There's a First Time for Everything.

[brotherjack]

As anyone who follows my posts knows, The Wife(tm) and I are probably the worst elk hunters on planet earth (by a good margin). This is year 6 of hunting elk, and out of 200+ days in the bush, we've had exactly zero success that wasn't just dumb luck or a drive-by. This whole grand experience everyone describes about bulls coming in screaming and how much fun it is - nope, never happened to us, not once. Until now... (no we didn't kill one, but I had some fun finally). See the story below - darn enter key jumped out in front of me, and I managed to post this wee bit here before the story was done!

[budismyhorse]

Until now???

uh oh! did you get that monkey off your back??

[newhunterette]

u big tease - sure u hit the enter button too soon

[Huey]

The suspence!!!

[brotherjack]

I haven't been out much at all this year since bow season ended. Too much going on with trying to finish off the home remodel project and work and such. So, when The Wife(tm) informed me I had a free evening night before last, I jumped on the chance. With only an hour and a half to go till sundown, I certainly wasn't getting too far from home, so I decided I'd just burn up the road from home about 10 minutes and have a sit out in a big clear-cut and hope a nice whitetail stuck his head out heading for the water hole down below.

I parked the truck back where it couldn't be seen (or heard) from the clearcut, and made a fast hike in. Up on a high spot in the middle of it, I picked some bushes to sit down in the middle of so I'd have at least a little cover, and hoped my camo helped me do a good impersonation of a bush.

I sat there for a good half hour/45 minutes seeing/hearing nothing other than squirrels chattering in the bush. Then, just as the first hint of dusk was starting to dim the sky, I heard a crunch back in the bush I thought had to be too big for a squirrel, so I hit the hoochie-mamma one time and waited. About a minute later, from down below me, comes the nastiest, lowest pitched bugle I think I've ever heard. Almost like one of those red stags they hunt down in New Zealand that growl instead of bugle. Imagine an elk belching - that's what it sounded like. Two or three of those, followed by something a little more bugle-like (but still low pitched and nasty sounding) a few minutes later. About that time, some hunter started bugling up the mountain from me (had to be a hunter - I'd just heard the quad shut off up that way 5 minutes earlier, and the bugles were perfect ever time and never changed location during any of what was about to follow). Shortly therafter, some louder crunching followed, and after about 5/10 minutes from the first sound, I finally laid eyes on the bull.

I admit, my heart rate was going pretty good by this point; I've been told that the low pitched/nasty sounding bugles are supposedly big bulls, so I had my hopes up a bit. However, my fancy new Vortex binoculars made short work of figuring out he wasn't big enough to be legal (I so, so, so very much hate 6 point elk season!). He was a large 5 point, but still, just a clean 5 point without even a hint of a kicker/sticker point anywhere, so for the rest of it I knew I was just there for the show.

And he did put on a good show for what seemed like forever (probably 15 to 20 minutes). He bugled, and chased his cows around the clear-cut, ahe stopped and totally destroyed a poor little tree (I mean, totally - thrashed it around with his antlers, then broke it in half, and stomped on the pieces), and then bugled some more. Every time he made like to wander off, I'd hit the hoochie mamma, and he'd turn around and head back my way. His cows were slowly working their way up-mountain though, and eventually they were too far away for his taste so he followed them on up.

I'm not 100% sure it was me what called him in, or the guy up the hill with the bugle and they just happened to cross my clear-cut to get to him, but once the bull got out in the clear-cut where I could see him, he definitely responded way more to my cow-calling than he did to the guy with the bugle. He'd stop in his tracks and scream back at the guy with a bugle, but he'd turn around and come looking for me every time I hit the cow call. The cows, however, seemed to be heading towards the guy with the bugle, and the bull eventually followed them on up that way just as last light faded out.

Anyway, it was fun. One good night after 5 (working on 6) years of depressing and demoralizing elk hunting experiences still isn't quite enough to change my opinion on the topic, but it was definitely fun. If stuff like that happened on a regular basis when hunting elk, I could see that being something I'd have a better opinion of.


And that, was that. The only sad part was, I was sitting out there in the clear-cut all by myself, and The Wife(tm) didn't get to share it with me.

[rocksteady]

Sure is an awesome event to watch.....Too bad he did not have 6.....

[newhunterette]

what a great tale to tell BJ - now u know they are there to give a show - you can take mrs.along with you next time - it was sure sweet of her to give ya the night off to experience this

best wishes for a great season and good luck on finishing the remodel

[steepNdeep]

Apparently you are praying to the wrong God...

[mountainman]

You are hooked for good now! Heart goes everytime I hear a bugle!!!

[ZENYO]

Sure is an awesome event to watch.....Too bad he did not have 6.....

What if there was 6 and you know there is another hunter close by looking at the same animal? What's the etiquette? Do you wait? Do you shoot? What if you both shoot atthe same time?

Great story brotherjack!