The grey light of dawn was on us when it happened….a flash from a trail camera somewhere out in the woods. Ruined my whole morning, you see I feel like those are cheating when used for bow hunting it is just one more thing that gives you an up on the animals and when they are around because the photo’s come complete with a time on them. What happened to woodsmanship?

Dawn arrived and I was still dealing with the irk of the trail camera when the elk came off the hill. Then they stopped, went on point, and slid off. I thought, “no, it can’t be”. Turning around I spotted him…the hunter too late to the blind.

He spoke to my son who was in a blind adjacent me and then continued to walk around the pond scattering his scent as he went. Enough! I emerged from my hiding spot and invited him to sit with us other than to ruin the whole draw. He took my offer. I moved over to another blind and had a nap.

The hunter had found the place by scouting and since it was public lands had as much right to be there as we did. I have found over the years that first come first serve works. Setting up a tree stand to reserve your spot or now, a trail camera, doesn’t mean YOU were there first!

The hunter was from out of the area so I invited him to camp for an elk bacon burger (explanation on how to make them in an upcoming blog) While eating I told the hunter it could be either a great weekend or bad weekend depending on how he played it. So far he was passing my bone head meter test. We hunted together again that night and he volunteered to move over if my son could make it back up and give him the first shot.  Again he was passing the tests with flying colors. I’d told my son not to walk in past 6:00 PM. He no showed. I left the hunter in the best blind.

I’d been standing to stretch and looked around before I moved to sit back down and spotted…

While there are many different styles and types of broad heads on the market it is the ones with leading cutting edges that cut on contact having the least resistance  that penetrate the deepest. Many of these come pre-sharpened from the factory. I enjoy sharpening my own. Sharpening is something you learn, and I find it somewhat therapeutic. If it won’t slide down my thumb nail or will cut a rubber band under the weight of itself it is sharp. There are many good devices one can use to help them sharpen heads. Archers Past, Three Rivers and Custom King are some company’s that offer these items for sharpening.

While the particular prototype head in the photo is stainless steel. I usually coat the steel heads with marker. This keeps the edge from dulling from oxidization. We use Eclipse heads that are very strong yet easy to sharpen and they hold the edge. They are also coated in Teflon this coating reduces the resistance of the broadhead as it moves through hide or visera again allowing for deeper penetration.

Finally we were loaded and headed for the canyon. Home would be a combination of a camp trailer and spike style wall tent. We’d set camp a few days before because we wanted our smaller rigs to help us be more mobile while we hunted. We didn’t get any pre-scouting done this year, so we’d be freelancing a bit. The elk hole always works so I had confidence with that. Deer….well we bought our donation to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources in the long outside chance a couple deer may come along while we hunted elk.

After setting up the sleeping arrangements and stowing away the chow we set up the Professional Series two burner (DB60D) because of the heat we wanted to cook out side. The Pro 60 is the flag ship of stoves from Camp Chef. It’s design  has undergone several changes over the years. One thing has remained the same- Good heat output.

We shoot our archery tackle year round. We are always looking for time to shoot and something to shoot at.

In the winter there are local indoor leagues, rabbits to pursue; spring brings turkey for those of us who really like to be punished by these smart birds, golf shooting, stump shooting, outdoor 3-d ranges and the back yard.

Yup. In case you didn’t catch it, there is a refrigerator in my bedroom. Nice.  (please excuse the mess)  It has access to the back deck so I can still get food and the heat doesn’t make it work too hard.  What’s awesome is I can get out of bed, grab a popsicle and hop right back in. Nothing’s better than popsicle in bed. Try it!  (I bet your walk to the freezer will be longer than mine!)

Cinnamon Buns

Butterflied Chicken

And Scotch Eggs!

My parents took me hunting right after I could walk well enough to manage the bottom of a ditch to flush pheasants. I have a photo of me at about the seasoned age of 3 with my mother, and a brace of grouse. Then in my later years she wondered why I hunted so much! (go figure)

A camper and good meals were always a part of our outdoor lifestyle. Some of the best tasting lunches I can recall were cheese and tomato sandwiches, cold pork and beans, Oreo’s and cold milk from the old silver ribbed Thermos to wash them down. The cool October noon times, smell of sage brush as we sat eating on the tailgate of the old white 71 Chevy was about as good as it got for this teenager. And often lunch was accompanied by the carcass of a deer and the anticipation of fresh liver and onions for an upcoming meal. Evening meals were mostly from a Dutch oven, breakfasts were off the camper stove, pancakes being the staple.

Before I get too far into this many part series I’d like to go on record with this comment: This is a Pro Hunting piece. Pro in the sense that I’m all for hunting as a conservation tool that allows us to continue to enjoy wildlife beyond bullet or arrow head. For a better understanding of that comment Google: E Donnell Thomas Jr., and get his book “How Sportsmen Saved the World”. It is the most complete explanation to hunting I’ve ever read. I feel it should be required reading for every curriculum of higher education that is perusing a career around wildlife. I’m not so sure it shouldn’t be required reading as part of hunter education classes. I may at times refer to some aspects of “modern” hunting that I’m not fond of, and wish the issue would disappear from the sport. Hunters, like other groups, are not necessarily a band of brothers. We have our “ilk” that tarnishes the activity like many other groups do. So follow me around this fall as we wander around on this great mother earth. I hope to cover the ups and downs, good foods and train wrecks.

The true Blog world is timely. I’ll work to be such. However, I’m already behind because short of a flash light…I work hard to not take electronics to the woods with me and so the lap top stays home.

September 1st, for the bulk of most hunters is the mark of the beginning of fall. Grouse seasons open, Dove, and many archery seasons. Our bow hunt opened August 21 for deer and elk here in Utah. That time of year brings with it several challenges with the heat. It is imperative that you know how to handle meat in the heat. You have more time in 85 degree temperatures than one would think to salvage the meat but you have to move it along. I regret that I soured one elk neck and shoulder in 40 years of hunting. That should have never happened and I regret to this day that I didn’t do the right thing and tell the outfitter I worked for to shove it! Instead, at his insistence, I hung the huge bodied bull elk my client took “whole” on the teepee type game pole so the camp could oogle over it. (You think hanging it was a trick, you should have seen us get it into the Blazer). I couldn’t get one shoulder point and the neck off the ground and as a result the heat stayed in the meat and it bone soured by morning in that area of the carcass. When I got the animal parted out and into the ranch meat cutting service the butcher and I agreed that part would have to go. A week later after my second session of guiding, I stopped in to collect the remainder of the meat that my client had signed over to me. The butcher decided it was all soured and had tossed it to the coyotes (mad doesn’t even cover it)!!!! He was behind and it was an excuse to get one out of the way easy.

I’ll show you in an upcoming blog what we do to handle meat in the heat. For now let’s get started with the “load and go”. Deciding what to take, how much to take is always the worst part for me. What kind of camp will it be? How long will we/can we be there? What about the menu? The beginning of this process somewhat resembles the movie “The Clampets Go to Maui”!

Cooking on Camp Chef Bear Lake Style:

Some friends and I had planned to cook out and enjoy an afternoon on the beach at Bear Lake. After checking the forecast we realized that strong afternoon winds were in store and might mess up our chances of cooking out and enjoying it. My friend had just gotten a new Camp Chef setup and was determined to try it out against the wind (Having more faith in his new equipment then myself). As we drove down the beach everyone that was cooking out or grilling was messing with their stove and not able to keep them lit in the wind. Even people with charcoal were having problems because of the strength of the wind.

We originally had the Expedition 2X with Professional Grill Box (BB60L) on the tailgate to block the wind but ended up moving it into the wind a bit more after having no problems. Keep in mind that we did have to keep the burner on Medium and partial wind blocking was used but the wind was blowing around 30 mph and gusting much stronger than that. Needless to say we enjoyed a warm meal of burgers and chicken with grilled onions and zucchini while everyone around use went without and were asking about the high quality piece of portable cooking equipment that we were using. Camp Chef never ceases to impress!

Going…

going…

going…Where did all that stuff come from? 

Going still…

Stare a little harder and…Ole!

Look at this!!!  Steve is busy cleaning it up…I will post more when I get “clean” pics. 

I actually cooked my first meal. Too lazy to go to the store and am pretty proud with what I created from the fridge (currently in my bedroom), but I will have to share tomorrow…it’s too late tonight.