Getting this elk thing figured out

[Deckerp]

I enjoy the hunt story write ups most of all so will go ahead and add our elk hunt to the mix again this year.

My hunting buddy and I both had first rifle bull tags this year and a this was gonna be the year we filled not one but both tags - or at least that was our mindset going in.

Getting a bull down opening morning always seems like the best plan so we both left home Thursday morning so we’d have Thursday evening and all of Friday to try and turn up something to make a play on for opening morning.

First up was a glassing point we’ve hiked out to every year we have hunted here. It’s a long drive but a modest hike and if you split up one guy can glass down into one drainage and the other guy can cover the other side. However - if you see something on the first side you actually can’t go after it directly as you are completely cliffed out here. I will unfortunately refrain from included some excellent photos as they would certainly give away our location to anyone familiar with this region.

I had been on quite a streak of seeing at least some elk during every single legit elk glassing session for the last couple years but Thursday night was a bust - neither of us spotted any elk.

We walked back to the trucks in the dark and decided rather than spend the time driving to a new spot that night we would give it another go in the morning. That night we were treated with my first ever view of the northern lights.

 

[Deckerp]

The next morning (Friday) we hiked back out the ridge in the dark and took up our same respective spots as the night before. Morning typically being better than evenings (elk seem to generally feed later into the light time wise than they do feed out before dark - in my experience anyway) we were optimistic. And that proved to be justified. My glassing vistas is primarily treed but with small open and visible patches and with some high meadows. I spotted an excellent 6x6 with just one cow. My hunting partner spotted just a single cow on his side - likely there were more elk on his side that we didn’t see but as we didn’t see a bull we didn’t want to go after them.


This bull was not in a particular easy to kill spot but he was in the general area of where I killed my bull last year and I felt like the strategy I had used then of getting up on the ridge behind him and glassing and hunting from above might ultimately work if a more direct approach initially didn’t work. Either way I wanted to kill this bull so we decided to drive around and commit to this drainage.

We hiked back out, checked zeros, and then made the move to a different trail head for better access. My bull was spotted relatively down low in the drainage and we were both curious about what the upper basin was like. We had killed elk two years prior towards the top of it but coming in from a different direction. Seeing as there was a lot of daylight left we both hiked up to the lower part of the upper basin - I was curious and thought perhaps we’d spot a herd out that might provide either a double up opportunity. After getting into the low alpine and not seeing anything we decided the best play would be to split up for opener. My partner would get higher and glass this upper basin the night before opener and I would head back down to see if I could pick up the 6x6 again in the evening. I got back down and got up as high as I could across valley from where I had seen him that morning to glass. I was joined by another friend shortly before dark (he wasn’t hunting but was there for weekend to hopefully help pack some meat). We glassed until dark but the bull did not appear - visibly on his side is not great overall and we were pretty much banking on him using the same clearing as that morning. We dropped down and found a flat spot near the trail and slept out there. That night we got a message from my partner that he had thrown up but was feeling better and had spotted a bull that he planned to go after in the morning… mixed news there. I am a wuss when it comes to feeling sick and probably would have been headed for the truck!


The next morning the plan was to get into a more aggressive shooting range position on the clearing the 6x6 had been in that morning with fingers crossed he had come back out into that same clearing. Felt like low odds but worth the try at this point. Not quite the opening morning play I had been wanting though.

 

[Deckerp]

We got into position at first light approached. The spot proved to be a great shooting point for the clearing I had seen him in the day before but as the light improved it was clear there were no elk there. The black bear passing through that clearing the night before probably didn’t help. We made code and kept eyes on it. Most the the area is treed with lots of holes and topography that you cannot see into so there was a decent chance they were nearby but not visible. My friend offered to loop around and then come through this area where the wind would be at his back - see if he couldn’t drive anything out into the visible area. Since he was offering I said sure. It seemed like it might work and if they bumped the other way down valley it was into a better spot to be hunted from the ridge later. While he was doing this I got a message from my friend up valley that he had a bull down! One tag filled.

The elk drive didn’t yield results - no elk were bumped. So as soon as he got back to me we packed up and started up valley to help out. It was hot out and we added at least a .5mph to our pace by de-pantsing. Which we definitely the right choose up until the willow brush bushwhacking at the end.

Before the final off trail climb we dropped camp at a nice looking camp spot off the trail and then made it up to the kill site in time to help finish up. The bull was an oddly narrow 4x5 that was relatively heavy and low brow tined for how otherwise smallish he was. I skinned out the head and took the lower jaw off - something I still find to be challenging and intend to improve at.



Between the three of us we packed the whole elk back down to this upper camp spot. I had left my hunting gear at kill site as I planned to head back up there for the evening anyway and could carry more that way.

 

[Deckerp]

While the two of them chilled at camp I made my way back to the kill site and then up to the top of the ridge as I had never seen down into the area on the other side. We were fairly far from the truck at this point - 6 or so miles and 3k’ above the trail head so although I kinda wanted to hunt this other side I figured my friends would not be overly pleased if I sent them a pin that night from somewhere down there.

Saw a band of rams, a moose, a buck and had a cow at 240 yards near last light but no bulls were spotted that evening. The thought had been for me to hunt this upper basin again the next morning and then pull the plug since we wouldn’t have a third guy Sunday night. But I decided that night to instead start the meat shuttle early enough to get another look at the clearing the 6x6 had been in… I should have just let it go but I couldn’t yet. So we got up real early and loaded up with some of the meat and started down. Once again no elk showed up.


After prime time we finished the hike out to the trucks and dropped meat off at the coolers. We all started back in but I turned off partway with the plan to still hunt through the timbered areas while they did the final pack out trip. I did bump elk this time but didn’t good a good look - I think two cows.

After they finished up the pack out in the afternoon we decided to take some R and R and headed to town to get some pizza and beer.View attachment IMG_1374.jpeg

 

[Deckerp]

More to come.