I finally got a chance to take some time off work last week to get out and do some real hunting. For the last seven years I've been hunting this particular area during the rut with no success. I always find elk there, but usually its during the period of the rut where the bulls are more likely to bugle and run away with the cows. This year I finally put my hard learned lessons from past years to use and I was fortunate enough to harvest a very healthy and beautiful coastal roosie.
I caught up with the herd during the first afternoon of my hunt Tuesday. I'd hiked about 3/4 of mile cross country through a stand of mature second growth timber, putting me right on top of a large river terrace/flood plain at the confluence of two forks of one of our larger coastal streams...ground zero for rut activity for the elk that use the area. I knew there'd be elk down there judging by the amount of sign I'd seen in the surrounding upland areas. I sat down at one of the major elk trails leading off the hill and did a series of calls. I got an immediate response from what sounded like a dandy of a bull...and after I heard the cows light up in the background I knew it was on. After about 15 minutes of bugling back in forth with the bull, I came to the sad realization that this bull had no intentions of leaving his cows...and eventually his bugles became more and more faint. I knew he would either head downstream and cross the river or climb up over a ridge and drop down into to another small drainage. I made up my mind that I was gonna have to go get him, so I bailed off the hill down in to the bottom.
When I made it to where the elk had been, two things became apparent. First, the amount of tracks in there made it almost impossible for me to tell which way they were headed...and second, even more concerning, I hadn't heard a bugle, mew, or branch break in about 20 minutes. After about 30 minutes of detective work I finally found where they went up over the ridge and dropped down into the other drainage. Eventually I caught up to them and I could hear a few branches breaking and faint bugles, so I picked up my pace and tried to get ahead of them on the downhill side. I got to a point where I couldn't hear anything anymore so I turned and started booking it straight up hill. In the process of trying to be fast and quiet I ended up walking right in to the middle of the herd without even knowing it. I had two cows looking right at me. They started doing the slow nervous walk back down the hill and I could hear the rest of them starting slowly follow. After a few more cows trotted through, I finally caught a glimpse of the bull working his way toward my shooting lane at about 40 yds. I gave a little mouth chirp and stopped him perfectly for a lung shot (obviously I've been watching to much TV). I made a good shot on him and he stumbled about ten yards forward and stood there for about a minute before he finally fell over and expired. It was about 5 pm at that point so I had a lot of work to do and a good 45 minute hike out. Fortunately I ended up killing the bull a little closer to an open road, but it wasn't anywhere near where my truck was parked. I got the bull dressed out and made it back to my truck right at dark. I was able to recruit some help to go back out that night with headlights and lanterns to quarter and skin, but I had no such luck the next day when it came time to pack out.
It was about a half mile pack to the closest place I could get my truck. Most of it was an old road overgrown with salmon berry and cluttered with windthrow. I started at about 8am (after about 4 hrs of sleep) and had it all packed out by about 2pm. 7 trips total...two hind quarters, two front shoulders, 2 game bags full of boned out meat, and one head and cape. When I made it back to the truck on my last trip, I ripped off my shirt like the Hulk and let out a war whoop. This will be one of those packs I'll look back on when I'm 50 and think "man that was stupid".
Here's a few pics of the bull, the country, and a few for you antler lovers...enjoy. Thanks for letting me share...
