Hunting Events Calendar

The first days hunt from this week was a barn burner! I had 2 elk hunters standing in the dark listening for bugles with me on Sunday morning. After 15 minutes we didn't hear anything close so I went to the old faithful and figured if they're not talking I'll split up and place one guy in a natural travel cooridor in a natural blind I built a few years ago. As I settled him into the blind and gave him a breifing on what might happen, that's when things got interesting. A bull fired off straight below us a few hundred yards. I grabbed the other hunter and took off to the North towards where we where going to set up to try and get our scent stream away from this guys set up that was blowing down towards the bugle. We only made it about 200 yards and bumped some cows coming up right below us. When they took off, 2 bulls screamed just below them. I picked out a spot for the hunter with me where he could shoot left and right on the hillside and ran up the hill to start calling. Once I got settled in I started with a few cow calls and they answered right away. 5 minutes later they where right below us but started to circle to the South. I took a elk shed and started thrashing a tree, the bulls ratteled off some more bugles in our face, they where starting to get worked up! I moved quickly further away and repeated the cow calls and raking another tree and added a bugle of my own. The intensity in their bugles really amped up, one started raking a tree of his own and the other was closing but working higher. I moved one more time away and again thrashed a pine tree and gave a few cow calls followed by another bugle. This time the top bull Hammered back at me and sarted running in. At the time I didn't know it but the bowhunter had a smaller bull standing at 7 yards looking in my direction. I heard the big bull coming and hunkered down in a pine to hide so he didn't see me. Next thing i heard was a bow going off and a solid hit and a run away train crashing across the hillside mowing down everything in it's path. The bull gave the hunter a broadside 27-28 yard shot slightly above him on the hillside.

Meanwhile, the hunter in the natural blind was into elk before we even got 200 yards from him. He had 2-3 bigger bulls come up by him, some cows, and one of the biggest bulls was standing at 61 yards but the natural blind is on a hillside and not level to take a comfortable standing shot at that range. So the next cow elk that come by he shot and she piled up 20 yards later. 

We heard all the bugling and action over by the other hunter so we waited 1 hour not knowing exactly what was going on or if he got a shot. 1-2 more bulls bugled their way up past us while we waited. We started tracking this bull but no blood for 30-40 yards then one spot and 30 yards later we found the broken arrow which appeared to confirm the hunters thoughts it could have been a little to high. Another 30-40 yards and one more drop of dark blood on a rock was all we found. I walked to the hunter in the natural blind thinking he may have seen it run by and when I got to within 40 yards of his blind I saw the butt of a elk laying against a tree. I thought it was this guys bull and walked up to it and saw it didn't have antlers. So that's when I knew this guy had some action and he was pumped to get some elk meat and was happy to shoot a cow, congratulations! We never found the bull as that was the last little drop of blood we saw. We went back later that day and grid searched and found no more sign of it, unfortunately that epic hunt didn't turn out like we had hoped. 

Yesterday we hunted the mountain for Blue Grouse as the hunter wanted to get one mounted. We spent more time looking for that grouse than it took him to harvest his elk. He got his grouse and now the real vacation begins as fishing and a trip to Yellowstone Park will fill his next 2 days with his wife. It's hot, 80 degrees and things have slowed won a bit. Hope the weather cools off sooner than later!