TRS_Montana
Well-known member
Since my wife and I had our first kid in July, we have been trying to figure out how to balance hobbies/leisure/recreation with the responsibility that comes with parenthood. My wife is a smart person and knew that the benefit of having me home all the time would not outweigh the cost of a therapist and having to deal with me in the fall if I couldn’t get out and hunt. However, I know that family is so much more important than hunting, so we decided that I would hunt one day a week as long as everything was ok on the home front.
Needless to say, I didn’t get much scouting in this year, so on the opening day of archery season I headed out to a spot that has been good to me in the past. When I pulled up to the parking spot at about 5 AM, it was pouring. I had about a 3 mile hike ahead of me to get to the spot I wanted to hunt. After about an hour of hiking I was getting close and the rain had let up. It was about 15 minutes past shooting light and I have about a half mile to go. Just as I am reminding myself to show up about an hour earlier next time, I hear what I’m sure is a hoochie momma about 40 yards downhill directly to my right. I figure I should probably check it out and at least talk to whoever just punched that God-forsaken gray piece of garbage. Man did I feel stupid when a big old cow turned and ran down the side of the mountain.
Oh well, on to my hunting spot. Just as I get to my spot, the rain picks up again. I look around and realize that the elk had been all over here recently. I am finding warm piles of elk poop everywhere and lots of torn up trails. However, I don’t see an elk for the rest of the day.
The next Saturday could not get here soon enough. Weather was perfect, if not a bit warm. This time I showed up at the trailhead at about 4 AM and got back to my spot with plenty of time. I don’t know how many elk I busted on my way there, but there were at least 3 different groups. As I am walking down the hill to get to the meadow I want to hunt, I hear a bugle about 300 yards below me. Eventually there were three bulls going back and forth in the valley I was hunting in. I slowly closed the distance between me and the herd and started hearing cows about 50 yards away. At this point it was probably around 8:30am and I knew that the elk were most likely in the timber for the rest of the day. I caught up to the back end of the herd and had cows feeding within about 30 yards for maybe 5 minutes or so. However, I never could get a bull to come close and didn’t want to risk moving in on the herd bull with so many cows around. No shots today, but I felt good about learning how the herd was moving.
The following 2 Saturdays were similar. I would get out there about 2 hours before shooting light, hike to my spot, find the herd, and get close, but just didn’t get any shots. I did manage to sneak up to about 10 yards away from this fox.
At one point, I also had the herd bull walk through this opening at about 60 yards (which is still too far for me).
The weather forecast for Saturday, Oct. 3rd, called for 50 mph winds and rain. Sunday’s forecast wasn’t much better, but less wind, so I opted to hunt on October 4th.
On Sunday morning, I got to the trailhead to find it had snowed about a half inch. Perfect! As I am hiking back to my spot, I am not smelling or hearing any elk, which is starting to get me discouraged. When I get to my opening, there isn’t a single track in the snow! I hear a few bugles a LONG way off, but nothing that I know is coming from the herd I had been hunting. I sit and wait for about a half hour, hoping that they just haven’t gotten here yet, but in the back of my head I know that they aren’t coming this morning.
I figure since there is a bit of snow on the ground, I would hike down to the valley floor and see if I can cut some tracks. I picked up a couple of fresh tracks after about a half-mile and started to follow them. It is still fairly chilly out and the snow is loud, making it hard to be quiet as I am following the tracks.
After about 3/4ths of a mile, the tracks are looking fresher and we are coming up to a knoll. About 100 yards away from the knoll, I can start to smell elk. I slow down and start sneaking as quietly as I can. As I peak over the top of the hill I see the unmistakable tan hid of an elk about 50 yards away. It appears to be feeding, but I can hear some other elk trotting not too far past it. The elk I am watching lifts his head to show two fuzzy velvet-covered spikes sticking out. Damnit. I sit and watch him for maybe 30 seconds until he feeds into the trees and I can’t see him anymore. I let out a couple soft mews to settle the herd in case I made them nervous with my approach.
Out of nowhere, a bull rips off a bugle about 150 yards away. I make my way about 20 yards closer and sit tight. Then a different bull bugles about 200 yards to the right. I am pretty new to all of this and really don’t have any idea what I should be doing at this point. These two bulls are getting hotter and hotter and I am sitting there absolutely dumbfounded. I have been told by multiple people that it is better to be aggressive, so I run up about 30 yards until I am on top of a 10-foot rock cliff with about 20 yards of opening in front of me. Both bulls are still bugling, so I know I am still good. I let out about 4 soft mews and get an immediate response from about 80-90 yards below me in the bowl.
At this point, I really don’t know what the other bull was doing, as I was focused on the bull coming up out of the bowl. He kept bugling and I just stayed quiet and let him come. I could see him at about 60 yards, but had no idea if it was just that spike I had seen or a completely different bull. As he kept getting closer, I saw he was branch-antlered and knew he was legal. He was head directly for the opening right below me and when he was at 30 yards I drew back. He didn’t stop once during his approach and all of this was happening really quickly. As he stepped into my lane at about 17 yards I remember looking at my level, finding him in my peep, settling my 20 yard pin behind his shoulder and sqeeeeeeezing….then SMACK!
Right into the middle of the only effing tree in the opening. Without thinking, I grabbed another arrow out of the quiver, knocked it, and drew back again, disregarding whether the bull could see me or not. While I was doing that, the bull startled and took about 5 steps and stopped. Now I was at full draw again and the bull was about 20 yards away staring right at me. All I could see was his neck up. I thought to myself “Well, at least I got a shot today…”. We had stayed like this for what seemed to be about 30 minutes when he looked back down the bowl in the direction he had come from. He took two quick trotting steps that direction, exposing his chest, when I let another arrow fly. I instantly knew I jerked back as I shot and didn’t feel good about it.
He immediately disappeared behind a couple of boulders and I heard a loud crash. I figured I had startled him and tripped on a log or something. When he appeared on the other side of the boulders a few seconds later I could tell he was struggling. Then I noticed about 12” of arrow sticking out of hit back. When I shot, I flinched so hard that I pulled my bow up slightly and sent the arrow into his spine. I am so thankful that the arrow hit is spine and didn’t just lodge itself in a backstrap. I was able to get into position and quickly send another arrow through his lungs. I always have a hard time killing an animal and this one was one of the hardest. I watched him struggle for about 20 seconds through his last breaths. I had cell service, so I called my wife and told her the news. She was pretty ecstatic.
I know there might be some people that feel like they should pipe up about the spine shot, but I can honestly say that I am very selective in the shots I take. The elk was under 20 yards and broadside. This being my first archery elk AND my first bull, I think it was just my nerves that got to me and I made a bad shot. I am extremely thankful that things worked out the way that they did.
Here are some pics of the elk and the woods that morning.
Walking up on him:
Some scenery from the first trip back to the car:
After the cavalry arrived, they got some of me with the antlers on my pack:
Needless to say, I didn’t get much scouting in this year, so on the opening day of archery season I headed out to a spot that has been good to me in the past. When I pulled up to the parking spot at about 5 AM, it was pouring. I had about a 3 mile hike ahead of me to get to the spot I wanted to hunt. After about an hour of hiking I was getting close and the rain had let up. It was about 15 minutes past shooting light and I have about a half mile to go. Just as I am reminding myself to show up about an hour earlier next time, I hear what I’m sure is a hoochie momma about 40 yards downhill directly to my right. I figure I should probably check it out and at least talk to whoever just punched that God-forsaken gray piece of garbage. Man did I feel stupid when a big old cow turned and ran down the side of the mountain.
Oh well, on to my hunting spot. Just as I get to my spot, the rain picks up again. I look around and realize that the elk had been all over here recently. I am finding warm piles of elk poop everywhere and lots of torn up trails. However, I don’t see an elk for the rest of the day.
The next Saturday could not get here soon enough. Weather was perfect, if not a bit warm. This time I showed up at the trailhead at about 4 AM and got back to my spot with plenty of time. I don’t know how many elk I busted on my way there, but there were at least 3 different groups. As I am walking down the hill to get to the meadow I want to hunt, I hear a bugle about 300 yards below me. Eventually there were three bulls going back and forth in the valley I was hunting in. I slowly closed the distance between me and the herd and started hearing cows about 50 yards away. At this point it was probably around 8:30am and I knew that the elk were most likely in the timber for the rest of the day. I caught up to the back end of the herd and had cows feeding within about 30 yards for maybe 5 minutes or so. However, I never could get a bull to come close and didn’t want to risk moving in on the herd bull with so many cows around. No shots today, but I felt good about learning how the herd was moving.
The following 2 Saturdays were similar. I would get out there about 2 hours before shooting light, hike to my spot, find the herd, and get close, but just didn’t get any shots. I did manage to sneak up to about 10 yards away from this fox.
At one point, I also had the herd bull walk through this opening at about 60 yards (which is still too far for me).
The weather forecast for Saturday, Oct. 3rd, called for 50 mph winds and rain. Sunday’s forecast wasn’t much better, but less wind, so I opted to hunt on October 4th.
On Sunday morning, I got to the trailhead to find it had snowed about a half inch. Perfect! As I am hiking back to my spot, I am not smelling or hearing any elk, which is starting to get me discouraged. When I get to my opening, there isn’t a single track in the snow! I hear a few bugles a LONG way off, but nothing that I know is coming from the herd I had been hunting. I sit and wait for about a half hour, hoping that they just haven’t gotten here yet, but in the back of my head I know that they aren’t coming this morning.
I figure since there is a bit of snow on the ground, I would hike down to the valley floor and see if I can cut some tracks. I picked up a couple of fresh tracks after about a half-mile and started to follow them. It is still fairly chilly out and the snow is loud, making it hard to be quiet as I am following the tracks.
After about 3/4ths of a mile, the tracks are looking fresher and we are coming up to a knoll. About 100 yards away from the knoll, I can start to smell elk. I slow down and start sneaking as quietly as I can. As I peak over the top of the hill I see the unmistakable tan hid of an elk about 50 yards away. It appears to be feeding, but I can hear some other elk trotting not too far past it. The elk I am watching lifts his head to show two fuzzy velvet-covered spikes sticking out. Damnit. I sit and watch him for maybe 30 seconds until he feeds into the trees and I can’t see him anymore. I let out a couple soft mews to settle the herd in case I made them nervous with my approach.
Out of nowhere, a bull rips off a bugle about 150 yards away. I make my way about 20 yards closer and sit tight. Then a different bull bugles about 200 yards to the right. I am pretty new to all of this and really don’t have any idea what I should be doing at this point. These two bulls are getting hotter and hotter and I am sitting there absolutely dumbfounded. I have been told by multiple people that it is better to be aggressive, so I run up about 30 yards until I am on top of a 10-foot rock cliff with about 20 yards of opening in front of me. Both bulls are still bugling, so I know I am still good. I let out about 4 soft mews and get an immediate response from about 80-90 yards below me in the bowl.
At this point, I really don’t know what the other bull was doing, as I was focused on the bull coming up out of the bowl. He kept bugling and I just stayed quiet and let him come. I could see him at about 60 yards, but had no idea if it was just that spike I had seen or a completely different bull. As he kept getting closer, I saw he was branch-antlered and knew he was legal. He was head directly for the opening right below me and when he was at 30 yards I drew back. He didn’t stop once during his approach and all of this was happening really quickly. As he stepped into my lane at about 17 yards I remember looking at my level, finding him in my peep, settling my 20 yard pin behind his shoulder and sqeeeeeeezing….then SMACK!
Right into the middle of the only effing tree in the opening. Without thinking, I grabbed another arrow out of the quiver, knocked it, and drew back again, disregarding whether the bull could see me or not. While I was doing that, the bull startled and took about 5 steps and stopped. Now I was at full draw again and the bull was about 20 yards away staring right at me. All I could see was his neck up. I thought to myself “Well, at least I got a shot today…”. We had stayed like this for what seemed to be about 30 minutes when he looked back down the bowl in the direction he had come from. He took two quick trotting steps that direction, exposing his chest, when I let another arrow fly. I instantly knew I jerked back as I shot and didn’t feel good about it.
He immediately disappeared behind a couple of boulders and I heard a loud crash. I figured I had startled him and tripped on a log or something. When he appeared on the other side of the boulders a few seconds later I could tell he was struggling. Then I noticed about 12” of arrow sticking out of hit back. When I shot, I flinched so hard that I pulled my bow up slightly and sent the arrow into his spine. I am so thankful that the arrow hit is spine and didn’t just lodge itself in a backstrap. I was able to get into position and quickly send another arrow through his lungs. I always have a hard time killing an animal and this one was one of the hardest. I watched him struggle for about 20 seconds through his last breaths. I had cell service, so I called my wife and told her the news. She was pretty ecstatic.
I know there might be some people that feel like they should pipe up about the spine shot, but I can honestly say that I am very selective in the shots I take. The elk was under 20 yards and broadside. This being my first archery elk AND my first bull, I think it was just my nerves that got to me and I made a bad shot. I am extremely thankful that things worked out the way that they did.
Here are some pics of the elk and the woods that morning.
Walking up on him:
Some scenery from the first trip back to the car:
After the cavalry arrived, they got some of me with the antlers on my pack:
