Busted!

[WapitiTalk1]

Trumpkin and a few others prompted me to start this thread (several have mentioned how it's crazy town to not have your bow in hand or "very" accessible when in a calling situation in one of the Your Move threads).

Take it one step further and please, share a story of getting absolutely BUSTED by an elk while either in a calling situation, or, just taking a break in the elkwoods. I have more than a few but here's one of my most memorable.

Early 80s, NW Montana, hunting with my buddy. We have just climbed about 38,666 (seemed like that far) feet straight up a steep sidehill below the CAB MT Wilderness after hunting a wallow on the other side of the draw. Early afternoon, sitting on a sunny hillside on a trail, in the middle of a 100 yard wide rockslide (ya, I know....). While snacking on a sandwich, my buddy decides to just throw a locator bugle out for the hell of it; back to smacking on our sands. Well, a few minutes later, we both hear a bit of shale sliding noise above us and look up to see a very nice 6PT standing in the huckleberry brush, right on the upper edge of the slide, looking down at us. No play on that one but we scrambled and tried anyway. Seems like I would have learned a lesson there somewhere

Please share a BUSTED story.

[Rizzy]

I'm an expert at getting busted!

So I'm hiking a along a familiar ridge in early September into my area with camp on my back. The ridge terminates into the meadow I want to hunt so I stop hiking 500 yards from the meadow to drop camp for the night. I let out a location Bugle just to see, and get a response 300 yards to my right. It's mid afternoon, the Elk should be bedded, and so I decide to set up camp real quick and quiet before moving in on the Bull. Well the shuffling and accidental pole clanking called in a cow. I saw movement at about 30 yards and she appeared. About that time I heard raking about 20 yards past her. It didn't take her long to see my big green tent, get nervous, and trot off. I let out a lip bawl at that point just for good measure, maybe the bull didn't see me, then finished setting up camp real quick.

[Bow4me]

This last season me and my son started just above treeline where we had seen a large bull the day before. I hammered out a locator bugle and got a response down in a draw. It was about a thirty minute decent and around a knob. When we got about where I thought the bugle came from I let out another bugle and nothing. After a short wait with nothing shaking I decided maybe we hadn't covered enough ground and we began to drop lower in the draw. As we took off my son kinda took his own way through the timber. We didn't walk 30 yards and I look up BULL!!!! He is at 40 yards with his head is behind a tree for me but my son is 7 or 8 yards away from me still walking. I'm trying to get his attention and get an arrow knocked without alarming the bull. I got the arrow knocked and at full draw before I got him to stop. The bull is getting nervous and I only have an 8 inch hole in the trees to shoot through. Release! explosion! thunder! Heartbreak! Hit a limb game over.

[Indian Summer]

1984 SW Montana. My brother and a friend are taking a mid day nap. They hear the unmistakable sound of a twig snapping. It's loud enough to catch both of their attention and their eyes pop open and they sit up. Before they can even think "what was that" they hear hoof beats and their is motion to the right. Elk! They look each other in the eye. My brother has his bow between his knees and leans it back and snaps on his release. He already has an arrow nocked. The other guy looks at his bow about 5 feet away and you could just read his mind "I wonder if I can lean over and grab my bow" My brother gives him the wide eyed "if you even try I'll double lung your arse and they'll never find your carcass" look. He follows up the look by drawing his bow. Elk takes about 8 more steps and gets it broadside and drops over dead less than 60 yards away. A good outcome for one hunter. A lesson learned for the other.... or for both actually.

[huntnfolk]

Last season I biked into an area where I saw a herd with a decent bull the evening before. I got to my spot before daylight and let out a bugle to see if the bull was still in the area. The bull immediately responded a ways off to my left. I figured game on as I parked my bike and moved in closer on foot. Based on what I had viewed from across the canyon the night before, I thought I had one more spur road to pass before getting to the clearing where I thought the bull had called from. Not having actually been on those roads before, I miscalculated which spur road I was actually at. Next thing I know I'm at the end of the spur and in the clearing where I figured the bull had called from. Not the worst thing, but it's still not shooting light so I don't want to move around anymore because I'm not sure where the elk are at yet. Figuring I need to burn a few minutes waiting for daylight I decide to eat a banana I have in the pouch of my waist belt. Mid bite I glance up to a little knob 30 yds. above the landing I'm standing on. There's the bull staring at me and watching me eat the banana. Light enough for him to be silhouetted against the sky, but not legal shooting light!!!! A stare down lasted for about 30 seconds and then he split with his girlfriends. Nothing I could do but shrug my shoulders and finish my banana

[AlexG]

So two years ago me and my dad were hunting on a familiar mountain and we were hunting up the back side in the morning seeing only a few deer and decided to take a break on top of the mountain and glass the surrounding area for a few hours and we had been sitting there for a few minutes when all of a sudden about 15 elk and a really nice bull stood up not 40 yards from us, so off we took down the mountain after them and almost got a shot off on the heard bull after a few hours of chasing them.

[Indian Summer]

Huntnfolk... haven't you heard that bananas are bad luck? On Deadliest Catch or Wicked Tuna if they catch you bringing a banana on board they cut you up and use you for bait! All my fishing friends are really strict about that too. I have one friend who is a muskie fishing machine. If he is bitching about a slow day I always ask him "Did you find that banana I hid in your storage compartment?" He does NOT think it's funny.

But here's a good banana story: I had a client from Arizona with very little experience. An older guy on a semi guided hunt and solo. One day only about a quarter mile from camp he had come up from the mid slope benches after dropping down and hunting in the elk zone all morning. He was sitting on a rock pile having a mid day break. He sat his bow down beside him and broke out his lunch sack. First he ate his sandwich. Then he started eating a banana and saw something coming from over the lip of the hill to his left. He said he dropped the banana right on the ground and grabbed his bow. Nocked and arrow and here it comes... only 15 yards away... a mule deer buck. No tag! Bummer too because it was a giant. So he is sitting there thinking man I shouldn't get too far away from my bow because that all happened really fast and "I can't freakin believe I didn't buy a damn deer license!" Then (I can't believe this!) before he can even put the bow back down he hears something coming from the same direction. Who wouldn't assume it was another mulie right? Nope, bull! It follows the same path and all he has to do is draw and shoot. Unreal. Bull drops over dead in under 100 yards and he shows up in camp with the head on his back to tell his story. He said at first he was ready to kill himself for not having a deer tag. 5 seconds later he was thanking God he didn't have one. But if he didn't have his bow in his hand he would never have pulled it off because he said it was like 2 seconds from the time he saw the bull until he shot.

To banana or not to banana, that is the question.

[Heartwood]

I have a fair number of getting "busted" stories from the past but here are a few from 2014 season. I called a respectable 6 point in during an elk party (cow in estrus) mid Sept. solo. So i have done my final call sequence and know the bull is coming so i move up as much as i dare, maybe 30 yards. Here he comes in cover that is just about right for success. I pre draw as he is coming fast. He approaches in a braodside manner up hill from me and locks up on his own at about 7 yards +-. I literally could have shot him anywhere else but his boiler room ( tree trunk with no branches, right in the way). He is looking right at me or through me toward where the last calls came from and i can see that he is very nervous. I'm still at full draw on my knees in a good solid set up but i can tell time is limited before he blows out. I had the option to nervous grunt but chose not to. When he did blow out i popped at him but he did not lock up (a rare occourance but have had it happen before). The popping grunt is one of the most deadly and useful sounds that we have learned from Elknut but for me it has not worked 100%. I works 95% of the time and somtimes 2 or 3 times on the same animal. This bull ended up busting me again that morning as i worked the heard bull ( he came in unanounced and saw me about the same time i saw him). Lots of action that day but no kill.
I had another bull come in silent to a location bugle and bust me (or atleast he saw me move but wind was good). He just locked up at 60 yards and stared in my direction so i stayed in cover and raked on a tree. He wasn't totally convinced (i could see him with my binos. through the trees) so i baled off the steep cliffy outlook that i had been locate bugling off of and circled around to a new "fresh" location 200 yards away with good wind and cover. I did a calling sequence and he committed and came in but just didn't offer a good shot. At that time a new bull fired off and i closed some distance on him with cow calls only (i suspected he was a satalite ). Fortunately he bugled again and it was clear he was on a string so i advanced with no calls fast to a fresh position. He slipped by me at 15 yards and i stopped him with a popping grunt. He startled when the arrow hit him and i was able to stop him again at 25 yards and shoot him again. Popping grunt = dead elk. Reading the situation and type of bull = dead elk. Being persistent when situations aren't working out = dead elk. Seems like many times you either get the shot or eventually get busted when they are in close.

[Trumkin the Dwarf]

I've been busted by elk many times, but one of the worst was when I was still in high school. I was hunting with my dad and a friend, and we split up on opposite sides of a ridge. My dad was separate from me and didn't initially realize it. Well, my hunting partner and I also split, as we were right into a small herd of elk, and we wanted to pinch in on them.

Well my dad ran into the other guy, and wanted to know where on earth I was. Our friend didn't understand the game plan very well, and somehow my dad didn't hear that we were right into the elk. Anyways, while they were talking, I was hearing the elk in the timber just ahead of me, I had an arrow on the string, and I'd gone full on ninja mode.

So as I was creeping through the timber, (it was thick enough, that while I knew the elk were within 30ish yards, I couldn't see them yet) my dad comes over the ridge top whistling to find his poor lost son, who I presume he imagined to be cold, wet, starving, and scared while huddled under a small tree. Well at the whistle, I heard the dreaded stampede begin, and just about bellowed in anger and frustration! It still irks me that he didn't imagine I had enough common sense and mountain savvy to find my way back the 400 yards to his position!

[ishy]

Had the sandwich one happen once. Two spikes during prerut walk up to about 15 yards while my dad and I are munching away. Bow was 5 yards away, so simply let them bugger off then grabbed my bow and sprinted downwind as fast as I could. Got one to turn back with the smallest cow call I could squeak. I had him at about 50 yards and he would give a nervous grunt and I would return one as quick as he would get one out, and then add some light chuckles to the end. Worked great had several shot opportunities as he would walk back and forth searching for the other elk, but was a little far for me back then. I use to be overly cautious before rangefinders and summers of 3D shoots.

[elk.addict]

Huntnfolk... haven't you heard that bananas are bad luck?

I went on a charter boat years ago. I busted out a banana for lunch and you should have heard the skipper. Man did I get an ear-full! Initially I thought he was joking, then I realized he was quite serious that bananas are bad luck and NOT allowed. Apparently this is well known in the commercial fishing world.

[elk.addict]

It still irks me that he didn't imagine I had enough common sense and mountain savvy to find my way back the 400 yards to his position!

I get nervous when my son disappears on me too. He's only 13 though. He thinks he's ready to go off by himself but I am not ready for that just yet

[twinkieman]

I'll throw one in from last season as well, 2014. On a morning where we couldn't get anything to talk, one of my partners decided to separate about a 100 yds., and do two bulls in an advertising sequence. he set up , I set up, and the bugling between us began. We bugled back and forth at one another for 20 minutes, I had another hunter with me, as I had already tagged out. We bugled back and forth, scanning the forest for any approaching elk, and listening as well. After we stopped bugling, we remained setup for another 20 minutes, again nothing. We regrouped , and decided to hunt in opposite directions, until midday. Rob, and myself set off, made it about 50 yds., when I saw a 6 point bull headed right at us. I grabbed Rob by the shoulder, pulled him down, whispered that a bull was headed right at us. There was no mistaking that Rob also had a visual on the bull, his eyes said it all. No proper setup, and you can all probably guess, When Rob drew, the bull "busted" us, did what bulls do, and escaped without a shot being taken. Lesson learned again, this time I hope it sticks, wait at least 1 hour before moving from a cold calling setup

[WapitiTalk1]

Nice. Similar to yours Marc, a buddy and I weren't getting any vocalization going from the indiginous population one season in WA state quite a few years back. This is actually back when they gave us a decent portion of the rut so we were hunting at some time in the third week of September. At any rate, we stopped our ground covering/locating trek late morning to sit and have a snack close to some elk trails in a very large huckleberry hillside. Joe and I decided to first do the dueling bugle thing for 10-15 minutes and see if we could interest an elk in joining us. Impatience and hunger got the best of us after 10 or so minutes so we stopped bugling, moved a bit closer to each other, and both plopped down about 30 yards apart, to have a snack. I'm pretty sure I moved some of the high huckleberry brush where I was sitting which was probably the final invite needed for what happened next. I heard him coming towards me on a brushy elk trail and he was standing 15 yards away, looking down at me a bit above me on the hillside. Daypack off, bow laying next to it, munching on the snack of choice for that stop, and staring at a raggedly little three by something bull was an interesting interuption to the morning break. After the bull busted, Joe came walking over and said "did you just hear something above you"?

[Njdiverdan]

Last fall was my worst time getting busted. The previous evening I was hunting an area south of camp near a spring. As dark approached there was no sign or sounds of any elk in the area so I headed back to camp with maybe 15 minutes of light left. As I am approaching camp I can hear two bulls bugling just north of camp. I quickly close the gap hoping for a last minute shot at one of them. Cow call, both bulls answer, but I run out of light quickly. So now I have a plan for the morning.

That night, the rut exploded around me. There were no fewer than 10 different bulls screaming all night long from every vantage point around camp. At one point it sounded like an elk was bugling in the tent window they were so fired up. So at first light I hear a bull bugle to the north again (same spot as last night) and off I go. I get no more than 75 yards from my tent when I see him. Standing 30 yards from me on the trail, of course looking dead at me as I am in the wide open. I had about a half second of crap when he exploded up the mountain. I wonder how long he watched me before I finally saw him or if it was that we both looked up at the same time. Either way, I doubt I will ever get an opportunity at a bull so close to camp again.

-dan

[bowhunter99]

Last year, buddy and I were still hunting slowly when he stopped in front of me. Elk coming above us, bull gives a little chuckleto slow his cows. Friend draws, lets one fly, BAM! hits a tree 20 yards away instead of the bull. He runs 10 yards, stops. No idea what it was or from where. Buddy draws a second time, lets go, BAM! hits a tree again! Now the lead cow is nervous, heads downhill to our right, catches our scent and blows out along with the second cow. Now, I can see my partner but not the elk, there's a large fir tree blocking my view but I knew what he hit obviously! Bull follows the same path as the first two cows, and now I can see him stop as I come full draw. Of course there are two fallen trees blocking the vitals, no shot, he winds us and bolts along with the other cows.
My buddy is laughing as he's pulling his arrows out of the trees. I set my bow down to grab a snack (dumb), and sure as s#*t, I see movement and then antlers following the same path as the herd. It's a small but legal bull bird-dogging their scent. Somehow I am able to squat down, grab my bow, knock an arrow and as he walks behind a fir tree, I draw and give a quick cow call. He stops at eight yards broadside, and as I'm letting my arrow go, I am slowly leaning backward due to my half squat and a log in my privates. BAM! nail an aspen right in between us.
Never will I put my bow down again....and will work more in offseason on shooting from an awkward stance!

[In-S-Heart]

Last year, WY, set up 1/2 hour prior to sunrise. I use a strap on tree seat and set up so that I'm looking over my left shoulder at the most likely spot that the elk will show up. The pond I'm set up on is about 40 yards long and 30 yards across - I'm set up so that I can shoot over the cneter of the pond (over my left shoulder) to the other side, just to where the flat gound rises at about a 45 degee angle up a long ridge, and about a 20 yard shot to either end of the pond. All around the pond is littered with elk tracks with 3 nice wallows within easy shooting range.

After about an hour and a half - I hear a noise, sounds like about 150 yards and closing. As I'm getting set I catch movement - along comes 2 sheep hearders on horses and a dog. "CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!" under my breath. We refer to them as Juan and brother Juan. They continue on through, although I'm pissed - (insert another "CRAP!") I decided to stay put at least another hour or so, or until the wind begins to swirl.

Every few minutes I give a "poof" on my wind checker - still good. After about 45 minutes and right as the sun begins to peak through a spot between the mountains the wind begins it ugly dance. Time to get out of here before I mess this spot up.

I stood up, turned around and placed my bow on the tree seat and just as I give the wind another check - a bull lets out a bugle straight behind me - the exact direction I have been watching all morning. As I turn to look over my shoulder I also grab my bow (arrow still knocked) about 75 yards here comes 2 cows on the run with a big 6x6 stopped at the edge of the clearing - head leaned back and giving a bugle that absolutely shoot the stuffing right out of me. [that image will forever be engrained in my memory] big long tines sweeping back - huge fronts curled upwards like a giant pitchfork - OMG it was just unreal. If I would have just sat still for another 15 seconds..........I always sit with arrow on and release attached.

Looked back at my bow to hook up my release and as I'm TRYING to get hooked up - shaking so bad that honestly I absolutely could not get it attached - I turn my head and there stands the bull right in one of my shooting lanes at less than 15 yards broadside looking straight away from me at the cows who have (scented me) busted hard goind directly away. Even if I had been able to get my release on and turned around the only shot I would have had was from center of body (guts) and back. 3 seconds and he's gone same direction as his girls.

[Trophyhill]

I'm living proof that elk can and will come in to bad calling even if you're not ready. I was sitting under a tree staying out of the drizzle one year, hung my bow in a tree, ate a samich, and decided the elk weren't active and this would be a good time to practice. I had 3 or 4 different reeds and was jumping back and forth. I was sitting under a small cluster of pines with open meadow on all sides surrounded by forest. Did I mention my bow was hanging on a branch about 5 yards from me? Anyhow out of seemingly nowhere, a cow came sprinting in from the treeline from a couple hundred yards and stops broadside at about 40 yards looking for what she heard. I'd look at her, then my bow hanging there out of reach, then her again and then my bow. And I say to myself "Now whatcha gonna do stupid?" I tried to inch toward my bow and after moving about 6 inches she barked and took off. I think that was 5 1st time I'd been barked at. I learned a few things. 1 cows can bark, 2 elk are very fast, 3 sometimes even bad sounds bring elk in and 4 never let your bow out of reach. I'm sure I learned a couple other things during that encounter too. That cow schooled me that day.

[bowhuntersd]

It was 1996 and it was my first out-of-state hunt. We were hunting the backcountry in Colorado. Myself, my Dad and 2 other had been hunting for a few days. It was starting to get late morning and the sun was warming up. We had been on elk that morning and had decided to take a nap and eat some lunch then catch back up with them instead of going back to camp. The 3 others were out in what seemed like minutes and I'm wide awake reliving the morning events. Finally I doze off. I wake up to the sound of a stick breaking. I look up and the herd was all around us. Talk about being BUSTED.