Hunting & Fishing NV bull elk

[ToddM]

Here's a pic from my first elk hunt. It was way more work than I thought when I was first drawn for the tag, but after doing a lot of research, and literally months of training, lots of range time, and gear prep, and 2-3 weeks of scouting it went pretty well. Like most people I had no idea how different elk hunting was for deer hunting that I've been doing for a long time.

I have to thank Weda, PGS and many others for their advice as well! There are certainly much bigger bulls out there, but what I'm most proud of is not using a guide, horses, atv's etc. and hunting on public access land. We packed ourselves in and the elk out. Everyone thought we were crazy/stupid for not hiring a guide, or going out and buying ATV's etc. At times we probably agreed with them too!

This way certainly is not the easiest way to do it (I doubt there's any easy elk hunt!) but I think it's probably more rewarding this way if you have the time. That and I'm sure I was cursing the choice packing his head/rack/cape out about half way back to the truck! Packing the meat was not bad, but that head/rack/cape was way heavy and horrible to maneuver through trees/brush. The real work truly does begin after you shoot them.

 

[jasonk]

Re: NV bull elk

Nice!! He's a beautiful bull.

Agreed, kudos to you for doing it all yourself! That adds 100 BC points automatically

 

[7mmRM]

Re: NV bull elk

Outstanding!

 

[mdesign]

Re: NV bull elk

Wow, very nice bull. Kudo's on doing it the hard way. Is this an archery hunt or did you get him with a rifle? Looks like it was beautiful and rough country. Good for you!

 

[RobG]

Re: NV bull elk

Wow, great bull. I used to hunt with a camo net type face mask. I may try the black ski mask next time.

 

[ToddM]

Re: NV bull elk

It was a rifle hunt, I do highly recommend the "black hole" headnet available only from Adobe!

 

[sixfiveguy]

Re: NV bull elk

You should be proud of your accomplishments!! Thats a lot of fuckin work for a sweet bull!!

 

[i_Adam_i18]

Re: NV bull elk

That really is a great headnet, they'll never see your eyes!

 

[30cal user]

Re: NV bull elk

congrats!! thats one hell of a first bull!! 350" ish??

what are your gun specs?

 

[Rhys]

Re: NV bull elk

I see bulls regularly and he certainly wouldn't have gotten a pass from me. Good work.

 

[ToddM]

Re: NV bull elk

Yeah it's right around 350, we did a rough score on it as best we could by the BC regs and came up with about 356, not sure how much they shrink or how bad a job we did. Once the mount is done (European) and the 60 days is done I'll have it scored officially. I have never put that much in rack score. His rack is really heavy but he's not crazy tall/wide. He was a major fighter though, all of his points had major scarring and the third was broke off early in the season by the looks of it, his ears were even tore up bad on both sides.

The gun is a long story of angst and a sore spot with me, but to make a long story short I bought a new supposedly proof tested to shoot 1/2" or better (even had an great test target with it) HS precision 300wm for the hunt, put an S&B precision hunter on it and couldn't get it to shoot, neither could HS for that matter. They had to redo the bedding block and re-barrel it. It came back a tack driver, but I didn't get it until a week before my hunt so I took it with as a backup but was no where near comfortable with it. I'd have loved to have something custom built but there was just not enough time. I never expected to get an elk tag here in NV, as most people put in for 15+ years to get drawn here and mine was much less than that. A good lesson though, have your prospective hunting guns built ahead of time because if you get drawn for a tag it's too late to have something done.

So in the end I used my Rem LTR .308 in a BC light tac stock with, 40x trigger, and a leupold 3.5-10 M3 on it at about 9.5lbs with Remington 165gr scirocco factory rounds. Which was supposed to be the backup gun. The Remington scirocco's shot the best out of my LTR for factory hunting ammo that I thought could work on heavy game, and the dope was very close to 168 FGMM under 600. Very impressed with the scirocco bullets they did their job well. First shot was a little high and got the spine low, but good left to right, he went down but got back up in a couple minutes wobbly so I put another one in him that broke the front shoulder and went out the neck on the other side. He went down hard and took a few tumbles in the rocks before he came to rest, I was really happy to see he didn't break the rack doing that.

 

[coldboremiracle]

Re: NV bull elk

Beauty

 

[Dave in Idaho]

Re: NV bull elk

Nice bull and great shooting. What area in NV?
Dave

 

[psinclair]

Re: NV bull elk

Way to go Todd....great accomplishment!!! Always very sweet to go get it done on your own....greeaat bull!!!!!!!!

 

[geargrinder]

Re: NV bull elk

Very nice bull.

Where were you at?

How many points did you have? I've got few but, I'm still a ways from drawing.

 

[ToddM]

Re: NV bull elk

We were up in the Antelope and Kern mtns to avoid the more popular areas. There are good elk of the size mine is all over the Ely area though, and larger. It's just a matter of how far you want to get away from everyone else. We saw many nice 5x5's and 3-4 bulls that we could have worked on the size of mine. But again we wanted to be away from everyone else and the quads, road hunters, chaos, etc. They haven't had much snow here this year at all so hiking/road access is really good, but it also means the elk are still way up high. From what I've heard the harvest so far this year has been poor because guys are not willing to go further in (and up) to get them. Both the meat places we stopped at in Ely said they had very slow years. The elk are there I just think guys are used to not having to go as high or in as far to find them.

Don't count yourself out of the draw, I only had a few points and never expected to get a tag yet, and I know at least two other guys that had less than 5 points and were drawn. One was only his second year of applying. Of course I also know guys that waited 20+ years for a tag so it's still a random lottery and you can draw any year. Better to be prepared to get drawn than try to put everything together after you find out. I know I spent a ton of time doing research, putting gear together and trying to test it out in a rush before the season even though I had 4-5 months notice. It's not much time once it actually happens.

 

[geargrinder]

Re: NV bull elk

I already know it was a bad year in Ely this year. Dad and I went to Duck Creek basin for 10 days this year. We both had deer tags and he had a cow elk tag.

Dad got a little forkie on the 7th day.

We've been going there for the last 12 years and have never seen fewer animals.

 

[ToddM]

Re: NV bull elk

I know there was talk with a couple of the guys at the BLM there that they are going to reduce the tags most likely. I don't have any previous year hunting experience in the ely area to compare it to. I do my deer/antelope hunting north of winnemucca.

We saw mule deer though, but it was prime rut too, nothing bigger than a medium 4x4, and mostly does. In the kalamzoo pass and also in the Timber creek campground area frequently. They were very hit and miss though in the whole region. We'd go a couple days without seeing any muleys and then see 100 in a day in the right area. In 4-5 weeks I spent out there scouting and hunting I never saw what I would consider a good shooter buck.

We talked to a lot of people that were bull elk hunting that had not gotten anything, and we didn't see another bull around town/roads for the last week of early season or the first week of late season larger than mine. Not sure if they were just driving the success loop or the horse camp loop but we saw good 5x5's almost ever day from a week before late season started and also the 6 days I hunted the late season. They also may have been looking for something much bigger as well. We did not see many 6x6's, nothing like what I saw earlier in the year on scouting trips. From what I gathered from the BLM guys the elk there are getting smarter and going higher/further back in from the road access and the good weather didn't help, everything was pretty well snow free to 12K+.

The good weather also meant they were not moving much at all. The bulls we saw were done moving right around official sunrise and wouldn't start moving again until 15-30 min before season closed. So you had to catch them either right as it was getting light enough to use the spotting scope or catch them as it was just getting too dark to use it.

Any idea why the numbers are so poor this year?

 

[ScottyS]

Re: NV bull elk

ATV's and associated issues are the primary reason I stopped hunting years ago.

Congrats on doing things the real way.

 

[RidgeRebel]

Re: NV bull elk

Awsome bull! Some day I'll get a tag, I hope. Til then I'll just have to be jealous.

 

[Mag 300]

Re: NV bull elk

Great Bull,
I have been Elk Hunting for the last 4 years traditional bow no sights also the hard way . have not gottem one yet but closest was 60 yds and there is a thrill when your that close and can also smell him
Great job and congratulations. the 308 still works in a lot of situations.
Bill

 

[geargrinder]

Re: NV bull elk

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ToddM</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Any idea why the numbers are so poor this year? </div></div>

No idea at all. There have always been a lot of people in Duck Creek basin, but we've always been able to come across animals.

I did hear that folks were getting into the cows behind the shooting range outside of Ely, and that there were small groups on the East side near the Schell Creek campgrounds.

Dad got his forkie all the way on the top above Bone Yard Canyon.

 

[x832]

Re: NV bull elk

Great Elk I can yasts the back strap now.It does'nt get better than this.

 

[GardDog]

Re: NV bull elk

Great job.

 

[head2h2o]

Re: NV bull elk

Not bad at all for your first elk.

 

[JLM]

Re: NV bull elk

Congrats dude, I know how much you were looking forward to getting one. Looks like you did a hell of a job

 

[vinnieb]

Re: NV bull elk

Congrats.. That is a great bull on any hunt, Guided or DIY and to top it off a late hunt not a rut hunt, outstanding job. Packing that head through the brush and trees sure makes you wonder how they get them through that stuff so easy doesn't it? Sounds like you put your time in scouting and it payed off big time.

 

[308sako]

Re: NV bull elk

That is one of lifes great achievements and you should be seriousily proud. Well done and with major class.

 

[strick9]

Re: NV bull elk

My best Hats off to you brother. Only way to go hands down.

 

[rippit]

Re: NV bull elk

great elk man. I hope to draw a tag one day

 

[Cartman]

Re: NV bull elk

Great job! And nice you were able to put that big boy down so quickly. Humping the meat out must not have been fun.