After three days of hunting and only a fleeting glimse of a small bull elk we were glad to cut some fresh sign mid morning of day four. We returned to this spot in the evening and spotted a cow elk on the road near where we had planned to hunt that evening. A good sign! We hiked a quarter mile into the timber and set up a cold calling setup. No luck so we decided to go back to where the cow was and check to see if there was any other tracks than hers. It was almost dark when we did a locator bugle and had an answer about a half mile to the south! The first bugle heard of the fall, what a beautiful sound to experience once again. We bugled back and forth a dozen times over the course of a half hour, and another bull to the north sounded off as well and then another, what a cool experience to have three bulls fired up. We decided to definitely return to this spot in the morning and try to get in on one of the bulls
First light found us sneaking down an old skid road through the overgrown cutblock. Lots of elk tracks and rubs found gave us more confidence that we were in the right spot. We hit the mature timber and made a few cow calls, instantly the bush came alive with elk scattering. We had literally walked right into the middle of a small herd! I only got a visual on one spiker, we got on an elk trail and slowly made our way deeper into the timber. We had gone about 200 yards when I could hear some sticks breaking and animals skirting us, could get no visual though. My partner then spotted a lone cow about 75 yards away. We let out a light bugle, trying to get a bull to pipe up and give us a direction to go or something to work with. As soon as my partner bugled, I scanned with my binos to find the cow but couldnt spot her, I scanned right to left and seen a tan body. It then walked forward and I seen a fairly heavy horned bull! I dropped my binos and flipped the scope caps off my Kimber 280 Ackley, turned the magnification up a bit on my scope and flipped off the safety. The bull stopped broadside at about 70 yards and I let one fly behind the shoulder. At the shot the bull dropped down out of sight, I yelled to my partner "I dropped him!" and quickly ran over the 20 yards to him for a high five. He hadnt seen the bull, or me getting ready to shoot, so when my rifle went off he was quite surprised! We ran up to where the bull was last seen and he was down and out. He's a 4x4 with single eye guards and a busted non typical 5th on his left side up by the g3. Best part is he ended up being only 90 yards from a road! I was glad to get some meat in the cooler and now the pressure was off a bit and we still had a day to hunt for another bull for my partner
Daybreak on the 6th day of our hunt found us in a different area and into fresh sign right away. We discovered a fairly large dry wallow loaded with elk tracks and the stench of rutting bull elk. We had some animals close by but no visuals or response to our calls. We headed deeper into the timber and finally got an answer to one of our bugles. It was later in the morning by now, around 8am and we didn't wait and try to the lure the bull in, we checked the wind and headed right towards where he bugled from and the hunt was on! He would answer our cow calls and bugles, sounded like he was about 200-300 yards away still. We were skirting to his right, when he answered us and was much further to our left and heading downwind! We made the quick adjustment and within 400 yards the wind was right and we felt we were close to where he last bugled from.
We did some cow calls and I began to rub on a tree with a broken branch to try and lure in the bull to thinking a bull was with a cow and I heard a large branch snap not far out in front of us. I scanned for minutes with my binos but could not see any movement. All of a sudden he bugled and let out a series of loud hollow grunts. He was close! A few more cow calls and we could hear the bull getting close and closer. What an adrenaline rush! I spotted movement ahead and it was two cows heading our way, and then I seen him, could hear him, panting and glunking as he followd the cows towards us. His long beams first, I could see a good rear split and he was definitely a shooter! A beautiful sight as he came through the timber at about 60ish yards, the morning sun rising and his reddish black mane, tan body and then he let out a screaming lip bawl bugle. Im glad I had a tree to lean on as I could be shaking so hard I couldnt hold the binos right! The cows came through an opening and the bull was next, from where my partner was hiding behind a tree 10 yards to my left he had a clear lane on the bull and dropped the hammer at about 50 yards. The bull spun and headed to our left, stopped after about 20 yards, wobbled a bit and then tore off out of our sight, but we easily heard him crash to the ground only 50 yards from where he was hit. he was down! a beautiful 6x6 bull with big g4's
The next morning we headed home with about 1100 lbs of elk quarters! This fall has gotten off to a great start!
tb