I got my tag for my archery elk hunting as I have many times over the last 30 years. The last hunting day it had rained and after a good morning hunt I was working a ridge down toward camp. I got about 1 mile from camp and had 2 bulls bugling pretty good. I could hear cows chirping so I knew there was a herd below me a couple hundred yards. The wind was blowing straight toward them so I was sitting against a big fir trying to stay out of the rain a figure a plan of attack. I would cow call, the 2 bulls would answer and a bull up the ridge and across the canyon would answer them. The bull across the canyon was dropping down from his side to the creek bottom. After about 20 minutes I decided to go back up the ridge even though I already came from there. I got about 400 hundred yards up the ridge and the bull was a couple hundred yards below working up to me. I cow called and he answered every time. I lastly called and worked up 40 yards to a set up spot. After a couple minutes I saw movement and he worked into a shooting lane looking down the ridge to where I last called. I ranged him at 54 and let an arrow fly. I heard a loud thwak, which sounded like me hitting a tree. He ran off and I knew I needed to give him at least a half hour. I am horrible at sitting but in a way a blessing happened as I reached for my in reach to let my buddies know of the action, it was gone. I had been messaging one of them that I was headed toward camp to let the horses loose when I was under that fir tree. When I decided to go after the bull I put it in my pocket. Apparently it fell out. So I thought it was good to go look for it as it would pass the waiting time. We'll backtracking through the brush was OK but when you are sneaking through the brush you really can't find your exact route. So I redneck engineered an idea to try to connect to my phone via earthmate. As I was trying to back track I kept an eye on my phone. When I was about 50 yards from the fir tree my phone said "connected" i knew i was close and 20 yards from where i stood there was my orange in reach. I couldn't believe it. I worked my way back to my bow and pack which was where I shot from. By them my 30 minutes was up, so it worked perfectly and kept me occupied. I went down to where he was standing and found excellent blood. After a 100 yard track my bull was expired. I contacted my buddies and began breaking him down. All was broke down and hanging except for 1 half of the neck when the snap of a twig from my horses coming right to me. We loaded him up and had him to camp easily 3 hours after I released my arrow. I thank my buddies for helping me the last couple years because my Lyme disease has been a battle. Nice little 5×6 and I will take it.
