Down to the wire monster!!!

Sandi had today and tomorrow left in her deer season and I told her we were sitting every day light second of it . We saw exactly one deer this bruiser at 1:20 pm today. Sandi made a 180 yard neck shot with the Rocky Mountain Rifle off the shooting sticks and the beast was hers. Now I need a cape!

Lucky Number 23

I've never heard of 23 being a lucky number before but today was my 23rd day whitetail hunting. I had my close calls but trying to get everything on tape has its challenges especially when you are by yourself. Today I was going to stick to the office and write and edit. By 1 pm I had an article wrapped up and was thinking I should go sit for at least the evening. By the time I got to my blind and got the camera set up it was 3:14 at 3:20 a doe trotted down the trail with my buck on he tail. A grunt stopped him and it was over. So simple and easy it was disgusting! My buck is a great heavy old 4x4 and my still camera battery was dead from all the cold days so field photos are going to have to wait until the morning when I go get him.

If it wasn't for bad luck.......

Man, it seems to be stacking up to be one of those seasons where if it wasn't for bad luck we'd have no luck at all. Despite frigid temperatures, we spent the weekend in the high mountains in search of elk. On Saturday we spotted a great looking 6x6 and tried a stalk on him but by the time we reached the high snowy slope he called home, he was gone. Then Sunday, we got to within 125 yards of another great 6x6 and we could see his head and part of his neck and he only needed to take two more steps to expose his full shoulder. Vanessa had a bead on him and was just waiting when he suddenly turned around and slowly walked into the trees, offering no opportunity for a shot.

A great morning for moose

Well my guiding job in Alaska to start the 2010 season was definitely memorable but all good things must come to an end. Luckily for me when one good adventure comes to an end it is usually immediately followed by another.
I finished up in Alaska, said my good byes to Steve and jumped on a flight home. I was in a rush, I was drawn for moose in the calling season back home in Alberta and would have only one day of hunting to get my moose before I had to be in outfitting camp to guide for more big swamp donkeys.
My Uncle Wade was on days off and would come along to video and give me a hand. Wade met me at the airport, we headed home to get me a change of clothes and a shower then headed out. I was happy to see some fresh snow where we would be hunting, I went to bed dreaming of big moose grunting all the way in to my lonely cow call.
We were up early as we had to quad way back in and be off the bikes well before sunrise due to Alberta laws of carrying firearms on ATV's before noon. After leaving the quads we had about an hour walk into one of my little honey holes, it is actually my favorite spot in the world to hunt moose. We got into a willow patch that wasn't ideal for shooting but it was about as clear an area we were going to find in this swamp. I slowly rubbed my hands together, brought them to my mouth and let out a very nasal sounding drawn out moan. We both listened with anticipation and sure enough the cough like reply came from about 300 yards off to our south west.
I looked at Wade, we both smiled and I whispered "that didn't take long, lets set up''. I held off calling for a little bit just to make sure we would have enough light to shoot and film before I started my sequence of moose sounds that I hoped would bring a big mature bull through the brush into shooting range.
Once I started calling the bull immediately answered and he started moving our way grunting with every step. I knew it wouldn't be long before he got to us. As long as the wind stayed in our favor I was positive we would get a look at him. I kept up with the calling mixing cow and bull sounds at it was working perfectly. About 15 minutes passed then I caught some movement straight ahead of me in the willows I knew it was his legs but with the patch of thick brush he was in that is all I could see, there was no shot and definitely no view for the camera. We patiently waited but nothing. As fast as the moose came in he silently moved off, I did manage to catch a glimpse of his head gear and knew he was a good one. Me and Wade decided the best bet was to move out quietly as we knew he didn't wind us and go check out another area, if that didn't yield any results we would be back that afternoon.
We hustled for the next 45 minutes to get to the next good basin. We silently crept into another good spot for calling and I started another calling sequence. This time we didn't have an immediate response but I knew it was a great spot and wanted to keep at it for the rest of the morning. It was a good hour of calling before I heard what I thought was a grunt off in the distance, the next sound was with out a doubt a bull moose as me and Wade both heard the raking of antlers on willows and he was only about 100 yards away. Again we quickly set up and waited, with in five minutes I seen a BIG! set of antlers moving through some willows. Wade couldn't get a clear shot with the camera and I knew exactly what this bull was doing, he was trying to circle around us to get our wind. I grabbed wade and said ''we have to cut him off'', we quickly moved about 60 yards to our left to a creek. I knew if he kept in his line of travel we would get a shot of him as he walked along the far bank of the creek. As usual it happened fast but fortunately Wade did a good job of getting the camera set up and as soon as the big bull stepped out from behind a big spruce tree at 75 yards I let him have it.


Luckily for me my uncle Wade was along as we had to pack this giant out on our backs I couldn't have done it alone. After getting this brute back to the quads we headed home to get all the meat hung up and so I could continue on to the camp I would be guiding from for the next 16 days. The following 16 days proved to be every bit as exciting as this hunt and my next posts will explain all of that, starting next week.

Tom Sallows, Mountain Man Adventures.

My Lucky Little Sister

My little sister Cary-Anne has to be the luckiest hunter I know. She is a very busy girl, between being a full time nurse and keeping up with her impressive curling career she basically has no time to hunt. Even though she has way too much on her plate to worry about hunting she still loves to do it. She makes sure to pick one day a year to go out with myself and Dad and attempt to harvest something. This season wasn't any different. Wednesday November 17 was her one day this year and lets just say she made the most of it. Even though she doesn't care all that much about antler size she seems to get a nice sized trophy every single year.
With the video camera rolling the little brat took this nice mature White Tail Buck, it was a fun hunt. It was about -25 with the windchill and a blizzard but she showed no discouragement when we found an extremely fresh set of tracks crossing a logging road and told her we were going to follow them. She bundled up and led the charge as we stalked through the willows. We came across the nice Buck in a small clearing within an hour. The Deer was about 100 yards broadside, it happened fast but she made no mistake and placed the shot perfectly behind the shoulder right in the old boiler house.

Remember to check us out on facebook on the group "Lets Go Hunting Or Fishing With Mountain Man Adventures" or our website www.mountainmanadventures.com and keep checking on our weekly posts on this blog, I will be posting two this week, the next one is about a couple of monster moose I guided for earlier this season. It is a good story./
Thanks, Tom Sallows.

Stars still out of alignment

Despite frigid temperatures and a biting wind, we headed out in search of whitetails this afternoon. The wind was really bad for the area we were hunting but we devised a plan that would get us where we wanted to be without being detected. The plan worked but the deer weren't there. As we were headed back to the truck, I spotted a deer to the south. We figured he'd hit the fenceline and then follow in to the northwest, directly downwind of our position. There wasn't much we could do but hunker down and let it play out. The buck did as expected and I picked him up on the camera but Vanessa was sitting, waiting for a shot and couldn't quite see him but she was ready the second he came into view. The buck was moving quickly and when he came into view I grunted. But he must of hit our scent at the same moment as he took off at a run. Vanessa tracked him through the opening but he never paused to offer a shot. Oh ya, he was a really nice 5x5. Damn stars!

Too many stars to align

I know...I know...excuses, excuses but it really does take a lot of stars to align to capture a kill on camera. Throw still hunting for whitetails in the mix and it can be close to impossible. Vanessa and I headed west of town this evening for a quick hunt and we were only a couple hundred yards into our tour when a big fat doe ran out and stood on a hill, about 200 yards away. Vanessa quickly got down on the bipod and the Rocky Mountain Rifle dropped the doe in her tracks. We quickly tagged her and headed over the ridge. While quietly working through a stand of aspen, two bucks and a doe came running through. The first buck was a respectable 5x5 but the second was a true trophy but unfortunately even though I had the crosshairs on him, we were unable to get the camera out of the case before he took off. Oh well, so is the way of television hunting!

2010 in Alaska, back pack style

Last week I explained how I met Steve Johnsen of Ultimate Alaskan Adventures and how that set the stage for the start of my 2010 hunting season. My 2010 season got its start right back in the Chugach mountains of Alaska. This time instead of being a customer I would be helping Steve guide a Dall Sheep/Bear combo hunt.
On this ten day hunt Steve would need a lot of help. Our very large crew included four guides/packers in Steve, myself, Dan, and Charley. Two Spanish hunters Roberto and Georges, who couldn't speak a lick of English and finally a booking agent named Fernando as a tourist/interpreter.



After two full days hiking with extremely heavy packs we finally got to the location where we would split in to two groups. Georges would be going with Charley and Dan while Roberto and Fernando remained with Myself and Steve. Given that none of the clients were in extreme back packing shape us guides were super weighed down. I remember thinking "what the heck are we going to do if we get a few animals down way back here?".
The weather was extremely warm for Alaska and we couldn't seem to ever get the wind right to hunt the valley bottoms for Bears. The first half of our hunt was spent glassing for Dall sheep in an attempt to find an old Ram.
Roberto wasn't to interested in climbing to the tops of the mountains to hunt the ridge tops unless we knew there was a legal Ram there for sure. This really limited our possibility of finding a big Ram but when you are guiding you have to play the cards you are dealt. We didn't let the lack of mobility discourage us in the least, Steve has a great area and knows every inch of it. Over the first four days of our hunt we managed to look at a ton of Rams although a few were close none were shooters.



After taking close looks through the spotting scope at a lot of Rams it wasn't until the morning of day five that we found one worth going after. We were able to put a stalk on this gorgeous trophy but could only close the distance to about 600 yards. Roberto wasn't comfortable with that long of a shot so there we sat, pinned down waiting for the sheep to make a mistake. The Ram didn't move from his bed all day. We finally ran out of time and had to reluctantly retreat back down the mountain to our tent.



After coming close on the Ram Roberto was totally discouraged and decided that he wasn't cut out for sheep hunting. He wanted to hunt the valley bottoms and concentrate on bears for the remainder of his time in Alaska. With a new plan we headed back in the direction way had came from a few days ago and hoped the temperatures would cool off so the bears would start moving.
All of day six was spent hunting as we traveled from one valley to another, we arrived to the spot we wanted to camp right at dark. We quickly set camp, cooked some Mountain House meals and hit the old fart sack with hopes of seeing some bears in the morning.
It did happen to cool off a few degrees over night and it was amazing how much of a difference that made. We glassed right from camp first thing in the morning and were pleasantly surprised, there was game all over. We spotted two black bears and five moose right from our front door.
While Steve stayed in camp and prepared breakfast for the guys I decided to walk to a basin about a mile away and check it for sheep or more Bears. As I made my way a long a steep cliff I kept my eye on the closest of the two Black Bears we could seen from camp. I found it kind of funny he was paralleling my line of travel just across a ravine at about 3oo yards. I knew he seen me but didn't think too much of it. I rounded the corner into the basin, got in a got spot and glassed for about 30 minutes. Fairly confident the small basin wasn't holding any animals that morning I started to make my way back to camp. When I rounded the corner coming out of the basin I was surprised that the Black Bear had actually crossed the small ravine and was now walking nose to the ground on my exact trail. I re-routed to a set of cliffs a little higher on the slope and made my way above him back to camp. I had a great look at the Bear at under 100 yards and judged him to be about a six and a half footer.
Once back in camp I explained to Roberto that the bear wasn't far off and it was a good trophy. He chose to finish his breakfast and take his time deciding if he wanted to take him or not, he was a little worried about possibly scaring off any Brown Bears that might be in the area. Then something really surprising happened, I was over by the tent eating my oatmeal when I looked up and I spotted the same Bear. Again he was walking my exact trail with his nose to the ground, I couldn't believe it, this bear followed me right to camp. I Pointed him out to everyone else and it didn't take Roberto long to get down in the prone position right in front of the tent and let him have it at about 150 yards. The bear was a great Trophy and Roberto was very pleased with him, I think he also liked the idea he was able to shoot him right from the front porch of the tent.
As part of a guides job I now had a bear to skin so that ended my hunting for the day but lucky for Roberto there were two guides on the trip. While I remained back by camp and got to work on the Black Bear Steve, Roberto and Fernando decided to head out to another basin across the valley. It took them a few hours to get over there, when they finally did Steve spotted a nice Brown Bear about half way up the the basin wall. They were a little too far off for a shot but the Bear had no clue they were there. It didn't take overly long to stalk in to a good position, when they crawled over a small rise there was Roberto's Brown Bear standing at 83 yards broadside. I heard the two shots from camp and Knew me and Steve had our work cut out for us.



I was so happy for Roberto when they all arrived back in camp with the skinned Bear, what a day seven but I knew what laid ahead for myself and Steve and that was three days of up and down ridiculously steep slopes with packs that weighed well over 100lb's.
Unfortunately for Georges he wasn't as lucky as Roberto and didn't manage to tag anything as he passed on a few squeaker Rams and smaller Brown and Black Bears. This hunt was extremely tough but I absolutely love the rugged Chugach Mountains and have full intentions of finding my way back there for the beginning of my 2011 hunting season.


Remember to check out the full stories of all of our Adventures on our line of DVD's.
Hit on us at www.mountainmanadventures.com
Join our FaceBook group "Lets Go Hunting Or Fishing With Mountain Man Advnetures"
http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1522135852191&sk=messages#!/group.php?gid=2394288867
Look us up on YouTube
and of course read our weekly post on this blog
Thanks everyone, Tom Sallows, Mountain Man Adventures, mountainmanadv@hotmail.com

GREAT DAY FOR ELK HUNTING

Well i took full advantage yesterday of a beautiful sunrise and a crisp morning to chase elk around southern alberta, i was able to come across this big boy, he scores right on that 350 mark, his g5 are super long so that really helped him out.

My wife Brandie has the same tag so now were hopeing we can find her a big old bull also.

Tomorrow i leave for oregon where i will be chasing the rooselvelt elk and columbian blacktail which hopefully if successful will put me at # 23 in the north american 29..

Directly from there i will be taking my 13 year old son darien and my dad to arizona on a once in a lifetime tag for elk in the apache indian reserve....stay tuned

Couple Nice Doe's

Went out last Thursday with my buddy Mike. We were looking to fill a few Doe tags for the freezer. Shot this Doe in the morning and another one on the same feild in the evening. It was great to watch all the animals moving around. There were 8 small Bucks and a half dozen or so Doe's on the feild. The rut is getting into full swing with Bucks chasing Doe's and scrapes and rubs everywhere. Put a bi-pod on the A7 270wsm and it and the Zeiss made the 2 350-400yard shots effortless.

Deer hunt first interlude (hopefully the ONLY interlude!)

I had to leave deer camp in order to fulfill a promise of volunteer work with my fish and game club. A man is only as good as his word and so I left Provost and drove the 8 hours home. I'll get to sleep in my own bed tonight and do my hours Saturday morning and Ishould be back on the road by 2 in the afternoon. I'm headed for a change of scenery and will join Pro Staff Pat Garrett in central Alberta. Pat tells me the bucks are rutting hard in his neck of the woods and I look forward to spending time with Pat. One thing for sure you never get bored around Pat, I just need to stay awake through the 5 hour drive to get there.
Stay tuned.

Deer Hunt Day 4

Boy goof up just once and nobody ever lets you forget it! I haven't seen a buck of any sort since I blew my chance at the big buck. Last morning tomorrow and then I have to head home. Wish me luck!

Amazing start to the 2010 season in Alaska

Hello again everyone, I know most members on this blog post current reports on their progress but seen as I am a new member I am going to do and overview of our 2010 season.
My season started in late august when I was flown up to Alaska by Steve Johnsen, owner of Ultimate Alaskan Adventures. I would be helping him guide one of his Dall Sheep/Brown Bear back pack combo hunts.
I first met Steve back in mid august of 2009 when I had purchased a back pack Dall sheep hunt off of him for my old man. I tagged along to help pack and film the entire hunt. It was very important for me to capture the adventure on video as it was my dads dream trophy and I had made it a goal of mine since I was about twelve to see my dad take a white Ram.
The '09 hunt proved to be an amazing and very tough adventure. It took us 2 days just to pack in to the area Steve wanted to begin really searching for a big Ram.


We closed out the end of the day by glassing between fog patches before we hit the hay. It didn't matter how tired I was from the long trek in that night was a sleepless one as I was sore from a heavy pack and had Rams on my mind.
When we finally opened the tent flap the scene was discouraging as we were totally socked in. With only two options, one being to stay in camp and the other being to climb as high as possible and attempt to get above the clouds. The decision would be to go with the climbing through the clouds as none of us wanted to spend an entire day around camp not hunting.
It took us the first half of the day just to reach the summit of the pass but when we did we were enthused, we could see a decent amount as we did in fact get to an altitude high enough to be above most of the cloud cover. Feeling pretty good about our situation we planned to remain on top slowly stalking along the ridge, stopping to glass every 100 yards or so.
We kept this strategy up for about 2 hours when Steve hit the deck in front of us, he slowly turned and motioned for us to drop with his hand and silently mouthed "BIG RAMS". The rams were feeding away from us at about 800 yards on an open slope. Pinned down in some boulders we had to wait for the fog to roll back in before we made a move, for once in my life fog cover might actually help with sheep hunting.
Every time the fog moved in we would quickly move towards the rams and when it blew clear we would dive into the nearest pile of boulders and wait. This cat and mouse game kept up for an hour or so before the Rams fed over a peak. Now we were clear and it was time to really move, we literally ran to and then up the steep slope. Just before reaching the top of the pinnacle we stopped caught our breaths and when everyone was set we slowly crawled over the top being very cautious not to skyline ourselves. When we first crawled over, no Rams to be found. "where did they go?, They have to be right here".
After a few minutes of very careful glassing Steve spotted a tiny piece of white. They were feeding down the slope about 300 yards below but all we could see was the top of ones back because of the bench like formations on the steep slope.
The only way to get a shot would be to belly crawl 100 more yards to the edge of the next bench. With no words spoken this was decided, one by one we started our slither towards the unsuspecting rams, Steve leading the way, Dad in the middle and me following with the camera rolling. It took us some time (I am sure it seemed like a lot longer than it really was) to get to the edge of the cliff but when we finally did there they were. Two big mature Rams in the Mountains of Alaska. It was almost unbelievable, the best part was they didn't have clue we were there and the camera was rolling. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before my dad would have his ultimate dream trophy. We watched and waited until the biggest ram fed totally in to the clear and gave dad a perfect broadside shot.


After retrieving our ram we had 3 days of packing out with very heavy packs. This was the most memorable hunt of my life and I was extremely proud of my dad. At the age of 57 he was able to do what most 40 year olds couldn't.
One of the best parts about this hunt is I felt like I had finally given a little something back in return of all those years of dad taking me out hunting and putting up with my complaining about it being too cold or not seeing enough game and the list goes on and on. I would really like to thank my dad for all those times and helping mold me in to the person I have become but most of all I would like to thank him for remaining in great shape so we can still enjoy these adventures together, I am looking forward to many more in the years to come.

That explains how I met Steve for the first time and set up the start of the 2010 season but I will go in to detail how that first adventure of 2010 turned out in next weeks post. Remember for anyone who wants to see the footage of the hunt talked about above or our other awesome adventures please look for
our DVD's
check out our FaceBook group - "Lets Go Hunting Or Fishing With Mountain Man Adventures"
hit on our website - www.mountainmanadventures.com
email Tom at - mountainmanadv@hotmail.com

Thanks, Tom Sallows, Mountain Man Adventures

Deer hunt Day 2

Yesterday was pretty slow with little bucks and does to be seen. This morning I saw a good buck and as he was chasing does and I'm hunting alone I never had a chance to get the gun up and he was gone. Got a little footage of him.
Tonight I was set right in deer central and it was over whelming how many deer were coming out all around me. Distracting too as I never saw the big buck until it was too late. I tried to get the camera focused on him, saw how big he was and gave up intending to shoot him camera or not. He jumped into the bush *sigh*
There is always tomorrow.

Buck Down

Well today was the rifle opener for whitetails and Elk in the zone I am hunting. I had gained a bunch of permission from land owners but to my down fall I was unable to get a good pre scout in. So off I went this morning regardless. Lots moving around 3 doe's at first light. Then it seemed like everywhere I went there were scrapes starting. A couple of small bucks worked their way across the feild. As they left and nothing else came out I decided to go for a hike. I spotted this buck tending a scrape. And was able to make a good shot. The A7 and Rapid Z get their first big game animal. Im headed back out tomorrow.

Matt

Happy to be a part of the Team

Hey everyone my name is Tom Sallows I own and operate Mountain Man Adventures, I am a fishing and hunting guide as well as work in construction in the off season. I just wanted to post here more as a trial run then anything but also to mention how happy myself and the rest of the Mountain Man Adventures team are to be a part of the OutDoor Quest team. It has been an amazing season so far, we have taken some awesome trophies and will be telling everyone about it in the near future. There will be photos as well as information on the best way to get a hold of one of our DVD's and see how our hunts really unfolded over the past few years. Another great way to keep up to date with us is to join our facebook group,
"Lets Go Hunting Or Fishing With Mountain Man Adventures".
It has a lot of photos, some video clips and lots of members to chat with. You can also visit our website at www.mountainmanadventures.com although it hasn't been updated for quite some time as it has been a very busy hunting season and I have been on the road a lot.


thanks everyone and good luck the rest of the hunting season.