Date/Time: 15 September, 2017/8:45 AM
Location: Somewhere in the elk woods
Hunt Pressure Status: Minimal
Hunt: Solo Hunt
Tag: Archery tag; any bull
So far, so good. You marked two vocal bulls about 500 yards up the hillside from where you started at daylight this morning. To this point, you have not made an elk noise yourself. As you got closer, working up through the pine hillside using available elk trails, it sounds like there may be a satellite and possibly a herd bull. Within 60 yards, you make the determination that it may be too thick to do a calling setup (minimal openings/shot lanes) and decide to just crawl in, using the thermals to your advantage, and see what pans out. As you get within 40 yards, you hear what sounds like a few cows and again, two bulls. Now, you hear what sounds like a bull raking a tree and crawl towards that sound. At the point you see antlers knocking the beegeezus out of a small tree, you quickly get within 25 yards of the commotion. You are now at this point in time, on your knees, with the bull visible and continuing to rake the tree (you can hear cows up a bit on the hillside but cannot see them). If you slowly stand up, you will have the visual/angle on the bull you see now. Thoughts on how to proceed here to possibly have a successful hunt?
White – Wind/Thermals
Yellow – Vocal Cows
Red – Hunter
If you're shooting, save the picture to your desktop and open in MS Paint, then place a spot, X, or whatever on the critter before you save it back to a jpg or png and add the marked up pic with your post.
