Alright guys here is what happened. I probably should focus on work but I haven't gotten shiz done this week anyways. I'll keep it to the point and short.
On Sept. 18 I got a call telling me I was the alternate for the hunt. I'm screaming and shouting you know the typical reaction of any guy wanting to hunt "his" unit. Well the guys in my office start laughing April Fools, well since they didn't get me earlier I thought you sums beaches. I ask the gal to send me an email and guess what...I got it.
Well I called my hunting partner and told him plans had changed, luckily he was cool. Not liking crowds, and knowing the area I was going to hunt we decided to hump it in and high on Tuesday. We got into elk hiking in and were pumped, we set up camp and they were in are backyard the whole night. Or should I say we were in their backyard. They about trampled us that night and we didn't sleep to well with bugling and moving around etc. It was awesome. Well Opening morning we find the elk and just couldn't seal the deal a couple of times. We were taking a nap up high and at 1:30 we heard a bugle, it was the last bugle we would hear in that area the rest of the trip. Due to ML deer pressure and us living right with them ,they left. After nap time we glassed up a "crabby" buck...I'll share that story on the deer forum. After shooting and taking care of the deer we were not on elk again until Friday or Saturday.
The elk had left the area up top so we decided to head down, to do that we had to pack out a third time, two others for deer and water. We drove around the mtn and started on the elk again after taking half a day off. We were kind of pooped from climbing the same mtn 3 times for deer water and first day pack in. We discovered that the elk were either on the top or clear on the bottom. We decided to hunt low for the time being.
The elk would come out to the desert every morning and hit the NV border or close to by shooting light. After watching this a couple times we thought we had a real good idea as to where they would come out again. After getting set up we heard a real nice growler, we had seen him twice in the two days prior but we couldn't get on him on public ground in time. As we were set up we heard him and we thought he was already out of bounds, as the light came up we realized we were wrong. I looked at Kelly and said, "I screwed up we're one bluff to far East that bull is or was on legal ground." So we moved over one bluff by that time the bigger bull was out of bounds. As we watched the desert we saw the head of one cow come over the bluff way out in the distance. We thought alright here they come, usually the heard of 60-70 cows would all come out but this time it was one cow and this bull hot on her trail. We knew we were a little to far north from where they would appear so we snuck to the South where we thought they would pop out. Soon enough the cow pops up 100 yds in front of us. The wind was perfect and they hadn't seen us but she had the sixth sense and was nervous to enter the little valley and head West. Then bam the bull shows up, it was picture perfect. The sun was coming up right behind him as he was alone on this bluff 100 yds in front of us. He lifted his head up to sniff and showed off his nice fronts. My goal for the hunt was 330 and he fit the class, even though there were bigger bulls I set a target and would not pass on anything at or above my goal. He stepped broadside and our little heads were just poking above the desert bluff, I rest my gun on Kelly's shoulder and wispered,"higher, higher" he kind of knelt/stood up with my ML on his left shoulder as I took aim. Crack- thump. I knew I hit him good and he was off to the races minus his left shoulder. I hit him well and he expired 100 yards or so later. What a hunt.
From late notice to spending a day on deer, the hunt ended up completely awesome. Truly an experience of a lifetime. As we all know the hard work had begun. Now I have to wait as many years, as points I had when I drew, just to have a stab at it again in this state.
