Your Move Hoss, 2021 Episode #4 - Updated, Part 2..

[WapitiTalk1]

Date/Time: Mid-September, 8:20 AM
Location: Somewhere in the Elkwoods
Hunt Pressure Status: More than you'd like
Hunt: Partner Hunt
Tag: Archery tag; 3 PT or better bull

The knowns:
1. You've received locator bugle responses the night before after sitting on a walk in/gated road till after dark (the gated road starts on a saddle and works its way down one side of the draw and peters out 3/4 of a mile in). It appears that two bulls (and who knows how many cows) have moved up and into a pretty steep draw below the road. No access roads/FS trails from below so you'll have to figure out start your hunt from above in the morning.
2. There are other hunters camped up in the general area but to your knowledge, nobody has been hunting down the draw.
3. Terrain is mixed vine maple, alder, and some pretty darn high huckleberry bushes. Pretty steep on both sides of the draw with some benchy areas and smaller, false draws coming down on both sides of the large draw. There are no cliffs or really any significant rocky spots in the draw. It's pretty much sparsely timbered with afore mentioned brush and really, no truly open areas, i.e., side hill meadows.

Go time:
1. 8:20 AM the next morning (now):
2. You and your partner have walked 1/2 in on the gated road and hear what appears to be the same bulls singing (unsolicited) on the other side of the draw. To you, it sounds like one may be a herd bull and the other a satellite.
3. As the crow flies, it's about 1/2 of a mile across the draw.  The night before, when you walked in on the old gated road, the bulls were below you (below the road) on your side of the draw. This morning, they are on the other side of the draw sounding off once you get down the distance mentioned. Vegetation clarification: old growth vine maples and alder (vine maples in bunches, up to 10-12' tall and the alder brush/mountain variety is up to 20+). The timbered spots (Douglas fir, piss fir (spruce), and some intermittent Tamarack pine) haven't been logged in many years and are several hundred or more yards wide in spots. Needless to say, visibility is minimal from any form of distance. I'll add that the draw has its fair share of elk/game trails through the vine maple jungles.  Think NW Montana.   

Your move. What is your immediate game plan at this point in time? The scenario may change as the thread rolls on a bit.

At a point you decide to shoot (a pic will appear when its time), reminder that if you save the picture to your desktop and open in MS Paint, you'll be able to place a spot, X, or whatever on the critter before you save it back to a jpg and add the marked up pic with your post.

[WapitiTalk1]

Situation Update: As you sat and listened off the end of the cat road, you determined that the elk were starting to move back down the draw, more than likely on their way from the café to the elk motel at the bottom of the draw in Web Creek (the large drainage/draw that the draw you're in feeds in to). Reminder that there is really no access to this area from lower, only from above. These are vocal bulls spitting back and forth with more than likely a group of cows, perhaps a hot one or two (cows) guessing by the bull's vocalization/behavior. Now, from your position at the end of the cat road.... what's next to try and bring one of the bulls home for dinner. It's now about 9:00 AM. Your move..........

[Shawn Ryan]

My real answer is that I hate vine maple and slide alder. I'll avoid hunting in it as much as possible, so I'm making a mental note to drive east or south and not come back here next year.  Elk do live in terrain with none or little of those two devils. But since I'm here, as soon as the thermals are coming up, maybe now, I'm headed down towards the elk. Whether I do that on my side or their side of the draw really depends on the quiet and easiest path to the elk. I'll try to stay in and get the bulls to come into one of those more heavily timbered areas where there are likely to be better shooting lanes.

Hard to pull a bull off a cow in estrus, so either I'm trying to get real close to that action and using a challenge bugle to piss him off and make him come check me out, or if the cows have bedded by the time I get close, I may try to be that whiney cow that wants to be bred. I've had success getting in real close to a worked-up bull, using a cow call--or having a real cow do the calling--and had the bull come in with very little caution.  Other than the vegetation, this scenario is what September was made for.

[WapitiTalk1]

Situation Update:

OK, for the case of discussion in this scenario, we've chosen the route of dumping off the end of the cat road, angling down towards the bottom of our draw towards the main draw, on "our" side of the draw and we try to continue to keep track of the vocal elk on the other side. It's a normal weather day in the elk woods (no crazy weather going on) so the thermals are their usual self but getting dangerously close to the typical swirl before they change to head uphill. It's now right around 10:00 and the antlered creatures on the other side of the draw are not spouting off on their own anymore. The last time we heard them was across the draw, up the side hill about 200ish yards, almost directly across/up from us (we're now almost at the bottom of the insignificant creek in our draw), perhaps 10 minutes ago. By their vocalization, they have been constantly moving down the side hill/draw towards the bottom to the elk motel. Seeing as its pretty much gone quiet, we decide to do a setup while the thermals are still coming down in an attempt to get an answer and move across/up towards the elk. As we stop to set up, just on our side of the small, barely trickling stream... we hit bookoo elk sign and can see that this may perhaps be a bedding area just off the creek. The caller sets up in the huge sign area and the shooter heads across the tiny stream and sets up 25-30 yards away. Hand signals are given "ready?.... check!" and the caller throws out a couple of cow sounds (two soft, then one a bit louder and whiny) and....... the two bulls spout off on the other side of the draw, perhaps 100 yards across/up the side hill and one of the most pathetic bugles you've ever heard sounds off directly above the caller about 100 yards (on our side of the draw). Your move, what's the game plan now?

Been here more than a few times, got the T shirts ... Remember what you know about the area and the access (or lack of access as it were) from below... Your move, what's next?

We're down on the trickle of a creek, time as mentioned, sign as mentioned, vocal bulls across and you/we’ve just heard a sick dog sounding bull above us. Anybody else have a thought on how to proceed at this point?