MTelkHuntress
Well-known member
I thought I would do a little write up to reflect on this archery season before the final push in late archery. There have been some great moments....and some not so great moments.
This year I was extremely tired of not finding elk so once again I took matters in my own hands and scoured the maps for areas to scout in the summer. I ended up setting about 5 trail cameras and it was a lot of work to check them but it was a great excuse to get in shape for the season. Opening day, I chose an area that I had been to 2 years ago but never really explored until this year. The smoke was horrible from all the fires but I pushed on hiking hard. I found new water holes and tons of rubs but no elk. Second day of the season not far from the truck, I got a bugle back from a bull. I was shocked and my dad and I tried to set up before we realized the bull wasnt coming in. I tried to sneak in on the bull but I saw a couple cows that ended up winding me. They ran off and we went down to the fence line just to see where they jumped. We found one spot on the fence that was down and kind of noted the location before we hiked back up the mountain to make a plan for the day. Well, turns out those elk didnt go far and we bumped into a spike and saw the whole herd run away. I never got to see the bull but it was nice to see some elk. We went there second weekend as well but never heard a single elk bugle. We figured the smoke and hot weather had them quiet. I did manage to call a hunter off private property which was kind of funny. I suspected it was a person but I think I just really hoped it was an elk. He was very rude so I didnt feel bad one bit for wasting his time. We decided to move on from this area because we weren't getting responses and just weren't sure if the elk were rutting yet.
This year I was extremely tired of not finding elk so once again I took matters in my own hands and scoured the maps for areas to scout in the summer. I ended up setting about 5 trail cameras and it was a lot of work to check them but it was a great excuse to get in shape for the season. Opening day, I chose an area that I had been to 2 years ago but never really explored until this year. The smoke was horrible from all the fires but I pushed on hiking hard. I found new water holes and tons of rubs but no elk. Second day of the season not far from the truck, I got a bugle back from a bull. I was shocked and my dad and I tried to set up before we realized the bull wasnt coming in. I tried to sneak in on the bull but I saw a couple cows that ended up winding me. They ran off and we went down to the fence line just to see where they jumped. We found one spot on the fence that was down and kind of noted the location before we hiked back up the mountain to make a plan for the day. Well, turns out those elk didnt go far and we bumped into a spike and saw the whole herd run away. I never got to see the bull but it was nice to see some elk. We went there second weekend as well but never heard a single elk bugle. We figured the smoke and hot weather had them quiet. I did manage to call a hunter off private property which was kind of funny. I suspected it was a person but I think I just really hoped it was an elk. He was very rude so I didnt feel bad one bit for wasting his time. We decided to move on from this area because we weren't getting responses and just weren't sure if the elk were rutting yet.