It was Saturday Sept 3rd, my son & 10 year old grandson & I parked off a dirt road near an area we had elk hunted in past years! Trey (grandson) is 10 & isn't one for hitting the mountains like my son & I so we didn't want to head in too deep & make it miserable for him, we figured he could handle just under a mile no problem although it was steep with several benches before reaching our destination just after first light. We were headed for a bench that we had located earlier that had a mudhole/wallow look to it, we could see a few elk had been there from time to time before the seasons start. We figured if we were lucky we may get into some bugling & Trey would love that! (so would I - grin)
We got to the spot & looked things over for fresh sign, the bench looked good & we saw a new trail had been made coming from up the hill & down to this mudhole. So we had recent sign, that was good! After a minute of looking it over a bull bugles from the NE. A second bull responds to him, we guess they are aprox 500 yards away & the herd bull was heading up the mountain with the satellite bugling away as he shadowed the herd. The satellite sounded as if close to being on the same level or elevation as we were although still 500 yards out. My son & I decided to cow call on fairly high volume, we sounded like two different cows, after all this is what this satellite was interested in. We gave several 30 second series of mews & whines about 4-5 minutes apart, aprox 4-5 of them, at no time did either bull bugle or chuckle us as if showing interest? BUT, we noticed that the satellite had quit bugling the herd bull even though the herd bull still bugled 8-10 times as he continued to head up the mountain.
We felt the satellite must have turned his attention towards us thus losing interest in the real herd & was now slipping in our way silently where the pickens may be some what easier. We went through our calling sequence as mentioned while still remaining in the same spot as we were not sure where this bull was or where he might come in? After aprox 20 minutes from when we first heard the bugling we can now hear this bull coming through 10' high willows, he still hasn't called to us at all. All of a sudden he stops in the willows (we cannot see him) & proceeds to thrash the crap out of them for 15-20 seconds, it was major loud & violent. My grandson was on his knees next to his dad not more than a foot away just staring at the 50 yard distance where it seemed this bull was uprooting the earth, I'm sure you could see the whites of my grandsons eyes! (grin)
While in the willows I cow called the bull, he started to come out & stay right on the bench were were on, I saw him come to 40 - 30 - 20 yards from my son & grandson like he was going to pass us right by, I stopped him in a shooting lane with a loud sharp cow mew, stopped broadside & Paul II double lunged him, perfect shot! The bull was dead in 10-15 seconds & made it less than 50 yards! The bull was 30 yards from me when I stopped him so I had a front row seat! (grin) Here's a photo of all 3 of us! Thanks for following along!
ElkNut1
