It was Sept 23 & one of the finest days to be hunting elk, many elk have hit the dirt on this date or close to it, it's Prime time for sure! On this day I was hunting with a fellow Forum member, we left just before daylight, we had left the rig off an old dirt road to head into an area I had hunted several times in the past. We covered 2-1/2 miles & a 1000' in elevation over several benches to crest a ridge to access a bench that I knew held elk if they were there! (grin) We'd bugled near a dozen times here & there in Run & Gun fashion over a one hour span on our way up to see if anything was around before they heard or spotted us. Once on top we called again & no response. This benched area is a mile long & choked full of downfall from old burns & now was littered with brush & willows growing up years after the burns. There was still a few green timber pockets that survived the burns here with a few 1/2 acre meadows strewn about with small tributaries of water that would pool up here & there. This area is up & down not flat at all.
It's away from most the crowds yet rugged country to enter so it sees little pressure although not that far in. Of course we are hunting OTC Public Lands so you never know what you'll run into. We spend a good hour on this bench rummaging around looking for sign that elk were there. No sign to be found as we checked & called into various areas looking for life! We continued along the bench doing our best to follow game trails through this tangled mess of downfall, it was working OK for the most part but really slows your advancement down to a snails pace in many spots.
As we approach the end of the bench it pours off steeply down into a long running east/west draw that runs for a couple miles. We are aprox 3/4 mile & 1600' above the bottom of the draw, the other side of the draw we can see is about the same elevation as where we are. We are now on top but on the south facing slope looking across at the north face. We thought we heard a bugle on the face we were on way to our left which would be east from our present position.
Not sure about the bugle we heard as it seemed distant so we stopped & just listened. Sure enough we heard it again so started moving towards it but staying near the top of the mountain in side-hill fashion. It was near 10 a.m. so we knew this bull was bedded or about to. We cut the distance 100 yards or so & now heard a 2nd bull near the same level as the first. Cutting that short distance helped with hearing them better but we were still a long ways off. As we stood there we hear a bugle from down below, it was on our side & aprox a couple hundred yards off the valley floor. I had him pegged as a hunter as I can now hear him better, bummer! This must have been what the first bull was bugling at? We just couldn't hear the hunter until we changed position. The bugle from the hunter appeared to be 500 yards away from the bull.
The hunter kept moving towards the real bulls bugling every 50 yards or so, the one bull most likely the herd bull responded back. It was hard to hear him clearly, we could only hear the end of his high pitch but that was about to change! (grin) The hunter continued up towards the bugling & continued bugling himself. He was now close to 300 yards from the bulls, we could not see a thing due to the dark timber we were hunting, we could only hear what was unfolding! I looked at my new friend & said he's going to turn that bull into a runner, he looked back & asked if I was sure that lower bugle was a hunter, I said absolutely just listen to his sounds, they are very predictable & unmistakable. Shortly after that the bulls bugle was now getting further away from the hunters bugle, he has now pushed them out of their bedding area on that south slope. Where would they go? Hopefully up to us on top! (grin)
The hunter didn't give up he kept coming up the steep brush choked mountain, kudos to him for putting out a serious effort, he's already come a couple miles just to get to that point, he was persistent for sure. Well we felt like it might be a stroke of luck that these elk would head our way, heh you never know! We could see the hunter was fighting a loosing battle, the real bull had now increased the distance to 400 yards+ & moving away from him. We could tell now by the bigger bulls bugle it was definitely a herd bull with a satellite trailing the group as they were closer to us. We tried to guess where they would top out on the mountain we were on so moved towards the bugles best we could. Within a few minutes we were under 200 yards from the bugling bull & it appeared we were on a collision course, sweet!
" I had to do it in two sections as the Site wouldn't allow the whole thing!"
ElkNut/Paul
It's away from most the crowds yet rugged country to enter so it sees little pressure although not that far in. Of course we are hunting OTC Public Lands so you never know what you'll run into. We spend a good hour on this bench rummaging around looking for sign that elk were there. No sign to be found as we checked & called into various areas looking for life! We continued along the bench doing our best to follow game trails through this tangled mess of downfall, it was working OK for the most part but really slows your advancement down to a snails pace in many spots.
As we approach the end of the bench it pours off steeply down into a long running east/west draw that runs for a couple miles. We are aprox 3/4 mile & 1600' above the bottom of the draw, the other side of the draw we can see is about the same elevation as where we are. We are now on top but on the south facing slope looking across at the north face. We thought we heard a bugle on the face we were on way to our left which would be east from our present position.
Not sure about the bugle we heard as it seemed distant so we stopped & just listened. Sure enough we heard it again so started moving towards it but staying near the top of the mountain in side-hill fashion. It was near 10 a.m. so we knew this bull was bedded or about to. We cut the distance 100 yards or so & now heard a 2nd bull near the same level as the first. Cutting that short distance helped with hearing them better but we were still a long ways off. As we stood there we hear a bugle from down below, it was on our side & aprox a couple hundred yards off the valley floor. I had him pegged as a hunter as I can now hear him better, bummer! This must have been what the first bull was bugling at? We just couldn't hear the hunter until we changed position. The bugle from the hunter appeared to be 500 yards away from the bull.
The hunter kept moving towards the real bulls bugling every 50 yards or so, the one bull most likely the herd bull responded back. It was hard to hear him clearly, we could only hear the end of his high pitch but that was about to change! (grin) The hunter continued up towards the bugling & continued bugling himself. He was now close to 300 yards from the bulls, we could not see a thing due to the dark timber we were hunting, we could only hear what was unfolding! I looked at my new friend & said he's going to turn that bull into a runner, he looked back & asked if I was sure that lower bugle was a hunter, I said absolutely just listen to his sounds, they are very predictable & unmistakable. Shortly after that the bulls bugle was now getting further away from the hunters bugle, he has now pushed them out of their bedding area on that south slope. Where would they go? Hopefully up to us on top! (grin)
The hunter didn't give up he kept coming up the steep brush choked mountain, kudos to him for putting out a serious effort, he's already come a couple miles just to get to that point, he was persistent for sure. Well we felt like it might be a stroke of luck that these elk would head our way, heh you never know! We could see the hunter was fighting a loosing battle, the real bull had now increased the distance to 400 yards+ & moving away from him. We could tell now by the bigger bulls bugle it was definitely a herd bull with a satellite trailing the group as they were closer to us. We tried to guess where they would top out on the mountain we were on so moved towards the bugles best we could. Within a few minutes we were under 200 yards from the bugling bull & it appeared we were on a collision course, sweet!
" I had to do it in two sections as the Site wouldn't allow the whole thing!"
ElkNut/Paul
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