Opening morning I got into the place I wanted to be about 20-30 minutes
before light. Sitting there at the rim of "hells hole" I heard a bull bugle
just as I sat down. I thought good, at least there is a bull down here for
me to chase this morning. After a minute or so he bugles again, then again.
Now his buddy joins up with him on the other side of the drainage. Now these
two are really making a ruckus and I am now thinking "just shut up, or you
will attract every hunter in the county to this spot". Still dark and they
are bugling non-stop, I decide to sneak up on the bull right below me in the
dark, cause I am afraid other hunters will be doing the same thing.
Just as it is starting to get light, I am about 300 yards from this
bull. Not sure of how many cows that may be with him I decide to wait. I
count to 100 but still not light enough, I count to 100 again, ok now I can
see through the timber. This whole time I can hear the bull raking his
antlers, tearing up the ground and simply just running around. I got
the wind in my favor by sliding down the side of the spine to the same level
as the bull. Finally at about 110 yards I spot him broadside. Then I see a
cow running around with him, now I am afraid to move another step cause I am
not sure how many elk are down here. Problem is that I can only see about
12" in front of the hindquarter (not enough for lungs) and 6" of his neck
right behind the head. I sit down but couldn't get steady, so I stand up and
lean against a tree. My plan was to shoot the bull and then shoot the cow on
the second shot due to having a cow and either sex tag.
Boom! Down goes the bull, perfect, now where is the cow....well
after a couple seconds the bull starts pushing himself down the hill on his
side???? How can that be? I start sneaking up at a quick pace, all of a
sudden I see an elk standing, awesome I got the cow too. Throw up my gun,
wait a minute that is the bull again.
I shoot, again he drops to the ground, now I am concerned and run up the
last 70 yards forgetting about the cow. I find him stuck in some logs still
plenty alive. At 15' he is trying to get me with his antlers so I shoot him
in the heart at a couple paces. 30 seconds later I grab his antlers and feel
the 6th sense kick in...look up the side to the top of the spine and there
stands two hunters at 100 yards. They were right behind me sneaking up on
the same bull.
I had forgot that I have my rifle sighted in 3.5" high at 100 yards,
so when I shot him in the neck it missed the spine but was close enough to
shock him and put him on the ground. He quickly got his muscle movement back
though and would have been gone had I not shot again. There was minimal
bleeding and didn't cause any serious long term damage from the first shot.
That first trip with my day pack was just the antlers and about 5-10lbs of
meat. I got back to the elk later in the day to pick up my first load of
meat and realized I didn't want to do a lot of trips down in here so I
loaded up half the meat on my pack frame. 522' vertical distance and .4
miles horizontal distance later I was to the rim of hells hole, now I only
had another 2.25 miles back to camp
That night I looked at my pack frame
and seen I had bent some metal buckles and partially tore some straps. After
fixing them I was ready to go again. The next day I took the other half of
elk in one trip. Yes, tired and sore was part of it but that was better than
3 or even 4 trips into there.
I was just happy that I shot him about 1/3 of the way down and not at the
bottom of the hole...
Never did fill my cow tag, not for trying though. On Monday, we had fresh
snow, I headed out to cut some tracks and run a cow down. On my way out and
basically giving up I finally cut some back by the truck (after 4-5 miles of
walking already). So I headed after them, even though they had a 2.5 hour
head start. Knowing the long head start they had, when possible I did some
jogging to close the distance. After a couple miles back down, the elk
finally jumped over the top and headed down into another hells hole that is
worse than where I shot my bull. With an elk on the ground already, wasn't
no cow worth going in there... so I turned around and headed to the truck.
Not bad only another 2.5 miles to the road, including another 1000' drop and
a 800'climb to go. Once on the road it was only 1.8 miles walk back to the
truck ;-)
I sure like chasing them elk in the fresh snow. While I was out there that
day, I ran into a small bull moose. First time I seen him at about 40 yards,
35 minutes later I seen him again. This time I snuck into about 25 yards,
sure wish my camera had a zoom on it. He was just a little fella but was fun
stalking him in the snow.
Mntman
"Hunting is where you prove yourself"
before light. Sitting there at the rim of "hells hole" I heard a bull bugle
just as I sat down. I thought good, at least there is a bull down here for
me to chase this morning. After a minute or so he bugles again, then again.
Now his buddy joins up with him on the other side of the drainage. Now these
two are really making a ruckus and I am now thinking "just shut up, or you
will attract every hunter in the county to this spot". Still dark and they
are bugling non-stop, I decide to sneak up on the bull right below me in the
dark, cause I am afraid other hunters will be doing the same thing.
Just as it is starting to get light, I am about 300 yards from this
bull. Not sure of how many cows that may be with him I decide to wait. I
count to 100 but still not light enough, I count to 100 again, ok now I can
see through the timber. This whole time I can hear the bull raking his
antlers, tearing up the ground and simply just running around. I got
the wind in my favor by sliding down the side of the spine to the same level
as the bull. Finally at about 110 yards I spot him broadside. Then I see a
cow running around with him, now I am afraid to move another step cause I am
not sure how many elk are down here. Problem is that I can only see about
12" in front of the hindquarter (not enough for lungs) and 6" of his neck
right behind the head. I sit down but couldn't get steady, so I stand up and
lean against a tree. My plan was to shoot the bull and then shoot the cow on
the second shot due to having a cow and either sex tag.
Boom! Down goes the bull, perfect, now where is the cow....well
after a couple seconds the bull starts pushing himself down the hill on his
side???? How can that be? I start sneaking up at a quick pace, all of a
sudden I see an elk standing, awesome I got the cow too. Throw up my gun,
wait a minute that is the bull again.
I shoot, again he drops to the ground, now I am concerned and run up the
last 70 yards forgetting about the cow. I find him stuck in some logs still
plenty alive. At 15' he is trying to get me with his antlers so I shoot him
in the heart at a couple paces. 30 seconds later I grab his antlers and feel
the 6th sense kick in...look up the side to the top of the spine and there
stands two hunters at 100 yards. They were right behind me sneaking up on
the same bull.
I had forgot that I have my rifle sighted in 3.5" high at 100 yards,
so when I shot him in the neck it missed the spine but was close enough to
shock him and put him on the ground. He quickly got his muscle movement back
though and would have been gone had I not shot again. There was minimal
bleeding and didn't cause any serious long term damage from the first shot.
That first trip with my day pack was just the antlers and about 5-10lbs of
meat. I got back to the elk later in the day to pick up my first load of
meat and realized I didn't want to do a lot of trips down in here so I
loaded up half the meat on my pack frame. 522' vertical distance and .4
miles horizontal distance later I was to the rim of hells hole, now I only
had another 2.25 miles back to camp
That night I looked at my pack frameand seen I had bent some metal buckles and partially tore some straps. After
fixing them I was ready to go again. The next day I took the other half of
elk in one trip. Yes, tired and sore was part of it but that was better than
3 or even 4 trips into there.
I was just happy that I shot him about 1/3 of the way down and not at the
bottom of the hole...
Never did fill my cow tag, not for trying though. On Monday, we had fresh
snow, I headed out to cut some tracks and run a cow down. On my way out and
basically giving up I finally cut some back by the truck (after 4-5 miles of
walking already). So I headed after them, even though they had a 2.5 hour
head start. Knowing the long head start they had, when possible I did some
jogging to close the distance. After a couple miles back down, the elk
finally jumped over the top and headed down into another hells hole that is
worse than where I shot my bull. With an elk on the ground already, wasn't
no cow worth going in there... so I turned around and headed to the truck.
Not bad only another 2.5 miles to the road, including another 1000' drop and
a 800'climb to go. Once on the road it was only 1.8 miles walk back to the
truck ;-)
I sure like chasing them elk in the fresh snow. While I was out there that
day, I ran into a small bull moose. First time I seen him at about 40 yards,
35 minutes later I seen him again. This time I snuck into about 25 yards,
sure wish my camera had a zoom on it. He was just a little fella but was fun
stalking him in the snow.
Mntman
"Hunting is where you prove yourself"
