2015 season updates

[Ironman]

I thought it would nice to hear how everyone season was going so far. What have you notice in the woods? What have you seen? Which state you are hunting? How are your elk responding to your call and what have you noticed isn't working in your area?
Give us updates on how your season is going. I don't know about everyone else but I would like to here what you all seeing and hearing in the woods. Please share........it may make us less experienced a little better.

[Ironman]

I'll go first...... Opening day in Northern Idaho, we were able to get a few bulls to talk but not for long. Things were really quiet.
I made a,few mistakes that day as I'm not a great elk hunter yet. My elk were coming in to the wallow but I talked to much and they left. If I had just sat tight and keep quiet I may have got a shot. The next day or two I rain and boy we needed the rain but that didn't help me in the woods. The elk were quiet and not moving, the rain was so loud they couldn't my calls I think.

My friend jjover kill is going to be here tomorrow and the weather has gotten much better. So I'm hoping we can make something happen the second week of season.

[zpd307]

keep up the fight I am headed to Idaho tomorrow!

[WapitiTalk1]

I'll go first...... Opening day in Northern Idaho, we were able to get a few bulls to talk but not for long. Things were really quiet.
I made a,few mistakes that day as I'm not a great elk hunter yet. My elk were coming in to the wallow but I talked to much and they left. If I had just sat tight and keep quiet I may have got a shot. The next day or two I rain and boy we needed the rain but that didn't help me in the woods. The elk were quiet and not moving, the rain was so loud they couldn't my calls I think.

My friend jjover kill is going to be here tomorrow and the weather has gotten much better. So I'm hoping we can make something happen the second week of season.

Stay with it Shawn, you'll arrow one! Say hello for me to that MN/AK transplant when he gets there

[Ponyboy_jonas]

In western North Dakota this year I did one day of scouting and one day of hunting. On the scouting day I saw a decent 5 point in the first place that I scouted. During the first day of hunting about 800 yards away I spotted a monster 6 by nothing bull, but couldn't get close enough for a shot. Then at sunset a big 5 point stepped out at about 315 yards. I double lung shot it and it only ran about 20 yards. During the hunt I only heard one bugle, and it was at about 1:00 pm. The pictures of my bull are in the 2015 meat poles topic.

[CurlyTail]

Going to hit it for 8 days starting Saturday in Colorado.

Went out opening weekend. First day couldnt find the elk in the morning. Found the Elk in the afternoon, but they were so deep and steep we could not get to them. Had a great back and forth screaming match with the herd bull but no real close encounters. Had an Elk wind us cold calling and bust out of there - was obvious to hear, but never got a look at him.

Last day never found elk. Hoping the rut makes locating elk a bit easier.

[Lefty]

Saturday I called in a spike. Rangefinder was messed up. I cleanly sailed the arrow over his back. Then decided not to take another shot 22-35 yards.
A couple more bulls were bugling within 200 yards. My have seen one of the buglers white-tips at 65 yards. One it sounded like the other bulls were further away I played with the spike a total of 12 minutes,.. lots of fun.
That afternoon I called in a 6x6 bull a raghorn, couple spikes and cows. The herd bull parked in front of my daughter for 8 minutes at 22 yards, 40yards infront of her boyfriend with a Montana Miss September , 60 yards from me . Never once offering her a shot,. Just the front shoulder.
When the bull dropped over the ridge I took off running away making noise,.. oppps the cows saw me and the whole herd split.

I messed up,.. when the bull went over the ridge I couldn't see it I thought it kept going ,.. My daughter said he was at 30 and would have been a shot if the cows (me) wouldn't have spooked.
Neighbor kid(21 ) killed his first spike.
12 year-old neighbor killed a wt that scored 143, last year he killed a doe from the same tree

[elkaholic]

Last weekend I went out and didn't find elk until Saturday evening. Was able to get within 120 yards of the group including a small six-point bull, but couldn't get any closer as there was little to no cover. The bull and I bugle back-and-forth to each other but he would not leave the herd. Sunday I was dogging the herd from most of the day, but but didn't get closer than 92 yards from the bull and he wouldn't come investigate despite we doing a breeding sequence challenge bugles and screams. Lack of cover and the elk being able to see easily in the direction of me kept them from investigating.

[Lefty]

,...Lack of cover and the elk being able to see easily in the direction of me kept them from investigating.

We used the decoy on Saturday.
The bull froze up at 40 yards from the decoy

[Ironman]

Great replies folks, sounds to me the elk are still being really quiet every where, they still just being curious and aren't in battle mode yet, any day now though. My friend from MN got here last night I will have a post on tonight's hunt posted soon.

Good hunt!

[Njdiverdan]

To keep this thread going here is my season so far.

Labor day weekend was cold and rainy on Saturday. I have moved to a new area (even with the good resolution with my buddy from my spot burning thread, the spot was full of new camps and hunters this year) and used Saturday to get to know the area. Sunday morning we glassed up 3 spikes hanging with a few cows at the tree line. We also saw one good bull several draws over from us. There were a few bugles early in the morning. We also heard a lone bugle at 11:30 am. Sunday night, I sat on a watering spot with no activity. Monday morning, all was quite and no elk seen.

Last weekend. We had a weather change mid week to HOT. When I arrived at camp the temp was 85 degrees at 7 pm Friday night. Went to the same drainage where there were elk the previous weekend. All quiet. No elk to be seen. With the hot weather I decided to give the watering area another try. Just after 8 pm it is almost too dark to see my pins so I decide to start packing up to leave. After putting on my coat (temp was dropping fast) and my pack I look up to see two cows moving down the ridge towards me. I think they saw me moving and were curious as to what I was. The both stopped about 30 yards out. The bigger of the two, stretched up high and looked right at me, kind of bobbing her head trying to decide what I was. She then turned and walked directly away. So then the second one, moves to the exact spot where the first one was and does the same thing. Then turns away as well.

What had happened was I had moved over from my cover to put on my pack. Once I saw the elk I froze in place. Well due to the opening behind me where it was much brighter, I must have been a perfect silhouette to the elk. Oh well, exciting anyway.

Leaving Thursday night for 6 days out. Hopefully the rut will get going this weekend and it will be a bit easier to find them.

-dan

[welcher83]

Where we were on the evening of the 10th, the bulls were VERY fired up. Heard 3 different bulls that evening and 1 definitely had cows and a hot cow. One satellite was constantly trying to call cows over to him. For about every 3 of his bugles (had chuckles mixed in there too), the herd bull would bulge back to stay away. These two bulls seemed to not move the whole time and sounded maybe 250 yds apart. Every once in a while we heard a third bull. It was our first time in this canyon, and the wind wasn't completely in our favor and we didn't know the area too well for a proper approach. Also saw a raghorn that we called into 15 yds. just couldn't make the shot happen (we are still learning and now know what we would have done differently). Know way of knowing for sure, but we didn't think this bull ever bugled. Also, WAY above us and too far to get to with limited daylight we saw a horse of a bull with about 15 cows. He never made a sound.

Next day, the attitude was not near as heated. We heard 3-4 bugles in the morning from the same bull. I did an advertising sequence mid-day just to see if we could get something to sound off and got nothing. Got to a vantage point mid-afternoon and saw elk starting to move toward the area of commotion the night before. Shortly after we started to hear a bull making his way to where the commotion was the night before. We got on his tail and headed up the steep ridge. We could definitely hear 2-3 different bulls sounding off, but there was definitely a different intensity level that night. We were trying to get close enough to the most vocal bull to make a set up and then started running into cows and spikes (coming from a different direction). I've only shot one elk and my buddy had never shot one, so we were content to hunt those just to get the damn thing done and kill something. My buddy arrowed a nice cow at 20 yds - next day was spent packing out and celebrating and he had to leave the following day. Would have been nice to have more time, but we accomplished what we set out to do.

So long story short - on the 10th they were very fired up and on the 11th still vocal but not as intense.

[Elkduds]

W83, sounds like a great hunt, plenty of action. Congratulations on filling the freezer

[wawhitey]

What happened to september? Opening weekend i was getting sunburn snd sweating my azz off. Fastforward 4 dsys and its so cold i csn see my breath in my tent!!

[GobbleFarmer]

What happened to september? Opening weekend i was getting sunburn snd sweating my azz off. Fastforward 4 dsys and its so cold i csn see my breath in my tent!!

Yea for a couple hours in the morning here I can see my breath too, glad its staying cool though thats better than heat IMO! It does get kinda hot in the day here but I can only hunt mornings and evenings so no big deal. Whitetails a mile from home can get cooled off pretty quick anyway. I don't know how you guys do elk hunts in the heat, crazy!

[elkaholic]

,...Lack of cover and the elk being able to see easily in the direction of me kept them from investigating.

We used the decoy on Saturday.
The bull froze up at 40 yards from the decoy

I used Miss September but he wasn't interested in investigating. Hindsight is always 20/20 but I think I should have increased the intensity..

[Ironman]

JJoverkill, his Mrs. And myself have hunted hard the past week, getting off trail and going deep. But haven't had any luck getting anything to talk at all........ Lots off fresh sign, but elk are not responding to anything were I'm at. We have tried everything we could think of. Cow calls, none aggressive bugling, aggressive bugling, raking, herd sounds, breeding sequences, fighting bulls. Nothing has yet gotten us any response from the elk we now are there somewhere. Not sure what's going on, any ideas I would love some advice.

Tonight were going to head south for four or five days to see if things are better down there?...

Good luck/skill to you all I'll update when we get back, happy hunting!

[2Rivers]

Hunted Colorado with the muzzle loader. Went in sun 13th. We had multiple bull's bugleing mornings and evenings. Was sneaking in on a herd bull sun nite but was pinned down by a smaller satilite bull. Mon. we had bull's bugleing in the timber but couldn't get them to stop in a shooting lane. Tues morning I dropped the hammer on a decent 5x6. The guy I was with missed a herd bull at 30 yds. This bull had 13 cows with him. Woods were very dry.rain at nite during the week made. Working the timber much better.

[wawhitey]

Bad mixed up swirling winds every day. Lucky to get 6 hours a day at my wallow without the wind forcing me out. Once again sitting in camp mid day because i just dont know how i could hunt with this wind blowing my scentvto every direction of the compass. Wish i would have shot that bear opening day.

[elkaholic]

Welp... 2015 elk season is over for this fella. Tag soup it is. For the last three years I have seen fewer and fewer elk in the area I hunt and this was the worst yet. Given the lack of cover and that the elk were not responding to anything I was only able to get to within 80 yards 3 times. My partner was kinda upset that I didn't shoot the first time when I had a nice bull that was alert and aware of our presence at 70 yards. My partner ended up leaving on the 2nd day because he had some to-do items that needed to get done so I kept after it for the next 6 days. Had a rattlesnake slither up on me while I was glassing.. That was a fun way to end the evening.... 2nd to last day I got my chance. I glassed up a bull and his cows from a couple miles away and began the sneak. I was within 35 yards of the hole he was bedded in when something alerted him and a cow (I had the wind perfect, but they had to of heard something). They blew out of the gully they were bedded in and stopped just above me on a rise. When I heard them I drew hoping for a shot. His vitals were covered by rocks so the standoff began. I lost and let down but they didn't spook. He moved about 10 feet and gave me a chance. I moved straight at him getting some little brush and rocks between us. I climbed a gentle rock wall until I could see his antlers just over the brush. I didn't think I had time to try and range him so I guess what the yardage would be drew, raised and anchored. He was perfect broadside I thought at 47 yards. Well he was more like at 39-40 and I hit him high. Found my arrow and only got 5.5 inches of penetration. At the shot there was a loud smack and the fletchings dipped down. I tracked him for 3/4 mile before loosing his tracks but never once found any blood on the grass he was walking through or the brush he rubbed up against. I hit him at 9:30 and kept looking all day. Ran into two other guys who had been hunting in the direction he went and they said they found a fresh big track a couple miles away heading in the other direction with some cow tracks. Since the elk are so few out on the desert I am certain it was him. Went back the next day and nothing.... Sickening and frustrating at the same time. I keep replaying the scenario.. Should I have tried to range him with him and the cow alert to my presence? Probably but hind sight is always 20/20..

Planning for next year begins. New unit and no hunting partner.. Pretty excited but bummed it has to be 335 long days till I can try again...