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3 months until a duodecennial….

@Bucket a new whiskey has been named with the ending of elk camp. The freedom to do this hasn't gone unnoticed.
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The trip is coming to an end, it's been an epic experience. Personally, I can't believe I got to do this. Most people would thank their wife for allowing them to live in the mountains and chase elk for multiple weeks. Me, I just hope I have a wife when I get back home tomorrow.

BB has a lot of catching up to do. For once me having el cheapo t-mobile has paid off.

✌️
 
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@Bucket a new whiskey has been named with the ending of elk camp. The freedom to do this hasn't gone unnoticed.
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The trip is coming to an end, it's been an epic experience. Personally, I can't believe I got to do this. Most people would thank their wife for allowing them to live in the mountains and chase elk for multiple weeks. Me, I just hope I have a wife when I get back home tomorrow.

BB has a lot of catching up to do. For once me having el cheapo t-mobile has paid off.

✌️
T Mobile the last couple years works in many places out west now that Verizon does not, NM is one state in particular. It is interesting, Verizon used be the end all out west. Not anymore.
 
Congratulations on a nice Bull! Glad you did your due diligence, and didn't give up on finding him!
Maybe one day I'll make a trip out West and hunt an Elk!
 
I fly into Riverton on Saturday, September 21st. Tellico is still about 2.5 hours out, so Travis and AT come to pick me up, looking and smelling like they've spent the last week chopping up Rob's mom and spreading her around the desert (inside joke that AT may let you in on). We run out to AT's house to wait on Tellico and let the partners in crime wash the evidence down the drain.

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We head to camp. Holy Yugo, I've never done a DIY hunt like this; wood stoves, baking ovens, deep fryers, showers, and even a yugo bucket for when the urge hits.

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At camp, we toasted AT's bull with a shot of "Old Elk". They wanted to pour rounds for everyone, but i didn't feel right drinking anymore Old Elk until I killed one of my own. Although, my definition of an old Elk is anything with branch antlers. I kicked back with the old reliable, Lite.

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Disclaimer; if this differs from what AT posted (I haven't read what he's posted since Sept 21), believe him, not me. I like a good story better than reality.
 
While we are all left wandering if BB is busy burying his wife in the back 40 or not, I'll share a recent cocktail recipe I concocted/stole/improved upon.

I call it "elk blood", don't confuse it with Cam Haynes and Rogan's energy drink, this one has the opposite effect.

2 oz bourbon. Wish I had some Old Elk left but this WYO special release fits just right.

1/2 oz luxerdo
2 dashes of quality bitters, don't skimp. Actually I'd skimp on bourbon before I did on bitters.

Pour luxerdo in bottom of glass and swirl. Pour bourbon and bitters over that. Some ice and give it a few stirs.

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You can drain it or allow ice to melt and slowly sip away. I like to allow ice to melt while I sip and cook elk tenderloin on the smoker.
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While we are all left wandering if BB is busy burying his wife in the back 40 or not, I'll share a recent cocktail recipe I concocted/stole/improved upon.

I call it "elk blood", don't confuse it with Cam Haynes and Rogan's energy drink, this one has the opposite effect.

2 oz bourbon. Wish I had some Old Elk left but this WYO special release fits just right.

1/2 oz luxerdo
2 dashes of quality bitters, don't skimp. Actually I'd skimp on bourbon before I did on bitters.

Pour luxerdo in bottom of glass and swirl. Pour bourbon and bitters over that. Some ice and give it a few stirs.



You can drain it or allow ice to melt and slowly sip away. I like to allow ice to melt while I sip and cook elk tenderloin on the smoker.
That's a lot of work. Wouldn't it be easier to hit it straight from the bottle?

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The weather was miserable. Not your typical late September elk hunting weather, more like TN September weather; only a dry heat. On some of the days, it was hotter at elk camp than back home in Maury County. I'm now a self-declared expert at elk hunting, so in my expert opinion this had a profound effect on elk movement. The elk pretty much shut themselves down at 9 am and didn't move again until the last 45 minutes of daylight. Our typical day was to hunt a full morning, go back to camp for lunch, take a 2 hour nap, grab a snack, and head out to a glassing spot for the evening.

This plan seemed to work. We'd located several good herds of elk in little overlooked pockets and it was only a matter of time until one of the herd bulls slipped up. So we thought. 😃

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The weather was miserable. Not your typical late September elk hunting weather, more like TN September weather; only a dry heat. On some of the days, it was hotter at elk camp than back home in Maury County. I'm now a self-declared expert at elk hunting, so in my expert opinion this had a profound effect on elk movement. The elk pretty much shut themselves down at 9 am and didn't move again until the last 45 minutes of daylight. Our typical day was to hunt a full morning, go back to camp for lunch, take a 2 hour nap, grab a snack, and head out to a glassing spot for the evening.

This plan seemed to work. We'd located several good herds of elk in little overlooked pockets and it was only a matter of time until one of the herd bulls slipped up. So we thought. 😃

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That weather is pretty typical around bow season, even in Colorado. Areas of NM can get a little warmer, depending how far south you are, even in the mountains. When we hunt ML season, we hunt he morning hard, get back to camp, have some lunch, nap or just talk, then head out around 4pm and hunt hard again.
You got a really nice bull there. Congratulations. That's some good eating there. My grandson just got his bull last week in NM. He lives in northern NM. Raton, NM. I live about 40 minutes north of him.
 
Herd bulls become herd bulls because they don't screwup very often. For instance, the second morning, we were hunting in one of our little honey hole pockets that had a herd with a nice 6x6 in it. AT was setup behind me to call. I had a nice clearing to my left and it was the perfect runway for the bull to come down. The bull must have read the script. The bull came into the clearing and him and AT bugled back and forth with each other for about 10 minutes. The bull finally had enough and came through the opening like he was being pulled by a string. That is, until he got to 15 yards from me. Then he decided he wanted to cut through the pine thicket I was setup in. This was going to put him to my right and on my downwind side. I had to reposition myself while drawing. He was having none of it and busted out of their. A bugle by AT stopped him at 40. He was slightly quartering away. A shot I could make in my sleep. Except there was a dead pine tree with all it's branches running the length of its body.

Or, the next day. We called another 6x6 in a different area. He had a decent herd of cows with a couple spikes harassing them. He was working his way up the meadow towards us when a satellite 6x3 came in from the side and challenged him. The satellite bull had a typical 6 on his left, but his right had 2 spikes and a big club coming out of his left side. Super cool bull. The herd bull charged him and ran him off, but chased him up into the woods. When he finally showed back up, he herded his cows up and ran them up an adjacent mountain. 2 days later we did glass this herd back up as they were returning their pocket we initially encountered them in.

The morning after we glassed them up, we made another play on them. This morning, they were silent, but we spotted them coming up and area they'd cut some timber out of and were working towards us. Remember those spikes I mentioned? Just as the herd was coming into a shooting lane, the big bull finally had enough of them. He charged them and run them into the next county. Just as he returned, the cows got downwind of me and they all buggered out.

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