It's the next to the last day of your muzzle loader elk hunt. The night before (after dark) you received a response to your locator bugle above a skid road you'd walked in on approximately 1/4 of a mile. As you walk in before daylight today (next to the last day of your 7 day hunt), you hear the same sounding bull above you on the side hill of an east/west flowing basin. As it starts to get light and the bugling persists, you've decided you'll move as close to the bull as you can without making any elk sounds (verbal or non-verbal). The bull continues to sound off as you move closer to where he's singing. Four, five, seven bugles echo throughout the basin from the same bull and you hear cow mews as you get closer. Nobody seems alarmed; it now appears the elk are starting to move from feed to bed. The thermals are flowing steadily down into your snout and you smell elk! You’re now within 60-70 yards of where you think the elk may be. As you stop, slowly scan, and wait for an indicator, something, anything..... you hear and see movement above you. There is an elk, possibly "the" bull, standing with his head completely covered with Douglas Fir bows less than 40 yards up the slope broadside. You know this is a bull (3 point or better) area. Safety comes off and you settle your sights on the bull’s vital and then slowly lower your rifle and click the safety back on. You're not sure of the target (legal animal) so you do the right thing and don’t take the shot. Less than seconds later, a very nice, thick beamed 5 point moves away from the fir and walks (not bolts) back uphill to what you assume are his cows. He’s on the other side of the fir tree, giving you the moon, heading back up. At this point, what do you do? You do have your elk diaphragm in your mouth. The cover is relatively thick but is littered with elk trails.
That’s it, that’s where you currently stand. What is your move to try and bring this bull home for dinner? Your move….
