HuntingNet.com Forums - I'm back from my elk hunt ......

This was my first traditional hunt and also the first time I have hunted first week of season. We used Llamas to pack in and out - fantastic animals that always leave me impressed. I highly reccommend them to anybody.

I know the area very well and basically I still hunted into known areas that contained elk, sat for a while, then still hunted a ways more and repeated. The elk were not at all responsive to calling, either bugling or cow calling. In fact, the bulls were still in bachelor groups - we saw several groups and several bulls sparring. The mtns are very dry but only a couple of creeks in my chosen area were dry. The areas around the creeks were where the elk were feeding.

There were two other guys guys hunting in my area (a father and son that packed in ) - not what I expected but turns out they were great fellows that I'll probably hunt with next year. Anyway, me and the son started out together opening morning. I was trying to give them every pointer I knew about the area, where the elk likely were etc etc. We split up about 45 minutes after daybreak to cover the area better. Not long after that and I was still hunting a dry little pond and as I slipped around the bank I found myself looking at the rear end of a very big bull elk, 25 yards and feeding straight away from me. The wind was also blowing straight to him too. First morning, first time in the woods actually hunting with my longbow and I had this 300-325 bull 25 yards away ! Anyway, I waited for maybe a minute until he had moved into a good quartering awar, focused on the last ribs on the near side, drew and released. The arrow looked good, but it hit an unseen branch and deflected up and over the bulls back. I was crushed. I'll always remember that moment. With a compound I could have made that shot easily, as flat as they shoot.

Anwyay, the rest of the first day I sat on a big rock in a little flat that had two seeps with lots of green grass and wallows. The rock was probably 15-17 feet high, a perfect natural stand. Great area. I could have taken a walking shot at a 4x4 but wanted a better shot that never came around, and saw a 5x5 and two larger bulls sparring that afternoon but no good shots.

The next day I had one black bear come right next to that rock. No elk though. Day 3 I could have shot two different cows, but they were just way to far back in the wilderness area. 20 yard, broadside animals. Day 4 I had a nice raghorn coming to me but chose to take a high trail instead of my trail and it saved his life. That evening I saw another really good bull across a meadow. Day 5 I saw a group of cows and yet a different bull that had had huge G-4's but not close enough. Day 6 I did a marathon of walking, calling, walking calling but nothing else.

The guys who were there were great. The son killed a 5x4 first day, the father killed a cow second day. They used my llamas to pack the meat and were thrilled with using them. They could have left on Monday and went home but stayed until Thursday with me so I wouldn't have to camp alone - like I said, great guys. Arnie was with me during this hunt but he didn't get anything either. All of us probably saw 15 different legal bulls, 5 that were very big 300+ public land bulls in 6 days of hunting.

First week gets you bulls that are unhunted, unspooked and as patternable as elk can be. Cow calls and bugles did nothing for us. Stand hunting and still hunting seems the way to go. I do think chances at the big herd bulls are best during the first week. We saw those 5 big bulls which two weeks later would have had 10-20 cows each and very tough to get near. All in all a great hunt, camped and hunted beautful country, had my chances at bulls and met a couple of great guys.
Stealthycat's Photo's