^ Thanks, Keg.
I guess this “first day out” thread, since it grew into whatever it did, needs a conclusion and I will provide a short one.
Yesterday was exactly a month since my last post here. I believe I wrote that I felt hunted out and felt like it’s coming to the end. Well, I have been out there, at least 10 more times, probably closer to 15. This has been the longest season for me actively hunting and I spent almost all of it exclusively hunting elk because I passed on a few bulls back in September-October. I have never hunted elk in November before and I can say it is a challenge. While I found a few cows pretty much every time I was I out, bulls were scarce, very. Every time I found a bull (or locate one via vocals), it was too late. It was actually kind of weird because there would either be a couple minutes left to hunt and I would need a few more minutes to get closer or it would be a couple minutes past legal light when I saw it. Most of the time though, I did not see any bulls. I had a very good chance on November 7, being out with my buddy, but I took a very rushed shot through the thicket and quite a distance (for bush) and it was a clear miss, luckily. I shouldn’t have taken that shot the way I did and should have gotten closer, there was no reason not to.
The outings that followed were “shotless”, just like like every outing before that day. The difference before and after was that before some were “shotless” because I was passing on elk looking for the specific one; now there were no shots because there was nothing to shoot at.
Yesterday, November 28, I went in late in the day. I actually didn’t want to go as is and especially because I only had a couple of hours (2.5 to be exact). The day before, on Friday, I drove out to the other side of the river to glass for half an hour so and trying to spot some elk and have a better idea where to go. I found some, but where they were was probably a hike of over 3 hours empty handed for sure and crossing 4 ravines (2 pretty serious). I thought I would hike there on Monday, the last day, if nothing happens over the weekend.
I found a good hill a couple of weeks ago that overlooks a very good area and spent some time, maybe half an hour, just looking around. Here is a part of the view:
There was no movement and all was quite. I sent a few mews to no avail. The last few days, there were not any fresh elk tracks, though I did hear some mews or see a cow, usually late, just before leaving. Yesterday, there were plenty of tracks and one could tell that a herd of good size had moved through. They moved hours ago and could really be anywhere, but at least I knew they were in the area.
So about half an hour later I made a plan where I was going to go with the limited amount of time I had. All of a sudden, I heard a bugle. It was quite and lame, really, but almost every single one I heard in the last couple of weeks sounded like that. The good thing was I knew exactly where it came from and the wind was perfect (blowing as hell, but perfect direction). The bugle was followed by a couple of mews and I sent a couple of my own and started moving. Moving on trails sucked because the compressed snow was super loud. Walking off trails sucked because the bush is thick and loud. Lol. I opted for off trail when I got fairly close. It took a while to move in because of the noise. There were no more bugles, but the cows would respond to my mews once in a while.
Suddenly, I heard a loud and I mean a very loud mew just to the side. I looked and there was a cow coming down the hill. There were a couple more following her. Then, I heard the loudest bugle I have ever heard. I even turned around to see if the bull was screaming right behind me. He wasn’t there, lol. He was coming down the hill, however. There was no good shot because of the brush, so I waited. At last, I took a good shot at about 100 meters on a straight line (off hand because I could not find anything to settle my rifle on). The bull started running downhill into the thicket (was where he was facing when the bullet hit him) but piled up after a couple of steps and slid down taking a couple of dry poplar trees with him along the way. It was maybe a 15-20 meter drop, but a steep one and pretty thick. I did not see him doing all that (but heard breaking trees and deadfall), so it took me some time to climb out from where I was and find him. The tracks and “trail” told the story. I actually thought he took off and I would have to track him down. I said about 100 meters on a
straight line because it was quite a bit more to walk from the point of shot to where he was, kind of around and up and down, etc.
By the time I got to the bull, it was about 15 minutes past legal light and got dark pretty quickly. It was not a good spot he was in. He took quite a bit of dry timber down with him and was under a log. It did turn out to be a good thing afterwards though. I ended up gutting him, opening him up (just tied the legs in the opposite directions) and then burying him with timber that he brought down and then some. I used the log he was under to lean everything on. Turned out to be a little hut. I also pulled the gut pile about three meters away, so that the dogs would have something to eat before trying to get to the meat. I also threw my jacket on top of the “hut” as I heard (though I do not believe it) it would deter the coyotes. I climbed back out just after 8.
Today in the morning, my cousin and I went to get him out and were done in under 6 hours. Surprisingly, not even a gut pile was touched. The fist crow showed up about half an hour after us. Soar body and ****load of work ahead, but good ending to the season. This is the first year since I started hunting that I did not put any effort into whitetail. I have gone out once looking for one. I have spent two days helping my friend with his mule deer and he ended up taking a pretty nice buck with lots of meat on it. Every single other day I was out was spent on elk.
I don’t have any pictures, but it was a 3-point bull, good in body size for a youngster. Here is the little hut he spent the night in before we packed him out today:
Hard to see, but it is literally just a pile of logs.
All in all, a great season. A tiring one though, to say the least. Very conservatively speaking because I do not want to throw a big number out there, but I walked way more than 400 kilometers in the river valley. I saw tons of wild life and had a blast communicating with elk, getting inside the herd on numerous occasions, calling in different bulls, even making two have a fight, etc. It was really good time. I am thinking to put another day, last one, into whitetail tomorrow, but will likely be soar enough to say “screw that” after I drop my daughter off at school. Who knows though, we will see.
Cheers to all and hope you all had a fun season as well!
Edit: turned out to be a not so short conclusion.
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