Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

11 month wait

IEATELK

IEATELK

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Well, i just left the house. Trucks loaded up, heading west! Packing in 9 miles today for MT archery elk opener. Been a long off season for my whole family/wife especially..... goodluck to everyone! Thanks for the entertainment and knowledge swapping we’ve done over the past year.. hoping to report back with a knarly story.

Heres to mules/horses, whiskey, and bugling bulls! Cheers
 
Best of luck. Hope you have an epic adventure. My wife and I leave two weeks from today and the adrenaline is flowing high.
 
So we headed out the 5th to pack in that afternoon, which gave us a whole day before season to see what the elk were doing and if they were bugling yet in this area.. with that being said we had alot of country to cover. I took my cousin with, who has never been on a backcountry style elk hunt with horses and has not slept miles from a truck in a tent for a week.. i was pretty excited to share my obsession.

After the 9 mile hike in, loaded with gear/food (each leading a horse and mule) we set camp and relaxed. Listening to bulls fire off below camp. I was feeling good. Doing the same hunt solo last year, but being 2 weeks earlier this season... it was a good sign. The next day consisted of hiking ridges, glassing, hiking, and seeing what trails were open/no deadfall. I wore my cousin completely out. Haha

We slept light that night and after feeding the ponies that morning we left with our packs on our backs to head up a ridge. A little ways up the ridge, i looked over my shoulder down below camp and noticed a bull working up the opposite hillside. It was a decent 5 point. A couple cow calls had the bull fired up and heading our way. 25 mins into playing the bull,(with a perfect wind) he came through the deadfall.. frontal at 28 yards. I felt good, at full draw we met eyes. As i squeezed off, he dropped his head to whirl back under the deadfall and my arrow struck his antler. Total bummer but we were in good spirits being it was the first hour of the season and we were 300 yards from our tent. From there, the day was full of glassing, hiking, and trying to find the right bull. The next couple days were filled with not so great weather. Cold temps and rain moved in. We happened to meet an outfitter near camp who was planning on setting up camp for clients the last part of September on through rifle season/November. While talking and swapping stories, we found ourselves digging holes and tamping wood posts that would soon be the back bone to 3 wall tents. They had a group of 5 guys and 12 head of horses. We talked for a few hours, passed some time before the next storm rolled in. Before they packed out, the outfitter insisted we stay in his wall tents and use camp as needed. He said he would be back in a few days. As the rain moved in, we moved into the tents. A couple days went by and we hunkered down in camp.. it rained and rained. About the time i started going stir crazy, feeling like i was losing hope and the days were dwindling before i had to get my cousin back home, it cleared up. We headed high and were into elk immediately. Trying to work bigger bulls that were cowed up got frustrating. Alot of “F words” were stated. When we returned to camp that night we saw the outfitter had returned and stocked up on propane, installed cookstoves, provided new lanterns and built a table and shelves. He was very crafty with a chainsaw and impact.
 
The next morning we saddled up and head as far back as we could go on the high ridge. Running out of trail and getting into the nasty deadfall we took off on foot. Glassed some elk up high and sat there waiting to hear some bulls fire up. By 2 PM we dumped off the furthest ridge and ended up 1k vertical feet from the top.. bulls screaming all around us. We worked a bedded 6 point that had about 10 cows. After 2 hours of sneaking in and around the herd, calling and trying to make it happen i got frustrated and just decided to go straight at the bull. Well that didn’t work out... close but too many eyes. As i worked up the hill to my cousin, he laughed and said “jesus was that you blowing your flute down there”... i said “no “ as i caught my breathe from running - like a wild Indian my cousin says. He cracked off a bugle and the flute character replied with a great bugle and a chuckle until he was completely out of air. We both got big eyes as we could see the bull moving to our left down the hill. Directly where i had just come from. With out saying a word to each other, i ran 15 yard toward the bull to where i thought a good setup/shooting lanes were, and my cousin dropped back 50 yards. I watched the bull limp half way up the hill from my right. He was 123 yards away. I signaled a bugled to my cousin. The bull fired back with his clean deetle-dee, looked past me and began up the ridge the rest of the way and set his coarse for my cousin. I was in his way. He limped to about 50 yards before i drew back. I held at full draw until he was either going to commit to a hole in the deadfall or walk quartering to my right. He picked the hole and i let the 560 grain arrow fly. It was 20 yards and a perfect frontal! My cousin bugled, i cow called and he whirled about 10 yards to my left. We got him to stop. As i knocked another arrow, he jumped 2 huge dead trees, reared up and fell over.. Dying right in front of me. It was the quickest death ive ever witnessed. (Now sold on Bone Broadheads) Bittersweet ending to the trip as we needed to head out the following day. After pictures and high fives, we quartered the bull, deboned what we were taking that night and hung the rest a couple hundred yards from the carcass. It was a gnarly pull to the top, with one headlamp, and heavy ass packs full of meat/antlers and gear. Once on top, we picked our way to the horses and led them back to camp. We shot the bull at 6:35 PM and got back to camp at 1:30 AM. We woke up early, packed up and headed back for the second load. Getting all the meat up top, we hauled ass back to camp to tear it down and pack out that same evening. We got back to the truck at 9:30 PM.

As im writing this, my cousin text me and said his right big toe is still numb from hiking out of the hole we dropped into.. haha - you cant win them all.

I will throw some pictures up also. It was an awesome trip. Nothing beats bugling bulls with a bow in your hand. Next trip is late season muzzleloader elk in AZ!!!





Sorry for the horrible grammar, ect...
 
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