2015.....My Year of The Good, Bad & Ugly

[Trophyhill]

This year I drew a great tag here in NM. IMHO the best unit in the state. No shortage of mature bulls vying for a piece of the proverbial cow elk pie where a 330/340 bull is a satellite bull. So I will start with the Bad. A very good friend of 20+ years was hospitalized just before my hunt and I knew there was a good possibility I may never get to talk to him again when I left for my hunt. I ended up going to a funeral in the middle of my hunt and missed a couple days. There's no way I could of lived with myself had I been selfish and not gone. RIP Jim Morgan.

I'll give you a brief summary of where I was camped to begin with and what my plan going in was. I borrowed a great big TeePee tent from Jim's son. Since the roads going in were iffy, I decided to go this route rather than haul my 28' ultralight rv in. My plan was to set up base camp and hunt the basin and ridges behind my base camp for a couple days. My hunt started on a Tuesday. I arrived the previous Saturday. On Sunday I took my backcountry gear, tent, tarp, MH meals, Pocket Rocket etc and water about 3 miles in and set up my backcountry camp and returned to my base camp. I took more water in on Monday and returned to my base camp. After 7 years of acquiring gear, I was finally ready to do a true backcountry hunt. I know 3 miles doesn't sound like a long way in but with all the elk in this area, and being a wilderness area, and no horses, it extended my range from basecamp and not so far that I couldn't get an animal out. So back to base camp. Monday afternoon I drove for 2 hours to get cell phone service and called my friends family and I got the bad news. The funeral would be Friday.

I hunted the ridges and the basin behind my camp Tuesday, Wednesday and half a day Thursday. I was camped at the end of a 2 track forest road where there was a sign stating no motorized vehicles beyond this point. Opening day I chased a lone lazy bugle from the ridge on the other side of the basin. I know the meaning of this bugle from past hunts. It's a bedded bull. So I get over to the other side a couple hours later and nothing. No elk talking and it's already getting hot at 10 am. My plan is to wait this elk out until dark if necessary. After hunting a promising looking ridge in the vicinity I heard that lazy bugle, it was time for a snack, some water and to take the sweaty shirt and base layer off and hang in the hot sun to dry. After about 45 minutes it started getting very warm where I was sitting. So I gathered my gear and found the ultimate shade tree to wait this bull out until dark and get my daily power nap on the mountain in. So this is opening day and the elk are silent. I get comfortable, nock an arrow and lay my bow beside me and proceed with my nap. I'm a side sleeper which isn't necessarily ideal for naps on the mountain because my hips always dig in and hurt so I end up on my back. When on my back I snore and wake up. Then doze off again. Well after an hour and a half of tossing and turning, waking up and starting all over again, I hear this thrashing right beside me. I slowly open my eyes thinking there is a bull raking a tree. I reach for my bow and slowly sit up to find a cow elk stomping the deadfall 5 feet from me. I imagine she was wondering how Rip Van Winkle got into this elk story After a couple seconds she bolts, I cow call and she comes back in and stops 10 yards broadside. I draw my bow, settle the pin and thought to myself, "I'm not killing a cow this year" and let off. When I let off she bolts again and I cow call again to calm her. She stops and just walks off. Then.......I catch some movement to my left out of the corner of my eye and low and behold, a nice 6x6 at 20 yards following the same path that cow must of came in on and closing. My release is still clipped to my string. I'm fixin to kill this bull! or so I thought. So the bull is now at 10 yards and I'm pinned down because he is walking right toward me and he stops and starts peeing all over himself and the ground. Suddenly.......there is a cow elk probably 5 yards from me behind me stomping and mewing like crazy. At this point I don't dare take my eyes off this bull even though I could get stomped to death by this cow behind me. (talk about exciting) so the bull takes a step or 2 and stops. Now he's 5 yards from me and staring a hole through me as this cow is literally going nutz. My plan is to draw my bow when his head goes behind this tree which would put him at a mere 5 feet from me. But as luck would have it, this darn cow bolted and the bull followed right behind her. I stopped him with a nervous grunt at 40 yards broadside but did not have a shot because of the tangled alligator juniper trees. Then he continued on his way to the cow that had just bolted down the mountain. Another bulls life was saved by a cow.

The next day and a half before I had to head out for the funeral I had a couple bulls coming in to my calls just before dark on the bench in my basin a few hundred yards from my basecamp but I ran out of daylight.

Now for the ugly. a 4 wheeler drove right through my camp at the end of the 2 track where it was posted and mowed down the 2 foot grass making his own trail back to the boundry of the wilderness area. I let him know there is a sign right there and he just blatantly ignored me and the sign. Yes we have slob hunters in NM too!

But what was really ugly was really ugly is what happened when I got back from the funeral and started hunting again Saturday morning. I called and a bull was coming. I have this brut of a 5x5 coming in. I can see him at about 75 yards and he's screaming. Taking his time but I finally was able to coax him to commit with some soft sounds from my Temptress. I had moved up because I learned from past hunts as a lone hunter, call and move, call and move because if you don't the bull will hang up. So now the bull is committed, I draw my bow, the bull steps into my wheelhouse, I stop him with a cow call, and let the arrow fly. My aiming point? Center of the >. I start fist pumping. The bull runs about 40 yards, stops and barks twice. I cow call. The bull takes a few steps and stops behind some junipers. I'm thinking this bull is gonna tip over any second. I just know I'm gonna be packing a bull out shortly. An hour goes by and he's still standing there. I'm very concerned at this point. So I decide to try and crawl into a position for another shot. Impossible to stay quiet on the loose rock, the bull hears me and takes off. I walked over to where the bull was standing and a pool of dark blood on a rock but no trail where he ran. I backtracked and no blood trail to where he took the arrow. Now I'm wondering what the hell just happened and no longer fist pumping or feeling very good about the situation. I traveled in the direction the elk ran over to the next ridge and see him standing perfectly still behind more tangled junipers at 40 yards with no shot. I had a small window to the hind quarter but this shot would be extremely risky with no guarentees I would hit the femoral artery or other branches before the arrow even got there so I decided to wait and hope he would move and give me a shot. after about 45 minutes I was able to see that I hit him low about where the front leg meets the body cavity and what looked like dried blood. I'm presuming the pool of blood I saw previously was muscle. I moved my feet a little because standing still for this long had started to get very uncomfortable on the rocks I was standing on. He heard me move and bolted again. I walked over to where he was standing and not 1 drop of blood. I searched after that and at this point it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Not a fun morning I can assure you. I pride myself on being a great shot but on this morning I got a dose of reality and came back down to earth realizing maybe I'm not as great a shot as I touted myself to be. This could never happen to me! Well it did and this will haunt me for the foreseeable future the more I think about it. I think the bull probably survived but I can't say that for sure and that is the hard part.

I will continue this later. Gotta get back to work. More to come. This hunt was both the worst and best hunt I've ever had.

[wewarev]

Can't wait to read more David!

[WapitiTalk1]

Holy heck, what a roller coaster of a season for you buddy. Losing an animal sucks pond water through a straw but it happens. Did you turn in the mental midget who blasted in on his quad in a motorized retricted area? So sorry to hear about your friend passing. I've lost a few relatives during September and it certainly puts things in perspective. Talk soon. RJ

[Elkduds]

Condolences on your losing your friend, and possibly a good bull Sounds like the epic tag in your pocket gave you motivation to keep on keepin' on. Waiting for "the REST of the story."

[StartMyHunt]

Wow David,

This is not the way an elk hunt is supposed to go. My condolences for the loss of your friend. Stay positive and do not let the negative haunt you. There will be better days ahead.

Mike

[ElkNut1]

Dave, yes my heart goes out to you & your friend that passed away, sorry for your loss bud!

Hang in there on your lost bull, yes crap happens, many of us have been there. You had some great adventures though so congrats on that my friend!

ElkNut1

[Fridaythe13th]

Hello, I cant sleep at night waiting for the rest of the story. Sorry for your loss.

[GobbleFarmer]

First, I am sorry for your loss.

and second. That is one heck of a write up! I can't wait for the rest of it!

[cantgetdrawn]

I had a similar situation, in that my niece got married on labor day weekend. Not quite the same but it's something I could not miss. I hiked 3 hours from my spike camp and drove 4 hours back to ABQ and did the same thing coming back the next day.

Trophy do you have a front license plate that reads "born to hunt, forced to worK?"

[Trophyhill]

I had a similar situation, in that my niece got married on labor day weekend. Not quite the same but it's something I could not miss. I hiked 3 hours from my spike camp and drove 4 hours back to ABQ and did the same thing coming back the next day.

Trophy do you have a front license plate that reads "born to hunt, forced to worK?"

yes I do as a matter of fact

[Trophyhill]

Sorry it took so long to get back. I've had internet issues. I also want to add that I thought long and hard about posting about the bull that i made a poor shot on. In the end it is something that happens to bowhunters if you bowhunt long enough. i guess it was my turn. I will work hard to see that this hopefully does not happen again.

So after searching in vain for the bull on Saturday I ended up back on the bench where I called him in and had a snack and some water. I decided to give another call on the Long Ranger and here comes another bull. I could tell by his sounds he was a bigun. a raspy bugle with some growls. I have to say that I have never heard so many bulls growl as I did on this hunt. So I move up a little higher on the bench and set up beside a trail where I "think" he will come in. I peaked over the deadfall and he's coming perpendicular to my set up and above me at about 100 yards. I see the 370ish bull and he is big! I just know he is going to walk down this elk trail. The only problem is I know the thermals are going up and my set up isn't ideal because of that. After this bull walks behind the tangled junipers I lost site of him and suddenly it got quiet. Is this bull coming the rest of the way silent? No he did not and just melded into the mountain never to be heard again. With the bad shot on the other bull still fresh in my mind, I was not on top of my game anyway and thought to myself I surely don't deserve another opportunity that quickly afterward. Still I wonder if the bull smelled the bag of honey roasted peanuts I just ate? Or the cliff bar perhaps? Or did he smell me? I guess i'll never know but that's 2 opportunities in a couple hours. A far cry above what I've seen in other units I've hunted. The Gila truly is a special place.

That evening while in the same basin behind my base camp it started raining. After the late afternoon shower and a half mile from where all the action was earlier in the day, I made a loud call with the Long Ranger and again, I have 2 bulls moving in my direction from opposite directions. But........I was running out of daylight fast. Before either of them could get close enough I ran out of daylight and walked back to camp. I listened to elk scream all night that night from inside my tent. I had a bull screamin not more than 50 yards from my tent at one point. I had a game plan to get back into that basin in the morning and hopefully have more action. So Sunday morning ugly reared its head again when I heard that f'ing 4 wheeler coming about an hour before sun up. Keep in mind I have bulls screaming all around me including from the ridge on the other side of the fence which is the unit I am hunting 300 yards from my camp. As soon as I heard the atv so did all these screamin bulls and they shut up quick and stayed quiet all morning. So I got back to camp, loaded my sleeping bag, more food and water and hiked in about 3-4 miles to my backcountry camp that I had set up Sunday.

On the way in I had got off the old game trail somehow and sat down for a snack. It was very warm and around 1:30. As I'm sitting there having another snack and some water I see a hunter headed back toward where I just came from on the trail about 30 yards below me. "Great" I'm thinking, "I thought I had this area all to myself". Softly I said to the hunter "tough country back here isn't it"? He about jumped out of his skin lol. Guess I startled him Anyway he walked up and we talked for a few minutes. He was heading to the gate I had come thru to meet his brother or cousin who was coming in on a horse. These guys had camp set up about 5 miles past where my spike camp was so I knew I still had "my" area all to myself. Never saw or heard this group of 4 hunters after that.

So I made 2 last minute purchases and glad I did. A Kelty 12x12 tarp and an REI Featherlite camp chair. (thanks for the advice JP) So after getting to camp I put the tarp over my tent and now had a vestibule and a chair. I had another snack and decided to hunt the long ridge that was shaped in a dogleg. Taking notice how Gregg chooses his spots to call from when I hunted with him in CO, I chose a spot to again break out the Long Ranger and call where I knew the sound would carry and wham......another response from a bull ahead of me. Again I could tell this was a big bull by his raspy bugle coupled with a growl. These Gila bulls growl a lot. The big ones anyway. This bull was on the move. The picture immediately painted in my minds eye when I hear that growl is "yep, this bull has satellites harassing and trying to steal his cows". I saw this first hand in 2012 when I hunted this same unit. Satellites that are big enough to contend! Big enough to be herd bulls in most any other unit in the west. This darn bull was moving away and I just couldn't get close enough to challenge him. All I could do was keep him vocal with cow sounds and hope he'd stop somewhere along the line so I could get in tight. Well this bull when he got to the end of the ridge headed straight down into the drainage below and up the other side before I could even get to the edge of the end of this ridge. Unbelievable how fast these elk move when they have somewhere to go.

ok guys, gotta take a break. Sorry it's taking so long but a lot happened and this will be a little long winded. Again hearing so many raspy bulls that growled was just off the hook and I've never heard anything like it anywhere. Do you guys experience this during peak rut in your areas too? I'll get back to the hunt again tomorrow internet willing.

Thanks for the kind words regarding my friend Jim everyone.

[Toothy]

this is a great read.. looking forward to more .

[CurlyTail]

Keep it coming - can't get enough of this stuff

[Trophyhill]

So continuing on, it was getting late in the afternoon and I headed back to my backcountry camp to get ready for my first night alone in the wilderness. I get back to camp with about 45 minutes of daylight left and took my pack off. I thought about setting up the MSR Pocket Rocket and cooking a Mountain House spaghetti meal for about 5 seconds before grabbing my bow and walking over to the edge of the ridge 30 yards to the west. My camp was situated smack dab in the middle of the 60 yard wide ridge and not hunting til dark was not an option. So I find the most likely spot about 50 yards down the slope, set up and start in with some soft mews with the Temptress at first gradually increasing the volume and then switching to the louder Long Ranger. In case you haven't noticed by now, the Carltons Long Ranger is my go to call. A bigger version of the Fightin Cow that really reaches out. The only responses I got were from a swarm of turkey's calling my ridge home. They were so loud, they almost sounded like a 10 score of geese flying over heading south for the winter. Never heard anything like it. I could hear the Tom's thumping each other fighting for dominance with an audience of females egging them on. When it was no longer light enough to see my pins I walked back over to my tent and set up the jet boil stove. Then suddenly I hear a familiar sound. The sound I'd been hearing frequently. The sound I mentioned earlier of a dominant bull. This bull let out a nasty raspy bugle that ended in growls. And he was right there! He came up onto the ridge right where I had been sitting and calling! Though it was to dark to see my pins, it was light enough to see the silhouette of a giant herd bull well over the 350 mark standing there bugling at 30 yards. I knew my camp was in the right place. How many herd bulls can 1 man see or hear in one hunt? At this point I'd probably heard or seen more herd bulls than my previous 7 years combined. And did I mentioned the growling? Almost borderline roars as someone else mentioned in another thread a while back. I had hunted in this general area in 2012 in the first part of September when I heard/witnessed my first roar/growl. At the time I "read the situation" perfectly and was ever so close to killing a 380 giant when a cow saved his life. As that bull was running off with about 40 cows on the 4th of September that year, I started toward them planning on dogging the herd when I caught some movement to my right and another cow barked 10 yards from me. Unaware at the time and thinking the whole herd was already gone, I had snuck right into the middle of a big herd. I knew there had to be another bull harassing the growling/roaring bull and I was right. The second cow barked and took off with a 350ish bull and about 20 more cows. These kinds of experiences are vital for future reference and "reading the situation" because you can read about them but until you experience them first hand you just don't know if you are "reading the encounter" correctly. Drawing from these types of past encounters are priceless when stored in the elk memory bank.

So back to 2015. The next morning, Monday morning after listening to bugles on all sides of the ridge I was camped on all night, I felt it would be another great day and I was not disappointed. I was camped smack dab in the middle of rutting herd bulls! So let me tell you how I came to camp where I camped. I have a friend from Albuquerque who drew the unit last year. I had shared info with him from my 2012 hunt. He killed a nice 7 or 8 point bull last year. A young bull but nevertheless a very respectable bull. This guy can pick a map apart like no other before stepping foot in a unit and instinctually puts himself in the middle of elk almost yearly no matter where he hunts. He dissected the maps and tried to talk me through this area over the phone before I scouted the area in early August. He even emailed me some topo's with pretty good detail on how to get back in there. While scouting I took a wrong turn and scouted some stuff that he had hunted and seen big bulls during his hunt near the adjacent unit. I had hunted all this stuff in 2012 but just didn't put 2 and 2 together yet. So as I am making my way during my scouting trip I had marked my gps "bivy" on the ridge I camped on. When I got back home I looked at his map and at my gps and low & behold it was the same ridge he was pointing me to. I just took the long/hard way to get there on my scouting trip. Thanks for all the input JP. It was invaluable and you definitely can pick a map apart. The area had everything elk need and want when it's time to rut.

So Monday morning from my camp as the light starts to crack the horizon after I ate that terrible MH scrambled egg breakfast, I make 1 loud call with my Long Ranger. (love this call) and a bull responds around the dog leg ridge but distant. Sounded like the same area the bull the day before was at when he slipped down the deep drainage and up the other side. Even though the bull was distant, he wasn't so far I could not hear the raspy ness of his bugle and the unmistakable sound of a herd bull. Yes the growls at the ends of his bugles. Now I'm at a point that I expect every bugle I hear to have growls which believe it or not is not as far fetched as it sounds. So here I go after this bull. Another bull on the move. I kept him vocal with occasional cow calls. It was very cloudy on this morning and you could smell the rain in the air. Rain gear in the pack so no problem. I had sat thru an afternoon shower a couple days before and stayed dry, so I was ready for that. As I'm moving toward the bugle I just couldn't seem to close the distance. These growls are no doubt a warning to other bulls that these are his cows and he aims to keep them. When they are on the move like this I can almost picture the scene playing out. A satellite bull or 3 is trying to steal a cow or 2 and probably has been all night. I dogged this herd for 3, maybe 4 miles before they finally gave me the slip. Plum wore me out and it wasn't even 10 am yet. Now the sky's are looking dark and I know I'm fixing to get wet if I don't get back to camp. This bull had taken me through 2 steep drainages that I had to go up the other sides so heading back to camp was the same tough hike back. On the way back, I witnessed herd bull mentality not only vocally but visually.

I finally made it back to the dog legged ridge I was camped on. About halfway through the ridge on my way back to camp a couple hundred yards below me in a little bowl, I hear this raspy old bull, again with the growls bugling on his own. I'm thinking to myself I am going to kill this bull. He's bugling on his own and he's doesn't seem to be going anywhere. No need to call in this situation. The more experienced elk killers on this forum and other forums I've been on in the past all say the same thing. If a bull is vocal on his own there is no need to call. Sneak in and kill him or sneak in as cover and terrain allows and challenge him. So this is what I did. I moved in. I got to 75 yards and see the giant stud of a herd bull pacing back and forth. I can't see his cows but drawing from an experience from my first elk hunt in 2008 I knew he was protecting his cows......especially after hearing the growls. You see? Hearing the growls had painted the picture for me and seeing him pacing confirmed it. I immediately went into level 2 of the threat. The bull would come toward me a bit and then go back to his cows that I could not see and pace. As I kept the threat up, each time he would move back toward his cows, I would inch closer hoping for a shot opportunity at some point. Now I have to say that hunting solo as many of you know, I am the caller, the spotter and the shooter. It's very easy to get tunnel vision when you don't see cows but see the bull. So now I'm well within bow range. 40 yards and the bull won't stand still lol. Now I see a few cows and what happens next just totally confirms everything I've ever heard about satellite bulls. I've got this bull so worked up and seeing red and don't understand why he isn't running in to deal with the threat of another bull (me). My sounds are as good as they've ever been, I'm in his wheel house and he won't commit long enough for me to get a shot and I see why suddenly. While this bull is paying attention to me deciding if I really am the biggest threat he has to deal with, a 340ish bull comes running in and tries to steal a cow or 3. I just thought the herd bull was seeing red while dealing with me lol. I watched this herd bull run that satellite off lickity split. Before the herd bull made it within 30 yards of the satellite, the smaller bull disappeared as quickly as he had run in. The giant herd bull then gathered his cows and ran them up the steep slope and out of site faster than I could say Rip Van Winkle. So I did everything I knew how to do correctly I think.....I moved in to a vocal bull without calling and undetected, I avoided getting tunnel vision and busted by cows because of it, I got in tight before threatening the bulls elkhood, and I had read the situation correctly and got into bow range! Yet came up empty. So this just goes to show. When dealing with herd bulls who are all cowed up, not only do you have to do everything right 100% but things unfolding have to go your way. Some call that having a little luck but I believe we create our own luck and I didn't do it on this morning. It's not even noon yet! Again reading about these types of things before you have the experience are valuable no doubt but until you experience it first hand you really don't have the experience. I'm extremely fortunate to have had some of these experiences the past couple years and it is of utmost importance when developing that "autopilot" mode without having to think about it. When you start having these experiences a light bulb goes off in your head and it's like, so that's what Gregg was talking about or now I see what Paul meant when he told me this or that and things that a number of great elk killers have shared with me over the past few years since about 2008.

I hope I'm not boring you guys to death but as I said, a lot happened on this hunt to make it by far the most memorable hunt of my short elkhunting career so far. I'll get back to you all soon and pick up on Monday afternoons hunt.

[Huntrgathr]

Not boring at all Trophy- quite the opposite. When you told the story about the bull you shot and lost I kept saying " shoot him again, shoot him again !". Even though you had a poor target for a follow up, my thinking is if you have a marginally hit bull ( or couldn't tell where you hit), putting another arrow in it anywhere is better than the risk of losing him. You might remember my thread from a few years back where I hit a bull low on my first shot but followed up with a 90+ yard ham shot which is what took the bull down.

EDIT : After re-reading that encounter it sounds maybe like you had no follow-up opportunity at all... ?

It's hard to imagine having action like you're talking about from big bulls. Comparing it to hunting heavily pressured OTC units that we hunt is like night and day. Hunting 350-380 bulls here is like hunting Unicorns ! Look forward to hearing more of your adventures !

[zpd307]

keep it up!!!! I dream of having a season like yours....

[ishy]

Definitely great write up, we are all overly anxious for the rest of the story.

[Trophyhill]

Thanks guys! Just got back from a buddies muzzy hunt and elk were rutting hard. Got another one to tell but I'll finish this one first. My muscles are very sore and tired tonight. I'll finish this one up tomorrow

[briteiis]

Awesome write up...can't wait for the rest!

[Toothy]

Can't wait to hear the rest. I may have start over.

[Trophyhill]

My 2015 Elk Hunt. The Good, Bad & Ugly.

Sorry it took so long to get back with you guys. My plan was to pick up after the last post at the time. The forum was going thru some changes and after I had spent about 2 hours typing "the rest of the story" on the forum, it would not let me post it. I had saved it on my laptop and could not find the file until now I have been extremely busy with a big construction project that takes a lot of my time. It seems like nowadays we start out behind schedule from the get go. So I know I have posted at least half of this if you want to scroll down to where I left off but here is my 2015 elk hunt. I'm not the best of story tellers but I hope you all enjoy my hunt and enjoy yours as much as I enjoy reading about all of your hunts.

This year I drew a great tag here in NM. IMHO the best unit in the state. No shortage of mature bulls vying for a piece of the proverbial cow elk pie where a 330/340 bull is a satellite bull. So I will start with the Bad. A very good friend of 20+ years was hospitalized just before my hunt and I knew there was a good possibility I may never get to talk to him again when I left for my hunt. I ended up going to a funeral in the middle of my hunt and missed a couple days. There's no way I could of lived with myself had I been selfish and not gone. RIP Jim Morgan.

I'll give you a brief summary of where I was camped to begin with and what my plan going in was. I borrowed a great big TeePee tent from Jim's son Harold. Since the roads going in were iffy, I decided to go this route rather than haul my 28' ultralight rv in. My plan was to set up base camp and hunt the basin and ridges behind my base camp for a couple days. My hunt started on a Tuesday. I arrived the previous Saturday. On Sunday I took my backcountry gear, tent, tarp, MH meals, Pocket Rocket etc and water about 3 miles in and set up my backcountry camp and returned to my base camp. I took more water in on Monday and returned to my base camp. After 7 years of acquiring gear, I was finally ready to do a true backcountry hunt. I know 3 miles doesn't sound like a long way in but with all the elk in this area, and being a wilderness area, and no horses, it extended my range from basecamp and not so far that I couldn't get an animal out. So back to base camp. Monday afternoon I drove for 2 hours to get cell phone service and called my friends family and I got the bad news. The funeral would be Friday.

I hunted the ridges and the basin behind my camp Tuesday, Wednesday and half a day Thursday. I was camped at the end of a 2 track forest road where there was a sign stating no motorized vehicles beyond this point. Opening day I chased a lone lazy bugle from the ridge on the other side of the basin. I know the meaning of this bugle from past hunts. It's a bedded bull. So I get over to the other side a couple hours later and nothing. No elk talking and it's already getting hot at 10 am. My plan is to wait this elk out until dark if necessary. After hunting a promising looking ridge in the vicinity I heard that lazy bugle, it was time for a snack, some water and to take the sweaty shirt and base layer off and hang in the hot sun to dry. After about 45 minutes it started getting very warm where I was sitting. So I gathered my gear and found the ultimate shade tree to wait this bull out until dark and get my daily power nap on the mountain in. So this is opening day and the elk are silent. I get comfortable, nock an arrow and lay my bow beside me and proceed with my nap. I'm a side sleeper which isn't necessarily ideal for naps on the mountain because my hips always dig in and hurt so I end up on my back. When on my back I snore and wake up. Then doze off again. Well after an hour and a half of tossing and turning, waking up and starting all over again, I hear this thrashing right beside me. I slowly open my eyes thinking there is a bull raking a tree. I reach for my bow and slowly sit up to find a cow elk stomping the deadfall 5 feet from me. I imagine she was wondering how Rip Van Winkle got into this elk story After a couple seconds she bolts, I cow call and she comes back in and stops 10 yards broadside. I draw my bow, settle the pin and thought to myself, "I'm not killing a cow this year" and let off. When I let off she bolts again and I cow call again to calm her. She stops and just walks off. Then.......I catch some movement to my left out of the corner of my eye and low and behold, a nice 6x6 at 20 yards following the same path that cow must of came in on and closing. My release is still clipped to my string. I'm fixin to kill this bull! or so I thought. So the bull is now at 10 yards and I'm pinned down because he is walking right toward me and he stops and starts peeing all over himself and the ground. Suddenly.......there is a cow elk probably 5 yards from me behind me stomping and mewing like crazy. At this point I don't dare take my eyes off this bull even though I could get stomped to death by this cow behind me. (talk about exciting) so the bull takes a step or 2 and stops. Now he's 5 yards from me and staring a hole through me as this cow is literally going nutz. My plan is to draw my bow when his head goes behind this tree which would put him at a mere 5 feet from me. But as luck would have it, this darn cow bolted and the bull followed right behind her. I stopped him with a nervous grunt at 40 yards broadside but did not have a shot because of the tangled alligator juniper trees. Then he continued on his way to the cow that had just bolted down the mountain. Another bulls life was saved by a cow.

The next day and a half before I had to head out for the funeral I had a couple bulls coming in to my calls just before dark on the bench in my basin a few hundred yards from my basecamp but I ran out of daylight.

Now for the ugly. a 4 wheeler drove right through my camp at the end of the 2 track where it was posted and mowed down the 2 foot grass making his own trail back to the boundry of the wilderness area. I let him know there is a sign right there and he just blatantly ignored me and the sign. Yes we have slob hunters in NM too!

But what was really ugly is what happened when I got back from the funeral and started hunting again Saturday morning. I called and a bull was coming. I have this brut of a 5x5 coming in. I can see him at about 75 yards and he's screaming. Taking his time but I finally was able to coax him to commit with some soft sounds from my Temptress. I had moved up because I learned from past hunts as a lone hunter, call and move, call and move because if you don't the bull will hang up. So now the bull is committed, I draw my bow, the bull steps into my wheelhouse, I stop him with a cow call, and let the arrow fly. My aiming point? Center of the >. I start fist pumping. The bull runs about 40 yards, stops and barks twice. I cow call. The bull takes a few steps and stops behind some junipers. I'm thinking this bull is gonna tip over any second. I just know I'm gonna be packing a bull out shortly. An hour goes by and he's still standing there. I'm very concerned at this point. So I decide to try and crawl into a position for another shot. Impossible to stay quiet on the loose rock, the bull hears me and takes off. I walked over to where the bull was standing and a pool of dark blood on a rock but no trail where he ran. I backtracked and no blood trail to where he took the arrow. Now I'm wondering what the hell just happened and no longer fist pumping or feeling very good about the situation. I traveled in the direction the elk ran over to the next ridge and see him standing perfectly still behind more tangled junipers at 40 yards with no shot. I had a small window to the hind quarter but this shot would be extremely risky with no guarentees I would hit the femoral artery or other branches before the arrow even got there so I decided to wait and hope he would move and give me a shot. after about 45 minutes I was able to see that I hit him low about where the front leg meets the body cavity and what looked like dried blood. I'm presuming the pool of blood I saw previously was muscle. I moved my feet a little because standing still for this long had started to get very uncomfortable on the rocks I was standing on. He heard me move and bolted again. I walked over to where he was standing and not 1 drop of blood. I searched after that and at this point it was like finding a needle in a haystack. Not a fun morning I can assure you. I pride myself on being a great shot but on this morning I got a dose of reality and came back down to earth realizing maybe I'm not as great a shot as I touted myself to be. This could never happen to me! Well it did and this will haunt me for the foreseeable future the more I think about it. I think the bull probably survived but I can't say that for sure and that is the hard part.

I will continue this later. Gotta get back to work. More to come. This hunt was both the worst and best hunt I've ever had.
Sorry it took so long to get back. I've had internet issues. I also want to add that I thought long and hard about posting about the bull that i made a poor shot on. In the end it is something that happens to bowhunters if you bowhunt long enough. i guess it was my turn. I will work hard to see that this hopefully does not happen again.

So after searching in vain for the bull on Saturday I ended up back on the bench where I called him in and had a snack and some water. I decided to give another call on the Long Ranger and here comes another bull. I could tell by his sounds he was a bigun. a raspy bugle with some growls. I have to say that I have never heard so many bulls growl as I did on this hunt. So I move up a little higher on the bench and set up beside a trail where I "think" he will come in. I peaked over the deadfall and he's coming perpendicular to my set up and above me at about 100 yards. I see the 370ish bull and he is big! I just know he is going to walk down this elk trail. The only problem is I know the thermals are going up and my set up isn't ideal because of that. After this bull walks behind the tangled junipers I lost site of him and suddenly it got quiet. Is this bull coming the rest of the way silent? No he did not and just melded into the mountain never to be heard again. With the bad shot on the other bull still fresh in my mind, I was not on top of my game anyway and thought to myself I surely don't deserve another opportunity that quickly afterward. Still I wonder if the bull smelled the bag of honey roasted peanuts I just ate? Or the cliff bar perhaps? Or did he smell me? I guess i'll never know but that's 2 opportunities in a couple hours. A far cry above what I've seen in other units I've hunted. The Gila truly is a special place.

That evening while in the same basin behind my base camp it started raining. After the late afternoon shower and a half mile from where all the action was earlier in the day, I made a loud call with the Long Ranger and again, I have 2 bulls moving in my direction from opposite directions. But........I was running out of daylight fast. Before either of them could get close enough I ran out of daylight and walked back to camp. I listened to elk scream all night that night from inside my tent. I had a bull screamin not more than 50 yards from my tent at one point. I had a game plan to get back into that basin in the morning and hopefully have more action. So Sunday morning ugly reared its head again when I heard that f'ing 4 wheeler coming about an hour before sun up. Keep in mind I have bulls screaming all around me including from the ridge on the other side of the fence which is the unit I am hunting 300 yards from my camp. As soon as I heard the atv so did all these screamin bulls and they shut up quick and stayed quiet all morning. So I got back to camp, loaded my sleeping bag, more food and water and hiked in about 3-4 miles to my backcountry camp that I had set up Sunday.

On the way in I had got off the old game trail somehow and sat down for a snack. It was very warm and around 1:30. As I'm sitting there having another snack and some water I see a hunter headed back toward where I just came from on the trail about 30 yards below me. "Great" I'm thinking, "I thought I had this area all to myself". Softly I said to the hunter "tough country back here isn't it"? He about jumped out of his skin lol. Guess I startled him Anyway he walked up and we talked for a few minutes. He was heading to the gate I had come thru to meet his brother or cousin who was coming in on a horse. These guys had camp set up about 5 miles past where my spike camp was so I knew I still had "my" area all to myself. Never saw or heard this group of 4 hunters after that.

So I made 2 last minute purchases and glad I did. A Kelty 12x12 tarp and an REI Flexlite camp chair. (thanks for the advice JP) So after getting to camp I put the tarp over my tent and now had a vestibule and a chair. I had another snack and decided to hunt the long ridge that was shaped in a dogleg. Taking notice how Gregg chooses his spots to call from when I hunted with him in CO, I chose a spot to again break out the Long Ranger and call where I knew the sound would carry and wham......another response from a bull ahead of me. Again I could tell this was a big bull by his raspy bugle coupled with a growl. These Gila bulls growl a lot. The big ones anyway. This bull was on the move. The picture immediately painted in my minds eye when I hear that growl is "yep, this bull has satellites harassing and trying to steal his cows". I saw this first hand in 2012 when I hunted this same unit. Satellites that are big enough to contend! Big enough to be herd bulls in most any other unit in the west. This darn bull was moving away and I just couldn't get close enough to challenge him. All I could do was keep him vocal with cow sounds and hope he'd stop somewhere along the line so I could get in tight. Well this bull when he got to the end of the ridge headed straight down into the drainage below and up the other side before I could even get to the edge of the end of this ridge. Unbelievable how fast these elk move when they have somewhere to go. A lot happened and this will be a little long winded. Again hearing so many raspy bulls that growled was just off the hook and I've never heard anything like it anywhere. Do you guys experience this during peak rut in your areas too?

So continuing on, it was getting late in the afternoon and I headed back to my backcountry camp to get ready for my first night alone in the wilderness. I get back to camp with about 45 minutes of daylight left and took my pack off. I thought about setting up the MSR Pocket Rocket and cooking a Mountain House spaghetti meal for about 5 seconds before grabbing my bow and walking over to the edge of the ridge 30 yards to the west. My camp was situated smack dab in the middle of the 60 yard wide ridge and not hunting til dark was not an option. So I find the most likely spot about 50 yards down the slope, set up and start in with some soft mews with the Temptress at first gradually increasing the volume and then switching to the louder Long Ranger. In case you haven't noticed by now, the Carltons Long Ranger is my go to call. A bigger version of the Fightin Cow that really reaches out. The only responses I got were from a swarm of turkey's calling my ridge home. They were so loud, they almost sounded like a 10 score of geese flying over heading south for the winter. Never heard anything like it. I could hear the Tom's thumping each other fighting for dominance with an audience of females egging them on. When it was no longer light enough to see my pins I walked back over to my tent and set up the jet boil stove. Then suddenly I hear a familiar sound. The sound I'd been hearing frequently. The sound I mentioned earlier of a dominant bull. This bull let out a nasty raspy bugle that ended in growls. And he was right there! He came up onto the ridge right where I had been sitting and calling! Though it was to dark to see my pins, it was light enough to see the silhouette of a giant herd bull well over the 350 mark standing there bugling at 30 yards. I knew my camp was in the right place. How many herd bulls can 1 man see or hear in one hunt? At this point I'd probably heard or seen more herd bulls than my previous 7 years combined. And did I mentioned the growling? Almost borderline roars as someone else mentioned in another thread a while back. I had hunted in this general area in 2012 in the first part of September when I heard/witnessed my first roar/growl. At the time I "read the situation" perfectly and was ever so close to killing a 380 giant when a cow saved his life. As that bull was running off with about 40 cows on the 4th of September that year, I started toward them planning on dogging the herd when I caught some movement to my right and another cow barked 10 yards from me. Unaware at the time and thinking the whole herd was already gone, I had snuck right into the middle of a big herd. I knew there had to be another bull harassing the growling/roaring bull and I was right. The second cow barked and took off with a 350ish bull and about 20 more cows. These kinds of experiences are vital for future reference and "reading the situation" because you can read about them but until you experience them first hand you just don't know if you are "reading the encounter" correctly. Drawing from these types of past encounters are priceless when stored in the elk memory bank.

So back to 2015. The next morning, Monday morning after listening to bugles on all sides of the ridge I was camped on all night, I felt it would be another great day and I was not disappointed. I was camped smack dab in the middle of rutting herd bulls! So let me tell you how I came to camp where I camped. I have a friend from Albuquerque who drew the unit last year. I had shared info with him from my 2012 hunt. He killed a nice 7 or 8 point bull last year. A young bull but nevertheless a very respectable bull. This guy can pick a map apart like no other before stepping foot in a unit and instinctually puts himself in the middle of elk almost yearly no matter where he hunts. He dissected the maps and tried to talk me through this area over the phone before I scouted the area in early August. He even emailed me some topo's with pretty good detail on how to get back in there. While scouting I took a wrong turn and scouted some stuff that he had hunted and seen big bulls during his hunt near the adjacent unit. I had hunted all this stuff in 2012 but just didn't put 2 and 2 together yet. So as I am making my way during my scouting trip I had marked my gps "bivy" on the ridge I camped on. When I got back home I looked at his map and at my gps and low & behold it was the same ridge he was pointing me to. I just took the long/hard way to get there on my scouting trip. Thanks for all the input JP. It was invaluable and you definitely can pick a map apart. The area had everything elk need and want when it's time to rut.

So Monday morning from my camp as the light starts to crack the horizon after I ate that terrible MH scrambled egg breakfast, I make 1 loud call with my Long Ranger. (love this call) and a bull responds around the dog leg ridge but distant. Sounded like the same area the bull the day before was at when he slipped down the deep drainage and up the other side. Even though the bull was distant, he wasn't so far I could not hear the raspy ness of his bugle and the unmistakable sound of a herd bull. Yes the growls at the ends of his bugles. Now I'm at a point that I expect every bugle I hear to have growls which believe it or not is not as far fetched as it sounds. So here I go after this bull. Another bull on the move. I kept him vocal with occasional cow calls. It was very cloudy on this morning and you could smell the rain in the air. Rain gear in the pack so no problem. I had sat thru an afternoon shower a couple days before and stayed dry, so I was ready for that. As I'm moving toward the bugle I just couldn't seem to close the distance. These growls are no doubt a warning to other bulls that these are his cows and he aims to keep them. When they are on the move like this I can almost picture the scene playing out. A satellite bull or 3 is trying to steal a cow or 2 and probably has been all night. I dogged this herd for 3, maybe 4 miles before they finally gave me the slip. Plum wore me out and it wasn't even 10 am yet. Now the sky's are looking dark and I know I'm fixing to get wet if I don't get back to camp. This bull had taken me through 2 steep drainages that I had to go up the other sides so heading back to camp was the same tough hike back. On the way back, I witnessed herd bull mentality not only vocally but visually.

I finally made it back to the dog legged ridge I was camped on. About halfway through the ridge on my way back to camp a couple hundred yards below me in a little bowl, I hear this raspy old bull, again with the growls bugling on his own. I'm thinking to myself I am going to kill this bull. He's bugling on his own and he's doesn't seem to be going anywhere. No need to call in this situation. The more experienced elk killers on this forum and other forums I've been on in the past all say the same thing. If a bull is vocal on his own there is no need to call. Sneak in and kill him or sneak in as cover and terrain allows and challenge him. So this is what I did. I moved in. I got to 75 yards and see the giant stud of a herd bull pacing back and forth. I can't see his cows but drawing from an experience from my first elk hunt in 2008 I knew he was protecting his cows......especially after hearing the growls. You see? Hearing the growls had painted the picture for me and seeing him pacing confirmed it. I immediately went into level 2 of the threat. The bull would come toward me a bit and then go back to his cows that I could not see and pace. As I kept the threat up, each time he would move back toward his cows, I would inch closer hoping for a shot opportunity at some point. Now I have to say that hunting solo as many of you know, I am the caller, the spotter and the shooter. It's very easy to get tunnel vision when you don't see cows but see the bull. So now I'm well within bow range. 40 yards and the bull won't stand still lol. Now I see a few cows and what happens next just totally confirms everything I've ever heard about satellite bulls. I've got this bull so worked up and seeing red and don't understand why he isn't running in to deal with the threat of another bull (me). My sounds are as good as they've ever been, I'm in his wheel house and he won't commit long enough for me to get a shot and I see why suddenly. While this bull is paying attention to me deciding if I really am the biggest threat he has to deal with, a 340ish bull comes running in and tries to steal a cow or 3. I just thought the herd bull was seeing red while dealing with me lol. I watched this herd bull run that satellite off lickity split. Before the herd bull made it within 30 yards of the satellite, the smaller bull disappeared as quickly as he had run in. The giant herd bull then gathered his cows and ran them up the steep slope and out of site faster than I could say Rip Van Winkle. So I did everything I knew how to do correctly I think.....I moved in to a vocal bull without calling and undetected, I avoided getting tunnel vision and busted by cows because of it, I got in tight before threatening the bulls elkhood, and I had read the situation correctly and got into bow range! Yet came up empty. So this just goes to show. When dealing with herd bulls who are all cowed up, not only do you have to do everything right 100% but things unfolding have to go your way. Some call that having a little luck but I believe we create our own luck and I didn't do it on this morning. It's not even noon yet! Again reading about these types of things before you have the experience are valuable no doubt but until you experience it first hand you really don't have the experience. I'm extremely fortunate to have had some of these experiences the past couple years and it is of utmost importance when developing that "autopilot" mode without having to think about it. When you start having these experiences a light bulb goes off in your head and it's like, so that's what Gregg was talking about or now I see what Paul meant when he told me this or that and things that a number of great elk killers have shared with me over the past few years since about 2008.

I hope I'm not boring you guys to death but as I said, a lot happened on this hunt to make it by far the most memorable hunt of my short elkhunting career so far. I'll get back to you all soon and pick up on Monday afternoons hunt.
So i head back toward camp and got there just in time . I got under my tarp to sit in my new REI Flexlight chair before the skies opened up. And I mean it rained hard. I sat there and cooked a double dose of MH lasagna. I don't think i'll take the lasagna on future hunts. Although it tasted pretty good, the darn cheese balled up on my spork as I stirred it before closing the pouch back up and was a pain in the arse to clean afterwords smile emoticon. It rained the rest of the day and all I could do was replay all the action I had up until this point. It certainly was the hunt of a lifetime as far as seeing and hearing big bulls daily. This is what elk hunting should be about right hear. (cept for the part I'd just assume forget) After the rain had stopped the familiar sounds returned as I dozed off. Bulls singing with an occasional pack of coyotes and wolves interrupting in the distance. What would tomorrow bring I wondered.

Tuesday morning was another cloudy morning and I could smell the rain in the air. Again after eating that horrible MH scrambled egg/bacon breakfast before the sun came up, I could hear the distant bugles somewhere beyond the dog legged ridge. This ridge was at least a mile long if I had to guess or so it seems. So as I get to the point where the ridge hooks to my left coming out of camp, I felt the eyes upon me. It's almost impossible to walk quietly on certain parts of this ridge. It was like a mine field of rock and boulders. Trying to see where your walking and what you have to avoid to keep from falling and looking out ahead of you at the same time is something I'm getting better at but it just seems that everytime I have to look down at the ground in front of me, an animal I'm hunting and in this case elk happens to see/hear me before I can look up and it wasn't any different on this morning. I look up and there is a big 6 point bull staring a hole in me at 40 yards as shooting light takes the place of the night skies. You can guess what happens next. Before I could even get my next thought through my elk brain he jumped, turned and in a couple bounds was down the side of the ridge and out of site heading toward the Middle Fork never to be seen again. What a magnificent bull though. The few seconds he was there, God had allowed me to see yet another Gila trophy that will live another day.

After what I'd seen and heard there is no way I'm going to let another blown opportunity get me down. I was having so much fun that at this point I'd already considered this a hunt of a lifetime and experienced more than 1 man should be allowed in just a few days. So as I make my way along the ridge I'm thinking to myself "this looks like a spot Gregg would call from". I know that my sound will be heard and carry off both sides of the ridge. Care to guess which call I used? lol. So without hesitation I pulled out the Long Ranger and sing a sweet estrus melody and bam! A bull lights up on my left. After hunting this whole area a few days I had become quite intimate and hearing the unmistakable hoarse raspy bugle with growls, I knew this bull was on the steep ridge back on the other side of my camp. Instead of hiking down into the bowl to my left and then back up, I hiked right back past my camp. Once I got to the intersection of this ridge I'm on and the elk trail that sidehilled perpendicular to the ridge I slowed way down. This bull is just going nutz! All on his own. Again, no need to call. As I inch closer I see him bedded in front of me at about 100 yards bugle after raspy bugle non stop. All I could see was the beautiful light brown color of the back 2/3's of his body and his head was behind a tree. "Perfect" I thought to myself. I am going to slip in and kill this bull right where he is bedded. I searched in vain for any cows that may be with him before attempting to move in and nothing! So as I ease forward, 90 yards, 80 yards, 70 yards at a snails pace my worst fear suddenly happens. Remember just minutes before I scanned the terrain and hadn't seen not a 1 cow. Well I got so focused on that bull and didn't even look for any cows after scanning the first time and it happened. A cow barks, the sound of thundering hooves and the color of elk butts including the back side of the giant herd bulls rack is all I saw. I tried dogging the herd as they got further away but it was a futile attempt at that point. I had just blown another opportunity at killing a monster elk. Every step I had taken toward that bull changed my view as I got closer to him. That bull was between me and all those bedded cows and I just didn't see them! With the smell of rain still in the air I decided to head back to camp and it's a good thing I did. The skies opened up again and it started raining with thunder and lightning even harder than it did the day before. I have good rain gear but when it's raining like that not even my Meindls like being out in it. It poured the rest of the day. But I did have another education given to me by the elk at a cost only an elkhunter would understand and appreciate.

Wednesday morning I hiked down off the ridge toward where the bull that busted me on the ridge a couple days earlier had gone. It dropped me into this great meadow. Clouds were low and covering the side of the ridge I had just come down off of. Truly a beautiful sight in the morning sun. I headed toward a tank that later on learned cantgetdrawn was camped near. I got a couple bugles from long distance from across the other side of the Middle Fork but no way on God's earth was I even going to attempt to hike down the steep gorge and try to cross the river and up the cliffs on the other side. All I could do was admire the beauty that is the Gila and marvel at natures wonder. I had this bull and another talking to me when suddenly I heard what sounded like a pack of wolves howling in the distance. Needless to say the 2 bulls shut up real quick. Without hearing or seeing what I had been experiencing the previous days of my hunt I'm telling myself how stupid the decision to leave the area I'd been hunting was. So I head back to my ridge. It's around mid morning. Time is getting short. I have today and the plan is tomorrow plan to hunt half a day, break down camp and head back to the base camp and hunt that area if I have any daylight left.

So I get back up on the ridge not very far from where I had called from the previous morning and broke out the Long Ranger. Hey........I had gotten responses from this call almost everytime I use it up until now why switch. I had a primo's, Fightin Cow, Temptress and one other external reed call but my Long Ranger is hands down my favorite call to locate bulls with. So I call, another growler answers from the same area as the day before and I head back the same way I approached the bull the day before right past my camp. I only had to make that 1 call. The first bull called so much that a second bull fired up. So I have 1 bull on the side of this slope, (about 300 yards from my intersection on my ridge and the sidehill trail) there is a small ridge that comes off the slope in front of me. The second bull is doing the same thing as the first bull. These 2 bulls are going back and forth at one another. I'm getting closer and closer and closer keeping my eyes open for cows that are undoubtedly there somewhere. These 2 bulls are holding their distance from one another. The way I read this is these are 2 herd bulls content on keeping their harems and staying far enough away from each other so as not to challenge each other. But why are these 2 bulls growling? I'm telling you guys I have never heard anything like what I heard during this hunt in regards to growling bulls. I knew why these bulls were growling. They weren't growling at each other because they were probably 3-400 yards apart. So as I make my approach to the closer bull I cow sees me and starts to run. I immediately gave the best nervous grunt I've produced and let me tell ya, this got that bulls attention! This cow saw me when I was about 80 yards from her. The bull comes running over to about 50 yards and I have no shot. He's grunting at me and goes back and I see him pacing those cows at about 80 yards while grunting and protecting his harem from marauder's aiming to get some of his cows. So again I go into level 2 of the threat and he does not like this one bit. He came toward me again only to return to his cows very quickly and pace, grunt and growl. At this point I know he's not growling at me and chances are he is growling at another bull. But if there is another bull in there somewhere, why isn't he talking? Where is he at? So I gave 2 medium loud cow calls turned away from the bull and then screamed in his face. You talk about exciting? I had moved up to about 50 yards of the herd when I did this. He started toward me and I really thought I was going to kill this bull when the unexpected to be expected happened. Another fricken big herd bull of a satellite runs in while this bulls attention is on me and tries to hook a cow. It is unbelievable how fast these herd bulls will ward off a satellite but the herd bull runs at that satellite and what's even more amazing is how fast these satellites run off when the herd bull is running at them. That satellite disappears (big satellite) and the herd bull runs his cows over that little ridge I told you about and toward that other growling bull! Apparently by the sounds of the bugling that took place suddenly on the other side of this small ridge, the other herd bull did not like the intrusion. By this time I was only 10 yards from where the bull pushed his cows over this ridge to the other side when one by one here come those cows back over the ridge. At this point I don't know if there are cows from the other harem coming and I did not hesitate to nock an arrow. As these cows file over the ridge right in front of me and stop about 40 yards from me the funniest thing happens. It's funny when I look back. I have about 20-25 cows 40 yards from me without a clue I am there looking down the other side of the ridge where these other 2 bulls are screaming back and forth at each other, and this bull is coming back up getting closer. I just know this bull is gonna cross right in front of me where these cows came up when suddenly a little 2x2 goes running at those cows trying to horn one of the cows away. The cow kinda kicked at him as if to say "you better grow up and grow a set before you'll have a chance with me" and I mean to tell you the herd bull comes running over the ridge in front of me toward that little 2x2 and that little 2x2 very hurriedly split the seen lol. It happened so fast I had no time to draw my bow and he pushes those cows up the steep slope and out of site. Meanwhile the other herd bull gathers his cows and I hear him moving further away in the opposite direction. What an adrenaline filled morning this was. The remainder of this day was relatively quiet until around dark I had elk screaming all around my ridge for the rest of the night.

Thursday morning. Last day of the hunt. I want to kill a herd bull! As soon as it gets light I made my loud cow call from camp (Long Ranger) and this bull screams from the same slope. Sounded like he was on the ridge I told you about from yesterday. The ridge that juts out from the side slope. So here I go again. This bull is on the move but not very fast. I can tell though that he's not staying still. So by the time I get to the ridge he had dropped off the other side and gone silent. So I give a call with the Temptress and he lights up again from below me. I suspect he is in a group of trees but can't see him. Suddenly a bull screams from the ridge on top of the steep slope. Now the other bull screams back and I'm right between them. Perfect scenario if it all plays out I'm thinking. So this goes back and forth for about 15 minutes but neither bull is moving. The bulls are probably 2-300 yards apart. So I suspect the closer bull is no more than 100 yards from me. I start ranging different trees and range this opening to my right at 50 yards. This is where this bull is going to exit the trees when I call to him. Or so I thought in a perfect world it would work out like that. So I called, I see the bull through the trees moving right in the direction I wanted him to, I nock an arrow and draw my bow. I'm saying to myself as the herd moves through small opening, cow, cow, cow, cow, cow, cow, cow, cow, cow Bull! The cows were all walking. The bull however was not when he came through the opening. He had somewhere in mind that he wanted to head those cows too and ran through that little shooting lane and pushed his cows over that little ridge back toward my ridge I was camped on and outta site. The other bull had shut up too.

So I head back and by the time I got back to my backcountry camp and had lunch it was time to break down my camp, stuff it in my Kifaru Bikini Timberline 1 pack and head back to my base camp where maybe I would get an afternoon hunt in. By the time I got back to camp I was pretty wore out. I unloaded my pack and headed to my basin a couple hundred yards from camp. When I got to the top of the rim I let out another last ditch call with my Long Ranger. No response. I was actually kinda relieved that I had no response because I was so darn tired. So I head down toward the bench about 75 yards down. I walked 20 yards and a fricken bull is standing right there not 20 yards from me. As soon as we make eye contact he split lol. I was so close to him when I called I guess he didn't feel a need to call back. Anyway for the rest of the afternoon I searched again in vain in the off chance I would hear crows or smell the bull I had made a poor shot on days earlier to no avail. I really hope that bull made it. I had a great hunt everyone and if you ever get a chance to hunt the Gila, I hope you experience what I got to experience this year. It was off the hook and by far my most memorable hunt to date.
Happy hunting everyone and be safe out there.

[WapitiTalk1]

I'm grabbing a beer, this looks like a long read but I'm sure, well worth it . Welcome back to the campfire David!

[Trophyhill]

I'm grabbing a beer, this looks like a long read but I'm sure, well worth it . Welcome back to the campfire David!

lol I got a pot of coffee on. My electricians are pulling main feeders into the building tonight. Gonna be a long night

[Elkduds]

David, thanks for your above-and-beyond telling of an epic hunt. So many lessons learned.

[ElkNut1]

Welcome back Dave! Man what a read dude! You have enough close calls there for several seasons of elk hunting! (grin) Looks like you had a blast!!

ElkNut1

[elkstalker]

Wow, what a story, great writing, gets a guy excited on a cold winter day! Sounds like an amazing hunt.

[pd]

Very entertaining read. Congratulations on a successful elk hunt (meatless, but full of great memories).

[2MANY]

Great Post and Read!!!

Congrats on the trip.

[Trophyhill]

Thanks guys! Yes it was quite an experience! The lessons were invaluable. I experienced the highs and the lows we all endure during a hunt that's for sure. When thinking back I really do have to block out the fact that my freezer is empty this year because it is depressing knowing what "should have been". I have to say that I appreciate all the help I've had along the way from talking to some of the worlds best elk hunters since 2009. I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of people. Once elk hunting gets into your blood, it stays!

[GobbleFarmer]

Awesome! Loved the write up! Thanks David