Elk are far and away the animal I have had the hardest time hunting the last few years.
I consider myself pretty good at finding game, but for whatever reason elk just give me fits. I've always had my encounters, but could never put it all together and put a bull on the ground. Each of the last four seasons I've blown it on bulls at least once during the season, last year missing a beautiful feeding six by six at only 250 yards.
This year had to be the year though, I've only hunted deer a handful of times and have almost completely dedicated this year to elk. The elk hunting has been very slow too. Besides opening day, I really wasn't getting on elk that often at all, up until I started hunting the same drainage I missed the six point in last year about two weeks ago.
We got a pretty good snowstorm the first day I headed in there, and there were elk tracks absolutely everywhere. Knowing that older bulls use the area at times and there were elk in the area, I pretty much decided I'd hunt the piss out of this drainage until something happened. Over the next ten days I hunted in there five times, seeing good numbers of cows everyday. No bulls however. And being as its three miles in before I even get to the area I start to hunt, it was pretty hard to keep motivating myself to hump it in there. But being as I kept seeing lots of cows, I figured I'd stick with it until hopefully a bull showed.
I loaded up yesterday and left the house at four, wanting to get most the hike out before light broke. I reached the saddle and starting glassing just as the sun was coming up, and started seeing cows instantly.
No bulls so no action. I headed up over into the next little drainage and glassed these ladies up on the skyline.
(these are through my binoculars so bear with me)
No visible bulls again, I'm starting to wonder how all these calves came about.
It was still late morning and I was feeling ambitious and decided that there were enough elk moving to warrant another couple mile trek up and around the mountain looking into a saddle between three separate drainages.
This picture's from the saddle, looking back down the drainage I hunted on the way up.
I posted up on a ridgeline beside the saddle and started glassing. Right away I spotted a half dozen or so elk bedded just off the top of a knob across the saddle, maybe six hundred yards away. I assumed they were the same herd as in the third picture above. No bulls no worries though. Out came lunch and I lounged around for a while watching the elk. I had no reason to think there would be a bull anywhere near these elk, but thought I could get in close and wanted to see how good my stalking skills were.
I dropped out of sight of the elk, and circled around the back side of the knob. Starting my way up, the week old snow was loud as walking on eggshells, I figured this is a waste of time. I didn't even bother catching my breath before reaching the top, figuring the elk would already be watching me from a distant ridge. Over the top I go and bam! elk!
Less than forty yards away I start scanning them, cow, calf, calf, cow, cow, cow, calf, bull.....
HOLY SHIT BULL!!!!
Quartering away from me bedded, I thought, "There's no way you can shoot that dink this far back..." Just as I was thinking this, he stood, and the trigger went off.
I could see the blood coming out of the ribs through the scope and knew the shot was true.
This is my view of where the bull was when I shot, as you can see, up close and personal.
I was more than just a little excited.
After a short track job onto the face of the knob, I had my bull.
I consider myself pretty good at finding game, but for whatever reason elk just give me fits. I've always had my encounters, but could never put it all together and put a bull on the ground. Each of the last four seasons I've blown it on bulls at least once during the season, last year missing a beautiful feeding six by six at only 250 yards.
This year had to be the year though, I've only hunted deer a handful of times and have almost completely dedicated this year to elk. The elk hunting has been very slow too. Besides opening day, I really wasn't getting on elk that often at all, up until I started hunting the same drainage I missed the six point in last year about two weeks ago.
We got a pretty good snowstorm the first day I headed in there, and there were elk tracks absolutely everywhere. Knowing that older bulls use the area at times and there were elk in the area, I pretty much decided I'd hunt the piss out of this drainage until something happened. Over the next ten days I hunted in there five times, seeing good numbers of cows everyday. No bulls however. And being as its three miles in before I even get to the area I start to hunt, it was pretty hard to keep motivating myself to hump it in there. But being as I kept seeing lots of cows, I figured I'd stick with it until hopefully a bull showed.
I loaded up yesterday and left the house at four, wanting to get most the hike out before light broke. I reached the saddle and starting glassing just as the sun was coming up, and started seeing cows instantly.
No bulls so no action. I headed up over into the next little drainage and glassed these ladies up on the skyline.
(these are through my binoculars so bear with me)
No visible bulls again, I'm starting to wonder how all these calves came about.
It was still late morning and I was feeling ambitious and decided that there were enough elk moving to warrant another couple mile trek up and around the mountain looking into a saddle between three separate drainages.
This picture's from the saddle, looking back down the drainage I hunted on the way up.
I posted up on a ridgeline beside the saddle and started glassing. Right away I spotted a half dozen or so elk bedded just off the top of a knob across the saddle, maybe six hundred yards away. I assumed they were the same herd as in the third picture above. No bulls no worries though. Out came lunch and I lounged around for a while watching the elk. I had no reason to think there would be a bull anywhere near these elk, but thought I could get in close and wanted to see how good my stalking skills were.
I dropped out of sight of the elk, and circled around the back side of the knob. Starting my way up, the week old snow was loud as walking on eggshells, I figured this is a waste of time. I didn't even bother catching my breath before reaching the top, figuring the elk would already be watching me from a distant ridge. Over the top I go and bam! elk!
Less than forty yards away I start scanning them, cow, calf, calf, cow, cow, cow, calf, bull.....
HOLY SHIT BULL!!!!
Quartering away from me bedded, I thought, "There's no way you can shoot that dink this far back..." Just as I was thinking this, he stood, and the trigger went off.
I could see the blood coming out of the ribs through the scope and knew the shot was true.
This is my view of where the bull was when I shot, as you can see, up close and personal.
I was more than just a little excited.
After a short track job onto the face of the knob, I had my bull.
