As day 4 of our 2017 opener for elk hunting comes to a close, we are without a victory. I have hiked 10 to 15 miles a day while my friend and his son have spent hours sitting on meadows that had a small herd of elk coming through until the day before the season opened.
We have seen lots of deer and moose, but no elk in the lower meadows. In all of my hiking the higher country I was able to scare up a couple of loan cows and find fresh sign of bulls in the area. The warmer temperatures aren’t helping and the elk are not responding to calls.
About and hour after dark on day 4, cows started calling in the trees right behind camp. A bull bugles a few hundred yards away. My friend and I hit the tree line and add a few cow calls to the mix. The bull sounds off again, this time closer. We retreat to the campfire and listen to him bugle a few more times as he came in to round up the cows and head for the deep timber.
We awoke at 3:30am on Wednesday morning to the silence of the back country. My friends were making plans to head back to the lower meadows feeling confident there would be some elk activity given what we had heard the night before. As the solo hunter of the camp, they asked me what my plans for the day were. “I’m going after that bull”, I said without considering the arrogance of such a statement. At 30 minutes before first light we part ways, wishing each other good luck.
I step through the timber in the pre-dawn darkness, heading in what I hope is the direction the bull went. As the sun cracks the horizon to the east, I keep my heading and continue to stalk through the timber. I’m now several hundred yards from camp, trying to follow what looks like a fresh path going in and out of small meadows and pockets of timber. There has not been a single bugle or cow call all morning and I’m pretty sure this hunt will end with me getting busted by one of the cows.
I continued another 100 yds or so, still not a sound from the elk. I sit for a minute on a tree stump and say to myself "Bugle just one more time, give me a chance". On queue....the Bull fires off a bugle, about 300 yds dead ahead. I move forward and hit a cow call, no response. I slowly move forward for about 5 minutes, he bugles again.....200 yds up and to the right. I move toward him about 80 yds and hit a cow call. He responds, about 100 yds to my left and just above me. I head straight to my left and enter his zone. I rip off a bugle with the All Star diaphragm and he responds, 80 yds or so above me. I get ready and bugle again, here he comes down a row of small pines....a big 6X6! As I come to full draw he clears the last tree at 15 yds and catches my movement. He bolts before I can get my pin on him, I rush and send the arrow just over the top of his shoulders and into the abyss of the timber.
The bull retreated to a position a little less than 100 yds above me and bugle again a few minutes later. I returned the bugle, but the adrenaline rush was too much and it came out like a screaming challenge. This was a satellite bull and even though my next bugles were better, his return bugles kept getting further away.
I made the decision to leave him alone for a couple of days. I'll go back in tomorrow morning and see if I can get on him again.
This was my first attempt with a diaphragm call and the first time I called a bull right to me with a bugle! This is the closest I've ever been to a mature bull elk in his prime. This is an experience I will carry with me the rest of my life!
We have seen lots of deer and moose, but no elk in the lower meadows. In all of my hiking the higher country I was able to scare up a couple of loan cows and find fresh sign of bulls in the area. The warmer temperatures aren’t helping and the elk are not responding to calls.
About and hour after dark on day 4, cows started calling in the trees right behind camp. A bull bugles a few hundred yards away. My friend and I hit the tree line and add a few cow calls to the mix. The bull sounds off again, this time closer. We retreat to the campfire and listen to him bugle a few more times as he came in to round up the cows and head for the deep timber.
We awoke at 3:30am on Wednesday morning to the silence of the back country. My friends were making plans to head back to the lower meadows feeling confident there would be some elk activity given what we had heard the night before. As the solo hunter of the camp, they asked me what my plans for the day were. “I’m going after that bull”, I said without considering the arrogance of such a statement. At 30 minutes before first light we part ways, wishing each other good luck.
I step through the timber in the pre-dawn darkness, heading in what I hope is the direction the bull went. As the sun cracks the horizon to the east, I keep my heading and continue to stalk through the timber. I’m now several hundred yards from camp, trying to follow what looks like a fresh path going in and out of small meadows and pockets of timber. There has not been a single bugle or cow call all morning and I’m pretty sure this hunt will end with me getting busted by one of the cows.
I continued another 100 yds or so, still not a sound from the elk. I sit for a minute on a tree stump and say to myself "Bugle just one more time, give me a chance". On queue....the Bull fires off a bugle, about 300 yds dead ahead. I move forward and hit a cow call, no response. I slowly move forward for about 5 minutes, he bugles again.....200 yds up and to the right. I move toward him about 80 yds and hit a cow call. He responds, about 100 yds to my left and just above me. I head straight to my left and enter his zone. I rip off a bugle with the All Star diaphragm and he responds, 80 yds or so above me. I get ready and bugle again, here he comes down a row of small pines....a big 6X6! As I come to full draw he clears the last tree at 15 yds and catches my movement. He bolts before I can get my pin on him, I rush and send the arrow just over the top of his shoulders and into the abyss of the timber.
The bull retreated to a position a little less than 100 yds above me and bugle again a few minutes later. I returned the bugle, but the adrenaline rush was too much and it came out like a screaming challenge. This was a satellite bull and even though my next bugles were better, his return bugles kept getting further away.
I made the decision to leave him alone for a couple of days. I'll go back in tomorrow morning and see if I can get on him again.
This was my first attempt with a diaphragm call and the first time I called a bull right to me with a bugle! This is the closest I've ever been to a mature bull elk in his prime. This is an experience I will carry with me the rest of my life!
