PBS Membership Hunts

[Terry Green]

JEFF.....will there be a list posted so we can make plans???

[Whip]

Terry, I think Jeff is off hunting with his son this week.  The PBS website has a separate forum for membership hunts.  They also sometimes get talked about on the Cyber Campfire forums as well.

Some hunts are limited as to how many can attend due to lodging or hunting area limitations.  Others, like the Kentucky hunt I was just on have plenty of room for any number of members.

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Thanks Whip, I am away hunting mule deer but found some WIFI and a little time for a post.

Terry, I will make sure that the PBS web site has both a list of past Membership hunts and more importantly, a list of future Membership hunts and the names of the PBS members conducting those hunts and their contact info.  I think the upcoming hunt in WI may be full, but the AZ hunt has plenty of room for more PBSers.  My coastal GA hog hunt will be the first week of February 2020.  It's pretty full with 17 members signed up already, but I am making a waiting list because there are always people dropping out for one reason or another.  There should be one or more early 2020 hog hunts in TX too.

Wrapping up the WY elk hunt, all five of us were into elk and had chances to arrow a cow elk.  I had to fly back to NC for a few days towards the end of the hunt, to take care of family and work obligations.  When I returned, I was hoping for one more close encounter.  Unfortunately the other guys had finished their hunts and departed, partly due to increased hunting pressure/decreased elk sightings and partly due to the approaching snowstorm.  I decided to try one last area that we had not hunted yet, and found some undisturbed elk on Friday evening.  The weather was turning bad and I was getting anxious about getting off the mountain.  I decided to try for them on Saturday before heading for home myself.  It took a few hours on Saturday morning to locate the elk with the wind and rain, but finally I heard a bugle in the golden aspens and headed that way. 

The bull sounded off in the golden aspens in upper left of this drainage...

[Jeff D. Holchin]

I moved in close to the herd of about a dozen cows and calves, plus a nice 5x6 bull..

[Jeff D. Holchin]

After the 12-yard shot, the bull still had love on his mind...but she wasn't feeling well.  I hoped to see her go down right there...

[Jeff D. Holchin]

I gave her 3 hours after she slowly followed the herd into the woods, and took the time to move my truck around to the bottom of that drainage, for an easier pack out...the aspens were finally showing some color...

[Jeff D. Holchin]

I found her in the woods nearby - thank you Lord!  Wish I had some help now, but I knew how to take care of her by myself...

[Jeff D. Holchin]

The pack out was less than a mile, downhill, so it was pretty easy.  The hard part would be the 2-day drive home to NC solo, but having a elk in the cooler made that a little easier.  Can't wait to hunt with my PBS buddies again!  It was another great PBS membership hunt, although it would have been even better if one or more of my buddies had also tagged an elk.  We got to hunt an interesting area together, eat good food, chase elk and grouse, test the 4x4 on our trucks, and most importantly have some fellowship as bowhunters.  Fun!

[Terry Green]

Great stuff guys!!!

[varmint101]

That’s awesome Jeff!  Congrats! Looks like a great time!

Whip, can’t you take 4 fall birds in Kentucky? Lol never fails!

[rastaman]

Way to go sir! That had to be awesome!

[Terry Green]

Jeff, you know the last time I saw you was at the buckhorn saloon in Austin Texas. We need to  hunt together next year.!!!

[Jeff D. Holchin]

I agree Terry, let's make it happen!

I am returning from the SD Membership deer hunt now (will post a few pics) and will head up to the VA Membership hunt next week, not to hunt this time but just to see my buddies one night and mooch some fine grub...

[Terry Green]

Ok Jeff....I remember the 1st time we met....at the Buck Horn Saloon in San Antonio.....man how time flies.

[R.V.T.B.]

I have the truck and trailer loaded up.  Headed out to set up the wall tents and wood stove for about a dozen P.B.S.'ers in the Blue Ridge members hunt.  Hopefully there'll be some good stories by this time next week.

[Wudstix]

Waiting to hear the tales.

[Ronnie Newell]

Dang Jeff, you drove from Wyoming to No. Carolina in two days??? Your one tough dude!! I'm sweating my drive to the Arizona hunt!

Sent from my LG-M150 using Tapatalk

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Ronnie, that drive gets tougher every year!  I had planned to drive directly from my WY hunt to the SD membership hunt, but the early snowstorm approaching and the elk in my cooler forced me to go home instead.  SD made some last-minute changes to their regulations which really effected that hunt, namely that NRs couldn't hunt public land until October 1 and we couldn't get the access pass for the NF land, which is easier to hunt for us eastern and Midwest whitetail hunters.  Mark Viehweg from SD hosted this hunt, or at least tried to for the handful of bowhunters that included Tim from ND, Alvin from PA, Paul from IL, John from ? (Argentina?), and my son and me from NC (we arrived after everybody else had left due to the snowstorm).  The reg changes and early snowstorm played havoc but we did get in some stalks and chances to arrow a mule deer.

[Jeff D. Holchin]

This hunt was a chance to spend some father-son time chasing deer, as my son is in graduate school with limited time available to hunt now.  He hunts mostly with his compound, but my buddy Bill Dunn has loaned him an old Zipper recurve that Daniel had with us in hopes of arrowing his first deer.  He had killed a nice mulie buck the previous year on this hunt, but a doe would have been an even better trophy with that old Zipper....

[Jeff D. Holchin]

Spot and stalk hunting in wide open country is not easy, but it is fun.  We did get in some stalks, like this time when we located a group of does feeding along a river that was the boundary between public and private land...