Heading Out For An Evening Hunt!

[ElkNut1]

We'll see what the elk have in store for me! I'm heading to the same spot I took a bull last year, hopefully there's a scant of mojo left there! (grin) Any way I'm off & will give a report this evening as to what if anything happens? Fingers crossed!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Good luck Paul. I'm heading out "early" tomorrow for two weeks up north of you. Send some up my way ....

[JohnFitzgerald]

Ha, you both are out of luck hunting Idaho! All the elk have come to Oregon.

[bnsafe]

good luck, I feel kinda sorry for the elk

[ElkNut1]

Thanks! It was a blast for sure, heard several distant bugles & one not so distant! I hiked into my spot & waited until aprox 6 pm I then let out 3 very soft cow calls, waited 7-8 minuted & did it again, nothing happened as expected. At 6:30 pm I bugled & chuckled & had an instant bugle back 250yds out & in the thick stuff. I screamed a mid sized bugle back & he cut me off. I wasn't in a great spot but could not move from my position, way too much downfall to negotiate, I had to do the best I could from right there. I ended drawing him to 75yards or so & he wouldn't come to the edge of this very small mdw as I needed him too. He stood straight across from me bugling strongly & beating the tar out of brush & tree limbs,he wanted me to show myself, I couldn't. (grin) I got caught in a bad spot as a lone hunter, that's elk hunting sometimes! It was a good bull & a lot of fun, things are just starting to pick up. Oh ya it started raining heavily as he drifted away bugling, that's never fun in downfall infested areas! (grin) I made it back to the rig in 40 min so not too bad! Hopefully there will be a round 2!

ElkNut1

[POk3s]

Paul is that a moment where you could try and back up and cow call causing the bull to think the cows are leading you away from that other bull? Kind of flipping the scenario of the bull calling you (the cow) in and you back up and bugle showing that there's already a bull there and won't let me leave? Obviously you were in some thicker stuff so it wouldn't have worked but I'm just thinking ahead for my own encounters

[cnelk]

Sounds like a good warm up for whats to come!

I couldnt get to the mtns if I wanted to right now... all roads and interstate are closed because of flooding

[ElkNut1]

Wow, that much rain, we've had rains & thundershowers here but nothing that serious! Good Luck to you getting back out there Brad.

Trent, no there was no going backwards or forward in this instance. It was steep & full of tall chaparral & downfall 8'-9' high. Backing up on the steep slope would have put me right in the bulls view, I was pretty much just stuck right where I was. What I wanted to do was go forward as soon as I knew he was coming my way but it just wasn't possible in that spot. Normally in that spot I was in I wait for the elk to appear from the left or right but this guy threw a curve at me & was coming in from the opposite side of this small mdw. Wind was good & he didn't see what he thought he should see & left the same way he came in.

ElkNut1

[mjblowers]

Is there anything you could have or would have done differently if you had a second person with you in that scenario?

[ElkNut1]

Mike, that would have been a dead bull if I had my son there calling/raking to keep him coming while I had the chance to cross the mdw & setup! 2 hunters are not always needed but when 2 is better than 1 you're glad you were both there! (grin)

ElkNut1

[mjblowers]

Sorry, Paul, I need better specifics! This sounds like my all too familiar encounter.

So you were positioned xx yards outside of a meadow/opening? And you were attempting him to get to the edge and/or closer to you in the thick stuff?

Why do you think he hung up? If you were in the thick stuff, it wasn't because he couldn't get a visual, or was it? What would you have done with someone else there? Had them be further behind you doing some mew's?