We hunted the early archery hunt for 2 solid weeks for bulls and had one quick but unsuccessful encounter, Between the temperature hitting the mid eighties, timberland sales being surveyed right thru bedding areas, the elk decided that they just didn’t want to cooperate either and headed for safer country.
So we waited for round 2 the late hunt. We headed out Saturday the 29th trying to find any evidence of elk. Things did not seem much improved, little if any snow where there is usually over a foot and the temperature in the low thirties compared to 0 deg weather. It wasn’t until Wed am that we found some promising sign and decided that we had better try, as opportunities seemed to be hard to come by. Stalking the elk would have been futile since the little amount of snow that was there had a crust on it. We decided to set up along the most likely trail and hope for the best. We weren’t there over 2 hrs when we heard a bugle and thought WTH someone’s trying to bugle in a elk, 10 minutes later we hear the bugle again only this time it’s only about 150 yards away. Another couple of minute go by and we hear breaking branches and cow talk and we know it’s for real and out comes 6 elk headed right for us. The bull, a big 6x7 was trailing the cows and looked like one I had caught on a game camera in July. At 26 yards the lead cow stopped broadside and knew something wasn’t right, I had to make the decision of either shooting her or waiting for a chance at the bull, I knew that she was starting to pick up our scent and we had 2 days of hunting time left so I took the shot on the cow, she went 60 yards and piled up with a double lung shot. With about 70 minutes of light left, the weather had dropped to 10 degrees and we didn’t want to walk back to camp and get the camera so we immediately started getting her ready to pack out. 7 hrs later we had her back at camp in meat bags and we thawed ourselves out. So now it's back to coyote hunting.
