Well, for those who saw the video of the giant .... this is not him.
. I had a new baby girl in June and had very limited hunting time this fall. With that said, I did sneak out for two, three day hunts. Both times we packed in deep with Llamas and got into some furious action. We called in a mess of bulls. I read recently a bunch of posts about elk not calling, not rutting etc. That is just not the case up here. I guess I'm fortunate to hunt where elk still act like elk. We called in (mostly bugled) in 22 bulls and took two on public land. We had every concievable thing go wrong on 1-20.... thank god for 21 and 22.
The story on this bull played out exactly like last year. Brett and I hunted a ridge we know elk cross and heard screaming from 4-5 bulls as the herd approached at first light. We got in front of them and challenged the bulls. The herd hung up, and it was a verbal duel for five minutes. However, instead of the bulls we got the lead cow.
. We went silent and let her drift away buzzing her head off. We shadowed the herd until they dropped over into the next basin. We smiled, because we know that hole well. I killed my bull last year in that patch of north facing lodgepoles.
So... We took a nap, ate a sandwich, had a great game of "shoot the head off the thistle". Around noon we figured the thermals had stabilized and the bulls would be restless, so we stalked in from the downwind side. I spotted a spike in the lodgepole at about 60 yards and hit the brakes. We scanned with binos and soon picked out ears, tails, legs and all sorts of various bedded cow parts. GAME ON! My buddy retreated very carefully about 50 yards and started his intruder bull, hooked cow bit. Up jumped two bulls and they charged right past me screaming their heads off. I stopped this satellite at 18 yards and ended it quickly. He made it about 100 yards and piled up. Strangely, he came to rest only 150 yards from the the spot my bull from last year expired. I like that hole!
Two days later, my buddy went on to kill his bull on the same side hill as HIS bull from last year. It definately helps to find those hot spots where the terrain really allows you to call and kill bulls.
I will be eating well this winter!
Thanks for sharing the experience with me!
Hiking in
Brett listening for bulls
One of my favorite Sept pastimes... Mid day naps
My bull
Topic: Another SW montana public land bull (Read 1102 times)
