RE: How close does an elk have to be?
OK, I ended my mid-day post with the question of how close an elk has to be to see his nose run, now I can get around to giving you an answer.
This morning, we started out in the area where we bumped into the big bull yesterday, when we were on our way to get cleaned up. This area is small aspen and pine covered hills, really pretty easy country to walk in.
We weren't hearing anything, when a bull gave out a weak bugle around 7:30 or so. We got on him as fast as we could, but he was traveling and only calling about every 15 to 20 minutes. We figured the bull was probably about 400 yards ahead of us, and we decided to get to a small cluster of pines and then try calling to get him to answer so that we could better pinpoint his location. As I approached the pines, I bumped a young 6 point bull that was standing on the other side of the trees. He took off, but not terribly spooked as I don't think he realized what I was. Anyway, we knelt down right where we were, about 20 yards from the trees we wanted to be in. Nick heard another elk give out a EEUK off to our left, so he cow called and before we could move to set up, the bull was coming in on a string. I was to Nick's right, and even though he could see the bull clearly through the trees, I could not. However, I could follow his progress to us by watching his shadow on the aspens. It was pretty neat to track him by watching the shadow go from tree to tree. The bull was a 5x5, bigger than a raghorn, but not a monster 5 point. Anyway, he came in to about 20 yards, and circled us a bit trying to determine what we were. He was withing 25 yards for a couple minutes, sometimes an easy broadside shot, but we're not going to shoot a bull like this at this point in the hunt. He never did end up busting us, but moved off slowly and quietly.
Once that bull was safely out of sight, I asked Nick to get about 30-40 yards behind me and set up our 'flat cow' and do some calling. Flat cow is my Montana elk butt decoy. Pretty soon, we had a herd feeding silently toward us through the aspens, but I didn't realize that Nick couldn't see most of the elk. I could see about 15 or so elk coming across my front, from the right, and turned to motion for Nick to be quiet so that they could just feed to me on their own. This is where it really got to be fun.
When I turned back toward the elk, there was a spike that was looking out from the pines that we originally intended to set up in. The bull was less than 20 yards from me, and when Nick saw him, he decided to play with him, not realizing that I had an entire herd feeding toward me. The spike came toward me and I can tell you that at a distance of five or six yards, you can see their nose running and can see the hairs on their velvet very distinctly. So, there is your answer about how close they have to be to see their nose run. The spike stood looking at me for well over a minute at this close distance, and then he turned to walk away....and he bedded down 12 yards from me!
For those who aren't bowhunters, this may seem unreal. I was fully camo'ed, but did not have my face painted with camo cream. I've only got about 8 days of beard and was a bit dirty, so my face didn't shine too much. I was wearing gloves and standing in front of some aspen and pine trees, so my outline was broken up a bit. The key to all of this working without spooking that little bull was holding absolutely still while he craned his neck every which way, trying to figure out what I was. That bull tried to figure me out for a long time, and at one point our eyes were burning holes in each other and I dared not blink. My kids and I used to enjoy having 'staredowns' when they were little, but I never figured I'd have one with a 400 pound spike elk at less than 20 feet. I won!
Nick still couldn't see the rest of the herd, so he started messing with the spike. He got him up and looking around, while all I wanted was for him to go away since I was sure that the herd bull was going to show up at any time and I didn't want Mr. spike to blow up when I drew my bow. By now the herd had also bedded down, about 35-40 yards right in front of me. I was sure that there was a herd bull and I was in an excellent position to take him when he stepped into view. After all, I had about 15-16 live decoys sitting right in front of me, all wihtin archery range. Each time the spike would start to wander off, Nick would turn him around and keep him right next to me. He was having fun with this, but I was about ready to strangle him!
Finally, after a good twenty minutes, the wind shifted and the herd got a whiff of human scent and they all took off, but not too badly spooked. The funniest part was, the spike was looking around(about 15 yards from me at this point)like he couldn't figure out why everyone had left. He kept turning around trying to decide what to do, when finally he wandered off in the general direction of the rest of the elk. Nick came up and I told him that I was ready to beat him for keeping that spike in my lap with all the other elk bedded right in front of me, and he answers with 'I didn't know they were there.' That was the first time I realized that he couldn't see the other elk, even though he was less than 70 yards from them. We never did see the herd bull, but with two sattelite bulls and the spike, I figured there had to be a mature bull with them, he was just not visible from my location. The entire time we were with these elk, perhaps 30-45 minutes, they never made a single sound, other than when the 5x5 gave that EUUK at the beginning.
It was a great morning, one everybody who enjoys September elk hunting should get to experience.
This evening, I again sat the same tank as last night. There are a few bulls working that area, and I thought we were going to get a shot this evening, until three guys who were dressed in full camo came over the ridge, right into the elk that were heading into the tank. The elk took off, and I came out from my hide to get their attention and let them understand that I'd appreciate them leaving without further screwing up my hunt. As soon as they saw me, they turned and left but the evening was pretty much a bust after that. No other bulls came in after that, and there was another guy scouting who kept blowing his bugle and educating the bulls that lit up with their own calls right at dark. I don't think these guys had any idea that I was hunting right there, and they really ended my chances early tonight.
Tomorrow, we're going to hunt the same area as this evening, and hopefully won't have to deal with interference from guys who's hunt hasn't even started yet. These were pretty much the first guys we've encountered off the roads and trails on foot, and we're hoping they check out some other areas tomorrow.
If all goes according to plan, we'll be packing an elk out tomorrow. We feel like we've got these elk figured out, and I plan to be there the entire day, waiting for my chance to take one of the nicer bulls we've seen.
Thanks to antlerrick, I'll be able to give another update tomorrow night, unless we're still on the mountain.
Thanks again, Rick! We really enjoyed the pizza.