My elk hunt kicks off tomorrow. A friend of mine who knows the area will help me a bit in the beginning, but if I do not get one early it will be my first solo big game hunt. That's a little nerve wrecking and quite exiting. It will also be the first time in a more than two decades, I think, when I am out solo camping in sub-freezing temperatures. Let's hope I remember how to do that without freezing vital body parts off.
My original plan was to do a detailed livecast on my preparation and such, but we make plans and then life happens.

I'll do a thorough after action report when I return and try to remember to take pictures while out there.

The area I am going to is considered to be one of the premier stargazing spots in the country, so if I have clear skies, I'll really enjoy that. I have a special low magnification stargazing binoculars (2.1x) specifically for looking at the enormity of the sky without zeroing in on a single constellation. I wonder if I can manage to take a good picture through it...

In the meantime, I thought it worthwhile to at least give you an idea of the gear selection. I am heading out tomorrow afternoon, so there is a chance I'll do a short livecast around midday tomorrow if there are any questions you'd like addressed before I vanish into the mountains.

1) Rifle setup.
This is a muzzleloader hunt, but the distances in these mountains can get significant. This had to be a pretty modern muzzleloader, so I settled on an Encore frame with a really excellent Brux barrel from Arrowhead Rifles (https://www.arrowheadrifles.com/product/brux_encore_barrels/). They set the barrel up to work flawlessly with their own NSR (No Sizing Required) pointy bullets that are proving to be fairly peppy and rather accurate (see attached pictures). The bullets I use are 275gr and they launch right around 2400fps using 100 grains of Blackhorn 209 and Federal 215M primer. The last couple of five shot groups at 200 yards were a bit under 1.5MOA which is better than I expected out of a muzzleloader.
In practical terms, given reasonable wind, a solid shooting position and the size of elk vitals, it should do well for shots within 300-350 yards or thereabouts. At 350 yards, that 275 grain bullet is still moving along at a bit over 1700fps.
The scope I chose for this setup is the sadly discontinued Vortex Razor HD-LH 1.5-8x32. 8x top end is plenty for an animal the size of elk although given how accurate this gun is a larger scope would not be out of place. The G4-BDC reticle in this scope gives me defined holds at 225, 300, 375 and 450 yards, but with a little luck I should stay inside of 300. I have two of these little 1.5-8x32 Razor scopes, one on this muzzle loader and another on a 300WSM levergun. They are really awesome and I wish they were still available. The Brux barrel on this levergun is pretty heavy, but with the scope being light, the whole things with the sling comes in at around 9.6lbs. Not exactly a lightweight mountain rifle, but good enough for my purposes.

The scope sits in 1" low Vortex Pro rings (https://bit.ly/3pLB8hd) that seem to be tolerating the rather stout recoil of this smoke pole quite nicely. It is loud though, so hearing protection is in order. I can't quite get myself to spend serious money on high end earbuds. I use the GS Extreme from Axil and they provide perfectly reasonable hearing protection, but sound quality is suboptimal with all the hissing and such. I need to find some hearing protection company that wants to sponsor my show or something like that.
The last piece of the rifle setup is the sling. I have Crosstac's Outfitter biothane sling on this gun. For non-tactical slings I have really developed some appreciation for biothane. It is quiet and it does not slip. Also, because of it non-slip nature, I can easily use it as a hasty sling in a pinch and as a shooting sling if I have time.

While I would much rather take a prone shot off the pack, I can shoot decently well sitting with a sling. My trekking poles also convert into shooting sticks if need be, but I am not very good shooting off of those.

The plan is to drive up there Friday afternoon, find a reasonable spot to camp out and start early on Saturday. We have an idea of where the elk might be hanging out, so we'll probably hike out to a nicely elevated spot, so some glassing. Sitting on cold pointy rocks is not my favourite thing to do, so I've got a small insulated non-slip pad from Tactical Sidekick to sit on. I'll be doing essentially day hikes out from the basecamp. Given how out of shape I generally am, these will not be particularly long hikes.

I have a Kifaru Stryker XL backpack with Duplex Lite frame to carry stuff in and, hopefully, to carry meat out.

It will be a bit fresh out there (around 10-15F at night), so I have a pretty good layered clothing system mostly comprised of Kuiu, Forloh and Eberlestock stuff.

I'll let you know hot it all works.

It has been a long time since I have done anything like this in even moderately cold weather and all the gear and clothing ahve really changed. That should help, but I also got a bit older in the last twenty years to counterbalance that. Hopefully, a nice Kifaru quilt on top and a couple of layers of Big Agnes sleeping pads (combined R value around 6 should be good enough). I use Q-Core Deluxe https://amzn.to/3rSAtxl with a closed cell TwisterCane pad underneath https://amzn.to/3GuT1aX
I have not tried them in 10-15F temperatures though.

Given that I have a pretty decent double wall tent from Eureka: 4 Season Mountain Pass 2 (https://amzn.to/3IBAlZ1), I have high hopes for night time comfort. I am a little concerned that my snoring will scare all the elk away, but I'll just have to take my chances.

If I do not chime in tomorrow, wish me luck!

For the record, my wife seems strangely unconcerned about me heading out into the boonies solo in the winter. Probably shouldn't have told her about my life insurance.