combined the resident and non-resident data onto one page for each species, I'd very much like to have this new youth data be easily sortable and filterable side-by-side with the resident and non-resident data because I know that parents (or other responsible/trusted adults) are largely responsible for the applications of youth hunters so I want to make the data easily comparable from the youth draws to general draws without making the sheet any more overwhelming than it already is... so stay tuned for that update sometime in the future.

The 2017 spreadsheet was a great success and I have received numerous emails and messages from hunters who have found the information and data useful in how they have formulated their individual and group application strategies. I hope that you find the 2018 projections equally as valuable in researching and preparing for your future hunts.

Thank you!!!

Tips for Success: Have a Long Term Plan

I saw a thread on a western hunting forum a while back that really piqued my interest… the primary question was an inquiry how guys who apply across many western states plan ahead so they don’t end up with too many tags one year and not drawing anything in other years. The thread morphed into a discussion on building an extended plan for applying and drawing tags. I was both surprised and intrigued by the detail and how carefully thought out many of the responses were. I sat down with the intent of building my own extended plan just to see if I could do it. I figured that this would be a simple exercise… it didn’t take long before I felt like I was sitting in front of a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.
I found these questions critical in constructing my plan:
- What species do I want to hunt and where do I want to hunt them?
- How many tags can I reasonably expect to get each year?
- For tags that are issued through a drawing system, do I have contingency plans for years that I an unsuccessful in the drawings?
So let’s attack each of these questions.

What species do I want to hunt and where do I want to hunt them? If I didn’t have to choose I think I would hunt just about anything that walked around on four legs, but since time and money are both limiting factors for me I have identified four species that make the cut.
Deer - Starting at 14 years old I began hunting deer and the Utah general buck deer hunt is a family tradition. This is time spent with my grandfather, uncle, father, brother, etc. The deer hunt to me is simple and I don’t really have a need or desire to hunt deer outside of Utah (but I will reserve the right to change my mind).
Elk – If my wife told me that I could only do one hunt every year… without question it would be elk. I have hunted elk each year for the past 5 years and I have developed a passion (perhaps better defined as an obsession) for chasing these creatures. Elk brings a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment unlike anything I have ever experienced in the context of hunting.
Pronghorn – I think pronghorn has overtaken deer as number two on my list of favorites. This has been a recent addition to my annual list of tags… 2015 was my first try at pronghorn hunting and it’s become a family favorite. The hunts are easy enough for my young kids to go with me and the meat has been absolutely delicious (a pleasant surprise since opinions on pronghorn meat are varied).
Moose – I decided to begin applying for moose many years ago in the Utah once-in-a-lifetime (OIAL) drawing. I’ve got a handful of points and don’t really have much of a desire to hunt any of the other OIAL species.

How many tags can I reasonably expect to get each year? For many years I only got one tag, the general deer tag. Then I decided to try out elk hunting and for a couple years and had two tags. I then began to get an occasional cow elk tag and every so often had three tags. With the addition of two doe/fawn pronghorn tags I have had five tags each of the last two years.
Five tags has been a lot, and if each tag had its own season I’m sure it would never work out. But I have been able to take advantage of some overlapping dates in the same area for deer and elk, and overlapping dates in the same area with bull and cow elk. This has made for some very fun “combo” deer hunts where I’m able to chase cow elk during the general muzzleloader deer hunt when the rut is usually going pretty hard, and has also made for some very flexible general elk hunts where I know I can shoot an elk regardless of what it is as long as I can get in range. The doe/fawn antelope tags are what I call “filler” tags. The drive to the area is short and I can usually work a half day and just head up for the afternoon & evening and be back home before it’s too late. I tend to just fit in this quick hunt where I can and when I feel like I just need a little break between the deer and elk hunts and when the kids have an open afternoon without soccer, piano, dance, etc.
The last two years have been lots of fun so my goal moving forward is to have a minimum of 5 tags every year (so long as I continue to have some overlapping seasons)… one deer, two elk, and two pronghorn with the possibility to have maybe one or two more depending upon how individual state drawings work out for me.

For tags that are issued through a drawing system, do I have contingency plans for years that I am unsuccessful in the drawings? This only matters if you are absolutely intent on hunting every year… if you are satisfied with only hunting on years that you are fortunate enough to draw then you can skip this part. But if you are like me and my hunting buddies, if we don’t draw we are looking for other options to still get out and have a good time.
For deer, I don’t have too many concerns in not drawing my first choice general buck deer tag in Utah. The unit that I have hunted since I was a kid is not what you would consider one of the more desirable general units and up until just a couple years ago there were always a good handful of leftover tags that could be purchased over the counter (OTC) later in the summer. In fact, with the new changes to the preference point drawing for general deer tags, I would venture to guess that fewer guys list this unit as one of their “other” choices this year and we end up seeing leftover tags for this unit. Since I have no reason to believe that I will not draw this tag on an annual basis I don’t have a contingency plan in place for deer.
For elk, I am currently applying in the Utah limited entry drawing for an elk tag. Obviously my first choice would be to draw this tag, but I have applied and been unsuccessful for a number of years now. My contingency plan has been and will continue to be to purchase a general bull elk tag when they are made available OTC later in the summer. I have several options for cow elk tags as well… the unit that I hunt for both general deer and general elk offers a good amount of tags through the antlerless drawing, but also offers antlerless control and private lands tags. My primary choice for antlerless is to get a tag through the drawing but in the event that I am unsuccessful there I can choose between the control tag option or the private lands tag option. Both of these options have advantages and disadvantages… the control tag allows me to hunt anywhere within the unit but the private lands tag restricts me to private land, the control tag limits the dates I can hunt to when I have an open buck or bull hunt also within the unit but the private lands tag goes from August to January. Each tag is flexible in different ways but also restricting in different ways… so it can be a tough decision. In the past I have elected to go with the control tag and I’ve been very happy with the experiences that I’ve had. Elk is the most complicated part of my long term plan with contingency plans for both bull and cow tags depending upon how the different drawings work out.
For pronghorn, like deer, I don’t have a contingency plan in place. I will continue for the next couple years to purchase preference points for Wyoming buck pronghorn and Utah doe pronghorn. I have done a considerable amount of research with a friend and we have identified a couple different units in Wyoming where tags could be drawn with about 3 preference points. The doe/fawn tags that I like to apply for in Wyoming are easily drawn and I expect to draw them annually for the foreseeable future. I’m not exactly sure when or where I will use my Utah preference points for doe pronghorn, I hadn’t seen a unit that really got my attention until earlier this year so I’ll monitor that particular unit for another year or two before deciding whether or not to jump in.
Now that we’ve answered those questions, we can begin to put everything together. The easiest thing for me was to simply put together a plan for one year that outlined what my plan for applying would look like with the contingency options… I call this my “Annual Application Strategy.” This was my strategy for 2017 year:

I have clearly outlined the limited entry, general, and antlerless hunts that I applied or will apply for as well as the two pronghorn preference points that I just plan on purchasing the preference point. So I applied this year for general buck deer, limited entry elk, and OIAL moose tags in the bucks/bulls drawing back in February. The results of the elk drawing will determine if I buy the OTC elk tag and then I can proceed with the antlerless application. I will also apply for doe/fawn in Wyoming after the Utah results are released simply because that application period is open for a little while longer. Let me make it clear that knowing when the application dates open and close and when results get posted should also play a key role in formulating your yearly application strategy. I know many guys who apply for elk in Wyoming and Utah… they apply first in Wyoming because that application period is very early and the results of that drawing are posted before the Utah application period closes so their results from Wyoming affect how they end up applying in Utah. Careful planning and coordinating in your strategy regarding the application dates and the dates that results are posted can be critical… especially if fortune curses you with two tags in two states with the same dates and you have to surrender one of them because you can’t do both.
It would seem simple enough to take that “Annual Application Strategy” and extrapolate it across ten years… deer, elk, pronghorn, and moose applications. For those tags that I expect to get each year like the general buck deer and the doe/fawn pronghorn tags it can be just that simple, but for the limited entry permits that accumulate bonus or preference points it is more difficult. Much of the difficulty here lies in interpreting draw results from previous years, trends in growing application pools, possibly shrinking numbers of tags being offered, etc.
In a long term plan you are trying to take your strategy then match it up against all the application data and results to make an educated guess to somehow hopefully predict when you might draw that limited entry tag. To begin putting together my ten year plan I starting with my 2017 Application Strategy and began forecasting my expectations for 2018 and beyond. I made a grid and began to fill in and color coordinate the boxes… red for years when drawing the tag was not likely, yellow for years when I might have a reasonable chance to draw, and green for years when I expect to draw. I wanted to make sure I took a conservative stance, understanding that it would be better overestimate the number of points it would take for any given tag. In business there is a saying that goes, “it is better to under-promise and over-deliver than to over-promise and under-deliver” and it seems fitting to take a similar approach here. It would be infinitely easier to move my plans up in the event I draw a tag earlier than planned as opposed to have to push my plans back because I did not properly account for the “point creep” and had unrealistic expectations.
So let’s have a look at what I ended up with as my initial long term 10 year plan:

Through my research and based upon the units that I have identified as the ones I want to hunt I have predicted when I should draw the limited entry tags (elk and WY pronghorn) and I have color coordinated the boxes accordingly. I really like the long term visibility that I now have, especially with the color coordinating. One thing that I found to be very fortunate, in my conservative plan, was that as I build points for my limited entry and OIAL tags in Utah and also a buck pronghorn tag in Wyoming, I shouldn’t be in danger of overlapping quality tags (no yellow or green boxes overlap). Admittedly, my plan appears to be pretty generic compared to the detail of the Annual Application Strategy, and that is by design… I want my plan to be realistic but flexible. For example, what if I decide to pursue a Utah limited entry deer tag instead of a limited entry pronghorn tag after I draw my elk tag and begin the 5 year wait period? I want to be able to have that kind of flexibility in my plan and if that’s a change I do decide to make revise the grid accordingly. It should be noted that I also included my contingency plans for bull elk because I know that I will have to deal with a waiting period for elk at some point in time and the general elk hunt would then be my only option for bull elk during that period. I did not specifically include details on the antlerless elk contingency plan that I had mentioned earlier in an effort to not overcomplicate the grid diagram
As I shared a first draft of my plan with a friend his response was, “So when are you going to come to Idaho? I don’t see that in your plan.” I also have a friend in New Mexico that regularly invites me to join him in hunting his home state. The grid made it pretty clear to see when I could make a realistic case for going and hunting out of state with one of my friends… and I was surprised to see that depending upon how some of the drawings work out that the possibility of going with them might be easier than I had anticipated. New Mexico doesn’t provide me as much flexibility or predictability because of their random drawing system and their application period being earlier than Utah. The other caveat in New Mexico is that my friend takes advantage of the tags set aside for applicants that are under contract with a guide/outfitter service. Although I’m not thrilled at the prospect of utilizing a guide, he has developed a reasonable relationship with a particular guide service over the last couple years and the fees do appear to be on the lower end of the pricing spectrum so it’s not entirely out of the question. In order for New Mexico to work I would need to be pretty confident with my prediction of the Utah drawing results and be sure I can manage the additional financial burden of the guide service. Idaho gives me exceptional flexibility because the tags that we would get are OTC so I would have time to wait and see how the application periods play out.
The largest hurdle came after I had completed my 10 year plan and I realized that within the next couple of years I will begin to add my children to this plan. I have a ten year old son and in two years he wants to be able to start applying and getting tags for himself. In short succession I will also have a daughter and four other sons that will be added to this plan if the desire is there. As I began to think about adding each of them into my plan over the next ten years or so… honestly, I thought my head would explode. I could easily go broke financing all their tags so there will need to be compromise… I’ve toyed with a number of different options for what and how much I will pay for their tags.
There are a number of great opportunities for youth throughout the western states but one opportunity that I have decided I would like to do with them is a Wyoming buck pronghorn hunt. Pronghorn seems to be the least strenuous of the big game hunts available to me so it would be as easy as anything for young hunters and the cost of youth preference points and youth tags makes this an extremely viable option. As a bit of a side note to my 10 year plan I put together a separate plan outlining the timeline for each of my kids to draw a Wyoming buck pronghorn tag. I found that there would be a number of consecutive years where I could potentially be heading to Wyoming and at first blush the prospect of a nearly annual trip to Wyoming was exciting, but then I began to consider the logistics and costs associated with each of these trips (gas, motel, and food) as well as the time away and the other hunts that would likely need to be sacrificed to make such a plan work. As an alternative, I decided to look at clustering the kids together in pairs and taking two at a time. This actually appeared to work out very well and even allows me to take advantage of some of their preference points on a group application. I think this plan is workable and I’ll plan on taking my kids on a Wyoming buck pronghorn adventure two at a time every three or four years. I finally arrived at this plan.

That led me to refining my own plan and merging this Wyoming pronghorn plan with my long term plan. I also identified the years that I might be able to plan on hunting in either ID or NM, and I added a column the makes it easy for me to track the bonus and preference points as I accumulate them over the years. Just to make it clear, the numbers in that column are the point totals I have/will have at the time of application each year. My overall plan was modified and my final long term “10 year plan” looks something like this:

The key with having a plan is the ability to be flexible and adjust, you never know when you may discover another opportunity or are fortunate to beat the odds of drawing a random tag or something. You also never know what future management plans and herd conditions will be. As with all things you need to reserve the right to make changes how you see fit… I would bet that in ten years when I look back at the plan that I composed today that it will not look identical but hopefully it was reasonable enough that it at least appears similar.

All the images in this post were generated using an online concept mapping program called LucidChart.

2017 Application

On the eve of the Utah bucks, bulls, and once-in-a-lifetime (OIAL) application period opening… here are a few things that you need to know going into the 2017 application period:

The biggest change this year is in regards to how the general buck deer drawing will be carried out. In previous years applicants who had the highest number of preference points had their applications considered in entirety before moving on to applicants who had fewer preference points. This caused some concern among sportsmen as an applicant with 2 preference points was drawing a permit as a second or third choice before an applicant with fewer points but listed it as a first choice. A movement was initiated to alter the system to consider all applicants first choice selections before considering second, third, and fourth choices. Beginning this year, all applicant’s first choice selections will be considered before moving on to second choices.

Additionally, in an effort to reduce the phenomenon often referred to as “point creep” the DWR also decided to make an additional change to the general buck deer preference point draw. In the past, an applicant who did not receive a permit for a first choice selection received a preference point for next year. This allowed fortunate hunters who drew on their second, third, fourth, or fifth choices to obtain a permit AND a preference point. It didn’t take long for a “loophole” to be discovered and a handful of applicants took advantage of this to hunt sought after units while also accumulating preference points. Take care this year… be smart with your general buck deer application and know that this year if you draw ANY general buck deer permit your preference points will be reset to zero.

The 2017 Big Game Application Guidebook has an article that clearly describes these changes (https://wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks/2017_pdfs/2017_biggameapp.pdf).

There are a number of new limited entry and OIAL hunts available, study the hunt tables in the Application Guidebook to see if any of these new options would be viable for you.

Completely up to date spreadsheets are linked at the left of the page, just click the images. Best of luck to everyone and happy hunting!

2016 Cow Elk

November 26
Four thirty came really early, and I was definitely not ready for my alarm to go off. I staggered downstairs and dressed quickly then sat and waited for Brian and Drew to pull into my driveway. A couple minutes before 5, I received a text that they were on their way so I carried my things out to the porch and waited outside for them. We made the short drive up the canyon, meeting with Josh and Carsen at a gas station about halfway to our destination. As we began the drive up the dirt road the lack of snow at the lower elevations prompted us to drive past our planned starting point and head to higher elevations. Our starting point for this hunt would be the same as the muzzleloader elk hunt in early November.

Since our plans had changed our timing was off quite a bit, and we had to make an hour and twenty minute hike through an easement on private property to where we would be able to hunt. As we crested the northern rim of a large bowl we began to glass. It was 8:30am and I figured that we were too late and we would need to now be looking for elk that had bedded for the day. We began to work to the west along the rim of the bowl up towards the head of the bowl and right about when we reached the head of the bowl we glassed back to our southeast to see a string of 8 cow and calf elk working their way up along the bottom of the bowl. The elk were right where I figured they would be… but they were much later than I had anticipated. Here we thought we were late, but in fact we were early and the elk were late. If we had just stayed put where we initially crested over the ridge into the bowl we would have had long but manageable shots at the small herd. Instead, we were left to plan an attack on the herd as they worked up to the patch of pines that is a regular bedding location.

Josh and Carsen volunteered to gain elevation and get about even with the pines then work back to the east into the bedded elk while Brian, Drew, and I would drop down lower and head back to the north to potentially shorten the distance if the elk busted out of there and headed downhill.
We sat and watched Josh and Carsen close the gap on the cluster of pines and when they reached about 400 yards we were able to see some movement and could see one cow standing in the smallest of openings in the pines. Josh and Carsen got to about 150 yards and the elk moved out. They ran exactly where I thought they would and headed east along the ridge and across a rocky chute. A moose was in their path and 3 cows split from the herd and began to run straight downhill towards us. They were moving fast and covering ground quickly. The best shot we were presented was a 450 yard shot on a running elk… so no shots were fired.
We continued to work around and try to determine where the 3 cows went. We searched for a while to see if we could find their tracks but they must have made a change in direction or went over a small ridge where the snow had already melted. We ended up spotting three cows bedded a long ways off on the opposite side of the canyon ¾ of a mile to a mile away and there was some dispute as to whether these were the same cows… we’ll never know.
Early in the afternoon we decided to head back to the truck and try the spot that I had originally planned near the power lines. We didn’t see anything in the early evening light and the younger boys were ready to call it a day so we headed for home.

This was the third time that I have hunted that bowl and had bedded elk use that same escape route. I’ve got to come up with a strategy to put somebody in a spot to take advantage of that escape route. There are a handful of challenges that I’ll need to address. The first challenge is timing. For me to get to the ambush spot I will need to cross the path that the elk will inevitably take to get to the beds. I can’t hike up to the spot early because I could spook the elk before they even get to their beds, so I essentially have to wait until they pass me then circle back behind them and get myself into position. I should be able to take advantage of this by setting up early in a spot advantageous to me as they file on past up to the bedding area and if no good shot presents itself to just let them file on by. Then I could circle back behind them and hike up to where I should be able intercept them if they get pushed from the bedding area. The second challenge however is the wind. In this area there always seems to be a prevailing breeze or wind from the south. This escape route is in the southeasterly direction so I would need to position myself so that my scent does not get carried into the bedding area to begin with. If I can figure out how to best position myself along that escape route I should be able to fill a tag there pretty easily… but I will probably need to be pretty creative to accomplish this with a muzzleloader on the bull elk hunt.

December 27
Four thirty again came early and I dressed again in the kitchen. Hopping in my car I headed to the designated meeting point to meet up with my friend Doug who was in town from Idaho and was willing to accompany me for the day. We arrived at the parking lot of the WMA about 30 minutes before I had planned so we had some time to sit and contemplate our plan of attack in the dark. After the series of snow storms that had plowed through the valley over Christmas I was worried that hiking would be strenuous, however I found that there was no more snow at the parking lot there than piled up on my front lawn. Doug left the strategy to me and said he would follow my lead wherever I went. My plan was to begin hiking about an hour before legal shooting light and get on a ridge overlooking a saddle to our south, a large bowl to our east, and a large sagebrush flat that stretches up onto the main face to the west. We attained the ridge just shortly after legal shooting light and began to glass. We saw a staggering number of deer, and a small handful of bucks that were some of the biggest I have personally laid eyes on in the field. We glassed a couple of bulls out in the sagebrush flats and a small herd of cows just across the private/public boundary. A hail of gunfire erupted from the direction of the parking lot, from my recollection I would estimate 8 to 10 shots maybe. That got things moving as strings of deer began running from that direction, and with all the movement it was tough to keep track of where everything was going. Just below us three elk rounded the hill and made their way at a trot into the trees just south of the saddle. When they reached the trees they slowed to a fast walk and by the time they had made their way through the trees and to the saddle they had slowed to a normal walk. Doug was talking in my ear the whole time telling me this was going to be easy and to wait. The elk were clearly preoccupied with the commotion below them and had no sense of any danger lurking above them, so I seized the opportunity to get even closer and shuffled my way to a cluster of rocks… I had my eye on one particular rock that appeared to be an ideal rest. I reached the rock about the same time the three elk reached the saddle and as they began to cross the saddle they stopped and grouped up. I was perched on the rock a mere 70 yards away from the small herd ready to take the first good shot offered me, the three elk all appeared to be the same size and all appeared young so I really had no preference. One cow stepped clear enough that I felt comfortable with the shot and fired. I saw the impact in the scope and almost immediately heard the “whomp” of the bullet hitting flesh. The other two elk just stood there for a second with their companion lying in the snow. I stood from behind the rock and they ran. I sent my wife a text at 7:57am letting her know that I had shot one… her response was, “Nice! So you’ll be home before lunch?”


I wanted to maximize the meat from this small cow so I decided to try and drag her out whole. Doug helped me get her gutted and we took stock of our gear before heading back towards the parking lot. I realized that I had left a glove back up at the rock cluster, so I returned to retrieve it. Then I realized I was missing a ski pole, so I returned again to the rock pile to retrieve it… I had stuff scattered all over that mountainside, it’s funny the way that happens when you have a surprise encounter with the quarry you’re after and you’re so focused on making sure you get a good shot.
Doug had started dragging the elk down towards the parking lot while I had returned for my ski pole, and he was making darn good time and was having an easy go of it because it was entirely downhill. There were spots where the elk would get going just a little too fast down the slope and he’d have to put the brakes on her to slow her down a bit. Even dragging the elk, we made it down off the mountain in about 15 minutes.
At the parking lot, we threw her onto the tailgate of the truck and skinned and quartered her there. It was like having her up on a nice little workbench! By 10:30am we were headed home and I’ll be working on the final butchering here over the next couple days.

I've updated the Antlerless Draw Odds Spreadsheet, which can be downloaded by clicking the icon on the left... in order to download either of the spreadsheets you'll need to log-in (or create) a Google account.