rveen
New member
Keep the stories and pictures coming!!!
A Poor Elk Hunter With A Good Elk Tag
- Thread starter Nameless Range
- Start date
MThuntr
Well-known member
Looks like a productive hunt so far! Agreed with Ben if you knock down a raghorn with that tag this early we'll come find you and give you a ribbing the likes of which you have never seen before!
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Though I have never passed on a legal bull, I will do my best to not pull the raghorn card till after Thanksgiving...
livingthedream
Member
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2012
- Messages
- 30
Awesome stuff! Hoping you find the bull of your dreams. Good luck and stay safe
MThuntr
Well-known member
well you are saying this to a guy that was adamant about shooting only a bull until about 3pm on the opener and the conversation escalated to let's hunt for whatever is legal.Though I have never passed on a legal bull, I will do my best to not pull the raghorn card till after Thanksgiving...
elkduds
Well-known member
Such a cool thread! Thanks for taking many of us on an adventure we will never have in person. Of course, no pressure...
elkrchr
Well-known member
Looking forward to the next update! Keep at it.
HSi-ESi
Well-known member
Though I have never passed on a legal bull, I will do my best to not pull the raghorn card till after Thanksgiving...
It's a weird situation for sure. I had never passed a legal elk until I had a 700 series elk tag in 2012. Keep enjoying the hunt as long as you can and don't let the pressure get to you. Been enjoying the updates - keep pounding away!
Roamer
Active member
Glad to see your hunt is underway.
but I’m even happier you didn’t get one this early you have to enjoy this.
but I’m even happier you didn’t get one this early you have to enjoy this.
Zootownelk
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2016
- Messages
- 351
Thank you for the update!! This is the first year i'm not hunting elk in a long while, so I'm counting on living vicariously through you . Keep the post and pics coming- it's greatly appreciated!!
. Keep the post and pics coming- it's greatly appreciated!!
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Hunt 2:
Hiked into the same area as hunt 1 with a buddy. The Elk were bugling in all directions, and it seemed like every bull had a harem. I was hunting thick timber, and so I could mostly only hear them and not see them. Multiple times throughout the day I tried acting like a cow walking in on a bull only to have the bull bust me before I could see it or just as I could see it. It was a lot of fun, and we quit about 3 o’clock not because the elk had quit talking, but because we had family duties to attend to.
I don’t know what I am doing, but am trying to learn about calling and what elk are saying and what they want. I think if a guy knew what he was doing, he would have already passed on multiple bulls.
The area I am hunting is kind of lumpy, with multiple knobs rising anywhere from 150-300 feet from the side of a larger ridge about 2 miles wide and itself rising 3000 feet. In a way it creates little mountain strongholds, and the bulls seem to be bugling from their parapets. I imagine them to Timber Kings, maybe wearing crowns of bone and ponderosa, and their chuckles are directed at the rotund fella hopelessly huffing his way up the wall.
Hiked into the same area as hunt 1 with a buddy. The Elk were bugling in all directions, and it seemed like every bull had a harem. I was hunting thick timber, and so I could mostly only hear them and not see them. Multiple times throughout the day I tried acting like a cow walking in on a bull only to have the bull bust me before I could see it or just as I could see it. It was a lot of fun, and we quit about 3 o’clock not because the elk had quit talking, but because we had family duties to attend to.
I don’t know what I am doing, but am trying to learn about calling and what elk are saying and what they want. I think if a guy knew what he was doing, he would have already passed on multiple bulls.
The area I am hunting is kind of lumpy, with multiple knobs rising anywhere from 150-300 feet from the side of a larger ridge about 2 miles wide and itself rising 3000 feet. In a way it creates little mountain strongholds, and the bulls seem to be bugling from their parapets. I imagine them to Timber Kings, maybe wearing crowns of bone and ponderosa, and their chuckles are directed at the rotund fella hopelessly huffing his way up the wall.
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Hunt 3.
I live 5 minutes from Hunting District 380, and 20 minutes from multiple trailheads and good hunting opportunity. My work is flexible, so as long as I don’t have family duties in the evening, I can swing a morning hunt until 930 or so and just work late, which seems to be enough time to have a couple encounters.
I hiked in about 45 minutes before daylight, and sat on the ridge at the top listening to the bulls get going and waiting for shooting light. Below me was a bull that seemed to be riled up and making all sorts of grumbles and huffs and growls. He was probably 400 yards off and on private land, so I ripped a bugle to see what other responses I got. I heard cracking above me, and a raghorn bull appeared, hopping over some deadfall, I knew I wouldn’t shoot him, but he walked right in front of me at 45 yards. I sat there and he kind of stopped and listened, then looked over at me. He barked and boogied off, and for the first time in my life I passed on a legal bull - albeit kind of a moronic one.
I live 5 minutes from Hunting District 380, and 20 minutes from multiple trailheads and good hunting opportunity. My work is flexible, so as long as I don’t have family duties in the evening, I can swing a morning hunt until 930 or so and just work late, which seems to be enough time to have a couple encounters.
I hiked in about 45 minutes before daylight, and sat on the ridge at the top listening to the bulls get going and waiting for shooting light. Below me was a bull that seemed to be riled up and making all sorts of grumbles and huffs and growls. He was probably 400 yards off and on private land, so I ripped a bugle to see what other responses I got. I heard cracking above me, and a raghorn bull appeared, hopping over some deadfall, I knew I wouldn’t shoot him, but he walked right in front of me at 45 yards. I sat there and he kind of stopped and listened, then looked over at me. He barked and boogied off, and for the first time in my life I passed on a legal bull - albeit kind of a moronic one.
Nameless Range
Well-known member
Hunt 4
Prework hunt again. On the hike up the ridge this morning I was sucking wind and focusing on getting up the mountain when I looked up to see a face in my headlamp only 50 yards ahead – it was the face of a bear looking down at me. I froze, and grabbed my bear spray and prepared to stand off with a predatory and hyperintelligent grizzly. The 75ish pound black bear turned and rocketed up the hill away.
The rut is clearly going full, and elk were vocal all over, but almost entirely below where I was hunting, down on private land. Even standing on the edge of public, I was still 400 yards away from all the hubbub, and as far as I can tell that is too far for my calling to influence them. I kind of hovered on the borderlands this morning, hoping for something to come my way, or for something to be behind me on the public land, but nothing appeared.
All 4 hunts have been in the same couple gulches starting from the same point, and if I am unsuccessful come rifle season I think this area will be blast to hunt, but for now I think I need to try some new country for the remainder of archery season. I feel like I need to take my dog bird hunting, but I can't skip a day of elk hunting with things being so active. I got too much hunting to do and not enough time - first world problems.
Prework hunt again. On the hike up the ridge this morning I was sucking wind and focusing on getting up the mountain when I looked up to see a face in my headlamp only 50 yards ahead – it was the face of a bear looking down at me. I froze, and grabbed my bear spray and prepared to stand off with a predatory and hyperintelligent grizzly. The 75ish pound black bear turned and rocketed up the hill away.
The rut is clearly going full, and elk were vocal all over, but almost entirely below where I was hunting, down on private land. Even standing on the edge of public, I was still 400 yards away from all the hubbub, and as far as I can tell that is too far for my calling to influence them. I kind of hovered on the borderlands this morning, hoping for something to come my way, or for something to be behind me on the public land, but nothing appeared.
All 4 hunts have been in the same couple gulches starting from the same point, and if I am unsuccessful come rifle season I think this area will be blast to hunt, but for now I think I need to try some new country for the remainder of archery season. I feel like I need to take my dog bird hunting, but I can't skip a day of elk hunting with things being so active. I got too much hunting to do and not enough time - first world problems.
LousyResident
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2016
- Messages
- 3,109
This has proven to be an excellent thread.
Southern Elk
Well-known member
Do you mean to tell me that you don't run ultra marathons in preparation for elk season?
Nameless Range
Well-known member
I handed out water to the Governors Cup marathon runners this year, and I bet I got up out of my lawn chair 20 times over the course of an hour.
It was exhausting, but you gotta #KeepHammerin if you wanna be successful
