This was originally posted in the Alberta forum.
So I'm finally gonna get to tell a bit of the story of Yves' elk. Still gonna be a bit of a teaser because he is working on the story for the "Quiver".
We started planning this trip sometime before the HCJ. It would be Yves' first elk hunt and first hunt out of a wall tent, plus our first hunt together. He seemed really excited and I was too. We originally were going for 11 days but had to cut the trip short due to a wedding I was attending.
Day one was spent travelling up to our hunting area and setting up camp. We were planning on hunting that evening but our trip was slowed by bad service at restaurants and witnessing a bad accident on the way up. We settled in and Yves met the other guys in camp.
Day two Yves and I headed into an area I had scouted the year before. I was disappointed to see a lack of sign in the area. We later learned that 2 of the fellows in camp had seen six wolves in the same area earlier that week. It was raining off and on all morning and we were getting soaked but we were also having a blast shooting at the plentiful Ruffies all day. We ended up getting three that day and that was it for the week. They seemed a lot spookier the rest of the week.
We put on some miles that morning and ended up near a couple of wallows I had found last year. There were some very fresh rubs there and so we set up to call. I let out a couple of cow calls and had a bull bugle immediately. He was only about 200 yards straight upwind. He came quickly but circled way downwind. I did get a look at him before he barked and blew outta there. He was a big 6x6 and, unfortunately, Yves didn't see him.
That evening we tried to come into the same area from a different road. We didn't find a good way in or much sign but on the way back to the truck we found ourselves face to face with a big bull. He was about 90 yards from us when I first spotted him but was already onto us. He stuck around just long enough for me to get my binos up and get a good look. High, wide, long points, and huge tops. Definitely the biggest bull I've seen while hunting.
On day three we put on a bunch of miles again but didn't see any elk until we were in the truck heading back to camp after dark. We spotted a young bull and a cow on a lease. When we got back to camp we pulled out a map to try and figure out where those elk might go during the day.
We now had a starting point for day four and while we were grabbing our gear out of the truck after parking we heard our first bugle. We didn't know the area and so quickly set up and called. He was only responding to bugles so that's what I gave him. He circled about 500-600 yards downwind and then turned around and headed up the big ridge above us, bugling the whole way. We circled around and got ahead of him but it was getting late in the morning and he eventually shut up and I figure he bedded up for the day. Yves and I went for a walk and found a really cool trappers cabin.
That evening we knew where there was a bedded bull so that's where we headed. We heard him bugling again from the truck. The wind was perfect and we headed straight for him. We had walked quite a way and didn't seem to be getting any closer to him. I made the decision to try and call him from there. We got set up and I was just about to call when another bull bugled much closer to us.
Topic: First Elk in Alberta (Read 6034 times)
