Ok; here is, part two of our hunt. The second to the last day we were on our hunt for elk, I decided to go hit some old grades I had found a couple years back. I knew the elk would be feeding up the ridge in the morning so I hiked in and camped out the night before. I told Curt to pick me up later the next evening and hopefully I would be packing some big slabs of meat. Anyway, I got in just as it started to get dark. I knew the elk would be feeding down the ridge toward the watering hole late into the evening, and as I was setting up camp, a deep, raspy bugle sounded off in the canyon below. Yes!! > I thought to myself as I started to roll the bag out on the ground. As I crawled into the sleeping bag I heard my quarry pipe up again; --- then again-----then again, finally thinking to myself, “you Rat Bastard”: No bugle all day, and now you won’t shut the hell up!!! “Live it up now Mr., cause I’m kicking your ever loving Rat Bastard ass in the morning!!!” I told myself.
I was pretty tired so it didn’t take me too long to crash. The next morning I woke a couple hours before daylight and was ready to rip. It seemed like an eternity waiting for the light of the day to arrive so I could slip around on them old grades. They were fairly open with sparsely planted trees along the edges, aging around 6 to eight years, and 8 to 10 feet high. Perfect for slipping around, through, and between. You could have an elk within 20 or 25 feet and not even know it sometimes. The time had arrived, daylight. I began my quest slipping in and out of the trees walking ever so slow listening more than anything. I was hoping that Rat Bastard would sound off so I could focus in on my rout a little more. I slipped through weaving in and out with not much more than sign of the fact they had been there the night before. I finally dropped down to the spot I had last heard him thinking I might be able too line something out. No luck!! It was just too torn up. Too many tracks coming from, and going to. I then decided to cut over on another ridge hoping to hear something crack a bugle. No such luck. It seemed as though I was a step behind all day. It was now coming up on 3:00 pm and I had no clue as to the where abouts of Ol Rat Bastard. I started heading out backtracking toward the old grades thinking that I would at least have the wind in my favor on the hunt back. As I was slipping through the maze of fir trees, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an elk. I threw the binos up, and sure enough, it was!! I had spotted a cow about 60 yards to my left. I patiently waited and watched as one would appear, another disappear, another appear, yet another disappear; (flipping musical chairs with a bunch of women): What the hell is this I thought. This is a bunch of horse shit, I mean bull shit, I mean elk shit, oh who the hell really cares; the bottom line is elk with no horns I thought. All of a sudden Rat Bastard cracked his pipe and relinquished his gostly presence as to where the hell he was hiding!! He was around 80 yards up the ridge but I could not get a visual on his sorry butt. I continued to wait not making a peep. The elk continued to feed, plowing the chow. They looked like they were on a mission; you would have thought the Ethiopian hunger strike was about to set in!!! My patience finally paid off as Big Ol Rat Bastard finally came into sight. He was on the Starboard side with his nose held high in the wind. He was licking his lips to get a better taste of the scent from his cows! “Oh ya baby, keep on coming”, I thought. He was slipping in and out of the trees heading for his herum, checking em out. Little did he know, I had pokeeehauntus ready to stick it to him as soon as he got close to his cows. He drifted right on down into a perfect slot around 45 yards or so from me!!! All I had to do was make the shot!! I drew back, edged it toward his windbag, and let drive!! He bolted on impact; it looked like a good shot; all of the elk scattered. “Oh boy, great, now which way did he go” I thought! As soon as the noise started to discipate I heard what sounded like a heavy exhaling around every 5 seconds. It didn’t sound too far off either. I waited patiently hoping it was Rat Bastard making the noise. About 15 minutes later nothing! It had stopped! I decided to head up that way without even checking for the blood trail. It was around 80 to 120 yards up where I thought it had came from, just inside a little patch of trees atop the ridge. I walked as quiet as I could getting to the spot I thought the noise had come from. Splash two baby, splash two!!!! An awesome 6 point with a 10 inch royal on his right hand side!!! I was pumped!!!
GREEN SCORE: 306-2/8