This doesn’t need an introduction!

https://www.facebook.com/tonya.otinger/videos/10153396246649412/?pnref=story

Tonya is a taxidermist out of Alabama:

Bears Butt

November 29, 2015

CRAWFORD MOUNTAINS, UTAH

I’ve been enjoying the Crawford mountain mule deer hunts for many years.  Before the DWR made them a draw only hunting area we enjoyed a few good years hunting in that area during the late muzzleloader hunts and got to know the country pretty well.  The bucks would either “Be There” or “Not”!  But no matter if they were there or not did not deter us from hunting the place.  I recall one of the last hunts we were there, Dry Dog and I had work obligations we had to attend to and so could not come to the camp until three days after the hunt had opened.  When we arrived with my camp trailer in tow, the guys who had been there hunting were very disappointed (not disappointed that me and Dog had shown up).  They had not seen even a track in the three days they had been hunting.  That is very disappointing to say the least.

They did not want us to unhook the trailer as they had already decided to move camp to somewhere else, perhaps across the valley and into the high country with pines and quakies.  Well, Dry Dog and I had been dreaming about hunting this area and so we were a bit taken back by their suggestion.   The two of us proposed an option and wanted to have a morning hunt just down the draw from our camp.  As I recall….”Let’s hunt till about 10 and if things are the same as you say they are we will come back and move camp”.  To say those guys had to give up a lot after not seeing anything for 3 days is really giving them credit.  Had I been one of them I would have insisted the two of us go on our jaunt and when we came back they would have camp ready to move.  But they didn’t, they went out for the morning hunt.

Dry Dog and I took a high road while the rest of them went on down the drainage to get into shooting positions.  Dog and I would push down to them and then we would drive back up to camp and pack up.

As Dry Dog and I were moving up the drainage to get into our positions for the push, I stopped about half way to the top.  He was to continue to the top and when the signal came we would make our move down the side of the ridge to the others.  As I stood there waiting in the early morning light of that day, I heard the noise of rocks rolling behind me.  As I turned around two giant bucks were coming down a slide out area on a dead run…straight at me!  Two of the biggest bucks I had seen in a long, long time!  The biggest of the two was either a very big heavy horned 4 X 4 or an equally large 5 point.  I can only guess and he was the one I wanted to shoot!  I was on it with my sights but it kept trees between himself and me, while the other one came on my side of the line of trees!  I remember thinking to myself…Heck, that’s a nice buck right there!  Go ahead and shoot it!….Which I did!  A very respectable 4X4 with long eye guards (long for mule deer anyway), heavy, wide and tall!  At the shot the bigger buck turned on the after-burners and made a trail straight to where Dry Dog was waiting!  After the buck disappeared over the ridge I heard Dry Dog shoot!  BAM!

I felt great to know that 5 minutes into this hunt I had one of the biggest bucks I had ever taken with a muzzleloader down on the ground and Dry Dog was probably proudly standing over an even bigger buck!  However, that was not the case!  He had heard me shoot and thought the worst…I had fallen and the gun went off by accident and so he was coming back toward where I was when the big buck showed up suddenly right in his face!  His shot was quick and off mark.  The big buck went on to live another day!  Dry Dog was eye popping by the time he got to me to see the big buck I was dressing out.

Well, long story short!  The bucks had moved into the Crawfords during the night.  Big bucks seemed to be in every draw and on every ridge!  Just like the saying goes…they are either here or they aren’t!  We ended up with 4 BIG 4X4 bucks and 2 2X2’s before that hunt was over.  AND to add to that, Fat Duck had to leave camp to go to Japan or somewhere and a big buck chased him out of the mountains right past our camp.  That gave the guys a fun time shooting at that big old bugger!  He too lived to see another day.

Ok, now to the point of this writing!  You thought the story was the point?  Not this time.  Just some fun times to share.  The point for this writing is where do the deer come from that winter in the Crawfords?

I have been told by some very reliable sources that most of the deer that spend their time in the Crawfords during the winter come from as far away as the Wind River Range near central Wyoming.  A long distance to travel, but not un-heard of for animals to migrate that far.  I recently discovered on line, where the fish and game of Wyoming have been conducting some extensive studies on animal migrations.  They have teamed up with local folks, oil interests, hunters, livestock people and more, collared a bunch of deer, antelope, elk and moose and followed their travels for several years.  Their study is far from over and what they are finding out is amazing.  Some of these animals, especially deer and antelope are moving extremely long distances between their summer and winter ranges!  BUT…closer to home…The Crawford Range, the migration map shows those animals come almost straight South down the border between Idaho and Wyoming and then into Utah.

(Deer are purple, Antelope are yellow)

That puts their summer ranges in and around the Star Valley area of the Bridger Teton National Forest of Wyoming and the Caribou National Forest in Idaho.

So, what’s the point in all of this?  I guess just to clarify what I’ve been telling everyone for years was not true!  I’ll admit I did not do any research on my own when told what I was told, I just took it as fact and ran with it.

Bears Butt

November 23, 2015

Well, well, well….a week later my WordPress system will finally let me post the picture I wanted to put up on the last posting….

Today is Conners last day to try and bag his buck with a center fire rifle.  Last year it was the same way and it turned out very good with him bagging a very nice 2X2 buck.  Today?  Well it all remains to be seen.  The bucks have been getting hammered.  Daily I would see friends bagging some fine bucks and I must say a lot of them have been 4X4’s.

When you talk to people about why so many big bucks….They are all patting themselves on the back.  The DWR managers say…It’s our management of the herds that is doing it.  The SFW….It’s because we convinced the DWR to go to the 26 Unit hunting breakdown.   The DWR Biologists….It’s because of the wet spring and mild winter.  The hunters themselves….Well, it’s because I missed him last year because of my hangover and the fact that the sun was in my eyes and my gun was dropped and the scope wasn’t tight on the mounts and my kid was bouncing in the back of the truck and my wife was yelling at me to get her another beer out of the cooler and my buddy sitting next to her was telling me it wasn’t a big enough buck anyway and the game warden in the truck behind us was saying he was going to give me a ticket for not getting off the road and the guys in the other truck were honking for me to move my truck so they could get by and the the guy on the hill next to the buck was yelling that he had already hit it and that he was going to kick my butt if I shot one more time……

I say it is because of the media being what it is, people like to brag and so they can reach out to more of an audience (and they are).  I think it is the same every year and just this year more and more of them are able to post up the pictures of their really nice bucks……even the spikes are nice to me.  But I must say I have seen some very nice “Anderson 30’s” posted up AND I might add, some with inline extra points and kickers out the sides.  You don’t see those all the time.

Call it how you will, management, wet spring, non-profit intervention or just plain last years missed shots….there seems to be a lot of bucks on the mountain this year.  My hope for today is that there is still “ONE MORE” just for Conner to tag.

I have only been able to get my hands dirty cutting up a part of one buck and it was a pleasure to do.  I miss the processing of a whole deer….come on Conner!  Put the big one down!

More to come!  Check back later.

Bears Butt

October 24, 2015

The next day:

We had a great day afield yesterday.  Arrived at our place at the perfect time.  Lots of road warriors out getting to their spots as well.  When the light got just right we were slowly winding our way up the road and deer seemed to be out in almost every direction.  But nothing with antlers!  We traveled up past the riparian area, down the road to Pelican drive, up around Buck mountain and everywhere we went there were deer…but no antlers.  The crowds were much thinner than they were last Saturday, only about 1/3 as many out hunting.  So we occasionally had our choice of ridges and/or saddles we could sit and glass.  Last weekend there were no places like that.  As we made our way down toward the push pockets two deer suddenly appeared in front of us.  We glassed them to see nothing but skin heads and then as quick a a wink, three more deer came up over the rise.  The one in the back was a buck!  Conner unleashed his inner most feelings toward filling the freezer with meat….This buck is goin down!

Well, as he was loading the rifle and flipping off the scope covers (his nemesis from last weekend), I was glassing and calling out the play by play as the buck changed positions within the small herd of 5 deer.  The deer continued to move down the ridge to our left and the buck stayed pretty much to the rear of the line.  I pulled my glasses down to see what Conner was up to and ask myself why he hadn’t put the buck down when I could see he was still trying to get a shell into the chamber.

Not being that familiar with how a suppository rifle works, he thought the chambering of the round was too tight and that he needed to eject that shell and try to get the next one to chamber.  That caused him to have two shells trying to load at the same time.  Needless to say he didn’t get a round chambered and the buck went on down the hill into the trees never to be seen again.

BUT, there was a very unique thing about that buck….It was obviously one that Dry Dog had shot at during the muzz hunt several weeks ago as it only had an antler on one side.  Yes it was a spike, but with only one antler sticking up.  We called it a “Unique  Horn” (Unicorn) buck!

We continued to make our circle and drive the roads according to our plan until it came time to make a decision as to the final route home.  We made a big change and decided to go toward Logan Canyon and drive the Sinks road, a place we have not been in over 10 years.  We drove on some newly made roads and it was obvious why they made the new roads in one stretch alongside Elk Valley…Washed out roads!  It made for a somewhat interesting trip through there.  Then the road turned into its ugly old self as we made our way up past Nebeker Springs,  Government Springs and finally to the Sinks road just off Temple Flat….The road at that point turned into something I would have expected in California but not Utah.  A smooth flat road with only two bumps along the stretch from Temple to Highway 89.  Tons of recreational atv/utv riders to add to our enjoyment and an occasional rider/driver clad in pumpkin orange.   I had high hopes of seeing some of Anderson’s 30 inchers, but we didn’t see any deer until we were almost to the Logan Canyon summit.

By days end, we counted 57 deer with one sporting an antler!

Until next time!  That is pretty much it for the deer hunt(s) this year!  Good luck in the drawing for next years big game hunts!

Bears Butt

October 25, 2015

AHHHH!  The opening day of Utahs “any legal weapon” deer season!  Back in the day there was only one opening day for deer season and we would have upwards of 200,000 people combing the hills for that one big buck!  There were no rules on where you could hunt, except for the posted no trespassing areas and hunters all over the state would find their one and only best spot to be sitting come opening morning.  From my perch high up on the hill I could look out and see all the other hunters doing exactly what I was doing….sitting and watching for the movement of “my” buck.  The hills were dotted with blaze orange dots.  Every ridge, every point, every saddle….every where!  Some coined it as a “pumpkin patch”…..

That was opening morning back then.  But when Utah DWR decided we needed to separate the archers and muzzleloader guys from the rest of the pack, they made two additional seasons using those instruments of destruction.  I, along with many others opted to go with the muzzy gun, and then things changed….for the better I might add.  A change that didn’t really effect the deer hurd, but the change in the number of people in the field hunting.  Over time Utahs DWR have made a ton more changes, some good and some bad, depending on who you are talking to.  I have my feelings and thoughts on those changes, but unless I want to get off my butt and go to a bunch of meetings and spend my time and money trying to get things changed to how I feel about “it”, I have to just go along with what is decided and make the best of what is out there….or….I could just quit hunting all together….I ain’t gonna do that.

One of the biggest changes of late, and by late I mean the last 5 years or so…is to break the state up into a bunch of separate units, bounded by key roads, rivers and/or state boundaries and force the hunters to apply for one unit of choice.  Of course the best units are reserved for applying for “limited entry” into those areas for a special treat in hunting experience.  I’ve enjoyed hunting in a couple of those places and it was a treat for sure.  So, unless you get to draw one of those units, you have to apply to hunt with the rest of the “savages” who also like to hunt.  There are a lot of rules to follow and we all do our best to keep within the boundaries of those rules….best we can.

Well, one special rule in place today, is for youth hunters.  If you are a youth hunter in Utah under the age of 18 AND you draw an “any weapon” tag, you can hunt during the archery hunt using a bow and arrow to try and fill your tag.  Should that season end and you still have your tag in your pocket, you are then allowed to hunt during the muzzleloader season, using of course a muzzleloading rifle.  And like the archery season, should the muzz season end and you still have your tag in your pocket, you are then allowed to participate in the “any legal weapon” season and get to play with the remaining hunting savages in the state.  This is that day!

Let’s look at some stats from this year.  I won’t look up the archery tags for the area we are hunting because there are tons of those.  The thought process behind allowing a whole bunch of tags for every area in the state is that the archers can’t hit crap with their arrows and so let them have as many tags as they can muster up to share a camp with.  My thoughts on that are changing the more I get to know archery season and the state of the art equipment some of them are using.  That’s another story.  So, our unit is not one of the coveted units in the state but it does cover a lot of ground.  One of the largest in the state.  For muzzy hunters the state came up with about 1200 (rounded up) tags as the number to try and draw a tag from.  There were also about 2500 people who applied for those tags.  During that season we saw an abundance of hunters.  Like Crock said about his hunt last year….(not an exact quote)…”Ya, the DWR said when asked by hunters, ‘where can I find a place to hunt in this unit that isn’t posted’?   You go out to X place, look for the brown ford with 5 guys in it, park and stay close to where they are and you will surely see deer”!  To say the least it seemed like all the 1200 tag holders for our unit were camped and hunting at or near where we have been hunting for the last 15 years.

Well, Conner hasn’t used his tag yet and today is his next to the last day he can hunt this season.  We hope to repeat last years success, by seeing him use his tag today, but he will have to do it among the 3600 tag holders who drew the any legal weapon tag for this area.  Donned with our blaze orange (I hate blaze orange) vests and hats, we will be there among the pumpkin boys and girls dotting the hills.  Our problem is finding a point or hill top to sit on that isn’t already being sat on by someone else.  Someone who has sat on that spot their entire lives on the opening of Utah’s deer season.

put a picture of a pumpkin patch here when the software will allow….just sayin!

Wish us luck and there will be more to be said later right here on this very post….just look beyond the date and my name below!

Bears Butt

October 17, 2015

After the Day:

We got away promptly at 5 a.m., just like I like it.  Stopped a couple of times and made it to our area right on time.  The daybreak was perfect…partly cloudy skys and rather warm for this time of year.  But we know a storm is on its way.

On the way in we saw a fox run across the road in front of us…a headlight fox…nothing you can do but say…”Hey!  There’s a fox”!!!  And it’s gone.  During the day we saw a Great Horned owl, 5 or 6 moose and 38 deer!  One of which was a very respectable buck!

Conner spotted the buck high on a ridge and it was coming down the hill towards us.  At that point we were not sure it was a buck, but soon I saw horn and told Conner to load up and get ready.  Now here is a 14 year old, soon to be 15, who has only shot muzzleloaders his whole life…yes, he shot a buck last year with this same rifle he had in his hands this morning, but he just hasn’t had enough range time to know the rifle very well.  He had a little bit of a problem getting the bolt to go back far enough to chamber a round.  And then the scope covers were a trial.  Once ready for the shot he couldn’t find the deer through the scope.  The buck stopped broadside on the hill above us at about 200 yards.  Wide open and waited patiently for the shot and the ride home….but…it ran out of patience and trotted off.  How big was it you ask?  Well, we were not into counting points at that time, but I thought it was a smallish 4 point, while Weasel thought it a big 3 point.  Either way it had a spread about the width of the ears and just as high.  A very nice buck in most anyone’s book.  Oh and for you Dry Dog, it was just down the road from the riparian area!

So there you have the nutshell version of the days events….lots of deer…lots of people…pumpkin patch for sure.  A truck on every ridge, a man on every saddle…things have not changed in the 30 some years since I last spent an opener on the mountain.

A very interesting thing happened while we were hunting.  We saw two deer come over a ridge and come our way only to stop before they actually got across the draw between us.  There was a smallish patch of buck brush on that hill and they went into it but didn’t come out.  One was acting very “buckish”, and so we made our way in that direction.  Before we even left the truck, we saw two hunters come over the hill top from the direction those two deer came from and they were hunting their way down toward us.  We decided to just position Conner in a spot he could take a shot if one of the two deer was a buck.

In the picture, the brush just over Conners head is where the two deer went.  The hunters came down the hill toward the brush and angled slightly to our right.  As they first came into view, one of the deer, a doe, busted out and went up the hill toward the two hunters and then stopped in a very small patch of brush to the side of them.  The hunters continued to decent the hill right past the doe.  She held tight and let the hunters pass…once passed, she booked it up over the top….the hunters had no clue.

As they continued down the hill in their slow decent, looking left and right, up and down, soon they were within 20 yards of the brush where the second deer was still hiding.  We could not see the deer, but we did not see it come out either.  I prepared myself to make the hike up to flush it out if it didn’t come out while the two hunters were there.

The hunters continued in a perfect pattern down and across the top of the brush…not 10 yards from the middle of the brush.  When they were about 10 yards to the right and above the brush the deer came out in one bound and stopped!  We glassed it intently, expecting to see antlers…but it was a fawn!  Dang it!  The hunters continued to move from our left to right and away from the brush.  Again, like the doe above, they had no clue there was a deer anywhere near them, and all the time the fawn stood motionless as they marched past it.  When the fawn felt it was safe, it bounded one time back to where it had been laying and laid back down!

I have heard of stories of big bucks doing that exact same thing, but until today, I had never witnessed it!  Sure it was a fawn, but it could have been mister Charlie Rack!

Shortly after this we were on a ridge above all of the commotion, with trucks parked next to trucks and guys out slamming doors and talking loudly etc. etc. etc.  And I looked down and there stood 5 deer!  Almost exactly in the middle of the may-lay!  Here is my take on it and I’m just as guilty as the next guy!

People are stupid….Deer (animals in general) are smart!

Bears Butt

Today is planned to take another item off my bucket list.  Seems like a hundred years ago was the last time I was seriously hiking in the area shown in this picture.  Well, when I was a teenager I hiked the heck out of this place and got to know it pretty well.  I never saw anything but deer, coyotes and an occasional other critter pretty much usual to the area in there but since the DWR started entertaining us with elk, many, many years ago, I can’t help but think there are some elk in this place by now.

So, today, Conner and I will be taking a hike down through there looking around and maybe I can show him some of the things I remember being there.

The last time in here I was about 25 and I took my bride of maybe two years up there and showed here what was left of an old cabin.  At the time it was just some jumbled up boards and an old cook stove (Monarch brand if I recall right).  Whoever took it in there worked their tails off because it isn’t a flat climb or decent.  I marked the picture with about where it is according to my recall recollector.

A flat spot just under the pines.  One might say it’s “purdy”.

Another favorite spot where I really think the elk might be hiding holds water, shade, cover, food and everything else a wary old elk would want in its life.  It is a flat zone surrounded by steep slopes above it and a very unforgiving steep hill below.  There is a seep of water against the far hill that feed a small oval pond near the end of the flat.  I’m hoping it holds water today and if it doesn’t I hope to show Conner just where it is for future hunts in his life.

It’s been a long time coming and I’m sure it will be my last time visiting this place, but as long as he is willing to entertain me today, we will visit both spots.

At the same time, he has his bow permit to be able to take a deer and if he waits until we have visited both spots before he shoots one that would suit me just fine.

So, we plan on being above this place just at first light and then make the hike down into it and spend the day.  His dad, Weasel will pick us up at the bottom and hopefully we will be dragging a big old buck!

Later!

Bears Butt

October 15, 2o15

Well, we made it back from the top of the mountain but I have to admit, my 66 years has caught up with me.  My feet are killing me, I have a blister on top of my second toe and my hips (both sides) won’t let me straighten up when I try and stand.  Does that tell you something?

But enough about that, let’s get on with the story!

Weasel and Conner were prompt to pick me up at 5:30 a.m. and off we went.  The road up to the basin is in very bad shape.  If you have half a mind to take a car up there you best rethink that idea.  You might get there and you might not but just trying will destroy the car.  We arrived at the basin sign at exactly daylight.  We had time to eat a hard boiled egg and then get our backpacks on before it was light enough to see to shoot.  There was a 4 wheeler parked there as well and it had two guys on it when it passed us half way up the mountain.  We had no idea which direction they may have gone.

We said our goodbys to Weasel and headed down our trail.  Weasel continued on down the main road toward Inspiration Point.  Why not?  He was that close and might as well go have a look around.  As Conner and I walked down the trail we came across the two guys that were on the atv.  They were hunting the same place we were.  When we got to them I said, “What’s the chance that on this whole mountain, two hunters decide to hunt the same area at the same time”?  They said they were just looking around at that point and for us to go on down the trail.  I assured them we would be off the mountain soon as we had plans to go down to White Rock.  A quick wave and off we went.

We hadn’t gone more than 300 yards and here came one of the local guys on his ATV.  He is up there camping and is trying to spot a big buck before the opening day.  He was up early and scouting all day.  We chatted and then off he went down the road to his look out place.  Conner and I continued to trudge along at our pace.  Looking for deer, elk or whatever.  We spotted a Blue Grouse but left it alone as we were not in that mode to kill it.  Soon we found ourselves at the mine at the end of the road.

That mine has been closed for some time and the University of Utah has converted it to a Seismographic station.

It gets its power through a cable running down from a solar collector.

After leaving the mine, we caught back up with the local spotter and stopped to chat a bit with him.  He had a few deer spotted and a cow and calf moose as well (actually Conner spotted the moose).  Nothing he would shoot however.  He is a horn hunter and nothing under a 4X4 will do for him and then it would have to be a BIG one at that.  As we chatted we spotted several deer below us and 3 of them were small bucks.  Luckily for them the terrain in nearly vertical and brushy, so we continued on our way around the mountain.

A bit of a sad story came to light just a few more hundred yards down the trail.  Seems that back in 2003 a young man was driving his truck down this same trail and as he drove the trail became more and more narrow until suddenly his truck rolled off the mountain and killed him.  We found this memorial marker alongside the trail.

A sad thing to come across.  Looking down to where the truck would have come to rest were more pieces of it still down there, even though the main parts have been taken down by helicopters in the recent past.

Well, again we proceeded to head to where we wanted to go when Conner spotted a big bull moose below us.

And later we were within about 50 yards of it.

This big boy had 10 or 11 points on each palm and the width was well over 40 inches.  One very big moose.  But, he was going where we wanted to go!  So we had to alter our plans a bit.  No sense getting gored by a moose.  We stayed high and still managed to get into the area where I remember seeing a cabin 50 some years ago.

We were almost to the flat where the cabin is when I spotted what I thought was a VERY BIG BUCK!  I told Conner, GRAB AN ARROW!  Then I turned to range the distance.  It was a monster of a buck looking right at us.  I could see a bit of its right side but only the tips of a couple of the tines from its left side sticking out from the quakie it was standing behind.  Then I saw it turn its head and the distinct palm of a moose showed itself broadside.  Dang!  Had my heart pumping good.  Conner said he was just about to draw back as he had a very good open lane right to its vitals.  From the close distance it was to us he also saw it was a moose when it turned.

So, this was a different moose than the one we had seen just a few hundred yards further up the hill.  This one had a nice palm on the right side but the left side was two distinct long curving tines that came right from the antler base at his head.  The two points followed the curvature of the palm side perfectly and looking straight on it you would have thought it was a normal every day big bull moose.  But when it turned sideways there was not mistake it was a freak of nature.  I whispered to Conner that where that moose was standing is about where I expected to see the cabin remains.  And so we circled around the moose and I was hoping it would trot off when it winded us….no luck…we almost completely circled it (a good 100 yards away) and it stood right there and turned in a circle watching us.  So we gave up on trying to find any part of the cabin.  We were very close to it but didn’t see anything even through the binocs.  Time to move on…Big boy might get mad.

Well, following the terrain of the hillside, we made our way out of the cabin flat area and started toward the bowl.  I looked to my right and there was something metal!  My words were “The cabin”, while all the time I knew it wasn’t any part of the cabin.  We made our way down to it and found the old remains of a mine near where this thing was.

And the grown over remains of the mine entrance behind Conner.

When we were satisfied at seeing this old treasure, we continued on our way to the upper end of the bowl.  I felt the best view of the bowl would be from near the South end of it and so we continued to traverse the hillside and worked our way over to a look over point.  The oak brush is so thick and tall we didn’t have much of a view, but we needed to take a break and so we just picked this spot and took off our packs for a little kipper break!

I took a 3 picture panoramic view of what we were seeing below us:

The middle picture shows clearly there is a ridge across it as it blocks the view of the valley below.  I was hoping we would find the water that I know is down there and with the water I was also hoping we would find some deer and elk.  Even tracks would be nice.

After our break we dropped into the bowl for a look around and to work our way down and out toward White Rock.  By this time my legs were beginning to hurt.  The hike had been all down hill to this point and going down hill really is hard on my knees.

In the oak trees this was the view.

You can see about 50 yards in every direction and it really makes for an interesting hike.  Slow and easy, hoping we would see some critters.  We did find where the small pond had been back in the day, but it had filled and washed out its natural dike sometime way back when, but the water was still seeping down the hill side.  Not many tracks of critters however and that was surprising to me.  I expected to see an elk wallow and lots and lots of tracks….just a few deer tracks was all we saw.

Well, by now it is hot even in the shade and so we just started hiking out.  I’d seen what I came to see….well not the cabin exactly, but close….As we hiked out we came to a trail made by some 4 wheelers and found this hat stuck in a tree.

Are you missing this hat?  It’s still there!

And as we got closer to White Rock, Conner was surprised at just how big it really is.

At White Rock I called Weasel and told him we were working our way down towards Hogs Back if he had time to pick us up.  By this time all I wanted to do was get on some flat ground.  This down hill hiking was really beating me up bad.  It seemed like forever before we hit the flat ground around Hogs Back and sat down in the shade waiting for our ride.

A very memorable hike and I hope Conner had as much fun as I did.  Too bad we didn’t see anything to shoot, but maybe it was a good thing that didn’t happen.  We did find 4 turkey feathers and heard one clucking off in the distance.  That was one of the things I was hoping we would come across.  Now I know there are turkeys in that area.

So, cross that one off the list!  I’m done!  And I think tonight is going to include some hot tub time!

Bears Butt

My obsession with one buck started during the bow hunt while accompanying Weasel, Conner and Squirrel.  We saw a very nice 3 point but could not get on it for a shot with the bow and it ran around the bend in the mountain.  Later on we were way across the canyon and took a moment to glass in the direction that 3 point had gone.  I saw it in a hollow filled with buck brush and tall sage but it wasn’t alone!  With it was a very big buck that dwarfed that 3 point.  How many points it had I will never know as my optics are not that good nor powerful.  But I knew it was a very big buck…wide and tall.

Later in the hunt we saw another big buck that in my mind was the same one we had seen days earlier.  It was running with two nice 4 point bucks and the size of its body and massive antlers again dwarfed the other two bucks.  The haunting began in my mind….I will be on that spot come the opening day of the muzz hunt.  My dreams were filled with the vision of that one buck as it crossed the hill ahead of us and lead those other two bucks away.

On a later bow hunt Weasel and I were in town gassing up before heading up to the camp for one last attempt to fill his tag and I spoke to a camo clad young man who was in the store buying his breakfast….How is your hunt going?  Fine.  Where you camped?  Up on Monte.  Are you seeing anything worth taking?  Ya, but nothing like the one we took out of New Canyon a week or so ago.  One of the guys tagged a 31 incher…………..

My heart sank.  That was most likely the buck that has been haunting me in my dreams.  Could there be two such bucks in existence in that canyon?  I sort of doubt it, but I maintained my position that I will be at that spot come opening day of the muzz season.

So, Weasel and I took his trailer up to the camp the Friday before the hunt.  Dry Dog had some issues with his camp trailer and even though he was going to convoy with us that day, he had to delay until later in the day to take his trailer up.  That delay on his part was actually a good thing for us as we had been working on a gag to pull on him for about a year.  Here is the gag:

We saved the skin of Weasels deer from last year, acquired a very badly damaged 3D archery deer target, placed a heavy piece of metal swinging in the kill zone of that target, I cut off the antlers from Edjukateers deer and attached them to the 3D deer to add reality to its appearance and then we put the saved skin over the body and decided we would place it strategically on the hill just outside of camp.  Our thoughts were on road hunters coming and going down the road.  They would spot the fake animal on the hill and then take a shot at it.  Hitting the “gong” would cause it to ring loudly and with us sitting in camp we would jump and yell with joy.  With Dry Dog coming up later, we had time to set the phony deer up.  From our camp below

the deer really looked “BAD”…and by that I mean it didn’t look real at all, but from a small window between two quaky

trees next to the road it looked somewhat believable.

This is going to be fun!

Before we left the mountain we laid the fake deer down and left it on the mountain.  We will set it back up on Wednesday (opening day) afternoon and hope Dry Dog sees it and takes a shot.

Tuesday was slow to come and of course my list of things to take on the hunt were not without some concern.  Had I packed that crossed off item in the trailer we took up last Friday?  Always a bit of doubt that I had actually put it in the trailer, and still I had a lot of stuff to take up this day.

Weasel will have a similar load of stuff to take as well and what about Hot Spark and Squirrel?  They too will have stuff to take.  Will we have room for it all in Weasels truck?

Well we did and we found ourselves at camp about 2 p.m. and I transferred my sleeping stuff from Weasels camper into Dry Dogs…my home away from home for the next 5 days.  The excitement of the hunt is always there much like that found in a child’s eye on Christmas Day.  The camp filled up quickly with other hunters and their rigs, everyone sharing that same excitement.

I don’t always get around to taking pictures as people arrive and this year was no exception even though I took nearly 200 pictures.  These two ya-hoos always get a picture taken!  Gatlin and his son Gunner!  Two regulars at the hunt and always ready to cook up the first evenings meal…Jambalaya!   This year they had a little help!  Weasel and Squirrel jumped in to assist!

And as usual the meal was WONDERFUL!  We even had left overs that we ate a couple days later for lunch!  Even better after is sits a day or so!

Well, we hit the rack about 9 that evening and my mind was racing with the chance at that BIG BOY in the morning.  My internal alarm went off about 4 a.m. and I laid there dreaming about that buck until the actual alarm went off at 4:30!  I was up and ready!  Magpie and Dry Dog were not sharing in my excitement but put up with my rumbling and clanking and finally got up about 5.

In the mountains at this time of year it gets light enough to see your sights just before 7 a.m. and I wanted to be at my spot and hiding well before that minute.  I left camp on my atv (toy) at 6 a.m. and travelled the 4 miles in the dark.

Sitting at my spot waiting for the light, I had lots of time to think about this tradition we call hunting.  About how I was taught to hunt and to utilize the animals taken.  Trophy hunting never has been a big deal in my family, we are all opportunists…if it’s within ethical range…is legal to take…it is in trouble!  This morning will be no different.  The first legal animal that comes within my range, I’ll be shooting (at).

What a wonderful start to a great day and a great hunt.  No matter what comes or doesn’t come along this scene can not be taken away.  And the beautiful sunrise that followed!

We could not have asked for a better day to hunt!  Not too warm and absolutely no rain in the forecast!  We can handle that.

One thing that was different this year was the fact that a substantial number of our group had put in for and drawn the LaSal unit down in the Moab area…Wapiti Dung, No Grimace, Edjukateer, Sackless, Baby Boy, Softball, Tracker and Bones…so far from our camp, but in their own doing exactly what we were doing….enjoying the day and the season!

Moab…235 miles South!

But even though they went South and we stayed up North, we still had a bet going as to which group would bag the most points.  This bet was for 30 beers and on Friday morning when Weasel and I took his camp trailer into the mountain we found this sign waiting for us down at the bottom of the road, just out of town.

Well, as the morning got brighter and brighter my eyes were scanning the area around me for any sign of that big buck that had filled my dreams for all these weeks.  I did manage to see 6 buck deer that morning while I sat there, but none close enough for a shot.  As I sat there I decided that my next morning’s stand would be over to the South of where I was about 500 yards.  I had seen a line of 5 small bucks go up the ridge and even though I tried to get ahead of them by going around the hill behind me, I never saw them again.  About 10 a.m., it was getting pretty warm and I had decided I might as well go on back toward camp.  Most likely the deer were bedded down by now and to continue to sit there would be a total waste of time.  My big buck dream wasn’t going to happen this day, at least not in this spot.  I hiked back to the toy and headed down the road back toward camp.

In my travel I decided to go down a two track road I had never been on before.  Today would be a good day to drive down it and have a look around.  It’s in an area of nothing but tall sage brush and even though in the past we had seen a deer or two in this area from a distance we just didn’t think it looked like it would hold any buck deer.  That is why we never went down that road.  I was spending a lot of time behind my binoculars on this trip because I figured the sage was definitely tall enough to hide a deer laying down and besides, once I’m back at camp there would not be any chance to shoot a buck.  At one point I came upon a lone cedar tree out among the sage and I thought I could see a deer’s neck sticking out from the base of it.  It just didn’t look right to me.

I thought to myself, You know Butt, you might as well walk over there and take a closer look!  I gathered up my stuff, put a cap on my nipple and started a slow and deliberate quiet walk toward that lone cedar.  About a 200 yard walk through the noisy dry sage.  I did my best to use the cover of the land to keep me somewhat hidden and did my utmost best to be as quiet as I could.  Soon I was within 50 yards of the tree and I hadn’t seen anything move.  I pulled the hammer back to half cock and slowly moved toward the tree.  Now I was without any cover at all, just short sage and yellow grass.  About 40 yards out three deer suddenly appeared out of nowhere….doe…doe…BUCK!  There stood a very nice 4X4 staring right at me!  I cocked the hammer and took aim.  I was going to plunk him right in the head if need be and then he turned and started to run, quartering from my left to my right and climbing up a slight hill.  Two more bounds and he would go over the rise and disappear!  I had my bead on his shoulder and I touched off the round!  BOOM!  I saw the disheartening puff of dust come from the opposite hill behind him….my round went high!  I said a few off colored words at this point and reloaded.  I never saw that buck again!

Meanwhile, back at camp:

It just wouldn’t be right not to put some kidding on the Dog!  He has a fine “shelf” of a belly that allows him to keep both hands free!  Free for talking and waiving his hands whether telling a story while eating or drinking a cold one!

THAT is funny stuff right there!

Back to the story:

Well, here I am on the morning of the second day, once again enjoying a very fine morning.  I’m set up just under the ridge awaiting the bucks that went past that way yesterday morning.

And the view I was watching after the sun came up:

I hunted this area every day of the hunt, either in the morning or the evening (or both) and only one time did I not see at least one buck.  It’s funny how we have gone some 15 years hunting in this area and NEVER bothered going into there to hunt.  Goes to show you just how little we know (or think we know) about deer hunting!

Another interesting thing I observed on this hunt was the increasing population of moose.  Bulls, cows and calves!  Some of them in my pictures might be the same ones being seen in different areas, but I’m not entirely sure of that.  The bulls look too much different to me.

This is a very good sign.  Years ago we used to see many moose and then a disease went through the hurd and killed a bunch of them.  The come back is more than welcome in my eyes.

And as with all our hunts the fun we have is why we keep coming back.  Traditions like handing out mementoes to hang off our beaver sharns showing the year of the hunt…silver forks, kill jugs, pennies and the list goes on.  Dry Dog and Half Cocked handed out kill jugs and Cancer awareness mementoes:

We shared our camp with everyone who wanted to stop by and swap stories and lies.  30 inch bucks seemed to be everywhere over in the Temple Flat area, according to one guy I won’t mention his name!  (input smiley face here)  We saw bucks hanging in nearly every camp around and one very nice impressive buck hung in one camp (still not the buck of my dreams), but impressive none the less.

We talked to people who were having just as much fun as us, but you know what….Nobody stopped and shot at our fake deer up on the hill.  We won’t do that again, but in Weasel and my minds it should have been a very fun happening for the road hunters.  OH!  Muzzleloader people don’t road hunt….They Spot and Stock!  Bow hunters “Spot and Stalk” because they need to get close.  Muzzy guys “Spot and Stock”….see the buck, jump out and put the stock to your shoulder and fire!

And when someone shot a buck and brought it back to camp, they got to “enjoy” the taste of the kill jug!

No kill jug for 3 Guns, but I think someone gave him a Spicey V-8!

The kids seemed to have a great time on this hunt as well.  Squirrel was trying to fill his quota of grouse but was unsuccessful.  Grouse are not that easy for a beginning shotgunner!

But not all of the grouse got away!  Kenzie tagged her first one while we were working our way back toward camp after picking her and Conner up at Hardware Ranch on Friday evening.

How sweet is that!  And she took care of the dirty work back at camp too!  Great job Kenzie!

This is a little trick on taking care of grouse taught to us by Hunter several years ago!  And now I’d like to show you all the difference between the size of the breast of Kenzies Blue Grouse and one of Weasels Ruff Grouse:

But not all the critters that could have been shot were shot, or even shot at!  Here are a couple that were too cute!

Up on a peak I won’t name because it would spoil it for you if you were Geo-caching, the kids found a geo-cache.  We signed our names in the book and left a few tokens for the next folks who find it.

And on that same spot we couldn’t help but take a few pictures of the scenery around us.

Times like these just don’t get much better!  It seems like the more you see the more you want to see!  And see we did!  Deer by the hundreds!  Moose, Antelope, Badgers, Squirrels galore, Grouse, Eagles, Hawks, Elk, and people!  Here is an overhead view of the first evenings road hunters below us!

It’s hard to see, but there are 5 trucks down there in the road!  And that was just the little section of road I could see from where I was.  Lots of people are out for the muzz hunt these days.  It wasn’t long back we would go hunting and never see a muzzy hunter that wasn’t from our camp.  Times are changing!

Again, some things might be changing, but some things still remain the same!  Good times, Good people and Good food!

Gatlin and Gunner enjoying a BUNCH of hot sauce on their pork chops and Milo enjoying liver and onions for the first time!  Again no pictures, but Milo got to taste Sweet Breads for his first time too and kept getting back into line until they were all gone!

And so it goes.  You wait and wait 365 days for the hunt to finally get here and it is over before you know it!  You can’t wait to get back home for that long awaited shower and a good nights rest.  It is then you realize just how much you have abused your body for the last 5 days!  But you will be back next year to DO IT AGAIN!

So, the Northern Boys (girl too) had a team of shooters competing against the Southern Boys shooting team.  Northern hunters were:  Crock, Gatlin, Gunner, Jessica and Bears Butt…..between us 5 hunters we killed a total of ZERO bucks and our score of ZERO shows that!

The Southern hunters were:  No Grimace, Wapiti Dung, Edjukateer, Baby Boy and Sackless.  They killed 3 bucks!

No Grimace and his buck: 2X3 (5 points)

Sackless’ Buck:  1X1 (2 points)

Edjukateers Buck:  4X3 (9 points counting eye guards)

So, for the North VS South Bet, the South beat the North by 16 big fat points!  Congratulations guys!  WE OWE THEM 30 BEERS!  Name your poison boys!

When you think about it, that bet kept both camps together in a way via social media (it just seemed the “streaming” was coming mostly from the south).  It was fun to see the pictures once we hit an area where we got coverage!  Just another way to have fun and even for the folks back at home!

We had another year of safe hunting, good food and lots of laughs!  I got a chuckle out of seeing this:

Just one of those things, “You should have been there” to really appreciate it.  Clankity, Bangity, Bongity!  But they made it!

When the main hunt ended about noon on Sunday, Weasel and Dry Dog decided they would leave their trailers in the mountains until the following Wednesday and would come up and get them at that time.  Crock and his gang were going to keep hunting until the hunt ended on Thursday and so we headed down the mountain.  Weasel and I made a plan to come back up before daylight on Wednesday morning and hunt the day, stay that night, hunt Thursday morning and then pull the trailer home.  An extended day trip if you will!

So, Wednesday morning found us in the mountains at the perfect light time of 7 a.m., it didn’t take long to spot a nice little 2 point high on a ridge and I took a short hike to try and close the distance.  I was about to shoot it about 80 yards ahead when it had other things on its mind and took off.  Later on, we saw another buck and it didn’t take but a thousandth of a second to see antlers on it!  High, wide and massive!  I was on it at about 80 yards, as it was moving fast across a sage brush flat seeking heavier cover.  I was on my knee with a good solid rest when I shot and I truly expected the buck to drop.  My sights were solid and pointed at his quartering away rib cage.  Where the ball hit is anyones guess, but I cleanly missed it.  Another very nice 4X4!  We stayed with it for the next hour and had one more chance for a shot.  Again about 80 yards out as it stood broadside on a ridge, but the tops of some quaky trees kept me from shooting.  The last time we saw it, it was standing just inside the tree line about 300 yards away.  We made a move with the vehicle and closed that distance to about 100 yards.  My job was to get out of the truck and sneak to a place for a shot, while Weasel drove the truck down the road.  I stopped my sneak to watch an opening I felt the buck would walk through but never saw it again.

On the last morning of the hunt we counted 46 does and fawns and not one buck could be seen!

Meanwhile, in Cocks company they were killing bucks!

Chris tagged his first with a muzzy!  Nice 2 point!  I hate to say it Chris, but with that one antler shot off it looks like a close call from one of Dry Dogs bullets that almost got him ahead of you.

And Terry bagged number 2 for himself!  Another fine 2 point!

When you put it all together I’d say we had one heck of a successful hunt!  I can’t help but think about all the 2 points I saw, which was well over 30 and did not get a chance for a shot and yet to run into 2 bucks that were at least 4 points and to get a shot at both of them is amazing.  Edjukateer should be happy about my poor shooting because that second buck would have de-throned him quickly from the biggest buck contest!

Next year!

As a parting story:  Muskrat would put a hat into the pot for the winner of the camp biggest buck contest and so we did it this year too.  We decided we needed everyone who was in camp or came into camp needed to sign it as well.  These are pictures of that hat after it was awarded to Dry Dog for having the biggest buck.

The funnest signature on it spells : Squrrial  (Squirrel)  Only a 9 year old would figure that one out.

Congrats to all on your fine kills!

Bears Butt

October 4, 2015

It has taken me some time to finally get around to downloading my pictures from Weasel and my second attempt to fill his archery tag.  We decided to go up on Thursday afternoon and come home Saturday afternoon.  Time was pressing to get it done and of course we have our home obligations.  The mountains this time of year are really spectacular and this time was not exception.  We did have a full moon to deal with and the animals were behaving oddly, at least to us they were.

We chose to hunt lower than we did with the boys as we felt the deer might have moved down.  Every hunter has his choice and this was ours.

Some of you will recognize this spot, right across the road from Monkey Dink camp.  High and dry, no shade, but still a great central location.  From here we can hunt up or down and there is always a chance of spotting something right from camp.

There was a slight chance for some moisture and there had been a storm move through there the past couple of days.  Lots of trees were downed and we had some concern that there might be trees across the road here and there and we didn’t bring our chain saw.  But as things worked out we didn’t need it.

We didn’t see as many deer on this trip as we did when the boys were with us but we did manage to see a few pretty nice ones.  On this trip we had an evening hunt, a full day and a morning hunt.  With only that many hours to work with we had to make the best of every minute.  The morning sun came up through a partly cloudy sky and it was a pretty one at that.  We had to get an early start.

As it got lighter and lighter we found ourselves in a spot we wanted to be when it was light enough to be able to see the sights on the bow and shoot.  A very nice day was in store for us.  Down the road a ways we ran into a guy and his six year old son standing next to the road.  We stopped to offer assistance and he said he had just shot a buck and was looking for it.  We moved our rig off to the side of the road so as not to block it and offered our services to help him.

I know a lot of guys would have just gone on down the road but there seems to be a camaraderie among archers and helping out is always a thing that needs to be done.  As we got to know this guy we found out he had only taken his hunter safety course 3 years prior.  This was his second big game hunt and his first archery hunt ever.  A man in his late 30’s with a six year old son out for a little father-son bonding.  He said it himself….Who would have ever thought I would be shooting at a deer, yet alone hit it?

Well, we went in search for the blood trail.  He did find his arrow and it was fully loaded with blood.  He said he made a perfect shot on the heart and the deer bounded across the road and into the forest.  With a perfectly placed shot the deer should be laying right on the other side of the road.  After about 15 minutes we finally found a small speck of blood on the tip of a tall grass clump in the trail.  Blood that high off the ground can only mean the shot was high and probably didn’t hit any vitals.  Perhaps a shot that passed through the top of the back just over the spine.

We looked for over an hour and only found a few specks of blood.  The last blood we found was heading up hill.  Our enthusiasm tanked and we made the decision to call off the search.  Back at the truck we talked at length about the shot placement and that the deer would probably be hurting for a few days but should survive unless infection set in.  At any rate his first hit was a lost and wounded buck, a sad thing to admit too but it happens.  We said our goodbyes and he and his boy headed down the road in their side by side rig.

Weasel and I were just unloading our backpacks into the truck when we here him yelling from down the road!  He was waiving and coming toward us.  I told Weasel to get his bow, something is up and it might be a deer or elk coming our way.  Weasel jumped on the suggestion and I walked down toward the guy.

Now you can call this B.S. or fate or divine intervention or maybe just plain beginners luck but that wounded buck was laying next to the road and unable to get up!  It’s spine had been damaged and the deer was down but not dead.  I would venture to guess the buck was trying to get back to the rest of the herd and when it bounded onto the road from up above the wound was just enough that the shock of the animals front end hitting the road caused it to sever and down the animal went.  Whatever the cause the man had his animal and after a fatal shot to the heart it was over in a minute.

Well, luckily for him we were there to talk him through the gutting process and helped load the animal on his rig.

I think he learned a thing or two about big game hunting and about the fact that you must be prepared to handle every situation that comes your way.  A quick study of “how to” would have been a good thing for him on this hunt.  But I guess that is why the Divine One put us in his life when He did.

We took a bit of time and did some reconnoitering and then found ourselves near where Weasel wanted to spend the evening hunt.  He has an elk tag and his trail camera has shown some coming into a water hole right at dark.  So, he had to get himself smoked up before he went into the blind.

A small fire is all that is needed and when the flames are reduced and only the hot ashes remain, on go the pine bows.

Big game animals are used to the smell of smoke and they are not afraid of that smell.  It is the smell of danger they avoid and human odors are the worst!  If you ever doubt that just enter our hunting camp trailer after the 5th day!

When Weasel finally came out of the smoke he was all teary eyed and coughing, but he didn’t smell like a human anymore.  Well, he headed off into the woods and I stayed back, put out the fire and then went for a little hike.  There were deer all over the place and I attributed the numbers to the fact that they couldn’t smell any humans 😉 in the area.  Up top I took a panoramic picture of the area.  The boys from last week that were clear cutting things really had done a number on the forest.

Kind of a tough picture to see because of the sun’s angle and the long shadows.

As I was sitting on top of the world I kept hoping I would hear my radio go off announcing that Weasel had dropped a big old elk and needed my help.  But as the light of the day progressively dimmed I knew the elk were still safe wherever they were.  I made my way back to the truck just as it was too dark to see and I was about to head off to pick up Weasel, when here he came over the rise.

I had Weasel stop in the trail for this time lapse picture.  Kind of a cool shot with the full moon in the background.

Back at the camp we talked about the day and what we wanted to do tomorrow.  Again our plans required an early rise and get out of camp before it was light enough to see to shoot.  With that we were going to have to “outen the lights” and get to sleep.  Here is the light inside the trailer with only “Luci” lights burning brightly.

The alarm clock bear signaled a very short nights sleep and we were up and had our coffee in our hands when we headed out the door.  A long way to go before daylight…let’s go….It’s our last morning to hunt!

Before long it was plenty light enough to see to shoot and we were seeing some deer.  Skittish as all get out and we didn’t figure that one out.  We couldn’t get within 200 yards of any of them.  They ran off almost as quickly as we saw them, some even half a mile away.  Someone tell me what was going on…I know Weasel smelled like smoke….does that mean I was the culprit!  At any rate we knew we were running out of time and soon would have to turn back toward camp.  That is never a good feeling…the end of the hunt.  It comes oh so quickly.

We made a last minute decision to head up a road we went on when the boys were with us last week and immediately spotted a doe and two fawns.  They were not skittish.  But then again they weren’t bucks either.  Up the road we went and as we neared the end of it my mind was on where to turn the truck around.  Weasel called out…”BUCK”!  Turning quickly to his side of the truck sure enough there stood a spike on the horizon, not 30 yards away.  I stopped the truck and the buck ran down out of sight.  Weasel was on it quickly…out of the truck…arrow nocked and sneaking toward the ridge.

I had to stay with the truck and Weasel got a good view of the buck just over the ridge.  A couple of does were keeping him protected but because of the smoke smell wafting off Weasel’s clothes they were not alarmed in any way and continued to feed without fear.  When a big doe moved away from the small buck, Weasel had a clear shot.

Weasel’s practice came through and the buck only went a few yards before it piled up.  We did have a short tracking job, but there was plenty of blood to follow.

Not the biggest buck on the mountain but it sure was the biggest buck to this hunter!

Congratulations to Weasel!  A first buck with a bow and no ground shrinkage to the antlers!  What we both thought was a spike, turned out to be a two point with an extra kicker point!  What a fun hunt!  Thanks for allowing me to tag along!

Bears Butt

September 13, 2015

(Pay close attention to the far left side of the hill behind this picture of camp, you will hear something special about it later on)

It’s the 2015 bow hunt in Utah and I’ve been invited to go with Weasel and Conner on their hunt.  Actually, Squirrel and I were invited in order to be the cooks and chief bottle washers for the two hunters.  Weasel also purchased an over the counter elk tag, which allows him to shoot either a spike bull or cow of his choice.  So, since we were going to be in pretty good elk country, he might as well do that.

Weasel and Conner took our camp trailer up the week before the hunt to secure a spot.  Now, before you go off telling me that was as illegal as all heck, I have to say this…I know it!  The forest rules for camping are pretty strict in Utah, but since there is nobody enforcing those rules, they become a mute point.  Nearly everyone does it who wishes to secure the same spot each year.  If they ever started to enforce those rules they would have one heck of a confiscated equipment auction some time in the future.  Nuff said.

Our little camp spot is right along side a main road and there was a lot of room for others should they like to camp there too.  We stayed to one side to allow lots of room for bigger rigs, but nobody wanted to join us….well, except for the domestic cows and bulls being grazed in the area.  We had to do a lot of “camp patrol” to scoop up the big dump piles they so dearly love to leave right where you least expect it.

The grass was green and tall (which made for finding the piles of cow poop harder).  In fact the grass all over the mountain was that way.  Not dry and crackly like down lower on the mountain.  It actually made for a wonderful little camp spot.

(Wow I feel like an eagle with this picture).

Well, we arrived in camp about noon the day before the opener, got things unpacked, packed, organized, disorganized, setup and ready for the next 6 days of camping and hunting.  We didn’t pick out what we commonly called a “Ying-Yang” tree in which to hang our bagged game, instead knew up front we would be boning out any animals we might have the good fortune to harvest.  But we did manage to cut up 6 nights worth of dry firewood from the nearby forest.  The work of cutting up the wood was done by the two boys and myself, while Weasel went off down the trail to recover his trail camera pictures at a near by spring.  By the time he had travelled up the road to the trail head and then took the 4 mile round trip in and back, we had the wood secured and enjoying the afternoon shade!

One of the big things we have started to do the past couple of hunts is to eat our supper meal about 4 p.m.  That time of day usually finds us back at camp waiting for the evening hunt and it’s a good time to take the time to cook up the meal and relax while eating it.  We accomplished our meal of hamburgers and chips and were ready to take a drive around to see who else was camping near us and to see if we could find any deer or elk.

Our real goal is to find some “nice” bucks, but this little guy just might be in trouble in the morning.  If we don’t get a chance to see him again, at least he gave us quite a show tonight.  He had a big brother with him, but big brother left him to the savages and took off before I could get the camera on him.  This little guy has a lot to learn.

On the other hand, we did see a pretty nice one up on the skyline before the evening ended.

Whenever we are on a hunt like this one, we always like to have a little fun with the other hunters.  This night was no different.  We had decided, as a group, to put up a fake “harvested deer” in a bag and place it where people could see it from the road.  Just to make them think we are the mighty hunters we think we are.  We grabbed up a nice game bag and stuffed it with sticks in the shape of a deer.  We called it our “Sticks By Sticks” buck and hung it close to the road.

To the casual driver and passengers, it would look to be a nice little buck hanging in that bag.  Of course having it hanging the night before the opening day should have raised a few eye brows.  We had fun with it, as we listened to people passing by on 4 wheelers and in trucks pointing and saying “Hey, they got one”!  We just chuckled.  But then when the game warden came into camp on Sunday to see our big buck, he got a kick out of it being a “Sticks By”!  I think it made his day as well.

As with all our hunts the days get all mixed up and you lose track of which pictures come from what day, but still the stories the pictures tell are great no matter what the order.

Opening day had us all excited.  Weasel was going to still hunt into the area he has had his trail camera all summer long, while Conner will be sitting in a strategic spot overlooking a well used trail.  The three of us will sit until about 8 and then still hunt our way into a trail leading up to where Weasel will be.  Radio communication will put us together with him and then we will go in search of a second water source we heard about in the area.

We did managed to see “an animal” of some sort running off around a bend in the road as we made our way toward Weasel’s position, but did not get to see it good enough to know what it was.  There were elk tracks in the road where we saw it, but there were also deer, coyote and domestic cow tracks as well.  All of them fresh.  When we got to our meeting spot we had a candy bar and talked about our hunt so far.  None had seen any deer or elk that could be positively identified.  So, we made our way to see if we could find the water.  It was very easy to find but very few tracks of anything coming into it.  So we scratched if off our “we need to be here tomorrow” list.

As it turned out, we spent the first two mornings sitting on well defined trails hoping something would come through and that strategy just caused frustration, especially to Conner.  Young people are either antsy or sleepy and sitting for long stretches of time just doesn’t cut it.  They would rather be up walking around or driving in the truck.  We did find a new water guzzler with a ton of deer tracks on it and Conner decided he would like to spend an evening sitting near that.

But to no avail.  This would be the last “stand” for Conner as he is convinced sitting in one spot does not mean you are going to get a shot.  We saw nothing that evening.

The next few mornings found us looking at beautiful sunrises!  Little did we know that the fires in the Western States around us were causing all the smoke that we were seeing in the distance, but it sure made for some nice views.

And our days continued to begin and end quickly.  It’s very funny how time leading up to an opening day go soooo slowly and then when the big day arrives the whole hunt is over like a flash.  Mornings began for us at 4:30 a.m. and ended before 10 p.m.  All of us exhausted.  As for me, I got a big kick out of watching Squirrel as the day progressed.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a kid that liked to sleep as much as he did.  I took a picture of him on one of the morning stands.  It reminds me of “Can you find the Critter” pictures.

He was cammoed up pretty good.

But on the other hand I have to give it to him, he stuck with the plan that he and I were to be the number one and two cooks for the camp.

On this day, he cooked everything and left me the job of grilling the garlic toast.  The spuds were crispy as we all like them and the meat was perfectly done!  I think I burnt the garlic toast a bit.

And when we took our road day trips and found ourselves a bit too far away from camp to catch lunch, we popped open a can of Kipper Snacks and munched away.  Cody wasn’t sure he would like them, but found out quickly just how good they are.

It’s times like these that makes a Grandpa real proud.  His son showing how fun the out of doors is to his two sons.  Everyone pitching in to get the job done and everyone having a time of their lives.  I think the best picture I took of the entire hunt was this one, where Weasel and Connor are trying to outsmart a nice buck just off the trail.

Of course Mr. Buck was too smart to be taken out by these two guys.

And on the last day of our time there, we encountered this little lady coming at us down the road.

Not a care in the world.

During this hunt we saw eagles, hawks, a moose, a coyote, tons of squirrels and chipmunks, a cow elk, a few antelope and hundreds of deer.  We saw some amazing things, like that fawn walking down the road and going past us.  We watched as the timber guys cut down an entire hillside of the tall pines that grew there.  Stripped them of their branches and cut them to length and laid them next to the road.

On a sad note we saw lifeflight take some poor guy off the mountain who had been injured in an atv accident.  We also talked to another group of hunters who witnessed another atv rider drive off the edge of the road and roll his rig, possibly breaking his arm.  But that one could have been much worse.  We also watched one camp with three hunters in it continue to sleep in morning after morning when we were counting 50 to 60 deer mornings.  They always say, the deer are where you find them and when you find them.  Well, we never actually saw any in their camp, but we did find some not too far away.  And speaking of away, we met a couple of hunters coming down the road who had just past our camp and they said there was a small 2 point just outside camp on the hillside….A perfect scene for Muskrat.  He always said he would rather sleep in and then shoot one out of camp as he sat there with a cup of coffee.

There is more to this story, but you will have to catch the four of us around a camp fire to hear the rest of it.

Bears Butt, Conner, Squirrel and Weasel!

Bears Butt

August 21, 2015

Headed for the hills today to move Weasels trail camera.  He had high hopes of putting it on what we call Grass Meadow to catch unsuspecting deer and elk that are using that area.  But!  Bears Butt has had just a little too much photo interpretation under his belt over the years and went in search of “water”.  At about 10 a.m. this morning, Bears Butt thought he had discovered a water hole in the hunting area and not too far from where Weasel had his trail camera.  I called him immediately!

Ring!  Ring!  Ring!….Hey!  Weasel, I’ve found water!…..I’ll turn around and come right back!

As it were, he had just left his home and wasn’t even a mile away when I called him and was back to my place to look at what I had found within a minute.  He agreed it sure looked like a water hole!

I asked, can I go?  YES!

And so off we went!  Our travels took us up Blacksmith Fork Canyon and I remind you about the Beaver Tree back when the turkey hunt was going on!  Remember?

Well, nothing stays the same for long and now it looks like this:

It appears the wind decided it was not safe to continue to stand!

On our way I saw a doe on a private ranch, but that was the only critter we saw except for a weasel crossing the road and a few squirrels.  It was a hotter day than it was yesterday but still nice when you get up in the mountains.

We also saw this on our way:

A sign alongside the road directing “Spencer” to the camp!  Spencer must always be late to camp because this sign has been used a whole bunch.  Made of metal and all!  And then a little farther up the road this sign greeted us:

We had a great laugh over that!

Continuing on our way, we made it to where Weasel’s trail camera was securely held and took it down for the move.  His plan:  I’ll take it to the water hole and put it there IF there is in fact a water hole where you saw what looked like water, otherwise I’ll put it in grassy meadow like I had planned.

Off we went up the “no trail land” up and over the hill ahead, down the ravine and up a very wide trail leading us to near where the water hole should be.  It didn’t take too long and Weasel was looking at his GPS for the water hole coordinates.  We passed it!

So, back we went and then up through the trees in a blind manner hoping to find our lost water hole that may or may not even exist.  We cut a trail made by cattle and decided to follow it.  Perhaps the cattle know where this water hole it.  Within a few hundred yards, there it was!  A water hole!  YEAAA!  But, there was someone elses trail camera looking over the water hole.  We waived and hopefully they get a kick out of our antics.  If not…Tough Crap fella…it’s public land!  At least we didn’t mess with your camera!

Well, we set up Weasels camera a ways down the trail so as to watch a different trail than the other guys camera.  We think we know something he doesn’t but time will tell on that one.

What is nice to know is that there is water where we didn’t think there was any and that the elk and deer are using it regularly!  Weasel has both an elk and a deer tag and hopefully we will be packing out an elk on the bow hunt in 3 weeks!  How would that be?  The excitement is building and life is good!

Bears Butt

July 26, 2015

These are my favorite warm weather hiking boots.  Typical of most hiking boots…made of leather, non-insulated, no gore-tex or other lining…just leather boots with a good sole and comfortable.  The only problem I have with them is they are not waterproof and so with all the rain of late, every time I go turkey hunting my feet get soaking wet and then it takes at least two days to dry them out.  So, I went onto a group site I’m a member of on Facebook and I asked them what they use for waterproofing their boots.

The answers came back in all forms…don’t own leather boots…Use Hubards leather dressing…buy Gore-tex boots….Use Sno-Seal…and more, but one comment that came back and made my eye brows raise was….Get a wax ring, one that is used to seal a toilet and spread that on the boots!  WELL NOW!  I think I even have a wax seal out in the garage.

I commented back to that guy that I would be trying his idea and see how well it worked.  I have not commented back to that thread yet and so you are going to see and hear the results right here on Bears Butt dot Com!

His suggestion was to clean the boots off and put them in the oven until the leather reached 200 degrees!

I placed some napkins on a cookie sheet and placed the boots on top of it.  Then popped them into the oven…oven temp set at 200.

These boots have been getting a real beating on this years turkey hunts.  The mud and wet grass makes it seem like you are hunting in a river bottom and not on a mountain.  It has the stickiest mud of anywhere I’ve hunted…but I keep going back.

Once the boots were heated a good deal of time, I took them out and began smearing the wax on them.

The warm leather had that wax melting in and around the leather like crazy.  I was not being fussy about how they looked either.  Just get that wax on there!

They guy said that once the wax was put on the boot, to put them back into the oven and re-heat them back to 200 degrees.  That will help the wax melt and soak into the leather.  OK, let’s do that!

I let them stay in the 200 degree oven for about 15 minutes to allow the wax to really get soaked into the leather.  The guy then said to wipe off the excess wax once the boots came out of the oven.  I decided I was not in this for a fashion statement!  I’m in it to have dry feet!  And so I left the excess wax hang on the boots!

They look like crap!

Well, how did it work?

We went turkey hunting yesterday.  It was raining like cats and dogs and so we chose not to venture out into the rain but goofed around until the rain had stopped before going off hiking.  We hiked in muddy mud, wet grass up to our knees, slipped and slid around for about 3 hours and when I got home, my pants were very wet and muddy, my boots were muddy like crazy, but my feet were very much DRY!

Here is what the boots look like this morning:

I’m sold on this way of waterproofing my boots from here on out.  A toilet bowl wax ring costs less than $2 at most hardware stores and after using this method and having dry feet, it sure as heck beats buying a $5 to $10 can of spray on junk that only smells bad and doesn’t do the job!  Yes sir!  I can hardly wait to see just how many times I can venture out into the wet and still have dry feet.  It just seems natural that the wax should have penetrated the leather and maybe, just maybe I will never have to waterproof them again!

Oh yes, and look what I just saw on my boot:

Whatever Dri-Tex is, it doesn’t work folks!

Bears Butt

May 24, 2015

UPDATE:

That waterproofing has lasted through all the hunting seasons, work sessions on the farm and general use.  Today I had to clean some mud off the boots because Sherry wouldn’t let me walk in the house with them looking the way they were.  So, while I was at it I decided to put another coat of wax on them.  Following the same instructions as above, I now have them coated again with wax.  They were still water proof from last May’s application, but it was time to coat them again…turkey season is just around the corner!

Folks!  You have just got to give this a try!

Bears Butt

March 10, 2016