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View Full Version : 2008 Alberta Non Resident Elk Draw



kayjayess
10-01-2008, 09:25 AM
Well this year I have been draw for a mid season trophy elk in Southern Alberta. I am heading out on Monday for a week to see if I can anchor a bull worth putting on the wall. I got drawn for a prime zone one in which a 395" bull was killed about 3 weeks ago. The thing is massive. I have been talking to guys and there is 1 that guys have seen that is bigger than the 395er. We have permission in all the prime spots so we should have a real good shot of getting an animal. My hunting partner is drawn as well so we can kill 2 bulls. I hope to be on the forum in a few weeks with some pics of some bone.

Caveman
10-01-2008, 09:31 AM
Good Luck!!! Hope to see a real "Cranked" field shot.

Ron.C
10-02-2008, 07:33 AM
Good Luck Kyle,

can't wait to see some pictures!!!

trailhunter
10-02-2008, 08:08 AM
i wouldnt mind seeing a better pic of that buck in your avatar:shock:

Tikka7mm
10-02-2008, 10:43 AM
Should be a blast. Good luck to you.:smile:

kayjayess
10-02-2008, 10:54 AM
Here a few of that buck.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/ArcheryMule2005038.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/ArcheryMule2005053.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/ArcheryMule2005035.jpg

Kitimat Killer
10-02-2008, 11:37 PM
nice mulie way to go on that one

kayjayess
10-13-2008, 04:08 PM
Well the 08 Elk Non res hunt in Alberta went great. I headed out on Sunday last week to spot for a day before my host/partner showed up for Tuesday hunt. I headed out earlier Monday morning and right off spotted a few nice 6 by 6 bulls. The area I was hunting bordered a no hunting area where the elk know they are safe. I probably seen close to 40 elk that morning about half a dozen bulls and 40 to 50 deer both wt and mule - however all the elk were inside the posted area.

After a few hours of glassing I went back to camp for lunch and then headed out in the afternoon. That night I was not allowed back in to the area I was earlier as another hunter had permission so I checked out an area North of there. As the sun set and not seeing much I headed back for camp. Right at last light I spot a huge herd of elk. 15 or so and there is an awesome 7 by 6 with them and a young satellite bull. I watch them leave the no hunting and enter the legal area cussing my partner under my breath as we could have likely killed the bull.

Well my host showed up later that night and we headed out at 6:15 the following morning to the spot the bull came out. Before first light we can hear cows mewing and some bugling. It sounds to be in the no hunting area but we are not sure. We stalk as close as possible with out being noticed and as the sun slowly pokes its head from the horizon we see that yes in fact the elk are in the no hunting zone. I do a long stalk through flat prairie grass land to a spot 100 yards from the fence of the no hunting zone and start cow calling. After 20 minutes 5 or 6 of the cows have made there way right to the fence line. The 7 by 6 bull is still about 80 yards inside the fence and is bugling and grunting as he runs back and forth. He is not sure what to do but decides it is best not to leave the safety of his sanctuary.

After over half an hour of this he rounds up his girls and pushes them further back in to the reserve. I had him at 180 yards but on the wrong side of the fence. It was awesome to watch him in rut trying to figure out what to do. After they make there way back behind a ridge I come out from my cover and we head back to camp - now about 7:40 AM. We decide to go for a cruise and see if we can see anything in the area I had spotted the previous morning.

We leave camp and as we are driving along we spot a bachelor herd of mule deer, the best probably scoring around that 150 P&Y mark. My buddy had a muley archery tag so we considered going after him but being second priority to the elk we figured that could wait. As we are sitting there enjoying the beauty of these 5 mule bucks I look right and off in the distance I see a young 6 by 5 bull elk. He is on the edge of the protected area but still on the right side of the fence. My buddy says that we can shoot him from where we are but I figured it was too far. I guessed him to be 400 yards while he figured 300. He ranges him at 325 but by that time he has crested the hill and we no longer have a shot.

The wind was strong out of the west and the elk was traveling north along the N/S fenceline. He did not hear or see us with the strong winds so after a quick discussion we bail out of the truck and take off to the north about 350 yards east of him in hot pursuit. There was a natural ridge which we were able to stay behind as we trailed him. After about 3/4 of a mile we look over the ridge and he is about 400 yards away to the WNW. He is headed straight into the no shooting area at that point. We have pretty good cover so I give a real loud call with my long range Primos IMakaDaBullCrazy cow call. My buddy has his binos on him and the elk stops dead in his track and spins around. My partner says - that got his attention.

We sneak up in behind some tall buck brush at the top of the hill so we are in perfect position. I am still not comfortable with the range - about 400 yards so I figure we would try calling him. I was worried about a marginal shot and then him jumping the fence into the no shooting zone. As we are in a spot with plenty of cover I give another two calls with the cow call. Well he starts running with a good head of steam straight at us. I peek out and see him not at 125 yards and I am thinking we should get up and start shooting. However I decide to wait it out and tell my buddy to get ready. When he reaches 30 yards I can not take it anymore and stand up. The bull just stops dead and stares at us straight on wondering where the heck the cow that was summoning him had gone.

Having hunted but never killed an elk before I did not need any convincing that I should take this guy. Talking to other buddies that live in the area there was not a lot of elk outside of the no shooting area and an opportunity at a 6 point should not be over looked. Having called him in I made the decision that I would try to harvest him. A bark from the 7 mm STW with 140 grain Remingtion CoreLocks got his attention. It took 4 shots to anchor this young bull although he did not go far. The cool thing is that I downed this bull only about 20 yards from where I shot a heavy non-typical whitetail that grossed around 175 B&C in 2005 and only a few hundred yards from my first mule deer I shot 21 years ago.

With my first elk on the ground my partner and I jumped up giving each other high fives. We were thrilled to put this young bull on the ground having never harvested an elk before. The elation slowly turned to a feeling of relaxation knowing the pressure was off. We had downed a bull and now that we had meat for the freezer we could enjoy the next four days concentrating on anchoring another bull. We were awe struck that we called this bull in to 30 yards and although he was no B&C bull we had some great memories about an amazing hunt. We had no idea what else the hunt had in store for us!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0033.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0040.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0044.jpg

Part II to follow :D

Ron.C
10-14-2008, 08:38 PM
congrats Kyle, awesome elk, great story


That Alberta terrain sure looks rough though. How'd you manage it?:razz:

kayjayess
10-18-2008, 06:33 PM
Thanks a lot Ron. We had a riot.

Later that day after skinning this guy out and getting him hung up to cool we went out for number two. It was severely windy - over 30 mph - and we had planned to use a cow decoy we had. Unfortunately it was so windy that the decoy just kept blowing over. We were trying to set up where we seen the 7 by 6 that morning but abandoned that plan when the decoy fell through.

We decided to cruise the same field we were in that morning and after about 30 minutes of driving we noticed a herd of about 15 with two bulls one being a nice 6 by 6. We were joined by a couple of my buddies so there was 4 of us out. We set up our decoy with me and my one buddy having to hold it up on account of the wind while my buddy with the tag sat and waited. I started cow calling hoping to catch the big bulls attention.

The herd was about 1/2 a mile inside the no hunting area so we would have to entice them out if we were lucky. We initially had set the decoy up about 1/4 mile from the no hunting zone and tried calling but being straight down wind with the gale we were in they just could not hear the cow call. After moving several times along the fence to keep up with the herd that was moving Northerly along the E/W fence I thought there was no chance.

I crawled over to me buddy in the cover and said that I figured it was hopeless. They had not seen the cow decoy and they could not hear the calls. He wanted to stick it out so we set the decoy up on the highest point about 10 yards off the fence and started cow calling. Last light was about an hour off and I knew if they did not start coming toward the fence soon there was no hope. As the sun started to set so to did the wind start to abate. With that the bull and a few cows heard the calls and the bull seemed to be able to see the cow decoy that we had set up.

As I am cow calling I am behind the decoy moderately exposed as I was having to hold it up in the wind - despite that I was laying low and could not really see what was happening.. My buddy whispers to me that the bull is coming and to keep calling. He starts calling with his cow call as well. I can sense that things are happening as buddy with the tag is hunkering down and our other buddy beside him is now laying perfectly flat and no longer even looking in the direction of the bull. I try to hunker down and cover up although I am in a terrible spot for cover.

That is when I know we are probably screwed. We are set up only 10 yards from the no hunting area. If the bull crosses the fence where the cow decoy is there is a real chance he will wind us but an even greater chance he will see us. The wind is still blowing quite strong so that is in our favour but those smart elk seem to even get a sniff of you when they are close due to the way wind swirls. The wind has abated enough that I have let loose of the decoy and it seems to be managing fine but it is on about a 30 degree incline. I really have no choice, risk it blowing over because if I hold it up he will bust me for sure.

Well it seemed to work as with in 20 minutes of setting up at the new spot and starting to call I see his antlers crest the horizon not 20 yards from me. I lay flat on the ground and fortunately all of us were camoed well. My face was not covered so I used my glove to cover my face lifting my head enough to continue calling. The bull walks up to the fence still in the no shooting area and stares at the cow trying to decide where the multiple cow calls are coming from. He jumps the fence and is now standing about 7 yards from me. My legs are shaking and my calls are pathetic as I try to keep things together with this bull basically standing over me.

He walks closer but my buddy with the tag is behind a little ridge (About 3 yards from me) and can not see the bull as he is covering to. So to better explain, I am about 7 yards from the bull, my buddy is 3 yards from me and directly in between the bull and I. So, yes the bull is about 4 yards from him. His only shot is basically a head shot which was marginal based on the fact he is right next to the no shooting area. We all sat patiently and continued calling.

Now, from the bulls perspective the cow decoy was not plainly visible to him. The decoy is basically one dimensional and must be looked at from a side view. Looking at it from the back or front you just a sliver, which having crested the fence is what he would have seen. He starts to walk slightly North and East away from the fence allowing him a better view of the cow. When he got about 10 yards from the fence which was less than that to the North of us my buddy sat up and from a sitting position delivered a perfect 300 weatherby shell into his front shoulder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0070.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0065.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v732/kkjjss/IMG_0078.jpg

What an amazing hunt to down two bulls on the same day (both our first elk) and having them called them in to close proximity like that. I have never seen anything so amazing to be that close to a wild animal that is in heavy rut. He had to have clearly seen me as I was exposed and I could see him clearly. I suppose with the camo and the fact that he could not wind us and most importantly that he was in heavy rut did we fool him. That is one hunt I will never forget. Wow what an awesome time!

Caveman
10-18-2008, 06:43 PM
Nice Bulls Guys. Congrats on your first and a great trip>

Duk Dog
10-20-2008, 09:39 PM
Congrats to you both, glad it panned out and you both got your bulls. Sounds like it was pretty exciting being able to work them with the calls.

kayjayess
10-20-2008, 10:04 PM
And you. Hell of a bull Darren. Have you talked to Gilham today? If not, get in touch. He has news

Duk Dog
10-21-2008, 05:33 AM
And you. Hell of a bull Darren. Have you talked to Gilham today? If not, get in touch. He has news

Just left him a message yesterday actually. I'll try him again today, man he is one hard guy to track down. Congrats as well on that mulie in your avatar - wow what a cranker.