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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Elk season here again.
- Thread starter Ed T
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2001
- Messages
- 313
Forget: Toilet Paper and toothbrush/paste :barf:
Underestimate: The ability of elk & deer to be as silent as ghosts and just about as visible
Underestimate: The ability of elk & deer to be as silent as ghosts and just about as visible
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2000
- Messages
- 4,798
Deer be heer, this weekend bruddah!
NEVER forget TP. Oft-times forget food or coffee. Sometimes my wallet. I always underestimate the power of a little breeze to knock over a dozen trees across the logging road. Which leads me to the last thing that I forget often...... chainsaw.
I don't hunt elk anymore. It's a war zone out here.
Coyotlviejo, I once crept into a small herd of elk up here. I wasn't hunting or anything, they were out at our small airport property, and I wanted a picture. I went to maneuver around one more briar patch so I could get a close up. They were just RIGHT THERE. It didn't take me ten seconds to clear that brush pile, but by the time I did, they had vanished into thin air. No noise, no sign, no nothing. Gone.
Elk hunters nod knowingly at that tale, non-hunters shake their heads in disbelief.
NEVER forget TP. Oft-times forget food or coffee. Sometimes my wallet. I always underestimate the power of a little breeze to knock over a dozen trees across the logging road. Which leads me to the last thing that I forget often...... chainsaw.
I don't hunt elk anymore. It's a war zone out here.
Coyotlviejo, I once crept into a small herd of elk up here. I wasn't hunting or anything, they were out at our small airport property, and I wanted a picture. I went to maneuver around one more briar patch so I could get a close up. They were just RIGHT THERE. It didn't take me ten seconds to clear that brush pile, but by the time I did, they had vanished into thin air. No noise, no sign, no nothing. Gone.
Elk hunters nod knowingly at that tale, non-hunters shake their heads in disbelief.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2001
- Messages
- 313
I am a hunter after the great McManus tradition, which is much more art than science.
My buddy - a disciple of the Crazy Eddie tradition - and I were once perched right next to a beautiful elk wallow with tons of fresh sign. After sitting for hours, laughing and farting and missing an easy forty-yard shot at a dumb elk, we heard crashing in the thicket behind the wallow. Surely it was the biggest bull we were ever to encounter. So my friend lets out with a bugle that would give any bull some pretty romantic notions. We heard a perfect bull-challenge bugle answer us back, there by confirming that we were successfully calling in a fellow hunter.
So we bugled like we had never bugled before, until our unseen compatriot was obviously driven mad with desire. I found a pile of dry sticks and jumped all over them, making sounds like a bull who was wild with jealousy. Then we slipped quietly away and made like ghosts - fast ones! I wonder today if there isn't some hunter sitting next to a campfire, telling a yarn about the biggest bull he ever didn't see.
So maybe I'll never get my own elk steak, but I guess I got some satisfaction after all.
Incidentally, we successfully called in two other hunters that very same day, plus a herd of cattle and a magpie. Yep, it's an art.
My buddy - a disciple of the Crazy Eddie tradition - and I were once perched right next to a beautiful elk wallow with tons of fresh sign. After sitting for hours, laughing and farting and missing an easy forty-yard shot at a dumb elk, we heard crashing in the thicket behind the wallow. Surely it was the biggest bull we were ever to encounter. So my friend lets out with a bugle that would give any bull some pretty romantic notions. We heard a perfect bull-challenge bugle answer us back, there by confirming that we were successfully calling in a fellow hunter.
So we bugled like we had never bugled before, until our unseen compatriot was obviously driven mad with desire. I found a pile of dry sticks and jumped all over them, making sounds like a bull who was wild with jealousy. Then we slipped quietly away and made like ghosts - fast ones! I wonder today if there isn't some hunter sitting next to a campfire, telling a yarn about the biggest bull he ever didn't see.
So maybe I'll never get my own elk steak, but I guess I got some satisfaction after all.
Incidentally, we successfully called in two other hunters that very same day, plus a herd of cattle and a magpie. Yep, it's an art.
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2001
- Messages
- 313
True story, too - except the magpie. But we really did get 3 hunters and a herd of cattle all in one day. I think the elk were making tracks out of the region. Our reputation precedes us.
I like the notion of muzzleloading. It would make a really cool hunt. I'm a bow hunter and I hope to go traditional sometime soon. I'm culturing a chokecherry tree to give me a long, straight stave to make a bow from. It'll take a few years before it's big enough to harvest, though.
My ultimate goal is to hunt with my own hand-made bow and stone-tipped arrows. Tough, yeah, but oh-so rewarding!
I like the notion of muzzleloading. It would make a really cool hunt. I'm a bow hunter and I hope to go traditional sometime soon. I'm culturing a chokecherry tree to give me a long, straight stave to make a bow from. It'll take a few years before it's big enough to harvest, though.
My ultimate goal is to hunt with my own hand-made bow and stone-tipped arrows. Tough, yeah, but oh-so rewarding!
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2001
- Messages
- 1,385
That's a worthy goal. I have a couple wooden arrows with flaked obsidian tips, but I didn't make my longbow. I found a bowyer who had some yew and just ordered it. Homemade would clearly be more satisfying.
My and my buds' elk season opens Oct. 15th. We'll be in the mountains with hopes of outsmarting the elusive, Wily Wapiti. Surely could use some rain in the high country, or better yet, a few inches of snow. It's really dry and the weather isn't all that cold.
Good luck to all.
L.W.
Good luck to all.
L.W.
Yes, elk can be very quiet. While hunting deer in Utah the three of use had fired on a small herd that was traversing the opposite ridge. We had gotten two of them down and proceeded to move down our ridge and up to the "impact area". As we approached the downed deer, a herd of elk jumped up within 20 yards of where the deer had died! They had walked through them to the spot where we shot them. The elk hadn't moved.
...and they can be very noisy. I was riding my dirt motorcycle in Northern Utah, looking for a good spot to hunt deer. I was riding a dirt track along a ridge. My bike isn't especially noisy but with a helmet, you don't hear much else. Suddenly, it sounded like thunder behind me. I looked back to see a herd of elk, cows and calves, cresting the ridge behind me and going down the other side. If I'd been five seconds slower, they'd have run me down!
Get two elk steaks, at least an inch thick, 1¼ to 1½" is better. Remove all fat and connective tissue (silver skin). Marinate in half salad oil and half lime juice seasoned with salt, cracked black pepper, ½ t. white pepper, 1 t. crushed garlic, 2 T. finely chopped onion, ¼ t. ground chili (mild or hot, your choice), ¼ t. oregano. Marinate for at least 6 hours but I like overnight. Grill on a hot grill till medium rare inside. DON'T GRILL IT WELL DONE! If you like a well done steak, use a lower quality cut, you won't know the difference. This recipe works for chicken, lamb, beef, etc.
Bruce
...and they can be very noisy. I was riding my dirt motorcycle in Northern Utah, looking for a good spot to hunt deer. I was riding a dirt track along a ridge. My bike isn't especially noisy but with a helmet, you don't hear much else. Suddenly, it sounded like thunder behind me. I looked back to see a herd of elk, cows and calves, cresting the ridge behind me and going down the other side. If I'd been five seconds slower, they'd have run me down!
Get two elk steaks, at least an inch thick, 1¼ to 1½" is better. Remove all fat and connective tissue (silver skin). Marinate in half salad oil and half lime juice seasoned with salt, cracked black pepper, ½ t. white pepper, 1 t. crushed garlic, 2 T. finely chopped onion, ¼ t. ground chili (mild or hot, your choice), ¼ t. oregano. Marinate for at least 6 hours but I like overnight. Grill on a hot grill till medium rare inside. DON'T GRILL IT WELL DONE! If you like a well done steak, use a lower quality cut, you won't know the difference. This recipe works for chicken, lamb, beef, etc.
Bruce