iccyman001
New member
- Apr 30, 2014
- 5,489
After aggressively hunting a burn section, Mark (bowfreak) and I were finally able to get something down.
As some of you all know, sometimes an area can be hot, but you need to be flexible and fine tune your spot as you go along. Well on Day 10 of the hunt.... it happened.
We were working a hot bench that I had discovered the year before. The bench had a saddle that fed into it from one side of a burn and then there was a solid feeding ground that fed into it from the side the bench was on. The bench is where they transitioned into bedding timber, so it was pretty active.
Mark had shifted above the bench because every now and then elk would sneak by us on it and I worked a glassing point/quick move point. The bench had two separate trails that fed into the timber, so this glassing point was on the more commonly used one. If you saw one heading to the lower one, you could move to it and set up.
At about 6:15 the bugles and chuckles started.
Around 7:00 the silliness started. Down below us a few hundred yards I could hear a hunter cow calling and firing this bull up.
I hadn\'t seen any other hunters in the area, so I was kind of puzzled.... I snuck over to the side of a ridge to look down, but couldn\'t see anything. It definitely seemed like a hunter was firing this bull up, but who knows... it could have been a cow.
After deciding that I didn\'t care, I snuck my way back to the glassing spot..... GREAT.... 3 cows are playing out in front of the glassing spot.
I watched them for a few seconds and realized they were heading to the lower trail. I made my move down to the lower trail, but just barely missed them. Rats!
I pulled out my phone to ask Mark if he had seen them playing around, but as soon as I pressed send on my phone and looked up..... an elk butt was walking by at 30 yards.... RATS... SHE IS HEADING TO THE TOP TRAIL. I was trapped because she was moving too fast and I couldn\'t close the distance in time. So I went back up to the glassing trail and sat there.
After getting in place I heard \"crunch crunch\" and looked out ahead on the bench. It was two elk making there way towards me.... a spike and a fat cow. She dwarfed the spike, so it was an easy choice. They were moving quick so I started making my way towards the lower trail, but wasn\'t able to do it fast enough. I had to stop in this micro meadow that was next to the trail. I saw her come out right when I knelt down and I was a little worried she may pick up on the goofy guy crouched in the middle of a baby meadow. She fed her way towards me and luckily I had a small tree she was gonna pass so I could draw on her. She hit that tree, I drew, 17 yard shot quartering to, and I shot.
I knew the hit was good because I watched the arrow soak up into the spot I was aiming. I watched her run 50 yards and bed down.
Instead of running right over I proceeded to take my release off, attach it to my bow and over towards Mark. He had heard the noise, but wasn\'t really sure what was going on until I shot. He knew those elk were running because of me.
After he packed his stuff up we started walking towards where I watched her bed down.
I want to throw out the disclaimer that Mark recommended we search for the arrow and kill time.....
For those of you who don\'t know me, sometimes I get a little excited and that wasn\'t happening..... BIG MISTAKE
We got about 25 yards from her and she stood up. We jumped down real quick, but could instantly tell she was hit good and not doing well.
Now I am sitting here like a fool with my release wrapped around my limp, trying to untangle it so I could put it on and fire again.... NOPE!
No worries though, as previously mentioned, she was not going far... we could tell she wasn\'t doing well and she walked just a little ways. This is when we pulled out and I had to wait a horrible 57 minutes :crazy:
The rest can be seen here.....
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rTOM7FKsVY[/youtube]
As some of you all know, sometimes an area can be hot, but you need to be flexible and fine tune your spot as you go along. Well on Day 10 of the hunt.... it happened.
We were working a hot bench that I had discovered the year before. The bench had a saddle that fed into it from one side of a burn and then there was a solid feeding ground that fed into it from the side the bench was on. The bench is where they transitioned into bedding timber, so it was pretty active.
Mark had shifted above the bench because every now and then elk would sneak by us on it and I worked a glassing point/quick move point. The bench had two separate trails that fed into the timber, so this glassing point was on the more commonly used one. If you saw one heading to the lower one, you could move to it and set up.
At about 6:15 the bugles and chuckles started.
Around 7:00 the silliness started. Down below us a few hundred yards I could hear a hunter cow calling and firing this bull up.
I hadn\'t seen any other hunters in the area, so I was kind of puzzled.... I snuck over to the side of a ridge to look down, but couldn\'t see anything. It definitely seemed like a hunter was firing this bull up, but who knows... it could have been a cow.
After deciding that I didn\'t care, I snuck my way back to the glassing spot..... GREAT.... 3 cows are playing out in front of the glassing spot.
I watched them for a few seconds and realized they were heading to the lower trail. I made my move down to the lower trail, but just barely missed them. Rats!
I pulled out my phone to ask Mark if he had seen them playing around, but as soon as I pressed send on my phone and looked up..... an elk butt was walking by at 30 yards.... RATS... SHE IS HEADING TO THE TOP TRAIL. I was trapped because she was moving too fast and I couldn\'t close the distance in time. So I went back up to the glassing trail and sat there.
After getting in place I heard \"crunch crunch\" and looked out ahead on the bench. It was two elk making there way towards me.... a spike and a fat cow. She dwarfed the spike, so it was an easy choice. They were moving quick so I started making my way towards the lower trail, but wasn\'t able to do it fast enough. I had to stop in this micro meadow that was next to the trail. I saw her come out right when I knelt down and I was a little worried she may pick up on the goofy guy crouched in the middle of a baby meadow. She fed her way towards me and luckily I had a small tree she was gonna pass so I could draw on her. She hit that tree, I drew, 17 yard shot quartering to, and I shot.
I knew the hit was good because I watched the arrow soak up into the spot I was aiming. I watched her run 50 yards and bed down.
Instead of running right over I proceeded to take my release off, attach it to my bow and over towards Mark. He had heard the noise, but wasn\'t really sure what was going on until I shot. He knew those elk were running because of me.
After he packed his stuff up we started walking towards where I watched her bed down.
I want to throw out the disclaimer that Mark recommended we search for the arrow and kill time.....
For those of you who don\'t know me, sometimes I get a little excited and that wasn\'t happening..... BIG MISTAKE
We got about 25 yards from her and she stood up. We jumped down real quick, but could instantly tell she was hit good and not doing well.
Now I am sitting here like a fool with my release wrapped around my limp, trying to untangle it so I could put it on and fire again.... NOPE!
No worries though, as previously mentioned, she was not going far... we could tell she wasn\'t doing well and she walked just a little ways. This is when we pulled out and I had to wait a horrible 57 minutes :crazy:
The rest can be seen here.....
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rTOM7FKsVY[/youtube]
