One large slice of Humble Pie for opening weekend, please.

[BRazz]

I just returned from my opening weekend hunt with my dad and wife - what a trip! My posting is to recount some of the high-(and low)-lights, some lessons learned or re-learned, and some of the reasons why elk hunting is forever my favorite thing in the world... I apologize for the length, I just want to get it all out (even if nobody is listening)!

We hiked in a couple hours Friday midday, and ran into another hunter on the trail. I recognized him from previous years when I've run into him during muzzleloader season. He was just a ML hunter in the past (until this year he said), so I was expecting to have the mountain to myself. This was particularly upsetting because his camp (which is massive and stashed year-round for the past 5 years I've been in the area) is very close to my favorite spots to hunt on the mountain. Knowing he would be there too was a bit of a damper - especially since he is not the friendliest of people... I suppose if I liked the guy (and if he were halfway nice) I wouldn't mind, heck I would even enjoy having a cup of coffee once in a while or helping each other pack out elk... Not the case... We setup camp about 10300 right before the afternoon thunderstorms. Each day it started raining mid-afternoon, and it pretty much didn't quit all evening. Hail even came down for awhile. I rediscovered that I hate hunting in the rain, even if it makes hunting better (some people claim that after a hard rain or during a light drizzle the action heats up, I disagree...). Spent Friday night glassing the opposite hillside and listening... Saw and heard nothing. Huh.

Saturday we were up at 4:30 a.m. and hiked up to a spot I've seen elk every year. At 5:30 we were nearly there so stopped to listen for bugles. Nothing... I gave a gentle location bugle or two, and still nothing. I'm starting to think the elk are either (A) quiet or (B) someplace else. We spent the rest of the morning hunt doing a couple cold-calling setups. At one point I got a fresh whiff of "smelk" that got my heart going - I looked upwind and saw a lone elk working his/her way through the trees at about 50 yards. Didn't seem to be interested in our calling/setup, and just kept walking slowly away. I was getting frustrated with my calling, thinking I must have forgotten how to call in an elk.

Saturday midday we sat through some rainstorms and eventualy decided to go check our waterhole game camera and see if it was worth a sit for the evening. Given how much moisture there was, I thought it pretty worthless as a waterhole, but it is located in a small meadow where I've seen elk feed at first/last light, so what the heck... We got to the camera to find that it was out of batteries, and had no pictures for the last 2 weeks!!! Lesson learned the hard way (this was my first year using a camera, and it was setup all summer with the same batteries). My old man is tougher than a boiled owl, and my wife (5 months pregnant) is a serious trooper, so without a better plan, we sat at that meadow for ~6 hours until it got dark.

Sunday morning we hiked up the opposite hillside, which is a massive mountain full of aspens, a couple slight openings, and a couple rows of dark timber. It's unbelievable feeding grounds and I've heard/seen lots of elk in there. We slipped and fell our way across some deadfall in the dark, and finally got to a good spot to setup. I'll fast-forward... we heard nothing and called in nothing. We did see some deer, but no white rump... Now I'm starting to think either (A) my calling really sucks or (B) the elk are really quiet or (C) the elk aren't on this mountain either. Crap.

Sunday midday I walked the wife back to the trailhead. She was sad to leave but had to get home, so I told her the way things are going she'll likely get another chance... Sunday evening we tried some more calls (in the rain) on a nearby ridgeline that straddled bedding/feeding. Figured we could catch one passing in between, but now that I knew my calling was so awful I had fairly low expectations. I also had started to get a cold, so I felt kinda crappy. I reminded myself to stay mentally tough, that things could happen at any moment. Stay vigilant, stay ready... Okay, it's dark, time to go back to camp...

I tell all that boring backstory so you can see where I was coming from Monday morning. After a couple days of being wet and cold, and seeing/hearing no elk, and feeling a little sick, and having another hunter in my honey-hole, things were looking gloomy. We tried the whole gammit of calling techniques with zero success thus far. But my dad is Captain Optimism, and that has rubbed off on me over the years. So Monday a.m. we had ourselves a pep-talk session with lots of 'this-could-be-it's and 'you-never-know's... I was ready. We hiked back toward where we had seen the single elk Saturday morning, and as soon as we got to the bottom of the meadow, about 10 minutes before first light, I could hear my buddy cow calling at the top. I knew it was him because it sounded terrible, was extremely loud, and was almost non-stop. If you've ever used a hoochie-mama (I actually like them as part of my arsenal), you know that a mistake-push makes an errant squeak - I heard those too... This guy was really hammering and we could hear the cow sounds from probably a quarter-mile away, so we figured maybe we could use his ruckus as an advantage. We side-hilled a few hundred additional yards and tried to get in a position where the elk he was sure to spook would head, and made some very soft cow calls - trying to sound more realistic. After another handful of minutes he added a little bugle, very squeaky and hunter-sounding again - almost like he was practicing with his new call. I'm thinking "wow this guy is something else." He started to sound a little louder too, so he was clearly working along the ridgeline in our direction. Then he proceeded to add another cow sound, so on top of his hoochie mama was an almost estrous-sounding cow sound. Very long and drawn out. "Is he for real???" Then he added another cow sound, so suddenly there were three cow sounds at once.

Now we figured that this guy either (A) had a buddy with him (B) had three hands or (C) was actually not a guy at all. For the first time it occured to me that maybe this was an elk herd... and maybe they could hear my soft cow calls and were headed my direction... I still figured it was a long shot, but we decided to setup anyway and call in the hunter. I could at least give him a dirty look. We were setup for no more than 30 seconds when we heard some unmistakable crashing through the trees. Out ran a spike and two calves at about 60 yards!!! They stopped and started walking across the clearing right-to-left on a path that would put them about 40 yards from us. Behind them came a big cow, so I got ready to shoot her. But she headed back into the back of the clearing. Thinking more elk would come, when the first few were clear we skirted the bottom of the meadow and up the left side to get up higher to where they were crossing. About a minute later 2 cows came out right were we just left!!! They were downhill/downwind so they spooked off.

We were whispering about how incredible elk are, how they appear out of nowhere, when I heard my "buddy" bugle again (very faintly, barely as loud as the cows) through the trees on the right. By now we were thinking all that ruckus was elk all along, as impossible as it seemed. Why not... we setup and continued to make some cow calls, this time being a little more "urgent" or "lost" with our tone. From the right we could hear some cow sounds, a bull mew, and some more crashing. But nothing was coming. Finally, about five minutes later, I began to see movement and I heard them coming. I drew my bow as a big fat cow came out of the trees, followed by a couple calves, a spike, and a few more cows. About 12 elk were headed on a path across the opening that would put them on my side of a big fallen tree - about 25 yards away!!! They walked single-file and slowly, and when the lead cow stopped I put my pin on her vitals and rested my finger on the release trigger.

At that exact instant more elk came crashing out. I glanced over to see antlers coming out of the trees. Small 4x4 antlers, but antlers... By now my heartrate is about 300 and the setup is unbelievably perfect. Downwind, completely undetected, unspooked elk - perfect. Understand that I am a meat hunter and would gladly have shot a cow, but given how impeccably this was unfolding I had to wait to shoot this bull. I rotated my bow to where the bull was and waited for him to clear the trees, and behind the 4x4 stepped a 5x5.

I kinda blacked out at this point, and everything happened so fast, but I do know that I decided to shoot the first bull that gave me a shot opportunity. When the 4x4 finally decided to step out from the trees, instead of following the rest of the cows/spikes in front of the fallen tree, he headed diagonally up the mountain to go behind it. "No problem, he's broadside in the open at 30 yards, just need to stop him and I'll smoke him." I'd shoot an elk walking, but he was walking too quickly for me. And I've stopped so bulls many times in this scenario using a little cow call, so that was my go-to trick. Out came my softest possible cow call, and the bull kept walking away!!! I think he was surrounded by so many cows that he paid not mind at all. But the cows, not thinking there were any more cows downhill of them, looked straight at me, and before you can say "I'll use my mulligan here, please" the entire herd was GONE. No arrow fired, no blood tracking, no elk down...

And then, just as quickly as they came, they left and it was silent.

I am flooded with the number of lessons I re-learned in this encounter, too many to list quite frankly. "Elk are where the elk are" and "always be ready" and "don't pass an elk on day one that you wouldn't pass on the final day" and it goes on and on... Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes as well... In retrospect, the right move would probably have been a grunt. That surely would have stopped the bull because he wasn't expecting a bull downhill from him. And I've replayed the short couple of seconds countless times over, wondering whether I should have taken the walking shot... I know deep down I shouldn't have taken the shot, but I probably could have maybe killed him, possibly...right? The good news is that (A) I am reminded that I don't suck at calling, (B) I learned that entire elk herds can sound like one crappy hunter, and (C) my wife gets to come up with me again

Oh, elk hunting...

[TENFIVE]

Great story. . . thanks for sharing. We all have played the "coulda, woulda, shoulda" game before.

Keep after them.

[easeup]

wow!
great hunt!

[Triplebhunters]

Awesome. Looking forward to chapter 2.
Enjoy your hunt.
Two more days to go.

[Bowhunter]

Great story. Keep us posted on the rest of the hunt. I plan to shoot the first fat cow I see. But I would probably have done the same thing you did if I saw antlers. Don't second guess your instinct to not shoot a walking elk. You did the right thing. A nervous grunt would have put his brakes on I bet. We learn from our mistakes........ Good luck.

[Kevrod3]

Awesome story!! Makes me feel like even if my calling sucks I still might sound like a herd of elk!!

Also some of the worst sounding critters are Turkey's, however if you ever listen to the "Pro's" they sound "perfect". Not so in the real woods!

[Castnblast]

Every time I think I might have finally got something figured I always get a lesson. Some times it's these stories that mean the most down the road. Awesome.

[BrentLaBere]

BRazz, thanks for sharing. It was a good read sitting here at work, just counting down the time until I hit the road. Good luck! Stay positive!

[bnsafe]

sounds like you had a blast, it usually all happens so fast in hunting. keep us posted

[dreamhunter]

SO you could write for Bugle from what I read.That was a great story.I almost felt like I was there.

[Kevrod3]

SO you could write for Bugle from what I read.That was a great story.I almost felt like I was there.

X2!!!!

[welka]

BTW - you must have an awesome wife to be there with you 5 months pregnant. That's better luck than most on an elk hunt! Good luck the rest of the season.

[recurve]

"I kinda blacked out at that point"

Great line and great story. Rooting for u.
CK

[HTNFSH]

Wow...what story to read before my trek into the backcountry. Ill have to reread this one more time.

[planebow]

Great story, Hope you have better luck next time.

[BRazz]

Thanks for the good words guys. I am flattered that you think I could submit this to Bugle (I would actually love to, maybe I'll need to think about that...).

And yes, my wife is pretty awesome! She's bummed she couldn't be there for the exciting part, but we'll head up for a long weekend in another 8 days (wedding on East coast this weekend - lame). I'm trying to save vacation days for when Baby arrives, so I've slashed my archery trip down to just some Fridays here and there.

[elkmtngear]

Awesome detailed account...you got me seriously fired up for my trip next week!

[Vanish]

Excellent! Just the type of stuff I love to read. I'll be posting my version of the same story later today

[mtnmutt]

All these very detailed stories are extremely helpful for us new elk hunters. Thank you for taking the time post your elk hunting adventure. Good luck!

[BRazz]

Just got back from my weekend-warrior outing #2 (I hate doing it that way, but this season I've got no other choice). I would have posted to the meatpole if I were able to (...), but I'm not posting to the skunk thread either.

Next weekend I'm going solo Thursday evening through Sunday. Then, if for some crazy reason I still have an unfilled tag, I'll take Thursday through Sunday of the following weekend as well.