Trad Gang

saturday the 19th started with the drive from vancouver to albany oregon to meet up with wannabe1 (tw)from albany we headed east to burns to meet up with ben from ohio and his father.after handshakes and greetings we transferred bens gear to tw's bronco and headed to the store for some grub.the air was filled with anticipation and high hopes.we drove up the mountain to meet our destiny and fullfill the neverending need for the hunt that drives us.
  we arrived at our destination and quickly set up camp.what follows is a first time elk hunters dream come true.while sitting in camp chatting i heard a bull bugle from the ridge across the road from camp,we hurridly gathered our gear and quietly entered the mahogony thicket.we crept forward while i called to the elk with a cow call.i sent ben forward to set up.tw told me he heard animals coming and before ben could reach the point i told him to set up the elk spotted him moving and beat a hasty retreat.this was within the first hour in camp.

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt9.jpg)

camp

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt5.jpg)

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt4.jpg)

tw drinks gasoline so dont mess with him

the next days are an unreal mix of ups and downs that would make any elkhunter quiver in his boots.we were in elk every time we went into the woods it seemed,i think all but one hunt had screaming bulls in it.tw only had two days to hunt and was very involved in the hunt.
 the elk were very cautious and were being hunted hard from all sides,this was going to be tough.sunday evening after trying to work in on a screaming herd bull tw, ben and i had a young bull come running towards us,tw tried a shot but his arrow failed to connect.
 the following day was tw's last day and we had more bulls screaming at us directly behind camp.we ran up on a bull and tw and ben rushed forward and set up.i cow called sparingly for a few minutes and then i stepped forward a few steps to move us up closer.tw's hand shot up and i froze in my tracks.there had been a 4-5 point bull coming in silently from my right as i was standing to the left side of a large pine.the bull spotted my movement and turned and trotted back into the pines  (to be continued)

Been waiting on this thread. Keep it coming Larry.

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt29.jpg)

i was dejected but these things happen to the best of us...heres the area this event happened

Come on with it.  :thumbsup:

ben,tw and paul will be injecting stories along with mine.my friend carl arrived on tuesday and our little camp grew quite a bit with the addition of an outfitters tent,cots,awning and several more items of comfort.

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt36.jpg)

camp post carls arrival

on the third day ben and i were sitting in camp after a frustrating round of hide and seek with yet another bull,we were discussing what was best for breakfast when movement up the road caught my eye.four elk were trotting towards us while we sat pinned down in our chairs,they trotted past us at 45 yds,i mewed they stopped and the raghorn bull with them was giving bucky the arrow stopper the evil eye then they walked off.

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt7.jpg)

bucky

tw,ben and i worked our way down my favorite little dirt road towards some of the best elk hunting anywhere.it was still dark but getting light slowly.i was calling periodically with a cow call.we headed up a heavily traveled trail to the right of the road when we heard what sounded like a huge bull screaming at us directly below us.our wind was bad so we moved to the right of the bull then down hill at a fast pace,tw and ben set up on the bull,more calling and then two more bulls started screaming at the first bull,tw heard brush cracking and while we stood there listening to this volly of bugles i looked at ben and felt a tear running down my cheek.an elk hunter had been created and i reminded myself that this is why i hunt.to share my experiences and pass on the fever that burns inside the elkhunter

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt21.jpg)

ben standing by a demolished pine that was one of many in the area

Nice!

Looking good Ben Im gonna call you after I get back in tonight.

as some of you know i have been struggling with a bad leg problem,on the third day i started feeling sick and weak.i feared the worst as first it swells and if it turns red i have a serious problem on my hands.it was turning red rapidly and i feared my hunt with ben was over.i pretty much ignored carls,bens and pauls urging to stay in camp and do nothing.i had waited the year out for this hunt as well as ben and nothing was stopping me now.nothing.i hid the worst of it from carl who wanted to take me down to the hospital like he had done several years earlier.not happening

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt3.jpg)

ben and tw sitting down for a pic

:campfire:

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt11.jpg)

little ground squirrel givin us heck

paul eventually started taking ben out on the morning hunts and i took him on the evening hunts to let my leg rest as much as possible,ben and i had been trying to pattern this one huge bull that i had gotten a look at from a distance.he was a huge bull,looked to be in the 330-350 range.on this one particular evening we headed up a shale rock covered draw hoping to get an encounter with this big bull.we worked our way up the ridge cursing the swirling winds that seemed to follow us around wherever we went.i cow called periodically.shortly before dark a gunshot echoed through the forest,foiled again.on the way back down the ridge i saw a flat rock a couple feet across,i circled around it,in the next instant i was standing on the wrong end of a very large and very angry timber rattler.he rattled...i yelled to ben to move quick then jumped towards him....close call...my heart was pounding like a jackhammer.

YIKES

(http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww111/elkherder/benshunt16.jpg)

more later..momma wants the computer  :bigsmyl:

Larry, nice too see ya'll made it back safe and sound. Sorry to hear about your leg. I know that knee was a bothering you before I left.

If any Tradgangers want to share a great camp with some great people, Larry and Ben are top knotch. I had the best time I've ever experienced on any hunt with these guys. I only wish that I could have stayed the whole duration. Larry, being the novice that he is, took ten minutes to get us into some action on that first day.   :thumbsup:

There should be a rule about this sort of caper!

Another wonderful elk hunt!

story gets real interesting

friday morning paul and ben left camp pretty early so i took the opportunity to sneak out for a solo hunt.east of camp .41 of a mile there is a large mahogony thicket that runs back over a mile.i hiked back to the very end of this thicket and as i slowly worked my way back towards camp i started seeing fresh sign everywhere,pretty soon i started smelling elk then i spotted a lot of elk bedded up ahead of me.i started mewing softly and checked my wind.i heard some running and looked to my left and spotted the dreaded yearling elk coming in fast and furious complete with the dust cloud.he skids to a stop no more than 12yds whipping his cute little head around looking for the cow that was mewing.i let him live another year,he sees me move and explodes outta there taking all of the others with him  

I can vouch for how fast those yearlings can move!   :biglaugh:  To bad he busted up the party Larry. Might have had an opportunity at one of the larger ones.   :(

cool stuff so far fellas....

But I gotta say you have a serious safety issue going on with those un-covered broadheads!  Not only for yourself, but those you hunt with. In this day and age with so many quality quivers on the market, I thought that was a "thing of the past"....

Get those bh's covered!   :pray:

You and Paul rule Larry!  Glad ya'll had another great elk hunt.

that was a quik fix quiver cause i broke my good one...buckster.....you would have been in elk heaven......i am going to wait for ben to get home to finish this story....  :rolleyes:

:campfire:   Bring it on!!!

Thursday morning Larry's leg was bothering him, so I asked Ben if he wanted to hunt with me and he was ready and willing.

I had a spot in mind that my step son Robert and I hunted the last evening we were there during our first week. It was off of the beaten path and I had heard bugles the one evening that Robert and I hunted it, so I figured it a good spot to take Ben.

Because it wasn't planned the night before, Ben and I were a little late getting dropped off, but that didn't seem to matter. We dropped into a steep draw, then up the other side, over a large dry grass flat and were heading toward a ridge about 3/4 of a mile from the road to do some locator calls when we heard a bugle a few hundred yards away.

I put Ben out front about 100 yards in this semi open area and did some calling. The bull wasn't gonna play so we chased him.

We got up the ridge and did a couple of cow calls but no response, so I hit the bugle and 2 bulls and one hunter fired back. Yep, another hunter was in our midst.

One of the bulls headed for the hills, because his bugles got farther and farther and the other bull we thought left or went silent, so just to make sure, we followed the sound toward the other hunter and yep it was a hunter.

We then directed our attention toward a draw with timber where we heard one of the bulls last bugle from. It was a good place to start. As we walked slowly along the hillside, I needed a short break, so we sat down. A minute or two later Ben sees a coyote, but now I believe it was a calf.

Then we see a cow run up hill 100 yards out, so I tell Ben, the rest of the heard is probably here, then we hear the bull fire off 200 yards away. I put Ben out front and start calling from 75 yards behind him. After a couple of minutes the bull has bugled back twice and then I hear foot stomps to my left.

Ben had watched a cow run up to within 30 yards of me, but I was too busy concentrating on getting that bull into Ben.

The bull didn't appear to be coming to cow calls, so I hit the bugle and he shut up and left the seen. Lesson learned. Don't bugle at a bull with cows. Not that isn't always the case, but it was in this case.

I didn't think we were as far in that draw as we were and we ended up right on top of the herd.

We put on another 7 miles to get back to camp that morning and ready for lunch and I took a nap before going back out that eveining.

Friday: Ben and I got an early start. This time we made it to our locator ridge just after daylight. I did one Carlton cow call and no response. I had a call from mother nature, so I dug a small hole. As I'm in the middle of my paper work, a bull fires off about 300 yards away. I make short work of my task and get over to Ben for a plan. I hit the Carlton one more time and the bull fires back but has ridge topped into another ravine.

We head after him. After moving about 500 yards and into a spot I figure he could easily hear us, I hit the cow calls and no response, so I hit a bugle and no response. A few minutes pass and I believe it was a solo bull coming for a fight goes off in front of us about 250 yards. I told Ben we are going to get aggressive on this boy, so we move up about 50 yards and I am just about to set Ben in position when I see 2 other hunters heading to the bull, then we hear foot stomps, and realize the bull is heading right for us.

Ben and I both nock an arrow, the 5 x 5 runs up to about 50 yards and stops, looks us over for about 5 seconds and turns tail and runs off.

Game over on bull number 2.

There are a lot of elk, but there are a lot of hunters as well. This particular bull was very killable. He was aggressive and ready to fight. Unfortunately, the other hunters wanted him to.

Welcome to hunting public land 101.

Ben and I hunted hard for the rest of the morning covering several miles and got into another herd, but were busted.

After running into so many hunters, Ben leaving in the morning, and Larry's leg limiting his ability, I decided to head home that evening.

It was fun and I appreciate Larry inviting me to hunt in his area and share camp.

Larry's friend Carl was a heck of a camp host. He cooked for us and ran us around in his truck dropping us off miles away, so we could hunt back to camp.

Ben was a treat to hunt with. Definately a guy that isn't afraid to put on some boot miles.

All in all I had a great time. This is my first year of Trad only in Oregon. I converted from compound and I stuck it out. I was missing my compound on a couple of those bulls that were within compound range, but I made it through with out swapping back over. It just means that I have to make tag soup this year

  :biglaugh:   this year.

friday night ben and i had trekked down my favorite little dirt road again and i set ben up on a heavily used trail then i went down the road towards another heavily used trail.i was feeling very sick and weak because of my leg but i had to hunt.as i got within 75yds of my trail i slowed to a crawl,i look to my right as i hear noise,up pops a mulie doe,i look for horns....nothing...then suddenly up jumps a very nice 4x4 buck....hes no more than twenty five yds from me,i reach down grab an arrow then i did something i have never done before.my arrow fell out of my fingers and hit the rocks with a clank...buck runs off..sickened by the bad luck i picked up my arrow and continued to my ambush point.after sitting on a rock outcrop overlooking my trail for an hour or so i hear brush crashing above me no more than two hundred yds away.i sit silently waiting,the silence is broken by the groans and attemted bugles of a big bull,they had moved to my east and were working their way down the slope away from me.i jumped down the hill and went out into the flats a hundred yds or so then started mewing with my primos cowgirl call.the bull responded often so i kept pouring it to him varying the length from a lost cow to an estrus wail but very light not to aggressive.the bull is now what i considered to be fired up and shootable,he moves to within one hundred yds and starts destroying a tree,almost dark and i have to be here when ben comes out or run the risk of losing him so knowing hes my responsibility and not knowing how far me and this bull would have gone before a shot opportunity would have arose i stayed put and continued calling him trying to get him to commit.he turned and left eventually leaving me shaking with excitement and drained from being sick.in conclusion we had a great trip but spilled no blood,action every morning and evening but like it happens sometimes things just have to fall into place exactly in the correct sequence.ben in my opinion will be back and he will be welcome in my camp and i'll continue sharing my knowledge and stories with him.tw has the drive to be a good elk hunter and trust my word he too will be back next year.my stupid leg cannot continue to create problems to this magnitude or i'll be sitting on the outside looking in.one can only dream of hunts like this,to be in screaming bulls twice a day for a week is a successful hunt.

Wow!  Sounds like a great hunt!  One of these days I'm gonna get after them!

ben will be posting by tomorrow i hope

Sounds like a great hunt.Blacktailbowhunter great job.Elkherder   :clapper:    :clapper:    :clapper:

WHEW!!!!  What a drive!!!
finally got back this afternoon....still gotta unpack and make some time for momma and my lil' girl. haven't read much of this yet---i'll get to it tomorrow with some pics!!!

ben

Welcome home Ben. Glad you had a safe trip.

glad you had a safe trip home ben

Welcome back to good old Ohio Ben. Talk to ya soon. Sounds like an awesome hunt.

Mike

Welcome back ben. Can't wait to hear the story's.

Ben, I'm glad you made it back safely. I was beginning to get a little worried.

Paul

OK now............

Pretty much all the stories are told.....
I had a great time.

A big thank you  to Larry for having me out there and not leaving me to the cougars!!

A big thanks to Carl who upgraded our little basic camp to:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip066.jpg)

However, a warning to all-----here's how food gets distributed:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip058.jpg)
A huge hunk of steak to Larry, a sliver to his "BEST friend" Carl, and PB & J to the newbie (me)!!!!  :bigsmyl:  

Larry and Carl remembering the "good old days"!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip056.jpg)

Some fine shooting in prep for the elk:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip038.jpg)

Some of our hunting areas.

the way in:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip040.jpg)

Saw alot of these in the mornings:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip043.jpg)

The thickets:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip042.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip053.jpg)

The open meadows:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip044.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip055.jpg)

The vistas:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip052.jpg)

More of the Oregon mountain:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip070.jpg)

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip071.jpg)


This little pine must have done something to a bull. 6'2" Larry has to use his bow to reach the top of the scrape:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip047.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip048.jpg)

Some of the "other critters" on the mountain:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip090.jpg)

Also, a BIG thank you goes out to Paul aka Blacktailbowhunter" for dragging me around the mountains for 2 days when Larry's leg was causing him some major problems. Larry gave it all he had and really had the bulls talking. No joke, we were in bugling bulls EVERY hunt, 2x @day except 1 hunt---pretty good average I'd say.  We also saw elk (bull, cows, yearlings) over 50% of the hunts.  Not bad I'd say. My hunts with
Paul are in this too: 2 hunts = 2 sightings and bulls bugling each time + a whole lot of sight seeing .......

Paul admiring the scenery:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip061.jpg)
Paul is hamming it up----as usual  :bigsmyl:  
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip063.jpg)

A good place to hunt deer here:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip073.jpg)

The "TRAD Gang":

T.W.  aka  Wannabe1
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip041.jpg)

Paul  aka Blacktailbowhunter,
Myself  aka BEN
Larry  aka Elkherder:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip074.jpg)

T.W. and myself pretending to need a break for Larry's sake   :biglaugh:  :
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip035.jpg)

+

Carl, doing the late night cooking, AGAIN:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/OregonTrip072.jpg)

I have a whole lot more pics----roughly 54 of them from the mountain. Roughly 130 just pics from the car while on the way out and back---so, celticknot, I didn't quite make 1000, but got a good start!

Here's a short video of an area of the mountain that burned in 1990 that has since been reclaimed:
 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/th_OregonTrip082.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v336/bgeckle/Oregon%20trip/?action=view¤t=OregonTrip082.flv)

T.W., Paul, and Larry:  It was great meeting you all and sharing camp and hunting stories! i hope we can do this again some time.  It's always great meeting Trad-gangers---so far, all have been good people, willing to share everything they have, be it knowledge, grub, gear, or just good old B.S.    :bigsmyl:  Thanks  longbowben!!! Just couldn't bring myself to take that beautiful bow out though and risk putting a mark on it!! Then you'd have to sell it to me and break up your matching pair!!   :goldtooth:

bet bens coming to the 2010 tradganger hunt    :D    :readit:    :D

Ben, you are welcome at my campfire any day. My offer still stands if you want to come out some day and do a little deer and elk combo hunting on the western side of the Cascades. Glad you made it home safe and that you had  a great time my friend. Stay safe and shoot straight.   :thumbsup:

Great pics Ben. You were a great hunting partner for those 2 days, and I look forward to your return.

Paul

Wow, Ben! Looks like a good time was had in a beautiful part of the country! Welcome home.

Looks like you had a great time.Ben and paul see you in november.Paul is this what your looking for? (http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj10/longbowben/DSC02431.jpg)

Hey-----is that deer tied up??  :D    :D  

Honestly, look at the y-branch near it's neck----ALMOST looks like a leash!  :bigsmyl:  

I thought I had it figured out how Ben and Mike keep getting these big bucks!!  :biglaugh:    :biglaugh: