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After
a lot of scouting and help from family and friends, I finally filled my Elk tag
after 24 years of getting letters from the DWR saying, thanks for the five bucks,
but you are "un-successful".
I've
been putting in for limited entry Elk since I was 16 years old, back in 1996 I
put in dual with my older brother Mark for the Book Cliffs,
he drew the tag and I didn't. Come to find out I forgot to put my
hunters education number on the application and since I was born after 1965 I
needed it, even though I had a lifetime license number the DWR still wouldn't
give me the tag. I figured it would only be a couple of years before I
drew the tag, well 11 years after I really supposedly drew I finally got a
limited entry tag for the Deep Creek unit.
Back
in 2005 we moved from Pleasant Grove to Lindon, I
became acquainted with a neighbor Brook Blackhurst who loves to hunt Elk more
than me, he kept talking about the Deeps and finally talked me into using my
Max points to draw the tag. Brook's brother
We
spent all Labor day out there and took horses all around, we were able to find
some great bulls and I was getting very excited. We went out to the Deeps on
Wednesday night September 12th, so we would have Thursday and Friday to scout
more and be ready for the Saturday opener.
Saturday
came and went without any shooting even though I saw good elk, I spent Sunday
in camp watching football; yes, we take a dish, receiver and a TV when we go
camping, it is awesome, just ask those that came with us. I also recorded
the BYU and
Monday
came and I passed on what I thought was a 350 class bull, it was shot a few
minutes later, I was told it went 360, so I was really second guessing
myself. On Tuesday I passed on another real nice bull, the Bucks and
Bulls guide had his client shoot at it, but he missed. We did hear a shot
and come to find out Brook's brother
After
Friday
morning came and went and I passed on more small bulls still holding out for a
big one. Saturday was the same thing, I could have shot smaller bulls, but I
still wanted a big one. Saturday
everyone head home again, so it was just Jaxon and I
watching football on Sunday again. We
did have some muzzle loader hunters camp above us and since I was planning on
more people being for dinner Sunday night I invited them down for a chicken dutch oven with cobbler and ice cream. After dinner they told me if I got one to
come and get them and they would help pack it out. Boy was I glad I fed them
dinner. J
Brook
was going to come back out Sunday night after his boy’s baseball game in
Las Vegas but didn’t show up, so I figured he didn’t get back until
late so I figured he would show up later in the day.
Monday
at 6:00 Jaxon and I headed back out to find the big
one. We went back to the area we call
the hour glass and waited for shooting hours.
I still had multiple nice bulls walk by me, but I was still going to
hold out. After most of the bulls came
by and there wasn’t a shooter, we headed South on the wheeler to another
area where I figured the elk would be.
We got off the wheeler and walked up the mountain. While walking we heard a bull bugle above us,
so I told Jaxon that is a good sign. We walked around the hill and I spotted an
Elk, I put my binocs on it and it was a small one, so
I told him it wasn’t a shooter, I then looked back up and could see
another bull. I put my binocs back up and saw a really long sword, so I told Jaxon to get the spotting scope out and setup the tripod. He walked behind a cedar, but I could still
see all of his antlers through my spotting scope on 40x power, I counted them
over and over 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. I
didn’t see anything broken and his 5th were awesome, so said
he is a shooter. I took the range finder
out and ranged him, then took the scope off the tripod so I had a steady rest
and pulled the trigger. It took two
shots, but the second shot he dropped like a ton of bricks. Jaxon gave me a
high five and off we went to find him.
After
walking up the hill which seemed like a mile, Jaxon
spotted the Elk first and we head right over and took a look. I was very impressed. He was a true 7x7 and had great mass. We took pictures and more pictures, Jaxon was wondering why we were taking so many pictures, I
then told him that after we stop taking pictures, the fun is over and the work
begins.
I
cleaned him out and went back to camp to get the hunters that I fed dinner too
the night before. They weren’t in
their camp, so I started making breakfast when they came to camp and I told
them about my success. I fed them
breakfast and off we went to get the animal off the hill. It was about 250 yards up and 150 yards
across. We quarter him up and headed off
the mountain, I packed off the head and antlers and then went right back up
that steep hill to help with the rest of the meat.
After
we got him in the truck, Jaxon and I head back to
camp on the wheeler and right before camp we ran into Brook, he was heading out
to find us. His boy ended up playing in
the championship game, so he didn’t get back home from Vegas until 11:30
Sunday night. Brook knew something was
up, since my gun and binocs were still in camp.
We
got to camp and Brook took out the tape measure and he scored him for me.
A special thanks goes out to all my family and friends that helped make this a
successful hunt. I really want to thank
Brook Blackhurst and his brothers for making my once in a lifetime hunt a
success. I couldn’t have asked for
a better ending to my hunt.