Thursday morning Larry's leg was bothering him, so I asked Ben if he wanted to hunt with me and he was ready and willing.
I had a spot in mind that my step son Robert and I hunted the last evening we were there during our first week. It was off of the beaten path and I had heard bugles the one evening that Robert and I hunted it, so I figured it a good spot to take Ben.
Because it wasn't planned the night before, Ben and I were a little late getting dropped off, but that didn't seem to matter. We dropped into a steep draw, then up the other side, over a large dry grass flat and were heading toward a ridge about 3/4 of a mile from the road to do some locator calls when we heard a bugle a few hundred yards away.
I put Ben out front about 100 yards in this semi open area and did some calling. The bull wasn't gonna play so we chased him.
We got up the ridge and did a couple of cow calls but no response, so I hit the bugle and 2 bulls and one hunter fired back. Yep, another hunter was in our midst.
One of the bulls headed for the hills, because his bugles got farther and farther and the other bull we thought left or went silent, so just to make sure, we followed the sound toward the other hunter and yep it was a hunter.
We then directed our attention toward a draw with timber where we heard one of the bulls last bugle from. It was a good place to start. As we walked slowly along the hillside, I needed a short break, so we sat down. A minute or two later Ben sees a coyote, but now I believe it was a calf.
Then we see a cow run up hill 100 yards out, so I tell Ben, the rest of the heard is probably here, then we hear the bull fire off 200 yards away. I put Ben out front and start calling from 75 yards behind him. After a couple of minutes the bull has bugled back twice and then I hear foot stomps to my left.
Ben had watched a cow run up to within 30 yards of me, but I was too busy concentrating on getting that bull into Ben.
The bull didn't appear to be coming to cow calls, so I hit the bugle and he shut up and left the seen. Lesson learned. Don't bugle at a bull with cows. Not that isn't always the case, but it was in this case.
I didn't think we were as far in that draw as we were and we ended up right on top of the herd.
We put on another 7 miles to get back to camp that morning and ready for lunch and I took a nap before going back out that eveining.
Friday: Ben and I got an early start. This time we made it to our locator ridge just after daylight. I did one Carlton cow call and no response. I had a call from mother nature, so I dug a small hole. As I'm in the middle of my paper work, a bull fires off about 300 yards away. I make short work of my task and get over to Ben for a plan. I hit the Carlton one more time and the bull fires back but has ridge topped into another ravine.
We head after him. After moving about 500 yards and into a spot I figure he could easily hear us, I hit the cow calls and no response, so I hit a bugle and no response. A few minutes pass and I believe it was a solo bull coming for a fight goes off in front of us about 250 yards. I told Ben we are going to get aggressive on this boy, so we move up about 50 yards and I am just about to set Ben in position when I see 2 other hunters heading to the bull, then we hear foot stomps, and realize the bull is heading right for us.
Ben and I both nock an arrow, the 5 x 5 runs up to about 50 yards and stops, looks us over for about 5 seconds and turns tail and runs off.
Game over on bull number 2.
There are a lot of elk, but there are a lot of hunters as well. This particular bull was very killable. He was aggressive and ready to fight. Unfortunately, the other hunters wanted him to.
Welcome to hunting public land 101.
Ben and I hunted hard for the rest of the morning covering several miles and got into another herd, but were busted.
After running into so many hunters, Ben leaving in the morning, and Larry's leg limiting his ability, I decided to head home that evening.
It was fun and I appreciate Larry inviting me to hunt in his area and share camp.
Larry's friend Carl was a heck of a camp host. He cooked for us and ran us around in his truck dropping us off miles away, so we could hunt back to camp.
Ben was a treat to hunt with. Definately a guy that isn't afraid to put on some boot miles.
All in all I had a great time. This is my first year of Trad only in Oregon. I converted from compound and I stuck it out. I was missing my compound on a couple of those bulls that were within compound range, but I made it through with out swapping back over. It just means that I have to make tag soup this year
this year.
Topic: one special hunt (bens elk hunt) (Read 1185 times)
