My PBS Utah elk hunt

[zebtpd]

I thought I would share about my Utah elk hunt I went on through the PBS membership drive. First of all I have been a PBS member for 30 plus years.  We had a membership drive in 2018 and while working the booth at ETAR I personally signed up a few members as others also did. That year we were offering an all expense paid elk hunt for either the new member or the person who signed that member up. Well when ever I signed a member up I put their name in the hat for the drawing as most members did likewise.
Fast forward to 2019 Roger the new member who won the hunt was all set to go with his brother also attending at his own expense.
Unfortunately for Roger a few days before the hunt he had to bow out due to health reasons. We tried to pass the hunt onto his brother,but he did not want to go with out his brother. Roger then suggested I go in his stead for I signed him up. This all taking place in my kitchen while our Pres. Matt Shuster who had organized the hunt was literally walking out the door to attend the 2019 ETAR. Matt gave the OK to transfer the hunt to me , and told me to grab a flight to Utah for next Wed. My wife asked. What just happened,I said mind if I go elk hunting next week. She is a saint.
So after some hectic scrambling gathering gear and securing a flight I was off.
I met Matt Shuster  his nephew Cameron and Tom Vaneshe who was picking us all up at the airport.
Now before I go on I must tell you I have been on numerous PBS Member hunts from Utah,Virginia, Georgia and S.Carolina that other members have organized and put together. These hunts can be hunts where there may be a fee if going through an outfitter as such. Or just a member organizing a hunt on public land an your cost is a lic. and transportation.
These were all great times,so I had no wories about hunting with some fellow PBSers I had never met.
So after grabbing some lunch and groceries we met the outfitter and drove out to his ranch where we were to hunt.   Now I am used to camping and sleeping on the ground and such. Not on this hunt WOW we were in a huge cabin with all the amaneties of home .
Need to go will continue later.

[Bow man]

Looking forward to the rest

[Joeabowhunter]

 

[zebtpd]

I just spent 45 minutes continuing story and it won't post. Either I took to long or content was to long ???
Maybe I will try some other time sorry.

[Walt Francis]

Tim,

At times I have had the same problem, now anything longer then a couple of paragraphs I write using Word then copy and paste it into the thread.

[Wudstix]

 

[Over&Under]

 

[zebtpd]

                                                  2018 Membership Drive
                                                        Utah Elk Hunt
       Matt Shuster had put together this hunt for the membership drive and what a great job he did.
Roger (Zip) Urmann was the initial winner of this hunt and he had invited his brother Royd to go along with him, at his own expense. The PBS would substitute a given amount of Roger’s airfare for gas money. For he and Royd would drive to Utah. Meeting up with the rest of the gang at the Courtney Ricken’s family ranch.
Unfortunately the Wed. before he was to leave he had messaged Matt (while Matt was standing in my kitchen preparing to walk out the door to drive to Etar to set up the PBS booth.) that he would be unable to go due to health reasons. A quick call back to Roger now trying to figure out how to replace Roger at the last minute. Roger threw out the idea of me going in his stead due to I was the one who signed him up. Matt making an executive decision agreed. All while my wife Cindy is looking on with that look of. What just happened? As I say I’m off to Utah next week.
Now we all know that elk hunting can be an exhausting endeavor, and I would not have accepted due to I was not in elk hunting shape, and Matt assured me that this was not your standard cross country up and down hunt. It would be over water holes at this ranch.
Earlier I had contacted council that I would not be able to set up the booth at Etar, for my grandchildren would be at our house for three days and they live five hundred miles away. Grandchildren trump all. So a trip to pick them up drive home spend time with them doing everything shooting,fishing,swimming ,rodeo, water park,baking,more shooting, more swimming. Left little time to get gear prepared for this hunt, yet it all came together in one day.

[zebtpd]

I had arrived in Salt Lake and the reception that greeted me was nothing short of amazing. As I am coming down the escalator, people were cheering waving welcome signs and I thought WOW, Matt really knows how to welcome someone. Then I noticed the young man behind me was returning home from his two year mission trip. Oh well.
Tom Vanache was nice enough to go out of his way and be our Uber driver. He met Matt, and Matt’s nephew Cameron, and myself at the airport. This was a college graduation gift to Cameron from Uncle Matt. Cameron is a very nice young man, and twenty-two years old and in great shape. I think Uncle Matt had an ulterior motive for bringing him along.  Can you say packing out an elk?
After we were loaded into Tom’s rig. We grabbed a bite to eat and went grocery shopping and for the life of me I do not know how we managed to get everything in. I think a box of junior mints and we would have been overloaded. It goes without saying you always eat good on a PBS hunt.
We met up with Courtney at his house and got licenses and such, then followed his son Canon to the family ranch and cabin. He then showed us numerous water holes to hunt.
The first morning Tom and Cameron head in one direction and Matt in another and myself off to Matts favorite water hole.  I miss the road that Matt tells me to walk up to his favorite spot. Now in my defense, the road was only about thirty feet wide and about thirty yards from where I parked Tom’s rig. Sometimes I have trouble with directions and fences but that is another story.

[zebtpd]

 Yahoooooooo!!! I just learned how to copy and paste.

[Joeabowhunter]

  been waiting for this one...

[KAZ]

 

[SlowBowKing]

 

[zebtpd]

So sorry about the confusion with the beginning of this tale, but continue we will.

In my favor I end up in some good elk sign a mile or so up this canyon. I encounter some cows rather abruptly and have no shot. I hurry around some brush to head them off at the pass, as you would say. I get to the junction of Tim and elk only to find an elk looking right at me and the game is up as they bust out of there. I am the only one that had any real excitement that day.
Day two Tom and I head out together with me going to the pond I missed the day before and Tom putting some miles on circling the canyon and meeting up with me later in the day. I saw a few moose come into the pond. Matt and Cameron on their excursion have no luck. That afternoon Canon shows us a few more water holes, and that evening produces no action.
Day three finds Tom, Matt, and I heading out with Cameron sleeping in for he was playing with mice for half the night. Tom and Matt venture out together and running into some elk and never able to catch up to them or entice them into comfortable shooting range. I saw nothing except on the walk out I encountered two nice Bull Moose. That evening I sat the honey hole pond and had a cow and calf pick me out at about a hundred yards. Cameron and Matt had no luck and Tom saw some cows but far off.

[zebtpd]

Day four I am up early with natures call and outside I see four shooting stars. We have somewhat abandoned sitting the water holes because Utah is unseasonably green this year and the elk are not hitting the water holes. Tom struck out on his own and Matt and Cameron teamed up together. With me going to the spot I saw the elk earlier. Tom found himself chasing some elk with no shots. Then Matt and Cameron bumped about one hundred elk passed Tom. He had a lot of almost opportunities in a short period of time. But no shots taken.
I find the perfect hide good cover, I can stand, sit lay down all without being detected. Along with perfect wind. I have been in my hide about three hours. I have two perfect shooting lanes cut out.  About 10:30 I hear them coming and I am ready with me lined up with my two perfect shooting lanes. Well the elk are coming down a hill and they all blow right past my two perfect shooting lanes.  I now have eight cows drinking out of two very, very small pools of water at fifteen yards and no shot. Now a cow comes toward me looking for another pool and she is standing at seven yards and I find an opening in the brush about the size of a softball close to me. The arrow is loosed and a good shot it is. (What is that saying of Mr. Browning’s give me three shots inside of ten yards and I can kill anything in North America). I rapidly start cow calling and after a short run of fifty yards the bunch settle down and begin to walk off. Except for the cow I shot she tumbles down a hill out of sight. I believe her to be dead but I wait about a half an hour to be sure. 
To be continued...

[KAZ]

 

[R.V.T.B.]

Good story Tim!

I find it hard to believe you had problems finding a spot, waterhole, fence, etc., after having been given directions!

[zebtpd]

ME Too ???
I am elated this is my tenth year elk hunting and this is my first elk. The first nine hunts all resulted in tag soup with entrees of close encounters and great memories.
Now this is where the adventure goes downhill fast. Please remember (Knowledge through Experience).  Looking back I have second guessed my decisions over and over.
I found the downed elk gave Thanks for this wonderful creature and the opportunity to pursue them. By now the temperature was in the mid-nineties, no cell service. Should I go and get help or should I do this myself?
To Be continued...

[zebtpd]

It never dawned on me that once I got the one side of the hide off the amount of flies that would show up, and if there was one there were thousands along with hundreds of bees. Now shortly into this process I Knew I was in trouble. Now I have helped bone and pack elk in the past, so I have a clue. But that was in temps forty to sixty degrees cooler then where I was at right now.

[zebtpd]

I found myself quickly running out of gas and water. The small creek that I was at I was able to pull rocks out to make a place to cool my bags of meat. Though because of the state I found myself in I did a poor job of boning this animal out and for that I am sorry to say meat was wasted. I could go on bashing myself here but you get the picture. I got back straps, front shoulders and hind quarters. By now I’m running on empty while packing the first load out leaving the rest bagged up in the small pools and covered with grass.
I return to camp, pretty well spent and relay my story. High fives all around and REALLY TRUE HAPPINESS from good friends on my success is a great feeling to experience. That’s the PBS. 
                To be continued.