idaho bound
- Thread starter Zpd307
- Start date
iccyman001
New member
- Apr 30, 2014
- 5,489
Good luck Gary!!!!!! I cant wait to see what you take down, please take pictures.
Eyeeyecaptain
New member
- Aug 4, 2017
- 167
Good luck!
cohunter14
Administrator
- Jul 10, 2017
- 5,345
Good luck Gary, looking forward to seeing the report!
david.denham.39
New member
- Mar 20, 2014
- 372
Good luck!
i am back. this year was a roller coaster ride of epic proportions...... long story short. i shot a 6x bull at 20 yards and lost him on day 6..... screwed up on a smaller 6x bull at 40 yards on day 3. had around a dozen bulls under 50 yards that the wind changed on me and blew them out. this is the most elk action that i have ever had! i am still sick about that bull. had him rubbing a tree and then wallowing for 20 mins at 20 yards before i got a shot on him. i went from a meth high to a heroin withdrawal all in one day...... i will add more to the story and pics a little later. still getting caught up on everyones escapades while i was gone.
cohunter14
Administrator
- Jul 10, 2017
- 5,345
Sorry to hear that Gary. At least you were right in the thick of it and got a ton of action! Looking forward to hearing your report.
I will start at the top. for those that who don\'t know, this was my first year in Idaho after 2 unsuccessful years in Colorado. which is mostly due not knowing enough about elk behavior. I was able to get into the elk those 2 years.
I was able to get to the area in august, but didn\'t get to scout much as I brought my 2 youngest boys with. so finding elk was my biggest concern....
it took a day and a half to find them. after I did, boy was it fun. on the second full day, I found freshly used wallow along the creek. just into the timber I heard a herd hitting their hooves on a deadfall on there way up, just as a bull starting raking just below. the bull winded me with a swirl of the wind. and then 2 bulls up higher started bugling at each other. they quit before I could pin point them. I followed the herd and came upon some more wallows around a mega wallow. went up higher and sat around 6 bulls raking trees several times through out the day. the wind kept me from getting any. busted 2 bulls, a rag and small 5x on the way back to camp in the sage just before shooting light ended. what a day...
chased a small 6x with huge whales the next morning. he was brave enough to feed in the sage on the way up. I got too excited while finding a spot to set up and he busted me at 40 yards out in the open.
over next few days I chased that same bull that I first heard raking. he was like clock work but the terrain and thermals prevented me from setting up on him very well. I also explored some more of the area. we also went to town to shower and eat a good meal.
day 6 had me on the raking bull again, I was determined to get him.... so I made a point to try and dog him up the mtn. I never found out which way he went every time.... I found myself at the mega wallow and never saw the bull. the thermals had changed and there was no point trying dog him anymore. i checked the wallow and it was frozen. the wallow is the start of the creek that i followed up and is in the middle between the timber and the sage field. i sat took a break in the shade about 30 yards up from the wallow to take off my long johns, the is still plenty warm. while taking the break, i took a pic to text to the wife since i had cell service. while waiting for it to send i heard a bull start raking a tree next to the wallow just 30 yards away below me.! i grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow and snuck in on the bull. there was a wall of thick pines between me and him but, i could get a glimpse of his antlers. man they were big. he was facing up hill towards me so i couldn\'t draw and bend around the pines to shoot. so i backed up to make sure i had the wallow covered in case he went up that way. man i was shaking so bad! the bull went over to the wallow and beat it with his hoof to break it open. there i was 20 yards away to watch the show!
I was able to get to the area in august, but didn\'t get to scout much as I brought my 2 youngest boys with. so finding elk was my biggest concern....
it took a day and a half to find them. after I did, boy was it fun. on the second full day, I found freshly used wallow along the creek. just into the timber I heard a herd hitting their hooves on a deadfall on there way up, just as a bull starting raking just below. the bull winded me with a swirl of the wind. and then 2 bulls up higher started bugling at each other. they quit before I could pin point them. I followed the herd and came upon some more wallows around a mega wallow. went up higher and sat around 6 bulls raking trees several times through out the day. the wind kept me from getting any. busted 2 bulls, a rag and small 5x on the way back to camp in the sage just before shooting light ended. what a day...
chased a small 6x with huge whales the next morning. he was brave enough to feed in the sage on the way up. I got too excited while finding a spot to set up and he busted me at 40 yards out in the open.
over next few days I chased that same bull that I first heard raking. he was like clock work but the terrain and thermals prevented me from setting up on him very well. I also explored some more of the area. we also went to town to shower and eat a good meal.
day 6 had me on the raking bull again, I was determined to get him.... so I made a point to try and dog him up the mtn. I never found out which way he went every time.... I found myself at the mega wallow and never saw the bull. the thermals had changed and there was no point trying dog him anymore. i checked the wallow and it was frozen. the wallow is the start of the creek that i followed up and is in the middle between the timber and the sage field. i sat took a break in the shade about 30 yards up from the wallow to take off my long johns, the is still plenty warm. while taking the break, i took a pic to text to the wife since i had cell service. while waiting for it to send i heard a bull start raking a tree next to the wallow just 30 yards away below me.! i grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow and snuck in on the bull. there was a wall of thick pines between me and him but, i could get a glimpse of his antlers. man they were big. he was facing up hill towards me so i couldn\'t draw and bend around the pines to shoot. so i backed up to make sure i had the wallow covered in case he went up that way. man i was shaking so bad! the bull went over to the wallow and beat it with his hoof to break it open. there i was 20 yards away to watch the show!
got interrupted, had a call
anyway.... everything worked perfectly, that is, until I drew back. there was a pine and some branches in the way while he played. so he took the two steps into my shooting lane, but my string was screwed up and the peep had rotated 90 degrees. I couldn\'t see through it.... I sized things up and based on the size of his vitals, I decided that I could line things up and still make the shot. so I did. the arrow went high right above his heart and stopped on the opposite, left, shoulder. there was about 6 inches of arrow sticking out. he was on an equal if not slightly lower plane than I was. I knew it wasn\'t the best shot but was confident that I still hit some lung. I decided to go back to camp and get my buddy to waste some time to make sure he was dead. we got back to the wallow about 3 hours later. it took an hour to find blood. blood was very spotty at first and it was slow going. just as it was really starting to come out we came across his bed. there was a good pool of blood along with a fresh poop.
I thought it was odd that if he was hurting bad enough to bed down, why would he have gotten up on his own. the pool of blood was mostly dry. but after stewing on it for the last 7 days, I figured that while we were still searching for initial blood, we swung out in a circle pretty wide and that must have kicked him up.
once we got to his bed, there was only 3 small drops of blood after that. so we spread out again. my buddy heard something get up and crash away about 60 yards up the mtn from us. I didn\'t hear it as a squirrel was chattering. a couple minutes later it crashed away again, not far from the original crash. we backed out for the night. it had a total of 6 hours after he was hit....
we went in the next day and headed to the spot where we heard the crash and found his second bed. he pooped again. there wasn\'t much blood in that bed. we only found 2 blood spots after that. we found another pile of poop close to the last spot of blood that we found. which was probably the second crashing we heard the day before. we searched every possible direction that he could have gone and found nothing more. so we picked the most likely direction he would have headed based on the sign and grid searched. which lead us to the nasty set of downfalls that I have ever seen. the elk only had a couple routes going through it and I checked each one a ways in and found nothing.
I was hoping that the birds would find him before I left so that I could at least could have closure and bring back something from him.... I hunted in the area the next 3 days and I didn\'t hear or see them.....
we went to town and ended up talking to some hunters at the diner. we were advised that a wounded and bumped bull will keep walking until he died, so I have no idea have far he could have travelled.
anyway.... everything worked perfectly, that is, until I drew back. there was a pine and some branches in the way while he played. so he took the two steps into my shooting lane, but my string was screwed up and the peep had rotated 90 degrees. I couldn\'t see through it.... I sized things up and based on the size of his vitals, I decided that I could line things up and still make the shot. so I did. the arrow went high right above his heart and stopped on the opposite, left, shoulder. there was about 6 inches of arrow sticking out. he was on an equal if not slightly lower plane than I was. I knew it wasn\'t the best shot but was confident that I still hit some lung. I decided to go back to camp and get my buddy to waste some time to make sure he was dead. we got back to the wallow about 3 hours later. it took an hour to find blood. blood was very spotty at first and it was slow going. just as it was really starting to come out we came across his bed. there was a good pool of blood along with a fresh poop.
I thought it was odd that if he was hurting bad enough to bed down, why would he have gotten up on his own. the pool of blood was mostly dry. but after stewing on it for the last 7 days, I figured that while we were still searching for initial blood, we swung out in a circle pretty wide and that must have kicked him up.
once we got to his bed, there was only 3 small drops of blood after that. so we spread out again. my buddy heard something get up and crash away about 60 yards up the mtn from us. I didn\'t hear it as a squirrel was chattering. a couple minutes later it crashed away again, not far from the original crash. we backed out for the night. it had a total of 6 hours after he was hit....
we went in the next day and headed to the spot where we heard the crash and found his second bed. he pooped again. there wasn\'t much blood in that bed. we only found 2 blood spots after that. we found another pile of poop close to the last spot of blood that we found. which was probably the second crashing we heard the day before. we searched every possible direction that he could have gone and found nothing more. so we picked the most likely direction he would have headed based on the sign and grid searched. which lead us to the nasty set of downfalls that I have ever seen. the elk only had a couple routes going through it and I checked each one a ways in and found nothing.
I was hoping that the birds would find him before I left so that I could at least could have closure and bring back something from him.... I hunted in the area the next 3 days and I didn\'t hear or see them.....
we went to town and ended up talking to some hunters at the diner. we were advised that a wounded and bumped bull will keep walking until he died, so I have no idea have far he could have travelled.
this is the pic I took just before the bull showed up at the wallow and started rubbing. the yellow line indicates where the tree and wallow was, on the other side of those pines. I snuck up to the end of the pines and saw that he was facing me, so I snuck back to the white x, as there was an opening where I could watch the wallow.[attachment=0]<!-- ia0 -->Untitled.png<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment]
iccyman001
New member
- Apr 30, 2014
- 5,489
Random, but do you remember how the blood looked? Dark? Light? Bubbles?
<!-- m --><a class=\"postlink\" href=\"http://www.lancasterarchery.com/no-limit-archery-grave-digger-broadheads.html\" onclick=\"window.open(this.href);return false;\">http://www.lancasterarchery.com/no-limi ... heads.html</a><!-- m -->
these are the broad heads that I am going to use next year. who know what an extra 3/4\" longer slice would have done....
these are the broad heads that I am going to use next year. who know what an extra 3/4\" longer slice would have done....
