Elk season is underway here in Montana. As of Saturday, I had 3 days of prior elk hunting experience.
I hunted Sat and Sunday in the mountains near our place in Paradise Valley. I had very little time to scout this year and was almost going into the season cold. I scouted an area one day in August and thought it looked pretty good. There is a forest service road that closes Sept 4 and I figured that would keep most people out. I took my 5 yo son grouse hunting near the road into the unit on Sept 1 st. 14 or 15 trucks passed us on there way up the mountain. Every hundred yards or so, someone would hop out and bugle get no response and keep moving up the road. I talked with a few of them and they all said that there were no elk left here. I thought they might be right since I could only find old sign in the area.
Yesterday I headed up the mountain at about 5. I was the only one parked at the gate. About 8 I heard a bugle. This season was already better than last!
I scouted around the rest of the day, doing things I should have done earlier. Find the water, game trails, fresh sign, glass opposing hills etc. I finished the day not finding any elk, or fresh sign. I was a little discouraged but I knew there was at least one bull elk, and he probably has cows.
Today I get up at 330 to be in a ways farther before light. Again I am the only one at the trailhead.
This morning there were 3 seperate bulls bugling. I went after the closest and lost track of him about 730. He was the only one chuckling at the end of his bugle. I moved to a new area to do some more scouting/still hunting. I started finding fresh sign almost immediately. I eventually worked my way down to the trickle of water in the area and sat a small water hole. The hole was well used, but seemed to be mostly used by cows. I wasn't there 15 minutes when a cow elk trotted behind me. I couldn't get a shot, but she came from an area I hadn't been to yet. I went that way slowly, not expecting much.
After 30 minutes or so I heard the elk with the chuckle bugle. Chuckles seemed to be half a mile or so away. With the dead falls, it took me 1.5 hours to close the distance. I got within 100 yards of where I thought was and let go with a bugle. He immediately responded from 500 yards farther up the mountain. 30 minutes later I was about even with him. Every 15 or so minutes he would sound off so I could keep track of him pretty easy.
All morning I was in more cover than I wanted to deal with and now I found myself in one of the few areas with very little cover. I tried to pull him away from his cows from 150 yards but he wouldn't budge. I decided to sneak in and try to get to the one piece of decent cover bigger than a 10 inch pine. I made it there and sounded off with the loudest meanest bugle I could. I didn't know where he was, but I was about fifty yards away. I peaked around my bush and here he comes!
I got a good look at him as he thrashed a poor tree. 5x5, but very wide. A very big animal, snot blowing out his nose, clearly mad that a bull was that close to his 6 cows. My bush was great unless he went to my right. I had no cover on that side. After a few more bugles and a few more tree deaths he came straight to me. I couldn't get a shot and before I knew it he was standing broadside 10 yards away on my right. When an elk bugles that close, you can feel it. I could smell him and his cows. All I could think of was please keep going. Please keep going. He needed to take 3 or 4 more steps and his head would have been hidden enough for me to turn and shoot with a slight quartering away.
He turned his head, looked right at me and his eyes about bugged out of his head. He turned and ran. When he did that I stood and turned. Amazingly he stopped at twenty yards, perfectly broadside.
I don't remember drawing, or picking a spot or thinking at all. My arrow was away! For a millisecond I thought " holy crap, I did it" , the shot looked perfect! then my arrow hit a branch went over the bulls back and shattered on a tree.
He went to about 40 yards and after a 15 minute stare-down he left. I then stalked within 30 yards of his cows. I didn't have a shot and they ended up figuring out something was wrong and moving off. I figured what the hey and used my cow call hoping to maybe bring one back. Not only did that not work, they went from nervous but still feeding to all out panic. I guess I need to work on my cow calling.
Hopefully next weekend I can put some meat in the freezer! Even if I don't, bow hunting elk is an amazing experience.
Patrick
