Within the hour the rain had stopped and I was out of the tent and heading towards a new northeast facing slope of one of the finger ridges of the canyon I was in. I was maybe 1/2 mile from camp when the sky ripped open and I found myself in a typical New Mexico afternoon deluge....without my raingear. I ran to some small pines, crawled under one and broke the lower boughs stacking them over my head on the overhanging branches making a roof of sorts. It worked!
I sat under the pine and waited out the rain. It kept me dry enough that I wouldn't have to give up the evenings hunt. Eventually it stopped and I moved on.
As I neared the NE slope I could start to make out bugles. The elk were talking! I maneuvered to get the wind in my favor and moved towards them. I was able to get within 150 yards of where I heard the big bull and started to stalk in slowly. I could still hear the herd bull, the challenger, and what sounded like some more satelites taunting him. I tried some lost cow calls and got all the bulls to bugle at me. I figured if I were outside the herd, and I could get a satelite interested, particularily the big 380" then maybe I could get a shot at one of them. It was hard to tell exactly what was going on with all the responses each time I called, but I was pretty sure I had the herdbull moving my way to check out the "lost cow."
I then had an idea. I did another lost cow sequence and then immediately ran to my right 20 yards towards where the 380" was, turned back towards where I cow called, and gave a series of chuckles. I then ran back to where I cow called and started to slowly move away from the herdbull and towards where I did the chuckle, cow calling all the way. I wanted to create the scenario that the lost cow I was immitating was moving to a satelite bull and not thee herd bull.
Everything got quiet, with the exception of some of the small bulls bugling and I got impatient. I turned from the herdbull to try the sequence again and heard an alarm bark. Just out of bow range and partially screened by small pines the 380 stood looking straight at me. I then heard some small branches breaking to my left and turned to see the herdbull slithering away. He too was just out of bow range. Pretty soon there were elk rumps everywhere trotting off to parts unknown.
They were all gone and I was alone. I shook my head and walked over to where the 380" stood. The area reaked of elk. I drew it in knowing it was probably the last chance I had. I was physically drained and finding more elk would mean moving farther from camp and a longer walk back in the dark.
I flopped down on the ground, pulled out my map and a cliff bar, and started looking at where I'd been, what I'd seen, and what I'd missed. I noticed one long flat bench that paralled the ridge I was on all the way to a huge burn about a mile away. I'd only seen the spot from a high peak a few days earlier and recalled I heard elk bugling from that general direction. What the heck, it was my last evening to hunt.
I headed toward the burn with daylight running out and only stopped from time to time to call and listen for a response. I was almost to the peak when I got two responses within 100 yards. I dropped over the side of the ridge and moved quickly. Soon I was hearing some familiar bugles and found myself almost running right into the center of the herd I was working earlier. I could hear the herd bull straight in front of me, and the 380 far down below him. I had bulls to my left and could hear cows mewing and chirping all over in front of me. I dropped to my knees and crawled a good 50 yards without being detected. The herd bull was moving around a small area bugling back at the satelites from both sides if him. At one point I could see his back and rack 40 yards in front of me. I was close!
Usually it's a breeze to the back of the neck that preludes being busted, but not this time, it was the surrounding cows closing in around me. I could hear them at first just in front of me, but soon they were on all three sides. I tried to do a lost cow call to see if I could get the big guy just 10 yards closer, but immediately I had two bugles within 30 yards to my left.
Within seconds I could see elk legs moving towards me through the underscore. A good 6X6 peered over some pines at 20 yards. A slightly smaller 5X6 flanked him. They watched me for a few minutes crouched behind a tiny fir tree and then turned away. The herdbull had moved off towards the 380 and sonded like he was about 75 yards away. I hit the lost cow again and really pput some serious urgency in it. The two bulls came back and this time got within 15 yards of me. I was on one knee with an arrow nocked and my fingers were tightening on the string. We stared each other down and he eventually turned to leave. In one fluid motion I stood when his back was turned, started to draw, and as he turned to look back he presented me with a 25 yard downhill quartering away shot. I picked my spot, found my anchor, and released. It was like shooting a whitetail from a treestand.
With a "thunk" the arrow buried to the fletching and the bull took off with his partner in tow. He ran right back into the herd and past the herdbull. I listened for a few moments and thought I heard a hoarking sound. I marked the spot with some tape, recorded it on my GPS and slipped back out of there. I would give him time to die and look for him in the morning.
It was a long 1.5 mile hike to camp but I swear I floated the whole way back! I kept playing the encounter over and over in my mind.
I found camp, made a quick dinner and was in my sleeping bag in record time. Morning couldn't come soon enough!
Picture: Celebration dinner of high calorie potatoe goo.
Topic: A little Pre-elk Season Story. (Read 6003 times)
