wyoelkfan15
Well-known member
The following is an account of an elk hunt I experienced in the Fall of 2017 somewhere in the great State of Wyoming.
It was the second week of September 2017. At the time I was working towards my master’s in mechanical engineering and didn’t have much free time to spend chasing critters in the hills. Being the second week of the semester, my coursework was still light, and I found myself with a free Saturday. That Friday night my main hunting pard decided chasing women in Colorado sounded more fun than chasing elk. Furthermore, my older brother, who grew up hunting and fishing with me, had recently converted to veganism through persuasion of his fiancé, god rest his soul! This left me flying solo Saturday morning.
That year I had drawn a cow/calf tag that was good for the same area I planned on hunting with my OTC General. Several weeks prior in August, my bird dog Ruger and I had done some serious boots on the ground scouting and I found an area that appeared to be loaded with fresh elk sign. While I had hunted deer and antelope with my Hoyt VTEC, purchased in 2005, this would be my first time ever chasing elk with my bow and with two tags in my pocket I wasn’t going to be picky. That morning my alarm sounded early, a quick breakfast and coffee had me on the road by 4:00 am. With a little over an hour drive to my hunt area, I was able to enjoy the quiet anticipation driving past the Wyoming sage prairie in the dark which quickly turned to twisting mountain roads.
About an hour before first light, I found myself approaching the abandoned timber road I would hunt off of for the day. The parking area came into view of my headlights and as I began to slow down a 5x5 bull ran across the road directly in front of my truck. Stunned, I thought to myself ‘Well, that’s a good sign!’ I pulled into the parking area and turned the engine off. Looking through my windshield I could see the quarter moon and stars shining through the timber above me and finished the last couple slurps of coffee in the cab, enjoying the mountain skyline. Still having my sneakers on, I cracked my truck door to get out and put my boots on. Stepping out of the truck brought me into an orchestra of screaming bulls. In three hundred sixty degrees there were bulls bugling and cows calling.
The air was crisp but not cold, I slipped into my boots, shouldered my pack and grabbed my bow. Still having 45 minutes until shooting light I maneuvered up the timber road a ways, figuring the herd that was around me would want to move up the mountain as dawn approached. As I walked uphill for 15 minutes the elk were still vocal all around me. Suddenly a bull peaked off less than three hundred yards to my north. With the first rays of light starting to creep through the timber I figured this would be as good of a stand as any and darted off into the dark timber. I setup in a little break in the pines one hundred yards in.
I could hear the bull roaming around below me and with first light peaking through the trees I let off a couple of cow calls followed by a bugle. The bull instantly responded with his own bugle and began crashing through the timber headed my direction. With an arrow knocked, I let off several more cow calls and waited. Like an apparition the bull came out of the dark timber haze 60 yards below me, with release on string loop I couldn’t believe how lucky I was about to be. At fifty yards the bull stopped behind a timber screen, nose in the air, several seconds of sniffing and he whirled back down the direction he had come from. Thermals, damnit!
The next hour had me cow calling and maneuvering around the timber trying to draw the bull back. No luck. With full light up I could hear the main herd calling a good distance up the mountain from me and began hiking after them. Several hours later brought me back to an intersection with a spur road off the main timber road I was hunting. The herd I had been chasing had given me the slip and was in the next county for all I could tell. I sat down for a snack and some water. Looking at my map I figured I was only about a mile and a half from my truck, there were several other areas I had scouted and thought I could have a good afternoon hunt in one of them. With only a half hour walk to the vehicle I began walking downhill and came upon where the spur road connected with the main trail. Ten steps down the main trail I stopped, hearing what I thought was an elk bugle back up the mountain. Listening for a couple minutes brought only silence. I now had to decide, do I waste my afternoon chasing a phantom bugle or try another area I had scouted? I rolled the dice with the bugle and turned my boots back uphill.
Over the next mile I would stop every couple hundred yards and let off a weak bugle. Finally, where the main timber road ended abruptly into a wall of trees I received a bugle back only several hundred yards over a small ridge above me. Pushing into the timber I continued to let off weak bugles to keep the bull’s location pinned down and he continued to respond. As I crested the ridge, the bull’s responses began to get more intense, I was obviously inside his comfort bubble and reciprocated his irritation by increasing the volume and chuckles in my own call. I figured the bull was under two hundred yards below me. I could see a small break in the timber below where a meadow opened up with good shooting lanes, letting out several cow calls and one last bugle. The bull responded, this time he was CLOSE!
Taking several more steps downhill, I froze, fifty yards below me was a cow looking uphill directly where I had just called. She put her head down and began foraging uphill towards me. Kneeling behind a tree stump right next to me, I knocked an arrow and waited. There was a small copse of dense spruce fifteen yards ahead of me that she walked behind, giving me a perfect opportunity to draw back. She walked out the close side of the trees and froze with only her back shoulder being unobstructed by the spruce thicket. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity, me screaming in my head for her to take one more step and her wondering what this weird twitchy blob of camouflage and beard is doing sitting on the ground ten yards away.
Suddenly she barked and wheeled around. I mouth called and miraculously got her to stop at fifteen yards perfectly broadside. Top pin right on the lungs I let the arrow loose and it hit true. She ran back down the meadow and piled up almost exactly where I had first seen her. Putting down my bow, I sat in the duff and let the adrenaline wash over me. There are few moments in life that I can recall the exact details like I can of that few minutes looking down at my first bow kill on a big game animal lying below me. First day ever hunting elk with a bow, so lucky!
Several minutes passed, I pulled out my water bottle and drank some, enjoying the moment. The bull, a nice 5x5, had been silent during this whole exchange, and eventually popped out of the timber at the bottom of the meadow and went and stood over my cow, broadside forty yards away. My bow stayed on the ground, I had shot my trophy for the day.
One universal truth that I have found is that elk steak is the world’s greatest equalizer! Over the next year it seemed that my brother would show up whenever I was cooking up that elk.
Ruger and I pre-scouting
Trophy Hunt
It was the second week of September 2017. At the time I was working towards my master’s in mechanical engineering and didn’t have much free time to spend chasing critters in the hills. Being the second week of the semester, my coursework was still light, and I found myself with a free Saturday. That Friday night my main hunting pard decided chasing women in Colorado sounded more fun than chasing elk. Furthermore, my older brother, who grew up hunting and fishing with me, had recently converted to veganism through persuasion of his fiancé, god rest his soul! This left me flying solo Saturday morning.
That year I had drawn a cow/calf tag that was good for the same area I planned on hunting with my OTC General. Several weeks prior in August, my bird dog Ruger and I had done some serious boots on the ground scouting and I found an area that appeared to be loaded with fresh elk sign. While I had hunted deer and antelope with my Hoyt VTEC, purchased in 2005, this would be my first time ever chasing elk with my bow and with two tags in my pocket I wasn’t going to be picky. That morning my alarm sounded early, a quick breakfast and coffee had me on the road by 4:00 am. With a little over an hour drive to my hunt area, I was able to enjoy the quiet anticipation driving past the Wyoming sage prairie in the dark which quickly turned to twisting mountain roads.
About an hour before first light, I found myself approaching the abandoned timber road I would hunt off of for the day. The parking area came into view of my headlights and as I began to slow down a 5x5 bull ran across the road directly in front of my truck. Stunned, I thought to myself ‘Well, that’s a good sign!’ I pulled into the parking area and turned the engine off. Looking through my windshield I could see the quarter moon and stars shining through the timber above me and finished the last couple slurps of coffee in the cab, enjoying the mountain skyline. Still having my sneakers on, I cracked my truck door to get out and put my boots on. Stepping out of the truck brought me into an orchestra of screaming bulls. In three hundred sixty degrees there were bulls bugling and cows calling.
The air was crisp but not cold, I slipped into my boots, shouldered my pack and grabbed my bow. Still having 45 minutes until shooting light I maneuvered up the timber road a ways, figuring the herd that was around me would want to move up the mountain as dawn approached. As I walked uphill for 15 minutes the elk were still vocal all around me. Suddenly a bull peaked off less than three hundred yards to my north. With the first rays of light starting to creep through the timber I figured this would be as good of a stand as any and darted off into the dark timber. I setup in a little break in the pines one hundred yards in.
I could hear the bull roaming around below me and with first light peaking through the trees I let off a couple of cow calls followed by a bugle. The bull instantly responded with his own bugle and began crashing through the timber headed my direction. With an arrow knocked, I let off several more cow calls and waited. Like an apparition the bull came out of the dark timber haze 60 yards below me, with release on string loop I couldn’t believe how lucky I was about to be. At fifty yards the bull stopped behind a timber screen, nose in the air, several seconds of sniffing and he whirled back down the direction he had come from. Thermals, damnit!
The next hour had me cow calling and maneuvering around the timber trying to draw the bull back. No luck. With full light up I could hear the main herd calling a good distance up the mountain from me and began hiking after them. Several hours later brought me back to an intersection with a spur road off the main timber road I was hunting. The herd I had been chasing had given me the slip and was in the next county for all I could tell. I sat down for a snack and some water. Looking at my map I figured I was only about a mile and a half from my truck, there were several other areas I had scouted and thought I could have a good afternoon hunt in one of them. With only a half hour walk to the vehicle I began walking downhill and came upon where the spur road connected with the main trail. Ten steps down the main trail I stopped, hearing what I thought was an elk bugle back up the mountain. Listening for a couple minutes brought only silence. I now had to decide, do I waste my afternoon chasing a phantom bugle or try another area I had scouted? I rolled the dice with the bugle and turned my boots back uphill.
Over the next mile I would stop every couple hundred yards and let off a weak bugle. Finally, where the main timber road ended abruptly into a wall of trees I received a bugle back only several hundred yards over a small ridge above me. Pushing into the timber I continued to let off weak bugles to keep the bull’s location pinned down and he continued to respond. As I crested the ridge, the bull’s responses began to get more intense, I was obviously inside his comfort bubble and reciprocated his irritation by increasing the volume and chuckles in my own call. I figured the bull was under two hundred yards below me. I could see a small break in the timber below where a meadow opened up with good shooting lanes, letting out several cow calls and one last bugle. The bull responded, this time he was CLOSE!
Taking several more steps downhill, I froze, fifty yards below me was a cow looking uphill directly where I had just called. She put her head down and began foraging uphill towards me. Kneeling behind a tree stump right next to me, I knocked an arrow and waited. There was a small copse of dense spruce fifteen yards ahead of me that she walked behind, giving me a perfect opportunity to draw back. She walked out the close side of the trees and froze with only her back shoulder being unobstructed by the spruce thicket. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity, me screaming in my head for her to take one more step and her wondering what this weird twitchy blob of camouflage and beard is doing sitting on the ground ten yards away.
Suddenly she barked and wheeled around. I mouth called and miraculously got her to stop at fifteen yards perfectly broadside. Top pin right on the lungs I let the arrow loose and it hit true. She ran back down the meadow and piled up almost exactly where I had first seen her. Putting down my bow, I sat in the duff and let the adrenaline wash over me. There are few moments in life that I can recall the exact details like I can of that few minutes looking down at my first bow kill on a big game animal lying below me. First day ever hunting elk with a bow, so lucky!
Several minutes passed, I pulled out my water bottle and drank some, enjoying the moment. The bull, a nice 5x5, had been silent during this whole exchange, and eventually popped out of the timber at the bottom of the meadow and went and stood over my cow, broadside forty yards away. My bow stayed on the ground, I had shot my trophy for the day.
One universal truth that I have found is that elk steak is the world’s greatest equalizer! Over the next year it seemed that my brother would show up whenever I was cooking up that elk.
Ruger and I pre-scouting
