safarichris
01-28-2010, 12:18 PM
Several years ago, my dentist who charges way to much for a simple filling, asked me if I could help him acquire a nice Elk. I had some time on my hands and told him that I would, if he would lower the price on my next tooth. Ha.
I went up the Muskwa and backpacked up to the base of a mountain. There were many Elk whistling, they were everywhere. I went after his one particular Bull that had always eluded me. He was the one I wanted more than anything. I knew exactly where he was. He always had a large harem of cows but would never give me a good visual of his body. His rack was huge. I planed the stalk into the area perfect. The wind was in my favor and everything was going right. We made our approach into the area in the early morning while it was still dark. I built a blind and hunkered down. With big bulls like that, they know the game we play very well. I did not want to over do it with my bugle. We were now tucked away in a great blind and I gave him a toot on the whistle. He replied, immediately. Three or four other bulls also replied, I let the Bulls start their challenges amongst themselves and waited. If you over do it with a bugle, you turn off the Big Boys as they don’t want to leave the cows and come out to challenge anything. I got this big guy quite heated up and after about forty minutes he started to work his way towards us. I was shocked that he left his cows to challenge me. He had never done it in eight other attempts. I must have done it right this time, because here he came. I now saw the tips of his horns and more and more of his rack was exposed by the minute. The entire rack was now visible, but his body was not. He only had to move another twenty feet and he would expose himself entirely. In the final moments of what I thought was going to be a hunt to remember, I heard this crashing behind me, as if a steam roller was coming through the bush. I turned my head and saw about a six hundred pound grizzly totally focused on our blind. He thought we were an Elk and increased his speed towards us.
He was in mid air almost in our blind when I stood up and hollered while I waved my hands. This bear turned around in mid air and swapped ends in one stride. The Bull elk was gone and my dentist buddy was simply petrified. He was as white as a ghost. That was the one and only time that Elk ever gave me. My buddy trembled and was shook up for several days, he could not continue. He was happy to return to civilization intact.
I went up the Muskwa and backpacked up to the base of a mountain. There were many Elk whistling, they were everywhere. I went after his one particular Bull that had always eluded me. He was the one I wanted more than anything. I knew exactly where he was. He always had a large harem of cows but would never give me a good visual of his body. His rack was huge. I planed the stalk into the area perfect. The wind was in my favor and everything was going right. We made our approach into the area in the early morning while it was still dark. I built a blind and hunkered down. With big bulls like that, they know the game we play very well. I did not want to over do it with my bugle. We were now tucked away in a great blind and I gave him a toot on the whistle. He replied, immediately. Three or four other bulls also replied, I let the Bulls start their challenges amongst themselves and waited. If you over do it with a bugle, you turn off the Big Boys as they don’t want to leave the cows and come out to challenge anything. I got this big guy quite heated up and after about forty minutes he started to work his way towards us. I was shocked that he left his cows to challenge me. He had never done it in eight other attempts. I must have done it right this time, because here he came. I now saw the tips of his horns and more and more of his rack was exposed by the minute. The entire rack was now visible, but his body was not. He only had to move another twenty feet and he would expose himself entirely. In the final moments of what I thought was going to be a hunt to remember, I heard this crashing behind me, as if a steam roller was coming through the bush. I turned my head and saw about a six hundred pound grizzly totally focused on our blind. He thought we were an Elk and increased his speed towards us.
He was in mid air almost in our blind when I stood up and hollered while I waved my hands. This bear turned around in mid air and swapped ends in one stride. The Bull elk was gone and my dentist buddy was simply petrified. He was as white as a ghost. That was the one and only time that Elk ever gave me. My buddy trembled and was shook up for several days, he could not continue. He was happy to return to civilization intact.