Clouddog
10-30-2013, 10:43 PM
Brad, a bull Elk, over there!” Christine whispers to me. “I can’t see it, how far?”, I ask. I get my binoculars and there it is, a young bull about ½ kilometer to the far right of the forest slash.
I softly bugle, ending with a rough deep growl and to my surprise there is a long bugle response, but from left side of the forest! Could there be more than one bull? Yes, there was and it was the dominant bull challenging us and coming our way weaving in and out of the forest edge. We played the game and bugled this big 6-pointer within 50’ to a woodpile we setup as a blind. At that moment, I thought wow, only if I had a compound bow but with my Browning XBolt 30-06 we got our bull, a magnificent animal. It was near sunset and no moonlight that evening, which was evident when we discovered we had nothing but a small pen light in our gear bag. Painstakingly with a light equal to a couple candles, we field dressed the Elk, got it out of the forest and in a small trailer. It was late, pitch black and images of grizzlies and wolves danced our minds but we felt secure on the ATV. While blindly dragging our street trailer across the slash we are stopped by a “trailer-sucking-clay-mud-hole” devilishly waiting for us, it was 1 am, we called it a night and went to our cabin for a sleep. Next day we called a farmer who rescued us with a tow.
From the shot to getting it hung, was better part of 24 hours to complete this Elk adventure. But it was years of dreaming and preparing for that moment in front of the woodpile blind.
We have been hunting for five year and many thanks to members of this forum who provided guidance and info. - Regards
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/ebdedf9f-7727-4d14-8b63-1994a443f6bf_zpsb251f08b.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/ebdedf9f-7727-4d14-8b63-1994a443f6bf_zpsb251f08b.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/640a7aeb-d4cc-4b2f-a33d-8112e5959e88_zpsed46cbae.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/640a7aeb-d4cc-4b2f-a33d-8112e5959e88_zpsed46cbae.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/IMG_0743_zps97776e6d.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/IMG_0743_zps97776e6d.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/DSCN1557_zps9cee58e9.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/DSCN1557_zps9cee58e9.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/DSCN1564_zpsdf64ae02.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/DSCN1564_zpsdf64ae02.jpg.html)
I softly bugle, ending with a rough deep growl and to my surprise there is a long bugle response, but from left side of the forest! Could there be more than one bull? Yes, there was and it was the dominant bull challenging us and coming our way weaving in and out of the forest edge. We played the game and bugled this big 6-pointer within 50’ to a woodpile we setup as a blind. At that moment, I thought wow, only if I had a compound bow but with my Browning XBolt 30-06 we got our bull, a magnificent animal. It was near sunset and no moonlight that evening, which was evident when we discovered we had nothing but a small pen light in our gear bag. Painstakingly with a light equal to a couple candles, we field dressed the Elk, got it out of the forest and in a small trailer. It was late, pitch black and images of grizzlies and wolves danced our minds but we felt secure on the ATV. While blindly dragging our street trailer across the slash we are stopped by a “trailer-sucking-clay-mud-hole” devilishly waiting for us, it was 1 am, we called it a night and went to our cabin for a sleep. Next day we called a farmer who rescued us with a tow.
From the shot to getting it hung, was better part of 24 hours to complete this Elk adventure. But it was years of dreaming and preparing for that moment in front of the woodpile blind.
We have been hunting for five year and many thanks to members of this forum who provided guidance and info. - Regards
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/ebdedf9f-7727-4d14-8b63-1994a443f6bf_zpsb251f08b.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/ebdedf9f-7727-4d14-8b63-1994a443f6bf_zpsb251f08b.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/640a7aeb-d4cc-4b2f-a33d-8112e5959e88_zpsed46cbae.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/640a7aeb-d4cc-4b2f-a33d-8112e5959e88_zpsed46cbae.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/IMG_0743_zps97776e6d.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/IMG_0743_zps97776e6d.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/DSCN1557_zps9cee58e9.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/DSCN1557_zps9cee58e9.jpg.html)
http://i939.photobucket.com/albums/ad231/bchenry01/DSCN1564_zpsdf64ae02.jpg (http://s939.photobucket.com/user/bchenry01/media/DSCN1564_zpsdf64ae02.jpg.html)