I went elk hunting and never posted the story.
I shot the elk last Sunday after hunting the previous week after work (starting Tuesday, I think it was.) I had some bucks all picked out, including a 4 point with a cool drop tine on the right side but nothing worked out. On Saturday, probably for the first time in years, I didn't even see a deer.
I went out on Sunday and hunted all morning and saw just a couple of does. I moved locations around 10am and started hiking out this ridge for what was going to be a hunt until dark. I hadn't gone a half mile and looked down into these little draws and saw this buck laying there looking up the hill at me. This was before the hot weather had come in and it was still overcast, the ground was wet, and it was sprinkling a little.
Kind of strangely, due to weather or maybe a quirk in terrain, the wind was blowing down hill instead of the normal uphill that should be starting about that time. Since the wind was all wrong and the buck was already had me pegged, I had to do something a little different. I noticed that if you move rather quickly away from a deer that is laying down - just walk away - sometimes they'll just stay there. So, after looking for about 5 seconds to determine the buck was legal and a quick glance around for other deer, I turned and went straight up the hill and over the top of the ridge. Once over the top, I started running along the backside of the ridge for about a quarter mile. Then I dropped straight back off the side with the deer in the next drainage over (out of sight and hearing range of the deer) I ran down the ridge past where I thought the deer was laying and then started my stalk back up the hill towards him.
I got to where I thought that he was and then crawled over the top into his little draw where he was laying and started looking around. I though that, because he had seen me, because it had taken a little while to get into position, and because I hadn't had a proper amount of time to glass for additional deer, that there was probably no way that he would still be there. I started glancing around and noticed that there was just a little patch of hair that I could see through some brush directly below me. I ranged it at 19 yards. Unreal, somehow I was right on the money.
Anyway, I was hidden from his line of sight so I straightened up and tried to move away any little sticks and pine cones that might make noise. I stayed there with him for what seemed like hours but was probably just a few minutes. I was able to slowly stand up because there was a tree in front of me blocking his (and my) view. Eventually, he stood up and, as he did, I drew my bow. I stood there with my bow pointing at the tree in front of me until I started to get shaky. Because I had pushed out all of the little sticks and pine cones, I could move quietly. I took one step to my right and had him in full view - still not knowing that I was there. Easy 19 yard shot and I put it right on the money. After I shot, he ran through the little draw about 30 yards and still didn't know what happened. He stopped and weaved around, ran down the hill a few yards and piled up.
Wife was happy that I wasn't gone all season.
Last year I held out until the bitter end looking for a whopper. I pulled my bow back on 7 bucks and never shot - meaning that I hunted every possible (legal) moment between September 1 and the end of the November season.
Anyway, that's the story. Hopefully, I wasn't too longwinded.
