We need new stories to make it till sept.1. Heres mine.

[MIKEXRAY]

We need some serious new topics & stories on here, we still have two months. I'll start, but I want to hear more of yours. 2007 was my first archery success ever after five years of hunting the same area. Opening day I was on stand before light on the east side, at first light I had elk moving in groups of two & three all around me.I saw 9 elk all out of range, at ten thirty I packed all my gear into my pack & was standing there ready to head down to the truck when I looked up and a spike bull was standing broadside right in front of me. My range finder was in my pack, I estimated him at 40 yards and took the shot. He stepped backwards behind a tree & then stepped back in the same exact spot. I thought I had hit him, I drew, put the 40 yard pin and took another shot. The elk ran off and I walked up to where he was standing to find my arrows two inches apart & clean misses both. I never saw the first shot to correct. Actual range 53 yards. Next morning I was in same stand, saw 4 elk out of range at first light. At 10am I heard the "stick snap" & turned to see a doe coming towards me, she passed at 20 yards. Ten minutes later a yearling doe, then 15 minutes after that I heard another deer, I turned expecting a doe and to my surprise a 4x3 mulie buck was standing there. I let him walk by (took 20 min) , drew my bow at 20 yards and drilled him perfect. Blood came out of the entrance wound like a hose on half way. The buck went 25 yards and piled up never leaving my sight. Seemed all surreal and had to ask myself numerous times if it actually happened. I could see the buck to confirm that it did happen. First time ever that I took a meat pack up the mountain, only because I had the shots the day before. Packed the buck down and dropped off at the butcher on the way home. I didn't hunt for elk thinking the deer was enough meat and excitement. The picture of my buck was on the March photo contest, it was the buck antlers on the "Shed". Will be in the same stand before light, on opening day 2008 very confident. Now somebody post a story about bowhunting, time is going slowwwwwww. Add your story right here, any good story.

[rougheye]

One time i was hunting      at bandcamp      good idea ill see what i can cook up

[chukar-ridge-quest]

Uhh, doesn't bear and cat open the first of August.

[DeKuma]

Short Stories......

[Timberstalker]

Hell split tail is open all year..............

[bowhuntin]

I don't have any stories to share, but I found this while looking around on another site. If your board check it out, it is a sow grizzly and two cubs and a wolf interacting. http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/research//video/Kendall_O2007carcasswolfbear

[HuntingFanatic]

that was a cool video.

[MIKEXRAY]

Thanks for the video it was cool. No long cool stories out there ? Hell have two beers and make something up, this is the internet. We'll never know. I don't even care if they are sucess stories, anything that happened to you is cool. post one on, I'm sure other people will hop on the story telling. Thanks. Mike

[Houndhunter]

for the first time by ourself me and my buddy went towards ********* and had a lil luck. got to our spot nice and early and the bulls were goin at it. so we snuck down right to them and i spotted a real nice 6x6 wondering no more then 300yrds from us. i set my buddy up in position, he always seems to shoot first , and i got settled in and started workin some sexy elk language. sure enough i worked him into 30yrds of my buddy, broadside, he came in to our setup perfect. i saw my buddy pull back, man was i excited, and release. i thought for sure he hit him but turned out he shot under him. we were pretty bummed seeing as he was so big. i'd never called in a bull without my old man with me so i was pretty darn proud. plus some of my friends relatives we know had this bull playin around with them but he'd never come, and the first time we go out there we get our shot at him , so that made me feel better

i have now also been officially considered to speak fluent elk

[MIKEXRAY]

Nice job Hound Hunter, it is a big accompishment when you call them in by yourself. I didn't get to do it until I was 41 years old, so you are way ahead of the game. Nice to have a dad show you the ropes, I had to figure crap out myself and takes a little longer. I called in my first bull elk in 2006 and was not prepared at all for the situations. We called in 6 different bulls but no kill. Mine hung up at 60-80 yards and wanted to see the bull before taking another step. I was thinking on a Montana elk decoy to pop up to draw them the last yards ?

[DeKuma]

I have yet to call in an elk on purpose  It will be interesting this year.
I have used a cow call to help calm animals down when I make noise in the woods though.  One time I was bear hunting and trying to get this bear to break out of cover for a better look at him, so I was stalking a little closer and hitting a chirp on the call.  Got to a little rise and sat down and called a few times.  That got the bear interested and I could see him trying to circle around for a look at what made the noise.  The brush was chest high and thick, with small openings.  The bear disappeared in the thick stuff and I kept waitching for him. 
I started a short series of mews and chirps then I heard a snap behind me.  As I was sitting just below the crest of the rise, I though there is my bear and proceeded to peek over the edge with the pistol drawn.  As soon as my head came over the top I found myself face to face with a Spike Bull.  He saw me and I saw him!  He blew snot out is his nose and damn near in my face and let out a scream/chirp and bolted out of there.
Never did see the bear again, but I needed to go home and change my shorts anyways.

[bowhuntin]

A couple of years ago I was bow hunting the late season around yakima with my buddy. At this time I was hunting with a recurve, rather than the compound I am using now and had to get 20 yards or less for a shot. We got to the spot a little late, but we start hiking up a ridge. There was a good foot of snow on the ground and it was pretty crunchy making it kind of hard to walk with out breaking through the crust of the snow and making a bunch of noise. Anyways once on top of the ridge my buddy spots a herd on the ridge over from the one we are on. There are probably around fifty elk in the herd. We watched them for a little bit trying to decide a strategy.

The elk by this time are moving on and heading for some timber on the next ridge over from the one they are on where they can bed down. My buddy is going to make a big circle to get on top of the ridge where they are and I dropped off the ridge to follow them. We had seen the elk bed down in this timber, but the country we were in was pretty open, so before anything we could even get over there and try to make a stalk they split. 

I decided to go into the timber and see if I could figure out where they were headed. They had headed higher to where it was harder to get to them. I am following the trail down that the elk had come from when I look up to the other ridge and there are four stragglers from the herd of elk that was in the timber. They are heading straight for me on the same path the herd took. The wind is right, so I look for a good spot to ambush these unsuspecting elk. I chose a spot behind a tree and a bush that is about five yards off the trail that these elk were going to come up. I can hear them making there way up the trail and then it was dead silent. I waited and waited and it seemed like it was taking them a long time to make their way up this trail because I had heard them making noise in the timber right below me and they had sounded really close. I finally lose my patient and start to get up from my ambush spot and I peaked around the corner to see a cows head coming out of the timber. They didn't see or hear me, so I tried to get back to my ambush spot. I lost my balance, no thanks to the boots that I was wearing that were are clogged up with compacted snow and had to grab the bush that I had been hiding behind to stop from falling. That was all the noise it took for those elk to take off crashing through the timber. I did learn from that to be more patient and sit tight and wait them out.

[MIKEXRAY]

Nice stories, thanks. Decuma that same thing happened to me down in coweeman. An elk ran away from me and I cow called & then sat for 20 min. Heard a small stick and turned my head to see a spike 10 ft right there behind me. Scared the crap out of both of us, his eyes rolled up in the back of his head, turned & jumped 20'. Never even cocked my muzzleloader.  I've also screwed up Bowhuntin, many scenarios. patience is hard.

[Crunchy]

I dont think mine is that exciting.  Opening day last year.  Sat in an area  I knew the elk used frequently. About an hour and a half into opening day I could hear the elk running my way.  I was about 100 yards off a main trail.  Looked over and could see lots of elk legs.  The first few were cows.  They were to cross about 25 yards in front of me.  I drew back, which caught the eye of the lead cow.  She stopped broadside to check me out.  I had to decide whether to shoot her, or hope that I could hold long enough for her to keep walking.  I wanted a bull but wasnt sure if there was one in the heard. I waited about 25 seconds and let her have it.  Perfect shot and she took off, with the other elk going the direction they came from.  Never saw if there were any bullls.  Waited 10 minutees and went to look for my arrow.  Jumped another elk that musta been bedded down about 30 yards away.  Didnt find the arrow so I waited another 40 minutes.  Started to track and found good blood.



Found my arrow, and elk about 30 yards later.  Season over.

[Crunchy]

I hope that isnt too grafic?  If so I apoligize and the mods can delete the image.  I dont think  I can or now how to...