fish4steel owes us a story.: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

OK, so here is the run down of my elk bow season, at least the early season, as I have another chance to get humiliated starting 23 Nov.

OD (Opening Day) minus 2 ; go buy groceries to the tune of $120. Fill propane tanks on trailer. Fill H2O tanks, charge battery. Pack all gear---tree stand, saws, clothes, plates, coffee, bow, panic to remember what I forgot.
OD-1. Tow trailer to work. Fill truck, extra tank, generator with gas. Buy MUCH beer. Head to camp. Arrive at about 1500. Drink beer. Decide where to park trailer. Set up level boards, get trailer level, and un hook from truck. Beer. Spend another hour getting camp squared away. Have another beer. Decide to do recon of the area since I have not hunted here in a few years. Grab two

beers to do a recon on the dirt roads. Back to camp at about 1900. Eat dinner. (can you tell I'm not dragging this out YET).
Hunting partner has not shown up yet. 2145 I hit the sack. Hunting BUTTHEAD shows at 2215. I get up, he wants to go see the area I had already scooped out, several travel trailers in the area. (OK, there were my imagination) No one in our AO. Except the logging operation one mile away

. We go tooling over in the area far away where there were other folks, we get back to camp at about midnight. Don wants to fine tune his diaphragms for his elk bugle now. It is now about 0100. (There was a bull right behind camp I was told) We play (well, he did) for over an hour. Finally crash.
OD Needless to say, we get up a bit late, 0500. Make coffee, eat a couple of sweet rolls and hit the road. First place we wanted to go--vehicle there. Back out; second option , two vehicles. Third option, good. Short road, we kill the lights, park the truck, and walk back. As soon as we get to the clear cut Don hisses ELK!!! get down!! We're busted. A few cows and I saw one bull, Don said there were two. We went on the chase and we put at least 12 miles on our feet. Saw sign, but no more critters. Got back to camp at about 1400 and had lunch. Took a break and I got talked into going WAAAAAY over on the east side. Don said he knew there were a few bulls over there. We got there and there were two trucks parked at the gate, but Don convinced me that we were the only ones stupid enough to walk in two miles. He was right about that. We had a few cows in sight and one bull who barked at us, right at dark I could hear elk right in front of me, but it was so gray I could not see a thing. (This story takes a long time to tells so it is VERY condensed)
OD+1 Don had to leave to go pour concrete (construction) so I was on my own. Went behind camp and found a bull who decided to make a half moon around me and "bark" at me once. Prick. He is a good one judging by the trees he demolished. That afternoon I decide to go to the blue gate; good bull mouthing off; I'll be here in the AM.
OD+2. Yup, he is still here. we have a yelling contest for about an hour until the cows go to him and he works up the hill. Need to push him harder next time and get in his face.
OD+3. He is way up the hill and I get busted by several cows in CLOSE. Game over. I go exploring and find a nice clearcut on a dead end road about five miles from camp on the other side. I walked it and found lots of fresh elk turds. tomorrow I'm going to be here.
OD+4 Hit the new spot. Walk down the road at first light, look to the left--no elk. Sneak forward and look over the center, no elk. Go forward.....[**whoops**], through the ferns and bloodsucking blackberry vines, look to the right in the big draw, no elk. I was in a mass of alders and bloodsuckers, so I hunkered down and decided to give a cow call. The whole tree line above me lit up with cows. Long story short (that is an oxymoron at this point but there is a LONG way to go) there was a bull in the draw about 3/4 mile ahead of me. We yelled at each other for about 45 minutes and he came up to the top of the timber but would not come out into the open. I busted ass through the bloodsuckers, went back a half mile, up though a draw from hell (STEEP) and set up on the down side of the ridge where I thought he was. I had a big stump for cover to draw the bow, had clear lanes on each side. As soon as I bugled he exploded! We went at it for about 20 minutes...........I had the shakes because I could hear him coming in. CLOSE. Then it got silent. I waited for about half an hour......then I thought about the bull that walked away from me. I took my release off of the string, put the arrow back in the quiver, took TWO steps and the BIG BIG bull scooted off. He was only 25 yards away. He had learned Tom turkey tricks. He was Wall Material. That damn stump was a double edged sword.
That afternoon I hunted around camp, found lots of fresh elk sign. I intended to hunt the perimeter of the clear cut near camp. I heard the boing boing boing of a deer, and I didn't give a hoot about a deer, even though I had a deer tag. Well, this dummy decided to look at me, and then turn BROADSIDE and look at me, so he go an arrow. The next day (Tues) as I was cutting the backstraps off of my deer the camp elk bugled. I was in bloody jeans............his tracks the next day were 300 yards from camp.
There is a lot more, but I think you've had enough with this.
So, who wants to chase the big critters with me next year? Just learn how to work an elk bugle--it IS easier than a duck call

MSK
That is the VERY condensed version. I saw or talked to elk every day, had a damn good time, and I still have late season and I think I may know where to hang a tree stand.

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Team Jackson Baldwin
Duty, Honor, Country!