I got my elk, my experience roughing it and halloween pics!

Hey everyone! Been hunting/scouting since last Thursday. Woke up every morning at 5:30am hiked up to our spot before the sun came up and continued to hunt till after the sun went down. I was put in the dirt by my fathers hiking and soon figured out I really need to work out, but very happy I was a hundred pounds lighter.

I took all my vits and all the protein i needed. I didn't get in a lot of carbs like I had wanted but felt good. I wrecked the dirt bike we brought lol I was goofing around and it fell on me lol got foot stuck because it was to heavy to lift. So a bit sore. Came into the small town of Malta Sunday to get my first shower in days, felt very good to clean up and sleep in a bed.

Anyway we couldn't find any elk found out all the big boys are on CMR game range where we cannot hunt. Super sad because I wanted a 300plus bull so husband found some other sighting in a different area, so we headed there.

We all split up hiking and my father and I came across a bull bedded down. We shimmied on to the opposite ridge and my father range finded him at 300yards. We could only guess how big he was because he was in thick timber. Only could see his ass (horrible shot, would ruin meat and rip open guts) and a very small neck shot. So I used my dads pack as a rest, he grabbed his cam corder. I was very nervous not because I am not comfortable taking a 300yard shot (I am accurate out to 600 consistantly) but because I wanted to make sure it was a clean fast kill.
Boom!
I severed his spine and he didn't know what happened. He didn't move or feel anything it was instant death. Thank The Lord I practiced shooting all summer.

Hiked over got all the meat bagged and packed out. I packed out 75-100lbs a meat. My husband packed out 50lbs and my father packed out 100. Yummy elk! Can only post one photo from cell phone but I will post more later when we get 2 more elk.

Sorry it's long... Lol I kept it as short as I could but tell more later. Now back to more hunting!

2nd post

I know most have not been raised how I have been so I will try to explain most of the things in detail. So for people, who know this stuff already, sorry I am explaining everything lol I love to share the lifestyle I live and I love that people want to listen to it because it is so foreign to them.

Here goes!

I camped out with my father in two different locations; neither was at any type of designated campsite. It was just right in the middle of the wilderness. One was right next to a popular water hole for the free range cattle in the area and that was hilarious! So we had eyes glowing at us off in the distance watching us all night hahahaha with the occasional mooing. Also had a couple deer snort at us because they didn’t like us there. Nice thing about E. MT is that the predators are very limited to coyotes mostly. Not like W. MT (where I grew up and live) where you add in grizzlies, wolves, mountain lions and black bears. Also don’t forget the moose either… they like to charge and tromp you to the ground if they feel threatened.

On a side note the only predators that freak the **** out of me are mountain lions. I have had a mountain lion stalk me in the dark. My dad and I were hunting and were chasing a buck over a mountain. I was going through waist deep snow and was trying to hike up the next mountain ridge to catch this nice buck before the sun went down (this is when I was skinny). Well, I didn’t make it and was left high in the mountains with the sun down and still have to hike out to the truck and the road. So we started hiking down the slope slowly and mostly on my ass because that’s easiest when the snow is that deep. We finally made it to the creek bed where it was heavily forested and had a nice game trail. As soon as my father and I hit the deer trail we see fresh mountain lion tracks. REALLY fresh! So of course I take my head light and start looking into the dark tree’s and caught its eyes staring at us **** I hate mountain lions! It starts growling at us; you know that annoying cat growl your house cat gives you, well that was what it sounded like … just a lot bigger. It was a few yards away across the small creek, so of course I put my dad in the rear. HAHAHA I know mountain lions attack from the back and always pick off the stragglers/weak/smallest. So hence I put my dad taking up the tail lol the cat followed us for quite some time, that I could see, then I couldn’t see him anymore. Not a very fun experience and that is the ‘only’ instance ‘I know of’ because to be honest you don’t know they are stalking you most of the time anyway. I could tell you a lot more scary stories involving people I love and mountain lions, than I ever could bears. Whenever I get that eerie feeling, where hair sticks up on the back of my neck, never lies to me. Usually I will find some animal watching me from cover. Anyways …lol I didn’t really fear the dark as much as I do in my own local territory. We decided to switch location after that and moved to a nice treed area where there were no cows (never really delt with free range cattle in W. MT) lol

Subject of poo:
I had planned on just squatting in the woods for #1 and #2 I planned on digging a whole pooing my lovelies in there and then coving it. My dad though decided to bring a 5 gallon bucket for our campsite with an attachable toilet lid (you can pick one up at any outdoors store). He also brought kitty litter to cover up the smell and lined the bucket with a garbage bag for easy disposal. This was only at the campsite which we were only there for an hour in the morning and a few hours at night. So the in between times was squat and drop. THANK THE GOOD LORD that my DS poo’s are always in the morning. I did my massive poo’s before we left camp and occasionally had one at late night. So the in between time I never had to poo. I did put wet naps and TP in my pack in case I had to drop the ‘bomb’ out in the wilderness.

Subject of gas:
I never have gas unless I eat something I shouldn’t have. I did suffer from gas bad! I am almost positive it was the protein bars. I never usually incorporate protein bars into my diet; they usually have too many carbs. These bars didn’t have sugar alcohols but still caused gas. I needed them too because I need to fuel my body a lot while working out that hard. So thank God I was out in the wild letting the gas fly and the wind would just take it away

Subject of vits & protein:
I got in all my vits & protein every day except the day I shot my elk. yes, I was bad. I shot my elk in the morning and we skinned and packed the meat up. We packed it out to the vehicle and boy was I struggling caring out two loads (each 50+lbs or so). I was so wrapped up in getting my animal out that I neglected my pills and protein that day. I was so cold but my burber jacket and pants were covered in blood, so I had to change into my light clothing, which was not that warm. So my poor body was shivering and trying to get warm. That night we went to Malta and stayed in a motel to recoup. I took a shower (first time in days) and completely crashed! My body had finally hit overload and the next morning I couldn’t go hunting with the rest of the guys. My husband looked at me and said ‘no, you’re staying here’. Of course I am bullheaded and determined that I tried to fight him in coming. He then said ‘what would your ds board say?’ and that struck a chord. So I took a day to rest, get my pills and protein back on track. I will admit I did need that. I think I was expending more energy than I was taking in and that last day that I didn’t get my protein or vits just pushed me over. I also found out I wasn’t taking it enough carbs. I also think that affected me the hardest. I realized I was only getting 20-50 carbs a day. Yikes! My body needed a lot more ‘go to’ energy than that and I didn’t provide it.


Moral of the story is:
I learned to juggle my priorities for the most part and learned my lesson on carbs
I also filled my deer tag and so did my husband, so as of right now we have 2 deer and 1 elk in our freezer. (still need to fill 1 elk tag) It cost us about a $1 a lb to get processed into steaks, sausages, burger, ect (in nice airtight packaging)

I found out roughing it is really not that bad with the DS and can totally be done!

nothin' large but my first bull elk

me on halloween

me and my sister

me and my aunt (more like a big sister)

the gang!

I love your adventure!!!!  Hunting is SO AWESOME!!!  Nice pics!!!

thanks jamie! when you fully recover i expect to see some hunting pics from you as well:)

Wow!  Excellent story and advice, and I still know your hubby is a prime keeper just as he was during your surgery and recovery. :)

--gina

my husband is a definite keeper :)

over the years i have read some great stories of accomplishments we have achieved after the ds. your accounts are by far one of the absolute best.   my family hunts, so i get this. 

girl............you are a total bad ass!  i, bow to you.   super woman !  

thanks noreen:) that made me smile ear to ear. i really feel that my life is coming full circle, that i am able to enjoy it like i once did.

That is amazing to me!  The great thing is that you truly enjoy it!  You can see it in the pics!

joy seems to be one thing i am not short on anymore,  now that i have the weight off. its amazing how much MO can affect someone...truely sad how i was living my life before

Good post.  Never hunted and never wanted to - can't bear the thought of shooting another living thing.  Glad there are others like you who will do that deed to put meat on my table.  Thank you. You look great in your pics.