Day 6. I'm flying solo for the next few days, Jim's booked for the next 2 days, then I will put him on the plane Thursday a.m. for a Saturday wedding back in NJ.
I get out of the truck and hit the trail about 5:15, put my head down and go, onward and upward until I hear a bugle. I go up the same spine that we went on day 2, and right about in the same spot, there's that same sounding bugle. Instead of bugling back and going down the north slope through the timber, I back down a bit, cross the top of the spine on an open bench, and there across the draw on the open south slope is a small bull about 200 yards away,(as the bullet flies, there's a deep ravine between us), walking a trail up and in to where the bugle came from. I cow call to him to get his attention, he looks my direction for a bit then continues on, disappearing into the timber that covers the bottom of the draw and spreads up the slope he's on. I'm cow calling as I move towards him across the open bench, and as I hit the timber I notice a big rub, NICE, there ahead is where I'll wait in ambush. He gives a weak, whiny little bugle, I got him hooked and I'm reeling him in. As I'm getting to my spot, I see a heavily used trail exiting the bench, with another nice rub. So, I decide to take a peek down this trail, maybe there's a better spo...,%$#@!!!, there's a bull 50 yards away and coming, but he's got me. All he can see is my face, but he doesn't like it, after a minute he wheels around and thunders away down the trail. I cow call to him and thought maybe I had changed his mind because I could hear limbs popping in the timber to the left of the trail, but no. If I had gone to the spot I had originally picked, and he continued on, it would have been a 15 yard shot. oh well
It's 8:00, I hydrate, eat a granola bar, chill, let things settle down, he never did smell me. And there it is, a hearty, big bull sounding bugle,maybe 200 yards up the draw. Game on! I continue on the trail the bull fled on and notice he never left it, the limbs I heard popping must have been another elk. And I'm pretty sure the bull I saw originally, wasn't the one that caught me flat-footed. Bunch o' elk in here.
I cross the creek in the bottom and make my way as silently as possible up the south side, I'm pretty sure they're going to stay in the timber all day. And with the sun heating up the thermals and the wind starting to swirl, it's probably a good idea not to get too close.
The big bull continues to bugle as he makes his way up and into his lair, pulling me along like the Pied Piper. Finally he stops, looks to be a bench in there in the timber. I'm directly across the draw from him now, 300 air yards seperating us. He bugled,chuckled, growled and whistled, all day.
I'm sitting on a heck of a trail, and its pointing directly at the elk. So I follow it back on my side of the ravine. Heavily used wallow. cool
Then I decide to go around the head of the draw, so that I can slip into the timber above him. As I'm approaching the head of the draw, there's one last tree then about 100 yards of open that I'll have to cross totally exposed to anything in the timber. I better think this over. Just as my butt touches the ground in the shadey cover of that tree, I see movement. It's him, and he's a biggun. And he's maybe a hundred yards away. Whew. So I watch him eat and rub a tree, it was awesome. Then he disappeared back down where I thought he should have been. Time for another plan.
I go back to my spot directly across from him by the trail leading to the wallow and take that time-honored elk hunting midday nap. You gotta be able to do that if you want to hunt elk. I fall asleep to the sounds of gusty swirling winds, first from the south, then from the north, thunder in the distance, bulls bugling every once in awhile... peaceful stuff.
All of a sudden I'm trying to shake the grog from my brain because the elk talk has changed, it's getting more frequent and I think closer. My head clears, and I realize he's not any closer, but the wind has changed, straight from the south, straight from him to me. I'm going in!
I go straight at him, down my slope right up into his bedroom, only I don't think he laid down all day. I just get in there and I see a cow heading down the ravine about 60 yards away, I was afraid there would be a lot of eyes and noses in here, but she never saw me, just natural movement. I wait until he makes a noise so that I can pinpoint his location. Soon he does a little chuckle, maybe a hundred yards away, up and in. I make my move, up a slope to my right, I rolled a rock, so I cow called. Three more steps to get to the top of a little knob and I catch movement ahead, 2 spikes and a cow at 25 yards. Freeze.
They're feeding. I'm in an awkward position, there's a dead branch under my pack's shoulder strap, I don't want to move, I can hear 'em talking to one another, I can hear the closest spike chewing, and here comes a branch antlered bull... Jim's words come back to me, "Shoot the first branch antlered bull", he's about 30 yards away, covered up with branches, no shot.
He beds down. Facing me. One of the spikes feeds by at 20 yards giving me a wide open broadside opportunity. Then he turns around and feeds back giving me the other side. I can't take it, I have to shift, I get the branch out, cool. Straighten my legs out, excellent. The big boy chuckles back in and I turn my head a bit to look, and the small bull sees it. Jumps to his feet and blows outta there.
I hit the bugle hard, raked some trees, tried to convince him that the little guy ran from another big bull and that he should come down here right away and kick some ass. He didn't buy it. He bugled back to me. As he took his herd up and out of the draw. Dang
Topic: Got some WY blood on my "Brothers of the Bow" hat. Fall of 2012 update, (Read 3060 times)
