OK BigShark, a short version of the story!
105 degrees Ladies and Gentleman when we rolled into camp. After grilling the first forester we ran into we learned of a few spots where he had seen some elk in the last week or so. This year as everyone has experienced was a really dry summer and many of the local water holes as well as major creeks had all but dried up and there was definitely a shortage of available water. The country that we hunt is really pretty diverse in the fact that there is big timber available but lots and lots of sagebrush pockets with timbered draws and the like-no real mountains for the most part but more or less scattered hills with a few monster canyons to choose from. According to this forester there were some elk using a few aspen patches that were located within about a mile from where we usually camp. Awesome so we thought to ourselves-we'll let that one sit for a few days and hunt our usual spots and then we'll go in there and take our pick of the litter!
Well...................after 3 days of hunting in the extreme heat and not finding much in our usuall haunts, we decide to go into town and talk to the forestry department, pick up some different maps ect and see what the word was. After negotiating a deal of 1 backstrap if we killed an elk, we learned of another area that had been worked over pretty hard with elk and decided to let me Dad hunt over there because the ground was not so steep and he could get around. Bingo!! He was into elk in the first 20 minutes of hunting! After a small and fruitless bugling match they decided to look the country over and decided that this was probably the only elk in that whole canyon!
Out come the maps and anybodies idea of where to go. We are pretty new to the area and this was our second year for most of the party (we got a 6x6 and spike last year) so it was decided that everyone would go different routes and see what they saw. My partner and I got into a cow (which I never saw) and he decided to pass (day 5 boys and girls) and that was the extend of our luck. My brother saw 0, Dad saw 0, Dave saw 0---things were looking pretty grim indeed. Joel and i come up with a plan to dive into the deepest canyon available and hope for the best. At 4am in the morning we set out on our quest! Going at brekneck speed in the dark to beat the sun we take the wrong road and end up on the edge of sagebrush country @ the mouth of the canyon we were going to dive into--well S**T, lets just bugle here and see what happens-you guessed it BINGO! 3 bulls answer and so we go after them. Problem was we were on a rim that ran for about a mile and could not get down! At daylight we watched several bulls running cows around and bugling (my first elk sighting in 6 days) and worked our way across the rim to stay with them. As we're talking about how to get down CRACK comes from below us, I look straight down and here comes a 4x4 that we hadnt seen coming right along the rim below us. I hit the ground kneeling-come to full draw and decide to nick the limb in front of where the bull has stopped and hit him a little farther back than perfect-I was shooting almost stright down and just hit the top of it-I look over to my buddy and give him the signal that the bullis walking his direction with an arrow in him-as I step out to drill him again (he never even knew he was shot) I watch my buddy Joel drill him and we watch him fall. High fives and life just got a little bit better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ooops, more later!
It's a fact that partners are a big plus. Not for backup so much as for motivation. I love the part about not seeing elk for several days then bingo. Thats the way it works for me too. If they aren't there at the moment, they will be if you just keep motivated and hunt your buns off.
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