Location: Twisselman Ranch in the Temblor Wildlife Area near Paso Robles, California.
Goal: Shoot a prime cow elk to fill the freezer.
Rifle/ammo: 30-06, handloaded 150gr Hornaday GMXs pushed by 56gr of W760.
Animals seen: Tons of elk including dozens of big bulls, coyotes, blacktail deer, antelope, and lots of hog sign.

So, deer hunting season ended and I hadn't added anything to the freezer to except a mid sized hog. Between raising my daughter and teaching kindergarten I didn't have much time to hit the field and I wouldn't have much time in the near future. I realized that I had to do something soon or face a year of buying market meat.

I thought about an out of state cow elk hunt, but I knew that there was no way that I would have the time needed to travel. I remembered a hunt report here on AR by Mike Dettore. He had taken a cow elk and a hog with Nolan Twisselmann on his 30,000 acre ranch in the Temblor wildlife area of Central California. A few calls and my hunt was booked.

California is not known as prime elk country, but we do have the distinction of being the only place that tule elk can be hunted. In the state there are actually only a few of thousand tule elk and many of them live on private land. Our DF&G has had the wisdom to reward landowners like Nolan with tags as a reward for providing habitat for the elk. Nolan gets big bucks for his bull elk hunts because a lot of guys need the tule elk to finish their goal of hunting all 29 species of NA big game. Nolan even hosted Jim Shockey on his tule elk hunt.(BTW, he had nothing but good things to say about Jim. I had glowing reports on Jim from the African trackers I hunted with last year in Cameroon also.)

I booked for the last two days of the season(dec 14th and 15th). The part of the state I would be hunting in required lead free ammo so I posted on the AR classifieds hoping to get a selection of lead free bullets for my 30-06. So who would come through but Mike Dettore(the guy who had done this hunt the year before) and Just-a-hunter. Both dudes sent a bunch of bullets and refused payment. Guys like Mike Dettore and Just-a-hunter are what makes this site so great.

So I found a load that worked(MikeD's 150gr Hornaday GMXs). I still can't believe that my JC Higgins 30-06 with a 2.5x Leupold could shoot sub MOA(with me pulling the trigger), but it does with Mike's bullets.

So I headed to Nolan's ranch as soon as school ended on Thursday(2:20). I had to stop by the house to pick up my gear and I hit some traffic and didn't get to Nolan's place until 10:00PM. I met Nolan and he said that we should meet up at 7:00 and go looking for elk.

Nolan's "guesthouse" is a fully appointed two bedroom house that has absolutely everything a hunter would need(beds, shower, full kitchen, BBQ, TV, VCR, DVD, washer, dryer, etc.) It is a house I would be happy to live in.

At 7am we began the drive up the mountain. As we began to gain elevation we could see elk on the plain below. They were on DF&G managed land that borders Nolan's land. We bumped into a coyote that was stalking something and refused to run(they are shot at a lot around here so they usually run like mad if you are withing 500 yards). At Nolan's suggestion I hopped out and shot him.

It was cold and Nolan didn't want to take a chance of getting he truck stuck as the ground thawed so we untrailered his Polaris Ranger and headed up the mountain. There was pig sign everywhere, but we hadn't seen any pigs. Nolan said the pig hunting had not been as good as of late.

None of my landscape photos turned out(I had powder all over the lens) hopefully these will give you an idea of the type of terrain we were hunting. There are elk in both photos, but good luck finding them.




We drove over hill and dale looking for elk. We would stop periodically and hike to the up to the peaks and glass the surrounding hills. Elk could be seen from every peak we climbed. We saw bachelor groups with some amazing trophies and larger herds of cows and young bulls. When the elk were bedded they would always be in very difficult spots, usually small benches that afforded the herd near full view of every access route.

The good news was that the elk would move from their bedding areas on well used trails. If we saw them on the move we would try to guess where they were headed and attempt to hike ahead of them. This sounds easy until you try to do it. A herd of elk can cover a lot of ground quickly. Each time we tried to climb ahead of the elk to set-up an ambush we would find that they had already passed or, more often, that they had taken a different route.

As the day wore on we decided that it might be worth checking to see if the large herd had moved off of the DF&G land and onto Nolan's ranch. We headed back down the mountain and could see that the herd was still on the wrong side of the property line, but it looked like they were moving toward Nolan's property.

We decided to move into a draw to try to keep out of sight while waiting for them to move onto the property. The herd had several bulls a probably 60 to 70 cows and young bulls. We were walking just below the ridge-line keeping an eye on the herd in the plain below. A coyote busted us from about 400 yards ant took off running right past the herd. I thought for sure he would ruin our plan. We hadn't gone far when Nolan spotted a small group of cows in the draw directly behind us. I chambered a round and moved over the ridge. I was kneeling and could only make out glimpses of heads and ears through the grass. A lone cow spotted us and moved up the hill across the draw trying to get a better look. She turned broadside at 125 yards and I shot her right behind the shoulder. The cow spun and ran taking the other 20 or so cows with her. Nolan yelled, "great shot!" I felt the shot was good, but I chambered another round as the cow stopped about 40 yards from where she was initially hit. Nolan said, "don't shoot, she's gonna go down." And just like that she fell.

We were able to get the Ranger right down to the cow. After a couple of photos and field dressing we loaded her into the ranger and headed to the ranch house. While skinning and quartering Nolan mentioned that she was the fattest cow they had taken this year, and that the cows taken later in the year(after the first rains get the grass growing) tend to be in better condition than those taken early in the Fall.



I usually celebrate a successful hunt by frying some tenderloin medallions seasoned with French onion soup mix and serving them alongside a heaping serving of white rice. I always scrape the pan and sprinkle the scrapings over the rice. This time I used heart instead of tenderloin. It was outstanding.


I could have stayed to hunt for a pig the next day, but I decided to head home early the next day so that I could get a jump on work for the coming week. I knew that my evenings were going to be filled with cutting and wrapping meat.

After returning from the hunt I told Mike Dettore that this was my best hunt outside of Africa. Upon reflection I realized that two things made this hunt extra memorable: The ranch is really a beautiful place and we spotted game almost nonstop(I've never seen such a variety and density of game outside of Africa). I knew there were places like this here in California, but I couldn't fully comprehend it until experiencing it first hand. I also found Nolan to be a fun guy to hang out with. Like most ranchers he is a bit quiet, but he has a good sense of humor and he seemed to really enjoy hunting and showing me around his ranch. I'm not sure what my future hunting plans hold, but I think there is a good chance that I will be returning to hunt the Twisselman ranch again.

All told I ended up with 96 pounds of trimmed and wrapped boneless roasts and steaks and 65 pounds of meat for grinding. I lost 8-10 pounds of rib and neck meat due to blood pooling. I had to weight the meat twice as I couldn't believe that I had ended up with over 160 pounds from this one cow. After the first several meals I can say that this is some of the best meat I've had, and it is without a doubt the most tender.

Good on you !!!

Excellent report!

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

Jason, great hunt report.. nice freezer full of meat.. where did you get the little mora knife? I bought a few at an Army surplus store in Idaho Falls a few years back..$2 apiece.. best little knives for anything needing cutting.. should have bought a couple dozen..hindsight.. Les

quote:

Originally posted by Les Staley:
where did you get the little mora knife? I bought a few at an Army surplus store in Idaho Falls a few years back..$2 apiece..

They are available on Amazon for about $12(with a cheap plastic shelth). I have two of the wooden handled models like the one shown here(a #1 and a #2, IIRC) and also one of their knives that has a synthetic handle.

I love the carbon steel and the profile of the grind, but I don't like how the bolster allows garbage to get back in there(not real sanitary). I think I am going to seal the bolster to the blade with a dab of epoxy.

If you find these for $2 apiece again I'll take two dozen.

Thanks for the report. Its always fun hunting with Noland

Great report of a practical hunt with a non-chef, guy's recipe thrown in! Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by Cazador humilde:
with a non-chef, guy's recipe thrown in! Thanks.

I definitely fit the "non-chef guy" mold. I find that when I cook, the least complicated meals seem to turn out the best.

My most memorable French onion soup/tenderloin and rice meal(Harnesed bushbuck, New Year's morning 2012):


The setting had something to do with making the meal so memorable(Cam's Greig's camp overlooking the Mayo Rey river, Cameroon):

MMM good! Nice report.