The Hawken Rifles are ready!

[exMember]

Almost time to head up into the mountains and make meat! All 3 Hawken rifles are cleaned, lubed and ready to make smoke!

 

[Idaholewis1]

I start This morning :Red tup: Archery Elk Opens here this Morning (6th to the End of Month) I went B Tag this year which is geared toward Rifle, So I only get 6 Days of Archery 6-12, All i need is 1 Good Day Though, 1 Love Struck Bull to come Charging in, That can’t resist my Cow Calls  Hopefully the Wolves have left a Few

 

[Idaholewis1]

I wish Idaho would do a Sept Muzzleloader ONLY Hunt when the Elk are Rutting, And keep it Idaho Muzzleloader ONLY Rules (Lead projectile, 50 Cal Minimum, No. 11 Caps exposed to the Elements) But they don’t, at least they haven’t in the nearly 10 years that i have lived here. Even if they did a Permit Hunt, with very limited Tags, at least it would give me Something cool to put in for, and get excited over, til i checked the Draw Results :x

 

[edmehlig]

Good Luck Lew!   Fill us in with the details when you can.

 

[Muley Hunter]

What are you guys doing for hunts Jon? I forgot what you told me.

 

[exMember]

my dad and brother have doe tags and I have a buck tag Pete.

 

[Muley Hunter]

Ah, ok. No elk this year?

 

[exMember]

Nope, hopefully next year. We're going to start putting in under the group hunts. Cows normally take 1 to 2 years, bulls 3 years. So this will be an easier way to get tags more consistently.

 

[JLBSparks]

I thought you guys had OTC elk tags.

   -Joe

 

[exMember]

yes certain units are OTC for rifle season.

 

[Muley Hunter]

I thought you guys had OTC elk tags.

   -Joe

We do and it's a lousy option that i'll have to take this year. I switched from muzzleloader to an Xbow and had to give up my muzzleloader elk tag. I've tried to get a leftover archery elk tag but it's almost impossible this time of the year.

So, an OTC bull elk 2nd rifle season tag is my only option. Instead of hunting the whole month of Sept with just a few hundred bow hunter in nice weather. I'll have to hunt with 2000-3000 rifle hunters for 9 days in late Oct which could be heavy snow conditions. Not a fun hunt with an xbow.

They do have OTC archery elk tags but not in a unit that's close enough for me to hunt. I'm trying to decide if I should even bother to hunt this year but I don't have many left at my age and hate to miss one. My broken back is not fully healed which isn't helping me decide.

 

[Renegadehunter]

I'm also archery hunting right now, tag is for all of September and any elk.
Went up this weekend to hunt, they aren't being vocal yet in my area.  I did thump a grouse Friday walking in to a spot to hunt, a blunt out of a bow set up for elk sure does put a hurtin on them, and then had a spike come out of an old overgrown cut and play cat and mouse with me for over an hour.  Never could get any closer than about 75 yards from him.  
I have the week of the 16th off, can't wait to spend a week in the woods with them.  That week I plan on taking the renegade and finally checking where my conical load hits since I put the new sights on.  Hopefully not too far off from my PRB load.

 

[Rlsmith]

Good luck to all my friends from the west. I'm in MD so I love to read about your hunts.

 

[Buck Conner1]

.
We have to play the same game in Utah. So I hunt every (January) other the years on a private ranch with 23 sections of ground in KS. I'll go every year to the ranch to help other hunters, hang out and play backup shooter if needed but can't afford or use 600-700 lbs of meat from the harvest so it's every other year or every two years depending on selling some of the meat to offset costs.     

At my age I probably have only one or two more hunts left in me before I just go to watch the fun.  New hunters with a muzzleloader do some strange things when they see the size of a 1,600 - 2,000 lb. animal roaring freely on the open range, some second thoughts if it was a good idea I'm sure. :heart:  New guys hunting elk act the same once in a while with a 400 - 600 pounds of meat, just have mult. shots available in most cases.

TESTTT

 

[exMember]

Heading up today with the last load. Will be gone for a while but will try to check in and give updates if when we get something. Behave everyone! :Red tup:

 

[Muley Hunter]

Get a good buck.