M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk/ full hunt story included now

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L. E. Carroll
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

Guys I have tried this 4 times now with no success... have to meet up with my taxidermist in an hour and have dinner first ... I'll try 1 more time later tonight as tablet is about dead now. Sorry
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by one shot scott »

Congratulations man! & reaaal nice! Not too often you get see an elk pic around here.
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by Onetimeonly x--> »

Very nice, good job!
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by Riflemanz »

Congrats on a great hunt! That 355 is a killing machine!
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L. E. Carroll
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

Guy's I swear I sat down last night and earlier yesterday afternoon and typed this whole thing up 5 different time using the hunt and peck method. You will see it's long. On each occasion when I was done I hit the preview button to check for mistakes... every time it dissapeared and a note came up about logging which I swear I did before each attempt. :roll: Therefore I'm goint to try again but in 3-4 installments this go round to see if that approach works.. At least if I find it did not work.... I will not have lost everything again....I hope.

So get ready and we'll try this again.

Dan, thank's for the new pictures, they are way nicer... I only wish I had some of the whole elk with the bow but with the fast fading light I really did not take time to consider that. Sorry as he was a beauty laying there in all of his royal majisty.

Gene
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by Starvin' Hillbilly »

Gene, if ya got word . . . type it there, cut it and paste it to the forum. sometimes the forum glitches like that I've found. wish i was tech savvy i'd build a update one w/ drag and drop pictures :wink:
-ken
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

I'm gonna do my best but I'm very technically handicapped :roll: .. Is there anyway one of you techy's :lol: can perhaps jump in and help me post the pic Dan put up of me the elk head and bow on the quad as an avatar picture? That would be soo cool. Thing is I'm working on a new to me tablet and don't know how to use it very well. :o

Gene
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by Starvin' Hillbilly »

if Dan's got your pic youre almost there! . . .get w/ him and PM your, Email, Forum name and Password and i bet he'll nail it up there for ya :wink:

-ken

or you can send it to me and i'll work on it :wink: [email protected]
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

PART 1...

I left home last Wednesday afternoon to get camp set up down near the Coast in Washington, but just across the Columbia River from Astoria Oregon ( you may of heard of it back in school when learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition as they camped there for the winter before starting back East and home? ) to try and locate Elk prior to Saturdays opener...

First evening before dark I' m up high camped in an old rock quarry ( where they found and crush rock for logging roads ), just over the ridge behind camp, I immediately spot a beautiful and very big 5x5 who has another smaller, but equally nice 3x3 with him....as well as another that I never got a good look at due to the alders and brush they were feeding in.

As you may have guessed they were not to be found again come Sat. morning. :roll:

Stay tuned for part II.

Gene
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

PART II...Saturday afternoon I'm across the Naselle River 10 miles by road from camp but only 3 or so as the crow flies... I pull into to park behind a locked old logging gate.

Most everything in this hunting unit is a huge area of private timber land that is kept locked up year round to keep people from vandalizing equipment, dumping trash, and tree huggers from finding the next endangered species they want to protect by making the whole 500 or so square miles off limits to everyone including the logging companies who actually own it all... That makes it tough to hunt but does insure it's still available to us to hunt year after year.

As I park I meet a young guy hunting there in his second year as a bow elk hunter. He tells me about seeing a herd of 35 or so head in the meadow that morning including all legal cows and calves as well as I legal bull ( bulls need a min of 3 points on at least one side to be legal and it's pretty much this way on the whole West side of the state )...( all antlerless are legal unless otherwise posted in the game regs. )

We head in and split up, he sitting a pop up blind near where the elk were that AM ( he did not get a shot that morning as they were 125 yards away and came no closer before swimming a "Tidal flat river " and leaving the area ( not all Roosevelt Elk are found at Higher Elevations as these are actually at or slightly above sea leval year round if not pushed too hard ).

I'm hidden in the edge of the meadow farther in where I have over the years incountered several elk including a few nice bulls... They seem to historically love this grassy meadow area. :wink:

Up until this time, whicn is now about 4:00 PM the wind has been steady and in my favor..

Then it happens... 30 to 40 yards away after swimming the river here pops into view my bull. :shock: from slightly to my left and from around a corner of brush coming out into the meadow. 8)

Before I can react he spins and hits the brush like a freight train... at this point I realize the breeze is hitting the back of my neck... :oops: :? ....... Well I went out into the 3 ft tall meadow grass in hopes the wind will be more predictable should he forget what just took place and decide to return ???

It looks like a good place to stop for a bit...I'll back in a while as wife is giving me the "Stink Eye" and holding out her fameous "Honey Do List" again. :roll: :(

Gene
Last edited by L. E. Carroll on Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:19 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by xcaliber »

Don't take her out with you, and make her wear that hat! :shock: :lol: :lol:

Can't wait to read the rest Gene. 8)
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

PART III,

Well dog doooo is picked up lawn is mowed now and kindeling ( sp?) bucket is full ,,,, ( we actully live in the mountains in a 1100 sq ft log cabin and rarely turn on the furnace prefering the heat of the wood stove not to mention the 17 cords of firewood we got put in earlier this summer and fall from trees I lost with some as big as 42" dia at the butt and 80 ft tall during last December's bad wind storm... so you get the idea :wink: "no rest for the retired... just real tired. :roll:

Back to the story.

That bull actually popped back out at the very same spot about 45 minutes after his hasty retreat... He was slightly facing me but still giving a shot behind the left shoulder . I should have waited for a better aspect but in the heat of the moment I took the shot. :oops:

I hit him somewhat high and the arrow missed the far lung traveling thru toward the right rear leg.. Needless to say "Not a Pass-thru" which made blood tracking a $%#@%.....more like "blood hunting"..... anyway the young guy I mentioned earlier saw me take the shot and jumped in to help track ... We lost and found the trail several times during the first 200-250 yards of the worst brush and thorney blackberries you can emagine, not to mention all the dark woods and getting darker by the minute. The kind of stuff you can always count on when a wounded elk is heading for cover here near the coast of Wa state.

At one point we were talking and just about ready to quit as we had totally run out of a blood trail...... Suddenly from above and a bit farther in... this voice.

You guys looking for a hit bull? If so, where did you hit him? I called back behind the left shoulder. He responds come on in and I'll show you where I last saw him... he's looking like he's ready to drop. We go in and he takes us near an old growth cedar stump that had too have been cut near the turn of the century and over 12' in Diameter and 20' in circumfrance.... yep we grow em BIG out here. :wink:

We split up and all head in the general direction the Bull was going... 5 minutes latter the guy calls out " wanna come see your bull? he's a nice one ! "

He was a beauty for sure.. the guy then says he needs to go get his young nephew and get him out, as darkness is coming fast...

The younger guy stays and starts skinning out the right rear leg as I gut the elk... we do that then hang the leg and I start on the front leg... oops light under the bill of my had starts to crap out.. we get that leg in a game bag and hanging but after removing rib and neck meat on that side and bagging it...it's dark and batteries are shot..

He announces he too needs to get out at that point... He hands me a "can of Bud" a small bottle of water and an 8 hour green glow stick... I told him thanks and you take that whole back leg... he sticks it in his day pack but just barely...we shake and say good by.

I had called my wife earlier telling her I needed help as with out my gps which was back at camp along with everything else I really needed.... :roll: like more flash-lights , my back pack and meat saw, not to mention my glock 19 as things were getting closer or it sure sounded that way.. She called back and said my grand-daughters hubby and his twin brother were making the 1 1/2 hour trip to my rescue... I'm gonna' post this now before it dissapears like last nights posts did. Stand-by for the finish.
Last edited by L. E. Carroll on Tue Sep 15, 2015 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by BULLZ-i »

LOT OF COMMERCIALS IN THIS EPISODE
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L. E. Carroll
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk

Post by L. E. Carroll »

Final Installment,

OK,

They call and say they have found my tundra at about midnight... I ask Cody if he still carries that 45 acp in the holster mounted under his dash? ( yes, we all have concealed carry permits, and this is totally legal in WA ) He says yes ... I suggest he bring it in as funny noises are happening close buy with me covered in blood and gore from trying to continue working in the dark until I finnaly lay down and then can no longer find, that $450 custom damascus 3" drop point with its Big-Horn Sheep "scales" on each side of the handle. :shock:

After walking in about a mile, while I'm telling them by cell phone which skid roads to take to get in closer.... yep.my phone dies.... " that damned old filp phone anyway"...

So we start yelling back and forth... 20 minutes or so later here comes some light.... Yipeee I'm saved well almost anyway.. We find the missing knife and finish boneing and bagging meat and load the 3 back-packs they have brought in...

I end up with the head strapped to my back with the rack pointing down and only a 30" inseam.... Ya see any problems there ? :roll: Not to mention the crossbow with it's loaded quiver that I'm manuvering thru everything we must get thru to survive the night. :lol:

Really not funny at the time.... as I'm old and quickly getting older as in NEAR DEATH, or it's sure feeling that way...Remember the disabled hunter plackard in the picture of the quad ? There really is a reason as I have severe COPD from over 30 years of welding on lead based painted objects as well as galvanized ones and lets not forget the 40 plus years "looking cool" with the damned cigarette hanging from my mouth.

We look at and take directions from a not so Smart "Smart Phone" ...damned thing had us walking in a big circle thru hell in no time... I finally realize the tidal river we have finally found is on our " right " but should be on our " left " to get back to those fields.. :idea:

Finally at 2:30 AM we reach that old paved road way out beyond the fields... I need to be physically pulled up the 8' bank and then the boys take my keys and head down the road to find the vehicles and return.... I'm seitting there as this " young lovely" drives up at that late hour and stops to ask if I'm OK and need help? I said "I'm just fine but something to drink would be great "... she had no water, but quickly offered a "shock Top" beer and then drives off... Man I'm in heaven you should have seen the looks of the boys when they got back....priceless...

I get them to load the truck and they start home only to be at work at 7:00 AM and with that 1 1/2 hour drive to get there. :roll: :|

I finally hit camp about 3 AM it then takes 2 hours to heat water and wash up as well as lay the meat out to cool while protedcting it from that nights rain..

In bed by 5AM, but up at 7:30 breaking camp to get back and get the elk in the walk in cooler... Yesterday I clean meat up further, and take to processor to be processed and split evenly between me and each of the boys for their families...

Last night at 10 PM I'm at my young taxerdermist friend arranging a European Mount ( gonna' be nice and only $250 ) now the 2 to 3 month wait..

Oh well , when I got home from the hunt I had a new Leupold X-bones waiting to mount on the 355 while moving it's present Nikon Bolt to the new Axiom SMF.. Life is good!

One last mention,,,,, I used the M355 with a Nikon Bolt for this hunt along with 18" Diablo's tipped with 125 gn 4 blade slick tricks..., man those are nice heads as I was never a fan of replaceable broadheads but they held up well to elk ribs and 3 were still sharp enough to shave...

Yes Dan, aka: excaliber I'm sure you noticed I did not use those beautiful Zombie Slayers as I had already lost 2 of the 12, and at that point and was fearfull of the terrible brush at the coast with no luminocks to assist in finding them after a shot.

I hope you enjoyed the "Rest Of The Story " as much as I did telling it !!!! :D :wink:

Gene
Last edited by L. E. Carroll on Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: M355 takes a nice 4x4 Bull Elk/ full hunt story included

Post by paulaboutform »

Great story Gene. Those hard earned trophies are even more precious. CONGRATULATIONS! .....and thank you for taking the time to share.
***I thought you were going to say the voice leading you to your bull was Mick Dodge. :shock: :lol:

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