The elk on the mountain above camp may have just been a one day wonder. We went back up the evening after all the morning action - saw and heard nothing, save for one other hunter who obviously had heard all the noise up there earlier in the day.
This morning we decided to drive around to the west end of the unit and explore some new country. We drove down a 4x4 forest road while it was still dark with the plan being to stop occasionally to listen for bugles. When it got light enough to see we would do some binocular work and see if we could find some elk.
On our second stop to listen we heard a bugle up above. Since a bugle in the bush is worth more than two down the road, we gathered our packs and bows and headed on up.
He continued to sound off regularly and it was easy to keep track of where he was and work close with the wind in our favor. We split up, with Ohne going higher. I got into a strip of spruce broken by openings and worked close.
As I eased around a spruce I glanced to my right. A cow at 70 yards had me. After a brief stare down she trotted off and joined the rest of the group. I cow called a couple of times and the bull immediately bugled back, but the herd broke and ran. They didn't go far before stopping, and weren't badly spooked, but sure knew something wasn't right and weren't going to hang around to see what it was.
I could hear more bugling further up the mountain, so continued to make my way up. I stayed down slope to keep the wind in my favor and gradually closed the distance. This time I would take it slower and do everything I could to see them before they saw me.
Eventually I could see that I was nearing the end of the timber with open sage and grass above. The bugles were coming from the opening so I eased slowly up until I could see cows feeding and two 6x6 bulls about 75 yards out into the opening. One of them was very nice. And the other was huge!
I set up about 50 yards inside the timber with the wind in my face and a heavily used trail to my left. Everything was perfect if they would just pick my trail to enter the woods on when they were done with there feeding. The sun was already hitting the slope, so I knew it wouldn't be long.
I had only watched for a few minutes when suddenly the elk stampeded off across the open ground. I knew that I wasn't the problem, but figured either Ohne or another hunter had busted them. Once again, oh so close, but so far away.
It turned out that Ohne had seen two other hunters up near the elk. And when we were done we met a couple more that had also been up there. We had found the elk. But we weren't alone.
Topic: Whip heading to Wyoming/ Updates Added (Read 7807 times)
