Well, I feel pretty good after taking a bull with my new bow this year. My dad and I hunt the west side (Lewis River) and have to hunt in places with a lot of hunter pressure due to my dad being 73. We still usually get an opportunity or two each year and I keep working at getting him his first archery elk.
This year we hunted opening day at a higher elevation where I found an easy trail for my dad to walk but he did not like the spot because he ran into a couple who put down apples and a salt lick (is that legal) at the end of the trail so we did not last long there.
The next day, the 5th we ended up in a lower spot where my dad had a bull come in to him last year but would not show himself at all. We knew from the previous year where animals like to hang out and we set up so I could call and try and pull anything by my dad. We started calling at about 6:30am and absolutely nothing was happening. Since there was no bugling going on anywhere I decided to let out a lazy bugle and 5 seconds later got a lazy bugle in return. The bull sounded like he was about 100 to 150 yards away. About ten seconds later I let out another lazy bugle and again got a response but this time it was closer, the only problem was he was coming to me from my left and behind me not where my dad was setup. I had to stand up and get next to small pine so I could get a look behind me. In a minute, I see some movement and the bull makes a little grunting sound looking for a buddy to play with. He is looking through the trees in my direction where he expects to find his playdate but is not seeing anything. Just then my dad cow calls and the bull starts to walk where I believe will put him at 15 yards when he comes into the clear. Then, nothing... I'm just waiting to draw my new PSE DS EVO that I have fine tuned for months and know is hitting where I aim. Needless to say the bull turns and starts walking back where he came from but is still not sure he wants to leave. I notice there is a football size opening in all the branches and brush that I know I can put my arrow through if the bull just happens to come into that window....yeah, what are the odds of that happening? OMG, he steps right into the window and stops broadside with his vitals in clear site through that football size window
I did not hesitate, I drew, put my 30 yard pin on his vitals and punched it........thwack....All hell breaks loose as he turns to run. My dad hears the crashing and starts calling, I start calling. I can tell he stopped with the calling but can't hear anything yet. I wait and in a couple seconds I can hear some walking, then a couple steps and then something that sounded like a large object rolling into a bush
could it be him down or is he walking away still?
I walk over to where my dad is and he is looking at me waiting for me to say something. I said, I hit him good...I think. He had no idea I had even shot, all he heard was the crashing through the trees and brush so he thought the bull winded me and took off, that is why he started calling. I said nope, that was because I had just put my arrow in his chest. He gave me a big hug and fist bump.
We walked over to where I had shot and gave him the recap of what happened and all he could say was, "you shot him through where?" I said I thought I heard something role into a bush and said let’s give 20 minutes before we look where he was standing. After a Snickers, some water and lots of pacing and shaking I said, ok let’s take a look. I asked him to stay right where I shot from and walked back to where the bull stood when I shot. I looked back at my dad through the shooting window and check the yardage at 32 yards. I then told him to come on in and we will see what we can find.
We started from where we could see the bull started his escape from and direction he was headed. Odd, no blood anywhere to be found
OMG, now I'm second guessing myself and wondering if I even hit him. We keep looking...still no blood. I start over and I'm looking for anything that might give me a clue. I discover there are lots of trails that he can walk very quietly on and that scares me even more. Is this bull in the next county laughing at me or is he still close by. I keep looking hard for anything and then I see it, my arrow with about eight or nine inches snapped off the end
this is making me feel much better but there is still no blood to be found. My dad works to the left and I work to the right on the trail he came in on. About 30 seconds later I hear my dad yell... "Here he is" WoooHooo!!!!! I go running over to find
Photo 1.
We can see he rolled into that ditch (which is what I thought I heard)
So, we take a couple of pics Photo 2.
We notice his is soaking wet, hmmmm. We spend the rest of the day cutting a packing and carting Photo 3. We get back to camp at 7:45pm smelling like we just wallowed.
That night we crack a 32 year old bottle of Crown I have had to celebrate!!!
We return the next day to hunt the same area and to look for why the bull was so wet, and Photo4
this is nice!
Now we hope to have a good spot for next year. We did discover a couple days later that someone else knows about the wallow but he was going to wait until we left the area before hunting it. We hunted hard the next five days and jumped cows and saw some other elk, I called in another bull but he would not cooperate. Then my dad said he had had enough, we packed up and headed for home.
Photo 5 and 6 My new bow, arrows and bull for 2012
Photo 7 is a plug for Elknut, his CD's have taught me a lot about calling and responding to elk.
Thanks for listening and good luck to everyone.
Fred
