A month in the mountains!

[OregonTK]

This years hunt began August 24th for me as I headed over east to set up elk camp. Having had left knee replacement in May, I felt fortunate to even be able to hunt this year. But I figured I'd do a little hiking and quite a bit of treestand hunting...by treestand hunting I mean sitting over a certain wallow that I killed a 6pt bull at in 2014.



The wallow got hit for the first time this year on August 29th at 5:48pm by a really nice 6pt bull...unfortunately, I wasn't in the stand that evening. :doh: But that gave me hope that more bulls would eventually come in to this community wallow.

Four days in a row of sitting this particular stand I had a big bear come in, a spike bull, cow and calf, two cows and a calf. But no more bulls until the 6th. Some mornings the hunting seemed to play second fiddle to the sunrise.



...not to be outdone, the sunsets were equally impressive!



As time went on I began finding sign of the rut heating up, but very little bugling was heard in all the usual haunts.





I decided to take a break from the stand on the 6th and 7th, and both days a nice 5pt bull came in and worked the wallow! But on Sept 8th I settled into the stand at 3:15pm. At 5:00 the air current was drifting down off the hill and wallow, which is perfect for this location. I heard a stick break over my right shoulder, and as I watched to see what had caused the noise I spotted legs of an elk approaching. As the elk strolled up to the tiny creek to drink his fill I could see it was a bull! He drank for several minutes less then 15 yards of my stand while I stood and composed myself for a possible shot. Once I noticed the air moving from left to right and I held my breath, the bull kept drinking and the wind corrected itself. Finally the bull crossed the creek and stopped to survey the wallow, then he walked up toward the wallow into the open at 8-9 yards. The bull stopped and lowered his head to sniff the mud. I drew and released, the arrow instantly appeared in the lung area as the broadhead penetrated a rib on the far side. The bull exploded in a circle around my stand and charged downhill about 30 yards, but suddenly stopped...I was watching as he stood for several seconds and simply fell over. I soon heard the air come out of him and knew it was over! I waited a couple moments to compose myself and climbed down...then slowly walked down to the bull and paid my respects to the creature.

A couple quick pics with the phone, then I went back to camp to get my pack frame and see if my friend Dave had arrived at camp..





Dave had arrived at 4pm, so he went back with me and helped with the photos, butchering, and packing out the meat.



The next two weeks I'd go out in the morning with Dave hoping to get on a bull, then I'd take the afternoon off while Dave would sit in one of my stands.







Here's some trailcam video of a few bulls...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGe0To0y91k

[Elkhunttoo]

Congrats... Nice bull and great pictures

[T.B.]

Great pics along with the story. Congratulations

[CurlyTail]

Way to go! Enjoyed the story. You get an A+ for patience.

[Sask hunter]

Awesome story and bull congrats!

[JKaboom]

What a top notch post with your experience, pics, video, and story. That's a beautiful bow! Congrats on the nice bull

[flopdrop]

Congrats!!!!!

[ishy]

Nice job! And with a recurve to top it all off that's sweet!

[TurkeyBowMaster]

Great job. nice joba with the recurve

[Old school]

Beautiful scenery and sounds like a great hunt. Thanks for sharing with us. And congrats on a kill with your trad bow.

--Mitch

[Ben Nicholson]

Great job!

[OregonTK]

Thanks guys! Never mentioned my bow set up, because I've been hunting with a recurve and wood arrows for 30 years now. I hunt with a Blacktail recurve, build my own douglas fir arrows, and use Wensel Woodsman broadheads...both original and Elite.

My hunting partner also killed a bull from my treestand, but 13 days later. The trailcam caught his bull approaching the wallow, then reacting as one of the cows took off as it either saw or smelled Dave. If you look closely you can see his arrow suddenly appear in the muddy bank as the bull leaves.

[Huntrgathr]

You definitely have my respect. Trad gear, new knee... 6pt bull !?! Well done sir.

P.s - excellent pics too !

[ElkNut1]

Great story & photos! Thanks a bunch for sharing your hunt with us!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Yes! That's the way to get er done mister. Absolutely excellent write up and photos. Thanks for taking the time to share the story of your hunt.

[Wapiti]

Excellent job on a fine elk hunt that was very successful !! Congrats to you sir !!

What great pictures and a beautiful looking bull. It's also very nice to hear about the whole experience and enjoyment of elk hunting.

Now in 11 months you can do it all again !!

Trav

[Stick]

Beautiful bull! Awesome pics also. Think the traditional gear is great too. Laughed when I seen the pic of the skull in the creek. Maybe elk minds think alike.

[TurkeyBowMaster]

Nice bull and I know from a legal standpoint a bow is a bow but doing it with trad gear is just more special to me. I love the broadhead in the rib pic. Thanks for taking the extra time to take such good pics. I too put my elks head in the stream. I also found and equally impressive wallow but it didn't appear that it had been hit in a week so I didn't hunt it. I am tempted to go earlier next year and go back to that wallow. I don't think anyone else had hunted it. It is in a wonderful spot and would definantly give a good rest period hunting it. Once again congrats on a fine elk and thanks for the story.

[Csrbowhunter]

Man watching your video made me wish I'd hung a stand. Thought about this year while hunting. After a week in I was getting wore out and thought a day just sitting in a stand would be nice plus I had two different times this year where taking my midday nap I had elk walk in on me.
Congrats on the bull! That's awesome

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[Swede]

Very nice bulls. Congratulations.

[lilshootergirl]

Nice bull, beautiful bow! Love the photos. Congratulations!!!

[OregonTK]

Thanks boys & girls, appreciate the comments!