First day out

[fishnguy]

Won’t make this one as wordy as my “hunting” threads usually are since this is just the beginning, lol.

Went for a walk with my cousin today for the first day of the bow season. More like a scouting hike than anything. Who wants to miss the first day of the bow season, anyway? I planned to put my bow together and prepare before the season, but it didn’t pan out, so I am a helper/caller/extra set of eyes/company again this year.

Beautiful day out. We only had a couple of hours to hike around and see what we can find, so we didn’t cover much of the area. Not too many elk tracks, just like last year this time around. They start really moving closer to early to mid-September there.

With all the rain we had this year, the forest is the greenest I had ever seen it. Usually, the grass on the open hills is all burned out and yellow by this time of year, but it is all still green and tall and lots of it is really like ropes if you hit the wrong patch, which makes it a little unpleasant to walk through it.

A few pics from today:





Tons of hazelnuts around in the bush. Never saw this many either. If only I knew when they are ready to pick and what to do with them, lol:



Ran into a cow with a calf:





An obvious deer is obvious:



A deer that is not so obvious ( can you spot it on this ****ty photo?):



Time to head back:






Last year we found this guy:



And this guy:



Has a crazy tine:



I lost all my pics when my phone died earlier this summer, so this all I have left (the photo of the first bull was pulled from another thread from last year). It sucks. I had some really nice field pics.

Anyway, will see what this season holds for us.

Good luck to all and enjoy your outings!

[Lost Arrow]

Awesome photos-thanks for sharing. The conditions look good for a promising hunt this year. Best of luck to you-stay safe!

[jeffreys 21234]

We. Have bunch of hazel nuts right in our farm yard in sask here buddy showed me last year to wait till husks are brown then their ready an u just peeled em I read some ppl bake then so we might try that if we get em befor the squirrels lol

[58thecat]

How where the bugs? Only thing I hate early season....the constant buzzing....but if there not out

Good luck!

[Hawkhills]

Thanks for posting, appreciate the pics.Goodluck this fall.

Sent from my SM-N960W using Tapatalk

[greentinroof]

Awesome pics. Another week for opening here, but bow is ready to rock. Thanks for posting!

[birdseye]

Great pics thanks for sharing,good luck

[graybeard]

Originally Posted by birdseye

Great pics thanks for sharing,good luck

X2....Thanks

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by 58thecat

How where the bugs? Only thing I hate early season....the constant buzzing....but if there not out

Good luck!

Surprisingly, bugs weren’t as bad at all. I mean they are there, but not intolerable. It kind of cooled down a bit and nights are even somewhat chilly, consistently below 10C, which probably helps.

[TrapperMike]

Pick nuts now. I was waiting for ours, went out yesterday and their all gone. Don’t know if birds got them or they fell off. No squirrels on our property.

[fishnguy]

^ I picked a few just to see what it’s all about:



They seem like they need more time, but I have no clue, really. I know they have to be dried (?), but I tried one and it almost had no taste. Is that normal? I may head there over the weekend and pick some unless people would chime in saying it isn’t a great idea and it’s better to wait, squirrels or not.

[fishnguy]

Weekend didn’t pan out due to weather. Instead, we went for another evening hike today. We had about 4 hours of light, so we covered quite a bit of area.

First, the hazelnuts. They are still there. I brought a bag with me today and was filling it up and doing pretty well. The sucky part is that about an hour and a half later, I realized that the bag was gone. Kind of lol, but really hate the fact there is a plastic bag somewhere in the woods now. Hopefully, I will find it on the next outing.

It was very windy in the hills. Not the ideal conditions to look for elk. The sky was pretty grey too. Turned out to be a great hike though. Saw a mulie in the woods and she surprisingly let us get very close while staring right at us. Must have been one of the town mulies who went for a hike as well, lol. I don’t think she ever took off; she ran a few meters and then continued watching us passing by.



A little later, ran into a whitetail who had no clue we were coming. The nice thing about wind. She was pretty much at the first spot we were checking out and had no idea we were there until my cousin sent a bugle. That made her run a little.

There was no response of any kind to the bugle. We gave it some time to see if anything but the whitetail moves or makes itself known, but with no luck. So we decided to get a little more intimidating this time and hit the “house”. No one was home, but you can see the house is occupied and the elk is there, which we knew, but nice to confirm.

Some fairly fresh poop of different shapes and different colour, lol:





A few beds around:



I was sure I took a few photos of the overall layout from the distance, but it looks like I didn’t.

Anyway, I looked around to take some mental notes of trails coming and out and we moved on. While there is a mini-swamp right in “his” house (I say “his” rather than theirs because for at least past couple of years the main bull takes over the spot making it “his”), there is another water source near by



And it is frequented by the elk as well.



As well as moose:



This is where things got really exciting. A little later, we climbed up a small hill and just over the hill, there was a moose munching on hazelnut bush. While I thought I took some great shots at the time, it turns out they weren’t, lol. You can see the paddle in the middle there, just above the centre of the pic (can you?):



Between trees two and three here:



Really thought the photos were great when I took them, lol. Anyway, having an archery antlered moose tag in his pocket, my cousin says let’s take the bull. I say no, there ain’t no way we would be getting him out from there at that late hour and that far in the bush and we were now in the thick of it too. Meanwhile, the moose has no clue and continues munching. Beauty of the wind is if you walk into something from the right direction, you are golden.

So we have a brief discussion and agree to take the bull if there is an opportunity for a solid shot. The bull is probably no more than 20 meters away from us, just chewing on those hazelnuts. My cousin starts moving in around to get to the broadside, I am watching from above. The moose is so deep in the bush that you can only see his head and some of the neck at any given time. Long story short, the moose moved a few meters to another bush and, while now there was a perfect shot to be taken from where I was, my cousin couldn’t see him anymore at all. He got way to close to him without knowing so when the moose finally heard him and ran away. Lol. I was kind of thankful because I really wasn’t looking forward to carrying that guy out for the better part of the night.

In spite of a bit of disappointment, we had a few laughs and moved on. We finally got to check out a spot that I often glass from the other side of the river and see plenty of elk there often enough. There were some great trails there, but no fresh sign at all.



It’s a great spot and elk will be back and so will comes the rifle season.

Anyway, I am going to cut it “short” here. The sky cleared up for the first time today not long before we headed back.



I took a quick little detour to checkout one of the trails heading into the deep toward a creek and found an old bear den.



It looked like it hasn’t been used by anything for a few years now.

The day was ending quickly on us.



The honkers in the sky were saying the same, lol.



More sunset and some rain in the distance:



We actually left a little later than we should have (who would want to leave after an evening like that though?) and hiked a bit in the dark, loosing a trail a couple of times and hitting it straight through the bush. It was a very good evening. I really enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Nova316]

Thanks so much for sharing, especially the pictures and stories on each one. I can't wait to get back out there, just made the itch so much greater. Appreciate the time you put into these post.

[fishnguy]

^ Glad you enjoyed.

As already mentioned in the elk tactics thread, I went for a short hunt yesterday and briefly described the outing in a couple of posts in that thread. Figured I will post a few pics here for those interested.

So yes, the other day, I was thinking why I never hunted elk during the day and decided to try yesterday since my afternoon was free. I got there a little later than planned and it took about 1.25 hours to locate a bull (then two more identified themselves when the first started going). There is a pretty good summary of what I did to find the bull (rather locate his exact position because I had already known from scouting and years past that they were in the “general area”).

The area is your average river valley with a bit of a hike to that particular spot. There are no quad trails, etc, so everything has to be packed out. Elk is fairly abundant and leave lots of good trails to travel on:





Not everything is as easy though. Lots of deadfall on the trails and lots of it isn’t easy to just walk around:





It doesn’t really look that hard on the photos, but trust me, plenty of chunks of the trails are very hard to navigate through with a heavy load on the back. Add the darkness of night and it really becomes an extremely difficult task (this is the same trails where we hiked right through the bush that I mentioned in my previous post). Very steep slopes are also a good part of it, where even without a load you need both of your hands to climb up to:



In addition, it rained the night before and everything was wet and slippery. Shooting something down there in the morning, even on a good day, is one thing; in the evening, however, you really want to have a guy with you to help packing out. Yesterday, and as always, really, that guy was supposed to be my cousin. Something came up and he couldn’t be the help I was counting on. He called me to say that as I was texting him to say that I would likely put a bull down in a little bit. Can’t say I wasn’t disappointed, but it was what it was. Since I had already learned my lesson of shooting something in similar setting previously, the decision to leave and save it for another day came fairly easily. Because I was pretty disappointed, I didn’t even stay long to play around as I usually would. I decided to hike back out to the field and try to call a bull in there. I took my time to hike out and got up around 7. I took a different way from the one I usually take and found a nice slough on the way.



There is a very nice mule deer in the area that I saw last year for the first time. I found some very fresh giant deer droppings and was hoping to run into him for a sight and a pic, but no dice. Only poop pic, lol.



I was also hoping to pick some nuts mentioned in my previous posts, but animals have done so before me, lol. You guys were right that the time pick was back then. All that yellow in the middle is hazelnut bush:



Anyway, up on the field, I stood behind a bale for maybe fifteen minutes and realized that my mood wasn’t in it anymore and this wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore, so I just left home to spend time with kids instead.

I wanted to post a couple of videos of the bugles and play, but currently having some hard times uploading them to YouTube. Not sure what the heck is going on. Also, I made a pretty cool video of an eagle doing some cool gliding. I will post later if YouTube stops giving me hard times. Here is a few videos from last year (I already posted them last year somewhere here). Nothing special, just bugles/chuckles/madness/etc.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Wd56CPsZTk

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oWQferL7lFI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qeptUbC9qI4

There are a few more out there somewhere. The main, loudest character is the bull on the first photo in my very first post in this thread. We found him and heated him up on Thursday evening and my cousin closed the deal on Saturday morning.

Anyway, I am going to wrap it up here, lol. Hunting is great is the conclusion, no matter whether you get them today, tomorrow, or next season(s). Funny thing is, I could just hang out on top on the field, waiting for the same or different bulls to just show up, or call them in and put one down right there, pull my vehicle in, etc. The farmer across the street even offered to use his tractor to load one in if we ever needed. Going down there is where it’s at though. Lol.

[Makes no scents!]

Nice read mate!

Thanks for sharing.

[fishnguy]

^ Thanks and happy you enjoyed it.

I went out again yesterday. Almost the same time as the day before yesterday, ie my previous post, just a tad later. I got to the spot at 4:30 pm. What an evening! Had a blast and came that close to getting myself screwed.

I didn’t bugle before getting to where I was going this time, but I sent one out almost right away when I got there before taking off my pack. No response, so I took my time getting ready. Same as the last time, the rifle, knife, phone, calls, and water went with me, while everything else was left behind. What’s “everything else”, by the way? Well, in the backpack stayed a tarp, a spare t-shirt made of wool, another long sleeve wool shirt, a hoody, rope, flashlights, a set of butchering knives, various plastic bags, rubber gloves (apparently I am allergic to game hair now, which I found out last year and it wasn’t pleasant), wet wipes, a couple more knives, a sharpener, etc.

Anyway, the plan was to shoot no later than 6 pm. 6:30 tops. Wind was perfect, hardly blowing right in my face. I sent a couple of sets of cow calls to no avail. Then, about 20 minutes after the first bugle, I sent another one. The guy on the right, who responded second the last time, answered me with a nice tune. That was the only bull I heard the whole evening. He seemed to be a bit further than I hoped and time was scarce. I sent a few more cow calls and heard a rather numb response. I started moving in. There was an overcast all day, but the sky cleared and it was pretty warm; definitely warmer than I like it to be. Usually, when this is the case, once it starts cooling down, the wind changes because the valley starts sucking all that air in. In other words, the wind starts blowing into the river and, in my case, it would start blowing right towards the bull.

I am going to do a fast forward here because who cares. The bull was responding to bugles really well and eventually I got him to care about those cow calls as well. At one point, it became obvious that he was bugling from where one wouldn’t want to go. Rather where one wouldn’t want to pack the meat out of. It was around 5:30 now and I decided to move in to “that” place to see what happens. I didn’t have time to take many pictures today at all, but then most would be the same as above, really.

“That” place is after a very steep and tall drop, almost vertical. But that’s where the bull was and he was going hard now. Once down there, I almost immediately found the spot where he was when he first started responding and heating up. The place was a wreck: a naked spot in the bush (about 2 meters in diameter), the soil all dug up, a couple of small rubs, and roughed up bush all around (I should have taken a pic, but didn’t care at the moment). Ironically, if I approached the drop from a bit of a different angle, I would be able to see him from the top before he moved.

By now, I was bugling right at him after every other scream of his. He was going crazy. I knew he was very close, but the bush is super thick and visibility is questionable, to say the least. I was afraid to spook him and was constantly checking the wind. Pretty sure I checked after every step or two that I took, lol. Unfortunately, it was changing and eventually started blowing right to the bull. I had to improvise. I moved further down, stopping every few steps and sending some cow calls or a bugle, depending on what the guy was doing. At last, I heard him moving to me! Checked the wind again - perfect.

I took “cover” behind a dried up bush, which wasn’t really much cover (hence, quotes) since it didn’t have any leaves and was rather thin, but it was the best spot I could see around me. Unintentionally, my t-shirt was kind of yellow-orange and I assumed I would blend in nicely with the background. Silence, but I hear him moving. A minute later, there he is. I’ve been hearing my heart for a while, obviously, but now I could also feel it in my head.

He was about 30 yards out. Like I mentioned, the visibility sucked, and I could never see his hole body, not even close. Mostly the rack, dark brown with white tips. A beautiful creature. He was moving rather slowly and kept stopping every few steps, sniffing the air. I was mostly silent, but sent a single cow call when it seemed like he isn’t going to move. The time was 6:45 now, by the way, lol. I decided to go for the head because that was my only chance - he was yards away, I had good rest and probability of mistake was next to zero. Also, even if he was 10 yards from me, I still wouldn’t see enough of his body to properly place the shot elsewhere. He moved a few steps more. I was trying to find his head in my scope, but failed to do so. Suddenly, he turns around and trots away. I sent a cow call since that’s what was in my mouth and he keeps going. I drop the rifle and bugle. He answers, but keeps going, then stops. I don’t see him anymore and don’t really know where he is except for the general direction. He is still close, so I stay where I am and try calling. Desperately, I should note, lol. He answered once in a while, then barked and went numb. So did I.

****! goes screaming in my head. I try to play it all out in my head, what I did wrong, check the wind. Everything seems just right. I stay there quietly. All of a sudden, I hear movement to my left, directly where the wind was sending my scent. You smart bugger, I think. Not much to do. It sounded too close and I would have been made right away if I made many moves. So I only turned, leaned on tree, and threw up the gun. Silence for a few brief moment and then I can hear it walking away. Well played, I think. I wait another minute or less and start moving to where I last heard him. As I move closer, I hear familiar to many sound...

Not sure how to properly write it, but it goes something like a very deep “mua, mua, mua...”. It was all rutted up freaking moose! He must have come to all the noise the elk and myself made (I was rubbing and hitting the brush quite a bit not long before that). I almost laughed out loud.



And what a moose too! The largest I have seen in a while, a giant. And the bugger would not leave, even when I made myself clearly visible 10-15 yards away! He just stared at me with a dumb look and continued raking the bush and his “mua” thing. I moved toward where the elk went, sent a light bugle and got a response. Finally, the reality kicked in: I realized where I was what time it was, lol. I went back to the moose, snapped a few pics and made a video (still can’t upload, but it also turned out to be a bit crappy). Then browsed around “that” place trying to find an easier access to get up for future reference but was not successful.

I got up to the field where I parked close to 9, all soaking wet with sweat. Quite a work out. Nature works in mysterious ways. Had that moose not shown up, the bull would be dead and I would be screwed.

My cousin went there today for the morning hunt and didn’t hear a thing. Hopefully, they didn’t leave the area. Not sure when I will able to get out again. Hopefully soon.

[RandyBoBandy]

[fishnguy]

Wednesday was one of those days when you think “I have this feeling there isn’t anything out there today and if I go, it would likely be a loss of a few hours”. And you just can’t shake it off. Even when I got to the spot where I drop my pack off, I was still asking myself why I was there instead of home. After I sent the first bugle, there was no response and I thought “Obviously. Who would have thought differently?” I checked the wind, it was good, so I went a little further down towards the river. Another lazy bugle was sent about 15 minutes later and there was a response pretty far out. Ironically, the response was just as lazy, lol. Perhaps, that bull was in the same mood as I. I checked the wind - it was all over with no certain direction, which only added to my “why am I here”.

The bull bugled a couple more times in the next few minutes. The bugle was now closer and was coming up from “that” place described in the previous post. Surely, it was the same bull that I was able to pull away from his cows last time. Checked the wind and it was far from perfect, but doable. I had to get in from the other side, so I took a quick hike along the ridge and found a trail down. A few steps later, I heard a noise and very briefly saw something running away, which I assumed to be a cow moose (looked kind of black, but I only saw part of it for a moment). I checked the wind again and it was blowing from me right to where that something was a moment ago. Lol. It was also now blowing to where the bull was last heard. So that was no longer a way in. Good thing I didn’t sent a bugle. It is always a good idea to check the wind before calling if you are in close proximity to the target. I moved right back to where I came from and decided to go the same way I had gone last week. Checked the wind and, surely, blowing right to the bull. Lol. Was kind of thinking to pack it up and go at this point. The mood was still not there. But I fought it off and waited a few minutes. Wind kept changing back and forth. I sent a couple of bugles and heard no response and so I thought I was surely made when that something took off a little earlier.

I also brought a trail camera with me thinking to hang it somewhere and hopefully catch another, better glimpse of the bull I saw last week. It turned out I left the mount in the car. That was really par for the course, I thought. I decided to mount the camera using a piece of rope and head home. While looking for the right tree, I figured sending a cow call when the wind was good would not hurt (they were fairly close and letting them think it is just a lost cow while browsing around wasn’t a bad idea) and got a response immediately. The wind was still all over the place. What to do? “Screw it” I said and went down, checking the wind every few steps. The bull was going, responding to my bugles (and on his own) and he was very close now. That’s when I heard the mews as well and heard a bunch of cows moving around. Wind still sucked and I was now frozen trying to figure out what to do. If the wind was good, I would just move around and find a good position; with the wind the way it was, I couldn’t really do much. So I just spent the next 10-15 minutes observing and listening quietly.

The bull got quite and all I heard was cows moving around. For a moment, I felt a breeze in my face and decided to quickly take advantage. The “downer” thoughts were no longer there and I was “in it”. I saw what looked to a be good spot and moved there. The wind kept its direction. Immediately, I found one of the cows moving around, feeding in the opening.



The wind changed slightly and if that cow moved 10-15 meters back, she would surely be smelling me. Note the height of the bush. It was a mature cow and that was a high spot she was in; most of the rest is significantly taller and nearly impossible to see through and, therefore, sound is more or less the only sense to rely on. A moment later, I spotted another cow browsing the thicket. Wind was all that mattered, really, and it seemed to cooperate for the time being.

I only spotted the two cows from my position, but there were many more: I could hear them moving all around. I gave it a couple of minutes after moving in to the spot and sent another bugle. The bull responded right away and finished with a chuckle. I find it almost strange that cows don’t even care about the sounds you (or the bull) make and just continue with their thing. The one on the photo above looked at me pretending to be a tree once in a while and kept feeding on the brush. The other never even looked at me. They didn’t care about the calf or cow calls either. These two were within no more than 20-30 yards from me. The bull, on the other hand, cared a lot and went nuts screaming and raking the bush. Regardless of what I did, he never moved though.

When I sent one of the bugles, I heard another bull responding behind me. I am going to fast forward here and say that while the cows kept feeding, the bull at the back was moving in fast. My target bull was going crazy and I was cutting him off at every chuckle and sending some very sweet hot cow calls once in a while as well. The guy just would not move. He screamed, raked, dug around... yet, he wouldn’t move an inch. At the same time, for a while, I tried responding appropriately to the guy moving in. I was hoping to bring him in very close and then him do the job of pulling the herd bull out for me. Or just shooting that very bull (unlikely though because I really want that alpha, who is by the way the only male in the herd).

While I knew that the other bull was moving in fast, a scream right behind me came kind of unexpected. The other guy was right there. I looked but I still couldn’t see him. At this point I shut myself up and let the two work it out. Of course, I was hoping for another alpha, but by the way he moved in from who knows where I knew he wasn’t it. However, it was a good feeling to have a choice in case I changed my mind after seeing the visitor.

The bull behind me was screaming his lungs out, while the target bull was keeping his cool; he would respond and chuckle, but one could definitely hear the difference - the confidence and domination were apparent in my target. While they were apparent to my inexperienced ear, the guy behind was going hard thinking he can win. Eventually, he showed up and it was a very young bull, definitely not a shooter. I would actually shoot it if I was somewhere close to the vehicle, but down there... screw that. I honestly expected him to be larger, alas...

Now it was up to that young bull to the work for me. He, however, didn’t. He went right into the opening, passing by the cows, and straight to “my” bull to get what was coming to him, lol. He actually did get that too. There was a lot of noise with breaking wood, etc. Then I saw him running away. Lol.

Now, to step back a little. When I heard the visitor being right behind me, I knew he would head for that opening because that was the most passable way. I also knew he would have to come right through my scent (wind was pretty much perpendicular to his path). I was hoping he would pull the other bull out for me before then, which didn’t happen. When he hit that point, he stopped; not for long, but he took a significant pause and then proceeded. A bit of my inexperience kicked in next. When he passed me and was approaching the other bull, I should have started moving in there as well but it didn’t click for a couple of minutes. I only realised that this is what I should be doing when they started to fight (rather the big boy teaching the young guy a lesson). By the time I got there, moving pretty fast with a few stops in order not to scare the cows that were all around, the fight was over and I saw the visitor running away. I also bumped two cows (not sure if it was me or just what was happening; in all likelihood, they didn’t see me and were on the other side of the wind) and learned that what had previously been thought to be a moose that took off earlier was actually another cow.

Now that the other guy was gone, I decided to back off. I couldn’t see my target bull and if I went further in, he would definitely notice me and take off. I didn’t want that. As I was moving out, I sent a few bugles and he was responding hot, which was a good thing. It was now just past sunset. I definitely stayed in there later than I should have.

The mood that I was in when I went in could have really ruined this amazing experience. I could have even stayed home altogether. What a day though and what an opportunity to learn. Something that doesn’t happen every day. I have never seen or heard elk fighting, but always thought it would be vocal. These two bulls didn’t make a sound: all there was just noise of breaking branches and trees. Lots of it, but nonetheless not a single sound came from the bulls themselves that I heard.

I will upload a couple of videos of the bull that came in, etc and post them today/tomorrow/sometime.

I also went out yesterday (Friday) and the elk moved on for the time being. I used the opportunity to explore their home, learn the area, and take note of the good shooting positions I should concentrate on when they come back (hopefully before the rut is over). If anyone is interested, I will make another post with my notes and some pics I had an opportunity to take yesterday of their house, my previous position, where the alpha was, and so on.

Getting out of the thicket when it looks like this ain’t easy or fun, lol:

[Sitting Bull]

Thanks for posting, Love these types pictures and stories

[Alberta Bigbore]

Great post

[fishnguy]

Glad you enjoyed, guys.

Figured out YouTube (apparently, it was the app that was giving me problems; deleted the app and uploaded via the website). So here are a few videos I promised. The quality is lacking because I made them with my phone and it appears YouTube does quite a bit of compression as well.

The eagle gliding and doing a vertical landing I promised in one of the posts:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3w_RxMzHxPc

Here is a boring one of the cow pictured in my previous post (she is zoomed in a few seconds in, but still nothing special). That was when the bull took it down a notch and the wind changed slightly which allowed me to move in, so I was quite as well.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQIOtmxcZg

Here is the one with the young bull. You can hear him moving very cautiously in the beginning without any vocals. That’s after he caught my wind, he got a little quite. Prior, he wouldn’t shut up. While there are a few bugles/chuckles from the heard bull, the hero appears at about 2 minute mark.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xkJJxJVbiLk

And in this one you can here them working it out 70 or so meters away from me. I moved a bit and that noise is significantly louder, but you clearly hear them going at it with stuff breaking and antlers “crossing”.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WTcrvtFksrU

[fishnguy]

There was rain in the forecast all day. The clock hit 3pm and I said screw it, since it didn’t rain yet, maybe it won’t, packed the gear and head out. It started raining 5 minutes later, lol.

Hiked the bush a bit, sat on a cut line that is crossed by a couple of trails not far from their “home”, which I don’t often do, etc. I find it really hard to sit in one spot, so I only spent about 20 minutes on that cut line before moving on. I can move slow and fast and in between, but sitting is really a difficult task for me, especially in the rain.

I didn’t see or hear anything. Found a freshly used trail (like this morning or later fresh) heading into the thicket, but I didn’t follow since the wind was far from perfect and my rain gear, while solid and keeps me dry, is a little noisy and there was no point of getting myself busted and making them run. I then climbed up to an open hill and watched over that trail for about 45 minutes (probably close to or ties my record of staying in one spot without doing anything, lol) hoping they would head back out for the evening meal the same way they came in. That didn’t happen and I went back up just past sunset. Climbing soaked hills sucks: slippery as hell and you get to drag around a couple of kilos of mud on every boot. Of course, there was some falling involved. I should have probably stayed home, but nature calls, lol.

I also got my boots soaked because I spaced out when leaving home in a hurry and put on the boots that I usually hunt in that now leak water (still took about 3 hours for them to get wet, surprisingly).







There were over a dozen mule deer bucks of various ages and sizes up on the field when I was heading down. Most took off the second they saw me, but some stayed to watch me passing by. Two were pigs, body wise.

[fishnguy]

Same spot as yesterday. Crazy wind, but good wind, and no rain. So much nicer, though just as quite for now.

[fishnguy]

With no rain pants/jacket on today, I took the trail I watched yesterday. They actually took the same trail out after I left and even more of them came back in the morning. Trail was beat and muddy:



You could see it kept raining most of the night because there was lots of this all over the place:



Not super easy to get around but manageable. The good thing, it was quite windy, so grass and brush all dried up before I got there. I also remembered to put my good boots on, so my feet stayed dry, lol.

I sent a few bugles out during the hike, but no one cared to respond. Eventually, I realized that they likely went to the exact same spot where they were before. Had I known (and I should have, really), I would take another way to get in and that would save me at least 40 minutes of precious time, by my calculations. As I got closer, I sent another bugle out and got an immediate response from a bull. Kind of important to note here, the time was 5:13. Why it is important, I will mention later. So I moved in slowly, glassing every few steps, trying to make sure I see them before they see me and not bump too many cows. Of course, I was checking the wind constantly as well because it kept changing all the time now. This is kind of a sucky thing about hunting river valleys, the wind can be unpredictable.

There were many more of them there today. Cows were all over the place, dozens and dozens of them. I could spot at least a couple different ones every time I looked. It took me a few years to get into position where I could just move in and then just stand there and listen to them moving around, communicating. For those interested, here is what it sounded like. If you turn up the volume and listen carefully, you will also hear a bark somewhere closer to the end (later about that).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vNfo5NdeRrw

In a scenario like this, I would often see a cow staring “at me” (there was one in the video above, that’s why I zoomed in, but I couldn’t find it watching the video). In reality, the cow looks to your direction because you likely sound different, no matter how you move, or too close to her, but it doesn’t necessarily sees you. Even if it does, as long as the wind is good and you keep your cool, it will go back to minding its business. The particular cow mentioned above was with a calf and they both lost their interest and moved on.

While glassing and spotting a few cows on all sides, I finally spotted a bull. A nice bull, 5x5+. I knew he wasn’t the one I was looking for, but I decided to take him. For the life of me, I could not find him in my scope (or with my eyes without the binoculars). He was also standing in the thicket behind two trees that were next to each other in my line of sight. Funny enough, he kept turning his head around almost nonstop and every time he would look left, it would hide behind the tree; it would pop back out when he looked right. No more than 35-40 meters away, but no shot. Eventually he moved and I couldn’t find him with my binoculars either.

I only used the cow call two or three times today and only when I felt I am way too close to their (cows) comfort zone. I honestly don’t know if it made any difference for them, but worked well for me, lol. I did bugle quite a bit though. At one time, I sent a not very good bugle and two bulls responded at the same time and they both did worse then I, lol. Kind of proves that you don’t need to be an expert. Here you can hear me and them and a cow too (cows didn’t really shut up today though until pretty much the end).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G21ODlK6wro

I tried to find the bulls, but wasn’t successful. It’s pretty thick out there and it was now getting dark on me too. A few minutes later, I heard some branches badly breaking and thought a bull took off. About 25 meters in front of me, there was some deadfall shaped like a pyramid, a few feet tall. I could see that it was sloping down behind it too. I started glassing and behind that pyramid I could clearly see the taller brush waving back and forth. There was a bull raking. He then stopped and I could see an antler, rather the last tine and up. Holy ****, I thought. The guy is a cranker! That’s the guy I was looking for, without a doubt. I checked the wind and it was perfect. I tried to find a higher point, but couldn’t see him from anywhere. I was also running out of light fast. I made the decision to just move in and see what happens. When I got close to the “pyramid” I could still hear the raking. The guy was pretty much right behind the old broken trees and then he stopped and trotted away. I checked the wind and it was blowing right in his face, lol. I looked but couldn’t find him. I had a couple minutes left before the time out. I glasses and saw a few cows. I sent another bugle, he bugled back and that was it.

Why I said it was important to note the time previously, when it was 5:13 PM, is because it was now close to 7:30 and in 2.25 hours I only moved no more than 150 meters. It’s a pretty slow pace.

Anyway... that was it for the day. I hiked out completely in the dark and slippery slopes. It took forever and it sucked, lol. I’ll try to get out on Tuesday again.

Oh yeah, about the bark that could be heard in the first YouTube link. I mentioned above that the wind kept changing and even though it did, it was still mostly ok as far as the bulls were concerned (until the last few and most important minutes). As I was moving in and getting “inside” of them, I would hear an occasional bark (there were 3 or 4 individuals who sent 1+ barks). As one of the elk kept barking, the target bull kept raking. So go figure. Here is what a more or less clear bark sounds like and the sound you kind of like to avoid if at all possible (you may need to turn up the volume a bit). This one wouldn’t stop barking for at least 5 minutes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NjevR2goNHk

Hope everyone is having just as much fun!



Edit: One may have noticed that things are obviously changing. A week ago (I wasn’t able to get out the past week, except for this weekend), my “target” bull was the only one in the herd and he made sure it stayed that way. Today, the herd was significantly larger and there were at least 4 bulls that I heard/saw. Not sure how much time I have to get that particular bull as the rut is obviously coming to an end.

[fishnguy]

My cousin shot a monster of a bull last year and this season his goal was to shoot a small bull, just legal, which is 3 points, would be ideal. I told him there was at least one like that in the crowd yesterday. So he went out today, while I was planning to stay at home and have in-laws for dinner. He called me around 3 saying he shot the bull. Dinner took place without me and I spent time packing out meat instead.





Couldn’t have picked a better bull for meat, really.

One down, one to go.

Edit: it keeps screwing with the other photo, not sure why. Whatever or will try to upload again another time.

[fishnguy]

Today is exactly two months since I started this thread, apparently. It is pretty amazing to look at the photos from the first few posts and compare them to what it is like out there right now. I should take a pic next time I am out from one of the same spots to compare. Hopefully, that will be tomorrow (not yet sure it will work out).

Yeaterday, I left the house about 2 hours before sunrise. I wanted to get to the spot I was planning to hunt just at legal time. It’s a 5-10 minute drive, but a long walk. The thermometer showed 12 below zero, which is not bad. However, it was also quite windy and that wind coming in from southwest was mighty cold, which was not surprising as I later saw a post here in the general discussion about it being 25 below down south.

I ended up arriving to my destination about 15 minutes late. I changed my base layer and the light jacket I was wearing because they were soaked: it is not fun rushing and carrying a large backpack around in this weather. My cousin arrived shortly after. He was coming in a little later the other way because he was supposed to check if there was any elk or fresh elk sign up on top. There was neither elk nor sign. Otherwise, the plan was for me to intercept them on the way to the bedding area. Since plan A went down the drain, we regrouped. Nothing else to do but find them.

Almost right away, we spotted a giant moose about 600 meters away. Cool to look at, but it was not what we needed, so we moved on and took a better position on top of one of the hills. We sent a bugle. No one replied. The wind was brutal. I actually said that I did not think it was a good idea to come out at all and the thought of a nice, warm, and cozy bed would not leave my head. Nothing was really happening for a while. The bugle was put away for the time being and we sent a few sets of cow mews. Eventually we heard a cow mewing back. Then another, and another, and then a bugle. A couple more calls and we started moving in. The wind was good (well, it was really bad, but it was blowing in the right direction, lol), but, while the bull was yet a distance away, the cow that responded first was really close, just “behind the corner”, so we had to be careful. We spotted her fairly quickly once “out of the corner” and she spotted us as well. We stood still for some time and she relaxed and walked away.

The bull was bugling and eventually started chuckling after I tried to get him going. Then another bull joined the action and he was definitely part of the same herd. At this point, we rushed a bit. The plan was for me to go down, while my cousin would be on top of the drop keeping them down there. I started moving taking the steeper slope and that was a mistake. The soil was frozen and hard, so I slipped a couple of times, made some racket and the herd took off. I chased them quite a bit, but never caught up. They left far and in a hurry.

The time was now around 11 and we just walked some bush and discovered. The best discovery was a main elk travelling route crossing a ravine.







The depth of the trail leading up to it is quite amazing. It has got to be at least 8 inches deep.



It is even more amazing that I had never stumbled upon it and used other crossings the few times that I was there. The trail itself is not that easy with a lot of deadfall through out, as well as some 2- or so feet tall drops and climbs. It certainly is not that complicated to walk, but I always look at it from the perspective of packing out meat and that perspective usually changes things.









We heard another 4 bulls on the other side and then things got quite. Nothing happened with the four bulls that bugled earlier; all disappeared into the thicket. My cousin was heading back and I decided to go back as well.

I ended up going out again in the evening though (only stayed home for a couple of hours. Walked around, did some calling, had a bull coming in, but something made him change his mind and I never heard him again right until I was leaving after legal light when he sent me a “have good night” bugle, lol.

I spent some time watching moose getting it on at a distance. It started with one bull. Then another one joined his company. Two cows followed shortly after. Then another bull. And finally one more, a big older bull with quite a rack. So there were 4 bulls and 2 cows trying to figure things out. The cows were playing hard to get, the bulls were quite vocal, but nothing had happened before I left. The biggest bull tried to mount a cow, but it didn't work out.

Hard to see, but there are three bulls and a cow in the middle in this photo:



I put somewhere between 15-20 kilometres on my boots yesterday, going up and down the hills, mostly in the bush. Time wise, this is the longest I have hunted elk any given season. At the latest, I called in and shot a bull on October 19. I should also note that the thoughts of “I shouldn't have passed on the 3-5 bulls that I have passed on” started a week or so ago, lol. I cannot say I regret it, but the thought is there. I had a clear shot at 3 and 2 others I could make it happen so that I had a shot. Neither were the one I was set to shoot, obviously. “Was” and not “am” set to shoot is because I am going to settle on the next one that gives me a shot, most likely. Who knows though.

One more thing to note. Even though it has been pretty cold, I still ended up picking three of the tiny ticks off my pants (3 that I saw) that were discussed here in great detail. On my previous outing, I had a couple dozens or so. Nothing even close to what happened 2-3 weeks ago. It appears they are dying off.

[KegRiver]

I love the photos. Reminds me of my childhood.

That trail cut into the hill is probably an old trail from long ago that's been taken over by the Elk.

I haven't been up there in years but I know there used to be old trails cut deep into the soil throughout those hills.

The last time I was up there most of the trails were so overgrown they were hard to find, but I would think a year or two of use should make them look like what you found.

My dad trapped just east of there back in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
He used to talk about seeing herds of Deer on those hills that he described as looking like a herd of cattle they were so numerous.

Before he moved to the area, Buffalo were also plentiful in the whole area but they were all gone when he arrived in 1934.
Where I grew up we used to find the occasional bleached out Buffalo skull.

I always suspected that the Buffalo were responsible for cutting the trails so deep and that the Deer only kept them open.

By the time I was old enough to start trapping the Deer were almost gone as well.
Deer were still rare in the area when I left to go to high school in 1969.

Your photos bring back fond memories of tramping hills like that when I was a kid, but further north at Carcajou.

[fishnguy]

Great insights and a bit of history, Keg. Thanks for the post. Glad you enjoyed the photos as well and that they brought some warm memories.

I had not thought about those trails like that. It could very well be the buffalo. Though the elk herd gets in hundreds when they all get together. I have only seen them a couple of times in these numbers (I am trying to recall the time of year, but cannot). I also had a trail camera set up once, all the way at the top where they feed. One time, it took them well over half an hour from the first elk to the last in the herd to pass by the camera. And those guys definitely leave in a hurry once they are done. Amazing sight, but it does not happen often, unfortunately.

Regardless, those trails are surely decades (hundreds of years?) old. It is actually pretty cool that I got to walk on them. Would be nice to walk them together and hear stories you have to tell.

Always wanted to find an old buffalo skull, but it didn't happen yet.

I have used trail cameras much in the past couple of years, but I brought one down to that crossing to see what moves around.

[fishnguy]

First of all, it is hard to believe this has not turned to page 2 yet. Page 1 seems kind of lengthy.

Went out around 2:30. I first hit the “home”, but no on was there. I then hiked through the bush and out to the other side of the ravine. No response to bugles or cow calls. I did find a truly big moose (big in the headgear, body wise was ok) and spent some time watching him. I was not able to take a good pic of him because he was 800 some meters away, so this is the best I got (taken with the phone through the binoculars with shaky hands, lol). The paddles were pretty big and check out the spread on this guy:



I then moved in further in and found a bear going nuts on the frozen slough.



It must have been hot because he would roll all over that ice; would just spread all four of his legs and just lie still; then roll again; then walk to another end and do the same thing there. Fun stuff. I spent another 15 or so minutes watching him. I have never seen them do that. The wind was in my favour and the teddy did not seem to be bothered by my presence. I sent a few cow calls while watching it and it was only about 70 yards down the hill from me.

Then, I moved even further and found more moose at the river and one was another winner:



The day was closing on me, but I kept moving further in. I found a great little elk spot with lots of fresh sign.





There was no one there that I could see and no one responded to my calls. All was quite. So I kept going and crossed another, smaller, ravine. That was my first mistake, going this far in.



I never went this far this time of the day. There was about 10-15 minutes left and I finally got a response and spotted a few cows.





There were at least a dozen of them. Some were not sure, some walked to me with lots of confidence and lots of chirping. There was no bull with them, however; or I couldn't find one. Something took off making a lot of noise, breaking branches, etc to the left of me and that may have been it (or not).

It was now time to crawl out, about 5 minutes past half an hour after sunset, and I made the second mistake. I was now past the cows who were actively looking for me behind. I did not want to walk right through them, so I decided to climb up and walk above them. Well, it was now dark, there were no trails and it was too late to go back. I ended up hiking back through the thicket for a while in complete darkness before hitting some trail going in the right direction. The trail would then disappear, so more thicket, another trail and so on. It did not help that it started raining right before it went dark and did not stop until I climbed out. About two and a half hours of dark and wet bush and hills. Probably another 15-20 kilometres on the legs.





I do feel like I am getting a little “hunted out”. Not entirely sure I will go back there again. It may be just hunting the fields now for me, not sure. It has been quite an adventure thus far this season, saw lots and learned lots, but it really feels like it is about time for it to end. We will see what happens. Maybe it is just the couple of hours of “misery”... I had a bit of this feeling I was out last time too, though. So, if I don’t see you... Lol.

I am also thinking I should sell one of the rifles and buy a semi-decent camera and a couple of lenses to carry with me sometimes instead of the rifle. There are so many amazing things one sees out there and a camera would be of much better use than a rifle at times (more often?).

Another thing to add is this call worked best for me this season:



I used 6 different cow calls, including 3 Primos and 3 Rocky Mountain. The three Primos were Hoochie Mama, Imaka Da Bull Crazy (close range), and Cow Girl. I do not mind Hoochie Mama, it has its place and time, but it mostly stayed in my pack this year. The latter two do not really sound good at all to my ear and elk seemed to agree. The Rocky Mountain Calls included Mellow Momma diaphragm, Trophy Wife Cow/Calf (Bugling Bull Steve Chappell Signature Series), and Matriarch (Bugling Bull). The diaphragm was ok. The Matriarch is my usual go to call and did well as always, especially when you want to imitate that cow really asking for it. I do not think they make them anymore and I was really disappointed when I thought I had lost it only to find it a week later in my other backpack (this is the call that is partially visible on the photo above; you can probably tell it has been used a bit). The Steve Chappell Trophy Wife was the best hands down, especially to get cows’ attention. Pretty much half of my trips I only used the latter two. The diaphragm with those two combined would account for about 90% of my outings. I am not affiliated with Rocky Mountain Calls (or whatever the company is called) in anyway; however, everything they do elk is the best stuff out there, in my opinion. I will probably pack more than I need again next time, but I had to choose two I would definitely go with the Trophy Wife and Matriarch. This combo really worked well for me as far as cow calls go.

For a bugle I used the Duel Compact Bugle Tube. It is a bit on high note, but I prefer it that way.

[KegRiver]

I wish hunting magazines would publish stories like this.

This is real hunting at it's best.