The Hermit
09-11-2013, 01:55 PM
Like teenaged sex my much anticipated elk hunt for 2013 was over all too soon. After 8 years of trying I've yet to loose an arrow at an elk, but I'd be willing to put in another 10 for the opportunity that I blew this year! CRAP!!
Arriving in camp a couple days before the opener and after a long 12.5 hr trip from the rock my anticipation and hopes for the hunt were pretty high. I had a plan and was pretty confident that it would play out for either myself or Spy. I'd been seeing elk pretty regularly on top of a certain ridge for a few years and decided to set up a couple tree stands beside the trails and just set back from the opens that the elk feed in.
http://i44.tinypic.com/n4i1lc.jpg
On day two we were cow calling in the late morning when finally, music to my ears... a bull bugled not too far away. I got on the bugle quickly and let out a quick chirp and a couple funky chuckles... all the guys laugh at my bugling inability but this bull seemed to like it as he made a hell of a racket climbing up the rocky trail to find me. After what seemed an eternity a big spike came into view. He was clearly looking for the herd Spy and I had been pretending to be...
So this season I decided to hunt with my new Limbsaver Proton and got it outfitted with a Leupold Vendetta rangefinder. For those of you that may not be familiar with the Vendetta, in a nutshell it is a bow-mounted rangefinder that is activated with a remote button attached to the bow's handle. When you come to full draw and align your twenty yard pin on the target and touch the button the Vendetta will give you the angle adjusted yardage. Once you know the yardage you are supposed to adjust your aim using the appropriate pin and then release a very accurate shot!
So, I ranged the spike at 72 yards and held ranging him again him at 56 yards where he held up for a l o n g time. I was swearing under my breath at Spy because for some reason he had stopped cow calling?? (Turns out that at the same time he had a cow at 10 yards and a couple 5 points trailing her up his side of the hill) I had to let down... eventually he walked a few yards closer ... I came to full draw again and ranged him at 46 yards and perfectly broadside... this is when my heart thumped, and my knees knocked, and my brain froze in the first full blown bull fever I've had since being a teenager! I put my fifty yard pin on him and raised it up just a tad higher to accommodate the extra six yards and loosed my first ever arrow at an elk.
If you were reading closely above you will see the mistake... my perfectly shot arrow for 56 yards sailed harmlessly 1" over that lucky spiker, glanced off a rock and carried on for about another 75 yards sticking in a sapling around 8 feet up (took two hours of looking to find the darn thing!)
Later that night back at camp... I probably had a couple beers and a stiff scotch!
http://i42.tinypic.com/2upy70y.jpg
So in all I still think the Vendetta is a great tool but I'm not so sure about my intelligence! Damn!!
Arriving in camp a couple days before the opener and after a long 12.5 hr trip from the rock my anticipation and hopes for the hunt were pretty high. I had a plan and was pretty confident that it would play out for either myself or Spy. I'd been seeing elk pretty regularly on top of a certain ridge for a few years and decided to set up a couple tree stands beside the trails and just set back from the opens that the elk feed in.
http://i44.tinypic.com/n4i1lc.jpg
On day two we were cow calling in the late morning when finally, music to my ears... a bull bugled not too far away. I got on the bugle quickly and let out a quick chirp and a couple funky chuckles... all the guys laugh at my bugling inability but this bull seemed to like it as he made a hell of a racket climbing up the rocky trail to find me. After what seemed an eternity a big spike came into view. He was clearly looking for the herd Spy and I had been pretending to be...
So this season I decided to hunt with my new Limbsaver Proton and got it outfitted with a Leupold Vendetta rangefinder. For those of you that may not be familiar with the Vendetta, in a nutshell it is a bow-mounted rangefinder that is activated with a remote button attached to the bow's handle. When you come to full draw and align your twenty yard pin on the target and touch the button the Vendetta will give you the angle adjusted yardage. Once you know the yardage you are supposed to adjust your aim using the appropriate pin and then release a very accurate shot!
So, I ranged the spike at 72 yards and held ranging him again him at 56 yards where he held up for a l o n g time. I was swearing under my breath at Spy because for some reason he had stopped cow calling?? (Turns out that at the same time he had a cow at 10 yards and a couple 5 points trailing her up his side of the hill) I had to let down... eventually he walked a few yards closer ... I came to full draw again and ranged him at 46 yards and perfectly broadside... this is when my heart thumped, and my knees knocked, and my brain froze in the first full blown bull fever I've had since being a teenager! I put my fifty yard pin on him and raised it up just a tad higher to accommodate the extra six yards and loosed my first ever arrow at an elk.
If you were reading closely above you will see the mistake... my perfectly shot arrow for 56 yards sailed harmlessly 1" over that lucky spiker, glanced off a rock and carried on for about another 75 yards sticking in a sapling around 8 feet up (took two hours of looking to find the darn thing!)
Later that night back at camp... I probably had a couple beers and a stiff scotch!
http://i42.tinypic.com/2upy70y.jpg
So in all I still think the Vendetta is a great tool but I'm not so sure about my intelligence! Damn!!