My White River Archery Bull (Story added page 2)

[Taco280AI]

Nice bull and pics 

[Huntboy]

Congrats

[ElkBOW79]

Nice work!

[brewdog]

Congrats on a great bull. Taking any elk is a true accomplishment, especially with a bow. He's a true trophy. Well done

[ShaneTyTrey]

Congrats, way to get it done!

[bowhunterforever]

Congrats

[lewy]

 

[hunting4sanity]

Congrats!

[BoomWhop]

Epic so cool. Great job on a really cool looking Bull.

[coachcw]

beautiful country and a great hunt ....congrats

[highside74]

Just getting ready this morning to go retrieve my camp. I'll start my story later today.

[highside74]

    My journey started when I found out I drew. I decided that I wanted to get into better shape so that my lack of physical fitness wasn't going to be the reason I wasn't successful. I feel I am a good hunter and I didn't want to find myself saying "I can't go after that elk" because of my lack of conditioning.

    In late June I really put my mind to it and started walking between 2 and 4 miles a day with a 45# pack. I changed my diet and tried not to cheat. Sometimes I jogged, sometimes I went for a hike but I always tried to get something in 5 days a week. I started at 258# and figured every pound I lost was 1 more pound I wouldn't feel carrying my pack in for my hunt.

     I did a few hiking day trips into the unit to mostly get the feel for how the land looked and get my mountain legs going. First trip was with Duckslayer and it was a rough 4 miles. I needed many breaks on the way up for that first trip. 2nd was almost 8 miles. 3rd was 11 miles. I cut the assent time for the just over 1.5 mile trip to the top of the ridge by 50% during my conditioning and I was pumped. My last trip in before the season was the Saturday of labor day weekend. I wanted to spend the night back there so I could get a sense of what animals might be around for the following week. My goal weight for my hunt was 240# and I hit the trail on that Saturday at 234#. I saw a small bull and heard some bugles that night and the following morning and it really got my blood going. In total I saw 25 elk on Sunday.

     My scheduling for the hunt was, pack in Friday September 9th, hunt Saturday and Sunday and be home that night if I was unsuccessful because I have the great fortune of making babies in January and I have 2 boys with birthdays right smack in the middle of Elk season on the 12th and 15th. Birthdays out of the way I would leave on the 16th and not have to be home until the season ended.

Friday the 9th I hit the trail full of anticipation of what was ahead. I decided not to hike all the way down to the lake to camp but to set up camp on the ridge top and only make one trip down to the lake for water that first night. Filling my containers at last light I was welcomed by a far off bugle behind me on the other side of an adjacent ridge. He bugled at least 3 times while I was down there and I couldn't be more excited. As I hiked out of the lake bottom toward camp I was hit with a thunderous bugle directly in front of me at less than 300 hundred yards and just below camp. Holy crap was I freaking out. As I reached camp I couldn't help but think I might be camping to close. I went to bed with that bull and at least 2 or 3 others in every direction bulging all night long.

   As I awoke on opening morning to the bugles of that close bull still ringing out, I ate a quick breakfast and got dressed as fast as I could. Only to sit and wait in the dark for daylight before I started after him. It took less than 15 minutes to completely screw that up. Lol. The wind was going every which way but a good way and instead of making a big loop to get better wind I made my stupid decisions and blew that bull out before I could even get eyes on him. Oh well, on to the next bull behind me down on the other side of the ridge that was answering the 1st bull note for note. As I headed south on the trail past camp I came to an opening about 3 or 400 yards on the back side of the ridge. I let out a bugle and instantly got a response from that bull. He was on my side of the basin headed up out of the bottom but he had moved north and was clearly past my camp. I quickly headed north past camp and covered another 150 or so yards to a knob jutting up out of the flat ridge top I was camped on. I figured if he was coming up it would be before that knob because that would be his easiest route and I was correct. As I came to a rock out cropping on the edge of the ridge, he was just coming out of the timber 40 yards below me. He was a 5x5 and he had no clue I was there. I decided to pass on him it being opening morning and all. But how exciting.

   I left that bull and headed south to get around to the top of another basin and my bugle was greeted by the response of 2 other bulls down in the basin on the other side in the timber. I kept to my side and moved down the trail trying to pin point exactly where they might be. As it turned out one was headed down and away through a saddle on the far side and one was still in my drainage and headed down deep. He bugled on his own every 2-5 minutes unprovoked as we decended toward the bottom on opposite sides of the drainage. When I got close I made the mistake of bulging instead of cow calling and I think that set up what turned out to be 4 hours of cat and mouse. He would stay just out of reach and vision but continue to bugle like crazy. During this time I had a young cow walk in front of me at no more than 10 feet with no clue as to my existence. Very cool. I had also left my pack on the trail when I thought I was close and decided I better go grab it after I thought I had blew him out. I no sooner reached my pack and he was right back to bulging his head off. So I put my pack on and went after him again. With more of the same result. I dropped my pack and he would never let me get closer than 75 or 80 yards and stayed just out of vision. At about noon he decided to go silent and I lost track of him. I figured I would go get my pack and make a plan for the afternoon. Well it took me an hour to find my pack and I finally had to sit down and say a little prayer and take a 10 minute break because i was frustrated. After that I found my pack in 5 minutes. God is good. At this point I decided I would hike up the other side of the drainage to some lakes I knew were up there and figured I would take a rest up there and wait for the evening hunt. Man was that a bad decision and I wish I would have done it while scouting so I didn't have to waste the time and energy on the horrible nearly straight up climb to those little lakes. 1000 ft up and soaked in sweat I took off my shirt and boots and socks and tried to get them to dry out as I took a nap. My plan was to finish the day working the timber in the upper basin only to be greeted by 3 hikers of a 6 hiker group that were camped at the bottom of the head of the basin and they had seen no elk. What? Really? 6 hikers camped in the middle of Elk country having conversations you can hear from hundreds of yards away and you haven't seen any elk at all? Go figure. So I decided to go back over the ridge and head back to camp through the area that those bulls had started from. I bumped one cow and worked my butt off getting out of there but didn't hear another bugle until dark. Sunday was not nearly as eventful and I was now headed home to celebrate an 8 and a 12 year olds birthdays before returning on Friday the 16th.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Congratulations!

[Boss .300 winmag]

OFF TO BIRTHDAYS AND HE JUST STOPS.

[pd]

Boy, that took some big Kahunas to pass on the first bull---I realize what a nice tag this is.

Why didn't the hikers hear or see elk?  Because they talk so much, of course.  Hunters do this all the time.