brotherjack
10-23-2005, 11:03 PM
So, today my wife and I are in the bush stalking down through this nice draw/drainage that looked promising on the topo map. We're new to this topo-map thing, so we have no idea what to expect. Quiet as we can be, wind at our face; we were exploring more than we were hunting, but we were hunting for sure. After the 30'th rubbed tree and who knows how many piles of elk and deer poot, we've decided we got a nice area on our hands here. Maybe there is something to this topo-map hunting trick.
I'm in the lead, doing that painful step-wait-step gait. As I take the last step over a rise, I look over, and no more than 30 yards away stands a cow elk - head down, munching grass so loud it didn't hear me. Nothing to do but wave the wife to stillness with a hand behind my back and freeze. This was probably the biggest cow elk I've ever seen - easily as big as my smallish 6x6 bull I got this year (not that any bull big enough to be sporting a 6x6 is really "small", but some are definitely larger than others).
After maybe 3 minutes, the cow elk starts browsing it's way towards me. "Where the heck were you back during either-sex bow season?" I think, "you're fat as a pig and got no calf to make me feel bad about". I was just about to get nervous for being stepped on, when the cow stops about 6 feet from me (!!!), and takes a pee. Had she taken one more step towards me, and it would have splashed on my boots. The elk is still blissfully unaware of my presence. I am doing my best to telepath to the elk "I am a stump, just a stump - nevermind the glasses and nose, I am just a stump".
Her business finished, she takes one more step and then locks eyes with my wife behind me. Then she backs off - she doesn't spook hard, just does a couple hop steps back to about 15 yards away from us and then stops and chirps. From the ridge up behind us we hear crashing in the bush, a bugle, and a couple more chirps. Our cow heads up for her friends. We did our best to get a view of the headgear on the bull, but all we ever saw was a big meaty rump disappearing slowly into the bush. We didn't push them - elk season is closed anyway, but it's cool just to see them.
A few minutes later, another bull bugles from the other ridgeline. We sat tight and hoped something would come down and let us have a look at it (we didn't have any elk calls with us, since the season closed or we'da tried to call them). Some crashing in the bush got within 150 yards of us, and we heard him thrash some helpless tree with his antlers, but never got a peek at him.
Anyway, sun was getting low, and we'd had our fun (freezer is pretty full - we're hunting for fun mostly now), so we headed back to the truck before we had to make that long dark walk through unfamiliar woods. Saw some still-steaming sign on the way back. You can bet we'll be back here come elk season next year! We were again, just stunned by the number (and size) of the rubs everywhere in there - you couldn't get out of sight of one before seeing the next one (and they were easy to spot - often trees as big around as my leg!!!).
So, on the drive out, in the last 15 minutes of shooting light, the wife spies a decent 4point whitetail. I'da let him live as full as our freezer is, but she hasn't got anything at all this year, and she want's him (and he really is a decent buck - I'm just monster-deer hunting now that the elk's in the freezer). Unfortunately, she had a little fight with her magazine trying to stuff it in the gun (looking at the deer, and not what she was doing), and couldn't get locked and loaded fast enough. She stalked him for 10 minutes, but decided not to push him and came back. Saw him a couple times, but he was with some does, and the bush was too thick to pick out which body belonged to the antlers in the fading light. Oh well, we know where he lives - he'll be there for a few days at least, whitetail don't roam much.
Anyway, was just an awesome evening in the bush - even though we didn't bring home a critter, and I thought ya'll might enjoy the tale.
:biggrin:
I'm in the lead, doing that painful step-wait-step gait. As I take the last step over a rise, I look over, and no more than 30 yards away stands a cow elk - head down, munching grass so loud it didn't hear me. Nothing to do but wave the wife to stillness with a hand behind my back and freeze. This was probably the biggest cow elk I've ever seen - easily as big as my smallish 6x6 bull I got this year (not that any bull big enough to be sporting a 6x6 is really "small", but some are definitely larger than others).
After maybe 3 minutes, the cow elk starts browsing it's way towards me. "Where the heck were you back during either-sex bow season?" I think, "you're fat as a pig and got no calf to make me feel bad about". I was just about to get nervous for being stepped on, when the cow stops about 6 feet from me (!!!), and takes a pee. Had she taken one more step towards me, and it would have splashed on my boots. The elk is still blissfully unaware of my presence. I am doing my best to telepath to the elk "I am a stump, just a stump - nevermind the glasses and nose, I am just a stump".
Her business finished, she takes one more step and then locks eyes with my wife behind me. Then she backs off - she doesn't spook hard, just does a couple hop steps back to about 15 yards away from us and then stops and chirps. From the ridge up behind us we hear crashing in the bush, a bugle, and a couple more chirps. Our cow heads up for her friends. We did our best to get a view of the headgear on the bull, but all we ever saw was a big meaty rump disappearing slowly into the bush. We didn't push them - elk season is closed anyway, but it's cool just to see them.
A few minutes later, another bull bugles from the other ridgeline. We sat tight and hoped something would come down and let us have a look at it (we didn't have any elk calls with us, since the season closed or we'da tried to call them). Some crashing in the bush got within 150 yards of us, and we heard him thrash some helpless tree with his antlers, but never got a peek at him.
Anyway, sun was getting low, and we'd had our fun (freezer is pretty full - we're hunting for fun mostly now), so we headed back to the truck before we had to make that long dark walk through unfamiliar woods. Saw some still-steaming sign on the way back. You can bet we'll be back here come elk season next year! We were again, just stunned by the number (and size) of the rubs everywhere in there - you couldn't get out of sight of one before seeing the next one (and they were easy to spot - often trees as big around as my leg!!!).
So, on the drive out, in the last 15 minutes of shooting light, the wife spies a decent 4point whitetail. I'da let him live as full as our freezer is, but she hasn't got anything at all this year, and she want's him (and he really is a decent buck - I'm just monster-deer hunting now that the elk's in the freezer). Unfortunately, she had a little fight with her magazine trying to stuff it in the gun (looking at the deer, and not what she was doing), and couldn't get locked and loaded fast enough. She stalked him for 10 minutes, but decided not to push him and came back. Saw him a couple times, but he was with some does, and the bush was too thick to pick out which body belonged to the antlers in the fading light. Oh well, we know where he lives - he'll be there for a few days at least, whitetail don't roam much.
Anyway, was just an awesome evening in the bush - even though we didn't bring home a critter, and I thought ya'll might enjoy the tale.
:biggrin: