Update On A Few Encounters!

[ElkNut1]

Episode - 1

Since putting a couple spikes in the freezer we've been out a few times looking for the bigger guys! We seem to find the elk but it's like one bull & a raghorn or encounter a day, not a lot of elk in our part of Idaho. We seem to have to cover a 1000' of elevation & more a day before these encounters come about! The 1st one was with Paul II, we'd been hunting & calling most of the morning with little to show for it, as we topped a rock mass above a bench we hear a bugle below that seems to be no more than a 150yds out. We slip in a bit deeper on this rock mass that is aprox 50' higher than the bench below that holds a nice park about an acre in size. Paul II spots a cow just below us & close to the rock we are on, we hear the bull growl a bit & give a short low keyed chuckle but cannot see him? He is just below us in a small patch of timber. We watch the cow & range her feeling the bull will follow her path. We watch this cow for several minutes & finally see the bull, he's a nice 320" class bull, that's a big bull for these parts!

He slips back into the timber & now it's a waiting game, 5 minutes pass & no bull? We hear a bit of commotion at the bottom of the rock mass we are on right where the meadow meets it. We cannot see down there from our position & feel it may be the bull feeding right under us & we cannot see him? If he gets past us he's in thick timber & there will be no shot! Paul II decides to slowly stand up as he was on one knee ready to draw in case the bull is right next to the rock! As he stands a cow sees his movement & 3-4 of them scatter quickly into the timber for safety, nothing winded us! The bull of course is wondering what the heck is happening but we do not see him at first, all of a sudden he is on the move in the middle of the meadow going through some downfall, Paul II ranges him quickly & I give 2 nervous grunts & a ScreamN bugle, the bull stops nearly broadside & looks up, Paul II settles his pin & lets the arrow fly. It soars inches over his back & into one of the downfall logs! Bummer, nice bull lives another day! (grin) The broadhead is now a piece of the landscape, we had to unscrew the shaft from it as it was buried to deeply to salvage!

Episode - 2

This is a few days later now & my turn as the shooter! We swap everytime we go out, one shooter with a bow & one caller generally with the camera & no bow! On this day we've been hunting aprox 3 hrs with nothing happening, no bugling on the elks part at all even though we are throwing out bugles of our own attempting a response. Finally after the 3rd hour & several tough miles covered we receive a hard earned response. Actually from two bulls, they are 200yds apart & on the move, it appears a satellite is pressuring the herd bull & his cows. They are covering ground in a hurry but are still several hundred yards to our right but below us. The wind is heading down & a hint in their direction. We try our hardest to get down the mountain & under them before they arrive & attempt an ambush! As luck would have it we were a minute behind them even though we could hear them bugling each other non stop. As soon as they hit our scent cone it was over & silent. That's elk hunting sometimes! Game over!

Episode -3

I was hunting by myself this morning as Paul II couldn't make it. I was out 1-1/2 hour before light to do some early morning listening & night bugling. The 1st hour & a half was uneventful with no calling responded too other than a 2 juveniles. As I made my way back down where I'd heard one of the juvenile bulls I decided to throw another teaser bugle out there in hopes a herd bull was close enough to hear. Just as I was about ready to do so a nice sounding bull sounds off a few hundred yards up the mountain. I grabbed my bow & went after him, I left my pack behind in the truck feeling this would be a short encounter! The wind was coming down the mountain so wind was perfect, I move up & cover the distance within 15 minutes as I wade through the downfall. The bull has bugled 3 more times at a pesky satellite/juvenile bull that I could hear as well. I'm now no more than 50yds from the herd bull who is in very thick Christmas sized trees, I see the satellite slip to my right at 25yds towards the herd bull, he does not know I'm there, I pass on him. I nock an arrow & have my release ready, I scream a challenge in this bulls face & he ignites with two rapid bugles of his own, I drop the bugle & am ready to draw as I expect this bull to rush me! He does not come!!! Instead he screams back an obscenity at me & the next thing I know he's 80 yds out now? I'm like what the heck?? This generally works awesome but not this day! I get on him as quick as I can & do it again, same thing happened, he's infuriated but will not show himself in this thick stuff! I get to him a 3rd time at aprox 30yds & still cannot see anything in this jungle, this time I give 2-3 sweet cow sounds & await an appearance or response? Nothing, I mean not a peep or any acknowledgement. I was ready to bugle over him the 2nd he tried to call this cow. Now I'm wondering after 30 seconds passing if he's run again so I start raking a tree & BAM, he screams back from his exact spot & I scream back at him, I'm now feeling he has to show himself, nope!!! Believe it or not we do this a 4th time as I catch him again, same result! -- Bottom line is this bull had been harassed several times already without a doubt, this happens when hunting elk not far off dirt roads, but sometimes you can still win the battle! You have to try! (grin) I may have been able to try a few other tricks on him but let it be as he was a worthy opponent for sure! Hunting OTC Public Lands is no easy chore at times! I ended up being gone for 3-1/2 hours, wish I'd taken my pack from the truck! (grin)

Episode 4

On this day we took a 4 wheeler in aprox 5 miles to an area we had hunted years back, I'd taken a bull there 7-8 years ago & had been in good action at times after that. This day brought us into the 600' decline to where we heard a bull bugle, he sounded like a herd bull so off we went, it's Paul II turn as the shooter! It takes us 35 minutes to get position & wind from the 3-4 bugles we've heard up to now. We are in good shape & are slipping in silently with little to no down fall, sweet! It's a rare time when we come across this. As we slip in to 75 yds Paul II sets up & we feel this bull should come in fast once I call to him with a couple cow calls & a challenge bugle. Paul II is 40 yds up front, I cow call twice, nothing!!! Par for the course as this is the way the year has gone, to date no bulls have shown any interest in a cow call whatsoever! So I scream a bugle at him & he comes unglued & screams back at me twice before I can respond. I try cutting off his 2nd bugle to escalate a reaction, he screams again but has not budged, I see my son up ahead & he has not drawn? I'm like what's up this bull should be storming in at this time? No appearance at all & slips away from our lives! That's elk hunting sometimes! (grin) That encounter Required most of our day!

Episode 5

This day was as uneventful as one can get! We hunted from something rarely ever do, A Trail!!! Yep, now we know why we don't do it! (grin) We went in nearly 5 miles one way, we had left 1-1/2 hour before light to get fairly deep & had hoped to be in bugling bulls, instead we came across Billy the Bugler! (grin) (a hunter) I don't recall ever coming across a guy that bugled from one spot for so long, he was also very predictable in his calling, he went on for 45 min with the exact bugle from his thunder bugle without a 30 second pause. That is no exaggeration either. We never did see him but couldn't get away from his bugling either because of the way the terrain was. We headed out of that area & chalked it up to bad decision making! (grin)

The thing with elk hunting is you have to stay positive at all times even though things aren't turning out like you've hoped for! The above episodes there are several that could have resulted in an elk down but things went the other way instead, no big deal, just keep pressing forward & don't give up! On Episode 6 it all payed off & we hit paydirt!! It was a heck of a grind & the Bugle was king here once again as cow calls did nothing! I've hunted a lot of years & if a choice had to be made I'd take the Bugle by a mile over any cow call today! Just my opinion! You want to be in elk & find elk, learn how to Bugle & how to use the Bugle!

Episode 6

I almost forgot about this one! (grin) This day I was the shooter, up at 3:30 am & off for some night bugling, we locate one bull on a steep dark mountainside so tag the spot & move on, no other takers that morning so we back track to him. We ready ourselves for the pull up the hill, as we are we hear him bugle on his own & is responded back to by a satellite bull. They are well up the mtn & we know we are in for a hike here! (grin) An hour & a half later with still no calling on our part & a 1000' higher negotiating all the downfall, chaparral brush & willows we get to spot that has a very small 35 yd by 35 yd opening among the dense surroundings. We figure this is about as good as we've had this day. We had not heard a bugle in 30 minutes but we felt we were within earshot of the herd bull & satellite. Paul II rings out a bugle & the herd bull sounds off under 200 yds away, Paul II cuts him off in mid bugle & this bull is running at us, we cannot see a thing but you can hear him parting the ocean of brush.

I slip down 30 yds looking for any kind of shooting lane, it would take a miracle to get a 10yd shot here. The bull bugles again at a 100yds & is still coming & is circling slightly under me, as I'm fixed on his approaching sounds Paul II who is going through a Breeding Sequence now waves me up the hill as he mouths to me there's a 5 point right above him, I have to make a quick decision here, do I stay put in hopes of seeing the herd bull or go for the bull that my son can actually see? (grin) I decide to head up since it's hard to beat a bird in the hand! Heck, I have no idea if I would have even seen the herd bull in that thick stuff before being winded? -- As i move up my son points up the hill, I see the bull slipping in behind the chest high brush, I am behind 3 Christmas tree size pine trees, I nock an arrow & see the bull stop 25 yds above me, I cannot tell if he's facing me or broadside?? It was a weird spot for sure, I decided broadside & leaned around the pine trees & placed top pin a hair high mid lungs & squeeze the trigger. The bull bolts out of there & down the hill & all goes library quiet! Of course my son wants to know what happened & I told him the arrow flew exactly where I'd aimed but we'll give it a few minutes before checking it out.


After a few minutes we check it out & find no blood, I see where the bull stood & from his tracks he looked to be head on to me & not broadside! Bummer! It appears to be a clean miss as I obviously had shot right past him thinking he was broadside? It was leafy brush so the arrow would have no problem slipping through a little of it. We follow his tracks for a good 200yds as he took off on a game trail & we were convinced that he was not hit, just smartened up a tad! As you can see from many of these accounts there is a lot of thick brush & tight quarters in these parts! You had better know how to call if you want to have many shot opportunities!



ElkNut1

[Solitude]

Keep it going Paul!!
Always interesting to hear/see what each new dawn will bring.
Brad

[ElkNut1]

Brad, thanks, another one is added with several more to come! I'm doing these just so others can see we too go through the same trials & tribulations as everyone else here! There's nothing automatic about elk hunting, yes we take a lot of elk ever-year within the ElkNut Crew but we work our butts off for them like you guys do so I figured I'd share some of our mishaps & failures as well, not every hunt ends up with a kill as you can see! (grin) Enjoy guys & gals!

ElkNut1

[pmiller45]

Great stories I love hearing what you do in situations and more importantly how you react to the elk. Wish I had a "what would Elknut do app" when I'm in the field! Good luck in the next hunts!

[Rizzy]

Only 1000'....lol (j/k)
I like the updates, keep them coming!

[ElkNut1]

Episode 4 is up!

ElkNut1

[ElkNut1]

Episode 5 is up as some have seen! Thanks for checking them out!

ElkNut1

[ElkNut1]

Episode 6 is up! (grin) Enjoy & thanks for looking!

ElkNut1

[Ridgernr]

Hey Paul is the Bull from Episode 6 the one posted at the Meatpole ? Great bull congrats.

[ElkNut1]

Randy, no it's not, that would have been Episode 7! (grin) That bull on the meatpole took some determination & persistence! I assume you are referring to the 5X6?

ElkNut1

[Ridgernr]

Yes the last bull you posted, I have enjoyed reading the encounters and didn't know if encounter6 was the last one.
after I shot my 5x5 the thought did enter my mind to buy a 2nd tag but a roof project brought me back to realize , winter is a coming.

[ElkNut1]

Randy, I'll share that story as soon as I have a moment, I feel it's a good one in not giving up as I bumped him once accidentally before taking him 2 hours later!

Yes, Idaho made my 2nd tag decision easy! I picked it up mid Aug so with 2 tags I told myself I would take a spike with the 1st one for good eats & the 2nd one would be for a 5 point or 6 point, I got both! (grin) Hope you got the roof taken care of! Thanks.

ElkNut1

[Duck-Slayer]

Yes, Idaho made my 2nd tag decision easy! I picked it up mid Aug so with 2 tags I told myself I would take a spike with the 1st one for good eats & the 2nd one would be for a 5 point or 6 point, I got both! (grin)

ElkNut1

I did the same.... Spike & a 6x5, easy decision at $300
Matt

[Ridgernr]

Our group went 3 for 4 and 2 guys bought the extra tags and spent a week out and didn't tagout but they still the late smokepole season in Dec.

[ElkNut1]

Randy, that's excellent, nice work to you & the fellas!

Matt, yes I saw your photos earlier, 2 elk in the same year, fantastic! It's not always easy that's for sure!! Thanks!

ElkNut1