My First Archery Elk Solid 6 X 6

[mikelonsford]

So here's my story................
I get my 1 week a year to go elk hunt and this year I'm going to Montana with some buddies.  I leave in a few days.  I couldn't let the one weekend in WA's elk season go without hunting though.  Went out for a family BDay party fri night, didn't get home until 9:30, pack until 11:30, up at 3, hunting at 7 (hr later than I wanted). 

Went to a spot I've gotten to know well in the last 5 years.  Did some light bugling and cow calling as going through the meadow edges and woods.  Eventually get to the darker timber and am hunting along.  Give off a locate bugle, get one back, can't tell where it is, try again, get another response and this time I have a bead on direction. 

Do quite a few cow calls spread around the area, then I go 200 yds towards him pretty quick.  Give a few more cow calls behind me and get another quiet bugle response.  This time he seems pretty close maybe 100yds or less.  I sit tight with the occassional cow call behind me, using a few different cow calls (mouth reed, hoochie, and the reed in a tube) He comes forward real timid, I smell him first, then after 5 minutes or so I see dark horns moving through the trees.  Then i finally see his body, he his going off to my left and I range a few areas in front of him expecting him to come past me at anywhere from 20 to 50 yards.  He goes by at about 40 but I just have glimpses of him, no shot opportunities.  I am kneeling behind a tree and slowly keeping it between us as he goes past.  Eventually he is too far back so I cow call behind me to see if he'll come back a bit.  He turns my way and he is know directly downwind, which I am thinking is real bad. 

I've called quite a few elk in but always do good with the wind, but in this case I have about a gallon of bug spray on because I had to do some serious battle with some weird Devil Spawn Skeeters out this weekend.  Anyway he busts out like he is Secretariat in the home stretch and he is gone the way he came in from...I am thinking "Great, here we go again", but Man that was Cool to see him up close, when your hands are shaking and you are sure he's gonna hear your heart beat out of your chest. 

Well I think that for about 1 minute and once the commotion dies down, I try some more cow calls in front of me and to my right ( he is front left).  He actually calls back with a little bravado so I get up and go a quick 100 yds to my right front and send some more cow calls behind me and right now.  He calls back again and then again with a chuckle, so this time I chuckle back behind me and here he comes.  Much faster than i think he is coming quick, chuckling and stopping to rake a tree just as I see his head and realize even though I am in the dark woods I have not a single tree around me except for Charlie Brown's XMas tree about 10 feet in front of me.  I drop to both knees, duck my head and try to look small and unimposing, I am peaking out below the bill of my hat at his hooves, he veers to my left and has he passes my shoulder at about 20 yards I lean up draw and shoot.  I thought he was at about 30 yards and that is the pin I used.  It hit him dead center up and down but I thought it was WAY too far back.  As soon as it hit I thought Oh Crap!  I was so excited and so devastated at the same time.  I did a few cow calls hoping he might slow down. 

Anyhow i tried to settle down, started to take my recollections of everything to help find him.  When I went to find the arrow I couldn't find it and I looked hard, for probably almost an hour.  I really wanted to see the blood on it but wasn't going to get to.  In fact I wasn't going to get to see any blood, not a drop.  After the "bad" shot and no arrow, there was also not a single drop of blood......anywhere.  I knew where he went for about 50 yds and sound of branches for about 100 or so.  He left great tracks through the dry forest floor for about 100 yds.  I tracked him very carefully figuring I'd find him in a bed with an arrow in his gut and really wanted to put another arrow in him before he got up.  So i am still hunting along his tracks until they run out.  Now i think i am sunk and that's it. 

I finally decide to keep going on the hope of finding something and getting another arrow in him.  I do my best hurt elk guessing and keep going maybe another 75 yards and I smell rutty elk, go another 20 and smell it again this time I see antler sticking up and a thin horizon of elk hide laying down.  Not positive he's dead but he looks it, i am trying not to be to excited yet.  Sneak up until I see the dead eyes on him and know I finally have accomplished this goal of a bull with my bow, and he's pretty stinking big to boot!  Apparently if you ask God enough to let you have hit the liver...sometimes it works.  Now i am so excited and after cussing myself for 2 hours I am just very very thankful and just pretty damn happy.  I can not believe it.  All I can think is....WOW!  I sit by myself for about 1/2 hour trying to get a few pics and just soak it in(battery dead after about 4 pics).   

Anyhow, did I mention i was by myself and about a 2 mile hike in the wilderness?  I was busy the rest of the afternoon quartering and hanging meat.  A few hunters came by, the last was a great help (if you read this THANK YOU BRAD!!!) as he took a front quarter, while I took another and his daughter took our bows.  I got to town about 8:30 that night with 2 of 6 loads in the truck.  Called my Dad who lives about 3 hours away.  He met me at 6 in town the next AM and we were hiking in about 8.  1 hour hike in 2 hour hike out, did it twice and we were done.  Glad too cause I didn't want a lot more than that.  It was 90 degrees on Sunday and the bugs were as bad as the day before.  My Dad is 69 and he took at rear quarter just like a 20 year old, or almost anyhow.  I hope I am half as studly as he at that age.  I know he won't be reading this but THANKS DAD!  A guy could not ask for a better Dad. 

Here are some pics, I hope.....I am fairly inept at posting pics.  Good luck to everyone !  I am hoping for more luck in Montana.

[RightPlace-RightTime]

Very nice elk and awsome story,  Good solo hunt

[mikelonsford]

Here are some more pics..............

[Michelle_Nelson]

Thats a GREAT looking bull for your first Archery Elk!  Congrats!

[cle elum bowhunter]

Nice job Mike, how about them flies up there.  They were BAD.  Big ass horse flies that bite right through your shirt. My hands were swollen for about 3 days.  check your pm's.

[huntnnw]

nice...great bull! What part of the state?

[MADMAX]

Wow !
nice elk

[250savage]

Great first elk. Cool story, hope you have the same luck on your Montana hunt. Congrats.

[SniperDanWA]

Great story and great hunt.  Awesome job.  Congrats to you.

[Huntboy]

Nice elk, congrats.

[PA BEN]

nice...great bull! What part of the state?

Nice bull Looks like a NE corner bull to me.

[huntnnw]

Thats what I thought

[buglebuster]

Congrats man beautiful first archery kill!

[bearhunter99]

That is a fantastic archery elk whether it was your first or tenth.  Congratulations!

[cem3434]

Thats a pig for your first bull and decent bull by anyones standards.  Congrats!