Elk Hunt: Day 3

  

From Justin:

Wednesday

Took 4-wheeler up to fence line.walked fence line to back of property near the big *ucker tree.  Heard a bull bugling across the fence line but couldn't get them to move our way.  Traversed the property to the middle and ran into a bull less than 100 yards away right in front of us.  Alan went right.  I went left and stepped on a branch...that pretty much scared the bull away.  


We kept walking all the way to the top again...didn't have any responses.  Worked our way back down to the middle of the mountain and decided to put a tree stand up for Alan to hunt over a wallow.  

Went back to camp and had lunch then shot my bow.  Noticed that now I was shooting about 6-8 inches high.  Launched two broadhead's through the hay bales.  Started looking at my bow and noticed the fall away rest wasn't going down.  Luckily PaPa hadn't left with Nic and he knew what to do.  Just needed a little tightening.  I put two arrows in the bullseye at 40 yards so figured that I was good to go.  

We went back up the mountain.  We dropped Alan off at the tree stand over the wallow and Luis took me up to the tree stand to the East that I had hunted the first night so I could get my quiver mount and seat cushion.  I had forgotten my safety harness so I could hunt that stand.  We walked back down the mountain to the West and settled into the meadow where Alan had taken the shot at the 6x6 on Monday morning. 

 I sat down on a log nestled up into a pine tree and had a view of multiple shooting lanes across the meadow.  There was a ladder stand about 100 yards below me to the east which was set up where the elk are known to cross so we were expecting that we'd be able to draw a bull around the corner and give me a shot at 40-60 yards...which I was confident in making based on the target practice shots I had made before we came out.  We sat there for 30 minutes or so and Luis hit the cow call a few times and followed it up with some bugles. 

 A little time passes, things are quite and then the ground begins to shake to my left...just behind the tree line where Luis was standing.  He signals to me that a bull was coming around the corner in front of me down by the ladder stand.  Now remember, I was supposed to be in the ladder stand where the elk where now standing...this is an important piece of information....Rookie mistake, always bring the safety harness if you are going to be hunting in a ladder stand!!!  I digress, I was watching the corner and a small spike appeared.  He looked right at me at 85 yards and put his head down and continued eating.  Another spike followed with 2 - 3 cows in tow.  They all passed 40 yards in from of the ladder stand that I should've been in!  Then the largest bull came up the rear.  He was at least a 5x5 but I couldn't really tell if he was big or not.  He didn't appear to have much mass to him, but I probably would have shot if he wasn't 100-yards away.  The herd continued to move westward down the mountain and it appeared as though my opportunity for the day was lost. It was about 5:30 when this all went down.