Pahvant Persistence

Oak Creek Cat

        Over the holiday school break we got some fresh snow so Bron and I went out chasing lions with Kade Waden and his two Mountain Cur dogs Gus and Buck. We went to the Oak Creek unit and cut these two sets of tracks running together. Bron shot his out of the first tree with Grandpa Jack's .243 rifle. Kade and Tyler treed the second cat and Tyler shot it. There was a $1,500 bounty for each cat paid by the Wild Sheep Foundation because Oak Creek has bighorn sheep on the unit. There was a band of them on the hillside across from us that day.    

 

Duck Duck Goose

        Bron is for sure the waterfowl hunter in the family. He got a john boat for Christmas. If he isn't out in it he is jumping shooting ducks off the Sevier river below town with Boston our lab. 

 

Colorado King

          Colorado was good to Bron again harvesting this big old bruiser of a buck. We had been struggling for a couple days only seeing small bucks. Our luck turned when we watched this guy sneek into a thicket of tall sage and oak and bed down for the day trying to elude some other hunters in the area. It was beginning to rain so we decided to watch this thicket from the truck until the weather finally broke.

           I saw another storm cell was going to hit us again before dark on my phone app. I told Bron we are going to have to get this buck up on his feet. I was afraid if we didn't he would stay in his bed and we would lose our shooting light. I first thought about setting Bron up above him and make some fawn-in-distress calls hoping he doesn't bolt before Bron can get a good shot off. Our other option was to set Bron up about 800 yards away from the buck where I assumed his escape route would be. I would get above him and make some distress calls and hope he takes off towards Bron and starts slowing down about when he gets to him. We picked the latter option. Glad we did.

        We split up and I circled around the bedded buck and got within what I figured was 150 yards above him. I could see Bron across the flat down below me on a good shooting knob. I blew the fawn call softly and waited. Nothing! I blew another short series and again no reaction. I began to worry he had gotten up while I had been hiking. I blew a loud aggressive third distress time and still nothing. As light was starting to fade, I dropped off into the ticket like a German Shorthair Pointer. Maybe he was holding up like a pheasant.

        After what seemed like forever but was really only a few minutes of bird-dogging, I made up my mind he was gone. He had given us the slip somehow. That's when a big BOOM echoed across the valley! It was shortly followed up by two more shots from Bron. Oh wow, I must have jumped him up. Oh no, Bron must have missed him on the run was the visual I had in my head while the shooting was taking place.

        I busted out the other side of the thicket only to see Bron was no longer on his perch. I picked up the bucks giant track bounding across the muddy sage flat. While I was following them, I was planning it in my head how we were going to have to pick up his trail again in the morning and see if we could catch up with him. That's when I spotted Bron about 250 yards away coming my direction. He saw me. I slowed down my tracking pace to wait for him and hear his story about how he missed him three times. I went another 30 yards while he was cutting the distance between us and that is when I went into shock from disbelief. I was now following a big track with a blood trail! Woah, this is game changer to what I had been thinking. 

        I stopped and Bron shortly caught up to me and told me the entire story in warp speed. At how the buck came charging out of the thicket on a death run. He said it got his heart pumping watching him through the scope getting closer. He said he finally slowed down enough to a trot and when he paused for a second, he pulled the trigger. It was a solid hit. He said he probably missed on his hurried second shot. Wasn't sure about the third but he went down. I couldn't believe it. I told him I thought he missed him from all the shooting. We had a good laugh. I am learning not to doubt this kid's shooting skills. He is pretty good with a rifle.

        I followed behind Bron another 50 yards on the blood trial and watched as he walked up on his biggest buck to date. What a beast of a buck! I was glad to be a part of it. I surprised myself. Have to love it when a hunting plan comes together.   

Here Kitty Kitty

    While helping Kade Wasden on a late season archery elk hunt, I cut this fresh cat track and so we threw out Kade's two young mountain cur hounds and all be darned they treed it. Brody was with us and got to shoot himself a cougar. Utah has made it open season on lions due to an over-abundance and our declining deer population.

Colorado Double

     Sometimes its better to be lucky than good. Bron certainly had some good fortune this year on his second season rifle hunt in Colorado. We decided to run out there the second weekend of his hunt for a quick three day trip. We took the Chevy Tracker and I rented a hotel room for us in Eagle.

    Before we got to Eagle, I pulled into Gypsum for fuel and noticed some locals coming out of the canyon dressed in orange. With an hour left of good light, I decided to drive up the canyon and see what the country looked like before we checked into our hotel room. It climbed up through the cedar covered benches and opened up into some good looking rolling sage with views of aspen pockets higher up.

     We had yet to see a deer, nor another hunting vehicle on this dirt road, when all the sudden I caught movement coming off the sage knob to our right. It was a lone buck. He was on the move trolling for does. Bron got out and let him cross the dirt road in front of us at 150 yards. As he was working his way up the other side, Bron let him have it putting him down with his favorite 6.5 CM. We couldn't believe what just happened! It was Bron's best buck to date. 

     When we met up with Jared at the hotel. He had been out there all week hunting. He couldn't believe we had a dead buck already at the hotel. He thought we were just getting in from the long drive from Utah.

     We ate a celebratory dinner at a local diner and hit the hot tub. It was decided we would help glass for Jared the next morning. He woke up at 5:00am and we slept in a little leaving around 7:00. We took the road out of Dotzero that follows the Colorado River. As it was getting light, I spotted a lone bull out in a hay field heading out for the hills. We could see he had a limp on his front left. We watched him work up a hillside onto the BLM. Problem was, Bron didn't an elk tag like he did the previous year on this unit.

     We hustled back to town and purchased a valid tag at the local drug store. We raced back and were getting our gear ready to track this bull up. I was throwing on my daypack and while Bron was waiting for me he decided to throw up his binos and glass in the direction where we saw him top the ridge last. I couldn't believe it when Bron said, "Dad I see him bedded under a big juniper tree on the next ridge over." Game on!

    We made a perfect stalk using the terrain for cover. Bron got prone on his day pack. We decided to shot him in his bed. The first bullet hit him in the base of the neck. The bull got to his feet jolted from the hit. While standing there, Bron got three more bullets in his front shoulder. The bull kept absorbing them, remaining on his feet. He finally laid back down but had his head up. We hiked over and finished him off in his bed. I think these 6.5 Hornady's at close range on elk kind of come apart. They don't seem to penetrate shoulder bone all that well.

     We couldn't believe it, in less than 12 hours we had another animal down. This is Bron's first branch antlered bull. It was fun sitting on the hill quartering this bull with him. It was a great father and son moment for us. While breaking him down we noticed he had taken a bullet to part of his knee cap probably from another hunter opening weekend. Elk are tough! 

     We got the quarters loaded in the tracker and tied the rack on top and went and glassed for Jared with no luck that night turning up a big buck. He jumped a buck but couldn't get back on him. We got all the meat prepared in the hotel parking lot for travel and headed for home with a pile of antlers and meat in the Tracker the next morning. Fun times with Scrawny!

       

 

Beth's Big Paunsy Buck

31" Wide

      Beth has hunted deer her entire life. After all, she is a Bell. She had yet to take a big buck though. So when I heard she drew a coveted Paunsaugunt management buck tag this year, I wanted to be a part of it. She played cat and mouse with this big guy as he was locked on a doe. After many up close encounters in the thick cedars she was finally able to get a bullet in his neck at 70 yards. It took a good hour of all of us circling in the thick underbrush with no blood trail looking for the downed buck, when Dusty finally turned him up. After lots of high fives, Beth finally has a buck of her own going on the wall.

Molly's Nipple Buck

     For several years we have been trying to kill a buck up on the Nipple. A few years back, I made a blunder on a big tall mature 3x3 and I will never forget the big 28" 4x4 that Brody had a muzzleloader malfunction with. On the second weekend of this year's rifle season, Brody decided to hike up on the Nipple by himself for a solo hunt.

    Around noon while I was at work, he called to tell me he saw this buck with a group of does down off the south side deep in the aspens. He got into position and took a long shot off the rim down at him. He thought he probably missed him but when he got down to where the buck was standing he was surprised to find some small drops of blood. I told him I would skip out and come up and help him track it.

     I asked his friend Hunter Higgs if he wanted to join us. Brody built a fire and waited for us to hike in. When we got there most of the morning's fresh snow had all but melted. Brody should have taken up the trail instead of waiting for us. We quickly lost all sign of blood, but I stayed on his track and could tell he wanted to get out of the open aspen and into the thick pines on a bench to hide out. I had a hunch he wasn't wounded very badly. Brody was going to need some luck.

     I had hunter go high under the cliffs. I took the middle and Brody stayed below us both thinking he would hook down around us. Hunter and I jumped some does and a herd of elk on our first pass. I am guessing we also jumped the buck too but he must of been out a little too far for any of us to see him. We turned around and drop another level. We made four switchbacks and was one our fifth when both Brody and I saw him standing there out in front of us looking back over his shoulder in the open aspen.

     I watch Brody bring his rifle to his shoulder and knock the buck down with my .270 wsm. He hit him high in the back. The buck got to his feet and took off. Brody took off running after him and 200 yards later caught up to him and put him down for good. We got down to him and had some high fives. 

he is a nice big bodied buck. We looked him over curious as to where he was first hit and learned it was only in his front left hoof. I was happy for Brody. He has hiked the Nipple many times and finally picked off one of these crafty bucks.    

                                                                         

Stayin with Grandma

     Bron stuck around during the fall harvest break from school at Grandma's house. I went back to work after hunting opening day with the Butler gang. Bron hunted with Kevin and harvest this buck.

Spiker for Bron

      After a hard week of chasing ghost elk on the newly opened South Nebo any bull unit here by the house Bron wanted to switch to hunting spikes on the Fishlake. We gave up looking for a six point I found on the Nebo the night before the opener and we hit our little honey hole the second weekend of the spike season. We caught a herd headed up the mountain to bed across the canyon from us with a spike in with them. We busted it to get to a point across from them befoee they got into the thick pine and Bron made awesome 550 yd shot with his 6.5 creed. We called Brody and he helped us pack him out during a total lunar eclipse.