2018 Goose Prarie hunt

[Bucks2Ducks]

I held off on posting last year’s Quality elk hunt in fear of it making draw odds worse but felt selfish in reading everyone else’s posts in planning for my hunt. And truth be told after the tag cuts it will probably be another 20 years before I will have a chance of drawing again; not to mention I don’t personally see this tag as being any better then the majority of other Quality elk tags offered in this state.
I have a 10 year background of archery elk hunting, almost all Roosevelt except a week I spent in Idaho and a week I spent in Goose Prairie. So after 8 years of applying for multi season elk and seeing accepted I already knew my plan would be to apply for the E side archery tags and be able to fall back to hunting branch bulls on the W side. With 3 kids under 4 and a busy job scouting wasn’t going to happen as it would directly take days away from my hunting season, so I went with an area I was familiar with in the goose.
Selected with 9 points! The planning begun, my vacation time is picked a year in advance so I already knew I would have the middle of the season to hunt. I prefer the rut at the end of the season, but with antlerless being closed the first part of the season I figured it would be a wash as everyone and their mom would be there that second week. It had been about 5 years since I had spent that week chasing cows/spikes around in the unit, but I seem to have a photographic memory when it comes to elk and I knew a handful of spots I wanted to spend some time in. Using all available resources, I found another dozen areas to fall back on, just to ensure I wasn’t wasting precious hunting time trying to find new areas. I was going solo and versatile with the option of bivy camping or setting up a main camp depending on where I found elk.
I arrived at the unit at night and it was pouring down rain, I slept in the truck that night claiming my opening morning spot. At daybreak the rain had let up and I was a couple miles in where I had an encounter with a big herd bull on my previous trip. Not a sound in the woods and no fresh sign had me discouraged as this was the spot, I had been envisioning it happing for the past several months, or probably 5 years since I had seen that big boy.
So, I moved on to another spot a previous tag holder had told me about that was only a couple miles as the crow flies but was easier to access by driving around the mountain and hiking in from the other side. I spent some time cutting off trail and traversing through some pretty nasty and steep creek bottoms to get up to this flat I had been eyeing on google earth. It was a few miles in, and it didn’t take me long to find a small group of elk browsing through some windfall for an afternoon snack. I was able to get within 40 yards of them as they meandered through, but never did see any bulls with them, and as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared back into the overgrown forest.  I set up a few calling sequences, but had yet to hear a bugle, and with night falling I thought it wise to work my way back through those ravines and to the rig.
 Experience has taught me that if the elk aren’t talking in one area, it doesn’t mean they’re not all over. Wanting to find some fired up bulls I decided to spend that night driving to a trailhead I’d hunted off before that was basically on the opposite side of the unit. It took me a couple hours to reach this spot, knowing I would be exhausted from the day, and had pre-planned covering a lot of ground I already had folded up the rear seat in the crew cab and had an air mattress on the floor for a quick night’s sleep. This run and gun set up could get me through a few nights until I really needed to stretch out.
I slept with the windows down and 1 ear open, I heard my first bugle of the trip around 2am and by 4am I could hear at least 4 different bulls bugling from my truck, they were all in this ravine off the trailhead that basically started where I was parked. By first light things were pretty quiet, so I ripped off a bugle standing in the parking lot and immediately started getting reply’s.  The closest being only a few hundred yards away, the problem was my wind was blowing directly towards them. So, I hiked up the trail that skirted up the side of the ravine and overshot the bulls and dropped down in.
 After my initial bugle from the parking lot they seemed to just be getting each other more fired up so I didn’t have to make any calls until I was within a 100yds of the closest bull and unable to move any further. I had the wind good and exchanged a few notes with him, as him came to 40 yards he held up on the edge of some thick brush with just his head emerged. He appeared to be a smaller 5 point and I had still had my sights set on 6, but was hoping he would come in for a better look. Then I hear a bugle come from about 50 yards behind me, directly where my wind was going. By the time I could slowly turn my head he barked and took off toward the bottom of the ravine, bringing the other bull with him. I spent the rest of day in that ravine, but I don’t think I was the first hunter these elk had encountered. They continued to hold up and pin me down (the hard part of being solo), and no shot opportunities were presented.
I stayed the night in the same spot, but didn’t hear any bugles, and the morning came to prove that I had pushed the elk out of there. I could guess where they went, and it was going to be a bivy trip to get back there. Nearing lunch time, I decided I would get cell service and check in with the old lady, check out a spot for a quick afternoon hunt and follow those elk up the mountain with camp on my back first thing in the morning.
After I got my phone calls taken care of, I headed to back to first place I went on my first morning. I figured it’s on the way, and despite little sign originally, I knew the elk would eventually move in there. It was about 2pm by the time I had hiked the 2 miles in through blowdowns and up to the edge of a known bedding area. I found a nice sunny spot and rested my eyes while listening for any elk going for an afternoon stroll. It wasn’t long before I heard a bugle about 300 yards above me. I could see a bench up there, but the 300yds was almost straight up and down. I quickly found an elk trail that meandered up the steep hillside, while traversing up to the bench this bull was bugling the whole time but covering a lot of ground in between calls; assuming he was chasing a cow, or another bull my plan was to get up to the same level as him and go from there.
I was about 20 yards from cresting the ridge when a cow came barreling over the side, her original plan to sidehill the steep hill side stopped when she was 10 yds from me and locked on me standing in the wide open. Then I hear a bugle coming from the trail she came from. With her being on my right and the bull coming from the left I knew that she couldn’t screw this up because I was in between them. So as soon as I saw 3 antler tips above the G4 coming through the brush at 30yds I drew back. She ran and then barked, but all it did was stop the bull perfectly for a 30 yd broadside shot.
After the shot I watched the bull run towards where the cow was, then do 180deg circle and run back the other way just out of sight where I heard a big crash. I waited around a half hour taking everything in before I walked to the top of the ridge and as I hoped there lay my bull! I only saw the tops of his antlers when I shot, so I was thinking he was a 7, but I love unique antlers and couldn’t have cared less. The cool thing is the bull I had the encounter with 5 years before in this same spot had split G4s, so possibly an offspring.   Anyway, thankfully it was 2 miles to the truck, so I did 3 trips to get the meat out, and the head by itself first thing the next morning, through that blowdown that might have been the worst load.

[Bucks2Ducks]

-

[flyfishWA]

Awsome bull

[Bucks2Ducks]

-

[elkrack]

Better late than never! 
Awesome bull he has some great character thanks for sharing

[Dan-o]

Great write up of a great hunt.....

And a great bull!

 

[bracer40]

Great bull and write up.well worth the wait.

[Threewolves]

Fantastic motivational story to get folks fired up for this year. Thanks, Paul

[full choke]

Congratulations on that bull!

Thanks for sharing the story!

[MADMAX]

Well done
Not an easy solo

[Matth]

Awesome!

[vandeman17]

Thanks for sharing. Gets me even more excited for september!

[Fish4Fun]

Great story, I remember my Quality tag like it was yesterday. Sounds like you have yours etched in your mind like I do 

[Sandberm]

Great hunt and write up. Felt like I was right there with you. 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]