Pictures to follow after the season. But wanted to begin the thread anyway.
On the third day of the season and pre-flood I hiked into a basin above tree-line. It was now 2PM by the time I had made it through a mile of black timber from the trail to treeline. Trust me, old growth timber is no easy walk and a mile can take a long time (3hrs for me this section)
Since the thermals were gong up, I decided to set up a bivy camp and wait. Around 2:30 I heard the first bugle. Great, an outfitter is in the basin too I thought.
The bugles sounded just too textbook, some delivered right after another and all from the same spot. Classic rookie calling mistakes. Oh well.
I waited until the thermals reversed and headed up the basin. The bugles were just as regular as a mentronome. As I was wondering to myself what we would say to one another when I walked into the outfitters setup, I looked up to see a nice 5x high necking me from about 100yds away.
Ooops! Busted!
But the youngster was not of the deep thinking variety (yet) and he let me get away with just being there.
I decided to hunt him in the AM as the light had faded.
Bugles all night and WOW I never knew one little bull could make so many different sounds.
In the morning I was into the basin first light. Eventually I decided to return to camp and break it down to re-spike up high where I could glass the area, saving myself a lot of up and down hiking.
Big mistake.
By 10AM I was back up into the basin with all my gear. I looked over my right shoulder and saw 3 bull elk walking away across a rock stubbled slope. The last in line was a nice 6x6. Mister in the middle was an honest 350 class animal. The leader, covered from nose to tail and antlers too in a gray dried mud, looked like a ghost elk. He was a third larger than even the 350 class bull in body mass and his antlers took my breath away. The main beams easily as large as my forearms- not an expert judging big bull elk but I have only seen a few pictures of elk this big and they scored near the 400's.
Anyway, they were on their way out of the drianage. No chance to dog them, as I was at the ethical limit of my range in getting one out without meat loss already. Besides, ever try to dog elk that know you are there in open country?
Not possible.
I thought to myself, there go all the bulls in this drainage.
But around 1:30pm A bull gave his location call in the only timber just above my new spike camp. He eventually came down with his group of spikes and cows. I named him "red antler" for his red stained 6x rack. He was a nice herd bull and liked to talk. He took his group back up the mountain- one cow had got my wind and spooked, but he never did and only reacted to her, not to me.
That evening he/they came down the mountain again, red antler bugling every 30 seconds or so. It was thrilling! I stalked to within 50 yds when he stopped to thrash a bush, but ran out of cover. In the end I had to watch him go as the light faded and the group headed into the open sloped basin. Bull 2, me 0.
Next morning was easy to be up in the dark and hunting by light. Thats the nice thing about a spike camp. Six steps away from your sleeping bag and you are in the middle of elk country that takes 8 hours of hard hiking to reach.
I worked my way up the basin and found a spot to re-water. As I was about to fill my bottle six cow elk busted out of the weather stunted spruce above me in a rattle of rock and hoofs. They saw me I saw them and they went for cover and so did I. ****!
I waited, the wind was perfect right in my face and I knew they were still right there just a few yards away behind the thick cover.
Soon enough more rocks and hoofs and here comes two velvet covered spikes, followed by guess who? Mister red antler herd bull himself.
And I had him perfect too.
12 yrds, broadside. Just one step forward and his heart in the shooting lane.
But he never made that fatal last step.
I was at full draw, he was looking calm and then the spikes got my scent from the spot I had just vacated 3 or 4 minutes earlier. When the spikes spooked, the herd bull went full alert. My slight shaking and movement(by this time) behind my cover was enough to send him high gear. He then picked up my scent too and that sealed the deal for good.
Those elk in that basin had enough.
Wow! What a great experience and a great way to spend part of your life- above tree line in the American West, alone with the bulls and under the skies of the wilderness.
The next 5 day hunt was in the wet. Wool came through and I was warm and happy, if not exactly dry, but no elk. My 1978 Mitchell truck camper I had rebuilt was a haven at night- heat to dry out and a three burner stove with oven, dble bed over cab... Pretty nice to listen to the rain when you are warm and dry and cornbread is baking in the oven.
My sympathy to those who lost homes and loved ones in the flood below however, though until I came down I knew of none of the disaster.
More later.
Joshua
Sounds like a great experience to me, regardless of the outcome. And just think of all the work those spikes saved you. Would have been a real back-breaker packing out Mister Red Antler.
Any chance to get after them again this season? If you can, good luck and looking forward to some pics. Thanks for taking us along.
Will tagging along like this help get me acclimated for next week? I fly into Denver Friday night for a week of high country hunting with my son.
:bigsmyl:
:campfire:
:campfire: :goldtooth:
Thanks for taking us along! There is still yet plenty of time my friend! God bless!
Thanks for taking us along! There is still yet plenty of time my friend! God bless!
I just want to emphasize again the value of wool. It was a lot of rain we got and there is just no way you can hunt hard and quiet in raingear. You have to have something that allows your body to keep warm, manage the moisture and keep you quiet. I can't say I was as comfy as can be- water running into your collar is never fun (need a better hat!) but considering, it was not bad. I was in the woods 13-14hrs every day rain or not.
I go out for 7 days end of next weekend...
J-
Thanks Josh, I enjoyed the hunt and there will be a next time. :archer:
I had to sit out a whole week and finally got back into the wilderness for the finale 7 days of archery elk. It was raining again hard as I pulled into camp sunday night, but it relented and Monday was a nice day. The sky was as blue as you could stand and clear- washed clean by the weather.
There was an inch or so of snow on the ground. Nothing quickens the hunters heart like a tracking snow and I went out with high hopes. And right away there was a bugle 75 yrds out...
This guy had a bugle that sounded like, well, a bugle out of a plastic tube. But I had seen and heard weirder things in the elk woods. I went into the timber to see what I could see. It was thick, but the worst of it was the wind and I just didn't dare push it. I pulled out and went 3 miles in to a 15 acre meadow that I know about.
It took me awhile to get there, hunting slow and alert. I had three mulies at 6 steps broadside as I ate a snack, legs in the sun and back to a log. No tag this year for deer though. Mmmmm, those deer sure looked tasty, er, I mean healthy...
I got to the meadow at about 12:30, bright sun and just a perfect western high meadow vista. It fell away from me and pinched down into a seep that connects to other meadows deeper into the drainage. Above the tree line I could make out the rugged craigs of the mountains in the distance. Just stunning!
I had just reached the inside edge of it when who did I hear? Mister plastic bugle way dowwn (I thought) the other end of the meadow but in reality he was still in the timber and much closer to me. He bugled again, he was in the meadow! And way closer than I had first thought! When I got my optics to my eyes I had already seen enough to know for certain....
BIG bull!
Heart rate went up a peg or three and the wheels started turning on how to close it!
He was sailing across the meadow, grass brushing his belly. I could see the big shoulder muscles undulate under his hair. He was a stout bull, and I almost named him Mr Magestic. His rack was pretty heavy, Not record class but a 6x-one hell of a trophy. He was mature and his head gear reflected it. I was all in!
This guy was on the make and had been looking for cows. He had been traveling and letting out a bugle every 5 minutes or so.
I got a spot for a set up. I put a decoy on the edge of the meadow just off to one side and in front of my hide. I let him have about three nice estrus cow calls.
He had gone over a rise in the meadow and disappeared. I was afraid of loosing him he was covering ground so fast. I thought of him as "Traveler" after that.
But it didn't take long, I looked away, then back again and he was there, coming straight in...
I'm on the edge of my seat!
Oh man! Good stuff brother....
You're killing me!!
The old warrior came in head on and clearly saw the decoy cow. A lot goes through your mind when a big bull is coming in. Especially if you worked hard and long to get to that moment. Mostly though I try to be calm, realizing I am a part it ALL- seamlessly woven into the landscape, preditor, prey, timber and air, joined together into a cohesive whole. This helps me relax.
The bull came on and drifted to the upwind side of the decoy. I had not counted on this, expecting him to come in on the dwonwind side. He was now out of sight and about 40-50 yds to my left and up against the timber where he bugled to call the cow over to him, It was as if he was saying, hey baby, I'm the biggest badassery bull around these parts and I smell like THIS! eeEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAUUUFF!
He wouldn't come in and I couldn't stalk him over the downfall hell snarl that was this edge of the meadow. I tried some soft estrus pleads...
I'm in. :campfire:
I tried to close some of the distance, but didn't want to totally blow this chance and future chances by letting him see me, smell me, or associate my calling with humans.
I waited.
The chess game went on like this for 15 minutes, until I could tell he was leaving. I tried a spike bull bugle to let him think that was why the cow had not come to him, but his next bugles were ever fainter.
Rather than over call in a frenzy in some hopeless attempt that more and louder will somehow change the game I let him go...
--------------------------------------------------
A note about decoying bull elk:
I have called in a few bulls using a deke and here is one constant I can pass on to you- never set up a decoy where the bull will be able to find it before he is in range. I cannot emphasize this enough. If he spots the decoy his "search" is over. He more often than not will then go to a safe place and try to call the cow to him. When the cow does not respond its a red flag to the bull. Sure, there are the psycho suicide bulls now and then, but generally if they find the deke before you can shoot, you are in a low odds situation to close the deal.
Always make the setup so that the bull is still searching when he is in your range. I didn't do this this time and lost.
Ah the let-down.
I could not get the image of this magnificent animal crossing the big meadow, his heavy muscles and regal poise worn like badges, earned by the contest and brazed by conquest.
But I had another trick up my sleeve. The big bull had not seen me and surely had not smelt me. I knew that to dog him was imposible given what was the thick and downed timber in this drainge, but....
I went to the downwind side of the meadow and about 30 yards back in the timber from the ede found a spot to be comfortable for a few hours, legs in the sun and back to a log.
I was certain Traveler would be back...
I do like where this is going. Man I feel like a dog staring at someone eating a pork chop. Keep it coming.
Its not easy to predict elk. Harder still to predict an individual. So you go with your instincts. You may not get it exactly right, but sometimes you can take the aggregate of what you have learned about elk over the years in your area, salt it with a little savvy and maybe, just maybe, come up with a winning hand.
I had heard this bull bugle and seen his tracks. I knew he was a "walker", a bull that for a little while early in the rut goes walkabout pretty much 24/7 in search of cows that will at least allow him grouping them. A bull is very vulnerable at this time because he is often locating himself by bugles and also traveling through areas that are not safe for him.
My guess was Traveler was going to come back to the site of the elk decoy out of shear curiosity/hope that this time he could hook up with the cow he had heard there.
So at about 4:30, when I heard that distinctive plastic tube bugle of the big bull, I wasn"t surprised. But he had fooled me again by coming in high above the decoy spot and walking into it before letting off his call. Ihad expected him to come in on my side past my hide and giving me the shot as he focused on where the deke had been.
I was too far away this way though, but still belly crawled and butt scooted 50 yds to the edge of the meadow, even though that was still too far down its edge to make a difference. He either smelled my residual scent on the goround near the deke site, or came up behind me in the timber as he circled the meadow edge and got my wind. Anyway, the one call was all I got and then he was certainly gone.
I walked my butt kicked self up the long slope out to camp, getting in at about 8:30.
As it turned out though, this would not be the end of my chess match with the old gladiator. I would meet Traveler again, and then again. But never was my chance as good as it was that first day in the big meadow. When the temps went down over the next couple days and the snow started falling, a lot had changed in elk behavior and where they were hiding thenselves.
You can walk all you want and cover many miles- sometimes the elk just are not there. Until you find them again, if you can, the hunt is really a game of attrition. How much can you give out physically to find them in country that is so often "up" and the timber such downfall snarls that you begin to wonder if you could even get an animal out of there anyway.
I had at least six chances at herd bulls this year, and three of them once in a lifetime animals. Red Antler, the massive Ghost Bull and Traveler were all animals that got your heart into redline.
I saw some amazing things, and even had to fend off a bull moose that stalked me into some black timber. At 10 yrds he still wouldn't take no for an answer, until I chucked a forearm sized stick of wood into his snoot.
I saw bear tracks, two pine martins, a fox family, bunches of mule deer and heard a lot of bugles. I am thankful to be able to walk this earth and climb the high peaks of the back country. I am fortunate to have something to love that is so vast it always seems to be able to absorb whatever cares I have, dust them clean and fill ny batteries again for what ever may come.
I urge you to protect our wild places by being a steward of the lands you hunt. Pass on to the next hunter a clean, untouched hallowed ground.
Joshua,
Great story, thanks for sharing your adventures. Next time I will for sure knock on your door.
Pat
Great writing!
Thanks for the excellent story!
Excellent! I was really pulling for you to get the bull, but it is plain to see that you got what you really went after, and that was an experience that you will never forget. Great job on helping everyone here feel what you felt and experience life as an elkhunter.
I plan on hunting second rifle with my bow, so its not over yet!
Great story and good luck bow hunting during the rifle season
What a great read. Thanks for taking the time to REALLy take us elk hunting.
Great writing. It's clear that you really enjoy what you're doing. Thanks for taking us along.
And yes I know I don't have to tell you this but stay with it !