Got some WY blood on my "Brothers of the Bow" hat. Fall of 2012 update,

[Gator1]

Well Told Story, incredible perseverance, and on a DIY hunt, no outfitter, horses etc...

Inspirational....

Congrats....  

[Owlgrowler]

Thanks for all the kind words guys. The kid couldn't seal the deal on our last day together- I'll give a final update next week- heading East in the morning.

[slivrslingr]

Great story, congratulations!  

[Owlgrowler]

So, last day to hunt together. We get up and do all the same things. Only this time we go to yet another drainage. Onward and upward, and even though I've been doing this for a couple weeks now, it's killing me. I'm slowing the kid down. Finally we pop out on a small open hump where we can stop and glass the open south slope. And there they are, 2 bulls banging their heads together about a mile away, "There's your bull Jim, let's go get 'em." He flashes that big smile, "I love this game."

Now, there's a small tributary drainage between us and the main one, and it forms a point right out in front of us, same elevation as us, maybe 150 yards away. We go 20 or 30 yards and Jim notices elk walking around the end of the point, feeding up the drainage we're on. Small bunch of cows and calves. He comments that he's surprised there's no bull behind them. They go out of sight, but I keep glassing. There he his, head back, main beams as long as his body, lots of long tines, monster bull,(the kid has become a pretty good judge of antlers and he says it was a 310-320), biggest bull I've ever seen.

We cow call to him a bit and drop down into the small ravine, right into a calf. In hindsight, we should have cut the calf off from the herd and maybe momma would have come back looking for him, which in turn might have brought big boy back... who  knows. We let him re-join the herd, and fell in behind, trying to sound like a couple cows that need a good spanking from the herd bull. He remained silent, so it was hard to tell if he even knew we were there. We went slipping silently up the bottom of the ravine and finally spotted him about 70 yards away up the slope, looking right at us, but not spooking. Finally he turned those massive antlers and walked slowly out of sight. I sent Jim towards him and backed myself down the ravine, hit the cow call a few times, then the bugle. He bugled back and started coming. He got to about 50 yards from the kid ,but wouldn't come any closer, he knew something wasn't right. He kept bugling every 15 minutes or so as he rounded the point and headed into the timber on the north facing slope of the main ravine.

We got up on the top of the spine now that seperates the small trib and the main drainage and glassed the hillside where we saw the first 2 bulls. We could only find 1 of them and he was traveling as if on a mission, down the slope and down the drainage, away from us. That's where we'll end the day, maybe we'll find him.

Up the ridge we go, leaving the big bull behind, but, we're going to change the diaphrams in our mouthes, get above and ahead of him, and drop down in front of him. As we're making our way down the hillside through some real thick small aspens, one hears us and bugles straight down in front of us, maybe 200 yards away. There's a bench right below us and it opens up a bit, couple more steps and we almost fall into a big waterhole/wallow, perfect. He bugles again and we can tell he's closer, he's coming. Jim scrambles to get around the bog and up on the top of the bench, 40 yards in front of me.

Then he shuts up. I cow call a couple times, nothing. Jim and the bugling bull are north of me. The big bull we left is east of me. 75 yards to the west I see legs coming, big 6X, coming in silent. He gets about 35 yards from the kid, doesn't like what he doesn't see, turns and ghosts away without ever giving the kid a shot. Dang.

When we get back together, Jim tells me he doesn't think that, that was the bull that was bugling. At first I disagreed, but after walking 40 yards out on the bench, I came to the realization that he was probably right. I whispered to him to get ready, the bugling bull was probably close. We kept softly cow calling while moving in the direction of the last bugle. Jim was easing out ahead and to my left about 25 yards as we approached the edge of the ravine, when I saw a pair of sticks come into focus AS A PAIR OF ANTLERS! AAAAH. I panicked. I should have just sat down. He was only 25-30 yards from me, couldn't see me, but his attention was on me, Jim would have looked that direction eventually.Anyhow, I did a couple high pitched silly squeals to get the kid's attention, Jim said as soon as he heard it he knew what was going on, turned and saw him run away. Another 6X6 not as big as the one we just called in to the waterhole. Double dang!

[maineac]

Congrats on your bull, and can't wait to see how your son's hunt turns out.  you are into them for sure!

[Bernie B.]

You had me sitting on the edge of my chair!  Great story!  Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

[PaPaFrank]

Great Story telling!...CONGRATS on a Great BUll and thanks for sharing your hunt with us...

[Ark.Buck]

Great story, I felt like I was on the hunt with you.

[BoonRoto]

Great writing!

[Owlgrowler]

I've been putting off finishing the telling of this hunt for many reasons, time constraints mostly, and, I was hoping for a happy ending for my son...but, it wasn't to be. A heart-breaker for him actually. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We hiked a few more miles that morning after the two close encounters of the elk kind. We headed north and when we were directly across from the first bull it was time for the mandatory woods nap- I really zonked- dreamt about trout fishing! About 4:00 pm we started glassing, spotted a cow and a spike on our side of the ravine, nothing except one bugle from the area by the waterhole on the other side. The wind started blowing,a thunderstorm in the distance was coming straight at us, and a full moon. Wasn't looking good for the evening hunt.

NoName Mountain is 99.9% public land, but there are ranchers that run cattle on it for summer pasture. Most mornings I'd hike up through the cows to get to where the elk were. In this ravine there wasn't as much space seperating them.

As we worked our way down the slope to the bottom, something grunted a little burp up where we left the first bull that morning. So we slipped quietly down and across and up the side ravine where we started running into elk that morning. Nothing but moo cows. Then down the ravine below us we heard what sounded just like an angus bull, only maybe a little flutey. It was him, the big boy, we just missed him when he came off the hill and actually crossed his path. He had us pegged, when Jim stepped into a small clearing he was looking right at him across the draw maybe a hundred yards away. Impressive bull. And that was it for me, my WY elk hunt was over.

Now for the Heart-breaker part. Jim went up solo last Thursday, called a big 5X5 in to 18 yards, put a 150 gr. 4 blade Stinger on a 5575 GoldTip, tight in behind the elbow, and never found him. He thinks the bull turned towards him just as he released, creating a quartering to situation. When he ran away his shoulder motion snapped the arrow, leaving about 12" in him. Jim watched him cover about 150 yards before entering thick timber. He gave him an hour before pursuing and found absolutely nothing after 8 hours of searching. He was sick. He had to work Friday. Then it was back up on Saturday. Nothing. I don't think I ever heard him so dejected. I've always heard a single lung shot animal can go a long way for a long time, I guess that's what happened.

Anyhow, typing this up has been good for me, surprising how quickly this feeble mind forgets things! Wyoming was good, real good. I did notice in both WY and MT that a lot of trails/roads are being gated off because of motorized vehicle abuse. Sad, but I'm glad they're doing it.

Next year, it's a big one or nothing

[Owlgrowler]

Had a few guys asking how I did last fall, and with the WY draw results out, and everybody looking forward to this years' hunt, and everybody else having cabin fever I thought it might be a good time for some elk huntin stories.

I'm usually not one of those guys that gushes about what a great hunt they had even though no animals were harmed, but, that's exactly what happened. I had 5 bulls within 20 yards, 2 of em at about 12 feet! I actually think I'm a little grayer because of it!

I wanted to try hunting a bit later this year so Wifie and I drove out the weekend after labor day, spent Sunday night with my good friend John and family in Craig, CO. Then headed North for Jackson. Hit a little rain before we got to town, which ended up being the most precipitation we would see for the next 3 weeks. Did have the bulls turned on though, we saw 2 that first evening just goin and coming from town to our campsite.

Here's a pic of base camp. Cabelas Bighorn tent, affectionatley referred to as "Big Ugly", (that thing sags in all the wrong places.)
 

Spent the first couple days acclimating, visiting with our son Jim, and setting up a spike camp up on No Name. I wanted to get as high as I could and still have water, conditions were really hot and dry. But I found a spot, kinda ugly, but up there.Moo cow water hole.Complete with moose antler camp seat.
 

Found it just a hundred yards from camp.
 

My camp misplaced one of the locals.
 

A little closer.
 

Camp is down there by those quakies. Hot dry and smoky with the constant drone/hum/chop of helicopters fighting fire, not the best conditions for elk hunting.
 

First evening out I ran into a small herd just over the ridge from camp, heard a bull, but never saw him. This might be good. Next morning I was out and glassing and found some about 9:00. From one angle the bull looked good, then he would turn and look weak, I finally realized he had really long lower points and virtually nothing on top. I went looking for more, down in the drainage where we saw the big one on our last day the year before. Nothing. Took a nap and woke up to this.  
 

I'll finish the stories later

[Altiman94]

I'm tuned in!  This would be my absolute dream hunt.  I am insanely jealous!

   

[Roadkill]

You have the gift, more stories, plz

[Owlgrowler]

Couple more pics from spike camp.
Here's one of a beefer that didn't make fall roundup.
 

This is my "Moo Poo Water" collector. I would boil it for 5 minutes then nuke it with the Steri-pen, never got sick, but it did have a little "flavor" if you know what I mean.
 

This what the water hole looked like.
 

I don't think I'm going to go the spike camp routine this year. At least not up high, man, does it suck walking a couple miles up hill to that!

Anyhow, the next couple weeks of the hunt are a blurry memory of tiredness, aching muscles, heat, dust, sweat, SUNBURN,(unbelievable) and elk. I loved every minute of it. Didn't see a lot of cows, and hardly anything was spotted in the early mornings. It seemed like the bulls were just kinda hangin in their timbered hidey-holes. I can't remember the song, but their's a line in it about going "Into the hall of the Mountain King", that would pop into my head every time I found one.

I will return in a bit with some action.

[Owlgrowler]

Moments after snapping this pic the Kid spotted a bull feeding on the open hillside to the right.
 
He sent out a bugle, the bull hit him immediately and started coming our way, the hunt was on! The bull wasn't something I wanted to shoot and although Jim has rifleshot 3 impressive bulls he hasn't been able to affixe his tag to a bowkilled one.

We bailed over the edge and half-slid our way down to a stand of aspens. Perfect situation, wind was right, stupidish younger bull coming in like he's on string, shooter 50 yards in front of the caller, and after he takes an arrow to the lungs he'll run right towards base camp at the bottom of the draw.

Every time I bugle he answers closer, suddenly I see the Kid rise up a bit and start to put tension on the string. Here we go. Then he relaxes and starts to position to the right, bull's obviously not following the script.

Then I notice that another bull that had joined in the chorus earlier from down in the timber was getting closer. I start glassing for him. There he is. Big Bull. And he's coming right up the draw where I'm sitting, totally exposed, sticking out like a sore thumb. I figured the small bull had spooked and exited on the side hill, so I stood up to walk down to Jim so we could make a new plan. 3 steps later little bull blows out, you gotta be kiddin me! He was right there the whole time. If I had just been more patient. Dang! And, looking back at it later we figured the big bull probably wouldn't have seen me anyway. Stupid move Dad.

[Owlgrowler]

I encountered one bull on three different occasions.First time was early on in the hunt, maybe even thee first day. I was moving down the ridge and was getting to a spot where we've been into elk on a couple different forays. On this particular morning I was walking slow, glassing, and throwing out some cow calls when I got hit back with a bugle from down in the bottom, maybe 300 yards away. Nocked up an arrow and called back. He was on the move in my general direction, but instead of coming straight at me he was going right up the bottom, straight towards my scent stream. Yanked the arrow, and took off on a trot to try and get ahead of him, but a couple minutes later I heard a clamor on the opposite hillside and out busted a real nice bull. Oh well.

Couple days later Me and the Boy were up on the ridge that aforementioned bull ran to, happens to be the Kid's favorite glassing spot, when we got a bugle response from the dark timber back on the side where this segment started. So, onward and upward we trudged to get above and downwind of him. We had to cross the ravine bottom to get on his side so the Kid chose where my bull from the year before had died.
 
As soon as we got to his side we went into stealth mode, stillhunting with some soft cow calls thrown in. Nothing. Never heard him or saw him. Oh well.

A week or so later I was there again, same spot as the first day and he bugled back to one of my calls. Only this time instead of being in the bottom he was in his dark timber sidehill hole already. But this time I was on his side, almost the same elevation. I got aggressive ,(more on this tactic later), I ran right at him, cutting off his bugles and making a racket. Man did that piss him off. Then I came to a small park about 40 yards across and couldn't get any closer because I could hear him just inside the timber on the other side breaking stuff and screaming and hollerin and grunting. Seconds later he pops out, beauty of a 6 pointer with one of those real dark chocolate racks with white tips. Gorgeous. 40 yards and not a twig between us. I wanted something closer, and even though he was so mad he was stomping his feet in frustration, he wasn't stupid. When he didn't see another bull after about a minute, he just turned around and went back in. Oh well.

I probably had 4 encounters with this bull. Late in the I hunt I decided to get down to that spot in the dark and take a stand for him.When I got there I laid down my bow and pack to wait for first light when all of a sudden I hear a hoofed animal running right to me, like 20 yards, it's so dark I can't see what it is, he sees me or winds me and down the ridge he goes a crashin. Crazy. And I never did see or hear him that day. If he made it through rifle... I would love to notch my tag on him this year.