Saturday, 9/30/17 – Opening Day, 9 am to 9:30 am.Well that big gnarly brute walked off to my left with the wind at his back and went up and over a little rocky knoll clearing so I sneaked over into the burnt timber clearing that the elk were coming through. As I sat there watching some cows down in the bottom of the draw I can see bulls running everywhere! A nice bull, looks like 330” or so, appears to be running bulls away from those cows. There are numerous 6x6 satellites trying two work in and get a piece. That 330” bull ran one off on the right and then another on the left. The cows are just standing around watching all the commotion.
Then off to my left I see the old gnarly brute coming back down into the draw towards the cows and is quickly steered away by a bull…Wait, huh? I start glassing the cows and can see antlers going through the trees. Is that the same 330” bull? No, the 330” bull is up the hillside above the cows! That looks like a good bull! What does the side profile look like? I’m looking for those whale tails and then he turns. ITS HIM, the Huge 6x!
Holy cow I’ve actually found him on opening morning just about 1/4 mile from where I had seen him 6 days ago now. I can’t believe this is actually happening! The adrenaline flood gates were subsequently opened to full capacity.
Now he was about 150 yards down into the draw and judging by the way the elk were moving with the wind at their back from my right to left, I figured I would not be getting a shot at this time, so I just sat back and watched him run bulls off left and right; all the while screaming his head off. He was staying right with those cows.
As I sat there watching all this, the elk just kept pouring in. When I first got there I thought they must be about to bed down but now it was getting pretty chaotic. Bulls were everywhere. I saw only about 3 cows down there, although I knew there were more. The bulls just kept funneling in from somewhere. Then suddenly I saw the Huge 6x run a cow toward the drainage bottom to my right. There were a couple other 6x6 bulls down there and they just kept coming. The Huge 6x was heading closer to my direction now; could I really be about to get a shot? There were so many bulls, so many antlers in the air down through the trees that I wasn’t sure I could even pick out the Huge 6x if he did get within range.
Then the cow I had seen him push started coming up out of the draw and a WAVE of 6 points, about 5 of them wide, came up out of the draw on her heels and she is headed right to the trail that gnarly old brute just took when I filmed him walking away. She was going to come right by me. I started scanning for the Huge 6x but didn’t see him at first. There were just too many bulls flowing out of the bottom down there. Suddenly I look left and there is a cow I missed coming my way and about to hit the trail and turn up…And…Right behind her is a an elk coming straight at me that looks like it has a 2x4 on each side of its head. WHAT THE!?
What bull is that and where did he come from?! The he turns his head sideways and WHOA! That’s him! How did he get all the way up here? He was never down in the bottom apparently and I had missed him come up a different way trying to pick him out.
Now when the wave of 6 points came out of the bottom that cow picked up to a trot and the herd that was up by me, including the Huge 6x, began to hump it a little and slow to a quick walk. They were coming right by me at 40 yards! I pull up, trees everywhere! I had to find an opening! There was one right there. I also have to be careful as the herd is stacking up a little. The Huge 6x has a cow at his rump and his nose is at the cow’s rump in front of him. I pull up as the Huge 6x comes in between trees in my shooting lane. The cow’s rump clears the tree and BOOM! Smoke fills the air. The herd starts to trot and I make a few frantic cow calls which seem to slow them as they, looking fairly calm, continue walking up the side of the hill towards the rocky knoll clearing. The bull didn’t seem to react to my shot, I could see no signs of him being hit, but that’s not unheard of…
I had imagined that he’d just drop or jump and stumble (as well all hope for) but that wasn’t the case. He casually strolled to the top of the rocky knoll clearing and belted out a monstrous bugle while some cows and satellites followed up behind. I scrambled to get my gun reloaded in order to get a follow up shot. And I listened as that bull bugled going into the burnt timber on the other side.
I got all reloaded and while running up the hill to head them off, my mind is obsessing over the shot. Did I seriously just blow my chance!? The shot felt good. It was sooo close! I don’t see how I could have missed. He must be hit in the gut. He was moving after all. The shot was quick but it felt pretty good. The fact that he just kept moving and bugling was not a good sign to me though, and that gave me a lot of concern. I HAD to redeem myself!
I ran up the hill staying as closely as I dared above the bugling bull as he made his way side hill around the mountain. The wind was still coming up the hill so I stayed above them. After about a quarter mile up the ridge through some thick stuff and noticed an elk in the trees to my right. It was a 300-315” satellite bull just standing there looking for the source of the noise he had heard as I hurried my way up the ridge. He was about 45 yards away. He just stood there broad side…waiting. I really didn’t have time for this. He was looking pretty sleepy and didn’t seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere like I wanted him to do so I can get back at redeeming myself already! After a few minutes, I said to hell with it, I got a tree between he and I and I just started crashing straight toward him. At about 30 yards he finally turned and nervously walked down over the hill. THANK YOU! So I continued on…
I went another 150 yards and caught movement out front as I made my way to head off the bull. A satellite worked his way up the hillside across a clearing. Then a 1x2 and then the 6x6 I had just ran off. I got my gun ready! If the rest of the herd comes through I’m sitting pretty! That big bull bugled just out of sight over the hill. He was close! This is it I thought! Then the bugles got farther away and he headed another direction.
The wind was blowing swiftly uphill from my right to left and still making a lot of noise as I continued running up the ridge. I caught the butts of the satellite bulls out in front of me disappearing into some thicker, green saplings. No time to worry about them. The chaos elk tornado still gave me a big advantage! I headed straight for them. I came through the saplings and at about 15 yards to my left a couple of spike aged bulls took off on a trot. I didn’t even slow down. Coming up on the next cluster of trees I heard a small bugle about 20 yards away. I plow through the small trees and 15 yards away, directly downwind of me, standing broadside and looking right at me is a 4 point. He gets a good look at me and trots back behind me away from the bugling bull I am now within 80 yards of. As I continue on, completely ignoring and writing off the 4 point, the 4 point bugles! Hah! What the hell?! He saw me and smelled me (I’m assuming – the wind is a little crazy and moving fast) at 15 yards and it didn’t even phase him but to just get out of my way! I AM INVINCIBLE TO ELK!!
This was so awesome!
I come up to the next stand of new growth, green pines. They must be going to bed here. The bull hasn’t bugled in a couple of minutes so I slow way down and then stop completely. I know I’m close and it’s thick. I can’t see anything though. I sit down on a log and I’m looking down a little trail that gives me about 60 yards of viewing and wait. Then that little 4 point bugles again and the Huge 6x fires back and he is probably 50 yards away! Adrenaline OVERLOAD!
As I’m sitting there I catch movement straight down my shooting lane. A cow feeds right into the opening and then somehow looks right at me. I’m frozen as best I can be after getting my heart rate running at full capacity from that hill climb and then dumping untold amounts of adrenaline in to fast moving blood streams! She stares me down for a while and goes back to feeding. The wind is howling and is in my favor but these high pressure winds are about as trustworthy as a fart after a painful stomach gurgle following a night of drinking and chilli dogs! And, you can hear them coming over the tree tops right before the wind speeds pick up, and I know that any minute my scent is going to get swirled right to them and it will all be over!
Sure enough, I hear the roar! I try to make myself as small as possible in hopes of limiting my scent signature (seems like that should help, should make me smell really small right, non-threatening?) The wind howls and then swirls and the cow that was crossing from my right to my left starts to look nervous. She turns and takes few steps back into the timber on my right! Uh Oh! It’s go time! Guns up and cocked! That Huge 6x should be coming through any second now and I can taste sweet redemption on the tip of my tongue! I catch movement coming from the left at the end of my shooting lane at about 60 yards! He walks into the opening; no time to soak it up, huge rack and the big whale tail are in my peripheral as I center my sights behind his shoulder and BOOM! This time he is hit and takes off! The cows bunch up and run 10 yards to the right and just stand there. After couple minutes they get nervous and run past me on the right at about 15 yards; no bull in tow. Now I’m feeling good!
But before I can get too excited my brain kicks back in….Wow that was pretty quick, I really didn’t a good look at him….ummmm…hopefully that was him. I paralleled his bugle up from the last shot I took, he has the cows just as he did when I last saw him, giant rack with a whale tail and a quick shot that redeems whatever the hell happened back down the mountain. I sure was anxious to get over and make sure before I let myself get too excited!
I walked down to where I shot him and found good pink blood. That’s a lung shot! He’s not going to bugle his way out of this one! I follow the tracks and see some more blood and then lose the trail. I go back and relocate and as I walk 20 yards and look up ahead of me I see antler! Anxiety and excitement collide until gut sinking grief completely takes over! That G4 doesn’t look right at all! That had better not be that gnarly old brute I have passed on now 3 times today…..Sure enough. The gnarly old bull lay there before from a double lung hit; only about 80 yards from where I had shot him.
The shot hunter’s dreams are made of and the one I had envisioned since pulling up on that Huge 6x about 30 minutes ago! It was just on the wrong elk.
Wait a second…How does this guy now run the show and have the cows? Does that mean that Huge 6x was fatally hit and this guy swooped in and took over? Greif and anxiety compounded as I wondered how much the fines were going to cost me when I showed up at the game departments door with two bulls. Hopefully they would let me keep the first one I’d shot! God only knows, but this is one of the worst possible scenarios I can imagine!
So after a bit, I head back down to look for the Huge 6x. After about 10 minutes of no sign of a hit I find blood. I can’t believe it. It is just a quarter sized drop…then another and another. Nothing that looks fatal at this point and the blood trail dies out. I can’t follow a trail this small after a big herd comes through like this. Man to go from the highest of highs this morning to shooting at the Huge 6x and not getting a fatal kill shot right then and there to now this…Lower than I thought you could go. I couldn’t stomach the thought of having that big monster bull out there just rotting somewhere. I was just sick!
So we got the gnarly brute all taken care of and my gut was just in knots. Who knows where that Huge 6x went to. There were just so many unanswered questions, but after much discussion we decided that we would go out and look the next day to try and locate the Huge 6x either alive or dead. It was in the mid twenties temperature that night so if he made it through he’d probably be fine.
The next morning we went up the ridge and let out a bugle. The bulls fired up but it wasn’t absolute insanity like the day before. My Dad, cousin and I were following a bugle to try to get a look at the herd bull when we decided to split up. I’d stay on this bull and they’d checkout another bull in the other direction. Just after we split up the bugling stopped but I followed the fresh tracks and they took me back to the road! Dang it! I then heard a smaller bugle to my right on the lower side of the road and then a bigger one beyond that. We had discussed the possibility of him crossing the road the day before so I worked my way down wind to see if I could get eyes on these bulls.
Downwind I let out some cow calls and got a quiet chuckle in response so I worked my way in that direction. Cow calling my way along I never got another response so I continued back the direction I had came looking for this elk that was surely here somewhere; nothing. I came to the road again and decided to head back up to see if I could relocate that bull that had quit bugling. As I was walking through some thicker stuff I saw some fresh tracks and thought that the elk that had chuckled at me must have when ahead and crossed the road. About 50 yards further I heard the sound of thundering hooves as a group of elk hurried away from the noise I made while walking. The wind was in my favor so I quickly grabbed by bugle and let out a squeal followed by some chuckles. After about 10 seconds a bull bugles back. So, I immediately give him my nastiest challenge bugle and I run up into a thicker stand of small trees. I can see the cows through the tress at about 40 yards and the proceed to trot on off to my left. I bugle again and go crashing through the brush trying my best to be an annoying satellite bull.
Trailing the herd and trying to stay low and in the shaded areas to avoid detection by a herd that will surely be looking for me I bust out into a more open area to see a cow looking at me at about 70 yards. I have learned the worst thing you can do is freeze so I just keep bent over and casually keep pace over into some cover. She immediately looks back behind her, seemingly unconcerned about me and I pull up the binos. I see some brow tines…..then he steps forward and is broad side. Mr. Huge 6x steps out without a care in the world and he and his harem casually move off. I trailed them for a bit and got several looks at him. No limp, no wound on his left side and just living the dream!
I’m super relieved at this point! But am totally bummed I rushed the shot. I was just kicking myself. There was no need to be in a hurry and my hunt hadn’t even really started yet. The most frustrating part was that I let my emotions get the better of me rather than just relaxing and thinking logically. I never even questioned before the shot that this might not be the same bull. Everything just aligned perfectly to be the same bull in my mind. The bugles I followed, the cows he had and even his busted up right side made him look like he had a huge whale tail.
In the end though, he is an awesome, battle scarred old bruiser and I think it is awesome that I got to see him whoop up on that slightly bigger bull and then walk away, nose all bloodied and bleeding from his head as that other bull limped off down the mountain. Before that I watched him stave off 20+ satellites that came walking past me longing for a piece of his action. In the end, he took his deserved cows right before it was lights out! I’ve got much respect for him and all the character that is represented in his battle scarred rack; a rack that clearly has put the hurt on a number of bigger and no doubt younger bulls.
And the blood I found down around where I had shot at the Huge 6x I think was actually his blood. I remembered after seeing no signs of injury to that Huge 6x that I had filmed this gnarly old brute walking the same path just before the rest of the herd came through. He was bleeding from the nose and from the head.