本帖最后由 rc256 于 2013-9-29 10:57 编辑
9/15/2013
5am: Time to get up. Shooting time was 6:40, half hour before sunrise. We need to hike 30-40 min to get to the spot. It was about 55F outside, so we need to dress lightly. The plan for Phil and I was going to explore the north hill and spike camp around the lake. After a morning cup of coffee and some snacks, we hiked out along the same route we tried yesterday. My backpack was about 25 pounds, with sleeping bag, some cloth layers for changing, and some food packages. Phil had the tent, his sleeping bag, and game bags. One rifle was enough. So I was leading the way.
6:45am: We were already on the same spot we were yesterday glassing. The 1000ft climb was a lot worse than I felt yesterday since I had the backpack this time. Hiking under load definitely was hard. I wished I had exercised more and strengthen my legs more. Well this was a good work out anyway. We stopped and glassed sometime. Did not hear any bulging either. Sun was rising from the east, the hill ridge is along south east to north west direction. We crossed the ridge top and started downhill facing the sun. The trees were dense so the visibility was limited. We stopped frequently, often only 5-8 steps, then listened and watched carefully. This went on for about 30 mintes, and we did not detect anything. We resumed to slow hiking pace. Now the trail was mostly down hill, but the plants were dense. And there were lots of dead tree logs laying over the trail occationally. Holding a rifle did not help hiking because my hands were not free. But I need the rifle ready in case there was lonely elk traveling around. When a male elk became mature, he would leave the herd to wander around trying to recruit his own herd (wives). Occasionally he became a satellite bull, forming his own clique inside a larger herd. In effect, he would be a next crown contender if the reigning king died. Also bears usually travel alone too. So when you hunt, you always have a rifle ready. I carried my rifle round in a chamber, with three position safety switched to safe and lock position. But mountain hiking was extra demanding. I needed to be more aware where muzzle was pointing, making sure it did not cover any person and cleared of any potential dirt or twigs. If it snowed, it would be even more important to make sure the muzzle not clogged by snow.
8am: We found a small bear scat. It was mostly black outside, with lots of dark green fibers inside. Phil examined its content, and concluded the bear ate mostly plants, not berries. The scat was pretty fresh, probably less than an hour ago. The bear would be pretty small, probably in 100lb range. “Do you want any bear or big one?” Phil whispered to me. “Anything is better than nothing, it is my first. Let’s search and destroy.” I said. We heard a twig breaking to our 4 o’clock direction. And I led the way breaking into the side hill. It was a hard search. We basically repeat the cycles of landing two steps and then stop and listen. According to Phil, in this kinda search and destroy operation, you really need to pay attention to any small movements of leaves and small twig cracking. You mostly never have a direct visual until the very last moment before the shot. Phil cupped his hands around his ears so to form two satellite dishes. He gestured me the directions where the bear might be. We did this dance for a good 30 min before giving up. The vegetation was too dense and the side hill was too steep to be stealthy. Tracing back to where we started, we continued on the trail.
Downhill hiking was relatively easy. Biggest obstacles were the dead logs laid crossing the trail. Usually outfitters would cut/saw open the logs for easy traveling. But this trail evidently was not well maintained. Never rush to cross these logs because their spikes could seriously scrape you. The protruding spikes were sharp branch sections snapped off. I learned the lesson on how to cross them by scraping my shin a couple times. It hurted like hell. The rule is whenever possible, always try to walk around them, even it means a few more steps. Under heavy backpack load, it is actually easier. If it is not possible to walk around, try to cross the log by crossing one leg first, then raising the other leg *TO THE FRONT* In this way you can see the spikes and raise your legs accordingly. If you raise your leg from behind, there is a chance you don’t see some spikes, and then your shin gets scraped. This reminded me of defensive pistol/rifle classes. When you need to step aside to turn or scan, always step forward into known area if possible. Stepping back into unknown area would increase the risk of tripping.
When we reached almost to the bottom of the valley, we were blocked by one huge uprooted tree trunk. Actually, not one, not two, but three humongous tree trunks. Everyone of them was uprooted and lying down in the row. The root section combined with ground dirt was over 12 ft tall/wide lying sideways like a giant umbrella. We tried several routes and eventually figured out a way to duck our ways through the densely knitted roots and branches.
Hiking after the giant trees was easy on mostly flat trail. We saw some wolf scats. Wolf scats looked like twirls of hair ball. They come from undigested animal hair wolfs kill. We again saw some fresh bear scat. Judging by the thickness of his magnificent poop, this bear should be much bigger. I kneed down and Phil stayed about 5 yd away making predator prey call. It was actually jack rabbit calls, similar to coyote rabbit call. It sounded a baby crying. We waited for about 20 minutes and did not detect anything.
Now it was around 11am, we could see the lake. We sat close to the tree line edge and glassed for 10 minutes. Obviously no animals in sight. Stepping out toward the lake, I was thrilled by the beauty of the lake. The sky was royally blue with puffs of cloud. The reflection of pine trees on the hills and mountain ridge lines makes a perfect symmetric picture. It was really quiet as well. Such a serenity at last.
It was pretty dry and hot during the summer, so the water level was only about ¼ of the normal level. This should be good news for us. We soon detected many animal tracks by the lake bank. Deer, wolf, elk, and bear. The bear print was huge (see picture). In fact it was probably the largest bear print Phil had seen in 15 years bear hunting. And also the print was so fresh that it must be within last hour. The track indicated the bear passed through the lake toward north, possibly heading toward the swamp. We should intercept him. The plan was to walk side hills above the valley and ambush at a commanding highpoint above the swamp. The chase was on.
I regretted soon on my decision. Side hill walking was killing me. There was no trail to walk. You literally walk on a 45 degree hill sideways. There were sliding rocks all the time. I had to use one hand to hold rifle, and the other to hold some tree branches to make sure I would not roll down the hill. The entire body weight essentially landed on the outside of my left foot, putting enormous pressure on pinky toe. My left pinky toe started to hurt so much I could hardly walk. Phil was dashing ahead, but I was grimacing, dragging along, barely in survival mode. Phil then showed me a tip: tilting your feet up against the hill. So you kinda faced uphill, but moved laterally sideways to the left across the hill. My left pinky toe immediately got some relief. Every step was a sweat, but finally we reached the location overlooking the swamp. We quickly set up good shooting position. Range is 130 yd, downward about 20 degree.
And waited, and waited, and waited…
Not much happening. So I took my boots off and finally relaxed my feet. Then waited a little more.
No bear showed up. Oh well, let’s get back to the lake, and set up a spike camp. We headed down to the valley by the swamp, and walked back toward the lake. As we cruised along looking for some flat place to spike camp, suddenly a flock of grouses (松鸡) shot up from ground and flew and perched at pine tree branches 8ft above the ground. Natural protein supplement! The fact grouses could survive truly defies evolutionary theory. They are so stupid that they would just walk 10 ft away after being attacked. Phil missed several rock throws. But the birds still perched at the same place. Then Phil found a dead wood stick about 6ft long. He just went on wacking the bird with a wood club! One instantly dropped, and behold, the other one flew away, only to perch on another tree 7 yd away. Now it was my turn. I took the make-shift club, swinged at it full strength. And missed. But the bird was still there! OK need some more precision work because there were tree branches can deflect my swing. I aimed my club closer to the bird, and whacked at it. Hit I did, but not with enough strength. And… he was still there! Final wack, he dropped like a dead weight. A couple steps further, Phil found another one and whacked it dead on, nice and easy.
Young grouses are very tender. It is very easy to prepare them. You press your thumb just below the chest bone, and then tear the body apart. Throw the guts away, and then you can just pull the skin with feathers off like taking off a coat. Voila there is no contamination of meat. We quickly bagged three processed birds for our lunch.
The wind was blowing from the lake to the swamp side. We camped about 200 yd away from the lake in the tree covered valley. The weather was nice, so the decision was to just sleep under the star. No need to set up the tent. Now was the time for some hot meal. Since we did not bring any salt, we decide just to boil the grouses and then pour the birds with boiling water in Mountain House meal bag. It was the most delicious meal I had in days. Now it was 2 o'clock, time for a nap before evening hunt.
Around 4pm, we walked toward the lake with our bare essential items (game bags, binos, rifle, and water bottle) We stepped along the east hillside lake bank downwind. The plan was to find spot along the east side at about the midpoint of the lake along the long side. The lake dimension is about 100yd x 400yd. So this mid position should give shot distance to cover the entire lake. As soon as we walked into the open, just able to view the long side of the lake, Phil signaled me to stay low. As I looked over, I saw three elk cows already detected us, started walking up the hill on west side of the lake. We had no place to hide. We immediately just side stepped to the nearest cover.
It turned out to a pretty good place near a big rock. Over the rock to our left side, we could see the far end of the lake (south side). We could sit and lean against the rock. There was a big pine tree behind the rock, and one of tree branches formed a nice canopy of cover in front of us, shielding us from direct view from the west side hill across the lake. The cover was small, as I squeezed myself leaning against the rock, Phil was only half covered. His backpack was left outside.
There was a cow elk drinking at the far end of the lake, ranged at 400 yd. She was just doing her business, not seemed to have detected us yet. I repositioned myself to see if I can have a shot at her position. A little too far, but with proper rest should be fine. I fudged with the bipod, found the bipod is too big to use in this cramped space. So I took it off. Now I can directly rest my rifle on the top of the rock, and should be able to make the shot 400 yd away. Cow elk was not our target. But I wanted to be ready if I needed to make shot at the far end. Now we just sat, wait and observe.
The cow gingerly strolled along the west side of lake bank. She seemed to enjoy the weather and good afternoon drinking time. At this time, we heard bugling from the west side hill. It was a little remote, but definitely not too far. Bull elk bugle is like prolonged trumpet play. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orSIhYAI3VI) It starts at lower pitch, stretching out higher pitch for a prolonged time, then ends with strong finishing statement, as if he says, “I aa……….aa AAAAMMMM HERE!”
Phil took out his cow elk call, and squeezed it a few times. Cow call is a like women’s call to seduce a guy. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NQl3o-CGwY) It is like saying “Heeeeyyyyyy…, come and have me.” We heard a couple bull bugling from the opposite, but could not discern how far they were. Then suddenly, a couple of cow elks walked out of woods, emerging on the opposite side of lake bank. They were not that wary, just walked toward the lake, and then started swimming. Now the cow elk from the far side also swam close and joined the crowd. There were total four cows in the lake. They were about 40-50 yd away from us. We needed to sit absolutely still, no sudden movement or even whispering. Phil was a statue, with two eyes observing intensely. I was leaning against the rock, sitting on one of my leg. That quickly put that leg asleep. I had to carefully wiggle a little to send some blood there. But I still felt thousands of little ants crawling and biting my thigh and toes. Suddenly two younger cow elks just walked in front us, blocking our view literally from 10 yard away. We felt we could almost touch them. They had come from the far end of the lake on our side of hill. They were indeed teenagers, jumped into the lake and joined the pool party right away. Now there were total six elk ladies having a swell pool party right in front of us! One of the mama cow was very alert, constantly scanning around. She fixated at Phil’s backpack for quite awhile and we thought we were almost busted. This went on for almost 40 minutes. Then one by one the ladies had their fun, walked back into the woods on the westside. There were plenty of dead wood logs by the lake bank. They made a lot of wood cracking noise walking through the dead logs. Then just as how sudden they walked out of woods, they were gone in a few minutes. Everything was quiet again. Man, that was intense!
We thought the bull should come out also and join the party. But he never did. Phil squeezed the cow call a couple more times. Now the bugling seemed coming a far to our right side. It seemed the herd moved to the north, maybe toward the swamp. Was it over? I readjusted my legs and stretched a little bit. I now could put my rifle barrel through the pine tree branch and use it as a rest. It worked out pretty well. Even it was not that stable, it should be ok upto 200 yd shot at 12” target. I asked Phil “Why does a bull elk bugle?” “He is full of it!” I guessed it must be so. An elk bull grows to 600lb in 4 years. He is strong, he is alert, and has a herd of ladies to take care of. Now during rut season, he should be proud and announce his presence!
Just as we thought the show was over, another bugling sound came through directly from woods across the lake. It was very close, sounded like a freight train coming right at us! Also we heard the sound of wood cracking. It must be very close. Phil kept squeezing more cow calls. Not much response. Then suddenly another bugling. This was even closer. Now I saw tree top moving directly across the lake. A lighter spot moved! I mounted my cheek on the rifle and scan through rifle scope. My scope was a vortex diamondback 2-7 with a wide FOV 65ft at 100yd at lowest power. I quickly detected a huge monster moving through woods. He was traveling from my left side to right. Now he was just standing by a small woods opening, broadside facing me, about 20 yd further away from the dead logs by the lake bank. I adjusted the scope to be around power 4 for better viewing. He was facing to my right side. Tan colored broadside was facing me. I could not see his entire antlers, but rest assured he was a monster animal. Could not see his head. But the ⅔ of his monstrous antlers were proudly displaying.
“Should I take the shot?” I asked Phil.
“Let’s get him out in the open. and Let me make sure he is legal to take”
Phil continued squeezing his cow call, sending the steamy messaging, “ohhh, come, come and please do me!”
But the bull was nonchalant, paying absolutely no attention to Phil’s desperating seduction. He then just laid down, as if was bedding. And he rolled over and having a mud bath! OK He was just itchy, but not horny.
Phil started banging a dead wood log against another log, I guessed, to simulate another cow or bull coming nearby?
The bull got up, still with no intention coming out in the open. Now he was facing quarter away to my 2 o’clock direction as if he was ready to go back to the hills. I couldn’t wait any more.
“I am going to take the shot.” I whispered.
“OK”
My cross hair was centered just behind his forelegs in the middle section between the bull’s back to his brisket. He started turning, now with perfect broadside facing me.
Focusing, focusing, now exhale, and…
...BANG! Perfect trigger squeeze with a surprise break.
The tan colored block just slumped, and simply dropped dead right there. No sound, no nothing.
Recycling bolt, I was ready to take another shot if necessary. Through the scope, the beast was motionless.
The time was 7pm.
Field Dressing to be continued.
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发表于 2013-9-27 22:10
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