Early Elk season wrap up:
*Three scouting trips
*Two weekend hunts (no vacation time...)
*1,200 miles driven
*Over 100 miles logged on the boots via Rino 650.
*51 of those boot miles and 13,000' elevation gain split between just the two weekend hunts...
This season started for me on Memorial Day weekend heading down to hang the camera and start a mineral site. My camera site is 6 miles back and you gain 2,500' vertical. Not only that but you the only way in to this area is you have to wade across a knee high, swift, and slick bottomed tributary of a certain river. On Memorial Day weekend this crik was thigh deep! My Kuiu icon pro weighed in at 80lbs this day as I had 50lbs of trace mineral in the load sling, my camera, bear box, Python lock, food, water and apples. I had weighed it on a digital scale before I left home to get an idea of what I was up against.
Here I am on the 2nd scouting trip this summer. I had the icon pro 3200 loaded down for a weekend of fun in the Elk woods. 25lbs of trace mineral were sandwhiched in the load sling. This was a much easier hike in than when I had the 80lb load!
A couple buddies and myself did a two additional scouting trips over the summer to check the camera and refresh the mineral site. We took another 50lbs in on the 2nd scouting trip. Thank goodness on that trip my buddy offered to split the weight and take 25lbs of mineral in on his back! That made a world of difference. Did I mention I need horses and mules to hunt this area!?
Opening weekend one buddy and I hiked in Friday night to set up our spike camp and prepare for battle the next morning. We walked an old fire road that first morning cow calling every 100 yards or so. Not a 1/4 mile from camp we had a calf chirping wildly and running at us like it was on a string. A few seconds later we had a bull screaming at us.
This is the bull I speak of:
Me and him had a screaming match for upwards of 30-40 minutes as close as 20 yards. He was in some thick nasty and would not present a shot. Long story short we were not able to get a shot that morning before he lost interest and took his cows up the hill. We burned the boot leather the rest of the day and came up short. I did however go pull the card from my camera and was excited to see I had 3,018 pictures between July 18th and September 12th.
The bull in the pics below was posing for pics at the EXACT same time that I was lacing my boots up for the hike in!
Note in the pics he looks as though he had just come from wallowing earlier. I still haven't found any major wallows on this mountain. There is one nearby but it's not super torn up.
Couple of the other Bulls we have on camera:
Symmetrical 5x5:
A slightly different 5x5:
Same bull:
The next morning we had hiked up onto a massive bench loaded with rubs, beds, and fresh sign galore! I cow called as we still-hunted our way along the edge of the bench. All of a sudden we hear a good bugle with a chuckle. We quickly closed the gap and happened to walk right up on the same bull from earlier that morning. We had found his bedroom and we could see him 30 yards in front of us, walking broadside through the timber. There was one shooting lane he was headed towards so I had my buddy nock an arrow and I was going to stop him with a cow call in the lane. One of the bull's cows busted my buddy while he ranged the shooting lane and just like that...CRASH, CRASH, CRASH they were gone.
Fast forward to this last Friday and I was headed in solo at 5:30pm. My buddies were to head in a couple hours later than me. At about 7:30pm it was pretty much pitch black in the timber and I still had 3 miles to go. We camp a couple hundred yards from a spring so I filtered some water on the way in and then set up camp. It's interesting spending time in the back country, alone....in the dark...but I think after doing that and even though it was only for a few hours before my friends showed up, I learned that I'm ok with it. They finally rolled into camp at 11:00pm as I was sitting in my tent listening to a podcast about bowhunting Elk of course. I was glad to see them before I crashed out for the night.
First light Saturday morning found us walking the same old road we had got into the big 5x6 last week. We were almost to the spot we had got on him when two other hunters rounded the corner headed our way. Wanting nothing to do with absolutely anybody back there we slipped up into the timber and hiked our way up into that bedding area to do some calling. While still-hunting we bumped a bull that we got a decent look at and he seemed to be one of the 5x5's we have on camera. That was all we would see the rest of the day.
Sunday we decided to spread out and hunt solo. I worked my way up a steep finger and onto the bench the Elk bed and rut on. I set up on an opening lined with jack Firs and backed up against some of the firs. The wind was swirling a bit but I had to be packing my gear off the mountain in a couple hours and it was now or never. I began an estrus calling sequence using the Phelps EZ estrus wood call. Love the nasally sound it produces! A good half hour into the calling session I hear a big branch break seemingly 40 or so yards in front of me but out of view. I continue my calling and a couple minutes later I hear the tiniest little twig break at seriously no more than 10 yards behind me. That startled me a bit and I whirled around just to see a body of an Elk go crashing through the jack Firs! I cow called like crazy trying to get it to stop but then checked the wind and realized it had switched to the direction that elk had come in and it had for sure smelled me.
Knowing I had to get back to start tearing my camp down I worked a pretty beat up ridge trail, finding fresh rubs and sign all over. I had just picked up the pace to get to camp quickly and was letting out some mews to cover some of the noise I was making. I come around a corner and see a rag horn 4x4 running away.
This is the bull:
I began cow calling excitedly hoping to stop the bull and then decided I had nothing to loose and had heard of guys doing this.....I ran right towards the bull cow calling like a mad man. I came up over this knob he had gone over and I should have stopped and came to full draw before sky lining myself because when I got to the top, there he was standing broadside at 40 yards! Had I been at full draw I probably could have released an arrow...live and learn.
This was the start of my 4th year elk hunting, and hunting in general actually. I didn't grow up around it and got into it later in life than most. I just turned 30 earlier this month actually! I've got 3 late Elk seasons under my belt now with good success with at least finding some elk during the last two late seasons and this has been my third early Elk season. Two years ago during late elk I took a shot at a cow and the arrow was deflected by a fern. No joke...a fern! I found the arrow and it was a clean miss. Then, during last year's early season on my birthday I woke up, hiked a 1/4 mile from camp, got on a herd and took a STEEP downhill shot on a cow. I shot her for 40 yards but should have held lower. I ended up hitting her high in "the void" and never found a single drop of first blood and couldn't get back on the herd. Found my arrow as it was a pass through and the broadhead was covered in fat, and the arrow shaft was all greased up with fat with blood on the fletchings. I'll never forget that day and still feel terrible about that shot.
My two buddies are still up on the mountain as I type this and I'm wishing them the best and that the Elk have started talking! I won't hear from them until possibly tomorrow evening or Wednesday. There was more pressure up there this year. I'm guessing it is due to the good season dates. There was actually a camp with horses and mules that had one whole side of the mountain pretty locked down. Last year we were in there for 5 days straight and only saw a group of three guys one time...and we were on the elk multiple times every day. The elk were SILENT this weekend though even with the cooler temps and it being late in September. I feel like it had to be the pressure they had on them all week.
Anyhow, thanks for letting me vent about my season. Although I'm bummed that I have to be at work this week instead of being in the elk woods at the most magical time of the year, I'm thankful that I'm one season wiser and have some new tools in the Elk hunting tool box, including running directly at a bull while cow calling like crazy.
One quick question...can you guys please tell me what the 5x6 would score? The one that came in on 9/11 that is kind of muddy. And maybe let me know how old he might be? The difference in body size between him and even the symmetrical 5x5 is very noticeable. I'm thinking that guy is running a bunch of cows somewhere on that mountain.
