not so fast.... My buddy and I show up to our spot at 1600 decided to head in a ways to see what we could see. at about 1630 we walked around a corner after seeing fresh elk crap, not a single minute later my buddy sticks a cow at 30 yards, she died 15 yards from where he shot her. Double lung. I took off around the corner, to see the head of a bull, 4x4. I draw back on him, he only stood for a moment before he takes off deeper into the timber. So our trip started off with some excitement, and work! after hauling 600lbs back to the truck, we went to bed. Got up about 430 the next morning to head to our desired location of where we scouted earlier this year. Mind you, this is my second year archery hunting and I have yet to kill an elk. The morning was pretty slow but we knew there were three bulls in this one area that we were after. at 1200 we laid in the middle of the road and took a nap, 30 minutes into a nice rest we hear bugling no more that 200 yards from us. My buddy leaves his bow and pack, next to my pack. We took off up this hill to a landing that looks down into this bowl where we heard the scream. after glassing for about 10 minutes we spot two bulls, one rag horn, but legal, next to him was the bull we were looking for. a big bodied 5x5 with horns black as night and tips whiter than snow! My friend bugles at him as he walks into the timber, seconds later he comes barreling out of the timber screaming back at us. at one point he came out of the timber so far we thought he was coming up the hill to us.( about 200 yards) so we decided to let him get into the timber a bit and then head down to close the distance. I had picked out a stump that I wanted to get to which would have put me at 40 yards from where he repeatedly came out to. Not long after I started moving down, we hear another bugle but to the right of us, I assumed the rag horn... wrong... out comes pissed off bull from the timber to only turn broadside to another hunter. Here I am, hear pumping, adrenaline going, and I see this joker at full draw stick a bull that would have possibly been my first elk, and bull! After the elk slowly made his stumbling way back to the timber and crashed, I cow called and the guy looked up at us with a thumbs up and a grin that I could've knocked off his face for him. After about 10 minutes he walks up to us. ( I shortened the story a bit, we worked this bull for about 2 hours) there are two roads that surround this clear cut that both start from the same spot. He said he saw our packs and one bow, got confused and thought that nobody else was hunting that bull. I explained to him that this would have been my first elk. his response: "well if it means anything to you, that's small to what I usually would shoot" yeah that makes me feel great pal... Then he had the nerve to as if we'd help him look for him and check him out. . . Uh.... yeah, might as well see what I could've had... So after four and a half hours of tromping through the woods without blood anywhere, or an arrow to confirm anything we couldn't find the bull. I went back to camp that night extremely hot. To me his story sounds like crap. All in all, I left feeling pretty disheartened and pissed. For the time being I lost quite a bit of motivation. Conversely, it was an amazing experience to be so up close and personal with such a beautiful animal. I'll be at it again next week!
