Remember a couple pages back...I posted the pic bugling down into the canyon..
I went back..
My brother and I hiked in to a far off basin that most times holds elk...A nice flat with springs and thick reprod...I killed a bull in there a few years back so we knew about where they usually held up at....We set up and made some herd music....20 minutes later it seemed our long hike was in vain....A big fat ZERO...
We got back together to talk about plan B,which we didn't have, and Ken gave a last cow call at the basin..
Eeeoooww came back at us from the far hillside....Not on the flat at all but above, and we were in a poor position with the wind...
We gathered our stuff to get higher and the wind right when Ken spotted him watching us from across the draw......
Here is where we employed a trick that works very well with elk..We stooped over and walked up the skid road giving the elk a horizontal line of our back...Believe me this works....Walk upright where the elk can see you and a vertical line, they head for the next county...Stoop over giving him a horizontal line similar to every other animal in the woods and 9 times out of 10 he will just watch..
We made cover after about 50 yards and peeked to see what the bull was going to do....He watched for a while longer,turned around and walked back into the reprod from which he came....
Shooting lanes were few,but we found a spot that might work about on the same level as the bull... I set up and Ken was back doing the calling...
For the next hour and a half we had that bull chuckling,grunting,murdering trees and just about everything else a bull can do, except, COME CLOSER!!
He wouldn't budge....Now we tried the ol silent treatment...Gave him nothing in hopes he would get curious and come see what was going on....That didn't work either...
It was starting to get late and it was time to force the issue...I would climb up higher, work out the ridge and drop in on the bull...Ken would give me 20 minutes and start calling again,giving me his location and I would play it by ear..
I worked down trying to find some kind of lane...I found a poor spot,but it was all that was there and I was afraid to drop lower and spook him out...I waited for Ken to start in again....It wasn't long and I heard the fighting cowcall go into action....Immediately a grunt from right below me,probably only 30 yards....I got ready and gave 2 soft chirps with my diaphram....Crack,pop went the brush and I could make out elk legs coming my way....Knees and hooves was all I could see....He was just coming into my lane and I got ready to draw when he stopped and looked around...16 yards and all I could see was head....
TWO MORE STEPS PLEASE!!! LOL
He didn't take those steps...Just stood there forever looking for the cow that he heard..He turned to go back and I chirped again...This is where the elk gods smiled on me...He stopped and all I could see was the hollow spot right above his elbow..One spot on the whole elk about the size of a paper plate and it was the RIGHT spot...I drew,ignored the limbs,focused on that spot and let go...
Wensel Woodsman through the heart,about a forty yard death run and it was all over, except for the pack that is...LOL..It took all day Sunday to get him out of that HOLE...
Going in Sunday we could hear what sounded like a herd bull ...Grunts and groans like you never heard before....We glassed in vain for that herd bull,until we finally figured out it was a SPIKE and a da%^ little spike at that....I hope this guy makes it a couple seasons...I need to get in there and hear what he sounds like after he grows up...LOL
The spike that thought he was king!!
Topic: Daily Hunt pics and Stories 2006 (Read 49527 times)
