Elk Game Plan - Episode 2.5

[Shawn Ryan]

At the risk of offending Phantom by piggy-backing on his thread idea, what do you do here:

Second to last evening of the season, 10 day solo hunt, your last evening to hunt because you have a long drive home tomorrow from this out-of-state hunt.  A few hours earlier you spotted cow elk a ways off and chased after them because that was all you saw.  They cross over to the next valley and you follow. As you cross the ridge, you see tawny hides on the valley floor headed up stream and up wind.  You quickly descend to the valley floor and dog the herd, wind in your favor.  Your cow calls are not answered, but you press on.  At the edge of a large patch of dead fall, you finally see elk about 40-50 yards ahead, but no shot opportunities.  After some slow steps and navigating the dead fall, you can see that some of the herd is now out in a large meadow and some are still picking their way through the dead fall. Still no shots.  Light still fading.

As you slowly press forward you see the herd bull trotting out into the meadow where he screams insults and warnings towards the uphill side of the meadow, which is generally ahead and to your left.  Two bulls respond in kind from your 9 and 11 o’clock and sound as if they are about 100 yards apart from each other.  The cows soon all make their way into the meadow, but stay near the edge. The herd bull is almost constantly moving/trotting between his cows and the edge of the meadow near the other two bulls, screaming more insults and warnings.  The closest he has come is about 40 yards, but no shot presentation. He spends most of his time out of range, further out in the meadow.

With about 5 minutes of shooting light left, you are now 15-20 yards from the meadow edge. The cows are nervously huddled 30-45 yards away and the herd bull is still dividing his attention between the uphill bulls and the cows.  Still no shot opportunities.  The cows are in range, but a pass through arrow is likely to hit a second cow.  One cow could move a few steps away from the huddle and present a shot. The bull could come close enough and you might find a shooting lane through the brush and dead fall.  None of that has happened so far.

Camp is two miles away (which you will be walking back to in the dark soon).  You could be back here early tomorrow morning and an elk shot near here could still be packed to the truck in time for you to get home—dead axx tired, but happy.

What do you do?  What call to bring a cow or the bull closer? Back out and come back tomorrow? Sit and wait for something else to develop in the next 5 minutes? Something else? How would you have done it differently up to this point?

[WapitiTalk1]

No toes stepped on here Shawn.  Glad you started these up again!  RJ

[Shawn Ryan]

Phantom, what would you do? Time for you to play.

[WapitiTalk1]

Enough shooting light left, pretty much my last full day of my 10 day hunt, and I don't shoot cows (unless they're standing with their hooves in the back of my truck).  This keeper bull has dug in protecting his assets, and the pesky satellite bulls on the far side of the meadow have his dander up.  I'm off the meadow 20 yards so I have some cover/concealment and probably some blowdown to help choose where I set up and assist with "guiding" where the bull may come in.  I may even back up just a bit but not much!  The herd bull's body language and actions clearly show he's not in the least bit amused with outsiders trying to woo his cows with their advertising.  I'm so close to the cows I don't have to think about this but about 15 seconds.  I'm stealing a cow now and lighting the herd bull up!!!  Off the chart, pitchy, whiny, "holy hell, he's taking me, he's got me, help, help, help" over my shoulder or into the ground behind me cow distress calls/whines; then, a loud scream aimed smack dab in the direction of the bull; aka the threat level 3.  Bullwinkle should about pee himself when I do this and I fully expect him to move through or around his cows in my direction to try to grind me into the ground.  I'll be drawing back in seconds and hope I get a good angle to make a clean kill.  It's gonna be a long night but I'll be bringing a "friend" home for dinner.  Here we go       

Oh, why were you making cow sounds as you dogged the herd in this scenario Shawn?  Just curious 

[Shawn Ryan]

Thanks. That is good strategy. I did not use the cow pleading sounds you suggested, but did scream at the bull with the intention of suggesting that I was another bull there to steal his cows--Threat Level 3, without the whiny cow. I should have included the damsel in distress script! The result was that the cows busted away and into the meadow with the bull following close behind.

I cow called because by the time I reached the valley floor, I didn't know where the cows where so I gave a few social mews to locate the cows once I got near the location at which I last spotted them. I hadn't seen any bulls up to that point.  The valley floor is 1/3 to 1/2 mile wide and I knew I needed to find them quickly.  Since they didn't respond, I kept with the wind and headed in the general direction they were last seen heading.

What would you have done to locate the herd once on the valley floor? As I re-read my scenario, I can see that I left out the details of locating the herd and instead said that I dogged them. Usually, if I better knew the location of the herd and could occasionally see or hear them, I would not make any sound.

I would rather shoot bulls, but this late in the hunt, I get admonished by my wife for not filling the freezer.