Mike's Elk Hunt
This year I had the great privilege of accompanying my dad and his long-time friend, Mike, one his muzzleloader elk hunt. This was a new unit for all of us and I had absolutely no knowledge of the unit prior to this hunt. Reading about this unit in the forums on this website in the past told us that the unit held a good number of elk and almost an equal number of hunters. Regardless, I was excited to be a part of this hunt to learn new country and lend a hand.
The first morning of the hunt we found ourselves leaving camp without seeing any other vehicles. We had the mountain all to ourselves? or so we thought. It didn't take us long to find other hunters. In fact, to our surprise we found other hunters parked off a forest road right where we were planning to park our truck for the morning hunt. We turned around and started to think about the next game plan with frowns on our faces as we saw headlamps walking up the mountain in our rear view mirrors.
With not much time to come up with another game plan, we decided to park on the next forest road and hunt the other side of the ridge with hopes in locating some bugling bulls. It was dead silent as we were hiking along the ridge with only the faint light of early dawn to guide us along. The first distant bugles broke through right as we arrived to the peak of the ridge. We stopped on the top to take a break and try to pinpoint a bugle when I heard movement through the timber below us. As the sound of twigs snapping and breaking drew closer, we could make out silhouettes of elk running through the timber. Mike immediately picks up his muzzleloader and gets ready for a shot. The group of elk were running right to us and I could see a nice bull coming up the rear. The elk go crashing through the timber breaking every tree limb in their way about 100-150 yards down the ridge. The bull never stopped and offered Mike a shot and disappears into the tick timber with his cows. They must have been spooked to us by other hunters because they never knew we were there.
After all the chaos of elk crashing through the forest, the distant bugles began to fade away as the morning grew later. We decided to just carry on our way and hunt these meadows that all of these canyons fed into. We finally arrived to the opening of this big meadow only to find a heavily traveled forest road and 2 trucks parked at the edge of the timber. We were very green to hunting this area and it showed. We decided to throw out a couple cow calls just to see if we could get a bull to respond. To our surprise a bull sounded off about 200 yards away. We cut across the meadow in pursuit of the bull only for him to shup up due to distant shots and the noise of vehicles driving by. We made a huge loop and hunted on our way back to the truck with tired legs and hopeful thoughts towards the evening hunt.
For the evening hunt we decided to focus in the high country. It was a long drive from camp just to reach the area and we felt confident that we were going to get away from the crowds. Wrong again! We were amazing how much people we ran into that evening. We decided to hunt a ridge that looked really promising and was littered with elk sign. As we were walking along this one ridge we couldn't help but notice a bunch of crows. Only one thing came to mind? Somebody killed an elk there earlier that morning. It didn't take us long to find a de-boned bull elk carcass. We stuck around for a little bit until we heard bugles in the distance. They sounded a bit odd and it didn't take us long to figure out that they were other hunters. We got a bit discouraged and decided to get away from the crowds. We got back in the truck and drove around to try and figure out a game plan for the next morning hunt.
The next morning we decided to hunt around a forest service rain water catchment tank. This area was originally the plan for opening morning but other hunters prevented us from hunting there. We didn't hear any close shots so we figured that it would still be a good plan. After a couple miles of hiking on the road that led to the tank, we were stopped by sudden bugles. Again the bugles sounded like they were hunters so we ignored them and kept on our way. We finally arrived to the tank and took a break. Our break quickly turned into a little power nap. We were exhausted from the past day of covering miles on foot with only sign of other hunters to show for it. We sat at that tank when at the corner of my eye caught movement. It was more hunters that were also checking out the tank. We decided to leave the area and hunt the opposite side of the ridge on the way back to the truck. As we crested the ridge we find 2 more hunters walking to the tank. We were starting to get really discouraged. We talked with the other hunters for a little bit to find out if they have had any luck. Turns out they had seen nothing but other hunters as well. After parting ways we started our hike back to the truck. It was a long and distasteful hike back.
We were back at camp eating lunch when our good friend and his son show up and asks us how the hunt was going. He was hunting for bear in the area and knew unit quite well. We told him about our unfortunate events and he pointed us in a spot where he had harvested a bull on the prior archery hunt. He said that there were still 2 bulls left in the area and to his knowledge that none had hunted it since. It definitely raised spirits to get this new info. He headed into the evening with an extra boost just knowing that there was a slim chance of running into other hunters. Something that we were growing tired of.
That evening we hunted that new area. It seemed really promising with nobody else around for miles. We started our hike earlier than normal so that we could get back to where our friend showed a couple of wallows on the map. We hiked until we reached a fence and stopped for a little break. Nothing had answered our calls prior to us stopping on this thick ridge. I started blowing on my cow call just really experimenting with different sounds when a bull answers across the valley on the top of the opposite ridge. My dad and I both start cow calling at him. We knew he had cows because they would occasionally sound off so we would ever so often bugle back at him. This combination of calls really got him fired up. Finally, the action that we had been hoping for! Before we knew it, he closed the distance and got within archery range. The cool thing about it all was I got it on video! Well kind of. I didn't get the kill shot but I got everything leading up to it.
Not the most ideal spot lol. Made for one heck of a packout!
Mike with his bull
Mike and my Dad (Francisco)
Because of the steep slope we had to tie the bull?s rack to trees using 550 cord so that he wouldn't move during the quartering process
Before the packout
What an incredible hunt! The way everything unfolded leading up to the final moments. It was unreal how quick things changed! From a very discouraging hunt of running into other hunters everywhere to calling in a rut crazed bull into under 15 yards! All I know is that this is a hunt I won't soon forget. Tons of ups and downs with lots of new learned country and an epic ending!
ElkSniper