"Almost" x 3 (long hunt story)

T

TCR1

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...At the top of the switchbacks I came to a small pass between two large cliffs and instantly was elated I stuck with the plan. The small hole in the wall led to a beautiful aspen meadow. With light fading fast, I hastily made camp on the west side of the bowl and ate some dry ramen noodles. You may ask, ?Why eat them dry??, because somebody forgot to pack the matches! I need to speak with the person who did the packing, but I figure if I do, and people see me doing it, I might find myself in a mental health institution before too long. Soon after crawling into my sleeping bag a lone bugle broke through the air. My excitement for the morning grew, but sleep did not come easily. How could it since I couldn't find a very flat place to pitch my tent. In the morning, I forced myself out of the tent at 6:30; too late to start hunting by many peoples standards, but quite early enough for my liking. After getting my equipment for the morning hunt packed, I noticed a nice, very flat place to pitch my tent about 20 feet away. So off I started in a clockwise loop of the bowl. Thinking to myself how much happier I would have been had I walked just a little further and stumbled upon that perfect camp spot the night before. Then I flushed two blue-grouse. Well that certainly opened my eyes and caused me to really start hunting. About 45 minutes later I came across a well used camp spot that looked as if it were set up by an outfitter. There were rough tables attached to trees, a small horse coral fashioned from logs, and a large fire ring. If I were to spend the money on an outfitted hunt and came to this site, I would have been disappointed, but maybe it looks better once they clean up their trash and get everything set back up for the season. Continuing my clockwise route around the bowl, I soon found myself on the west-facing slope. Entering into a small patch of pine trees, I jumped three mule deer does from their beds. Now if I were rifle hunting and had a mule deer tag, this would have been fine. However, with archery hunting, jumping animals from their beds without seeing them first is a good indication that you are moving way too fast and not looking carefully enough. Another quick lesson learned. Looking up slope to the does, I noticed some clear blue sky through the trunks of some aspens indicating the top of the ridge. Curiosity got the best of me and I headed in that direction to take a look at what was on the other side. On my way there, I began to crest a small knoll, when my 6th sense told me to stop and nock an arrow to the string. Two steps later and I saw the first elk of the season. She was moving steadily to my right, but gave no indication that she knew I was there. Since elk tend to move in large herds, I was hopeful that I could take a few more steps and find myself looking at a train of elk moving along a path. Unfortunately, there were only two. The second elk caught my movement and stopped for a short minute long stare down. I glanced down at my sight and noticed that the slide adjust had moved from the 20 yard setting. I slowly reached down and moved it back and in one motion hooked my release to the string. The cow took one step forward and her head disappeared behind a small aspen. I quickly came to full draw hoping that I would get a perfect quartering away shot as she continued past the aspen, but when she got to the other side she sped off. I let down and let the adrenaline rush through me. Wow, elk sure are big! I decided to set up on a little pile of rocks overlooking the trail in the hopes that a bull elk might follow down the trail in pursuit of the cows. I still haven't learned patience and after 40 minutes of calling and watching for elk, I decided to work my way down through some thick timber towards camp. I was making my way down a well worn game trail when I caught my toe on the front of a log. This is about as unnatural a sound as glass breaking in the woods and instantly a large cow elk stood from her bed and stared at me from 40 yards. I quickly made the adjustments to my sight, but then noticed some ears twitching underneath her torso. More elk were bedded behind her! This prevented me from even attempting a shot, but a snort from my left signaled the end of this standoff. The elk thundered out of the timber and the morning hunt came to an end as I quickly walked back towards camp. All of my expectations for this hunt had already happened. I saw some great country, heard a bugle, and saw some elk. When I got back to camp, I moved my tent so that it would be flat for the nights sleep, trimmed a pine tree to make some hooks for hanging equipment, built a fire ring, and ate some food. All of this took about an hour, so it was time to head back out to hunt. I had planned on going to sit on the game trail I had seen the two cows use, but once I got there, the wind and rain did not make that plan very inviting. I hiked up the trail and found a USFS survey marker, and then I cut across to the top of a ridge. There I sat and planned to take a little nap before the evening hunt began. Unfortunately, just as I got my back quiver off and got comfortable, I heard a bugle from down the valley. I surveyed the scene and decided to move down a steep slope to sit at the bottom where a small flat field was. I gave a few cow calls from a hand operated call and waited for a bugle. After 5 minutes, I tried some more calling. Nothing happened. I sat for a while thinking that the bull might be moving in silently and didn't want him to know exactly where I was. After 45 minutes, I decided that if he couldn't find me by now, then I should give another call. After calling and with no response I sat for 10 more minutes before heading back up the steep slope.



Feeling a little tired and satisfied with my morning, I decided to slowly still hunt back through the timber I jumped the herd of elk out of earlier. My watch said 2:00. This gave me 4-5 hours to walk less than a half mile. I thought I was moving slow, but after 30 minutes I found myself nearly at the bottom. I decided to sit and think. I had been looking forward to and planning for this hunt for almost 8 months and I was thinking of giving up the final hours certain I wouldn't see anything else. Finally, I resolved to give it another shot and made some cow calls and waited for a bugle. Nothing. Every 5 minutes I did this and went through about 6 cycles, when I just stood up out of frustration and wanting to move. I hooked my release to the string and drew my bow. Why? Well, I had some trouble with my peep rotation on Friday and then again in the morning and I wanted to check that, but also to make sure my muscles were still good to draw the bow. Right when I reached full draw I heard a gut wrenching sound, the snort of an elk and the sound it makes when it high tails out of an area. One had come into the calls silently. Boy, could I make anymore bonehead newbie mistakes in one day? Probably not, so I moved into the woods a little more and called some more. This time, I was greeted with a bugle. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, so I called again, and the bull bugled back. Still unable to determine where the sound was coming from, I set up in an area that would give me cover from almost a full 360 degrees and called again. The bull bugled back, but I still couldn't tell from where and it was not getting any closer. I decided to play hard to get and moved away from the direction I thought the sound was coming from and gave another cow call. This call was answered by two distinct bugles, one from directly above me and one from below me and to my north. I positioned my self as well as I could directly between these two elk and gave another call, this call was answered by three bugles. Another bull had moved in up above me very close to the other bull. Then I gave a series of calls that made the bull from below me go nuts. He let out an enormous double bugle and I could hear his footfalls as he came towards me from across the meadow. I could see he was at least a nice 4X4 which made him legal in my area. I figured he would follow a path below me and set up to make a shot to this area. Well, as I had been doing almost all day, I thought wrong. The bull moved directly across slope from me and stood at about 20 yards. His head disappeared behind a clump of brush and I tried to draw my bow. It didn't move. I looked at the safety and it was off, there was a round chambered?what was going on?oh yeah, it's a bow, there is no safety and you don't chamber rounds?you need to pull it back and my body wasn?t able to do so in the position I was in. The bulls head popped up and looked right at me. I sat there. Then he put his head down and popped it up real quick?I sat there. He started to put his head down, then checked me again. The next time he moved his head down I readjusted my position. He took a couple more steps and his head disappeared behind some brush allowing me to get to full draw. Two more steps and I would get a shot. Little did I know, but he took those two steps and immediately busted back from whence he came. A quick check of the wind found that where he busted was exactly where the wind was carrying my scent. Strangely enough, the thought that came to my head was ?that was the coolest thing ever, but I need to get a Scent Lok suit?. I didn't even care that I didn't get to shoot at him. He seemed to be a dominate animal in the area so I was sure I saw what could be expected. Coming back to reality and getting the shakes out of my hands, I remembered that there were two more elk uphill from me and gave another cow call using my mouth call. Two separate bugles back. I headed out into the meadow and uphill to try and keep myself downwind from these prospective animals. I would call and get a bugle back, but they weren't coming closer. I played this game for 30 minutes before attempting to force the issue. I moved to a large pine tree that provided great cover and got my binoculars out. I gave a call and when the bull responded I watched through them. What I saw was both energizing and disheartening. There were two spike bull elk nervously pacing the top of the ridge. Both were still in velvet and interested in "me as a cow". Since they were not legal animals, I decided that I could force the issue and get some pictures. This would allow me to test my hunting abilities with little real consequence. I moved to another clump of pines further uphill and gave a call and got another great response I looked through the binoculars and saw both bulls and a new addition?a cow. This made things more interesting because I could shoot the cow if I got her to come by. I soon got into the routine of calling, then listening to the bugles back when all of the sudden I hear a deafening bugle from behind me. I slowly turned around to see 3 spike bulls and the back of another feeding bull. I lifted the binoculars to my eyes and saw that the feeding bull had two trees sticking out of his head. He was a large 6X6 with nice symmetrical forks and good length. He was pretty weak as far as mass, but I wanted him for my wall. So then I tried to use the two groups against each other. The curiosity of a fork horned bull from the new group brought him in to 25 yards, but he wasn?t legal, so I watched him retreat. Then a spike came to me and I had to watch. While all this was going on, about 10 more head of elk mysteriously appeared where the two spikes were. This group also had a huge bull and I watched him chase a spike from his little harem. The big bull I really wanted seemed too preoccupied with keeping his little groupies away from his cows, but when I gave a sequence of cow calls he started to move towards me. But a cow from his group intercepted him and took him back away. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the big elk from the other group had moved into shooting range (crap!). I slowly spun on my knees and adjusted my sight to 30 yards, came to full draw, and released. I watched the arrow flash from my bow, following the bright green fletchings streak through the air. The arrow was moving fast and was perfectly in line with the vitals, but I realized I made a bad mistake. The arrow dropped and lodged in a rotted log an inch beneath the bulls chest. Technically speaking, I missed the animal by an inch, but in reality I missed by a full 7-8 inches. The bull flinched, but didn't flee. In fact all the animals hung around. I tried to play with them more, but eventually they all moved away. I decided that I should go retrieve my arrow and verify that I didn't hit him. The arrow was clean and I pulled it from the log. I noticed that the elk from the group with the biggest bull were feeding down the valley and heading across to some cover. The wind was howling uphill to me and I made an effort to get to them. I made it to a pine tree, and waited for them to come around. When they finally did they were further down slope than I thought. The ?shooter? was a full 50 yards from me, which is way too far for a good shot in decent conditions, let alone a strong wind. Seeing this, I tried to move back uphill towards some cover so that I could cut across the slope and intercept them in the timber. Unfortunately, I lost track of a pair of eyes and got busted. The elk took off and that was basically the end of my hunt. I still have this Saturday to hunt, but the weather is forecasted as nasty. I hear that its good for hunting, but I tend to like the conditions I had on Saturday. What a great first elk hunting experience!
 
I'm ready for a nap! Sorry about your misfortunes Better luck next time. At least you saw some elk. Where were you hunting?
STXBUX
 

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