Just wanted to share a hunting story or two from the weekend. MT season opened Saturday, and I had four days off, hunted through Labor Day.

The first two days were really quiet, no calling, no elk movement worth a darn. But I did have a big black bear stalking me, I think. See, I had done some cow calling and caught motion over my shoulder. Looked back to see a bear 15-20 yards behind me, in my wind funnel. About that time it smelled me and took off. I really can't prove he didn't just blunder up on me, but I wonder.

On Labor Day morn, I got into them big time. Heard my first bugle of the season and closed in. I just basically crashed into them, it was too noisy to have a chance to sneak anyway. I moved unhurriedly, skirting two spike bulls to get to the bugler. As I neared the wallow I expected the bugler to be near, a cow mew-mew-mew-mewed at me from about 40 yards, inquisitively. (I've heard this call described as an estrous call, but she used it as a who-are-you call.) I hit my Hoochie call, muffling it between my legs - it's just too loud for close range calling. That settled her down, and here she came.

I wound up laying flat on my stomach with my bow laying on the ground beside me as she approached within 30 feet. She was unconcerned, just feeding along. Luckily at 30 feet, she turned 90 degrees and headed off toward a big meadow on my right. About this time I saw the bugler, trailing her.

I had expected a raghorn from tracks pounded into the wallow the day before, but this were a genuine 6-pointer! I rose slowly, nocked an arrow, and set up for him to follow the cow into the open.

He broke cover at 15 yards on a fast walk. I waited for him to stop. He stopped at 20 yards. I settled the pin into his ribs, but had to hold off. See, he'd angled to a really extreme quartered away position. My arrow would have to punch through guts to get into vitals, so I couldn't take the shot. It wasn't over yet.

This case was one of those rare times when you're in the middle of an elk herd and they have so bought your cow call that you are granted a sort of invisibility. I was actually walking along with this bull as he approached the meadow. I was basically holding the range at 25-30 yards, waiting for him to turn a few degrees. I was really confident he would do just that, because the cow he was trailing had headed off to the right. Then fate struck.

A spike bull squirted out of cover to the bull's left, so bully spun left to shake his horns at the little guy. This move put him butt-first to me. I followed him as far as I dared, but gave up on the meadows edge.

So now I retraced my course of approach, and resettled at the bottom of the meadow, where I began the morning. I had the wind right again, and tossed a couple cow calls at the elk, who had settled into a small island of timber out in the middle of the meadow. I picked up my bull again, 110 yards out into the meadow. For the first time, I really put the mental calipers on him, and deduced he wasn't quite as big as I had thought in the heat of the moment. He'd net maybe 275. I had thought he was at least 20 points bigger than that. Since I have a sort of soft cap set at 300 for the first half of the season, I concluded not to keep after him. However, the cow he was with wasn't finished with me yet.

She decided to come over and check out the cowcaller/me, and brought the bull with her. They passed by at 40 yards, ten yards past my self-imposed range limit, and I let them go.

What a great start to the season! Another gem for my memory bank. I've got seventeen days off starting 16 Sep, and hope to make something happen before it's all over.

Good luck to all, and keep it clean.