For the short story - shot this guy on Friday night. Wasn't able to get close to a couple of bigger bulls on Wednesday and Thursday, but this guy stood broadside within range on the third day and that will be the last time he does that. My goal (since this would be my first archery kill, or bull elk kill for that matter!) was a nice 5 point or any 6 point or bigger (of course). He wasn't the biggest in the woods that I had come across but he was the first that met my criteria that stood broadside long enough! 312 inches with a rough score - almost had a seventh point on the right side! Don't pay attention to my dumb expressions - it was dark and I didn't always know the picture was coming. Read below for the long version.
Long Story!
This story begins in the last couple of weeks of June when the results to the special hunt drawing were posted in the “unofficial – back door section of the WDFW site”. I knew I had drawn a quality archery bull tag in the Tucannon or Lick Creek units. After a long weekend of waiting and fearing a possible redraw, the final results were posted on the sight and I had the one quality archery bull tag in the Lick Creek unit. After the excitement wore off, the realization sank in that I had drawn an archery bull tag in a coveted unit, and I had a 15 year old bow, I had never killed anything archery hunting, and up till now I had only killed a cow elk with a rifle on the damage hunt about 12 years ago.
A new bow, another dozen arrows, new release, new camo clothes, new backpack, backpack quiver, new rangefinder, enough food for a year, and a lot of extra little things later my wife was a little irritated with the “once in a lifetime hunt” excuse to buy more stuff. I spent the two months studying maps, watching videos, reading magazines, spending hours on the internet on this and other hunting sites. I was working myself into an ulcer. I hadn’t gotten more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night and the hunting bug was taking over my life and all of my “free” time. Unfortunately my family was on hold and I put off several projects I should have tended to instead of tweaking the broadheads, researching the latest rangefinders, etc. You get the picture – everybody in my house was tired of talking Elk, plus they had the suspicion that I would drag it out for the entire season and end up eating tag stew. The pressure was on and I was wilting like a flower……the doubt had already started to creep into my mind and getting worse.
I spent several weekends in the mountains camping, scouting and talking to people who knew the area well. I found a lot of elk and elk sign over that time, but only a couple of small raghorns and a few isolated cows but nothing concrete in the way of located big bulls.
Well, the time had come and I loaded up the pickup with my hunting and camping supplies I needed for hunting and left for the hunt Wednesday morning at 2:00am. I entered the woods at 5am to find fog, rain, wind, and generally crappy weather for the first morning of my quality bull hunt. I headed higher in the woods and eventually came out of the weather. I found my way down a little dead end road and parked in a wide spot just hoping to see something at this point. I loaded up and headed around the corner. Immediately I came across a small heard of cows and after a little glassing came across a great bull – 6x7 in the 350-370 range. He was about 1200 feet below and across from me in the bottom of the canyon pushing his cows into a timber stand between two clear cuts. An hour and a half of creeping down the slope, and 1200 feet later (45 degree angle slope), I had made it to the bottom of the drainage and trading calls and bugles with this monster just across the creek at less than 100 yards. He had no problem letting me know he was there but I just couldn’t entice him out to play. I set up in a spot where I thought he would come out – around 40 yards away and waited. Eventually he came out the opposite side of the timber and I ran out of time to get back on him. I headed back to my camp site and set up my base camp for the next couple of hours and hit the sack for the night planning my move the next morning.
Thursday, second morning of the hunt, I headed down a small road on the opposite side of the drainage in hopes of coming at him from the top/side. I made my way down the slope and busted out a little raghorn satellite bull. He headed away from the bulls and seemingly I was still undetected at this point. I made my way down to the bottom again and set up an ambush, only to be foiled a second time by a calf that spooked when I about stepped on her. Dang – day two done….
On Friday morning I decided to change things up a little and hunt a little saddle that held a lot of flat open areas and would be a little easier on my body. I stopped every so often to do some cow calling. At one point I received a locate bugle from a little dip of a canyon, but it sounded like it came from a local camp. I made some more calls but no response – yep they were playing with me. Dang! I made my way back to the pickup and took a short nap. I drove over to a little ridge and came across a herd of about 20 cows and calves but no bulls. I ran into a group of guys and they said they had spotted a big bull surrounded by about 70 cows in a canyon so I drove over to hike in and take a look. I made my way to the top of the drainage and found the bull – a monster – but he was in a big Y with the cows spread evenly around him like the secret service around the president. I made my way down into the area only to get busted by a cow. Another day wasted…
On the way back to the pickup I was playing with the three different cow calls and working to better my technique. I was not paying attention to anything, my mind was racing with negative statements like “Why did you apply for this hunt you idiot”, “why didn’t you scout more”, “you are going to eat this tag and everybody will know”, etc. I was not paying attention to where I stepped and it must have sounded like a tree chipper when I crashed back into one of the openings. I looked up about 20 steps into the opening and here was this guy staring back at me from the shadow of a tree. My mind didn’t quite make sense of what I was looking at – there was no way this could be a bull elk – but there he was. I pulled my rangefinder out of the holster and counted points as the yardage lit up the display. He was a 6x6 and in range! Surely he will run as I knock an arrow….nope he was still there…..maybe he will turn as I draw on him…nope still there!
In my preparation for this season I had set a goal of a big five or anything 6 or bigger. I also recall several more experienced hunters giving me the advice of “if you would shoot it on the last day then shoot it on the first day…” Well I hit my anchor point at full draw and waited. He turned to the right and gave me a slight quartering away shot – I held the pin and released. The arrow glimmered in the light as it crossed the clearing, but disappeared when it went into the shadows with a big “whack” against a tree. DANG!! I missed! I hustled over to where the bull was standing and was not able to find my arrow but I was sure it had either went under the soil or bounced and was off to the side somewhere. I pulled an extra arrow out of my backpack quiver and stabbed it in the ground to mark the spot. I heard the noise stop in the woods below me and I thought maybe he didn’t know what was going on, so I knocked another arrow and headed in after him. I walked about 100 yards through some thick downfalls and darker woods. I knew where I last heard him and was super focused on that spot. I scanned off to the side and thought it was odd to see a stump turned on its side with an arrow shot into it. My mind asked “Why would someone be stump shooting and not get their arrow back”. (Don’t ask, not sure why my mind when to that conclusion!). Once I realized it was my bull with my arrow sticking slightly out of his ribcage, months of frustration, anxiety, pressure, self-doubt, and embarrassment went out the window! I snuck in and a short time later he was down and I was tagged out on the third day with a 6x6 bull!!!!
I knew bull elk are big, but I was oddly taken aback by the size of this monster’s body. I started to open him up when I sliced through my pointer finger on my right hand. One thing to remember when using the gut hook on a knife – the rest of the blade is now facing out away from the animal. Daylight was getting short so I headed to the pickup to better bandage my finger and try to find some help. My phone died when I finally got to a place where I had reception so I went to a friend’s cabin to see if the people hunting there (a big bull hunter in another unit and his father) might have a phone I could use. Not only were the father/son there but my friend who owns the cabin and another friend who had given me a lot of advice and helped with scouting were standing on the front porch. Less than an hour later we were loaded up with knives, backpacks, headlamps and adrenalin and headed back into the woods to retrieve my elk. It was now 9:30 and it was dark-thirty in the woods. We used my GPS to find the elk. Once we were there we quartered the elk, and grabbed the extra meat not on a quarter, and the head and made our way back out. Back at the cabin at 3:00am we celebrated my first ever bull elk and first ever archery kill.
After a short nights sleep at the cabin (the best sleep I had since finding out I had been drawn!), my friend Brian and I headed back into the woods to pick up my arrow (I stuck in the ground to mark the spot of the shot) and my bow/backpack that I had left the night before when we packed out the meat. I had my pistol for fear one of the many bears in the area would be near the gut pile having breakfast. As we approached, sure enough, there was a bear sitting near the kill site! It was a young cub and he just laid there and watched us the entire time. We looked around for momma bear, but we never did find her! Oh, and the little guy hadn’t even touched the gut pile or been near the kill from anything we could see. As we walked away the cub circled in behind us and lay down again by the gut pile and watched us go….pretty cool stuff!
So there it is – the story of my first archery kill, my first bull elk kill, and an experience that has changed my life! I have run the range of emotion from tears, to elation, pride, giggling like a school girl, and numbness….what an opportunity and memory. It’s not the biggest bull – 312 inches by our rough score, but that is a treasure that I will carry with me forever. Oh, and my loving wife who put up with my spending and reminded me I was done buying stuff said “Where are you taking it to get mounted” when I spoke to her on the phone for the first time – man she rocks!
Thanks to my wife and family for putting up with me for the past three months with all of my purchases, planning, internet searching, reading, etc ! Thanks to all on this sight for their help – whether you know you helped or not. A special thanks to Brian, Justin, Jeremy and Ron for helping me cut up, cape and get my elk out of the woods during the dark and stormy night – I owe you guys big! Thanks for reading the LONG story! Michael
