Elkwhisper
Well-known member
Well Mike is still up at camp chasing bulls with his wife Leslie and buddy John. For me however, it turned out to be another VERY short elk season. Mike, John and I headed up to camp on Tuesday afternoon. We got there in time to take a few practice shots and hit the hills for an evening hunt. Our main priority that first night was to get John a shot at an elk.... any elk. John is pretty new to bowhunting and we really wanted to put an elk in front of him.
We were able to find a nice herd early that evening and worked on them until dark. We set up to call three or four different times. I tried to drop back to call a bull past John and Mike, John was ready to fling an arrow and Mike had the camera rolling. Our calling was effective but two different times we had a nice 5x5 circle wide of Mike and John and end up in my lap. Now I'm not one to usually pass up a shot on a legal bull, but I had killed a really good one last year and have a rifle tag in my pocket this year, so I opted to let the little fella live, hoping that he would eventually end up in front of John. No arrows loosed that first evening, but what a blast being up close and personal with the elk.
The next morning we woke to a dramatic drop in temperature and extremely high winds. We were able to locate a decent bull tending about 16 cows at about 8 am. He pushed his lady friends into a deep coulee to get out of the wind. We used the wind to mask the noise of our approach and were able to slip in to a knob right above the herd. We belly crawled to the edge and peake our heads over. Half the cows were bedded straight below us at about 90 yards, the other have were still milling arround feeding. The bull was out at about 120 yards strutting back and forth, racking the grass with his antlers and giving us some great video footage. The cows eventually worked their way to about 50 yards below me, and I was hoping the bull would join them. When I say we were above these elk, I mean they were straight down an extremely steep bluff. After about 15 minutes the bull decided to round up the girls and try and find a more protected place to spend the day. The elk began to skirt the bottom of the knob we were on from the left side to the right side. I barely had time to roll over and scoot over to the other side of the knob, before the cows slowly started appearing on the slope below me at about 35 yards. They kept popping out from behind the hill one by one, and filed slowly past me. There was nothing between me and them but thin air. I was hunkered down on my butt in the wide open with Mike filming over my shoulder.
The bull took his sweet time making his way around the knob, and when he finally appeared, he was about 120 yards out. I was worried he was going to circle out of bow range, but eventually he tilted his head back, licked his lips and came trotting up right behind the rear cow. She jumped forward a short distance at his advance and he gave chase. I used that opportunity to draw my bow, and when he stopped broadside at 40 yards, I let him have it. The arrow took him through both lungs and he didn't make it 10 steps. Watching him drop that quickly in plain sight restored alot of faith in the power of a well placed arrow.
Now this bull isn't nearly as big as the bull I took last year, and there is a good chance that if I would have held out I could have possibly killed a larger one during rifle season. However, I couldn't be happier. Taking a mature 6x6 herd bull with my bow is by far the most exciting experience I could ask for, and I know that I am happier with this archery bull than I would be with a 360' rifle bull. So the good news is my freezer is once again full, the bad news is that I only got to hunt elk for about 4 hours this year. Guess there are worse problems to have
Hopefully Mike will have more good news on Monday when they get back , and I know he plans to get the video of my hunt posted soon as well. Stay tuned!
We were able to find a nice herd early that evening and worked on them until dark. We set up to call three or four different times. I tried to drop back to call a bull past John and Mike, John was ready to fling an arrow and Mike had the camera rolling. Our calling was effective but two different times we had a nice 5x5 circle wide of Mike and John and end up in my lap. Now I'm not one to usually pass up a shot on a legal bull, but I had killed a really good one last year and have a rifle tag in my pocket this year, so I opted to let the little fella live, hoping that he would eventually end up in front of John. No arrows loosed that first evening, but what a blast being up close and personal with the elk.
The next morning we woke to a dramatic drop in temperature and extremely high winds. We were able to locate a decent bull tending about 16 cows at about 8 am. He pushed his lady friends into a deep coulee to get out of the wind. We used the wind to mask the noise of our approach and were able to slip in to a knob right above the herd. We belly crawled to the edge and peake our heads over. Half the cows were bedded straight below us at about 90 yards, the other have were still milling arround feeding. The bull was out at about 120 yards strutting back and forth, racking the grass with his antlers and giving us some great video footage. The cows eventually worked their way to about 50 yards below me, and I was hoping the bull would join them. When I say we were above these elk, I mean they were straight down an extremely steep bluff. After about 15 minutes the bull decided to round up the girls and try and find a more protected place to spend the day. The elk began to skirt the bottom of the knob we were on from the left side to the right side. I barely had time to roll over and scoot over to the other side of the knob, before the cows slowly started appearing on the slope below me at about 35 yards. They kept popping out from behind the hill one by one, and filed slowly past me. There was nothing between me and them but thin air. I was hunkered down on my butt in the wide open with Mike filming over my shoulder.
The bull took his sweet time making his way around the knob, and when he finally appeared, he was about 120 yards out. I was worried he was going to circle out of bow range, but eventually he tilted his head back, licked his lips and came trotting up right behind the rear cow. She jumped forward a short distance at his advance and he gave chase. I used that opportunity to draw my bow, and when he stopped broadside at 40 yards, I let him have it. The arrow took him through both lungs and he didn't make it 10 steps. Watching him drop that quickly in plain sight restored alot of faith in the power of a well placed arrow.
Now this bull isn't nearly as big as the bull I took last year, and there is a good chance that if I would have held out I could have possibly killed a larger one during rifle season. However, I couldn't be happier. Taking a mature 6x6 herd bull with my bow is by far the most exciting experience I could ask for, and I know that I am happier with this archery bull than I would be with a 360' rifle bull. So the good news is my freezer is once again full, the bad news is that I only got to hunt elk for about 4 hours this year. Guess there are worse problems to have
Hopefully Mike will have more good news on Monday when they get back , and I know he plans to get the video of my hunt posted soon as well. Stay tuned!
