jeremy.b
Well-known member
Going to be a busy day tomorrow...
Family Man's 2024 hunt log
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jeremy.b
Well-known member
Monday morning found me parking at the ridge system that our whole crew hunted last Sunday and where I had the encounter with the X-ray vision raghorn.
Simple plan, hike in and bugle the lower ridges, and then do something dumb and cross the main drainage (which is a hole) to check the other side and bottom if nothing turned up.
No answers on the way up until I hit the adjacent lower ridge. I got an answer, sounded like the next lower ridge over, but could have been in the draw between that ridge and I. Wind was horrible if he was down in the draw so I eventually circled up the draw a good bit, and crossed over to the other side.
I took a couple pauses on the way hoping for a unsolicited bugle, but no luck. After reaching the top of the ridge I bugled over to the NEXT drainage, no answer.
Snagged a quick nap/rest still hoping for a bugle, still being disappointed. Finally settled on going back over my starting ridge and my original plan. Shot off a quick bugled, and got a faint response almost sounding like he was in the ridge I came up.
Head out on a sub ridge and bugled again with a response, and it was clearly still down on the original ridge I heard him on.
I had a fairly steady wind across the ridge, so I dropped in and snuck down on the backside of the ridge I figured the bull was on.
I had a guess where he was bedded and closed to within 200 yds of that spot. About the time I started thinking about finding a spot to setup I heard a crack, and he bugled just over the ridge from me within 60 yds. I had not called at that point and he had to have heard me sneaking along the back of the ridge (it was dead quiet)
I scrambled and got to cover with some shooting lanes to my right. Kept hearing the occasional footstep and finally the bull popped out at 30 yds behind some cover. He took a few steps towards my first shooting lane, and as he went behind a tree I raised my bow to draw. He heard my pack rustle a little and froze up.
After a good 5 minutes of me trying to not move a muscle he turned back a couple steps and stopped again for another 5 minutes. At this point my trying not to move was getting super uncomfortable. Finally he moved off slowly back over the ridge.
I took the chance to let out a couple soft cow mews and moved positions further over the back of the ridge a bit to get my limbs (feet mostly) working normally again.
After waiting it out for a fair bit, and assuming the bull left the area, I went up and checked where he walked through and moved up the ridge. I planned to go back to my original plan but to be safe, let off a bugle, which was responded to immediately, and he was still within 70 yds, just down over the ridge a bit.
I ripped a couple aggressive bugles and chuckles and spotted the bulls rack working back up towards me.
I found a spot to kneel with some cover and watched as he closed to 35 yds looking for the source of the calls.
With no shots I just waited, although he did stare me down when he caught me moving my head a tiny bit. Finally he turned and started heading away slightly away but really mostly parallel to me.
He got behind some trees and I stood up looking for an opening but no luck where he stopped. He took a few more steps and I shifted a little and found a wide open lane with him quartering away
I don't even remember drawing the bow, but I absolutely remember thinking "he's 40, line it all up and watch the arrow through the sight"
Settled the pin on the back of the vitals and touched it off. It was so quiet I could hear the arrow hiss all the way to him. Arrow passed completely through right where I wanted it.
He took a few steps and stopped him with a bark. His head went down, he got unsteady and then fell over right there. I backed over the ridge to give him a few minutes to expire and grab my stuff and heard a little bit more crashing.
After doing everything I could to give him 10 minutes and hearing no more noise after that last set of crashes as I backed out, I grabbed the bow and snuck down to check blood. Found where he had gone down, but he got his feet and made it another 15 yds before going down for good.
Entrance was on 2nd-to-last rib, exit was right behind the off-side shoulder. Couldn't have asked for a better shot or outcome. Also, fun note, it was one year to the DAY and almost to the HOUR that I shoot my bull last year.
Fired off a few in-reach messages to Hope, BiL Brian and my buddy Josh, grabbed some pics and went to work.
Just as the sun dipped below the ridge I wrapped up hanging the quarters, loaded up the backstrap and tenterloin and headed out. I dropped into the drainage immediately below me to see if it was worth taking the rest out that way. I can say it was absolutely NOT a good idea. I made it out, and it was only 1/3 mile from the road, but man that was a hole.
Got back the the truck and back to civilization and rallied the troops to see who could help pack out.
Simple plan, hike in and bugle the lower ridges, and then do something dumb and cross the main drainage (which is a hole) to check the other side and bottom if nothing turned up.
No answers on the way up until I hit the adjacent lower ridge. I got an answer, sounded like the next lower ridge over, but could have been in the draw between that ridge and I. Wind was horrible if he was down in the draw so I eventually circled up the draw a good bit, and crossed over to the other side.
I took a couple pauses on the way hoping for a unsolicited bugle, but no luck. After reaching the top of the ridge I bugled over to the NEXT drainage, no answer.
Snagged a quick nap/rest still hoping for a bugle, still being disappointed. Finally settled on going back over my starting ridge and my original plan. Shot off a quick bugled, and got a faint response almost sounding like he was in the ridge I came up.
Head out on a sub ridge and bugled again with a response, and it was clearly still down on the original ridge I heard him on.
I had a fairly steady wind across the ridge, so I dropped in and snuck down on the backside of the ridge I figured the bull was on.
I had a guess where he was bedded and closed to within 200 yds of that spot. About the time I started thinking about finding a spot to setup I heard a crack, and he bugled just over the ridge from me within 60 yds. I had not called at that point and he had to have heard me sneaking along the back of the ridge (it was dead quiet)
I scrambled and got to cover with some shooting lanes to my right. Kept hearing the occasional footstep and finally the bull popped out at 30 yds behind some cover. He took a few steps towards my first shooting lane, and as he went behind a tree I raised my bow to draw. He heard my pack rustle a little and froze up.
After a good 5 minutes of me trying to not move a muscle he turned back a couple steps and stopped again for another 5 minutes. At this point my trying not to move was getting super uncomfortable. Finally he moved off slowly back over the ridge.
I took the chance to let out a couple soft cow mews and moved positions further over the back of the ridge a bit to get my limbs (feet mostly) working normally again.
After waiting it out for a fair bit, and assuming the bull left the area, I went up and checked where he walked through and moved up the ridge. I planned to go back to my original plan but to be safe, let off a bugle, which was responded to immediately, and he was still within 70 yds, just down over the ridge a bit.
I ripped a couple aggressive bugles and chuckles and spotted the bulls rack working back up towards me.
I found a spot to kneel with some cover and watched as he closed to 35 yds looking for the source of the calls.
With no shots I just waited, although he did stare me down when he caught me moving my head a tiny bit. Finally he turned and started heading away slightly away but really mostly parallel to me.
He got behind some trees and I stood up looking for an opening but no luck where he stopped. He took a few more steps and I shifted a little and found a wide open lane with him quartering away
I don't even remember drawing the bow, but I absolutely remember thinking "he's 40, line it all up and watch the arrow through the sight"
Settled the pin on the back of the vitals and touched it off. It was so quiet I could hear the arrow hiss all the way to him. Arrow passed completely through right where I wanted it.
He took a few steps and stopped him with a bark. His head went down, he got unsteady and then fell over right there. I backed over the ridge to give him a few minutes to expire and grab my stuff and heard a little bit more crashing.
After doing everything I could to give him 10 minutes and hearing no more noise after that last set of crashes as I backed out, I grabbed the bow and snuck down to check blood. Found where he had gone down, but he got his feet and made it another 15 yds before going down for good.
Entrance was on 2nd-to-last rib, exit was right behind the off-side shoulder. Couldn't have asked for a better shot or outcome. Also, fun note, it was one year to the DAY and almost to the HOUR that I shoot my bull last year.
Fired off a few in-reach messages to Hope, BiL Brian and my buddy Josh, grabbed some pics and went to work.
Just as the sun dipped below the ridge I wrapped up hanging the quarters, loaded up the backstrap and tenterloin and headed out. I dropped into the drainage immediately below me to see if it was worth taking the rest out that way. I can say it was absolutely NOT a good idea. I made it out, and it was only 1/3 mile from the road, but man that was a hole.
Got back the the truck and back to civilization and rallied the troops to see who could help pack out.
Last edited:
jeremy.b
Well-known member
I had 3 other folks answer the call to help pack meat today, Josh, our buddy Aaron who is half elf, and Joe who helped pack out my bull last year (and was eager to hear it wasn't 3.5 miles and 1000 ft into a hole).
We met up mid-morning and headed into the spot. Starting the climb in at noon.
Now part of the ridge has an obnoxious swath of reprod on it that I had encountered 2 years prior (and hence why I tried the creek route out the night before). With that said, we were able to navigate the mess without too much issue and made it to the quarters in 40 minutes.
We were able to find my arrow stuck into the dirt a good 10 yds past where the bull was standing at the shot. We re-arranged the meat bags a bit to even out the loads, told the story and loaded up and headed out. The reprod still sucked on the way back through, but Josh had tracked our route and we got through it without any drama, finally dropping back down the to truck, making out at 2:30, so only 2 1/2 hrs to go in and pack out.
Back home, meat nestled into our shiny new-to-us 3 door commercial fridge for processing later this week.
Josh and I head back out for his last hurrah for archery elk this weekend, so we'll see how that goes!
We met up mid-morning and headed into the spot. Starting the climb in at noon.
Now part of the ridge has an obnoxious swath of reprod on it that I had encountered 2 years prior (and hence why I tried the creek route out the night before). With that said, we were able to navigate the mess without too much issue and made it to the quarters in 40 minutes.
We were able to find my arrow stuck into the dirt a good 10 yds past where the bull was standing at the shot. We re-arranged the meat bags a bit to even out the loads, told the story and loaded up and headed out. The reprod still sucked on the way back through, but Josh had tracked our route and we got through it without any drama, finally dropping back down the to truck, making out at 2:30, so only 2 1/2 hrs to go in and pack out.
Back home, meat nestled into our shiny new-to-us 3 door commercial fridge for processing later this week.
Josh and I head back out for his last hurrah for archery elk this weekend, so we'll see how that goes!
targetpanic
Well-known member
Great job! Congrats!
jeremy.b
Well-known member
Final Saturday of archery elk
Josh and I headed back out to the general area we called the bull in for him a couple weeks back.
Nice cool damp morning...
We hit the first ridge and bugled a bit into the next draw with no answer. We played the patient card and waited it out a good bit, finally hearing a bugle touch off. It was hard to nail down a direction, so we waited a bit longer, and finally I bailed to go retrieve a camera from one of the new-to-us wallows (which had remained unused since we put the camera up) in the draw.
Just as I huffed my way back to the ridge the bull piped off again and Josh got a solid direction. He was located out on a sub-ridge off our current ridge, seemingly over top of the main road in the area.
Off we went, taking our time, got to the first sub ridge, waited a bit, finally called, zero answer. Waited longer, bull bugled on his own, probably on the next ridge over.
Snuck over to the next ridge, we didn't have a super solid bead on the bull, so we stayed high and waited...
And waited more....
I climbed to the top of the ridge above us and called, but I heard nothing. Josh said he might have heard something down in the draw below us, not on the sub ridge, but either way not a direct response.
Debating our options, we decided to keep playing the patience card again. By all indications we were within 2-300 yds of this bull, and had the wind, so why leave elk to find elk (and we were right over top of the main road, which we did weigh into the decision for retrieval purposes).
After a couple more hours, around mid-afternoon I heard some cracking over the side of the ridge from us that pulled me out of a very comfortable nap. Not sure what THAT was, BUT immediately I picked up noise 100 yds below us. Got Josh up (apparently he was enjoying a nap too...) and we listened to (what appeared to be) a full herd cross the ridge below us, just out of sight beyond a screen of re-prod.
We moved closer, and heard them continue to move down off the ridge to our left. We couldn't tell what got them up, and there was zero calling, and they were moving kinda quick. We guessed the wind swirled on us, OR the fact there were a group of side-by-sides ripping around on a set of adjacent roads bothered them enough to move.
We made a guess on where they were headed and snuck off in pursuit. Ultimately though we struck out on finding them and we were getting close to our punch-out time.
Headed back to the truck found yet ANOTHER wallow (also unused).
Good day, we have debated if we should have pulled the plug to go find a responsive bull that day. BUT we were close to those elk, and the whole situation could have easily shifted to give Josh an opportunity, so hard to tell.
Moving on...
I'm pulling cameras out of our elk spots prior to rifle season and will shift them to a few of our local whitetail spots. Got a chance to take my oldest along on one of those trips which was really good, its been a while since he wanted to come along.
Josh and I headed back out to the general area we called the bull in for him a couple weeks back.
Nice cool damp morning...
We hit the first ridge and bugled a bit into the next draw with no answer. We played the patient card and waited it out a good bit, finally hearing a bugle touch off. It was hard to nail down a direction, so we waited a bit longer, and finally I bailed to go retrieve a camera from one of the new-to-us wallows (which had remained unused since we put the camera up) in the draw.
Just as I huffed my way back to the ridge the bull piped off again and Josh got a solid direction. He was located out on a sub-ridge off our current ridge, seemingly over top of the main road in the area.
Off we went, taking our time, got to the first sub ridge, waited a bit, finally called, zero answer. Waited longer, bull bugled on his own, probably on the next ridge over.
Snuck over to the next ridge, we didn't have a super solid bead on the bull, so we stayed high and waited...
And waited more....
I climbed to the top of the ridge above us and called, but I heard nothing. Josh said he might have heard something down in the draw below us, not on the sub ridge, but either way not a direct response.
Debating our options, we decided to keep playing the patience card again. By all indications we were within 2-300 yds of this bull, and had the wind, so why leave elk to find elk (and we were right over top of the main road, which we did weigh into the decision for retrieval purposes).
After a couple more hours, around mid-afternoon I heard some cracking over the side of the ridge from us that pulled me out of a very comfortable nap. Not sure what THAT was, BUT immediately I picked up noise 100 yds below us. Got Josh up (apparently he was enjoying a nap too...) and we listened to (what appeared to be) a full herd cross the ridge below us, just out of sight beyond a screen of re-prod.
We moved closer, and heard them continue to move down off the ridge to our left. We couldn't tell what got them up, and there was zero calling, and they were moving kinda quick. We guessed the wind swirled on us, OR the fact there were a group of side-by-sides ripping around on a set of adjacent roads bothered them enough to move.
We made a guess on where they were headed and snuck off in pursuit. Ultimately though we struck out on finding them and we were getting close to our punch-out time.
Headed back to the truck found yet ANOTHER wallow (also unused).
Good day, we have debated if we should have pulled the plug to go find a responsive bull that day. BUT we were close to those elk, and the whole situation could have easily shifted to give Josh an opportunity, so hard to tell.
Moving on...
I'm pulling cameras out of our elk spots prior to rifle season and will shift them to a few of our local whitetail spots. Got a chance to take my oldest along on one of those trips which was really good, its been a while since he wanted to come along.
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