My Idaho elk hunt
09-28-2004, 11:01 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,358
My Idaho elk hunt
Just got back from Idaho with my first elk ever!!
Here's a little story:
Well as you know, I just got back from Idaho from my 40th birthday present elk hunt
from Sheila (what a girl!!)
Had a blast, slow start to the hunting week, but a GREAT week for everyone in camp.
All 8 hunters saw elk, all 8 hunters had shot chances at elk, some decided to pass on
spike bulls and/or cows.
Here's how my week went: This was my second trip so I knew how it would be. I told the
outfitter going in that I know tree stands are by far the best way to get a shot, but I didn't want to do that, I do that around here, I wanted to glass, hike, call and try and sneak up on em and call em in. Makes it tougher, but man what a blast it is when it happens. Its fairly easy to call a bull into 100 yards, even I did it on less than 1 day of bugling practice, however getting them inside 40-50 is VERY hard.
We were the second week of bow hunters in, the first week did not have a very good week, lots of rain.
day 1: Lots of getting to know the guide, hiking and joking and talking since the elk
weren't answering calls. Shock the guide and get him laughing when he starts quoting
the movie Bambi to me and I actually recognize it and start doing it back, got him laughing so hard he couldn't bugle for 5 minutes. No elk, but hey, we had fun and that's what its all about. One guy misses a 4 FOOT, yes foot, shot out of a tree stand at a 6x6 bull. You might say "how" but you get the shakes pretty good when these monsters are standing there.
Day 2: nothing, seeing lots of beautiful country and laying down the miles, about 5-10 a day, but elk just don't feel like talking. Father of the above "miss" shoots a bull.
Day 3: nothing in the AM, well walked up on a little doe who just stood there looking at us. Evening the guides, well some of them, have to go try and track a bull someone else shot, so I go up in a tree, well it does give my legs a chance to rest, they aren't sore (thanks to all the running over the last months), but they are a bit tired. I am sitting in the tree listening to yet another stupid chipmunk when I notice he really doesn't
sound right, so I glance over my right shoulder and well it was a little button buck feeding in the leaves. Weird I think, early in the year for him to have been run off by Mom, she must be around somewhere. Ahhhh, there she is. She keeps looking back the way she came, but soon feeds on the bushes 25 yards away broadside and I think, my gosh that's a big doe, easily 150 lbs and I did tell Sheila I would bring home meat if I had the
chance (two years ago I passed up a small spike buck and well she yelled at me for it). Eventually she feeds behind a HUGE tree so I can't see her, well its now or never, check on the button to make sure he isn't going to see me, nope, in typical stupid kid fashion he is clueless to the world around him. But wait a second, what's that, hmmmm, HUGE ANTLERS. A big 10 pointer stepped out into the same spot the doe came from, ohhhhhh so that's why she kept looking back there, to make sure he was still following. Ok, change
of plans, doe is off the menu, TROPHY SIZED buck is up next. This guy is EASILY the biggest deer I have ever seen, he's what you see on hunting shows, probably weigh in around 250 lbs, antlers where about 6 inches wider than his ears and the tines where around 10-12 inches long. Yes you can figure this all out in about 3 seconds when he's staring at you :-) He decides I am just part of the tree and starts feeding along towards where the doe went, she is now out of sight over the hill. When he goes behind the same big tree all I can see is his butt, well if I can't see his eyes, his eyes can't see me right?
Well you would think that makes sense, but NOOOOOOOOO, as soon as I move about 1 inch, bam, he's gone. Still no clue what clued him in, but then again he doesn't get that big by hanging around when his 6th sense says run. Oh well it was fun.
Day 4: Off on another cross country hike. But wait, I hear a bugle WAY far away, so off we go. Guide sees him about 1/2 mile away on the other side of the canyon. Why are they always on the OTHER side? the outfitter is teaming up with us this AM and said he would catch up, just follow the trail. So the trail looks to go where we need it anyway, so for the next 3 hours we wander down the trail, around the valley over to the bull.
Nothing, not a peep out of him. We cross over a creek, past an active wallow (basically a wet mud hole that bulls roll around in to cool off, sort of like little boys!). We head up the trail and a bugle bursts out behind us, somehow the bull let us walk right by!! We jump off the trail into a hole, I range find a down log at 40 yds and guide says he will
try and turn the bull at that log. Good plan, gonna be a TON of work getting him out of here, but heck we have all afternoon, its only 10:00!! Over the next 5 minutes my guide and the elk get in a yelling match which by itself is worth the trip!! We see the tops of a small tree getting pushed around by the bull as he bashes it with his antlers
at around 75 yards.
Then we see him, the bull?? Nope, the outfitter, coming walking up the trail laughing his butt off, ok, he's laughing, he got us, but hey it was fun while it lasted.
Day 5: Now hunting with the outfitter, he guided Sheila and I two years ago so I wanted to spend some time with him, he is an amazing caller (as was pointed out above, the jerk :-) ).
First light comes and he cuts loose with a couple of bugles. 3 bulls, real ones this time I assume, answer. Well the bugling is picking up all of a sudden for
some reason. We do the Idaho hunting fast walk up the trail about 200 yards and he bugles again. Two answer this time, one way up the drainage, the other down below us at about 100 yards and he sounds BIG. We setup, no way we can quietly get down there and its to thick for shooting anyway. I kneel down on the edge of the trees
facing away from the bull, guide runs off 40 yards infront of me, perfect now I am between the real elk and my guide "elk". They then proceed to get into the biggest shouting match you ever wanted to hear, it was awesome being between them. Guide would bugle, bull would cut him off and yell back louder!! This is what I came for, this
is FUN!! I don't care if I shoot or not, this is way cool. After about 45 minutes of this I am STILL on my knees sitting on my heels afraid to move. The real bull starts up the hill you can hear him coming sounds like an elephant crashing up the hill, ooooohhhhh boy here we go. He ends up about 10-15 yards behind me, so close I can hear the water
sloshing around in his stomach. The guide is 40 yards infront of me and this big guy is WAY closer than that, and they are still having their yelling match. I can hear the guide pounding the ground to sound like a bull walking around and thrashing trees, he sounds really good. I can hear the real bull right behind me screaming away, to be honest
he was so close I was actually worried he was gonna come out and step on me. He stayed there for another 20 minutes, I was dieing, fighting every urge to turn around, and my legs where now 100% numb. Eventually the real bull starts wandering away, he just doesn't want to come out in the open and he couldn't convince that "other bull"
to come into the woods for a good clean fight. My guide comes over to get me and tells me to get up, all over, well problem is I can't, I can't feel my feet or my legs :-) He helps me up and we get the blood back into my legs and go over where he was. He shows me his setup and I ask how he sounded like he was walking around if he was laying under a tree. Well he WASN'T that was another bull who snuck in quietly and helped it sound even better.
Oh well, funs over for the morning.
Afternoon time comes and we decide to go after that big guy again, except from the other side of the mountain, oh man another marathon hike up and over the hill through the woods. We figure maybe he will come all the way in for the
fight more comfortably if he's in the woods.
Well, nope, 3 hours later we have logged a couple of miles calling and never heard a peep. We are back on the trail we started at in the AM. Just about dusk. Well just for the heck of it one more bugle, if we can locate them we can come back in the morning with plan C (since A and B didn't work).
Well two bulls answer further up the drainage. We look at each other and laugh, and off we go running, yes running up the trail. Up about 100 yards he bugles again, just to see which drainage to attack in the morning. At the end of the response from Mr Bulls, we hear it, a third bull is coming down the hill without bugling, they call it coming in
quiet cause he didn't bugle, but its far from quiet when 500 pounds of animail is coming on the run through the trees!
I jump off the trail into the bushes, guide runs back down the trail around a corner about 20 yards behind me and keeps the cow calls going. I range find a tree I can tell from the others at 45 yards, he comes past that in the open and he's mine (where have I heard that confidence before?). Suddenly I see that there is another trail behind me,
uh ohh, if he stays in the woods and crosses back there to stay under cover I can't get him without moving, well to late to move now, have to hope! Then I see the trees start to move as the bull pushes them out of his way, and out he steps at 55 yards, my first clear sighting of a bull elk in the wild! Its a sight I will never forget, so big, so majestic
looking!!! I drew back the bow and he turns and starts walking right down the trail, right at me. No shot, here I am at full draw on a bull elk, something I have always wanted and he's coming, but I can't shoot, bad angle, very low chance of getting an arrow through the chest bones, it has to go in the ribs. Ok, don't panic, he's in the open and
he's coming looking for that cow that is meewing away 20 yards behind me, ie the guide :-) keeps coming, switch to the 40 yard pin, still head on, still coming, switch to 30 yard pin, gimme range, still no angle, switch to 20 yard pin as he keeps coming.
Now we have a new problem starting, he's still coming, still head on and getting to close. Now his walk down the road is changing the angle to broadside with every step which is good, but its also moving me out into the open as he comes around the bushes I am behind, if he clears them he will see me as I swing the bow with him. Finally just as he clears that last bush, I decide the angle is good enough, put the pin right in the arm pit and shoot. A whopping distance of: 8 YARDS!!! I think I actually had to aim UP at his
chest.
Bull takes exception to this wonderfull shot and takes off. I swear I saw the fur where I aimed change when the arrow hit. I watch him run off (they never fall right away with an archery shot) he runs back in a semi-circle back towards where he came from and STOPS. 40 yards away he turns sideways and I can see the hole where the arrow went in PERFECT! I could see the "other" side when he ran off and no arrow on either side, must have been a pass-through, which is what you want.
Well he is standing there so I grab another arrow, nock it and look up to shoot again, after all two sets of holes is better than 1 when you have to track. Well Mr. Bull is standing there facing down towards me again wondering where that silly cow is (when I shot the guide went nuts with the cow call to try and stop the bull from running to much, it worked). Except I notice that ya, he's standing, but his back legs are spread out about
5 feet apart as if he is really fighting to keep his balance. About 2 seconds later he just tipped over and crashed to the ground!! YIPPPEEE I think, got him. Ummmm, not just yet. He tried to get up and I drew back the bow again. If he gets up, angle or no angle I am shooting him somewhere. Well he can't get up and after a couple of minutes
he just sort of lays his head down and goes to sleep.
Here he is:
He weighed an estimated 500 lbs and is a 4x5 bull. I was on cloud 9!! I have wanted to elk hunt since I was a kid and to have it all fall out like this was incredible. He never left my sight once he stepped out onto the trail. This is an experience I will never forget!!!
We got back to the lodge around 10:00 which is WAY past normal bed time, but most of the other hunters where still up to see who shot the bull, the radio call in just tells the lodge which guide has one down and if he needs any help. When I got in I called home, yes I woke up Sheila cause it was 1:00 or so back home but tough! She was happy, the phone woke Chris up so I got to talk to him too!!
We skinned him that night and quartered him the next morning at the lodge, 386lbs of meat and bone went into the butcher, 230lbs of fat free, all natural packaged boned out steaks, stew, roast and burger came out!!
Day 6 I didn't hunt, after breakfast when all the others went out I hung around and called home to talk to Kevin then took a nap, for some reason I had trouble sleeping last night
That afternoon I got an elk bugle and went out "scouting" with another hunter who already had an elk. We hiked an overgrown cut, or actually the trail around it bugling, him giving me advice on how to make it sound better, which
when you think about it is pathetic, me a NH boy bugling and him a MA guy on his first hunt deciding that ya, I sound pretty good :-) We had fun anyway, found a wolf track about 5 inches across.
Day 7 in the AM I bugled in a bull on my own to about 100 yards. PM saw nothing, was trying to fill my deer tag and I was planning on giving the meat to the outfitter, they never get to hunt.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Here's a little story:
Well as you know, I just got back from Idaho from my 40th birthday present elk hunt
from Sheila (what a girl!!)
Had a blast, slow start to the hunting week, but a GREAT week for everyone in camp.
All 8 hunters saw elk, all 8 hunters had shot chances at elk, some decided to pass on
spike bulls and/or cows.
Here's how my week went: This was my second trip so I knew how it would be. I told the
outfitter going in that I know tree stands are by far the best way to get a shot, but I didn't want to do that, I do that around here, I wanted to glass, hike, call and try and sneak up on em and call em in. Makes it tougher, but man what a blast it is when it happens. Its fairly easy to call a bull into 100 yards, even I did it on less than 1 day of bugling practice, however getting them inside 40-50 is VERY hard.
We were the second week of bow hunters in, the first week did not have a very good week, lots of rain.
day 1: Lots of getting to know the guide, hiking and joking and talking since the elk
weren't answering calls. Shock the guide and get him laughing when he starts quoting
the movie Bambi to me and I actually recognize it and start doing it back, got him laughing so hard he couldn't bugle for 5 minutes. No elk, but hey, we had fun and that's what its all about. One guy misses a 4 FOOT, yes foot, shot out of a tree stand at a 6x6 bull. You might say "how" but you get the shakes pretty good when these monsters are standing there.
Day 2: nothing, seeing lots of beautiful country and laying down the miles, about 5-10 a day, but elk just don't feel like talking. Father of the above "miss" shoots a bull.
Day 3: nothing in the AM, well walked up on a little doe who just stood there looking at us. Evening the guides, well some of them, have to go try and track a bull someone else shot, so I go up in a tree, well it does give my legs a chance to rest, they aren't sore (thanks to all the running over the last months), but they are a bit tired. I am sitting in the tree listening to yet another stupid chipmunk when I notice he really doesn't
sound right, so I glance over my right shoulder and well it was a little button buck feeding in the leaves. Weird I think, early in the year for him to have been run off by Mom, she must be around somewhere. Ahhhh, there she is. She keeps looking back the way she came, but soon feeds on the bushes 25 yards away broadside and I think, my gosh that's a big doe, easily 150 lbs and I did tell Sheila I would bring home meat if I had the
chance (two years ago I passed up a small spike buck and well she yelled at me for it). Eventually she feeds behind a HUGE tree so I can't see her, well its now or never, check on the button to make sure he isn't going to see me, nope, in typical stupid kid fashion he is clueless to the world around him. But wait a second, what's that, hmmmm, HUGE ANTLERS. A big 10 pointer stepped out into the same spot the doe came from, ohhhhhh so that's why she kept looking back there, to make sure he was still following. Ok, change
of plans, doe is off the menu, TROPHY SIZED buck is up next. This guy is EASILY the biggest deer I have ever seen, he's what you see on hunting shows, probably weigh in around 250 lbs, antlers where about 6 inches wider than his ears and the tines where around 10-12 inches long. Yes you can figure this all out in about 3 seconds when he's staring at you :-) He decides I am just part of the tree and starts feeding along towards where the doe went, she is now out of sight over the hill. When he goes behind the same big tree all I can see is his butt, well if I can't see his eyes, his eyes can't see me right?
Well you would think that makes sense, but NOOOOOOOOO, as soon as I move about 1 inch, bam, he's gone. Still no clue what clued him in, but then again he doesn't get that big by hanging around when his 6th sense says run. Oh well it was fun.
Day 4: Off on another cross country hike. But wait, I hear a bugle WAY far away, so off we go. Guide sees him about 1/2 mile away on the other side of the canyon. Why are they always on the OTHER side? the outfitter is teaming up with us this AM and said he would catch up, just follow the trail. So the trail looks to go where we need it anyway, so for the next 3 hours we wander down the trail, around the valley over to the bull.
Nothing, not a peep out of him. We cross over a creek, past an active wallow (basically a wet mud hole that bulls roll around in to cool off, sort of like little boys!). We head up the trail and a bugle bursts out behind us, somehow the bull let us walk right by!! We jump off the trail into a hole, I range find a down log at 40 yds and guide says he will
try and turn the bull at that log. Good plan, gonna be a TON of work getting him out of here, but heck we have all afternoon, its only 10:00!! Over the next 5 minutes my guide and the elk get in a yelling match which by itself is worth the trip!! We see the tops of a small tree getting pushed around by the bull as he bashes it with his antlers
at around 75 yards.
Then we see him, the bull?? Nope, the outfitter, coming walking up the trail laughing his butt off, ok, he's laughing, he got us, but hey it was fun while it lasted.
Day 5: Now hunting with the outfitter, he guided Sheila and I two years ago so I wanted to spend some time with him, he is an amazing caller (as was pointed out above, the jerk :-) ).
First light comes and he cuts loose with a couple of bugles. 3 bulls, real ones this time I assume, answer. Well the bugling is picking up all of a sudden for
some reason. We do the Idaho hunting fast walk up the trail about 200 yards and he bugles again. Two answer this time, one way up the drainage, the other down below us at about 100 yards and he sounds BIG. We setup, no way we can quietly get down there and its to thick for shooting anyway. I kneel down on the edge of the trees
facing away from the bull, guide runs off 40 yards infront of me, perfect now I am between the real elk and my guide "elk". They then proceed to get into the biggest shouting match you ever wanted to hear, it was awesome being between them. Guide would bugle, bull would cut him off and yell back louder!! This is what I came for, this
is FUN!! I don't care if I shoot or not, this is way cool. After about 45 minutes of this I am STILL on my knees sitting on my heels afraid to move. The real bull starts up the hill you can hear him coming sounds like an elephant crashing up the hill, ooooohhhhh boy here we go. He ends up about 10-15 yards behind me, so close I can hear the water
sloshing around in his stomach. The guide is 40 yards infront of me and this big guy is WAY closer than that, and they are still having their yelling match. I can hear the guide pounding the ground to sound like a bull walking around and thrashing trees, he sounds really good. I can hear the real bull right behind me screaming away, to be honest
he was so close I was actually worried he was gonna come out and step on me. He stayed there for another 20 minutes, I was dieing, fighting every urge to turn around, and my legs where now 100% numb. Eventually the real bull starts wandering away, he just doesn't want to come out in the open and he couldn't convince that "other bull"
to come into the woods for a good clean fight. My guide comes over to get me and tells me to get up, all over, well problem is I can't, I can't feel my feet or my legs :-) He helps me up and we get the blood back into my legs and go over where he was. He shows me his setup and I ask how he sounded like he was walking around if he was laying under a tree. Well he WASN'T that was another bull who snuck in quietly and helped it sound even better.
Oh well, funs over for the morning.
Afternoon time comes and we decide to go after that big guy again, except from the other side of the mountain, oh man another marathon hike up and over the hill through the woods. We figure maybe he will come all the way in for the
fight more comfortably if he's in the woods.
Well, nope, 3 hours later we have logged a couple of miles calling and never heard a peep. We are back on the trail we started at in the AM. Just about dusk. Well just for the heck of it one more bugle, if we can locate them we can come back in the morning with plan C (since A and B didn't work).
Well two bulls answer further up the drainage. We look at each other and laugh, and off we go running, yes running up the trail. Up about 100 yards he bugles again, just to see which drainage to attack in the morning. At the end of the response from Mr Bulls, we hear it, a third bull is coming down the hill without bugling, they call it coming in
quiet cause he didn't bugle, but its far from quiet when 500 pounds of animail is coming on the run through the trees!
I jump off the trail into the bushes, guide runs back down the trail around a corner about 20 yards behind me and keeps the cow calls going. I range find a tree I can tell from the others at 45 yards, he comes past that in the open and he's mine (where have I heard that confidence before?). Suddenly I see that there is another trail behind me,
uh ohh, if he stays in the woods and crosses back there to stay under cover I can't get him without moving, well to late to move now, have to hope! Then I see the trees start to move as the bull pushes them out of his way, and out he steps at 55 yards, my first clear sighting of a bull elk in the wild! Its a sight I will never forget, so big, so majestic
looking!!! I drew back the bow and he turns and starts walking right down the trail, right at me. No shot, here I am at full draw on a bull elk, something I have always wanted and he's coming, but I can't shoot, bad angle, very low chance of getting an arrow through the chest bones, it has to go in the ribs. Ok, don't panic, he's in the open and
he's coming looking for that cow that is meewing away 20 yards behind me, ie the guide :-) keeps coming, switch to the 40 yard pin, still head on, still coming, switch to 30 yard pin, gimme range, still no angle, switch to 20 yard pin as he keeps coming.
Now we have a new problem starting, he's still coming, still head on and getting to close. Now his walk down the road is changing the angle to broadside with every step which is good, but its also moving me out into the open as he comes around the bushes I am behind, if he clears them he will see me as I swing the bow with him. Finally just as he clears that last bush, I decide the angle is good enough, put the pin right in the arm pit and shoot. A whopping distance of: 8 YARDS!!! I think I actually had to aim UP at his
chest.
Bull takes exception to this wonderfull shot and takes off. I swear I saw the fur where I aimed change when the arrow hit. I watch him run off (they never fall right away with an archery shot) he runs back in a semi-circle back towards where he came from and STOPS. 40 yards away he turns sideways and I can see the hole where the arrow went in PERFECT! I could see the "other" side when he ran off and no arrow on either side, must have been a pass-through, which is what you want.
Well he is standing there so I grab another arrow, nock it and look up to shoot again, after all two sets of holes is better than 1 when you have to track. Well Mr. Bull is standing there facing down towards me again wondering where that silly cow is (when I shot the guide went nuts with the cow call to try and stop the bull from running to much, it worked). Except I notice that ya, he's standing, but his back legs are spread out about
5 feet apart as if he is really fighting to keep his balance. About 2 seconds later he just tipped over and crashed to the ground!! YIPPPEEE I think, got him. Ummmm, not just yet. He tried to get up and I drew back the bow again. If he gets up, angle or no angle I am shooting him somewhere. Well he can't get up and after a couple of minutes
he just sort of lays his head down and goes to sleep.
Here he is:
He weighed an estimated 500 lbs and is a 4x5 bull. I was on cloud 9!! I have wanted to elk hunt since I was a kid and to have it all fall out like this was incredible. He never left my sight once he stepped out onto the trail. This is an experience I will never forget!!!
We got back to the lodge around 10:00 which is WAY past normal bed time, but most of the other hunters where still up to see who shot the bull, the radio call in just tells the lodge which guide has one down and if he needs any help. When I got in I called home, yes I woke up Sheila cause it was 1:00 or so back home but tough! She was happy, the phone woke Chris up so I got to talk to him too!!
We skinned him that night and quartered him the next morning at the lodge, 386lbs of meat and bone went into the butcher, 230lbs of fat free, all natural packaged boned out steaks, stew, roast and burger came out!!
Day 6 I didn't hunt, after breakfast when all the others went out I hung around and called home to talk to Kevin then took a nap, for some reason I had trouble sleeping last night
That afternoon I got an elk bugle and went out "scouting" with another hunter who already had an elk. We hiked an overgrown cut, or actually the trail around it bugling, him giving me advice on how to make it sound better, which
when you think about it is pathetic, me a NH boy bugling and him a MA guy on his first hunt deciding that ya, I sound pretty good :-) We had fun anyway, found a wolf track about 5 inches across.
Day 7 in the AM I bugled in a bull on my own to about 100 yards. PM saw nothing, was trying to fill my deer tag and I was planning on giving the meat to the outfitter, they never get to hunt.
Hope you enjoyed it!
09-29-2004, 11:21 AM
#6
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location:
Posts: 2,395
RE: My Idaho elk hunt
Thanks for taking the time to tell us about your hunt. I am glad you got an elk. You earned it. I hope you can make a return trip next year.
Elk hunting is worse than crack. 1-elk hunting trip & you are hooked for life.
Elk hunting is worse than crack.
1-elk hunting trip & you are hooked for life.
09-30-2004, 07:13 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 2,358
RE: My Idaho elk hunt
JD, yup, she's a keeper!! Dinner has already been arranged at her favorite place!
Hikchick, I hunted with Shattuck Creek Outfitters based in Elk River Idaho. I hunted in Unit8A, the hunters in camp where split between 8, 8A and 10. Its the second trip I have had with them and if I ever go elk chasin again, it will be with them! Great people.
--Bob
Hikchick, I hunted with Shattuck Creek Outfitters based in Elk River Idaho. I hunted in Unit8A, the hunters in camp where split between 8, 8A and 10. Its the second trip I have had with them and if I ever go elk chasin again, it will be with them! Great people.
--Bob