After getting bored on eastern whitetails I finally got the opportunity to chase elk. It was a DIY hunt in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. We had a local show us where to go, then hiked into the back country on foot. It was physically demanding but worth it!
The first day we found a bull who'd respond to cow-calling (in November!) and got within 100 yards but I never got a view of him that wasn't blocked by cows.
The next day I shot the muley at 438 yds on the way in, he wasn't huge but I only had 3 days to hunt so he just wasn't in the right place to make it through the weekend.
Around lunch we got to the same spot and tried a bugle this time, and what I think was probably the same bull bugled back. He came over the mountain from the next valley. He hung up at 683 yards and would not budge, and the wind was set up to bust us on any available stalking corridor. My rig was set up to handle long shots though so I took the necessary measurements and shot. He was a tough guy and took a few solid hits from the 300WM before going down. We scored him at 249 and change, I'm told this is a solid bull for the back country in that area.
first elk - DIY bull
