Nevada tag results are out!

[ammohead]

I drew a cow elk tag for area 222 late. This is just south of Ely NV with Mt Grafton being the major feature. The season runs Dec 5 - Jan 1 so plenty of time to get out. This tag will be filled with a cast boolit, most likely through a lever action with open sights, but I am not ruling out my 9.3x62. Others likely to be carried on any given day are model 71 win, 1895 marlin cowboy, 1894 legacy 38-55, marlin in 35 rem.

Any other nevadans draw tags? All are welcome in elk camp.

[quilbilly]

Congratulations. Have you been there before? I got my B&C mulie there and took a Nevada friend hunting there a couple years back as an unofficial guide. I watched the elk while I left my friend to his own devices hunting the deer. It was muzzleloading season and the rut for the elk. What a place! It was also during the archery elk season and it was funny watching the archers. If they only knew what they walked right by. The archers were so focused on a scrawny bugling 4x5 that they walked right by an 8x8.

[ammohead]

billy,

Yes, I have a house in McGill which is about 10 miles north of Ely. It is my getaway place and someday retirement home. I have had it about 5 years now. It gets expensive keeping 2 houses on my budget but I can't bring myself to rent it out. I enjoy going there too much. Any one on the board that has a tag for that area should shout me a pm. I bought it with a hunting place for family and friends in mind.

ammohead

[quilbilly]

Color me green with envy

[warboar_21]

Congrats on the draw.... I drew the middle finger as usual

[quilbilly]

I have been watching the early signs of an El Nino brewing on the equator. if it sticks through the summer and fall, I hope you have a snow machine to get the meat out if the elk aren't right on the highway poaching hay from the hay piles on the Geyser Ranch. El Nino's usually produce some heavy snow low on the South Schell Range around Grafton. Holly and I have xctry skied there and at Cleve Creek during such an event where I invented my version of biathlon - chasing down coyotes on fresh snow then conducting an execution with my 22 Hornet

[longranger]

The area around Ely and Hwy 6 is some of the most beautiful country in the west.Congrats on your tag.

[ammohead]

According to a rancher on the cave valley ranch sw slope of Grafton...If the snow comes in heavy enough that you can't drive in with 4WD the elk won't be there anyway. In heavy snow they pull out to Muleshoe Valley to the south but still in my area. It pays to do your homework and talk to the locals.

[TXGunNut]

Sounds great! Good hunting!

[TheCelt]

Hey AmmoHead, sure would like to read about your hunt when you go. It has been a dream of mine to hunt the "big ones" out west but family, work and declining health have pretty much made that impossible. Sure would like to hear about your hunt though.

[ammohead]

Celt,

I will do my best to provide a story worth reading and pictures worth looking at.

[runfiverun]

i'm thinking that that 8 mauser you have could be added to the list also.

[sixshot]

Hey ammohead, my next door neighbor lived in Ely for several years (soil scientist) & he's always bragging about how good the hunting was there. Congratulations on your draw. Elk & cast bullets go together like bisquits & butter.
Did you ever know Skip Talbot or Wes Ugalde? Skip built 3 XP100's for me back in the 70's. Former world champion.

Dick

[ammohead]

No, Skip past on before Moved to Fallon. But I have met many who knew the both of them. I cast for a close friend of Skip and he pays me out of a 55 gal drum of monotype ingots that Skip gave him. He also has many moulds from Skip as well. I sure would have like to have met him or Wes for that matter.

[ammohead]

R5R,

The 8mm is my girlfriend Jane's elk rifle and you are right it should do nicely. I bought it from NVCurmudgeon years ago at another NCBS for $125.00. Right now I am in the process of putting a 2.5K weaver on my 9.3X62 Husquvarna. If I carry a bolt, it will probably be that one.

[Bomberman]

I used to hunt Mt. Grafton for the mule deer archery season...what a beautiful place. I was stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas so it was a 5 hour drive but well worth it. I've had elk so close that I could feel the heat from their bodies...what an awesome experience. Good luck on your hunt.

[ammohead]

I put Jane and I in for doe mule deer tags on the second draw. So many tags left on the second draw, it is like 15 years ago.

[quilbilly]

The Mt. Grafton area is quite a bit different now than it used to be even 8 years ago. First, Harry Reid pandered to his econazis friends and made the area an official wilderness all the way down the mountain and a mile out onto the flats (!!) even though there were roads, concrete culverts allowing the streams to pass and a few outbuildings. The best hunting areas and camping along North Creek is now a couple miles beyond the barricade. Old guys with arthritis like me are no longer welcome. Not even a wheeled cart to get the meat out is legal. Secondly, a big fire burned a strip along the mountain from the base up another 1500 feet vertically which is where a lot of the mule deer lived but had little effect on the elk.

[ammohead]

There are still plenty of cows within easy walking distance of the boundry. And the cows come down to the valley to feed every night. I have already found a well worn path being used what looks like daily for them to go to and fro. I also found a used guzzler station less than .32 miles from the road still open. A primative affair using black visquene and some pipe to a couple of fiberglass tanks. Hasn't been used in a long time...the pipe is broken and tanks are empty but there is still plenty of traffic through the area and quite a few prospects for a blind.

The worn path is only 80 yards or so from the guzzler set up and the plastic may hold some drinking water come December. Looks like a target rich environment.

Patience and stealth will prevail.

[ammohead]

My bank account took a hit today from NDOW. Looks like Jane and I drew doe tags on the second draw north of Elko in area 6. More venison for the freezers. I guess she will be able to bloody her "bob" afterall.

[quilbilly]

Find that four leaf clover in your yard and frame it