I apologize ahead of time for this being so long....
After talking to my dad a few days before the hunt, I informed him that I had purchased an Elk tag. He thought that was great, because we could finally capitalize on the Elk we seem to see more of than the deer in our area. He asked what my expectations were (Spike or Cow) and I said I had none, that I simply just wanted to try and be a better hunter by getting more practice and the only way to do that, was to hunt more animals. I would be happy with either. As the week grew, so did the anticipation. Scanning over MonsterMuleys.com is definitely not the way to get excited about Cows and Spikes?.There were people posting Trailcam pics and field pics left and right of nice Bulls. I started to wonder, would one of those guys be possible? That thought kind of floated in and out of my head as I reset my thinking back to my original expectations, I just wanted more experience since I am still relatively new at Bowhunting (Started in 2007). Besides, my main focus was Muleys, they have always just gotten into my blood!
Thursday before the hunt came and I was bouncing off the walls with eagerness to finally start my 11 day journey for Deer and now Elk, free from the confines of my work cubicle. My dad had planned to meet me for the opener, but working out of town and a few duties he had to do once he got back, caused a delay to hunt until Sunday. I was a little disappointed inside thinking that opening day would have all the deer just scattered and me left scratching my head, but I decided to make the best of it. The opener came and went and on Sunday, I became excited again, after all; the most enjoyable part of the hunt is being out in the field with my dad and hearing his endless supply of hunting stories. Sunday seemed like forever and a day and needless to say, waiting for my padre was like waiting for Christmas. Finally he arrived and we headed out. We got there right before dark, but we didn't end up getting in an evening hunt as planned since we had to get all this gear set up etc., but I was just happy to have a partner. We talked and mostly I listened as many ?Good ?Ol Day? stories were told. He told me of this area that he and his best friend used to hunt, but that he hasn't been there to hunt since about twenty some odd years ago. I got excited. After hearing his stories (that have always had a vision looming in my head) I reminded him again, that I had an Elk tag too, but that I think I wanted to try for a Bull instead of a Cow or Spike. He asked if ?I was sure? because that is allot of work getting into where the bulls like to be and that it is a ?Jungle? and wouldn't be as likely as a Cow or Spike closer to a good trail. I told him I wanted to try this spot he has talked about for so many years. He again asked if I was sure, since we were not originally destined for that area (since our main focus was deer in another area) and told me that he hasn't hunted it for so long, that the animals may not even be there anymore. I could not be swayed and he could see my excitement so off we went.
When I saw the place, I was mystified. Not just by the shear beauty, but just being able to hunt an area that my dad had hunted with his trusty Bear recurve so many times. Now here I am, with my Newer Bear Truth about to walk in his past footsteps on the same mission for big game. It was an awesome feeling, like a story from a book coming true. It took us a couple of tries for Dad to remember the exact spot of the canyon, but man his stories did not lie?.it was steep and nasty!
It was about 1pm when we started making our way down the canyon. I listened and looked as my dad pointed out spots and told stories like a Tour Guide as we made our way. I was honestly happy to just be walking that same trail and if we saw an animal, it was just a bonus! Making our ways through the Pines and Quakies proved to be like walking on broken glass and popcorn?It was dry! We finally found a trail to quite us down and after a couple dozen yards, my dad pointed down and said, ?that's what we used to call Elk Springs, because every time we hunted through there, there were elk.? The nostalgia had me expecting an elk in the exact spot my dad had pointed, but nothing. A few more yards, and we found some fresh bedding spots, ?Maybe these aren't all stories? I thought to myself. One, Two?.Five we counted. This trail was proving to be productive. We moved only about twenty more yards and we decided to sit for a bit and have lunch and let things quiet down after all of our stomping through the dry stuff.
Eating some Summer Sausage, Cheese, and Garden Cucumbers; I told my dad that I thought I heard some Elk "talkin" down the mountain side. I think he thought I was a little too anxious. After finishing our lunch, we started on our way again. Only another 20 yards down the trail and I told my dad "I could smell them." I think he thought I was just playing to his stories since he didn't hear them when I did and now couldn't smell them. Another 10 yards and my dad stops dead in his tracks. ?Smell that,? he says. ?It's strong. We must be close.? Now I didn't smell anything so I thought he was just messing with me. I was only a few steps back, but when I finally got to where he was standing, he was right! The air was perfumed with the smell of strong Elk odor. We got into stealth mode and every step was made with a purpose. A few more yards and there was fresh urine and then? my dad motions back to me while stopping in his tracks and still looking forward; to stop. I do. He holds up his fingers. He has two up then four then five and a thumbs up. We were right on the elk and only about 50 yards or so from the spot he said he always saw Elk. The Elk started feeding up in front of us in a small clearing. We couldn't move! There were cows and calves left and right and they had no idea we were there. There was about 17 of them and unaware and we started to hear them speak their language! For about 10 minutes, we were in the middle of them and then we heard a crash! We thought one of them had busted us below, but all of the cows and calves just kept feeding as if unaware. Then we heard the obvious tale-tale signs that it was another magnificent beast ? a BULL! That thing must have been getting ?Hot? a little early because it was racking this tree like it was trying to uproot it from the earth. The sounds flooded the forest and this thing sounded HUGE! For a half hour this thing raked it's antlers on the tree, but it never gave us a look even though it was right below us about 40 yards.
My legs were killing me, being paused in a half step position for so long. My dad looked at me and I whispered that I would now be fine with just taking a cow since we were right in the middle of them and could no longer hear the BIG Bull. We inched forward, and wouldn't you know, the one little noise I make, gets the cows looking. After all the racket from the Bull destroying the tree and a it's a tiny leaf crackling that gets their attention. My dad motions for me to stop. I could see the cow that had us pegged. 10 minutes (or what seemed like 4 hours), I was in mid step. I ached. Finally I was in a position to draw, but my dad said, ?This is no place to just take a cow out of, you gotta take a bull to make this hike out with all that meat worth it." I was in dismay. I had a perfect shot lined up, but his reasoning made sense after all we had just been through.
After the cows fed away, I didn't think we would see another, let alone a bull since we had only even heard the first one. We stalked through the trees and one of the cows must have finally got the others anxious, because there were cows coming from every direction. We could hear them chirp and then the BIG Bull let out a subtle bugle as if to tell them the direction to go. There was probably about 35 cows and calves just scattering, so I let out a cow call and a few of them stopped. One of them even started back up the hill towards me. Quite amazing, really considering that was my first time callin somethin in. After she figured things out, she trotted off with the others.
After going further down the mountain, the elk were all around us again and making lots of noise, but this time they made it above us. It was like no matter what happened, they did not want to leave the area and the little wallow we had found. I did a couple more cow calls and called in a group of about 7. As they looked down at me from above, I tried to get my camera out of my pocket to get a picture of them looking down at me, but I was a little too zealous and they caught my movement and headed back down the hill. Just being in the action like that for so long and hearing them being so vocal was amazing! I have never been that close to so many animals that didn't know where we were and when they did, stayed around talkin up a storm. I thought that was going to be the last time we got that close to the Elk and then my dad spotted antlers the other direction. I thought it was a Monster Muley because I could only see the tops of the antlers. I got real nervous and my leg started to shake from excitement. After a minute, it started feeding up hill and out of the wash and long behold; it was a Bull elk? 3 of them in fact. They were all 6 by 6 from what I could tell and the one whose antler tops first amazed me, was the now feeding behind some bushes about 55 yards away. During all that ruckus, they didn't even know we were there. The other two fed more out of range and uphill behind those same bushes, but the first one started to make his way towards us. I knew that it would all be over in seconds, as soon as it saw my leg shaking or heard my heart beating. We were kinda stuck in an opening and had to freeze as he approached while feeding. He got to 40 yards and I thought I would try to slide behind this bush next to me so I could finally but my stride at ease, but he looked up. I thought I was busted for sure, but we were as still as a tree and he didn't seem alarmed. In my head, I just realized how for the last 20 yards we came or so; we hadn't made one single sound. It amazed me and although I was still shaking and my heart beating faster, I just literally told myself to ?Breathe?Focus?and move slow.? When he looked down and fed again, we made it behind the bush. He had closed the distance to 30 yards. I started realizing that he was feeding on a path directly towards us so I better make a move soon rather than chance him winding us. I took a half step out of the tree? Busted? or so I thought! He looked up again but this time more alert and my shaking leg in half step, was barely touching the ground. For two minutes, he looked but I guess eating was more on his mind for the energy he would need at the end of the month. As he put his head down, I remember again telling myself to ?focus? and everything else became natural. I didn't range him this time as I slowly nocked an arrow and finished my step. I figured I would come to full draw as soon as he took a step out from behind the sapling and without thinking, drew my bow and set my top pin behind his front shoulder. I remember time going so slow and as I drew my bow back, I didn't look at my pins, I just stared through to where I wanted it to hit and let it rip! Perfect shot as I heard the hit and saw my arrow shooting blood out as the G5 Striker did it's job! The elk spun clockwise and took off with the other two following him downhill. I threw my hands up into the air in excitement, but didn't yell as I felt like I forgot something. I remembered?I pulled out my cow call and let out a Meeeeoooooo. I could hear the elk stop out of site for a minute, so I waited as I contemplated my shot.
I slowly walked to where the sight of my last arrow was and a few yards away, there it was? broken about 12 inches or so up the shaft and covered in blood about inches more. I started questioning my shot but soon realized that he must have broken it off when he spun out of there to run. Soon after that moment, I heard some more crashing. I thought we must have spooked them again, but it sounded so close that I envisioned the bull falling just out of sight. After about a half hour, we circled around just to be sure we didn't spook him just in case he was still close. As we broke through the Jungle, I could see what looked like a large rock roughly the same color as the Elk. Could it be? It was, he had crashed and landed so that a dead fall tree still hanging on another tree, was right between his eyes and up through the center spread of his antlers. I couldn't see the left one, so I thought he had broken it off during the fall. The right one had a straight line down the beam indicating where it had slid the length of the log. After getting a little closer, we could tell he was done! We were so elated and this being my first Elk, let alone BULL! I couldn't believe the magic of the area and me getting such a beautiful animal in an area I had only heard about in stories with my dad taking many animals with his Bear recurve and now me with my Bear compound. It was magical to say the least. After elation, I quickly counted the points on the right side when I realized that he didn't break off the left side after all; it was just buried beneath the fallen tree and into the brush. He hadn't gone 40 yards downhill from where I hit him! While cleaning him out, I found his heart. It had the broken half of my arrow through it, dead center like it was a shish-kabob! Every year I like to do little funny things to make my dad just wonder ?what the hell?? first year of bowhunting, I drew a big Bear Archery tattoo on my forearm. Last year it was a full on Mohawk (although I forgot to take my hat off for the pictures), this year, it was the Spidey mask. It may not have been the actual Spider Bull from last year, but it sure is a trophy to me with a bow?.and to share it with my Dad was what made it so special!
Thanks for everyone's positive comments and patience if you read the story, I know it was long winded.
I especially want to thank my Dad for taking me to his "Secret" spot! I think next year I will take a GPS so I can remember how to get there again (HA!).
~Erick
