Me: Limited Draw bull tag and general buck Son: Limited Draw Bull Tag, Sandhill Crane, Lope Buck, Lope doex2, Whitetail doe, general deer Wife: Limited Draw Bull, Cow Elk, Lope Buck Tag, Cow Elk, General Deer
With that being said we already started with the lopes in the blind. No luck yet but we will be back out on Saturday...
I hope you, good luck.
Good luck to you and yours the rest of the season!
Good luck everyone!!!
It was 34F at 7am at 10,600' this am when a couple tried to come into my site and then made a ruckus trying to back their rig back out to find another spot.....LOL
Sunday I covered 7 miles total in 2 different locations. First light I had 2 bulls bugle briefly and both were done and into the trees and beds before 8am. That day I coverd the miles looking at wallows and looking for any sort of consistent sign. There was sign every where but nothing consistent and none that was super fresh.
I can tell you this the country I am in just eats a person up. Over the weekend I ripped 2 pairs of pants. My feet, ankles knees and hips just hurt. There is so much blow down, boulders all over, and the areas that open and flat tend to be swamps with knee high grass and holes everywhere... It is ok this weekend will be better...
Camp will be moved up to the mountain, and hopefully the temps wont be 90...
Good luck and keep us posted please!
Friday after work I hurry home and help finish packing pack bows etc. We load up both the Jeep and the truck and head for the hills.
Friday evening we hit a spot where I have seen a huge bull in the past. We make a small loop and do not turn up any elk. We did however see several mule deer doe and fawns (like over 30) which is good. It was a hard evening as my heart was acting up and it was totally kicking my butt... Hopefully surgery this Thursday fixes that issue!!!
Friday night get to camp and the camper batteries are dead. Fire up the generator and let it run while we eat dinner and head to bed. As soon as we shut generator everything in camper dead. SO we let the generator run through then night... I am up several times. Finally at 4:00 am the alarm goes off and we get up. Off to the first morning with all of us together, it was a great morning...
We arrive at the parking spot 20 minutes before legal light. Load our gear and hike up to the first little spot 150 yards from the truck. I let out a bugle and immediately get a response just below us at like 200 yards. We hear a few cow calls and we hurry and set up. The wind is good, the sun is just rising and things are looking good. We set up my wife in one side and my son in the other side. The elk try to come up but the deadfall was too thick and I could not convince the elk to circle around. Entire encounter last 30 minutes with several bugles and cow calls but nothing happens. Eventually the cows feed up and out taking the bull. Cool deal not even 200 yards from the jeep.
We cover a couple more miles and no sign and no answers to our strategic bugles. The end of this location is a series of small meadows with water. It always holds some elk. We approach the 500 yards and I tell my wife and son it is time for stealth mode. We sneak through the trees to a dry sage park. As we near the last 100 yards of the park we see a bunch of tracks and sign. The elk have to be close. The meadows run North and south in a little valley. There is an upper meadow and a lower meadow. As soon as I bugle I get 2 immediate responses... One from the upper meadow and one in the lower meadow. 2 bulls.
We are just west of the meadows about 100 feet higher in elevation and about 80 yards from the meadows. Both the lower meadow and upper meadow have good trail leaving and heading up to he sage flat. My son sets up on the lower meadow trail and my wife on the upper meadow trail. I drop back 100 yards and try calling. Both bulls immediately fire back to the bugle. THe bull in the lower meadow start moving up the bottom. My son sees the bull several times from 80 yards but he never commits to my bugle or my cow call. Instead he walks up into the upper meadow and chases off the bull in the upper meadow(the wrong direction of course). The lower bull was a 300" 6x6. He also gave my wife a show as he destroyed a tree in the meadows and them thrashed mud all over etc. Again just in the meadow at 80 some yards. After a few minutes, he moves further up the bottom and out of our lives. After the 6x6 leaves the upper bull comes back in the park. A mature 5x5 he wallows in the mud, destroys the same tree the other bull beat up. He wants to come up but never commits. He goes back into the trees on the other side of the meadow and bugle to our bugles but no response at all to our cow calls etc. Both bulls moved off and things look to be over.
We sit and chat about what we saw, all the action. It was a good 45 minutes to an hour of action. In hind sight we probably should have pushed into the upper meadow. The wind and everything was right and they were busy enough yelling at each other that we could have pulled it off. But again both bulls were well under 100 yards from the shooters.
Before we leave I let our one last bugle and to our surprise the 5x5 had moved back towards us and was close again. This time I send my son into the trees while I bugle. My son ended up less than 14 yards from the bull but the scrub brush aspen were so thick all he could see was the bulls head. Eventually the bull bugged out. Dang close again.
So first morning 8 cow/calves and 3 bull bugling Also the sage meadow had a bunch of elk in it. At least a dozen. They had to be there someplace but I am not sure where...
We hike back to the jeep and head to camp for lunch and Nap!!! We get back to the camper and batteries dead again!! Check the solar panels they are not hooked up correctly. Fix that... Panels starting to charge. Start the generator and check things out. Batteries still low, dig around and find that when my son unhooked the trailer the tongue jack barely pulled out the trailer brake pin. Trailer brakes on full blast... Solve that issue, but already let the generator run for hours and hours. Getting low on fuel...
Nap and let generator run... End result we still have a battery issue, generator out of fuel. Oh well, we will get the electric issues figured out. Lunch and nap until 3:00 pm.
Get up and head back to a spot. We arrive at 4:00 and the wind is wrong... We adjust but fail. In 2020 we had this same tag and there was a massive September storm that blew down a ton of trees... It is a mess and the dead fall that was already bad is absolutely horrible... So much so that they have cut the cattle grazing because the lost so many cows trapped in the forest and now they cant access a lot of areas...
That evening on the way out we see another bug 5x5 and 13 cows. We got to about 100 yards before they got nervous and left.
That night we sleep hard and get up early on sunday at 4:30 to head to the "ridge" This location was my last archery elk kill in 2020 and was where my wife killed her first archery elk... We are a little early and have to sit in the jeep and wait for t to get light enough for us to walk with out head lamps. We start up the hill barely able to see. 300 yards straight up the bare ridge and the sun light is getting enough you can see a couple hundred yards. Above us on the ridge a cow barks. We setup, again only a couple hundreds yard from the jeep. My son sneaks into 30 yards from the calf but the small rag-horn 5 never gets with in 40 yards before the cow, calf and bull leave. Awesome... We crest the top of the ridge to the lookout and immediately see elk in the flat 100 yards from us feeding. 2 spikes 9 cow/calf and another rag horn. We set up and call. Got one cow to come up and withing 30 yards of my son but they never commit and eventually the group feeds off into the trees. We move over to the top and sit and glass and listen. We have 2 bulls below us sounding off but wind is wrong. We eventually make a move and I send my son and wife in after the elk while I circle back to the jeep and pick them up in a different spot. They still hunt through some trees and through the meadows. We end up seeing 2 5x5 bulls and a rag horn. They bumped a 12 dozen cows and then again found a lone spike that was under 30 yards but hard quarter too.
Sunday evening my wife dips out. I have a hard time getting my son out the camper door. As a result we arrive to desired hike about an hour late and find 2 atvs already there. We make a last second change and go to a new place. It is a cool new place and in time I bet it will be hot. We set up and glass. Solid winds make hearing anything hard but we needed up calling a rag-horn into my son but it hags up at 60 yards just out od range...
I like the build quality, I like the air flow for the heat issues, I like the blind windows ease of operation and silent way to open close. I like you can’t see in it at all with windows close but can see out really well.
The other issue is the height of the window. From my normal blind chair a small tripod type we are too low to shoot sitting/kneeling. The blind is tall enough my wife and some can shoot standing up but I can’t. So the window height is in between. It would be fine for a rifle, but I would need to be shooting uphill from blind or get a taller chair.
Saturday stuck at home. We head back to rifle range so he can shoot again the gun does well.
Sunday is the opening day for rifle antelope. I am not allowed by my wife to go for elk. So we are stuck going for lope. My son is excited wakes me up at 3:30 am on Sunday morning. Not happening. He loads the truck, coolers, gear etc. When I roll out of bed at 4:30 we load and go. It was a short hunt. 14 year old kid, brand new rifle, and only his second lope tag. We were not going to shoot a yearling, but also given the ease of drawing the trophy potential is not great. We head to the area we hunted from the archery blind. There are 11 camps on that piece of blm and trucks everywhere and they are driving everywhere. We attempt a stalk on a buck and they give us the slip. From out little attempt it was apparent that the number of others will make the day miserable unless we manage to get away from the crowds.
We head to a walk in area that is up the mountain. It pays off and my son has his second lope. This buck was with 12 doe and was kicking the crap out of the other 3 bucks there. We closed in for about an 80 yard shot as the buck was tossing sage and running the other bucks. A single good shot and the buck was down. only 300 yards from where we can the truck. At 9:30 we notch the tag, 10:30the meat is in the cooler on ice and in our fridge by 1:30...
I head south to the unit border and work the river bottom. I make a 2 mile loop and do not see or hear any elk. But am seeing tracks and sign. There are some elk around there someplace. As I am sitting overlooking the river it starts to sprinkle a bit and there is a big dark cloud forming. I hustle back to the jeep to avoid being stuck in the hole with a ton of rain. Rain never comes. I have just an hour of daylight left and no real good options. About 1/2 a mile from where I parked there is one small timber stand. It has the road I used for access right above it, and another 2 track up the creek from it. Low, very low odds, but what the heck. The stand is only like 800 yards long on the north slope of a dry willow covered bottom. Not to mention that 2 hours earlier I drove with in 100 yards of the timber stand. I pull the jeep up to 300 yards from the stand and shut off then engine and listen. Nothing about 5 minutes later I decided to let a bugle rip from inside the jeep.
NO way holy crap. I scramble to gather my calls and bow before exiting the jeep. As I do so the bull calls back again. I am trying hard to convince myself it is not some random hunter down in the timber etc. I drop off the edge into the creek bottom calling and hearing the bull. He is getting closer the wind is in my favor and this might just work. I sneak down and get to where I have a good ambush spot when I see movement in the thick willows below me at 60 yards. Crap, did not even grab my binos. But something is definitely in the willows... SO I am stuck and cant move up further. Another bugle, even closer. Still seeing something in the willows... A tree gets the anger of the bull for a bit and I can see the tree moving with some violence... When the bull stopped I let out one wimpy bugle and a couple cow calls. The willows cow call back. I am somehow between the bull and the cows. Awesome. The bull comes in and stops. I blow the shot. Not even close. I was shaking insane. Not even a big bull but just the entire situation. It was awesome, despite the failure. I end up playing with him and the cows a bit. Come to find out the little timber patch is a small but perfect habitat. It has 2 running springs, 2 wallows, access to the river bottom for feeding and everyone drives past it. We will be back to try again...
That evening i went up after work to squeeze in an evening hunt. Went to an easier hike spot and one that the wind should have been good. Sadly the wind was no great. The hike was a short 1.2 miles up a bottom that has marshy spot, water and at the top a good wallow. Elk usually are late into this spot so even at 4:30 I figured I was good to sneak up in the swirling wind. I was wrong. Less than 100 yards in I bump into a small 4 point and 2 cows. I sit and wait. Not interested in shooting but hoping I can avoid running them up the bottom. 5 minutes later the wind swirls and the elk are gone. Luckily they went out of the bottom. Again the wind is killing my plan but I have no other play and if I can beat the elk into the wallow I can get above it and then have a chance to make a play as the elk come in... Moving fast I hustle up the bottom.
By the way the AFIB is gone and my heart, chest and body feels amazing. Heck I have even lost 8 pounds since the surgery and we have made a major diet change, my sleep is better, my energy levels are better. Physically I feel better now than I have in the last 5 years... Should have done the Ablation long ago.
Hustling I near the wallow. Wind was holding but still sketchy. I get to about 80 yards from the wallow and spot a cow elk in the aspen feeding. Dang they are already there, wind is not great but I am close. I try to work to one side of the bottom. But the wind swirls and a cow takes note. A single bark and 7 cows leave the bottom and stare down at me with distain. No bull??? I sneak up and the cows leave. At that the bull realizes they are leaving and show up. An awesome bull. Heavy, narrow deep tines. Lots of mass and great big white tips. easily a 320 frame and points but I have a feeling that his mass adds another 20-30 inches to total score. Baseball bat entire main beam... I have no play and the wind has me. I sit that evening on a glassing point hoping that there might be some elk from someplace else show up no luck.
My wife and son arrive at camp around 11pm and we hit the sheets.
My wife is awesome, she loves hunting. However Saturday morning she is just wore out. He job just eats at her. She has been on call 24/7 for over a month now. It is insane and I hate it. At least they got her a sat phone, but still she needs a true break! Sadly she just couldn't make it Saturday so we left her at camp to sleep.
Luckily that was no the only actio we had. About 20 minutes latter and 600 yards up the ridge we hear a cow call, then a bugle. We call and set up. The cows and the bugle move away up the ridge. But there is a second bugle to the east and we easy up. I setup around a tree and see antlers. A good 300" bull at 60 yards. Does not know we are there, but if we move he will, be bugles and gives us a chance to get my son in front. We end up with in 60 ayrds of thus bull for 10+ minutes and never get a shot... My son was not shooting the best at 40 so we agreed that 30 was his max range. The bull bugles in our face 2 more times. Moves into the trees on our right no shot we make a move, he moves off we give a short chase and he is gone... Cool but no shot. By now a hike that normally takes us 40 minutes is now nearing 2 hours. Sun is high temps are up and the elk should be shutting down. We decide to try for the park above and hope maybe we can find something. It works and we find one last spike who comes to the calls but no shot. He circles around us and into the park. Not a bad way to spend a morning.
SAt evening my wife is better and ready to hit. We hit the "Hole" a short hike at 1.2 miles, but only if you know how to beat the timber and deadfall. No one gets into this spot, and that is a good thing. We snake our way into the hole. We set up and have 3 bulls in the hole with use bugling. The wind again was brutal and eventually all the elk move out with a sighting or any real action. The sun was getting low and we decided to head back out. Where we parked the jeep, there are a few good parks and usually elk on the road as we leave. So if we hurry we can get back another area and have a chance. As we near the parks, we hit a point in the trail where a rather large aspen deadfall was blocking the trail. I decided that we use the trail enough we should break it out. So we make a bunch of noise bashing this tree with rock and jumping on it etc. The end result was triggering a bull in the park. He was pissed. We got the tree broke out (took only a minute) and then I rip a bugle and the bull is more pissed.
The wind is holding and we hustle as best we can in the deadfall. Hit the lower park and he had moved up the bottom to the next park. I send my wife and son hustling to the next park. They learned quickly that we do not cross the parks as the are wet and mushy. Both fall in up to their knees. We always skits in the trees.
They get into the trees between our park and the bulls park. The bull is rocking. He has about 20 cows (which is a huge group for this area) usually never see more than 6-8.
My son sets up in a great spot. My swings to his left and sits back a bit. For 20 minutes the bull is 40 yards from my son screamign at me. I am screaming back breaking trees, cow calling etc. The bull closes to 28 yards but is facing my son square. Screams in his face, evening is one and my son could see his breath every bugle. My wife tries to cow call and get the bull to turn. He looks but stays square. This stalemate last for only a couple minutes, but feel like an eternity. The bull eventually gathers his cows and head up to the next park. My son gives chase again, but by now he and hos cows are moving and we would not be able to catch up. It was incredible. The bull was a monster. The biggest bull my son and wife have ever seen alive. He was bigger than my biggest typical by a bit. The darkest black antlers with huge white tips. Easily mid 340s if not a solid 350 bull. It was an awesome night! But not as good as Sunday night.
Sunday morning was a dud. We see a small rag horn, and 3 spikes. Met another hunter from Utah. He an older guy and hunting with son. I give him my number and tell them if they need anything to call. We will come help. We have a garage to work on vehicles, water, shower anything. He was a retired teacher and cashing in points. I sure hope I can find him later as I would love nothing more to make his hunt a success. Time will tell.
We try exploring a spot in the desert side of the unit, but it sucked and was a waste of time. We decide to hit the tree stand where I shot and missed that bull last week. When I was there last I found a cow a calf and a smaller bull that I pulled the shot... Clean miss. However The sign suggested there should be several more elk in the area. Well we found them tonight. Again a stupid place to hunt elk. ATV/road with 100 yards etc... All season I have been trying to convince my son to try the desert side of the unit.
SO we pull up to our parking spot and slip out of the truck at 4:30ish. The wind is solid from the NW and the only way it could be better was directly north. This is a perfect spot and a perfect set up. There are 3 trail that leave the timber heading to the river where the elk feed and water. We set William up in between all 3 and make a plan. I will drop back down the canyon 100 yards and call just a little. We will sit until dark and hopefully we can something out of the timber or they will just pass him on one of the 3 trails. A split off and sneak back out. Mind you I am sitting less than 100 yards from the truck, it is a small tight place where it is all or nothing. Well I let out one bugle towards the timber and all hell breaks loose.
Immediately we have 3 different bulls bugling. ONe big mean nasty bugle and 2 smaller sounding calls. As I called the willows below William are moving and after a few minutes 8 cows, and 3 rag horn bulls emerge across the draw and out of range. Still still chaos with the bulls. The cows feed up about 100 yards from William the rag horn bulls are acting like teenagers they are trying to be cool but are not. After a few more mean bugles the herd bull shows up and puts the teenagers in their place. He was have muddy and sporting a great set of head gear. The cows hang out and kind of move my way on the wrong side. Now the bugles in the trees go from 3 to 5 different bulls. The herd bull is out in the open and screaming running cows. There are elk all over with us as well. After about 45 minutes the first group of cows out and the herd bull go up and out of the canyon to the east. With those elk gone I decide to move up and was going to wave William into the trees as it was getting a little late and so far the bulls are going nuts in there, a 100 yards in there are 2 wallows and we can hear cows and bulls. But as I move up he waves me to get down and points above him. He had 2 trails below him and one trail above him. I sit down and look up to see a group of elk coming out the upper trail. 6 cows and 3 spikes come out. He had a great lane and was willing to shoot a spike but they all crossed too fast. Not to mention that 50 yards behind the next best bull in the area was following this group. The cows feed out above me with the spikes and I knock an arrow incase they all get past William and the bull comes out.
This is the scene until the very last light. For over 2 hours we have elk above us below us, across from us. Bulls bugling, chaos. I know 4 different times will had bulls under 20 yards with no shot. They would never stop. We counted 13 bulls un 50 yards of us. We ended up with over 30 cow elk in range. As the very last little shooting light approached I am done waiting we need to make something happen I move up and see William go to full draw. I look just in time to see the arrow fly, the thwack and the bull spin. My son falls apart... Nearly hyper ventilating, half crying, half turning inside out.
I pick up the arrow and inspect. Sniff test and I smell stomach gut... Not good. I tell him. He swears. We look at everything. Shot was 10 yards. It is getting dark. The elk was here, I was there etc. I want badly to believe that he was in the pocket like he says but the arrow says otherwise... After a brief discussion, we follow the track and find only minimal blood like 2 drops and some food stuffs that still suggest guts. We back out immediately. There are still elk all around us. 2 bulls still bugling, a couple more cows feeding out.. We head home in a hurry because maybe I call for some back up.
I reach out but as of 9:00pm no one is available. Its ok we have all day as I called in...
The closest dog is in Big Piney and the next is in Rock Springs with a handler named Bill. He is the first I reach out to and he just cant miss work. I give all the information and he shares on a group text and hopes someone would help us. After an hour and making a couple more contacts things are looking bleak for the dog... Bill looks at the pin and looks at the drive time. He decides to take the track as we had done everything right and he felt it was a very likely success.
Seriously a guy I never met willing to drive 1.5 hours, miss work and help us recover an elk. I am ecstatic as I know his dog is solid. He wants to start the track as early as possible. SO we agree to meet at 5:30 am and he will follow me to the hit site. We get there a 1/2 hour before light. Cora is an extremely energetic German Shepard. She is cool but intense... We chat a bit in the early morning light waiting for the sun to rise. He is a police chief, he got cora as a pup and had to find something for her to do, as without a job she was destroying life. Well 2 years later and Cora is pretty bad ass. He has been on 5 elk tracks and not had a recovery. They have all been hard and the odds way stacked against the dog. He needed a win, Cora, needed a Win. I needed this win and of course that 14 year old who did not sleep at all the night before needed a win.
We get to the hit sight. The dog sniffs the arrow has a little lick and taster, we show the one drop of blood and and 3 little hairs. She is off with her nose to the ground. Hard straight down the trail for a 15 yards. Then stop. lost circles heads up hill, 20 yards turn 90 again and cross hill. lost a little but straighten out and lines out... I am looking where she has been and see nothing but elk tracks in ever direction. Cant find blood and more hair, no guts. The dog and handle leave us while we search for confirmation. Not even 5 minutes in my son ass if I am seeing anything and I said no. I said trust the dog... He keep searching... Then up a head... Found him. Really that fast, not even 8 minutes into the track dead bull found... I look back to William and he is now racing past me. I decide to race as well. We catch up and sure enough dead bull and a nearly perfect shot...
We celebrate with Bill, and Cora. It is a great time and things are amazing. We thank Bill and he is just so happy for his dog. he explains the night before he was heading home from another track that just sucked. He was just above us on the mountain in the worst deadfall he ever saw. THe trail was not good it was old and had been grid searched. It was hot and everything was stacked against Cora. He wanted to help the hunter so bad that he pushed Cora too hard, she had gotten hurt b the dead fall and there were times he had to carry her pick her up and over etc. She had given up. They were 0 for 5 on elk this fall. From his perspective it was a major win for his dog. The best part is he left our kill sight and was able to get back to work on time...
William and I got to work quickly it was 56 degrees last night when the bull was shot. It was 33 when we pulled up, but the sun was up and warming fast. The bull was broken down fast, loaded up and headed home in good time. No meat was lost...
As I re-read your post shot comments, I am curious what led you to believe so firmly that it was a gut-shot? An arrow thru the guts is a smell that is hard to forget and get confused. The shot appears as though it was double lunged and not anywhere near the stomach.
Again, congratulations and what wonderful memories for you and your family.
The exit hole was clogged with stomach junk. The arrow definitely on lung square, the liver was veteran punched and the stomach was cut by like an inch.
I also wonder if the bull was close enough that the arrow was still righting itself a bit when it hit…
It was definitely gut, and in hindsight we did not read the shot angle correctly. He definitely smoked the bull and the shot was good.
You certainly have a son to be proud of. Huge congratulations to him as well.
This last weekend was a grind. Friday night I took a long walk in the desert. It was beautiful evening and despite the absolute lack of elk it was just good to be out. Friday night after the homecoming game, my wife joined me in camp and we made plans for the morning. What a morning it was...
Leave camp at 5am and drive to our spot. We wait a bit sleeping in the jeep for sun rise. As soon as we can see without a head lamp we load up and head in. For the first hour nothing. Lots of tracks no elk no calls nothing. Then as we hit the "hot spot" chaos erupts. We spend an hour calling and sneaking covered in elk but never get my wife a shot. We worked a herd of elk... Around 15-20 cows. The herd bull never was spotted but there were 3 statelite bulls around 300 who were scared to get close. My wife was close to 2 of the 3 bulls but never got a shot. She was 8 yard from a group of cows and just had fun. I really have no idea how all the elk moved off without us getting a shot...
Saturday night we went back to the same location be never heard a bull or a cow. Just a note we were setting record highs. 90 s in Town over 80 on the mountain. We would have no action Sunday morning and Sunday night we ran into one bull coming in silent. He spun out as I was knocking my arrow. Close but the entire season was about getting my wife and son the opportunity. My only true opportunity I shanked the shot, my shot was less than 10 yards from where William shot his bull. Maybe the hunting gods intervened on Williams behalf.
With all that being said. I start my fall break today. I do not have to return to work until Oct. 15th. SO I am doing chores, and preparing for 15 days of the rifle season. My rifle tag opens tomorrow and runs until 31st. My wife will be up weekends to fill her tag.
Fair warning to all the purest, this is now a rifle hunt thread and will not be update for a bit. For now enjoy the last few pictures from this archery season.
If I ever draw the tag again, I am going bow only. I really wish I never put the bow down and picked up the rifle. I had several great bulls I would have been excited to kill with my bow but was just not interested in killing with my rifle. The bull I ended up killing was not the class of bull I had wanted but after a hard 13 day grind the situation was too good to pass up. I do know that in the first 2 days of the rifle I hunt I passed up shots at 9 different mature bulls. Then sometime around the 7th day of my hunt I passed up a shot on a bull that was a monster... If I had my bow there was no doubt I would have shot him, but with my rifle I was still looking for the "one", he was the one but I only knew that after he left the country.
Sadly the entire season was hot and dry and if not for occasional wind(in the 60s mph range) it was the best fall camping weather a guy could ask for.... However it was not good for hunting. The elk every morning were in the trees by 8:05am like clock work. And they would not move until after 5:30pm. Which typically meant that all day long there was absolutely no activty, no noise, no nothing. Swirling winds and nasty deadfall made hunting the timber absolutely impossible. On this day I got up to the upper level just as the last of the elk went into the trees. I decided to post up on a rock knob and just wait 8 hours or so for the elk to get active that night... As I sat up on the rock around 9:30 I hear a bugle from below in another drainage. It like clock work the bugle happens ever couple minutes. Not getting closer, not going away. It is likely 500 yards below me towards a park that other guys sometimes hunt. I figure it was another hunt due to the temps, the timing, and location. I kind slip into a nap listening to the bugles. 10:30 rolls past I am awake again and the bugle still hits every 2-3 minutes. As 11 approaches, I can hear that the bugle is moving away a little. I figure I should mess around and let out a few cow calls. The bugle comes my direction a bit then another 15 minutes of bugles no movement. Now I am curious. I don't think another hunter would have been around that long and moved that much. So I hit a few more cow calls. 11:30ish and I am cow talking in this bull. From my rock perch I see a few cows circling on a trail below me. I move to make wind right, and start an approach (in hind sight I should have stayed on my high point and seen which bull was with the cows). I circle up and end up less than 30 yards from the cows on a slightly open hill side. They bed in the shade of a couple large trees while I am looking at them. The bull is just out of sight down the hill. I let out a bugle and he gets angry and teaches a tree a lesson. The cows are between us it is just a matter of time before he shows up. Sadly time was not on my side. I feel the wind swirl and one cow that was about 20 yards to the right of the others sniffs the air alarmed. Crap. She gets up and leaves. The others jump up to follow. I bugle hard and angry and then 2 cow calls. The bull appears from behind the tree at 40 yards. Broadside perfect. His body is big but I cant see anything in the tree for antlers. Looking through my scope I can not make out anything other than he had antlers. I debate the shot. Again choosing to pass as I want my wife to tag out. As the bull spins I get just a split second glimpse of his rack and instantly knew I made the wrong choice. He was one of, if not the biggest bull we would see. He also appeared to be a full 7 point on both tops assuming the bottoms matched. Unfortunately he spun and was gone. I never could turn him up again. After this experience, I have no doubt that next time I draw I will be bowhunting until the very end of season... Even if it means wearing an orange hat will hunting.
On the morning of the 9th I get up late. I leave the house at 6:30 and head to an area near town for first light. I pull up to a set of fields surrounded by BLM just off the highway. I am looking and see several deer in the field. IN the early morning light I can see a ball of elk working up the sage hills away from the fields. Of course no spotting scope but in my binos and the skyline I can see several bulls and like 30-40 cows. I check the onx app and make a plan. Drive out to the highway, find a away around a closed bridge then I am heading up the hills trying to catch up with the herd. I hustle up to a ridge and park the jeep thinking that I should be pretty close to the herd. I get out and grab my gun, while putting on my pack and my binos on, I hear a bugle from about 200 yards away. I am close and the wind is perfect, the sun is perfect at my back. I stay low and sidehill across the ridge. I can see a few elk have already passed my spot but I slide up to a little saddle and set up. The first cow feeds past my location at about 12 yards. The cow can not see me in the rising sun. The wind in my face I sit and watch the cows feed past with some smaller bulls. The dominate bull was below me and coming up based on his bugles. A spike feeds past. Then a heavy older looking 5 point passes at 40 yards. Then the bull I take comes out at 50 yards. Eventually closing to 38. Again I was not super excited to shoot, but was happy to be back in elk and pulled out my phone for a few photos and video. As I recorded the situation I looked at the bull and got excited. Realized that he was a great bull and that I had done the work. Why not take this gift. Why not this bull, he was a fighter, he was dominate, he was 40 yards from me at first light in the wide open. AN easy shot and he was also almost standing on an old 2 track... With all of that I took the shot, watched the bull go 40 yards across the 2 track and lay down in the orange sun...
After the shot, I called my wife and son. They had not even left the house for work and school. I had them bring the truck up and help me gut and load. It was a great day. My son got to learn the "old way" of gutting an elk and loading it. I kept the cape to gift to a friend who had wanted one. By 11am we had the elk hanging and skinned in the cooler. I let me son have the day off of school. We went that evening pulled out camp and came home.
We still have a couple weekends to hunt elk and lopes. I will update those hunts as they happen... But this pretty much wraps up my hunting. It was a blessed season with frailly. I am blessed to have regained my health. In fact, yesterday was my one month check up from my heart ablation. My EKG looked perfect, the test look good and they are now stepping me off all my meds. I am still sleeping better, have better energy, and am still losing weight. Down 19 pounds since the operation
Thank you for taking the time to bring us along.
Congrats to all.
