Tim’s Turn

[Gerald Martin]

My son Tim has been on a lot of hunts with me and his siblings over the past ten years. Until this year elk have eluded him.

A favorable result from this spring’s permit draws gave us renewed focus on prioritizing his elk hunting this year.

Some sound advice from several generous friends gave us some starting points to begin looking for a bull for Tim. So we started looking.

Nothing like last minute work issues to eat up your scouting day. We rolled into our hunting area sight unseen at 10:30 the night before the oener.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Opening day was met with anticipation of big bulls slipping through coulees. We found old elk tracks but saw no elk. We did find a few forked horn muleys to keep it interesting and looked at a lot of beautiful country.

Prairie sunrises and sunsets are always memorable.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Day two was a repeat of day one, just in a different direction. We did see a nice mule deer buck that got us interested enough to interrupt looking for elk. Unfortunately, as Tim was trying to get set up for the shot the buck slipped over the ridge and we ended up bumping his companion as we tried to get closer.

Hard boiled eggs make a great ridge top breakfast rather than cooking in camp.

We took a drive in the afternoon to glass a different vantage for the evening. A badger entertained us for a few minutes as he hunted prairie dogs in their holes.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Day 3 dawned with our enthusiasm for this spot waning. It was evident there were plenty of elk here in the past but either they had gone underground or we weren’t glassing where they were walking. A friend’s suggestion of a new spot to try out was looking better as the morning unfolded.

I was watching this small 3x3 muley as he bedded on a high point on a distant ridge when a large flock of sharp tail grouse buzzed down and landed in the trees next to our glassing knob.

After they flew off the sound of a distant motor broke the morning stillness. A side by side was driving (legally) up an ATV trail about 800 yards below the bedded buck. I watched him get up and move up the ridge away from the approaching ATV. He was joined by a copy more bucks that I hadn’t seen previously. Several minutes after they disappeared the three hunters packed into the ATV drove past where the bucks had been and eventually past us without giving any indication they had seen the deer.

By then it was mid morning and we hiked over a few more ridges to see if we could find any elk bedded in the sparse timber in the draws. We spotted more deer and several bucks but no fresh elk sign.

We made the call to break camp and drive to another part of the unit to check out the new spot our friend had suggested might hold elk.