I never expected to be writing this post on here after my last hunt in the BLues but I guess no matter how good the unit is its still hunting especially with a bow and so I am one of those guys who is choking down tag soup right now. Don't really even like to think about it let alone write about it but I know some of you are wondering how it went so here you go.
Started off by getting the flu over labor day weekend and that stuck with me for the next several days. I put in my time getting in good shape this summer and that knocked me back a step or two. We packed in camp on my dads mules in about 7-8 miles in the same general area I hunted in 07 and guided in last year. The weather was not great with highs in the upper 70's most days and warm nights so not much for morning mtn thermals to help our setups. Everyday we hunted hard, my brother calling and my bro in law on the video camera. The elk were way down in the bottoms where it was cooler so that forced us to drop into deep canyons 1500-2000" off the ridges which in the Blues means often times crawling down through rim rock cliffs and nasty tag alder brush. I went over not expecting to kill another 380 but of course had high hopes , but I wanted a 350 bull. The biggest I passed was on day 2 and he was a 6x7 with a cheater on one side that was close to 340, a neat bull for sure and it took over an hour to get him to come in from only 100yards. Biggest bull we saw was 360 ish with lots of 300-310 sattelites encountered most days. The bulls weren't as responsive to calls as in years past I think mostly due to the weather. We gave it 100 percent and it was the most exhausting hardest hunt I have ever been on and I couldn't have done it with out my hunting partners who were there just to tag along with me which I can't thank them enough for.
Hindsight I would do a few things different probably but I knew going in that if I was going to be selective I might come home empty handed so I can live with that. I have no doubt I could have killed a bull but it wouldn't have been that special bull I was looking for. Some may say thats crazy but you don't have to kill to have hunted and we hunted hard and gave it our best shot it just wasn't meant to be this year I guess. We head for Montana this weekend to try to change our luck. Good luck to all still out there. nwhunter
