Good luck to all
- Thread starter Rack Daniels
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D
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I bet the cougar hunting was pretty good at the bars last night.
kiwi hunter
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a kiss from me
Rack Daniels
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Get into anything?
Rack Daniels
Well-known member
The guy I was with, it was our first time hunting together… his spot, that he sleuthed off of a group of YouTube influencers (Born and Raised Outdoors), when they came to Montana.
we’d been planning this hunt in this spot since last rifle season, and have stayed in touch the whole time. We did a big hike in another spot a few months ago, and went antelope hunting together in Townsend a month ago.
It’s 3 miles- 1.5 hour hike ONE way to the camp. The whole place had a bad burn a couple years ago. We camped up in a little draw where there was still some green trees left. There was still a little blowdown but the place was very thick with timber even in the limbless trees of the burn area. We found the biggest opening we could possibly find to camp in, outside of the burn…
The topography created dozens of seepy pockets full of marshy wallows and shade in the cover. It was ELKY in there!
I showed up a day early to bring camp in and try to figure out where some elk were before opening day. I even hiked back out the 3 miles to meet Blake Friday night, and carry two 6 packs of beer for him and me and a gallon jug of camp water so we don’t have to deal with our water bladders to cook.
The trailhead filled up Friday night with pickups, while I waited for Blake to show up after he’d gotten off work. Everyone I talked to said they’re not bugling at all, only cow calls, and we all shared with each other where we intended to camp. Two of them were 70-80 year old brothers on horses camped at the trailhead, they were funny ol boys! Blake was right on time at 7 and we headed up the trail. I helped him get his camp setup and we ate some grub and drank a beer before calling it a night. Anxious for opening day, we set our alarms for 4:30 AM.
Morning came quick on Saturday and we started off on a sort of center ridge dividing two big valleys. To one side is our long drainage we were camped in, and to the other. HELLS CANYON. We did many setups along the way calling and even getting responses down in the hell hole but he wouldn’t commit to coming up out of it… we didn’t blame him
we made a HUGE loop and ended up doing 2000 vertical feet elevation and 10 total miles on the day. My heels were torn up from these boots I have! Never did lay eyes on an elk but we were happy to be getting some bugles back this early in the season. Just needed to find one that wants to play the game… we ate our mountain house and drank a beer or two before hitting the hay with a plan for the morning.
We had decided we’d just be real men and go down into the pit of doom if he responded again Sunday morning. He did respond right away, after a predawn location bugle from the top of the same ridge. We dropped in just a little ways to where we had a little better vantage point of the bottom. (so we thought) Blake gave out a sort of “lazy bugle” and he responded within about 30 seconds. I quickly marked on my map where I thought he was in the bottom and we bombed down there as quickly and quietly as we could. We got right into the zone we were sure he was in and gave a couple cow calls…. Nothing.. few more, still nothing! Bugle… nothing.. we creep further in and end up hitting a steep canyon drop-off maybe 80 feet down to a fast moving creek. Absolutely no access to get down in there and it is super loud from the roar of the river- no way we’re hearing him if he’s down in there… we pick around for awhile and ultimately can’t find the nesting place of this noisy bull. I made a brief stalk on a big forked muley buck, still 100% velvet, on the way back up the mountain. Even in the burn he disappeared in a glance and I couldn’t turn him back up. We made it back to the top of this center ridge quickly after chasing the young mule deer up it. Almost immediately after hitting the top though, the “hells canyon bull” was right back to bugling his head off!! Bugger!
It was just starting to get dark so it should be getting good anyway hopefully! We walked the finger back a very short ways and gave out another locator bugle. Quiet… then, without taking another step, about 20 seconds later Blake through out a chuckle and a BIG sounding bull responded immediately; cutting Blake off and he gave a lengthy chuckle of his own. He sounded like we were standing on top of him it was so loud! You’d of thought he was a 300+ inch bull by the way he sounded and how tough he thought he was! We immediately boogy down toward the bottom, not quite making it to the ground level. We were able to spot him going into the trees where he eventually did a J-hook to circle around and popped back out to my right. He came into some thick trees on the right that I got to range at 35 yards but far too thick, although I drew as he came in, just in case.. while I’m full draw with no shot the wind switched and blew right at him and I could feel it on my neck. The bull buckled his knees out of worry twice, but never busted out. He kept staring through me to find the source of the call! Behind me way up the hill, Blake is bugling and cow calling his butt off and he can’t see the bull half of the time and can’t see me pretty much 100% of the time so he’s just doing his thing making elk noise up there. The elk walks from right to left about to come through an opening that I had already pre-ranged a couple spots at 30,40,50 dead in front of me. as he passes through, I blow a cow call and he just keeps walking all the way around to my left at about the same 35 yard distance, still too thick! no shot! The bull was persistent and didn’t want to leave without seeing what’s making all the ruckus and makes the same loop back around from left to right this time. As he approaches my opening, I call again a little earlier this time and he stops perfectly in the window at the 50 yard mark. I put it on him and let it fly.. As the elk ran off, I could see the arrow was sticking out of him and a bit back. How could that happen??? I start cow calling incessantly hoping it’ll calm the bull down. He ran into the timber a short way and all went quiet… I turn around and Blake stands up and asks, “Did you just shoot him??”
I told him Yes!!!
He said how far?!
50! (He said later that he thought the bull was like 100 yards from me yet)
He says Nice, where’d you hit him!?
I said, “Guts!
”
I see his face get concerned and I said it’s alright man, he’ll die well just give him 11-12 hours and come back tomorrow morning. Walking back to camp I’m thinking how in the world it hit so far back… maybe he whirled at the shot? That would mean it was going toward lung and heart then?? I was convinced it’d be fatal and if I played it smart and possibly put a finishing arrow in him, it would be done. We get back to camp and have dinner and a beer and shoot the shit til nearly midnight… I sleep like a baby. Til about 3:30 am….
I wake up to smoke that had settled so thick into our drainage from the fires, it was raining ashes and Blake’s coughing himself awake and doesn’t even realize it. I shake his tent and get him up and tell him “there might be a forest fire nearby, get out and look around!” He gets out with a headlamp to see the thick smoke and ashes in the light beam and he’s instantly as worried as I am. The wind was gusting and we kept a close eye on the couple worrisome trees we had to contend with.. we ended up making some coffee and staying up to watch for the glow of fire in the distance and for falling trees. By 5:30AM we decided to just head to the tree where I shot from, at the bottom of center ridge. when we get there I go stand where the bull was standing and I have Blake stand where I shot from. As I’m looking through the window at Blake I immediately noticed there’s limbs everywhere in between! F***! Standing from where the elk had to have been, I start immediately scanning for blood. It takes us probably a half hour to finally turn up the first blood, where he first entered the thick trees after running off and it’s not great blood. A dark speck… thankfully I have flagging tape so I flagged the spot and also marked it on OnX. We kept inching along, finding little specs of blood, either in the tall grass, on the golden bluebunch, or on the white rocks scattered throughout. Multiple times, we couldn’t find any more blood and would have to backtrack to the last flag and look at the marks on OnX to follow his arc.. that helped tremendously! Eventually, the blood let us across a small creek and up to a bench where Blake suggested he skip ahead and go look up on the bench where the bull likely went to bed, so he could see with a vantage. He walked up onto the bench and through the middle and around to the right, but couldn’t find anything. After asking me if I had any luck finding any more blood, he decided to go look on the left side of the bench. He exclaimed to get up there, that there was blood, and he definitely bedded there! as I’m walking up to flag the spot he says, “ oh wait, dude he’s right here dead!” I asked if he was CERTAIN he was dead, and Blake laughed and said yeah man!!
When I got up there, you could tell he had been dead a while, but it was only 9 AM and probably not over 60° yet. He was in the open so we knew we would have to work fast… we snapped a few pictures and got to work. Blake remarked that watching me quarter the bull was like watching an artist at work. Haha! By noon, we had a hindquarter each, and we were hiking out the 3 miles. We see the old guys on horses pretty close to the trailhead as we are coming down and they are heading in for the evening hunt. They congratulated me for my success and we shared with them the location of the Elk. They said if we crossed paths again on their way out and if their mule was still empty they could help us out. Sweet! We wished them luck and hit the truck.
we’d been planning this hunt in this spot since last rifle season, and have stayed in touch the whole time. We did a big hike in another spot a few months ago, and went antelope hunting together in Townsend a month ago.
It’s 3 miles- 1.5 hour hike ONE way to the camp. The whole place had a bad burn a couple years ago. We camped up in a little draw where there was still some green trees left. There was still a little blowdown but the place was very thick with timber even in the limbless trees of the burn area. We found the biggest opening we could possibly find to camp in, outside of the burn…
The topography created dozens of seepy pockets full of marshy wallows and shade in the cover. It was ELKY in there!
I showed up a day early to bring camp in and try to figure out where some elk were before opening day. I even hiked back out the 3 miles to meet Blake Friday night, and carry two 6 packs of beer for him and me and a gallon jug of camp water so we don’t have to deal with our water bladders to cook.
The trailhead filled up Friday night with pickups, while I waited for Blake to show up after he’d gotten off work. Everyone I talked to said they’re not bugling at all, only cow calls, and we all shared with each other where we intended to camp. Two of them were 70-80 year old brothers on horses camped at the trailhead, they were funny ol boys! Blake was right on time at 7 and we headed up the trail. I helped him get his camp setup and we ate some grub and drank a beer before calling it a night. Anxious for opening day, we set our alarms for 4:30 AM.
Morning came quick on Saturday and we started off on a sort of center ridge dividing two big valleys. To one side is our long drainage we were camped in, and to the other. HELLS CANYON. We did many setups along the way calling and even getting responses down in the hell hole but he wouldn’t commit to coming up out of it… we didn’t blame him
we made a HUGE loop and ended up doing 2000 vertical feet elevation and 10 total miles on the day. My heels were torn up from these boots I have! Never did lay eyes on an elk but we were happy to be getting some bugles back this early in the season. Just needed to find one that wants to play the game… we ate our mountain house and drank a beer or two before hitting the hay with a plan for the morning. We had decided we’d just be real men and go down into the pit of doom if he responded again Sunday morning. He did respond right away, after a predawn location bugle from the top of the same ridge. We dropped in just a little ways to where we had a little better vantage point of the bottom. (so we thought) Blake gave out a sort of “lazy bugle” and he responded within about 30 seconds. I quickly marked on my map where I thought he was in the bottom and we bombed down there as quickly and quietly as we could. We got right into the zone we were sure he was in and gave a couple cow calls…. Nothing.. few more, still nothing! Bugle… nothing.. we creep further in and end up hitting a steep canyon drop-off maybe 80 feet down to a fast moving creek. Absolutely no access to get down in there and it is super loud from the roar of the river- no way we’re hearing him if he’s down in there… we pick around for awhile and ultimately can’t find the nesting place of this noisy bull. I made a brief stalk on a big forked muley buck, still 100% velvet, on the way back up the mountain. Even in the burn he disappeared in a glance and I couldn’t turn him back up. We made it back to the top of this center ridge quickly after chasing the young mule deer up it. Almost immediately after hitting the top though, the “hells canyon bull” was right back to bugling his head off!! Bugger!
It was just starting to get dark so it should be getting good anyway hopefully! We walked the finger back a very short ways and gave out another locator bugle. Quiet… then, without taking another step, about 20 seconds later Blake through out a chuckle and a BIG sounding bull responded immediately; cutting Blake off and he gave a lengthy chuckle of his own. He sounded like we were standing on top of him it was so loud! You’d of thought he was a 300+ inch bull by the way he sounded and how tough he thought he was! We immediately boogy down toward the bottom, not quite making it to the ground level. We were able to spot him going into the trees where he eventually did a J-hook to circle around and popped back out to my right. He came into some thick trees on the right that I got to range at 35 yards but far too thick, although I drew as he came in, just in case.. while I’m full draw with no shot the wind switched and blew right at him and I could feel it on my neck. The bull buckled his knees out of worry twice, but never busted out. He kept staring through me to find the source of the call! Behind me way up the hill, Blake is bugling and cow calling his butt off and he can’t see the bull half of the time and can’t see me pretty much 100% of the time so he’s just doing his thing making elk noise up there. The elk walks from right to left about to come through an opening that I had already pre-ranged a couple spots at 30,40,50 dead in front of me. as he passes through, I blow a cow call and he just keeps walking all the way around to my left at about the same 35 yard distance, still too thick! no shot! The bull was persistent and didn’t want to leave without seeing what’s making all the ruckus and makes the same loop back around from left to right this time. As he approaches my opening, I call again a little earlier this time and he stops perfectly in the window at the 50 yard mark. I put it on him and let it fly.. As the elk ran off, I could see the arrow was sticking out of him and a bit back. How could that happen??? I start cow calling incessantly hoping it’ll calm the bull down. He ran into the timber a short way and all went quiet… I turn around and Blake stands up and asks, “Did you just shoot him??”
I told him Yes!!!
He said how far?!
50! (He said later that he thought the bull was like 100 yards from me yet)
He says Nice, where’d you hit him!?
I said, “Guts!
”I see his face get concerned and I said it’s alright man, he’ll die well just give him 11-12 hours and come back tomorrow morning. Walking back to camp I’m thinking how in the world it hit so far back… maybe he whirled at the shot? That would mean it was going toward lung and heart then?? I was convinced it’d be fatal and if I played it smart and possibly put a finishing arrow in him, it would be done. We get back to camp and have dinner and a beer and shoot the shit til nearly midnight… I sleep like a baby. Til about 3:30 am….
I wake up to smoke that had settled so thick into our drainage from the fires, it was raining ashes and Blake’s coughing himself awake and doesn’t even realize it. I shake his tent and get him up and tell him “there might be a forest fire nearby, get out and look around!” He gets out with a headlamp to see the thick smoke and ashes in the light beam and he’s instantly as worried as I am. The wind was gusting and we kept a close eye on the couple worrisome trees we had to contend with.. we ended up making some coffee and staying up to watch for the glow of fire in the distance and for falling trees. By 5:30AM we decided to just head to the tree where I shot from, at the bottom of center ridge. when we get there I go stand where the bull was standing and I have Blake stand where I shot from. As I’m looking through the window at Blake I immediately noticed there’s limbs everywhere in between! F***! Standing from where the elk had to have been, I start immediately scanning for blood. It takes us probably a half hour to finally turn up the first blood, where he first entered the thick trees after running off and it’s not great blood. A dark speck… thankfully I have flagging tape so I flagged the spot and also marked it on OnX. We kept inching along, finding little specs of blood, either in the tall grass, on the golden bluebunch, or on the white rocks scattered throughout. Multiple times, we couldn’t find any more blood and would have to backtrack to the last flag and look at the marks on OnX to follow his arc.. that helped tremendously! Eventually, the blood let us across a small creek and up to a bench where Blake suggested he skip ahead and go look up on the bench where the bull likely went to bed, so he could see with a vantage. He walked up onto the bench and through the middle and around to the right, but couldn’t find anything. After asking me if I had any luck finding any more blood, he decided to go look on the left side of the bench. He exclaimed to get up there, that there was blood, and he definitely bedded there! as I’m walking up to flag the spot he says, “ oh wait, dude he’s right here dead!” I asked if he was CERTAIN he was dead, and Blake laughed and said yeah man!!
When I got up there, you could tell he had been dead a while, but it was only 9 AM and probably not over 60° yet. He was in the open so we knew we would have to work fast… we snapped a few pictures and got to work. Blake remarked that watching me quarter the bull was like watching an artist at work. Haha! By noon, we had a hindquarter each, and we were hiking out the 3 miles. We see the old guys on horses pretty close to the trailhead as we are coming down and they are heading in for the evening hunt. They congratulated me for my success and we shared with them the location of the Elk. They said if we crossed paths again on their way out and if their mule was still empty they could help us out. Sweet! We wished them luck and hit the truck.
Rack Daniels
Well-known member
We got to the truck and threw the quarters in the tailgate, jumped in and flew to town for ice and some real food. Round-trip took about an hour and a half and I think by around 4 o’clock we were headed back in for another load. I loaded up a front quarter, a backstrap, a tenderloin and the head while Blake loaded a front quarter, a backstrap, a tenderloin and some of his gear he left at the killsite. By 6:15ish we’re heading back out. This trip was grueling and along the way, a limb stuck in the tall grass grabbed my left foot and I totally lost my balance, falling with the heavy side down. I felt like a turtle on his back and I asked Blake “I didn’t just bust his nose did I????
”. He said nope! Looks good! I realized when I got home that I had busted a little bit off his right third. Bummer!!! It takes us a solid two hours or more to get this load back to the truck and by the time we get back, have a beer and try to eat a little food which was hard once you’ve worked your body to exhaustion, It was well after 9 PM… it took some convincing but I told Blake I don’t have a choice. I’m not leaving that camp back there. I have to go tonight. It will be light work and simply time consuming, which sucks.. we head off into the pitch black night, optimistic that this will all be well worth it when it’s over in 3 hours.. Just around the corner from the camp cut-in, we run into the old guys on horseback. They asked if we got him out to which I respond we’re only 150 yards from getting our camp out and we would be all done. They could see our exhausted demeanor and offered to load the mule with our camp. Thankfully we broke it down and brought it down toward the trail at 5:30 that morning.. we helped them load our stuff up, and thanked them as they took off toward the trailhead. Now it’s just an hour and a half walk out with a light pack. We were so tired that just walking the trail out for a 3rd time that day was a killer— even with no weight. By the time we got back to the trailhead it was well after midnight. All our things were next to my pickup and we just threw it in our rides and both slept in our vehicles. It was the worst night of sleep on the most tired night of my life. For 7 years I’ve wanted to shoot a bull elk so so badly, and now I desire it just a little less, because it’s the hardest hunt I’ve ever had in my life.. I’m super proud of Blake and his absolute grit and optimism, and I’m proud of myself. I feel like something was definitely guiding this whole trip and so many things that could have and should have went wrong, didn’t. We hiked 17.5 miles total to find the dead bull and get him and camp out in one day. Glad to sleep in my own bed tonight, although it’s midnight now, and I’ve still had nonstop work. Just have 1.5 hind quarters left to cut and wrap and it’ll all be processed already too! Now it’s time to get Blake his first bull elk!! Picture dump time.
”. He said nope! Looks good! I realized when I got home that I had busted a little bit off his right third. Bummer!!! It takes us a solid two hours or more to get this load back to the truck and by the time we get back, have a beer and try to eat a little food which was hard once you’ve worked your body to exhaustion, It was well after 9 PM… it took some convincing but I told Blake I don’t have a choice. I’m not leaving that camp back there. I have to go tonight. It will be light work and simply time consuming, which sucks.. we head off into the pitch black night, optimistic that this will all be well worth it when it’s over in 3 hours.. Just around the corner from the camp cut-in, we run into the old guys on horseback. They asked if we got him out to which I respond we’re only 150 yards from getting our camp out and we would be all done. They could see our exhausted demeanor and offered to load the mule with our camp. Thankfully we broke it down and brought it down toward the trail at 5:30 that morning.. we helped them load our stuff up, and thanked them as they took off toward the trailhead. Now it’s just an hour and a half walk out with a light pack. We were so tired that just walking the trail out for a 3rd time that day was a killer— even with no weight. By the time we got back to the trailhead it was well after midnight. All our things were next to my pickup and we just threw it in our rides and both slept in our vehicles. It was the worst night of sleep on the most tired night of my life. For 7 years I’ve wanted to shoot a bull elk so so badly, and now I desire it just a little less, because it’s the hardest hunt I’ve ever had in my life.. I’m super proud of Blake and his absolute grit and optimism, and I’m proud of myself. I feel like something was definitely guiding this whole trip and so many things that could have and should have went wrong, didn’t. We hiked 17.5 miles total to find the dead bull and get him and camp out in one day. Glad to sleep in my own bed tonight, although it’s midnight now, and I’ve still had nonstop work. Just have 1.5 hind quarters left to cut and wrap and it’ll all be processed already too! Now it’s time to get Blake his first bull elk!! Picture dump time.
Rack Daniels
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Forkyfinder
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Bull eh?
cgasner1
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Good for you @Flatbrimmer the first one is the hardest
Southern Elk
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Good job. Congrats!
LuketheDog
Well-known member
Congrats! It took me 7 years to kill my first elk too, because I wanted my first one to be a bull and I wanted to do it with my bow, glad I'm not the only fool who did that
Rzrbck918
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Awesome! What a great hunt!
Rack Daniels
Well-known member
I shot a cow when I was 15 and another 3 years ago that I posted on here. lol first bull! Not first elk!Congrats! It took me 7 years to kill my first elk too, because I wanted my first one to be a bull and I wanted to do it with my bow, glad I'm not the only fool who did that
I did hold out for a turkey with my bow because shotgun seemed too easy, and that took me 4 years to finally get with my bow haha
D
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Hard to beat that feeling of an opening weekend bull. Congratulations on a successful hunt! Hopefully the first of many more.
Forkyfinder
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Cool to hear the story man.
Enjoy the meals!
Enjoy the meals!
Rack Daniels
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Hell ya dude thanks for stopping by! It was good to chat with you and get a bit of a break! Don’t give up on that spot I gave you, I’m telling you!!
NearerTheBone
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heck yea congratulations!! What a story and what a great bull
