I've been a little busy and therefore I am blogging about the end of the 2011 hunting season in 2012. It was a fun season as always, but I only killed one animal: a grouse!
Each year I buy the sportsman's package that the Fish and Game offers. If you have never bought one and you are an avid hunter, you might want to look into one. For around $115 you get all of this: hunting and fishing license; elk tag; deer tag; cougar tag; bear tag; Steelhead and Salmon permits, turkey tag, and a bow stamp. I rarely use the bear, cougar, and fish permits and it still saves me money. Yep, it sure came in handy this year cuz I had all these tags and permits and killed one ruffed grouse. Hey, but I had plenty of fun, which you cannot put a price tag on.
I will skip the deer season events because there were none. The deer hunting in the Council area is very poor lately and the Fish and Game needs to look into it. In unit 22, they made it two point only, which I like when it comes to helping the buck population, but they didn't do it on the other side of Hwy 95 where I hunt in unit 32A. They need to.
So we had 10 days left to hunt for a bull elk. Since I had a bow tag, my wife had the rifle tag for elk. She decided to take a day off school and hunt. While I couldn't take the day off, I planned on meeting her at one of our spots after I got off work and drove up.
I arrived around 5:30 or so, and set up where I would have a view of where Penny was hunting. I was going to be an extra set of eyes if I saw anything. For a short time we were texting back and forth, and she told me she was going to head for the car at 6:45. Right on cue, she got up and left at that time. Since I was much closer to the truck than she was, I figured I would wait a short time.
Only two minutes after Penny left, an elk came up just below where she had been sitting. I looked at it with my binoculars, but it was about 850 yards away, and I couldn't see any horns. Instead of texting her, I called her on her cell and told her to go back to where she was. Some people think that ground to ground communication is illegal in hunting, but it is not. Air to ground is the communication that is illegal.
 She came right back and sat down. I waited and waited and I finally heard a shot. Than another, and another. A few minutes passed, and one last shot rang out. My phone went off with an excited voice on the other end. She had shot a small spike.
By the time I got there it was almost dark, and I gutted it as fast as possible. By the time I was done, we had to walk out about 20 minutes in the dark. The next morning we arrived early to quarter it and I was relieved to find out that nothing bothered it over night.
I was very happy for her on one hand, but a little bummed that our season was over. I had planned to take her where I had played with a huge bull in bow season, but I had no problem with her killing a spike. It makes for good meat in the freezer.
So a new year has begun, with many hunting stories to follow. I can't wait to get the sportsman's package and start all over again. And hopefully I will fill my freezer with more than just one grouse in 2012!!
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