jjwillie

OK guys- The fever is starting to get me too.

Please, no more of this "Is a 270 worthy" BS.....I want to hear some elk hunting stories.

Either successful or not, let me hear em......I'm sure there's some good ones out there....

manboy

shoot brad, shoot brad, shoot brad!!!! man 53 yards 330+bull shoooottt!!!! oh well no soup for you!

huntnmuleys

ya know manboy, thats one of my least favorite stories......


but since this is a story thread, here is that very unfortunate tale.....

hunting elk last year in the wyoming high country with manboy (i know im a glutton for punishment), and we hear some distant bugling....quite a ways off, but this guy is excited. so we make a move to try to get close. figuring we needed to get over one more small ridge to really be close enough to try something, we get ready to cross a small marshy park before climing. we spotted a couple elk feeding over this edge we are trying to cross, about 120 yards or so away. we thought they were cows, didnt see any antlers. anyway, we tried to cross a bit lower on the ridge than the elk were as not to spook them, and where we crossed might have been our undoing. coming over the top, we were crossing the last rock when we realized we had moved into a small harem of cows. manboy was already prodding me to shoot, but im picky, and soon we spotted a couple more cows coming up the hill toward us, followed by a bull. a nice bull, we figured anywhere from 340+. anyway, manboy has the tape rolling, were skylined on a large boulder, and sorta pinned down. a couple cows checked us out, but didnt spook. i think they stayed because im so good looking. anyway, the bull moves from behind the cows to behind some trees, 53 yards away. never had a clear shot. could have tried a couple times, but they were iffy, and the cows moved right by us at about 15 yards, i figured the bull would follow. he was really watching his backtrail, and not making any noise at the bull bugling down in the bottom. if this guy was scared of him, he must have been a monster. this little standoff lasted for 20 minutes (all on tape), with no action on our part, because of our situation. looking back, with what i know now from elknut's videos, i should have punch grunted. i didnt though, figuring he would follow the cows. he didnt, he circled for reasons unknown at about 60 yards. one time i could have tried one there, but thats a tough shot, and i was battling target panic and had no confidence there. after he went out of sight around the hill, we tried to come over the top on him, but the cows busted us. probably because of that horrible odor manboy reaks of. we never did get on him again, at least not that close. very frustrating to be that close for that long, on that big of bull, on video and not even get a shot. for the life of me i dont know why he didnt follow his cows, but he didnt. guess it wasnt meant to be......


okay, maybe that is one of my favorite stories, not many get to be so close to such a bull for so long, even if i didnt kill the damn thing.

ark elk hunter

2003 was my first year to experience the wonderfuladventure of elk hunting. Being the youngest and the only first timer with a group of old timers, I asked any and everything I could think of during the 18 hour drive from Arkansas to Colorado. When we finally arrived at camp,I was in awe of the beutiful landscape theat God had provided for us to enjoy.
We arrived the afternoon of opening day of archery season and quickly unloaded for an evening of scouting and hunting... AllI knew to do was tag along, watch, and listen. We saw a total of 0 elk on the first evening so I decided to strike out on my own and give it a whirl. Sunday morning, I watched as every one of my hunting buddies went to one side of the mountain to hunt, so I decided to go the opposite direction and see what I could find. After a 2 mile ride and another 1.5 mile walk, I found a beautiful ridge overlooking 2 small ponds and an oak brush meadow. I decided to sit and glass for the morning. After about 20 minutes, I saw movement in the brush, and as I focused in the area, I saw nothing but antlers at first and then the body of a beautiful 5x5 bull. WOW!!!!! I had found a bull on my first solo hunt... I decided to just sit and watch because he was too far away and I didnt want to spook him...
I returned to camp with high hope for the evening hunt... I brought a buddy with me (since they saw 0 elk once again) and we set up on opposite ends of the meadow hoping to catch him coming or going... About an hour before dark, my buddy decides to bugle hoping to get something started.. I had a PRIMOS Hoochie Mama, so I let out 2 cow calls after his bugle, and got ready. Not 2 minutes after the cow calls I thought a herd of buffalo were coming for us, but I looked up to see elk trotting across the meadow right at me!!!!! The first elk came by me @ 5 yds and the rest were close behind... I came to full draw, but I couldn't move, I was in awe of everything that was happening around me!! I finally focused on the last cow in the herd, and followed her through my peep.. She was at a slow trot when she crossed my shooting lane at 8 steps!!
I put my top pin on her front shoulder (thinking I needed to lead her) and let 'er fly. WHACK!!! My arrow hit her solid, but I could not tell where as she was by me by the time I found her again...

Long story short: I wound up hitting her just in front of the shoulder (there was obviously no need to lead the little lady at 8 steps), and passed clean through her... We gave her until after dinner that night and tracked for about 4 hours with no luck... I was sick for a long time after that.. Although I was not lucky enought to harvest an elk in '03, I will be returning this year to the sdame area with hopes of evening the score!!!!

HuntElk4Fun

I've got stories of big bulls, little bulls, cows, the works, but here is my personal favorite only because it was my first elk with a bow and it had a fun twist. It's a bit long, but hey, you wanted stories....

At age17 I started bow hunting in Wyo. (I'm from Kemmerer, SW Wyo). For 2 years I borrowed my bro-in-laws bow shooting fingers, with no success. The next year (now 19) he decides to hunt again. I'm married, 19, poor, w/o a bow. We hit the hills opening morning with my father-in-law, bro-in-law and me. We hike our tails off back into the high country and find some vocal elk. Across the canyon we spot a very nice bull who is bugling his head off and alot of others feeding that weren't so vocal (it was Sept. 1st). My bro-in-law decides he's going after the big bull and my father-in-law and I were going to circle around and sneak down the face as the elk feed up the canyon to their beds or be there in case he spooks some.

We head up the canyon and cross over onto the other face. At the bottom, my father-in-law hands me his bow with a trigger. It's important to know in Wyo. you can bow hunt, then rifle hunt after. He is a trophy hunter and didn't see any bulls of his liking. I look at him and remind him, I've never shot a trigger. He shows me the ropes and one arrow later @ 20 yards, an inch from a small leaf on a side hill, we are off. I have his bow in hand.

As we sneak down the canyon, wewatch a small herd of cows that feed by us up the hill. About 1/2 to where the bigger bull is still whining his head off, we bump a cow and calf. They bolt up the hill and proceed to spook a small rag bull about 30 yards in front of us. He didn't see us, just the cows, so he stood there. His head was behind a tree and all I could see was his neck and body. My father-in-law confirmed it was a bull, not big, didn't really know much since he was hidden. I ease the bow back and twang! Being the experience trigger boy I was, the arrow sailed into the sky. Literally at about a 45-60 degree angle to never be seen again. Now this was actually a good thing. The arrow cleared some much sky, the dang elk didn't even look back. He was getting nervous though and was now looking in our direction vs the busted cow direction.

What seemed like forever, I eased another arrow in the bow and pulled back. I put the 30 yard pin just a hair low (downhill) and let it fly. He busted off and all we heard was crashing and thumping through the trees. In my excitement, I had NO clue where or if I hit it. My father-in-law looked at me with a discouraged look. I think you missed in front of him. Disappointed, we went after my arrow to make sure. We found it sticking out of the ground, soaked in blood. Looking just feet from where he stood blood was everywhere. Now numb with excitement, I experience my first day long wait, oh wait, it was only 30 mins?? You sure?? Anyway, we tracked him 50 yards, dead as a doornail. I had "missed" a hair forward and literally cut his jugulars. Not a shot I recommend, but it was the best miss of my life.

After finding my bro-in-law and relaying him the story that we still laugh about, we boned him out and packed him home. To this day, I'm still the proudest of my first bow elk. It was an amazing day! That hooked me on bowhunting for life!

1elkhunter

How long do you have? I have too many to tell. However, this happened last season.
After another long year of waiting, we finally got to go again. After 26 hours on the road, we finally got to start onto the mountain. After another hour or so, we were pitching our tent. Finally, back to my favorite spot so far ( we keep trying new spots when we can't get drawn). Just as I drove the last tent stake, it started to rain. It didn't quit for a day and a half. About 2 hours before it quit, the wind picked up and tore away the tarp that I had been using to shield the tent, luckily I always take extra.When it did stop, it started to snow, hooray, I thought. Until it didn't stop. It snowed for the next 4 days. 12 inches total in that time. Although, the weather was nasty, we still went hunting everyday, I mean we can't let that stop us can we?
Now, with all our clothes being wet, we needed to dry them, so we took an extra coupleof tarps, some old tree branches and rope and made aplace to put our wet clothes todry. We put a small propane heater in also to help the drying process, since it was too cold to do anything but freeze. You guessed it, it caught on fire just about the time the clothes were almost dry.
Also, the snow was too heavy to let set on the tent, so every3 or 4 hours I would get up and clean it off, while my buddies stayed in their sleeping bags. We ran out of propane to heat and cook with, and almost out of food.
Finally, the roads cleared up some and we could get off the mountain. After, we could get someone to help pull us out of the drainage ditch we slid into about half way off the mountain. It felt good to get back to civilization.
Would Igo back after all that? You better believe it. I didn't harvest an elklast archery season, but, I still had a good time chasing them. I had elk answering my calls everyday, but couldn't get them in close enough. I saw about a dozen or so bulls, but, sometimesno matter how much you want it, it just don't happen. I had a couple of bulls that were in the 300-340 class come in to me, just not close enough and not long enough. Those big bulls looked like pictures of heaven, with all the snow covered trees and everything was so peaceful, when the wind wasn't blowing me off the mountain.
Well, I asked you how much time you had. LOL. I can't wait to get at those elk again this year.

RedAllison

Gotta hour?

It was '98 and after a LONG years wait we finally were THERE, the famed Gila/Apache area of southwestern NM. My brother, a friend of his and myself were about to start a 5 day hunt with THE guide/outfitter of all g/o's in NM, Mick Chappel of New Mexico Big Game Trophy Hunting. The 2 hour drive from Albequerque was filled with constant talk and scanning out the window for game (quite arrid on the drive tho from Albq too Quemado). We pulled into the ranch about 3 hours before dark and got settled in and met our guides. Dinner was another hour or two so we took our rental SUV out and started looking around. Found a few mulies but no elk.

That night as I was gettin my gear together (was a primitive weapons only area and I had my trusty lil 50cal Wolverine) my guide who was a 20 year old local from a family of noteable guides, came too me and asked, "What kind of bull are you after, just a bull or a monster?" I quickly told him that I was here for those famous "Gila Monsters" I had heard, read and seen on TV so much about. It was Oct. 15th and he told me that the big boys had already rutted and were typically back up in higher areas and kind of too themselves. I told him no problem and told him I would be ready to go at the main ranchhouse at umpteen thirty and READY! The hunter cabins were adequate and slept 6 per with a full bathroom but I have bad allergies so I knew my asthma would have me locked up in an hour. It was 29 degrees and the S-10 Blazer wasn't quite up too my 6'4" frame but I folded the backseat down, parked it on a slope and tried to sleep. There were several small bulls and herds of cows in the wheat fields at the base of the ranch about 300yds away and they SCREAMED all night. As I laid in the cold truck I thought, "man this place is eatup with elk, I'll be done in an hour tomorrow"...

After breakfast (and my brothers warnings to stay in the truck as the snoring in the cabin and the 110degree woodstove kept him up ALL night! I met up with the guide and away we tore. We drove too the backside of nowhere and I was sure I heard "dueling banjos" as we passed a hunter everynow and then on the "county highway" that I call a gravel farmroad, we finally got up ontop of a mountain and it was just barely "pinklight". My guide killed the lights and eased the truck into the edge of a clearing he said was a good starting point that he usually heard bulls from earlier during bowseason.

As we sat in the truck, loading our backpacks and getting ready my guide again asked what kind of bull I wanted to try to get. I told him that tho this was my first elkhunt, since this WAS in the Gila area I thought a 300" 6x6 was a good starting point. I no more than got the words out of my mouth when I looked out the side window at 3-4 cows running straight toward the truck at 45 yds. I could only make out their shape in the "barely there" pinklight that preceeds the dawn. I was about to mention them too him when I could make out a surefire 300" 6x6 rack chuggin along behind them! Too which I added, "Kind of like that one right there"! My guide leaned over and saw the approaching bull, now closing in on 30 yds and STILL coming dead on too the truck. He started yelling, "SHOOT HIM, SHOOT THAT SUMBEECH!" For a split instant I thought too myself (hell there's elk behind every tree here, I aint finishin this early) "Now if I kill this bull right now, this early, before I even put my feet on the ground and practically out of the truck, I will NEVER hear the end of it from everyone". So I told my guide, "I aint shootin a bull out of the truck". "Then get out of the truck!" he tells me in no uncertain circumstances. By now the cows have turned broadside are are just loping broadside about 25 yds from the truck and the bull hasn't given us so much as a glance. Again I tell my guide, "I aint shootin out of the truck and it's too early, man we should see plenty if this is any indicatation". He was obviously flustered and mentioned something about NEVER seeing that bull again (and he was certainly right).

That was dawn Saturday October 16th, the next elk of ANY sort we saw was a cow after dark while driving out Sunday night! Everyone else was hunting low and seeing 20-30 elk each morning and 20-40 each afternoon. I was beginning to KICK myself and I was seeing that 300"er in my sleep each night in the truck! My brother killed a 280" 6x6 Monday afternoon and his buddy let a 340"er walk that same afternoon (he already had a 1250# 375" Canadian elk on his wall).

Each morning we walked 3-5 miles and then the same each afternoon. We got up on some cows and a raghorn Tuesday morning and that was about it as light fell that night. Honestly I was mad, hadn't seen but 10 elk in 4 days and most everyone else was through. I had just about gotten it in my mind that I was going home with nothing but scratched up equipment, bruises, cuts, blisters and a SIZABLE hole in my wallet!

Most of the dozen and a half hunters were already finished and the last morning held promise of rain. Breakfast was short and only a couple of us were left. Almost quietly my guide and I rode too our first area. As the rain came down he told me that with as much terrain as we have covered it would be fine with him if it was ok with me if we just eased around in the truck until the rain lightened up later in the morning. I was half worn out and 3/4 mad so I certainly agreed. For about an hour after daylight we slipped around, glassed, glassed and glassed somemore.

As we came into a clearing we both saw it at the same time. INSTANTLY my guide locked up the brakes and by the time the truck skidded too a halt we both had our binocs up on it. 1/2 mile away, atop a hill was an almost white appearing elk. Feeding in the small trees with its head down. I asked what it was, just as the words cleared my lips he raised his head.......... We never moved so fast in all our lives. We gathered up only the basics, flew from the truck and UP the mountain in record time! We were slowly easing our way up the ridge as we were now close too the area we had seen the bull. My guide turned too me and whispered, "Be REALLY quiet, he should be right in here somewhere". As I looked over his shoulder I caught movement. I told him, "DON'T MOVE he is standing behind you about 35 yds away!" [:@] I know for sure the Lord was smiling on us that day because under normal conditions we wouldnt've gotten within 100yds of that bull. The wet ground was silent and the wind was amazingly in our favor. The guide slowly turned his head around and saw the bull. Too which he then whispered again, "SHOOT THAT SOMBEECH!!!" and dropped to his knees.

I was already on the bull but with the brush and a large Ponderosa pine log lying between us, I couldn't see anything but the top third of the bull and couldn't see either his rump or his head. Not knowing which end was which I just stood there with my crosshairs on him. I could subtly hear my guide repeatedly whispering, "Shoot that sumbeech, shoot that sumbeech". The log was blocking me so I took a chance and eased forward 2 steps, my guide was about to come out of his skin. Once I could see clearly over the log I then waited for a split second for the bull to move so I would know what to aim for. He raised his head and again I nearly fainted, here stood a 368" 6x6 at only 30yds and I am just watching him.

KICKPOOOOOOOOOF my lil wolverine bellowed, the bull stood straight up and in a tornado of hooves and breaking brush he tore out of there. I was trying to reload as quickly as possible, shaking like a crackaddict, trying to reload my rifle and my guide is slapping me on the back yelling, "YOU GOT THAT SUMBEECH, YOU GOT HIM". Quickly we heard the bull crash up only 20yds away and all was silent again. My heart was in my mouth now and I am sure blood was pumping through the top of my head.

Needless to say, it was the biggest bull of the hunt and it was dark before we got him back too the ranch, and I was "da man" in camp the lastnight before our return home! Goes to show you can NEVER give up, when you're in trophyland you can NEVER say what will happen and I learned to NEVER give up!

http://www.nmtrophyhunts.com/elk.htm

That's me and my "last minute Gila Monster", second row and on the right!

Sorry it was long, but you said you wanted "A STORY" and it is my greatest trophy too date!
RA

huntnmuleys

in 1998, i had just switched jobs, and i was in training for my new one. i found out i only had 4 days to hunt elk. being just out of college, i hadnt really gotten to hunt elk much as of yet, just a few days here and there through high school and college. anyway, i had drawn, had basically no time, and was sorta bummed. it was a hot september, and the bulls werent saying much. however, on that first morning, it was cooler and foggy...seemed like a good morning. i was going to hunt a place called tillets hole, in the wyoming high country, but when i was dropped off above it, i realized that the wind was blowing directly into it. i would have to hunt the next basin over. that was cool, i was walking the finger between the 2, and i had no more than decided to hunt the long park drainage when i heard a bugle from in there. wow, that worked. i proceeded to drop off on the tillets side to get the wind right, and moved around.
when i got to where i could see the upper parks, i could see a herd, with a decent 6x6 which was making all the racket.i snuck in close to where i thought they might go to bed, and got ready to call. however, i found that to be impossible since i had left my call in camp. oh well, spot and stalk was always my forte, id sneak in on em in their beds. just into the trees i bumped a 5 point, but he didnt booger, just walked toward where the herd was. bumping him made me slow down, and after 100 yards or so i knew i was right there. his bugling had kept me locked into their location. there was a slight ridge they were below, and i snuck over, and with my binos i spotted him, that 5 point from earlier, some cows and a couple spikes. lots of elk. i was within 60. some were bedded, some were moving about. i eased closer, almost got a shot at that damn 5 point as he fed through a shooting lane, but he was gone too quick. i eased on. a spike and 2 cows moved by me at about 15 yards, but didnt give me a shot. got to within a good range of the big guy, but he decided to get up and move a bit. in playing cat and mouse with him, i got pretty close to that damn 5 point, which i had forgot about, but thankfully he didnt see me. no shot either. i had elk on 3 sides of me now, the only side with no elk was where the breeze was blowing...what luck. finally i manuvered within 35 yards of the nice bull, and he turned broadside. i couldnt tell where i hit, he was in a shadow and i just couldnt see it, but it felt good. the herd slowly moved away, and i thought i had heard my bull fall. they really moved away when i was looking for blood. couldnt find any, he was slightly downhill of me when i shot. i figured id go get the guys. went to mark my trail, and realized my trail tape was laying with my elk calls..... used my arrows keeping a line of sight from one to the other, (between the 2nd and 3rd arrows i thought i smelled him, but couldnt see him) and when i ran out of arrows, i used my camo coat, hat, and a white sock, which worked, by the time i got to the sock i was on long park, and knew the way. damn good thing i didnt have to mark further, id have been naked. got my dad, bro, and a buddy and we went back in. found the bull about 15 yards from my 3rd arrow, behind a deadfall. although he was the herd bull in a good bull area, he was about a 270 class animal.

i will never forget the words my brother said when he rounded a tree and first saw him, "nice bull, brad"

damn that was fun.

huntnmuleys

thought of one more id like to share, i have a lot of stories.

this one is different. actually the most eerie or spooky thing i have encountered in the high country.......


my first year in the elk woods, following pops around i was a 3rd grader. it was my last morning, and we were greeted to about 4 inches of snow, and freezing weather. one of the coldest days i have ever hunted. myself, dad, and a buddy of ours who is an official scorer for pope and young were gonna hunt through linda's park and back to camp. the wind was blowing a bit up on top, but eased when we got to the trees somewhat near linda's. we heard a bugle coming from that park, and knew we were in the right area. after sneaking in to where we could see, we saw a herd of around 20 with a couple spikes, and a smallish 6x6, maybe pope and young, but probably not. anyway, we didnt call much back then, we just moved. snuck through the trees, and came out near where we thought we should be. first elk we saw was a cow about 100 yards down, so we went back in the trees and moved accordingly. came out this time, and there was a spike about 80 or 90 out in the middle, but the main herd was further we figured....snuck down a little ways, maybe 60 or 70 yards threw the trees, and approached the park again. no elk anywhere. we knew we werent winded, it was going the opposite direction. quite a while before, the snow had really let up, still spitting a bit but not much. we decided we find their tracks, and go after them. that was the problem. there were no tracks anywhere on linda's park. none. none entering or leaving, none in the middle. we hadnt heard them leave. we walked the whole perimeter of the park and found nothing. just like they never existed. we were totally freaked out by the whole thing. it was barely snowing, no way it would have covered those tracks, 20 elk all over a park cause a lot of tracks. to this day, that is a story we dont talk about that much.

maybe we were hunting ghosts.

i promise that tale is true, exactly as it happened. they simply hadnt been there.

jjwillie

These are good guys....keep em coming.

I figured, since I started this thread I might as well share my most memorable story.

This began "several" years ago (early 90's). I was a snot-nosed high-school grad who thought he knew everything. Altitude sickness?Aaaaaah, that'll never affect me. Well, to say the least, the mountains of Colorado whipped me pretty good. I over exerted on the first day and didn't drink enough water, basically breaking two cardinal sins of high country hunting. Anyway, I stayed at our base camp for a few days and only managed to get about a mile outside of camp for five days. The sixth evening my dad had located a "pretty good" bull on an adjacent mountain. Since this was a father/son solo hunt, I felt that I had left him down the whole week, so nothing was keeping me from chasing that bull the following morning.

The next morning, I struggled for 3-4 hours to get to the top of the ride where my dad had heard the bull the night before. I wanted to do the calling, and at "pink light" I let out a pretty bad bugle. It didn't matter, that SOB started screaming his head off down the mountain. Two hours later we were in position and amid swirling winds we decided to take a chance. I worked him for over an hour until we smelled the first sign of approaching elk. The air was thick with the sweet stench as we noticed about 30 cows and a few spikes moving right toward us-300 yds out. I knew they would bust us if they kept coming on the same path. We were in a sort of a game "funnel" and quickly moved off to one side to allow them to pass at an angle. I moved about 100yds behind my dad...continually calling. It seemed like another hour until I heard an excited scream from my dad. I didn't know if he was getting attacked by a mountian lion or what, so I moved up to his position. He had just arrowed the bull and had seem him crash on the other side of the park. I never saw or heard the shot, but calling in a 300" bull for my father was the most memorable hunt of my lifetime....after what I went through. Lets just say, I learned a lot on that trip!