Hey Sam!! Congradulations again on the bull and excellent write-up here....appreciate the kind words as well! I love looking at the photos and you've got some great ones here documenting the whole story. Not a lot I can do to complement it but I'll add my few thoughts...
I've wanted to do something like this hunt since I was in my early teens. Saved money for a Talon longbow of about 75 lbs when I was in high school thinking I'd need it for my elk hunting. Little did I know it would be about 35 years later that I'd finally get to go! This year I did a solo Montana bear hunt (see my post on that for details) and then decided to do the elk hunt but didn't want to go without a partner this time (safety and companionship around the campfire). Sam was very very kind in inviting me to hunt with him and I jumped at the chance. I was able to commit 11 days to the actual hunt (the additional days on the road was about 26 hours by myself from michigan each way) Sam already had things set up when I hiked in and we really hunted hard together. He taught me a lot about elk. The first afternoon he that I got there we went up and he called a bull to the top of a bench above us that was responding to him. I never got to see it, but I was stoked! Everyday from then on I would crawl out of my tent in the dark and head off with high hopes. I love the over-all experience of the hunt...everything from cooking and recounting the hunt around the fire, camp chores, stump shooting mid-day, etc. The trip far exceeded ,my threshold for success. We had some type of interaction with elk almost daily...hearing bugles, calling them in, jumping them from parks. I saw a number of bulls and was actually able to call 2 different elk in myself. THe day before I left I managed to call in a bull which about gave me a heart attack when I heard him crash off about 15 yards behind me...he had come in down wind. When I turned around he stood at about 25 yards staring at me..the morning sun shown through his atlers with the moss hanging, light by the morning sun , all around him. I'll never forget that sight! Sam and I had fun the whole time and he is a great guy and the 'real deal' when it comes to traditional bowhunting
....Thank you sir for a great hunt and some great meals around the campfire!
ol' rub line
Topic: 2016 Elk hunt....... (Read 2914 times)
