Well it’s been an exciting month and yet my freezer is still empty. One thing that isn’t empty is my knowledge bag for this season. This was my first real archery season. I had a bow and a deer tag last year but really I was scouting for elk before the rifle season started. I am officially hooked on archery hunting, I honestly don’t know if I will even bother with rifle hunting ever again. This year was the most fun hunting I have ever had! First of all, thank you to everyone on this forum for fielding my questions before the season started. I am looking forward to asking more questions and leaning as much as I can about archery in general. You guys are great! Now to share about some of my hunting experiences, I want to get one thing off my chest right away because I still feel bad about this one. My first day in the field this year I got the chance to harvest a small 4x4 bull. Walking up a trail at 11:30am my dad says “psst, kyle…elk” and low and behold a feeding bull materialized only 20 yards ahead in the woods heading towards the trail we were on. Pure luck that he didn’t see or hear us coming up the trail. I nocked an arrow and ranged a tree where I thought he was going to come out of the woods, and he did. A PERFECT 20 yard broadside shot. I let the arrow fly and I thought…that’s a dead elk. He ran about 10 yards up the trail and stopped, looked back like what the hell was that. Then I started thinking, did I miss? He walked another 10 yards and stopped for a few minutes… walked another 10 yards and stopped…and one more time he did this before he was out of sight up the trail. Now we stayed perfectly still for about 20 minutes and then the questions got the best of me and I had to see if I could find my arrow, so we very quietly made our way the 20 yards to mark the spot I shot the elk and YES we have blood and a completely blood covered arrow. We waited a few more minutes and started quietly making our way up the trail and sure enough every spot the elk stopped was a pool of blood. The blood appeared very bright red and the third spot he stopped was foamy, so I was thinking lung shot and we had a dead elk. We made our way up to the fourth spot the elk stopped and this also happened to be the last place we could see the elk from the spot I shot. After the fourth blood pool, which wasn’t as big, we found a few drops along the trail and then…nothing. We searched the rest of the day til dark on hands and knees and we couldn’t find another drop of blood. It was so frustrating not even knowing which side of the trail the elk went. We did small circles spiraling out, we did the clover leaf search, we checked the nearest water locations… nothing. I sincerely hope that elk lives. So after the first day’s events I was feeling pretty crappy and honestly wasn’t sure if I wanted to take another shot if one presented its self. My dad did have one thing to say that kind of helped, he said “you know, even if the elk is dead somewhere, nature let’s nothing go to waste.”. I have one other ultra cool experience I wanted to share with you guys. Of the 10 days I spent in the mountains hunting I got into elk every day except one, and some days I got into elk up to 5 different times. I will chalk up the fact that my freezer is empty due to my inexperience and that the elk were only talking a few times, and that brings me to the next experience I wanted to share. A good sized 5x5 screaming at me and looking for a fight! I will start the day before. We had just made our way around the north side of a mountain and decided to drop over the other side and we came upon a good looking open marsh area. So I decided to setup and do a bit of calling, I started with some soft cow calling… no reply. Eventually I worked up to a full on as loud as I could make it bugle, I could swear I just heard two different bugles coming back at me. I looked at my dad and he reassured me that I wasn’t hearing things, but they were a fair piece off to the west. So I stayed calm and waited a good ten minutes and ripped another bugle…bam two different replies, now a little closer but not much. I waited another ten minutes and ripped another bugle…nothing. Hmm, not cool. Waited another ten minutes and cow called a little and eventually ripped another bugle…nothing. Bummer, they must be too far away to come to me. It was late in the day and we decided a cross country venture towards the calls would have to wait until another day, so we packed up and started heading around the marsh towards the truck which was still a ways off and in the opposite direction of the calls. On our way out we found a couple of wallows that had been used but not in the last few days. We had to go through some really thick stuff on our way back and I decided to do a little cow calling to try and cover our noise. Out of nowhere a bull bugles back, I turn and look at my parents and say “isn’t that coming from where we just were?” and the consensus was YES. So I bugled back and man was he pissed, he bugled back with back to back bugles and the second one he followed up with a bunch of chuckles. Now I’m thinking that almost sounded fake, did I just call in another hunter? I mean come on, I have never a bull bugle like that not even on Bugling Bulls 10 or whatever video is the latest. So now I have to decide do I keep heading back to the truck or call the hunter/bull in or stomp back across the marsh and say hello to mister hunter. Come on now I couldn’t keep heading back to the truck so I stomp across the marsh keeping my eyes open but not really being quiet. I finally get back to the open area I was calling from just a while earlier and nothing. So I bugle and nothing. Again I gotta know if this was a hunter or not, so I go tromping into the trees, again keeping my eyes peeled and using the binoculars, tree…tree…tree…sideways brown tree…wait…what…BULL…big bull looking my direction, not busted but definitely looking my way. Well I tried some cow calling but eventually he headed up over the hill with at least three cows. So I guess I know where I am coming tomorrow. The next morning we headed back to the same area but I wanted to save that spot for the afternoon when the elk seemed to be talking a little more. We did some stalking and jumped some elk in a different spot and eventually made our way to that same spot. I decided to sit just inside the trees by one of the wallows we passed on our way out the day before. I set up and again started with some mellow cow calling, no reply. Again after about 15 minutes I took a deep breath and bugled and WOW, I get a bugle back from maybe 50 yards away through the trees (probably at the other wallow). I am so excited I don’t know what to do, so I bugle again and I catch motion, yep a nice 5x5 running through the marsh. But wait where is he going, he isn’t exactly running away from me but he isn’t running right at me either. (Looking back I think my bugle echoed off the opposite hillside) So I gave a cow call and that stopped him in his tracks. Problem is now he is starting to zero in on my position and I am just guessing that he wants to see another elk soon. Well we talked back and forth for a bit all while he is walking back and forth about 60 yards away with just a few sparsely placed aspens between us. He screamed at me a few times…so cool! But eventually he decided something wasn’t right and poof, disappeared. These creatures are so amazing! I can’t wait until next year. Now for those of you who suffered through my ramblings I have a few really cool videos from one of our game cameras. http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e302/stuntriders/?action=view¤t=cowsplaying1.mp4 http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e302/stuntriders/?action=view¤t=cowsplaying2.mp4 http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e302/stuntriders/?action=view¤t=bullvideo.mp4
That sounds like an exciting few days in the woods. Glad that you saw plenty of action. I bet you learned a lot during your trip. Love the videos - Cool!
No kidding right, the problem is I can't get myself to sit still for that long. I might have to reconsider next year.
