What Would You Do? He shot my elk!

[WapitiTalk1]

Place: Somewhere in the Rocky Mountains
Date: 24 September 20XX; 7th day of your 10 day hunt
Time: 8:48 PM
Weapon: Archery; just you and your bow (hunting solo) this day
Area legal animal: Bull only
Terrain: Timbered with light to heavy alder/huckleberry brush, and, some open intermittent benchy meadows.

After heading up the access trail before daylight, you stop to listen at the head end of a very nice timbered draw, with scattered small benchy meadows, that you know the elk frequent. There are several bull's bugling from various points. You decide to work in as close as possible, underneath the elk, to keep the thermals in your favor before saying a peep. The terrain is pretty decent and within 30-40 minutes, you're in position to where you think you may be able to do some calling below and between two separate bulls and perhaps, get one to come in. After some great vocal exchanges, a decent 5 point comes in to within 40 yards and as you see him walking to where you have a decent shooting lane all hell breaks loose and then you see the hunter stand up and do a fist pump. It appears another hunter has moved in to the situation and shot the bull you called in. As you approach him, he has a look on his face like "wow, I thought you were a bull also".

Do you:

A. Congratulate the other hunter on a good shot and help him track and pack the bull?
B. Give the other hunter a verbal lashing that this mountain has never seen before and head back over to the access trail to head out?
C. See if the other guy can call and maybe plan another attempt at one of the other vocal bulls at a later time?
D. See how far the other hunter would roll if he accidentally slipped down a shale hillside?
E. Other?

[TJB]

Option A. Chalk it up to the joys of hunting public land! Help a fellow hunter out and get back to work to fill your tag.

[Olydog09]

[Olydog09]

Just kidding. I would go with option A. You never know you might make a friend or hunting partner for the future.

[timberland]

I actually shot a cow out of the herd a guy was dogging. She ran about forty yards and tipped over. I stand up and behind me I hear "nice shot". The guy never saw me until I shot and I never saw him. After congratulating me he said "Gotta get back in the game!" and disappeared into the brush after the herd. Very polite even though he never offered to help.
Hope he got a shot.
I would do the same as he.

[baddaddy]

Option A. Enjoy the timein the field.

[Triplebhunters]

A. And C.

[one_elk]

yep option A, life is to short...its public land.......but good question

And if you on the other had were the successful hunter and found out there was another hunter working on the same elk, you would???? share the pack, share the meat???/

[Kevrod3]

Probably C. Might as well let the bull he just shot go lay down. Paul talks about not going to crazy in his book after the shot. Since the "shooter" in this story didn't yell, there is really no need to not keep the calling going. With the bulls scent in the air, and bulls still bugling, why not try and see if you can get after one of the other bulls.

I assume you meant AM not PM on your original time?

If I couldn't get it done by 9:30-10 I'd probably go to A. Help him, and maybe he will come back and help you. Also if you help him, that is less trips that he has to take in and out making a bunch of noise and pushing the elk around.

[Lefty]

I generally go with A

[elkmtngear]

Yeah, I'd take the high road...option A

Hell, I get excited when ANYONE kills an elk with a bow

[Trophyhill]

I guess I'd have to cast stones at him

[Swede]

Option A. I know he has a big job ahead. I would leave and start hunting for the other bulls in the area. I would ask him to try and not disturb them with his celebration, so I would have a chance to get one. If you just offer to help, or jump in uninvited, you may end up working most or all of the day, and be offered a beer and a hand shake in the end. If that works for you, fine. If that isn't what you want for giving up a day of hunting, wait for him to ask you for help.

[easeup]

option A is the easy choice

[elk-n-walleye]

I actually shot a cow out of the herd a guy was dogging. She ran about forty yards and tipped over. I stand up and behind me I hear "nice shot". The guy never saw me until I shot and I never saw him. After congratulating me he said "Gotta get back in the game!" and disappeared into the brush after the herd. Very polite even though he never offered to help.
Hope he got a shot.
I would do the same as he.

I did something similar. After 6 weekends of hiking, during rifle season, in my area I finally saw a herd of elk bedding down at about 180-200 yds. I put my cross hairs on the heart of the nearest cow and squeezed the trigger. After the shot my dad and I hiked up the hill and we found the elk . Soon after a fellow hunter comes walking up from the south of the ridge and said he had been watching the herd for hour deciding whether to shoot or not. turns out he had decided to walk back to his truck to see how far his pack out would be before he took a shot. well, he missed his chance because after 6 weekends of hiking I didn't hesitate. he too, went about his business as we did. didn't seem to be any ruffled feathers over the ordeal.

[six]

[quote="Kevrod3"]Probably C. Might as well let the bull he just shot go lay down. Paul talks about not going to crazy in his book after the shot. Since the "shooter" in this story didn't yell, there is really no need to not keep the calling going. With the bulls scent in the air, and bulls still bugling, why not try and see if you can get after one of the other bulls.

A and C for the same reason as Kevrod3.

[Indian Summer]

I'd run up there in a hurry, give him the fastest congratulations possible and ask him to lay a little low because I was going to move in on another bull. Opportunity is still knocking! If I didn't have any luck and depending on how nice and cooperative he was I'd come back and pack out a quarter for him. A front.

[ElkNut1]

Well, how about this! I'm that guy that shot a 5 point right out from under the calling hunter! No kidding! This was many years back & about 4 miles from the rig. We had hustled up an old un-driveable skid road part way for best access to an area we loved to hunt, as we hit the 3 mile stretch & still 45 min before light we (my son & I) run into this fella hunting alone with a recurve, he was walking ahead so we caught up to him to see where he was headed & we'd go another direction. This has happened to us many times over the years, the guy there first gets first choice & we move on! As we are whispering our thoughts back and forth this guy tells us he's been hunting bulls on this mtn for 5 straight days with no luck but they were rutting pretty good, we said sweet, about that time 2 bulls light it up to our left in the darkness not 150 yds away & up the timbered mtn. We look at the guy & say there's your elk go getem. We left him there & continued up the mtn straight ahead, we finally were far enough away from where we'd left him we could no longer hear any bugling. It's getting close to daylight & my son gives off a location bugle & a herd bull lights it up well ahead of us 500-600 yds straight up the mtn. We proceed forward quick as we can through the underbrush & down-fall to about 300yds from the last bugle we heard, I tell my son to stay there & bugle this bull every few minutes & I'm slipping in silently towards his calling back. (Call & Stalk) My son bugles & sure enough this bull answers back in warning fashion, I move as quickly as I can as I can tell these elk are still on the move but not moving real fast in the timber.

I now get aprox 40 yds from the herd bulls last bugle & I run into a 15' high wall of very thick willow/alder brush, there's no getting through it & this bull is on the other side of it, I can hear several cows mewing back & forth as well but not paying them much attention as I'm focused on the bugles. I start to back track where I'd come from to find a spot to get around this wall of alders, I'd went maybe 30 yds when I hear a bugle to my left not 40 yds away in the timber, I can't see anything but sounded like he was on my side of the alders, I stopped there & waited & here comes this nice 5 point bull paralleling the brush, he comes out too fast for me to draw so I let him get past me as he is coming from my left to my right as soon as he gets to a spot where I feel is eyes won't detect my draw I'm going to hit him with a popping/nervous grunt & take him. As this bull gets to this spot he all of a sudden turns before I can do anything & now is walking right at me, he doesn't have a clue I am there as I have not called once, my son is still back bugling every so often. This bull gets to about 25 yds & has to walk around some 12' high christmas trees to continue on his path & I draw right there as he gets in them, when he steps out he's no more that 10yds away & stops staring at me, the arrow was on its way with a quartering to me shot, the bull blows out of there in an instant & I try calling to slow him down. I'm standing there no more than 20 seconds & out steps this guy from my left we had seen earlier. I told him I'd just shot a bull & asked him not to go the way the bull ran so he didn't accidentally spook him off. The guy stood there for a second & then said, you just shot my bull, I had been cow calling him. I was like what are you talking about, these elk we were on were well away (close to a mile) from where we'd left you. He then said he had spooked them way back shortly after we had separated & they had headed where we were now, he'd been following their bugling.

I said oh. Didn't really know what else to say but certainly didn't realize what had happened between his encounter & this one, we had no intention of encroaching on his action but apparently we did according to him. He walked away in disgust without saying much more. At no time did I have a clue he was anywhere around us. The bull was less that 100yds away laying there dead, needless to say the guy didn't help track or pack meat! I couldn't blame him either, heck he'd never killed an elk before. As I think back now I kinda feel sorry for the guy.

ElkNut1

[Wyo67]

Option "A" for sure. Up until the point of packing. Depending on the situation, I'd be tempted to continue hunting if the bulls were still vocal and wind/thermals permit. Come back later to see if needed help.

[elkaholic]

Option A. Depending on if the bulls are still going strong I might ask if he wants to help me go after them after his animal was dressed out.

[dapper]

I would pick A for the most part. I would help track the animal, I'd congratulate the hunter and offer to take some shots with his camera. Then I would be off on my hunt. Unless for some reason he was unable to preform the tasks ahead of him due to some unforeseen circumstance, other than stupidity.

Dan

[wawhitey]

Start off with "a" act nice. Find out if he's alone. If so go straight to "d" if not stick with "a" either way end with "e" find a new spot for next season

[Screaming_btf]

E. Congratulate the other hunter on a good shot, and offer to help track it. I would also ask if he knew I was there and if my calling also fooled him. I'm not sure I would be packing meat out for the person unless they were cool and humble about it all then possibly.

[Magic]

I have had a slight variation to happen to me. I congratulated, did not offer to help, and kept on hunting. I would not have expected anything different in opposite circumstances. Our hunting time and opportunities are too limited to do otherwise.

[Gutpile]

The first deer I ever shot -a fork horn mules - died up a steep hill side. I ambushed him on a high trail and caught him going to thick steep timber due to hunting pressure from below. I remember this bc I borrowed my dad's 7mm rem mag and it got me over the eye. I started walking up the hill and ran into a hunter whom I chatted with -blood was freshly dripping off my face so must have been funny seeing this bloody kid smiling about his first -albeit miniature deer. This guy walks over to the tree I sat under and I started back up the hill. Right then a 5 point bull comes running right to him - the guy heart shot him at 30 yards while I stood there watching. I helped him quarter the bull after dragging my deer down to the tree. I am the guy you hope walks by right when you find your elk - I'll always stick around and enjoy helping chop them up. Sometimes -you run into those people again when a hand is needed on your end -good mojo

[spyder24]

I would choose option A minus the tracking and packing. I would continue hunting.