D_Eightch
WKR
This whole story is absolutely crazy from my buddy contacting me this spring and asking if I ever apply for my Bighorn, Moose or Elk tags (all OIL in ND). I actually drew my tag in 2011 for elk and was unsuccessful, lack of preparation due to it being my first elk hunt, young and dumb growing up hunting white tail along river bottoms and having that mentality. Well, long story short he drew his Elk tag the first time ever applying.
We scouted the first weekend of September and didn't come across any elk. Come to the second 3 day weekend and opener we tried a new area, everybody we ran into seemed to come across elk but us. Everything was eluding us, which brings us to this past weekend. My buddy went out to the same area to glass as the prior weekend and after sunset let me know he didn't see a thing and was feeling defeated, plan C told him which campground to meet me at and we arrived around the same time that night. Came up with a game plan for the morning and hit the hills. Instantly had an insane amount of bugling to our east and got set up to see if we couldn't pull something our way for a shot as the property they were on was private. After realizing they had no reason to come to us and were heading the other direction we decided we should at least get a vantage point and get some glass on them. Which brought us to this view, quite a few elk many of which were not in this frame.
So we decided to try out the land north of where they were, but came to find out that it is landlocked by private roads as well as the land. So my buddy ends up contacting a landowner and he was extremely helpful with a suggestion on another area to glass from. Some of the bulls we saw are below, none of which came across the property line onto the public land we were hunting.
Then we got in contact with a couple Mule Deer hunters that happened to be staying at the same campground that ran into a herd with a nice bull. Chatted with them and the gave us some great insight so we set out with a plan in mind the next morning. Got our eyes on a herd a couple miles in to the public land and started our way down to them. The wind was right on the verge of not having a chance. When we got down we had a nice 6x6 300 yards out so my buddy started working in on him to get a cleaner shot (this is a rifle hunt) in doing so he threw in ear plugs in anticipation of a shot. As I was watching him and the bull, the bull started walking straight away over the saddle and I saw the herd going around the opposite side of the little ridge through the saddle, i immediately picked up and basically ran to the ridge while trying to get my buddies attention and told him he needs to get to the top of that ridge as fast as possible. He got up and set his rifle up for the shot. I was waiting for it then he looked at me with utter disappointment and disgust. The 7x7 was standing there facing straight away from my buddy looking back towards the direction the herd had just come from.
We heard them bugling their way out into private land. So we picked up and decided to go find cell coverage to attempt contacting that landowner to see if they would be ok with us kicking around in there, or if nothing else packing out our bull through their land to the road that was nearby if we got into them that afternoon again.
As soon as we got to cell coverage I got a phone call from the mule deer hunters and we talked a little about the morning and that they saw a elk that morning as well. We met up and talked some more and decided to head to the same glassing point they were hunting that morning.
My buddy and i sat on a sun baked ridge for quite a while devising a plan to get in on a herd we spotted with some small 5x5 and spike bulls thinking there has to be a nice elk down there somewhere. Since the only option from the north side of these drainage's was to come up from underneath the elk we decided to get back out in the pickup and loop around and come in from the south. Wind would be perfect and we could work down towards a higher elevation and see where they were heading out to feed.
We got on a recreational trail and cut off towards the knob we knew the elk were bedded below, as we rounded a corner I looked out and saw that the elk were up feeding and there was a cow in the valley below. We headed just west of her direction and worked our way around to the north side of this knob that had a perfect shelf for both of us to set up on. He got his rifle in place as we watched and listened to these cows and calves. I ranged the path the cows would come through at 230 yards. Just then from the thick brush below in the drainage a Bull let out a massive bugle and he kept ripping em off. I told my buddy to watch the area to the west of us where if he kept heading that direction he would have had to come through that spot and bam up he trotted and chased after the lead cow. She ran off from him and he stopped broadside at 220 yards in a perfect clearing. BULL FEVER! Buddy missed the shot and the elk stood there for a minute trying to figure out what that was (thank god for low pressure hunting areas!
) they all stared off to the east and the bull disappeared and my heart sank, couldn't imagine the feeling my buddy must have had at this point. The cows started coming back up and i told him just get his rifle ready for that spot in anticipation the bull didn't cross back over and would be directly behind the cows. They all started trotting off and the bull came in to view behind them and I let out a loud cow call which stopped them and my buddy immediately let one fly, I saw it connect on the bull through the binos and watched him run off between 80 and 100 yards and tip over. The roller coaster of emotions was something I have never experienced on a hunt before and this will go down as one that will stand out vividly for as long as I am alive.
We scouted the first weekend of September and didn't come across any elk. Come to the second 3 day weekend and opener we tried a new area, everybody we ran into seemed to come across elk but us. Everything was eluding us, which brings us to this past weekend. My buddy went out to the same area to glass as the prior weekend and after sunset let me know he didn't see a thing and was feeling defeated, plan C told him which campground to meet me at and we arrived around the same time that night. Came up with a game plan for the morning and hit the hills. Instantly had an insane amount of bugling to our east and got set up to see if we couldn't pull something our way for a shot as the property they were on was private. After realizing they had no reason to come to us and were heading the other direction we decided we should at least get a vantage point and get some glass on them. Which brought us to this view, quite a few elk many of which were not in this frame.
So we decided to try out the land north of where they were, but came to find out that it is landlocked by private roads as well as the land. So my buddy ends up contacting a landowner and he was extremely helpful with a suggestion on another area to glass from. Some of the bulls we saw are below, none of which came across the property line onto the public land we were hunting.
Then we got in contact with a couple Mule Deer hunters that happened to be staying at the same campground that ran into a herd with a nice bull. Chatted with them and the gave us some great insight so we set out with a plan in mind the next morning. Got our eyes on a herd a couple miles in to the public land and started our way down to them. The wind was right on the verge of not having a chance. When we got down we had a nice 6x6 300 yards out so my buddy started working in on him to get a cleaner shot (this is a rifle hunt) in doing so he threw in ear plugs in anticipation of a shot. As I was watching him and the bull, the bull started walking straight away over the saddle and I saw the herd going around the opposite side of the little ridge through the saddle, i immediately picked up and basically ran to the ridge while trying to get my buddies attention and told him he needs to get to the top of that ridge as fast as possible. He got up and set his rifle up for the shot. I was waiting for it then he looked at me with utter disappointment and disgust. The 7x7 was standing there facing straight away from my buddy looking back towards the direction the herd had just come from.
We heard them bugling their way out into private land. So we picked up and decided to go find cell coverage to attempt contacting that landowner to see if they would be ok with us kicking around in there, or if nothing else packing out our bull through their land to the road that was nearby if we got into them that afternoon again.
As soon as we got to cell coverage I got a phone call from the mule deer hunters and we talked a little about the morning and that they saw a elk that morning as well. We met up and talked some more and decided to head to the same glassing point they were hunting that morning.
My buddy and i sat on a sun baked ridge for quite a while devising a plan to get in on a herd we spotted with some small 5x5 and spike bulls thinking there has to be a nice elk down there somewhere. Since the only option from the north side of these drainage's was to come up from underneath the elk we decided to get back out in the pickup and loop around and come in from the south. Wind would be perfect and we could work down towards a higher elevation and see where they were heading out to feed.
We got on a recreational trail and cut off towards the knob we knew the elk were bedded below, as we rounded a corner I looked out and saw that the elk were up feeding and there was a cow in the valley below. We headed just west of her direction and worked our way around to the north side of this knob that had a perfect shelf for both of us to set up on. He got his rifle in place as we watched and listened to these cows and calves. I ranged the path the cows would come through at 230 yards. Just then from the thick brush below in the drainage a Bull let out a massive bugle and he kept ripping em off. I told my buddy to watch the area to the west of us where if he kept heading that direction he would have had to come through that spot and bam up he trotted and chased after the lead cow. She ran off from him and he stopped broadside at 220 yards in a perfect clearing. BULL FEVER! Buddy missed the shot and the elk stood there for a minute trying to figure out what that was (thank god for low pressure hunting areas!
) they all stared off to the east and the bull disappeared and my heart sank, couldn't imagine the feeling my buddy must have had at this point. The cows started coming back up and i told him just get his rifle ready for that spot in anticipation the bull didn't cross back over and would be directly behind the cows. They all started trotting off and the bull came in to view behind them and I let out a loud cow call which stopped them and my buddy immediately let one fly, I saw it connect on the bull through the binos and watched him run off between 80 and 100 yards and tip over. The roller coaster of emotions was something I have never experienced on a hunt before and this will go down as one that will stand out vividly for as long as I am alive. 
