First elk hunt

[Mathewsz7-elkridge]

Day one September 15 afternoon only. Sat a ridge that had a burn 5 years ago at 10500. Down near the bottom at 9200 was a North facing slope. It was pretty steep in fact it was something I didn't plan on hunting. A really nice guy lost his horses earlier in the week and was headed home when we pulled into the trail head. He told us there were elk in there and no body was hunting it because it was so steep. At 630 with not hear or seeing anything I decided to let out a locator bugle 2 seconds later I was answered by a distant bugle. 15 minutes later didn't hear anything so I let out another I was then answered by a different bugle a little closer. He bugles a couple of times. My buddy met me 10 minutes before dark. He was 100 yards away but there was a little ridge in between us and he said he didn't hear them. So i tired the locator again nothing. A couple minutes later I tired a lost cow still nothing. Then we heard branches braking just below us but ran out of light and backed out in a hurry. Pretty dang exciting for our first day elk hunting ever.

Day two the 16th we decided to drop down pretty early on below that Ridge same ridge to get the thermals in our advantage early on there was not much sign. About a mile into we started seeing fresh sign about a 100 yards up from the creek bottom. Around 8 am we heard a distant bugle from the same area as the night before. A couple hundred yards we picked up a fresh trail follow it for about mile. It lead us to a valley with that north facing slope on the other side. We decided since the thermals were about to switch we would just sit and listen and watch across the creek and the north face. Around 930 a bull bugles just 300 yards away from us on that north face. Then 2 minutes later he chucked. At that point we new about where he was and new we had to get above him. We started climbing that steep hill a hr later we had gained about 500 feet. It was a hell hole for sure at that point we knew why no body was hunting it. We were above him and the thermals were going up pretty good so we decided to start wrapping around the bowl. That took another hr once we got around we spotted a little raise that would be perfect to set up on. We knew the bull was still a good 400 yards away but wanted to see if we could get him to bugle or bring a satellite in. So i cow called off and on for ten minutes didn't hear anything but waited a half hr nothing came in. Then we decided to move closer to the bull. Started to see a couple nice rubs and a lot of trails. It was more open then what I wanted could see 80 yards or so. We decided to take it real slow. Got to where we thought we were 200 yards away and decided to start raking. Waited 20 minutes nothing happened. So we walked another 100 yards got my buddy 30 yards in front. I started the level two threat it was a little thicker at this point. About 10 seconds into it the woods came alive 3 bulls started bugling. Only problem the closest one was 200 yards away. So we took off towards them but was to late they were headed off did see two calves in the rear. We were worn out so we decided to not follow them and we didn't think we could keep up. It took us 3 hrs to get back to the truck. We ate some late lunch and headed in where we planned to hunt for then next 4 days. Set up camp in the dark.

Day three 17th we walked up the trail about a mile farther and cut into the woods. There were some meadows back in there I wanted to check out. We started seeing some fresh signs. Then a lot of rubs so I decided to do some advertising. About 10 minutes into it I got two distinct bugles. I continued for another time minutes and sat there for a half hr. Nothing came in so we decided to eat a little. We headed to one of the bugles which was in the direction of a meadow and a North facing slope. We seen sign the whole was there. Then we ran into a camp a two hundred yards away from the north face. We decided it might have not been a elk we heard. So we backed out and headed deeper. Sat a couple trails that night that lead to another meadow. About 10 minutes before dark a tried a locator bugle and heard nothing.

Day four 18th we decided to go even deeper. Let out a locator about a half hr before day brake heard nothing. We walked to a meadow that was loaded with sign but not much fresh sign. Got close to a bowl with a North Face in it tried another advertising with nothing coming in or bugling back. So we decided to walk a long ridge down with a saddle to a North facing slope. There was very little sign there so we decided to bush wack back to the truck and throw out a locator every couple hundred yards. Covered about 4 miles with not one answer. So we decided we would head back to the nasty slope from day one and two.

Day five the 19th we decided to sit a couple trails leading to a bedding area. Around 9 am without hear or seeing anything I got inpatient. I let out a couple locators a couple minutes a part and heard nothing. About 10 minutes later heard nothing so I decided to try something different. I took out three different reeds and started bugling with them. Athe the end of two cycles I let out a challenge bugle with grunts. Then stopped for about 5 minutes. After that I let out a locator bugle and got anewer right away. I packed up and headed to my buddy who was 100 yards away. He told me the bull had bugles twould more times and was getting closer. I didn't hear them while I was walking but we were off. About 200 yards into we heard him bugle again and he sounded upset. The thermals were headed down hill and he was across the valley so we new we would have to get lucky and across where he was headed we were on a little ridge. We were hoping the wind would follow down the one and not the other because he was going to come up the other one. He let out another bugle and I let one go right over top of him no grunts though. A couple seconds later my buddy seen him headed down the other ridge right for us at a half run. He said he was huge thought a six point. It was two hundred yards away. He never did come up pretty sure he winded us. It was kind of a bad situation right from the start he got on us so fast. That afternoon we hiked back to our camp three miles in dropped off some food and headed to a meadow to sit that night. My buddy had a cow come in behind him that he c got to draw on but no shot at 30 yards before sporting him.

Day six the 20th we headed below a meadow that had tons of sign in it. We saw one spike about a hr after day break at 60 yards. Never heard a bugle so we decided to go and check out some north faces. After walking 12 miles and 4 different ridges we heard nothing. Made it back to another meadow two hrs before night fall to sit. Once again no bugles lots of sign no elk. We got back to camp and decided to take it down and hunt the nasty ridge again in the morning.

Day 7 the 21st we woke up to rain and decided to sleep in. When we got to the top of the nasty ridge we noticed the thermals never switch so we wouldn't be able to get to the elk. We checked the weather they were calling for rain to start again at 3pm and rain till Thursday night then turn to snow. The mountain we were on had a pretty steep service road so we decided it was best to head out. We enjoyed a nice bowl of tag soup before heading down!

Looking forward to next year already though. If you have any advice on what I should have done differently please let me know. Hope you enjoyed the long story.

[Deanmac]

enjoyed your post

[six]

Awesome story. Man I love this site. Everyone should be required to post a story after their hunts.

[RAMMONT]

No matter what happens during our hunts we can always take away the memories of a great adventure.

[lilshootergirl]

What a great story, sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing

[JKaboom]

Excellent story - thanks for all the detail