stephensanderson
New member
- Oct 26, 2019
- 2
For the last 3 years my wife has been a widow when elk season starts. After years of this and me nagging her she finally came out. I've always hunted by myself during archery, its harder and takes more time to fill a tag but I wouldn't want it any other way since even if I spend the day chasing them or hearing nothing its better to be in the woods than at the house or in town.
After being surrounded by elk for the past 2 days but the wind not working in my way or other things I went online and found a way to get the thermals in my direction. I would have to hike a couple miles into where I would need to be. Once I was done prepping my wife decided she would finally come. This threw my plans out the door since I don't think she fully grasped what was about to happen. I went over the plan and gave her a elk call and had her start to practice cow mews. She was decent with the mouth call but couldn't get the full effect of a good diaphragm. But being in the heat of the rut you don't have to get a perfect cow mew to have one come in.
I woke up 2 hours before sunrise and was getting ready, I had the plan in my head and was going over all the contingencies, I was ready to go up and fill the freezer. There was only one problem....... the wife didn't have my same desire as she was still in bed. After nudging her she FINALLY staggered out of bed and started to get ready. We finally made it out the door at daylight. I wasn't discouraged since even if we didn't get an elk she was coming out with me hunting which we could have a bonding experience which didn't involve me watching her shop at a clothing store.
Once we got up to the location, I parked below the gate and we started to walk up the old logging road. For a closed road it was still in good condition. After making it up about a half a mile I decided to split off of it and take a trail that followed the ridge line going up. On the way up I never did any calling since I wanted to wait till we got a good ways up. I let a nice mew and about 5 seconds later I got a response.... it was the worst bugle I've heard. At first I put my head down and looked at my wife depressed. I whispered someone beat us here and apparently they must've picked up a new elk call since that was horrible. I was using the RMHC Contender call and decided to give another mew. I told my wife to stay here and I will walk forward about 20 yards and stay within line of sight. I gave her a signal to try her cow calling skills and she gave out a little mew and sure enough we got another bugle back but once I heard the reply from below I belted out a challenge bugle from in front of her. Once I finished the bugle I heard a bugle that left no doubt what was down below. It wasn't the best response but it improved enough were I had no doubt it was a juvenile bull down below.
I ended up giving my wife a Navy SEAL hand signal that I was going to move forward down the hill and mouthed for her to cow call about once every 1-2 minutes, she had no idea what I was doing and probably thought in her head "What is this maniac doing" LOL. After simulating doing a cow sign with my hands she understood and started to call, I then went down the hill a little more hoping it would come to her. At this point the bull wouldn't respond back so I figured it might be assessing the wind or thinking in its head "that bugle sounded like it came from big guy and I might was to back off". After waiting down there for about 20 minutes and being out of site from my wife I decided to come back up since she stopped calling. Once I made it back up I saw her and she had a fear look in her face and eyes. Seeing this I hurried up close to her and asked "Are you ok, what happened ?" When she was cow calling and I was down below a cow was coming up to her, but the cow must've got my scent blown over to her and came up running over the hill and was about to run over my wife until she decided to move out of the way. After she was through telling me this I was trying not to laugh and just said back "You don't got to worry about that girl running you over , you can move fast I would just worry about that guy down below trying to get a mate, you don't want him coming up here and trying to get on you like our neighbors dog got on my leg last week.
Even though we weren't able to get any meat in the freezer we shared a good laugh and time together on this hunt which was was just as good as putting one down.
After being surrounded by elk for the past 2 days but the wind not working in my way or other things I went online and found a way to get the thermals in my direction. I would have to hike a couple miles into where I would need to be. Once I was done prepping my wife decided she would finally come. This threw my plans out the door since I don't think she fully grasped what was about to happen. I went over the plan and gave her a elk call and had her start to practice cow mews. She was decent with the mouth call but couldn't get the full effect of a good diaphragm. But being in the heat of the rut you don't have to get a perfect cow mew to have one come in.
I woke up 2 hours before sunrise and was getting ready, I had the plan in my head and was going over all the contingencies, I was ready to go up and fill the freezer. There was only one problem....... the wife didn't have my same desire as she was still in bed. After nudging her she FINALLY staggered out of bed and started to get ready. We finally made it out the door at daylight. I wasn't discouraged since even if we didn't get an elk she was coming out with me hunting which we could have a bonding experience which didn't involve me watching her shop at a clothing store.
Once we got up to the location, I parked below the gate and we started to walk up the old logging road. For a closed road it was still in good condition. After making it up about a half a mile I decided to split off of it and take a trail that followed the ridge line going up. On the way up I never did any calling since I wanted to wait till we got a good ways up. I let a nice mew and about 5 seconds later I got a response.... it was the worst bugle I've heard. At first I put my head down and looked at my wife depressed. I whispered someone beat us here and apparently they must've picked up a new elk call since that was horrible. I was using the RMHC Contender call and decided to give another mew. I told my wife to stay here and I will walk forward about 20 yards and stay within line of sight. I gave her a signal to try her cow calling skills and she gave out a little mew and sure enough we got another bugle back but once I heard the reply from below I belted out a challenge bugle from in front of her. Once I finished the bugle I heard a bugle that left no doubt what was down below. It wasn't the best response but it improved enough were I had no doubt it was a juvenile bull down below.
I ended up giving my wife a Navy SEAL hand signal that I was going to move forward down the hill and mouthed for her to cow call about once every 1-2 minutes, she had no idea what I was doing and probably thought in her head "What is this maniac doing" LOL. After simulating doing a cow sign with my hands she understood and started to call, I then went down the hill a little more hoping it would come to her. At this point the bull wouldn't respond back so I figured it might be assessing the wind or thinking in its head "that bugle sounded like it came from big guy and I might was to back off". After waiting down there for about 20 minutes and being out of site from my wife I decided to come back up since she stopped calling. Once I made it back up I saw her and she had a fear look in her face and eyes. Seeing this I hurried up close to her and asked "Are you ok, what happened ?" When she was cow calling and I was down below a cow was coming up to her, but the cow must've got my scent blown over to her and came up running over the hill and was about to run over my wife until she decided to move out of the way. After she was through telling me this I was trying not to laugh and just said back "You don't got to worry about that girl running you over , you can move fast I would just worry about that guy down below trying to get a mate, you don't want him coming up here and trying to get on you like our neighbors dog got on my leg last week.
Even though we weren't able to get any meat in the freezer we shared a good laugh and time together on this hunt which was was just as good as putting one down.
