Talk About Gettin Close!: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Sorry its kind of a long story but i wanted to share it with you guys

I just got back from our 1st season rifle elk hunt in SE Oregon. There was about 7 of us in our group and the first 3 days we didnt see a single animal. We were all gettin kinda skeptical. Then came Saturday morning.

Before first light myself and my buddys dad made our way up a ridge to post up and watch a thinned timber patch and a adjoining heavy timber edge. We reach the top of the ridge and i find a nice comfy tree to post up at and watch a small clearcut on the face of the ridge.
About an hour and a half after the sun started comin up, i start lookin around and catch some movement in the corner of my eye. I turn around to see what it is and, to my surprise, i see a beautiful 5 point bull walkin directly behind me within 15 yards.He snuck up out of the thinned timber and neither one of us saw him comin. I get on the radio to alert Gary that this bull has walked in between us and is directly behind me. By the time, the bull must have heard the chatter on the radio because he stops and looks directly at me. We make eye contact and he immediatly busts back down the ridge the same way he came up.

I radio to Gary again to tell him the bull is headin down the ridge towards him. Gary says hes going to try to cut him off and force him back up the hill towards me, but to no avail.

So I hobble my way back to my pickup(im a 2months out of ankle surgery) to try to cut the bull off down the road. I did manage to get a shot at the bull as he ran away from me but it was a clean miss. But boy did that whole expierience get my heart a racin!!

Then the very next morning, we went back on the same exact ridge, and i sat at the same exact tree i was at the previous morning. my buddys brother,who was about 100ft up the ridge behind me, heard crashing in the thick timber to my left. i grabbed my gun waiting for the sounds to break the timber edge. then, 20 yards in front of me, 3 cows came out of the timber. two stopped in their tracks and one ran up and behind me and stopped. i sat there as still as i could be as the cows looked at me to figure out what i was. they stayed around for about a minute or so, never catching my scent or figuring out it was a human they were staring at. All 3 soon broke down the ridge and ran off.

Jerad and I met up after the stare down and he told me the one cow that ran above me had stopped to look at me directly 25ft behind me

No one in our group tagged a bull, but it was still a very fun trip. The two very close encounters i had were truly an awesome and heart pumping expierience that i will never forget!1