Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Mike Yancey on April 29, 2015, 03:20:00 PM
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Just found out that My buddy and I drew elk tags in the Valle Vidal in New Mexico. September 15-24, this is a once in a lifetime tag, you can never draw it again. Cant wait to get out there and scout!
Mike
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That is awesome Mike. Looking forward to your stories from the hunt.
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Holy Smokes Mike! That is a heck of a tag! Are you able to spend the week or so prior to the season out there as well as the dates of the season itself? If it were me I'd put everything I possibly could into that tag!
Congratulations - can't wait for the reports!
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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You lucky dog! Congrats
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Congratulations and Good luck
Gilbert
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wow! congrats. cant wait to hear how this goes...
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Get after 'em Mike!
Good Luck!
Bisch
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That's great Mike. Looking forward to following along :thumbsup:
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Thats great...best of luck to ya Mike!
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Mike, that is awesome! That is some of the most beautiful county we have here in NM. Let me know if there is anything I can do for you all, I drew an elk tag in the western part of the state, also super excited.
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Thank you Ralph, We have a couple of contacts that are helping us on this hunt that also live out there in New Mexico. the guys that know this area are very excited to help on this hunt. Looking forward to getting out there and check it out this summer.
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Wow! Good luck!
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wow mike you're in for a treat for sure!
Congrats on that Draw!
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Looks like some nice bulls come out of that beautiful country!
Enjoy the journey!
Shoot straight, Shinken
:archer2:
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I remember reading about VV when I was a kid. Congrats. Thats awesome.
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Congratulations,and best of luck to you.
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Fantasy Island of NM? Should be a great hunt, after a few sleepless nights.
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Good for you!
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Going to try and get a sinew and osage bow done for the hunt. I have a special bull snake skin set back for it. This bull snake was sent to me special by my snake dealer in Texas that I did business with for almost 20 years. He passed away a year ago in November and I have had this skin put away for a special occasion. I cant think of a better way to honor him than on a bow for this hunt.
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Good luck, can't wait to follow along. Great way to honor your buddy!
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Holy Smokes. Congrats on that draw. Can't wait to hear how that hunt goes.
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Awesome! Go get 'em Brother.
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Congratulations on drawing the tag..!!
Looking forward to following this one as it unfolds.
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Serious tag. Have a wonderful time getting ready and going on a great hunt! Bring a camera.
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Congratulations! I hope you get a fine bull and a ton of good memories.
Tom
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Congrats again buddy, so happy for you and good luck on what should be a tremendous elk hunt.
Couldn't have happened to a better guy :bigsmyl: :thumbsup:
Tracy
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Congratulations! :clapper:
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Outstanding! Make the best of it and aim small when the opportunity presents itself, hopefully a big old herd bull with a nice broadside presentation. ;)
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Beautiful country, great wapiti hunting and an osage selfbow in your hands...good stuff! Looking forward to reading about this hunt. I keep hoping I'll draw it one year.
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That's great Mike!
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Nice job on the tag, can't wait to see pictures of the bow!
Thanks,
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Awesome! I can't wait to read the story! I know you guys will have a blast!
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Awesome Tag Mike !!!!
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make sure you look them over good and don't settle - there are some brutes in there as I am sure you already know. Best of luck to you!!!
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Wow, that's like winning the lotto. I used to live in Trinidad, CO and would occasionally drive to Red River, NM. Elk everywhere.
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Wow Mike, congrats. You can't beat that. I Hope you have a great hunt. :thumbsup:
Bob
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Originally posted by Mike Yancey:
Going to try and get a sinew and osage bow done for the hunt. I have a special bull snake skin set back for it. This bull snake was sent to me special by my snake dealer in Texas that I did business with for almost 20 years. He passed away a year ago in November and I have had this skin put away for a special occasion. I cant think of a better way to honor him than on a bow for this hunt.
That's gonna be one heck of a special bow! A perfect way to honor your friend! Can't wait to see the bow and read the story of your Once-in-a-lifetime hunt. Congrats on the draw!
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"Going to try and get a sinew and osage bow done for the hunt..."
What bow length and draw weight might you be shooting for? Or will you let the osage dictate that? Just curious.
Kris
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Awesome, make sure you share your hunt on here.
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Awesome! Best of luck, Mike!
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I like my osage bows around 64'' and 60 lbs
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Good luck and have a great time. Cant wait to hear the stories of the trip.
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Congrats. Hope you make the best of it.
Good luck
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It's absolutely beautiful country, I was fly fishing the Rio Costilla just outside the west gate back in June. It reminds me greatly of Yellowstone Park just inside the northeast entrance from Silvergate Montana.
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Thanks Mike -
I wish all the success in the world! Story and pics mandatory!
Kris
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Congrats Mike! You might have to pass on several scrawny 340-360" bulls before you get to a big one! :)
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We have a trip planned for July to take the camper out and camp and scout for a few days. I will post some pictures then.
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Hunted there 25 years ago. Unbelievable. Remember mornings in the Whitman Vega counting over 15 big 6 and 7 points. Get your topo maps and we can talk. The issue with Vidal is there are elk everywhere, but some places definitely better to spend time in. I can't believe the season date, it will be awesome. The biologist who used to manage Vidal always put bow season early over labor day weekend so the tourist and fishermen would help screw up the elk hunting, he hated bowhunters. You are in for an unbelievable treat.
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Congrats, John told me about this the other day. His second comment was I got a loose weight or I'll die. I told him the princess would be looking for a new man. You guys are in for a real treat I'm sure.
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OUTSTANDING!
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In bowhunting, anticipation is the name of the game. What a testament to you Mike and Tradgang, with four pages of post, and its only May! Have fun, and thanks for thinking of us. Mike
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Thank you Mike for all the stories that you have shared with us here as well as your book! I love to hear stories of your hunts, it lets others be part of the adventure!
This is a type of tag that other people draw not me, its truly a great privilege to be able to hunt in such a place.
Mike
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I have been doing a lot of research on this area and it has a bunch of elk and many nice bulls but the days of the giants are gone. The good thing is there is only 20 hunters on 100,000 acres and its the peak of the rut. Tough country and lots of it.
We will make the most of it and take what we can get.
Mike
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Good Luck Mike. Best get that bow built soon.
I know nothing of the area but based on the responses it sounds like you are in for a real treat. I look forward to hearing about it.
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We are leaving for a bear hunt in Maine the first week of June and I am busy shipping all the gear out there for that now. I have been shooting a couple of osage bows that I have taken whitetail, pronghorn bear and two caribou with so if I don't have time to build a new bow I will be in good hands!
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We are going to New Mexico with our wives the 11th -17th of July to scout. We found a rv camp ground in Eagles Nest that we can hook up our campers and allow the girls some comfort while we scout the area. We have some great help from guys in New Mexico that have sent maps and lots of info, thanks Butch and Tony for all the help. This is going to be a blast.
I have been running bleachers and doing a mile a day as well as shooting as much as I can to prepare for the hunt. I will post pictures of the area after we scout in July!
Mike
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Good luck, Mike. I, for one, am looking forward to pics and a story.
homebru
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Incredible! Good luck Mike! I cant wait to see photos of a great bull and one of your pieces of art next to it. keep us updated!
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Congrats Mike. Can't wait to see the pics and read the story. Best of luck to you.
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bear hunt in Maine the first week of June how did you make out? :archer:
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I got one my wife never saw one, it was a great trip!
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :archer:
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0450.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0450.jpg.html)
I just got back from a week of scouting the unit in New Mexico and what a place! We saw close to two hundred head of elk and some great bulls. The area has had tons of rain so the elk were everywhere.
Cant wait for the hunt in September, we found where we want to camp and covered the area as best we could.
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0431.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0431.jpg.html)
The area was like a flower garden with all the rain.
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Looks amazing!
Good luck!
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What beauty! Love to hunt that country. The elk should be real healthy with great antler growth this year.
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Very nice!
:campfire:
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Your going to have a great time, wish you the best of luck!
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Man that is exciting. Can't wait to see how y'all do
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Beautiful country Mike. Looking forward to hearing about your hunt.
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Best of luck Mike! Can't wait to hear the account of the trip!!!
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0477.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0477.jpg.html)
Even though its 100 here with a heat index of 106 I set up my 12x12 hunters tent and Baker Leanto to make sure everything was there and working. I had to go cut some new cedar poles but other than that we are almost ready for elk camp. I am going to tie some turkey feathers and horse tail from the poles to give it some medicine! We are going to sleep in the Hunters tent and cook in the Baker
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Good luck Mike!
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Fantastic news Mike. Nothing but the best of luck to you. Please keep us updated.
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Thanks for the good wishes guys. When its hot like this in the summer its nice to look towards late September. I have a one on one bow class going on all this next week here in the shop. After that Lisa and I are going to start cooking and pressure canning meals in quart jars for John and I to heat up in camp , to make it easier there after hunting all day. We will be able to drive to our camp so it wont be a problem getting them there. Wish we had a camp cook! But I can make magic with a cast iron skillet and a dutch oven.
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That sounds like a great camp to be in and i like your planning and checking gear :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Best of luck to you … :archer2:
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0478.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0478.jpg.html)
Look what came in the mail today from David @ Wilderness Custom Arrows, elk killers!
Thanks David they look great!
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Hope to see a picture with one of these that did it's job! Good hunting Mike. When are you heading out? I've got 30 days and counting.
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Dates for this hunt are September 15-24, we are going out a few days earlier to set up camp. Good luck to you!
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I just got back into town with a bunch of meat and a ton of fun. More later!
Mike
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Awesome! Can't wait for the story Mike.
Gabe
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:bigsmyl: :campfire: :archer:
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:thumbsup:
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:thumbsup: :campfire:
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Mike it's most likely too late to volunteer but I'd gladly be your camp cook just for the experience of being there.
God bless,Mudd
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In for the stories!!!
Bisch
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You're killing Mike!
Let's hear it! Congrats!
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Looking forward to your pictures and report.
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:campfire:
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:campfire: :campfire:
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:coffee: :coffee: :coffee:
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMG_1219_1.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMG_1219_1.jpg.html)
We set up my Baker lean to for a cook tent and my tall boy hunters tent for a sleeping tent
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I hunted with the bow that Ed Scott and Carl Peterson made for me for the first several days. Made from Rocky Mountain Big Horn sheep horn and sinew.
Camping in the Cimarron Camp ground, one of two in the unit. The Bulls kept us awake the first two nights bugling in camp!
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0592.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0592.jpg.html)
Camp!
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I like it
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:campfire: :pray:
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Mike,
I know it is wrong to be envious, but you sir, have made me wrong! It all looks and sounds perfect.
Be safe,
Sarge
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMAG0607%201.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMAG0607%201.jpg.html)
This was the prettiest elk country that I have ever hunted!
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMG_1224.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMG_1224.jpg.html)
This is John Firestine that drew a tag and hunted with me. John hunted with a self made osage selfbow. He didn't get an elk but had a shot at a 5x5 but the high wind messed him up on arrow flight
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Man cant wait for the rest of the story. Country looks beautiful.
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With the resent passing of my good friend Ed Scott, I really wanted to kill an elk with the horn bow that he had made me and on the forth evening of the hunt I called in a real nice 5x5 that hung out at about 100 yards until almost dark. Then when he decided to come in to the wallow that I was guarding he came in fast. The distance to the other side of the wallow was 15 yards and he came in to what to me looked like just the other side of it. So in my mind he was an easy 20 yard shot, very dim light and the lay of the land between me and him had me fooled and the 20 yard shot was over 40 I couldn't believe it as the arrow seemed to fly perfect from the horn bow dropped just below his chest. With the light gone and the elk as well I stepped from the brush blind that I had constructed at the wallow and went to find my arrows. As I began to step it off I knew that it was way further that 20 but would have never believed that it was a touch over 40.
That was a tough deal to swallow but that evening I had more bulls bugling and fighting around me than anytime in my life!
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:campfire:
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This unit is a once in a lifetime draw and if you ever get to go there you will see why. Its beautiful and full of elk, not that they are so big but there is a bunch of them. We did see two bulls over 300'' and I had one a couple of times under 80 yards that was way over 350.
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Since this was a special hunt I took several bows, a few of mine, one that Ed made for me as well as a glass longbow that my good friend Neal Brown from MS made for me 13 years ago.
I really wanted to take an elk with the horn bow and hunted with it several days as well as a couple of my sinew backed osage bows. On the sixth day of the 10 day hunt John said Im taking my Black Widow today so I said then Im going to take Neals bow today. A 66'' longbow that will cast an arrow with ease I knew it any elk that came by today was going to be in trouble!
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:campfire:
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:campfire: :coffee:
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:campfire: :coffee: :archer2:
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I use to fish there Mike. Sweet country and a bunch of Wapiti.
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMG_1237.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMG_1237.jpg.html)
The evening of the sixth day we were working our way back into some timber that we had hunted earlier in the week when we jumped a single elk. We decided to split up and hunt till dark. I chose to go to the base of a cliff and John went the other direction.
The aspen leaves were as yellow as fresh cut osage as the sun began to set on the New Mexico mountains.
With just about a half an hour before dark when the snapping of limbs and the clinking sound of rocks could be heard along with the sound of soft cow and calf calls. As they made there way to me I could see cows and calves but no bull in the bunch.
I began to see the area that they would be coming in front of me and the possible chance for a shot. A small opening in the brush about forty yards away was the only chance for me to get an arrow to one. As the herd filled past one by one along the narrow mountain trail I prepared for shot. A mature cow in the center of the line of animals had my attention. As she began to come into the opening an Abowyer Brown Bear head on the end of a Wilderness Custom Arrow shaft found both lungs, passing through falling to the ground still shaving sharp.
As the heard crashed through the dark timber I knew the arrow had done its job. I could see the entrance hole perfectly centered behind the shoulder as she crashed through the timber.
After I hooted for John to join me we began to work out the blood trail in the dark. We had good blood but it seemed to end at a thick jumbled up mess of juniper bushes. I had heard what I thought was the cow crash just below the area so we centered out search there. After deciding that we were likely doing more harm than good trying to sort out the trail we decided to come back in the morning.
After a restless night, trying to make out the details in my head of what might have happened as it all unfolded. We awoke to a million stars under a clear cold New Mexico morning. Thankful for the cold temperatures we returned to the flagging that we left as a marker at the last sign of blood. Still looking low we decided that all the tracks were from the other elk in the herd and that none were leaving a blood trail. So I told John lets take a water break and go back to the juniper thicket at the end of the blood and I would look up the hill.
I hadn't went four steps up the hill when I found fresh new blood, as I hollered to John that I found fresh blood and took three more steps when I looked down in a wad of low growing juniper and there lay my elk. I have never been more proud of an animal in my life than this cow was to me now. We had drawn this once in a lifetime tag, done all the hunt and work ourselves with the exception of some help from a couple of traditional hunters that live in New Mexico that new the area who gave us info through the summer, thanks Butch and Sancho. We scouted the area in the summer and hunted from before daylight till after dark every day climbing to over 10,000' twice a day most days we had hunted hard and we were both proud of the elk that lay before us!
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(http://i887.photobucket.com/albums/ac73/mikeyancey/IMG_1239.jpg) (http://s887.photobucket.com/user/mikeyancey/media/IMG_1239.jpg.html)
Once we began to quarter up the meat and inspect the damage of the arrow, we couldn't believe that we had walked within three steps of the elk the night before as well as that morning. John is a big guy and was a real hand helping pack out this meat. As he shouldered a pack frame full of elk quarters I told him that I would be making him a sinew backed osage bow from the sinew that I pulled from this elk. We managed to get all the meat out in one load and this picture shows me at the end of the packing out.
Once back in camp after icing down the meat we settled in for an evening in camp with a celebration dinner. Elk loin steaks butterfly cut an inch and a half each seasoned with seasoned black pepper blend and garlic as well as seasoned salt. Blackened in a cast iron skillet of smoking hot olive oil, finished off with a dash of red wine and soy sauce. The whole camp smelled like a fine restaurant as the old iron skillet worked its magic on the fresh killed meat like it has done on countless camps before!
As John and I sat and enjoyed the meal of blackened elk steak, mashed potatoes and green beans we reflected on this truly once in a lifetime hunt!
Guys make some memories this fall that will last a lifetime!
Mike
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Congratulations! Great story and nice elk!
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Congrats on your elk. Sounds like you were in a great area and you made it count. Thanks for the story and pics.
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Nicely Done! Congratulations and thanks for the great story too. :thumbsup:
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John gave me the lowdown this morning, sounds like you guys had a great trip. Congratulations on the cow, hey you can't eat horns anyway.
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Good job Mike!!! Good story and an awesome elk!
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Awesome, Mike!!!
Congrats to you!
Bisch
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Great story! Congrats on some fine hunting.
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Congrats Mike
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Congrats
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Congratulations Mike! Thanks for taking us along.
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Congratulations Mike. Your description of those loins is making me hungry.
Great Photos and sounds like an incredible hunt. Thank you for sharing it with us.
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:archer:
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Awesome story! Congrats!
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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:clapper:
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Way to go Mike! Great story...definitely a memory to last a lifetime.
Bill-
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aWWWRIGHT Mike! Way to go man! Never a doubt in my mind. Ed is looking down proud, his bow or not. :archer:
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nice! sounds like a great trip.
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Congratulations Mike.
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:campfire:
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Well done sir , Congrats..
,,,Sam,,,
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Congrats Mike! Awesome hunt!
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Congrats to both of you on a great hunt.
Thanks for taking us along.
David
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:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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What a great hunt! Congratulations on your cow and for sharing your hunt with us! Nice pictures! :thumbsup:
Bernie
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Congrats for the elk and for making the most of your dream hunt! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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Congrats! Love that camp.
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Nice Mike that's awesome! And keep us posted on that sinew backed bow!
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Congratulations Mike on a great story and a great hunt! I'm glad it all came together for you.
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What a great hunt, story & pics! Congrats Mike!
Kenny
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Nice job Mike! That's some beautiful country, good looking cow too.
-Jay
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Congrats on the elk and for taking us along!
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Congratulations Mike!
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Very nicely done congadulations. Thanks for sharing.
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What a great trip Mike -congratulations!
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Great story and elk Brother, congrats!
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Looks like you had a great time, congrats