Vanish's Colorado Archery Elk Log, Season 2

[Vanish]

Here I am at work on Friday, accomplishing very little. Well, it is that time of year once again. We head out for the mountains in 3 hours. This year we're doubling our rumbling and bumbling as my Dad and our friend Joe will be joining us. My Dad has lots of whitetail bowhunting experience and camped out with us a couple times during the season last year. Joe has been shooting archery for years and has followed along on deer hunts, but has never hunted. We'll pick up Joe and cram him into the RAV4 until we get to the Hogback, where we will meet my Dad and I'll ride up with him. We'll only be up there for the weekend, with longer trips planned for later in the season, but I couldn't be more excited.

We did some scouting and hung a camera a couple weeks back. We didn't see any elk, but there was sign. I want to try to get down lower, earlier this year.

[Vanish]

Friday - August 24

We picked up Joe and met up with my Dad at the Hogback on Friday afternoon. I switched cars and rode with my Dad, and we were on the last leg of the drive at about 7:00. Good time to see some animals! I spotted a single elk on the drive in, but LOTS of pronghorn and coyotes. Soon after we started up the dirt road in the National Forest, we saw a cow moose about 50 yards from the first RV. I didn't get a photo but Joe did. Camps were more sparse than I expected along the 15+ miles of this dirt road. We passed a half a dozen mulies, but they were all does.

As we got to the last 300 yards of road, my heart sank. Five trucks parked near the gate, two trucks parked in our backup camping spot, and three trucks parked in our camp. Not much we could do, as it was just about dark, so we picked a flattish spot in between everyone. I could only see activity at one camp, so after getting the majority of stuff unloaded I headed down to see if they wanted to chat, find out where they were hunting so we could avoid each other and see how long they were planning to stick around. I learned one reason why everyone was up here; the other "major road" in the area was closed. Other than that, they didn't seem like they wanted to talk, as apparently the site of yet more hunters at this location was as depressing to them as it was to us. Guess I can't blame 'em!

Opening weekend camp:



I have to make a side note here: The RAV4 may be better known as a grocery getter, but the 2006-2012 model range is an awesome vehicle. I don't want to see what happens when I get a foot of snow on top of me up here, but man can you load it up with stuff. I had four 70qt coolers (two of them empty, one with ice, one with food), 3 bows, a futon mattress, a comforter, a block target, camp chairs, the popup sun shelter, a tub with gear, two big backpacks, three day packs, dual burner stove, 5 gallons of water and who knows what else in there as well as three people for half the drive.

My wife and I slept in our RAV4, my Dad in his, and Joe was in the tent. It dropped near freezing overnight, which was a welcome sign except for Joe who wasn't quite prepared for those temps, having come from 90 near home.



Beards required in Elk Camp! Except for my wife ... that would be a problem. Ok ... technically this photo was taken on Saturday. I'm getting a little bushy as well, time for a trim before next weekend! No bugles for us this night. Just the sound of a few more trucks looking for a place to park.

[Vanish]

Saturday, August 25

First alarm was for 4:30am, but I couldn't quite muster up until 4:40am. I was up first as I am defacto leader. Got the coffee water boiling and woke the troops. Someone was a bit slow moving as it was his first time at elk camp and we didn't get out of camp until 5:40am. I had wanted to leave at 5:20am as it takes about half an hour to get to our first point for the morning, but it was what it was.

We headed across the mountain with the plan of meeting at "the game camera." We had set up a camera two weeks ago overlooking an area where we had multiple run ins with elk last year. On the way, we spread out about 50 yards apart. At some point, I stopped to listen to a strange noise down a draw and Forrest and Joe got far ahead, while my Dad caught up to me. I guess I stopped for longer than I thought. Picking up the trail again, I arrived at the meeting place right at about shooting light, with no sign of the other two. Dad had dropped back again, so I stood there waiting about 80 yards from the game camera for some sign from one of them. Five minutes pass and I think to myself, gee, I've seen elk here at first light before, maybe I shouldn't be standing in the middle of the trail. I bet you can guess where this is headed...

Looking uphill, image taken later in the day:


As I turn to set up by a pine tree, I see an elk looking down the hill at me, probably 35-40 yards. She's in my range but is not offering a shot. She steps behind a bush and I knock and arrow, which of course caught the attention of the spike bull that stepped out behind her at the same time. I froze enough and he ignored me as a couple more elk filtered by. Finally all the elk went behind cover and the stalk was on ... or so I thought, because once again, as soon as I moved, another elk stepped out. This one a big bull. Holy carp ... I didn't see any bulls this big the entire previous season. Every time he turned his head I snuck uphill a little closer. At about 30 yards, he jumped back from where he had come for some reason. I moved around into a position where I could get 10 yards closer without him seeing me. Sure enough, he peeked over this hill and as I was about to draw back, he freaked again, moving 30 yards uphill and then once more and he was out of there. Damn...

And then I saw them. Two other hunters had walked down the trail behind me, then cut up the ridge 40 yards to my left. They had no idea elk were right above them (and actually below them, too) the whole time. A very exciting and slightly depressing way to start the season. But hey, who can argue with a close encounter with a big bull? We took the trail camera back to camp at lunch and looked at the pictures on Forrest's camera. Sure enough, this bull was on there.



After 20 minutes or so, I decided they were gone for good, and worked my way back to try to figure out what happened to my Dad. I finally found him only 60 yards back and around the corner from me, hunkered under a pine tree, eyes as big as saucers. As I started to think about it, I realized the elk I was watching had been right between us, him on one side of the hump and I on the other. He had watched some of them filter down through a draw before he was ready, but knew there were more up the hill. By his tally, there were at least 14, including at least 4 bulls, but only the big one looked legal. As he got in position to shoot, two elk came down BEHIND him at thirty yards, he misjudged the range and shot right under one of the cows. When he went to get his arrow, he saw the big bull angled right towards him, but looking in my direction. He got to watch most of my stalk as well as the two oblivious hunters pass by, tooting their Hoochie Mama.

Looking down the trail at the game camera:


Post encounter review: 1.) Never stand around in the open. 3.) Elk are herd animals, always expect another set of senses, or in this case, 13. 2.) Sometimes you need to be aggressive. This was not one of those times. I think I should have used the trail to my advantage, moving in their direction and then catching them as they crossed the trail. I had plenty of cover along the trail itself.

On the positive, I did not get elk fever in the "shaking in my boots" sense, as apparently my Dad did. I was all business!

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At this point, 7:00am, my Dad said he was good just sticking out it in this area, and I went off on my own. I went downhill to the major concentration of aspens. Read all you want about how to elk hunt, but the simplest answer is you have to hunt where the elk are (and of course take the wind into account). Maybe in the majority of places elk work their way up in the morning and down in the afternoon, but it does not apply here. These elk have everything they need across much of the hill. Yes, they move around, but they move from one bedding / feeding area to another, could be up, could be down. Now, going downhill in the morning isn't exactly ideal, but you can work it.

About a mile downhill I finally hit the border of the aspen/dark pine I was looking for, and sure enough, I found a cow already bedded. I got into position downwind and tried to come up with a plan. I didn't really get a chance as the wind shifted ( as it will eventually turn uphill as the sun warms the valley) and blew her out. 20 minutes later found me in a similar situation with a bull. I couldn't see him, but I could hear and smell him. Finally I saw his antlers pass through the trees and he moved on out.

He's not in these photos, just showing the territory:






I spent a long times crossing the mountain sideways, exploring new territory and following game trails, looking for sign. At 9:00am I took a break over some running water.

Finally, I headed up the little stream to find something I expected to find a long time ago:



My first wallow in the area. I knew they would be somewhere. As I stood there taking the photo and marking it on my GPS, I spotted movement up the hill. About 80 yards away a hunter was still hunting. I gave him a little wave when he looked my way. A minute or so later I heard an elk bust out. Another minute after that, the legal bull was charging down the hill straight at me. I prepped an arrow and he turned sideways ... showing the a large blood spot high up its back above its front leg. He slowed up and went into some thick cover. I gave it about 5 minutes then circled around to the other hunter. Sure enough, he had just shot the bull on its way to the wallow. I stood there for ten minutes or so as he and his partner talked, then they headed off to look for it. They didn't seem to want any help. Hope they found it, they seemed a lot more confident that it was already dead than I did.

The strip of trees the bull had come through on his way to the wallow:


I came across this view at one point as well:


At the above vantage point, I felt like I was too low. I wanted to be more where the pines meet the aspens. I started working my way back uphill. I spotted a mulie buck traversing a ridge above me, but the day was getting hot and uneventful. I ran into the rest of the group and we made it back to camp at 11:30am. Joe and Forrest had tracked two cows but never got a shot.



It was well into the 70s at mid day, so we had a beer, took and nap and played some cards. Nobody felt compelled to still hunt the dark timber under these conditions.



The evening hunt was uneventful. Joe and I went high to see if there was any sign up there (there was very little) and work our way down. We came across a mulie doe and I had an ermine (I think) come check me out while glassing. Forrest and my Dad stayed mid level and didn't see anything.

[Vanish]

Sunday, August 26

Alarm went off at 4:20am this morning and I think I got up shortly after. I had more breakfast to make this day and I wanted people ready by 5:20am this time so I woke everyone up a little earlier. We talked a bit about where we were heading today and my Dad wanted to go back to the same spot to start, and Forrest wanted to sit in a spot near there as well. I didn't want too many of us in the same area so Joe and I dropped down about a mile+ lower.

We got to a spot where a major trail splits off to a meadow and decided to wait there for half an hour. Joe went to the split point on the trail and I went to the point on the meadow. I set up sitting on a log that almost felt like a blind. About half an hour in, I was hearing noises in a blind spot, so I moved a little closer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Tkraqrb-0

Some hunter had pushed these elk. They then heard a hoochie mama up ahead and turned around and came back past me at maybe 12 feet. It was awesome. Unfortunately, neither bull was legal.

We moved into the wind for the rest of the morning, exploring a slightly different area down low. A decent amount of elk sign down there, also more hunters. At one point Joe was 40 yards ahead of me and I spotted a cow watching him from the top of a hill. Oops.



We met back up at camp at around noon. Forrest had an exciting morning with a herd of 15 elk coming by at 50 yards. Unfortunately they were moving quickly and she couldn't close the distance or keep up with them. She said there were 9 sub-legal bulls in the group.

She had explored some territory with my Dad as well, and they found a few of these:


My Dad had a bull come right down the exact spot he expected. 20 yards. No elk fever this time. He started to draw back ... then counted. One, Two, Three... crud. Apparently it was a big 3x3 bull. He also ran into some elk not far from there, giving him an idea for what to do that evening.

We packed up the car after lunch and then headed back out. Forrest and my Dad were headed to this steep aspen bowl, and I thought I wanted to check out something similar, same elevation, but another half mile down. Joe came with me and we checked it out, finding a veritable highway but no fresh sign. We encountered some mule deer and then later I had a small family of mulies come right past me. The fawn kept freaking out. It would run at the other two, then run back over by where Joe was watching, the back and forth. Finally it separated and came up towards me. It stopped about 10 feet from me behind a pine tree, looking the other way. I was just thinking this couldn't get much cooler when she turned and proceeded to walk straight at me, lick my hand, then amble on across the hill.

Dad was spot on and saw 9 cow elk this evening. He couldn't manage the shot, but now we have a real good idea of what the elk are doing in this area. I am excited for next weekend!

Elk hunting is hard work:

[dreamhunter]

Ahhh ! the life indeed, great pics

[Vanish]

More photos from the trail camera.

The date is pretty far off, and the time is about 5.5 hours ahead.

[easeup]

OK.....I am useless at work now.

thanks for the cool hunt posting.

[cnelk]

Great post!

Vanish:
I am wondering about that 3 point bull.
Even tho it had 3 points, it would have been legal if it had just one 5in brow tine.

Many raghorns are passed on because they dont have 4 points but they are legal with just one 5in brow tine!

But its always good to err on the side of caution if unsure...

[Vanish]

Am I too wordy?

[Freebird134]

Cool post. Great distraction for me in the office today

I too am curious about the laws. What is legal for you to kill exactly? I'm used to the Idaho "if it's brown, it's down" law.

[Vanish]

Cool post. Great distraction for me in the office today

I too am curious about the laws. What is legal for you to kill exactly? I'm used to the Idaho "if it's brown, it's down" law.

With our tags, either sex elk is legal.

For bulls, 4 points on one side OR a brow tine longer than 5 inches. We had just decided attempting to measure with a bull's brow tines standing 20 yards from you was too risky. If you've got 10 minutes to decide, ok, but when you have 10 seconds...

I will ask him if he thought of it though, cause he said the bull was pretty big. He was even second guessing whether the bull had more than 3 on one side, as he may have not even counted the brow tines ... I think someone may have had a case of elk fever!

EDIT: If any elk was legal, you can bet that forkie in the video would have ended my season Sunday morning!

[RockChucker30]

More updates.......this is like a drug and I need more!

[Flintlocker]

Nice reports. Made my lunch today!

The legal points, etc; is that certain units in CO or statewide?

[Vanish]

More updates.......this is like a drug and I need more!

Hopefully cnelk and eltaco can keep us having stuff to read! My hunt won't resume until Saturday!

[Waygoner]

Thanks for posting this, great stuff! I'll be spending this weekend packing for opening day of ML. I can hardly wait.

[Vanish]

Friday, August 30th

We picked up Joe and headed for the hills at 3:00pm on Friday, hoping to avoid some of the famed Labor Day traffic on I-70. I was surprised but the drive was not bad at all. We made it to our campsite around 7:00pm to find we had five miles of dirt road to ourselves. What a change from opening weekend!

I had my pack all ready to go, and I was pumped due to the previous weekend and eltaco's reports of bugling bulls, so I grabbed my bow and raced out to one of my travel zones about a mile away. Unfortunately, nothing was moving except the weather. By the time I got back to camp it was raining pretty good.

It was hard to sleep this night with thoughts of all the elk we would see in the morning, combined with the moon that may as well have been a spotlight.



Saturday, September 1st

We all awoke early, just after 4:00am and with high expectations. We wanted to get in position well before shooting light, as we've found the elk move extra early when the full moon is up. Psyched up, we hit our hottest travel zone and were in position by 5:30am. The long wait began.

And we waited and waited ... nothing. No movement of any sort. Tried a cold calling routine around 7:00am with no results. Joe and I decided it was time to move on while Forrest wanted to head a different direction. We worked our way across the hill until we found some fresh sign, where we set up for another cold call. 10 minutes moving, 3 sets of call 5 minutes apart, wait 20 minutes. No elk.

I did get to see the first bear of the year. As we dropped down into a bowl, he was only about 20 yards from us getting a drink of water at a little seep. Scared the crap out of me, but he vanished before Joe even saw him.

We got back to camp around noon and found a few of our friends had arrived to hang out. They weren't hunting, but they'd cook dinner that night and were supplying entertainment! We practiced with the wrist rocket and found none of us qualified to shoot anything with them. I shot my bow with broadheads and something was wrong. Just as I was about to start messing with it, I decided I should probably try more arrows. Sure enough, two of my arrows in my quiver were bent (I assume) and flew like wounded ducks. I replaced them and was drilling the bulls again.

Forrest had put a stalk on a big bull she heard created a ruckus downhill from her. As she crested a small knoll and prepared to draw, she found she wasn't stalking an elk at all.

This photo was taken a few minutes later, she had been much closer to the moose originally.



I wanted to head to a wallow for the evening so I left them at 4:00pm and started the long trek. It took me over an hour to get there. This no longer felt like a fun idea as I knew the walk back to camp was going to be long. It definitely didn't feel worth it as I saw nothing, and we had some nice cooling rain. At least I had my Frogg Toggs.



I had something that sounded like an elk cross my path about 50 yards ahead of me on the way back. Then twenty minutes later I could make out a faint outline on the trail 25 yards in front of me. Hello Mr. Moose ... I made sure to let him know he was free to move on, and it was cool to watch him skyline as he went up the hill.

Forrest and Joe both saw nothing. Tough Day! At least we had friends around to help us forget around the campfire. Got to bed way too late.



Note, this is not the wallow I was sitting on. This was a different spot I found on the way:



Sunday, September 2nd

Up slightly later than the previous day, we all stuck together and checked out some areas a few miles farther out. A little bit of fresh sign and a bunch of mule deer, but no elk. It was a tiring morning.

Tired from the morning hunt, we only did a couple miles in the evening. Once again, no sightings, no bugles and plenty of rain. Demoralizing.



Monday, September 3rd

I told Joe we need to try something different. We hit up an area in a completely different direction. All the way uphill we saw very little sign. There's some nice hidden draws up here and I tried some location bugles as it started to get more light. We found several mule deer.

By 8:00am we were working our way through some very thick pines and lovely deadfall on some benches about as high up the hill as one could possibly get. Its pretty much a 300 foot cliff up to the other side of the ridge, with very few spots passable even for elk.



We finally started finding some fresh sign in some gnarly little bowls after having traveled about three miles. We tried several cold calling setups with no response, as usual. Pressing on, at 10:00am I spotted the most glorious sight ... an elk!

I had just stepped out into a small hidden meadow pressed right against the cliff. I spotted the elk feeding in the woods on the other side. After all this time without seeing any elk, I wasn't quite prepared. Backing into the shadows, I knelt down and grabbed my rangefinder. This is where I realized I needed to breathe and focus, as I jammed it into my eye, then put it up backwards, then knocked my glasses off! The elk was slowly feeding in our direction. 30 yards to the other side of the meadow, 60 yards to the elk.

I regained my composure and quietly made a plan with Joe. It was a legal elk for sure, though I couldn't count the exact number of tines through the brush. Just as we were about to execute, the elk turned and started walking downhill. He didn't seem like he had busted us, so I crept to where I thought I could cut him off and get a shot. After I don't know how long, I finally gave up and motioned Joe over. The elk had vanished. It is amazing how something that large can disappear without a sound in such thick cover.

This moment was filled with could have/should haves. The bull had been completely care free. The first thought through my mind was as soon as I saw him I should have crouched walked across the meadow through a shadow and just shot him at 30 yards, but who knows if he would have busted me. Maybe I should have backed up and tried calling him to Joe. It almost felt worse that we didn't send him busting off down the hill!



This was the only action of the morning. We made it back to camp around noon as the rain rolled in again.

The evening hunt had some deer and other critters, but no elk.

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Thoughts: I could be wrong, but I still think the elk are in the general area, just not taking the same trails we generally hunt. There was enough sign out there that was within a day old. I think that between the weather, the moon, and the hunting pressure from the first week, they just became much better at hiding than we are at finding. With another four days I bet they will calm down a bit. Hopefully there won't be too many muzzy hunters out there. I remember two or three last year. No game cam pics this time, as we had to take it home. It is back up in a different spot now.

[HeavyC]

Wow! This stuff will get ya pumped up!! Nice work!!

[Magic]

Welcome to Elknut Forums, HeavyC.

[Vanish]

Hey folks, I'd love to hear some ideas on how you would have approached certain situations. I am only in my second season and I am doing this without physical help from others with experience, so I know to take your thoughts without offense!

Looks like it will just be Forrest and I this weekend. My dad is on a fishing trip with an old out-of-state friend and Joe has to give a presentation. As much as I like having more folks in camp, some times I'd rather have less people to worry about and focus on the elk!

[Vanish]

We had the place to ourselves once again. Amazing how there could be so many hunters on opening weekend and nobody here since. Not even a muzzy hunter!

Saturday morning was cold. It was definitely the coldest morning yet. I am not a fan of being cold, but if it gets the elk talking, that will warm me up!

I headed down to a trail on the edge of the private land while Forrest went back to where the game camera was set up. Sadly, nothing was moving. Around 6:30am I heard a bugle, identified it downhill and on the wrong side of private land. But hey, I'm headed as close as I can get and going to try to provoke the bull to come closer.

I got about a quarter mile downhill and heard another bugle, still more down and across. Farther down and I waited, and waited. Did some cow calling, nothing. A location bugle, still nothing. Finally, I give up as I am supposed to meet Forrest uphill at 8am. I get about 200 yards up the hill and he bugles again, same location, same exact sound. I'm betting it was another hunter.



Forrest had an uneventful morning as well. We took the game camera down and checked the photos, which did not increase our confidence in the area, with only one set of bulls passing through in the last week.

We had considered sticking together at this point, but decided to split up to search for sign. I went way, way up high near where I found the bull last week. Before I hit the dark timber, a nice buck jumped in front of me, followed by another. As I tried to get some video, I turned back to my left and saw I was only 30 yards from a bull moose.



It was a long and hard morning. I was really hoping for more bugle action early, and also hoping to find elk hiding up high. It didn't happen. I worked my way down hill in the evening near the same are I heard the bugles in the morning, but only came across more deer.

It was hard to get my butt out of bed Sunday morning. I had hunted really hard on Saturday with no payoff at all. I figured I had to try some place else, and headed North to new terrain. Checked out down low and all the way up to the divide. Yet another bull moose, this one still bedded (I failed on the video), but no elk. Not even elk sign.

I'm now convinced, the elk have been pushed out of this area. All that hunting pressure on opening weekend must have done it. Maybe it is getting hunted during the week, but I didn't see much sign of that. I did find where some ATV hunters had made a trail around a locked gate to a non-motorized area. Not much annoys me more than this. Next time they will find a half dozen logs in their way.



Sunday afternoon Forrest was on board with moving. She hadn't seen an elk in the last 4 days of hunting and figured we had nothing to lose. On the way back down the road, we almost ran over a cow elk. It was about 4pm so we parked it and tried some trolling. Tried a couple spots without luck. We got about 10 miles from our camp when Forrest spotted a beaten game trail from the car and decided we would give this ultra low spot the rest of the evening.

The aspens here were young and it was fairly open, but you couldn't deny the trail had seen lots of use. I couldn't find a spot I liked as far as cover goes, so I sat in front of a big pile of logs. Nothing but clumps of tall grass in front of me.



At 7pm I heard the unmistakable sound of rhinos barrelling down the hill and quickly got my release attached and my bow up. Ten seconds later I could see a heavy breathing cow leading a calf straight toward us, about 100 yards away. A bull was hot on their heels. At about 30 yards they split, the bull going one way and the cows headed into my lap, slowing down. At 10 yards there was a little pine I would draw behind. Naturally, the cow turned 90 degrees in front of us, just before the pine tree. She stopped and looked back toward where the bull had gone. There was only a few more yards and they would disappear behind the log pile we were sitting by. I had no other cover and figured, what the heck, maybe I'll get lucky. As soon as I drew, they blew out of there, pretty much as expected.

[Vanish]

Its in the 20s up there tonight. Wish I could be there right now / tomorrow but they should still be rutting good this weekend!

[Vanish]

We're headed off into the mountains until we get our elk or the season ends!

[gagodfrey]

Too bad you guys couldn't connect on opening weekend. It sounds like all the pressure has them boogered up!

[Vanish]

The real work has begun.

http://pic.twitter.com/3sv7S2Vu

- Sent from my iPhone

[FireWillie77]

Yahtzee!!! Congrats! cant wait to hear the story!

[eltaco]

Right on, buddy!!!

We missed an opportunity on a 5pt this morning... straight missed him, can't hardly believe it!

[RockChucker30]

Congrats man, cant wait for the story!

[Vanish]

This is going to take me a little while to get it all in.



Friday, September 14

I had talked to Joe earlier in the week, and he had work come up and told me he would be up with his girl some time in the middle of the next week. My parents are in the process of moving to New Castle, CO and my Dad wouldn't be able to join us until Sunday night, so it was just Forrest and I for the weekend. We got up in the area around 6:00pm so we decided to sit the same low spot we tried on the way out last Sunday.

I moved about 200 yards North of Forrest and found my own very similar clearing with trails to set up in. Around 7:15pm I started hearing that very familiar sound of animals moving through the dried aspen leaves. Peeking over my logpile, I saw four elk headed in my direction. The trail would pass by me at about 10 yards... Perfect! When they hit 40 yards, I counted to three and drew my bow and waited ... and waited. I could still hear them but something was wrong. I peeked over the logpile to find they had turned across the hill instead of continuing straight toward me. DRAT!

As they passed my opening, I dropped down to a path below me and pranced the way they had headed. I say pranced because I really wanted to jog, but they were only 60 yards up the hill and I didn't know if they could see me. Apparently I should have moved faster, because they turned down the hill and all I got to see was the butt of the last elk 40 yards in front of me.

Forrest had caught glimpses of them come by her but could not see what they were. She had just had an interesting encounter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYSZ8ICYvuA



Saturday, September 15th

We headed out to one of the area that had produced well on opening weekend but split up a few hundred yards to watch different travel routes. I met up with Forrest at 7:30am and neither of us had seen or heard anything. As we started moving, we heard something in the aspens, so we set up to call. About 5 minutes in I see Forrest coming back to me. I was a little annoyed as we had discussed our tactics and thought this was too early to be giving up. Turns out her glasses had broken. Woo, just what we need on the first day of a long trip, 2 hours drive from any place that could help. I ended up 'fixing' them with fishing line. *Note: superglue has many uses, this would have been just one of them we could have used it for on this trip!

We had returned to camp early to deal with the glasses so we decided to head to a new area and just sit for the mid-morning / early afternoon. We took some books with us, good choice as there was no activity. The pines we had pinpointed weren't nearly as dark and thick as they looked on the satellite imagery.



That evening we headed to the low spot again but this time we took those log piles and turned them into sweet little blinds. This old wood was awesome for making blinds. It is so light I could pick up large pieces and stack it up.




Unfortunately only the moo cows decided to pay me a visit. Forrest saw yet more moose, this time a bull pursuing a cow. It all took place just out of good camera range.

Sunday, September 16th

Oh what a day, one I doubt I will forget! We split up once again as it felt silly to stick together when there was no vocal activity. Forrest wanted to start near the spot where we left off yesterday morning, while I wanted to try some place a little different. I had headed this way once before in the evening and found only deer, but I had liked what I saw and I had remembered hearing bugles various days in the area, but across the property line. Downhill I went, down as far as I had ever been, and sure enough I found deer in the meadow I found them last time. A small buck was looking at me across the clearing and for the heck of it I decided to cow call to him using my Raging Bull diaphragm (yes, I am sounding better every day!). This brought a doe out of the pines behind him. Eventually they got bored and started down away from me, so I called a bit more, and a bugle answered back. FINALLY! I had called and elk had answered. It does work.



The bugle was down hill and of course on the other side of the property line, as well as directly down wind. I knew I had to get my wind fixed, so I raced down the hill 200 yards and set up. The next bugle answer to my short series of cow calls I heard was closer but still the same situation. 200 yards more downhill and set up again, this time on a small knoll in the big aspens, but by a pine tree. The bull was now slightly above me. Another short series of mews and I could tell he was interested. Something else was also interested. Above me in the opposite direction of the bull I had been working I heard the sound of an elk quickly moving towards me. This one was closer than the bugling bull. I spun around hoping the position I had taken on the knoll would keep me covered. It worked far better than I expected. An elk head popped out from behind a downfallen log 20 yards from me. As the elk walked behind a large aspen, I drew back. The elk took two more steps, giving me the perfect view of the vitals and the arrow was on the way.

[Vanish]

The cow elk (yeah that's right, I said cow) ran about 50 yards downhill and I cow called. She slowed down some and disappeared into the aspens. I waited a few minutes, then recorded a video of what I saw just in case something went wrong. The arrow had hit just over middle body right behind the shoulder. I could see 4 inches of fletching (yeah, no blazers yet) sticking out the side. After hearing plenty of horror stories this year, I forced myself to wait, even though I was sure the shot was fatal. I was going to wait at least 2 hours just to be sure.

This happened ten minutes later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8KwDTkmWG4



That bull I had been calling decided to come right in and walk around me. It would have been an easy shot. Instead I sat back and took the video, knowing my season was wrapped up. After he came in bugling like that, he was in the area not far away, so I thought I would slip out, get Forrest, and see if we could call him back in for her. I dropped my gear at the spot I had shot from and slowly worked up the hill. I only got about 40 yards when I saw another bull headed straight toward me. I only wish I could have had video of what happened next, but I was pinned down. He slipped behind a tree and I got down on both knees. A second bull came in behind this one. Both of these bulls were 300+ 6x6 bulls. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, as I had never seen a single bull this large in the area before, let alone two. They were slowly working their way to where I had been calling from, now only about 20 yards out, when I spotted a third bull, a medium sized 5x5. A 4x3 followed him, and eventually a spike behind that bull.

At this point, I am just looking up from a fetal position as these bulls work their way toward me. Eventually, the lead bull wrapped around the only pine tree near me, and walked straight to me. At 5 feet and slightly downhill he finally determined something was wrong, bolting to the private land with the other 6x6. The other three bulls slowly made their exit, never catching me.

I returned with Forrest an hour and a half later as she had moved on from where I expected to find her.We called in three cows, one of which managed to walk completely around Forrest and then to 15 feet of me. I had only expected it to take 20 minutes to return, but it appeared it was too late to find the bulls which had moved well into the private land. The good thing was this made the 2 hour waiting period fly by.

After not having any luck calling the bulls, we made our way down to where I had shot to find the cow. An hour in, we hadn't found any sign of a hit. No arrow, no blood, no hair, nothing. I started to panic. We began a grid search, marking points on the gps as we walked. Somewhere around hour three, I decided to try something different. I would slowly work my way down the drainage I had seen her follow, as far as I could, zigzagging the whole way to the property line. After an hour of this, I saw a glorious site... a bedded elk in the open timber.

I almost screamed for joy, but I knew this wasn't over. I knocked an arrow and crept up on the elk. Within seconds my elation changed to something I can barely describe. It wasn't my elk. This bull elk was waiting to die with an arrow sticking out of its hind quarter and blood pooling around him. What's the ethical thing to do here? I put him down. Now I really had a conundrum on my hands. I shot a cow this morning that I just spent four hours looking for with no evidence of even a hit, and I've killed a bull that someone else hit earlier that also had no blood trail. I know because I would have found it.

It took a bit to make the decision. An elk in hand is worth more than two rotting in the bush. We started the work knowing that if someone came along looking for the bull, we'd work that out. Over the next 10 hours nobody showed up. I've got lots more story left, but I'm going to leave it here for a bit. I could have lied about what happened and inserted the bull into the story were the cow was, but I feel the need to share. I'd like to hear some thoughts on the matter.

[FireWillie77]

I think you did the only right thing!! Did you ever search for the cow again? Or ever see crows anywhere other than the remains of your bull? I bet she is ok.

Great story, sounds like a emotional day!! Boy I would of liked to see all those bulls come in. Thanks for the story and nice job I would of done the same thing you did

[pointysticks]

Vanish..
i once read that bowhunters are stewards of the lands..reading your story, i think you understand what that statements means..

fantastic read..i cant wait until you get the time and energy to fill in the blanks for us, and finish this tale..i think you did the right thing too!

[ElkNut1]

Congrats bud!!!

ElkNut1

[cnelk]

Vanish

Loved your story! From the start!

[gagodfrey]

I don't know how I feel about the bull elk thing. That's definitely a touchy situation. let's imagine how this situation would play out from a different thread author...

"So I shot a big bull elk...my first one after 3 seasons of hard work. I waited about 3-4 hours before taking up the trail because I knew that the shot wasn't great. My buddy and I searched for several hours without finding much sign at all. It got dark, so we decided to back out and come back the next morning.

The next morning we decided to spread out with the rest of our hunting party. After a 3 hour search and traveling two ridges from where I shot the bull, I came up on a VERY fresh carcass that was just butchered the day before! I can't help but think someone found my bull and decided to take it!!!!"

Now if that were posted here, how do you think the comments would read? I can imagine there would be some mixed opinions, but the majority would probably read something to the effect of "I can't believe someone would steal your elk!"

I'm not saying what you did was wrong, or unethical. I'm just saying it's a tough decision. I'm not sure what the right thing to do would be. If I were in that situation, I'd be perplexed to say the least, so I'm definitely not throwing stones here. I might have done the exact same thing as you.

I guess the best case scenario would be that the cow was found by the other hunter that shot the bull and he was as happy as a hammerdog because after all, "you can't eat antlers".

Thanks for taking the time to post this story. I've enjoyed it immensely!!!!

[Vanish]

It has been a whole day since I posted up the first half, which is like an age in internet time, so I'll continue the story.

This post is for you new guys who haven't packed out an elk before, which was us before this past week. Do not underestimate this task! I am in fairly good shape. I backpacked all summer long, including lugging a 50 pound pack through the Sierras 50 miles in 5 days. I've read plenty of stories and people say you can get a bull elk out solo in three trips. Screw that...

Field Dressing / Quartering

We used the gutless method and it was nowhere near 15 minutes as in the video, but it was still really easy, around an hour for us to get one side complete and the other side quarters off. My wife, Forrest, once we finished one side and rolled the bull over, pretty much took the Havalon knife from my hand and told me to start packing, she'd finish up here. By the time I got back from the first load, she had everything done, including having the head skinned out. What a woman!



Packing

To get to the car from the site was 2.5 miles and 1200 vertical feet up, with the first mile from the site having most of the vertical. I had started off trying to carry two front quarters, not deboned, cause hey, I'm young and strong, (right?) and people talk about doing this. I made it about a quarter mile before I started seeing stars! I stashed one quarter and made the 5 mile round trip. When I got back to Forrest, I told her those hind quarters must be deboned before I even think about packing them up. Just one deboned hindquarter of this bull elk made my 50 pound pack feel like a joke. I don't think it would have even fit in the Badlands 4500 with the bone in anyway. We ended up taking all the full game bags up to the closest trail instead of doing round trips so we could avoid the cross country section in the dark. We almost made it before dark, but we did get it all to the trail Sunday evening.



As we were taking the second load up to the car, my Dad found us on the trail. He had arrived in camp that night and had hunted one of our other spots, didn't see anything. He gave us a hand with our gear. By the time we got back to camp it was almost 10:00pm and we needed a meal. I made one more trip after eating, my Dad, who it would probably kill to pack a quarter, kept me company and grabbed a bit more of our gear, and got back at 12:30am. There were still two quarters to go, and one of them was stashed ... somewhere. 6am wake up and rolling by 7. Luckily for us some weather had moved in and was keeping things cool. Unlucky for me that 15 minutes into my first pack out it wet snowed, the only precip of the whole trip, soaking me and with the sudden 12 degree temp drop, killing my gps while trying to find that missing quarter. I had to pack out the other bag and head back to charge it. While I was packing, Forrest and my Dad were deboning the other front quarter and arranging the meat into the coolers.

By the way, your standard 54 quart coolers are not ideal for this. We fit it all into four of them, but I would have liked more ice.



All in all, I did get that last quarter and we had everything packed and were on the road by around 11am. I had done the trip from the car to the site 6 times in that 24 hours, once for the initial shot and returning to get Forrest and the packing gear, and five times for meat.



Processing

Apparently, we are a bunch of sadists, because once we got home, we immediately processed the elk ourselves. My great grandfather was a butcher, so deer season processing was always a family affair and I started helping when I was about 10. We've been doing it ourselves my whole life. Processing an elk was like doing five deer at once. It took Forrest and I twelve hours to get him into the freezer. More sharp knives would have helped. Once we finished, it was 3.5 hours back to camp to get someone else an elk so we sadists could do this all over again.



About the Havalon Piranta knife.

Holy hell are these thing sharp and awesome. You CANNOT twist the blade, you will just snap it. Use a standard knife for the tough spots like the joints. Forrest knicked her thumb and it cut right through the nail. For us sharpening challenged, these things are a godsend. We ended up processing the whole elk with the Havalon just because it was so much easier than any other knife we own. I think I will be ordering the fillet knife as well as extra blades (which are really cheap by the hundred). Also, thank you Eastman's for sending me another one with my subscription renewal, as Forrest took mine.


What, you thought I was done? We've still got five more days of the story! The questions asked above will be answered as well.

[pointysticks]

i really really like your wife!!

you my friend, are one lucky dood!!

[Vanish]

While we were taking care of the elk, Dad was watching mule deer. He saw dozens of them, but no elk.

Wednesday

We were full of confidence headed out Wed morning as I would be taking both Forrest and my Dad down into the area I had encounters on Sunday. Of course, we're talking elk here and it seems in our area you rarely find them in the same spot twice. On the way down, just before shooting light, we had a bugle parallel with us, not too far out. We got set up but determined he was headed downhill. Relocating a few hundred yards we set up again. I was calling and not hearing anything. I couldn't see a darn thing from my location, including my hunters. I decided to mix it up a little and throw in a squealy bugle. I immediately heard crashing and got all excited, this was it! Then it died off and nothing. A few minutes pass by and I see my Dad looking for me.

I had called in a 4x4 bull to 50 yards from him. The bull had paced back and forth constantly. At one point it had liked what it heard and started coming in to 30 yards, and then I bugled. He didn't like the bugle at all and had bolted. Forrest, who had been 50 yards from me on the opposite 'ridge' as my Dad, came over and said I had called three sublegal bulls by her.

Maybe I should have tried calling that 4x4 back again, but Dad saw I spot he wanted to check out and Forrest wanted to push down towards where I had called in the bulls on Sunday. Forrest and I set up in the same exact spot and within minutes I could hear crashing. A lot of crunching was headed our way. Once again, I had set up in a place where the elk would not be able to see me due to the land unless they peaked over a little ridge, where Forrest was waiting. Perhaps I should have been looking more, because the herd passed right on by, out of range of Forrest. There were perhaps 6 cows followed by a big herd bull. It seemed the herd bull felt he had enough cows and though he stopped, he didn't see what he was looking for and kept them moving.

Had I known what was happening, I would have pushed us to dog the herd. This most likely wouldn't have worked as we were only 200 yards from the property line they were headed towards, but I think it would have been our only chance. Lesson learned: While cover for caller is important, you must be able to communicate with your shooters as well.

We took some time to look for the cow, but the only ravens we found were on the bull carcass. While we were looking, we found a VERY lost animal, which will appear in a video clip compilation I am still putting together.



That evening we showed my Dad the low spot in the young aspens (10 mile drive). We did not have any animal encounters that evening, but we heard a bull bugle his way down into the private land and eventually join up with more elk down in the private fields. We could see three separate groups of elk in those fields with over 40 animals.

Thursday

Hey, we saw elk in that same area yesterday, maybe we've got this figured out. Repeated the same thing as yesterday but this time we were 20 minutes earlier and sure enough, at early light we got a bugle in the same direction as the day before. This time we pushed it hard in the bugle's direction. Unfortunately we only got two bugles before he shut up. On our second setup Forrest threw in some calls. This appeared to trip someone's trigger, as we could hear an elk working down the hill through the pines. He stepped out just 20 yards from my Dad, looking for that little lonely cow and worked his way down towards Forrest. Unfortunately, he was the smallest spike we had seen yet.

Once again I took some time looking for the cow, but no luck.



In the evening my Dad wanted to work his way toward a different area up high, and I dropped Forrest off at the low spot. Time for a little fishing for me! I checked out a couple small lakes in the area and landed probably 30 cutbows in a couple hours on a hopper/hares ear combo. Excellent, now I know a place we can take a break.

Forrest had more moose come by her again, but no elk. My Dad had seen a large bull at 5:00pm as he was working toward his area. The bull was headed uphill. I swear these elk have read the books because they never head the direction they are supposed when they are supposed to.

Friday

You might see a pattern here! We headed to the same area in the morning again. This time it seemed they had finally had enough, as we saw absolutely nothing.



Joe and Tara finally arrived on Friday afternoon. We decided to work a higher area and hope to chase some bugles in the evening. The elk did not oblige.



Saturday

Forrest and my Dad had had enough of the super low spot and decided to head off a different way. I took Joe and Tara down hoping Friday was just a fluke. I was starting to worry we were wasting our time when at 7:30am we finally got a bugle. We 'raced' off in its direction. The bugling was moving downhill. As I came over a little hump, I spotted an elk 60 yards out. He had spotted something but after freezing for a few moments went back to feeding. I gave the signal and backed down the hump to call. Joe was in perfect position for him to come straight to me. 30 yards out Joe was getting real fidgety. Naturally, this bull was smarter and circled towards the downwind side of us. We're unsure if he was legal but it was good to call one in for Joe. I'm not sure if he busted from wind or from Joe trying to look around.

The other bull was still bugling so we raced off after him downhill again. We almost had another repeat of the situation above with a different bull, but this one disappeared without us seeing what happened. Back on the bugle again, we closed in on some thick pines. We heard him again and he wasn't that far, let's try some calling. Suddenly a bugle screamed right next to us. Here he comes!

Or so we thought. That was the last we heard of the bugles that morning. It was exciting but a little depressing all the same. I wish I had bugled right back in his face but me bugling hadn't done anything positive for the last week so I had put it away.

Working our way back up the hill, I saw a blue-jeaned hunter sitting on a log. I knew a couple other guys had been working a spot 1/2 mile away from us had left that morning and this guy was not one of them anyway. There were no other cars parked by our camp. A little strange since the only other access to this spot is via about a 7 mile hike. I suppose he could have been backpacked in. I chatted him up a bit and sure enough he had come from that other far access and had just gotten here today. There was one thing I noticed that stuck right out to me ... Green and white fletched arrows with red broadheads. I asked him if he had been over this way before, and he said he had last Sunday. The bulls had been bugling and he had missed a decent bull.

My mind rested a little easier. Gagodfrey had pointed out a major flaw in my logic in his "alternative story" presented above. Luckily, that was not the case, as the guy hadn't even looked for the bull.



The evening was fairly uneventful once again.

I got to do a little more fishing, but it was slower than before. A bugle rang out by the lake I was fishing and so I cow called a half dozen times for the fun of it. The barrage of calls that hit me at that point was a little comical, so I knew I didn't need to call again.



Sunday

Almost every day we have heard bugles going from one location downhill in the morning. We decided to set up an ambush on that path, committing all our forces. We were set up before shooting light and by 7:30am I was pissed. Nothing had happened. Just as we were breaking apart with a new plan, a bugle rang out, from the same exact spot we had lost the bugles the day before. Forrest was literally running down the hill after the bull. And that's exactly what we did for the next 40 minutes, seemingly never getting any closer. Then, the wind came out of nowhere and it was over. We could barely hear each other talking, let alone a bugle.

We explored almost all the way to the eastern property line and found out what had been happening. Just inside the public lands was a doghair pine forest so thick and cold that the elk had no reason to head uphill. It smelled like a barnyard in there. We explored it and did some calling but all we found was a fox.

Another elk season has come to a close!

[Vanish]

Took a screenshot from the video so you can see the mystery animal. He was only 30 yards from us when we first saw him.

A huge buck pronghorn, can't see his horns terribly well in the shot ... probably got that big by living on the mountain instead of in the valley!

[gagodfrey]

Great story!