Lonesome_God_outdoors
Active member
Elk are pretty amazing creatures, but the absolute craziest thing about them is their uncanny ability to know when one more step will be their last.
I was out this morning and ran into a spike eating along the hillside at 60 yards. Since I also have a cow tag good until the end of January, I didn't want to fill my bull tag on a spike. I watch him feed into the trees and then I move to the right a bit to see if I can find the rest of the herd. I move about 50-60 yards down from him then turn and go straight in the trees. I get about 20 yards in and hear a cow about 30-40 yards in front of me and to my right. . Now the wind is blowing directly in my face so she doesn't wind me, and the brush is thick to where I am unable to see the elk, but I know she's to my right the spike is to my left. I'm hoping the elk to my left will move across my face to the cow to my right but that never happens. After a few minutes I decide to slowly try and get to a position where I can see the elk talking and what they are doing.
There's about 4 inches of snow on the ground and this side of the hill gets some sun so the snow is a bit crunchy in places. I'm going slow to stay in the powder, silent snow and looking to see where the elk were and hopefully where they'll be going. Then I hear a bugle just over my shoulder to the left. I look and a solid 5x5 bull is walking in line with me. He walks up to almost parallel with me where his vitals are behind a bush and if he takes one more step his head will go behind a tree and his vitals will be perfectly broadside. The wind is perfect and he has no idea I'm there but for some reason he doesn't take another step. I can tell he's also looking for the same cow/group that I was but instead of continuing on his way, he slowly turns around and walks the other direction. I don't know why he didn't continue in the direction he was going but he's mighty lucky he didn't. I know this isn't the first time one step has made the difference between success and trying another day but it is remarkable that all the work and effort comes down to one step.
I was out this morning and ran into a spike eating along the hillside at 60 yards. Since I also have a cow tag good until the end of January, I didn't want to fill my bull tag on a spike. I watch him feed into the trees and then I move to the right a bit to see if I can find the rest of the herd. I move about 50-60 yards down from him then turn and go straight in the trees. I get about 20 yards in and hear a cow about 30-40 yards in front of me and to my right. . Now the wind is blowing directly in my face so she doesn't wind me, and the brush is thick to where I am unable to see the elk, but I know she's to my right the spike is to my left. I'm hoping the elk to my left will move across my face to the cow to my right but that never happens. After a few minutes I decide to slowly try and get to a position where I can see the elk talking and what they are doing.
There's about 4 inches of snow on the ground and this side of the hill gets some sun so the snow is a bit crunchy in places. I'm going slow to stay in the powder, silent snow and looking to see where the elk were and hopefully where they'll be going. Then I hear a bugle just over my shoulder to the left. I look and a solid 5x5 bull is walking in line with me. He walks up to almost parallel with me where his vitals are behind a bush and if he takes one more step his head will go behind a tree and his vitals will be perfectly broadside. The wind is perfect and he has no idea I'm there but for some reason he doesn't take another step. I can tell he's also looking for the same cow/group that I was but instead of continuing on his way, he slowly turns around and walks the other direction. I don't know why he didn't continue in the direction he was going but he's mighty lucky he didn't. I know this isn't the first time one step has made the difference between success and trying another day but it is remarkable that all the work and effort comes down to one step.
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