My first elk!!

[paulgug]

I just got back from an 8 day elk hunt last week and I wanted to share how the successful hunt unfolded.

Day 1:
Our group consisted of my dad, his hunting partner, my brother and myself with my brother in-law joining for part of the trip. We arrived at our spot before noon, and spent a few hours cleaning up the spot and setting up camp.

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We had just enough time to get in some scouting, so we split up and headed to a couple of the better glassing spots in our area. We were able to locate 3 bulls and a couple cows. They were very high up on a couple different slides, which made counting points difficult. We couldn’t confirm any of them as being 6 points, but 2 of them were at least 5 points with good sized racks. We gathered back at camp with optimism for the days to come.

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[paulgug]

Day 2:

We went to a different spot in the morning to see if we could locate some more bulls and hopefully get some talking. We split up with plans to meet back at camp for lunch. My partner and I found a great spot with a tremendous amount of sign, including a couple of wallos that the elk had been using recently and no less than 10 rubs. We got an answer from one bull that seemed pretty close. We bugled back and forth a couple times, but he didn’t seem interested. We tried to move in on him, but the visibility was bad, and once he shut up, we headed back to camp. Temperatures were getting pretty warm (into the mid 20’s)
That evening was pretty uneventful. I hiked into the slide where we had spotted elk the day before, while my brother glassed. No siting’s but I did get answers from a couple different bulls close to dark. I backed off with plans to hike higher up the next day.

Day 3:

Not much action for me on either hunt. I put a lot of miles on the boots as I climbed into slides in two separate locations. I saw a bunch of whitetails including a spike and a wide little 3 point, as well as a tribe of goats way at the top of a slide. My brother and I got a couple bugles right before dark, but ran out of time in the thick timber. Our partners were more successful and spotted a bull that they remembered from last year. It was a normal 6 point on the right side, but the left side was just a main beam with a huge club of a drop tine. They watched him through the spotting scope and he chased a cow and her calf. They bugled and cow called a couple times to get his attention. They watch as he attempted to bugle, but nothing was heard. I am not familiar with this type of behaviour. We discussed whether he was doing a kind of mock bugle, or if maybe he just couldn’t bugle at all.

Day 4: Morning

Three of us decided to pursue the drop tine bull. Two of us hiked half way up his slide in the dark, and began to bugle and cow call. The third person stayed down below with the spotting scope. We moved up and around the slide all morning, but we never got any answers. Over the next couple of days other members of our group spotted this bull a couple more times, but were never able to get him to come down the slide, or answer a call.

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[swampdonkey]

Your not done yet

[islander7mm]

Wow. Amazing country.

[paulgug]

Day 4: Afternoon

By this point we were a little deterred, as we had been able to locate and bugle with several bulls, but we couldn’t find one that would get aggressive, or come in to our calls. It seemed like we were a little early for the rut, and I don’t know how much the weather was having to do with this, but it was clear and hot every day.

For the evening hunt, my dad’s friend and I went up a creek draw that nobody had been up yet this trip. We parked and started up a horse trail for about half an hour. We found a spot before a slide opened up; there was a bunch of thick new growth that separated us from the bottom of the slide. We bugled once, and immediately got an answer. After a few minutes we bugled again, and again he bugled right back. We were in a bad position for visibility, so we quickly walked up the trail a bit and began to set up in a fairly flat open area at the bottom of the slide. Before we were settled, the bull bugled and it was clear that he was closing the distance fast. We quickly made a plan that sent me 30yds further into the slide, while my partner held back and continued to bugle with the bull. I quickly found a spot in front of a small pine tree, in the middle of the slide with 4ft vegetation surrounding me. It wasn’t ideal, as I couldn’t find any kind of rest, but it would have to do. The bugling action continued to heat up as I removed my pack and got set up. Within a minute I spotted the bull 150yds up the slide. There was only a tiny window of visibility, but I was lucky and he stopped directly in the middle of it and began aggressively raking a few small trees. My first impression was that he wasn’t legal. His rack had a modest frame and nothing really stood out. It was difficult to count as he continued to thrash the trees, but I was able to determine that he had 5 points on his left side. After a couple more bugles, and as my partner thrashed some bushes of his own, the bull continued to cautiously close the gap. As soon as he moved, he was out of my site, and I repositioned to where I thought he would reappear. I was wrong, and I should have stayed put. I could hear him getting closer, and raised my rifle in anticipation. Just then I caught movement, he was 25 yds at my 1 o’clock. There was a 20ft pine tree that separated us, and made counting points impossible. I could see that he had no idea I was there, as he looked down towards where my partner was. My partner couldn’t see him, and continued to call and thrash the bushes. The bull put on an awesome display for me destroying the vegetation and scooping up and sending large leaves and debris into the air as he bugled. He then took one step forward and through my scope I was able to confirm a legal 6th point on his right side. His body was still shielded by the tree, so I would have to wait for him to move to get my shot. I had now been holding my rifle up for what seemed like eternity, but was probably more like 5 minutes. Either way, my arms were getting tired as I waited in anticipation. Finally he continued to move directly towards my partner and in doing so gave me a broadside shot. At 20 yds I let one fly, the bull hunched over and took off, down the hill and away from my partner and I. We could hear him crashing through the bushes for a few seconds and with a final crash it sounded like he went down for good.

I met up with my partner and we quickly found a strong blood trail. 75 yds later we found him piled up on a stump. What a feeling! I had finally taken my first bull elk. He was no monster, but wow what an incredible experience. We didn’t have a ton of time before dark, so we got to work immediately. We dressed him, and halved him and got a hold of the rest of the group on the radio. We cut a bit of a trail, and were able to drag the halves back to the main trail, to where we could get a couple quads in. It was a long night of hard work, and celebrating. What a day!

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[paulgug]

photobucket is not my friend..... having some technical difficulties. please bear with me

[paulgug]

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[swampdonkey]

No worries congrats on your bull

[paulgug]

Day 5:

We had a well deserved sleep in, and just cleaned up camp and prepared for the evening hunt. I ended up glassing while a couple others hiked around the slides where we had seen bulls earlier. Not much activity, although a small black bear came out of the bush 50 yds from me for a drink of water. Once he heard me rustling around to take pictures and video he slowly left.

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Day 6:

It was a pretty quiet day, we heard a couple bugles, but it was very hot again, and the bulls just didn’t seem very interested. In the evening we ran into a large grizzly coming down the trail. We were on a quad and as we came around a corner, there he was standing up at 40 yds. He took one look at us and took off in the opposite direction. I can’t believe how fast those animals can move. I am glad he went the way he did because if he would’ve come at us, there would have been no chance at getting a shot away.

Day 7:

We decided to try a new spot that required us to cross a small river. The group spread out and covered a few different slides.

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On our way up we spotted several whitetails, including a couple small bucks and fawns. We called back and forth with a couple different bulls, and seemed to have one bull pretty interested by the late morning. Once things quieted down, 3 of us headed back to camp. My brother and brother-in-law stayed up the slide all afternoon with plans to try for the bull in the evening. After their nap, they got back into it with the bull. He was responding well to the hot lips and came at them pretty fast. So fast in fact that he caught them by surprise. At 60 yds he caught there scent and spooked. They got a quick glance at him as he crashed through the trees on his retreat. What a disappointment.

[paulgug]

Day 8:

It was my last full day. My dad and I decided to cross the river again, and try for one of the bulls we had called with the previous day. As we crested the river bank my dad spotted movement less than 100 yds away. Another grizzly! The bear had also spotted us; we loaded our guns and I tried to get a little bit of video. It was still very dark though, and the footage didn’t turn out too well. Continuing on we ran into a bunch of whitetails again, and even spotted a nice framed buck that was silhouetted on a ridgeline a few hundred yards away. We also seen a nice billy on a rock ledge well above the slides we were glassing.
That evening we got a bull calling back and forth continuously. He sounded very interested and closed the distance to about 100yds. We got into position on the edge of a small clear cut, and waited for him to appear at the other end. It was getting dark fast and the bull must of sensed something was out of place, because he just wouldn’t make those next few steps. We could tell he was moving back and forth at the edge of the tree line, but as darkness took over we had to back off. Meanwhile my brother was having an eventful night of his own. Glassing from our spot at the lake, he heard branches breaking behind him. He had no idea what would be making so much noise, but soon figured it out when a bull moose and his cow emerged from the bush and headed to the lake for a drink. They hung around for 45 minutes and he managed to snap a few great pictures as he continued to glass the slides.

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Up the slides he also spotted 4 bulls and a few cows crossing at a couple different locations. He couldn’t quite make out any 6 points, but 2 of the bulls looked good, and the other 2 were just little guys.


Day 9:

After an uneventful morning hunt where only a few whitetails were spotted and only a distant bull answered our bugles, I headed back to camp and packed up my gear. My trip was over, but the memories of my first bull elk will last a lifetime. The other guys stuck around for a couple days but couldn’t connect on anything.

[islander7mm]

Great story, great camp, and a great first elk.

[paulgug]

thanks for your patience. I hope all the pictures work out, not sure why I was having so many issues. Photobucket kept crashing my computer.
Anyways, I had an amazing time and am stoked to have my first bull and some meat in the freezer. I am very grateful for everyones help, especially to the guy who called the bull in so close!

[BlacktailStalker]

That was a good write up, congrats on your first bull.
You should do another thread on that nice milie in your avatar :cool:

[kennyj]

Congratulations on your first bull elk. Great job on the story and photos, really enjoyed them.
kenny

[moose2]

Great story and pictures, congratulations on your first bull. It looks like you put on lots of miles on your feet.
Mike

[fearnodeer]

Congrats you tell a great story and have the pics to go with it.

[ElectricDyck]

Well told story and great scenery pics, congrats on your bull!

[gbear]

Congrats on your fist bull! Great story, and great looking country

[Good2bCanadian]

Congrats on the elk. Great story, great pictures.

[black mountain]

congrats on a beauty elk, great write up and very nice pics

[Kalum]

Well written and congrats on the bull. that's one hell of a camp you guys set up. The keg on the stove is for hot water? Great idea.

[swampthing]

You mention the bull not bugling. I watched a bull do this from a distance. Couldnt hear the bugle though. I snuck right into the herd and realized that the elk never shut up. The bull did continual "quiet" bugles and the cows called non stop. I snuck around with this herd of a dozen animals for an hour. In a very quiet manner they called to each other non stop. I didnt know they did that.

[lovemywinchester]

Great story and bull! Love the camp set up. You guys are pro campers by the look of it.

[LeadSender]

Great read and photos .

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Great story, camp and pictures!!

Congrats on your first bull!!!

SSS

[coach]

Well done! Very good story and pictures. Great first bull! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.

[Blair]

Nice job, Nice Bull, and that must be the best looking camp in the country. I have stayed in lesser hotels.

[325]

Nice elk. Congrats!

[markt308]

Seriously awesome thread buddy. Great pictures and honestly one of the best described elk snenerios i've read. That must have been a hoot with that bull coming in and being so close without even knowing your there. Nicely done.

[d6dan]

Well written story and great pics, and taking your 1st elk........priceless!!. Congrats.:-D

[trigger]

great story. and congrats on a fine bull. your hooked now. thanks for sharing

[Wrayzer]

Great photos, congrats on the first one. Always nice to bag something early and get that monkey off the back, then when you can really relax without the stress and enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors.
Looks like you boys have a great spot, keep at er, those bulls are only going to get bigger next year!

[paulgug]

Well written and congrats on the bull. that's one hell of a camp you guys set up. The keg on the stove is for hot water? Great idea.

Yah, that camp is a contiuous work in progress for my dad and his partners. This year they pretty while had it perfected. It goes together with basically no tools or hardware. Its all zippers and hinges. And yes the keg is for hot water. It works really well especially with the spout at the bottom.

Thanks everyone for all the positive feedback, I am glad people enjoyed my story. Its something I will never forget

[paulgug]

You mention the bull not bugling. I watched a bull do this from a distance. Couldnt hear the bugle though. I snuck right into the herd and realized that the elk never shut up. The bull did continual "quiet" bugles and the cows called non stop. I snuck around with this herd of a dozen animals for an hour. In a very quiet manner they called to each other non stop. I didnt know they did that.

That would make sense for this situation. Maybe he was quietly encouraging his harem to stay close. The guys were quite a distance away so they wouldn't have heard anything less than a full bugle.

[deer nut]

Congrats! Nice camp set up you have there!

[ianwuzhere]

good job, looks like a good trip for sure.. Congrats on a nice elk, good pix!

[brig]

Beautiful country! Congrats on a successful hunt

[drewsky]

Nice work! What a beautiful setting you were in! Real elk country! Grizz, deer, moose, ahhhhhh gotta love this great province of ours. We are all so lucky eh?
cheers; good hunting to all.

[tomahawk]

Good story and congrats on making it happen

[sniper ren]

Nice bull! Congrats!

[schilly101]

is that the mountian up the bull river with the hole in it that some guy flew an airplane thru it?

[Rubberfist]

Great photos and an excellent writeup. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience - I enjoyed reading that.

[paulgug]

Nice work! What a beautiful setting you were in! Real elk country! Grizz, deer, moose, ahhhhhh gotta love this great province of ours. We are all so lucky eh?
cheers; good hunting to all.

I couldn't agree more. I feel very fortunate to be able to live and hunt this province. Its amazing to see such a variety of animals on one hunt. Kinda like a North american safari!
Thanks for reading.

[Call of the Wild]

Beautiful country and nice bull. Good job

[The Dude]

Ditto everything above, sweet camp, beautiful country, and hunting with Dad.
Oh, and you got an Elk, I see :D
Well done!

[rudysteelhead]

What a great trip! Congrats to all the hunters

[Jagermeister]

Thanks for sharing your hunt, well written and illustrated.
That is one rugged looking area.

[westview]

Sounds like a amazing place, congrats!

[buckeye77]

Great story and loved the photos and your camp. I will be printing pictures of your camp in an attempt to duplicate it. Congrats on a great hunt.