A word about my equipment. I shoot a Super Shrew 56" long pulling about 65 pounds at my 29.5 inch draw. I have two of them equipped with a connexion hinge so I can carry two bows and a dozen arrows on my back in a plains type quiver. I use Cabelas Carbon Hunter arrows with three 5.5" fletch with lots of helical. The fletchings are covered with baby bottle liners to keep them dry until needed. The arrows are tipped with a 160 gr STOS and weights to bring the arrow up to 600 gr. I use an assortment of cow calls that I keep around my neck on a single lanyard and use a PRIMOS Bugle mostly for a locator bugle. I have to pay tribute to the Elknut for his CD collection on elk calling which has been a big factor in my success at hunting elk. I keep a camera, rangefinder, puffer bottle and water bottle at my fingertips in the pouch on my right side. I made my green tunic out of a US issue army blanket and have a heavier one made from a grey swiss army blanket. I use the northern quiver, a damascus or berlin glove pulled over mechanics gloves, and made my own arm guard and pouch. The leg gaiters are a great item for wet days.
I bugle sparingly, usually in the early morning. Otherwise I use cow calls, lots of lost cow calls.
Here is a picture of a raghorn bull crossing the meadow. He was heading straight for me when Eric started to call and pulled him toward him. The bull is marked with a red line, Eric's position is marked with a yellow line. This bull had busted off his main beams and had 4 12inch brow tines. Eric wasn't sure he was legal and let him walk. I called him in to thirty yards but he winded me before I was in a position to shoot.
We like to get up around 4:00 am and sneak into position in the saddle long before daylight. We will hang out until the action dies off, usually not later than 8 or 9 am. We do not hunt the rest of the day unless we are sitting on a wallow or in the saddle on an ambush point. We have found it doesn't pay for us to stumble around and ruin our area. Just be patient and they will come. We used to climb into a different basin after basin looking for elk to the point of exhaustion. We hunt smarter now, handle the area more gently and have more encounters. We worked three bulls in the same saddle the second morning we were there.
Here is a tired old man trudging up from sitting on the honey hole. The next morning we returned to the saddle long before dawns early light. I gave a lost cow call sequence that was answered by a not too far off bugle below the rock slide adjacent to the saddle. We called back and forth and I could tell he was coming. We could hear him busting branches raking a tree and he was getting pretty worked up. He was headed up the ravine straight for Eric. I had good cover and ran about 100 yards ahead until I say a bull moving off to my left. He stopped, lifted his head and looked right at me. I wanted to shoot this bull before he could get into that big meadow and try to work his way around and wind us. It was just barely shooting light. I couldn tell how many points but his fronts indicated a legal bull. I had a small window to shoot through the spruce boughs, down hill. I was in the dark shadows and I am not sure he could see me. I canted my bow to clear the tree branches I was under and loosed an arrow. The radical helical fletch makes a distinctive sound on the way to its target. Whoosh... thump followed by thundering hooves and crashing branches. Eric said "It sounds like you hit a tree". There weren't any trees in that draw. He picked up my arrow and gave it to me. It had bright red blood and had 12 inches of the business end missing. I used the range finder back to my shooting position and it was 43 yards, farther than I thought. I had aimed at the top of his shoulder, not able to see my desired impact point. The arrow dropped perfectly, clearing the shooting opening on its way to the elk.
There wasn't any blood at all for about 20 yards then I found a big splash. A blind man could follow this blood trail by feeling for the dampness. Big splashes of blood with every step, with lots of droplets inbetween like blood poured from a bucket. The blood trail was short. Total distance of about 80 yards.
The bull had piled up in the meadow within sight of beginning the blood trail but we didn't see him until we were right on top of him. The arrow took a big nick out of a rib, went through the top of his heart and both lungs. When he stepped the arrow broke off but not before making about an 8 inch slicing motion through his off side lung. Lots of carnage for a little broadhead.
This elk is a toad, a real butterball. He had a solid two inches of back fat. He even had lots of fat on his head when I caped him out. Just like a beef. I used the gutless method and took a series of photos for instructional purposes if anyone is interested. I ended up with 6 coolers of boneless meat from the backstraps, tenderloins and quarters only, 45 pounds of meat per cooler by my packers scale. I killed a 6x6 bull in Montana few years ago and this bull is definitly bigger. Not sure how to convert boneless meat to gross weight but he is a good one.
Topic: Come spend a few days in my elk camp (Read 1372 times)
