Started the venture West driving from Pennsylvania last Thursday. Trying to minimize school and keep sports commitments best possible, Joey ran his high school XC race Saturday morning then got a plane in the afternoon. Picked him up at the airport around 7PM Saturday and had 4 hours to town to stay the night before packing in. Wanting help packing out without having another adult, this was my first ever drop camp. Sunday morning came early, but with the help of the pack team we were in camp by mid afternoon. Man was it luxurious in comparison to the backpack hunts I have always done in the past….lol.
After getting enough water filtered out for a few days and settled in, we decided to go up the hill behind camp to check things out. I felt like we ought to wait for thermals to settle out, but was chomping at the bit to get some elevation and getter better view of what we had close by. Literally made it less than 200 yds from camp and we crested over a little spine and there was small 5x5 bull bedded in the shade less than 60 yds below us. We were exposed in our position so we froze in place. I was ahead of Joey so I tried to side step an inch at a time to give him an opportunity if the bull stood up. Was fascinating watching him go between head up and lying flat like a puppy dog sleeping for about 15 minutes. Having watched deer bedded before, was pretty similar…… not very restful for wild critters constantly checking their surroundings. Wind was swirling all over, so I knew it was only going to be a matter of time and he was going to get a whiff of us. Amazing how fast they can go from flat sleeping to gone. Pretty exciting way to get things started.
After that bull ran off, we decided to wait out for thermals to steady up. Wasn’t long though and we could hear bugling way off in the dark timber above us. Since he was a long ways off we decided to close the distance some while waiting for the wind to steady up. There were some storms blowing in and it seemed to override the thermals making the wind blow all over. While closing the distance, we ended up hearing a 2nd bull get going. We were about level with him and much closer and it seemed like the thermals finally steadied up, so we decided to close the distance and setup on him. He got pretty fired up and Joey ended up seeing 2 cows before more swirling wind sold us out and sent them running.
Feel like my impatience screwed up both those opportunities, the thermals finally got consistent for good. The original bull above us was still bugling occasionally. We got as close as we dared with the timber being pretty open and setup on him about 125 yds out. I put Joey out in front and started calling sequence. It didn’t take long and Joey had an elk skirting him about 50 yds in front. Joey couldn’t identify if bull or cow, but I suspect was a satellite bull. The vocal Bull got pretty fired up and closed the distance to less than 100 yds, but was never able to get him to come closer before we ran out of shooting light. What a great 1st evening for action.
The next morning, we had plans to head up behind camp into the timber again to the area we found bulls. We didn’t make it a few hundred yards however and could hear a distant bull 90 degrees to our left. Not wanting to leave bugles to find bugles we decided to make a play on him. It took us about 30 minutes to get even with him across a steep ravine. It was very steep and a little intimidating finding a place to get to the bottom and start climbing up on his side. With bugles for motivation we billy goated on all fours at times up to a bench just below where he was bugling. I started off with some subtle cow calls and raking. I gradually built up the cow calling to be more demanding as he got more excited. I mixed in some groaning and bugling. Pretty soon we could hear him raking above us. Joey was about 30 yds in front of me in a young aspen sapling thicket. I gave a contact buzz and all hell broke loose. Could hear him crashing down the hill then he stopped. Joey let an arrow rip at 5yds! He was full frontal and the arrow buried to the fletching right into the thoracic opening. He ran to my right out into a meadow where I cow called to stop him. He didn’t stop long and started running again. Joey watched him stumble out of sight and we heard some crashing.
After about 25 minutes of waiting, we decided to slowly pick up the blood trial. I set a map pin with OnX so I could see how far we had gone as we tracked. Was hoping he’d be laying just over the edge where Joey saw him go out of sight. We had good blood from the get go, good red with small bubbles. It seemed like every 10 yds or so we would find frisbee sized circles of heavy blood. Every log he crossed was covered in blood.
My optimism started to wane though every 100 yds we went. Pretty soon we were closing in on ½ mile from the shot, across a steep ditch and up the other side. As we popped into an opening, he was standing there at about 60 yds behind some branches on the edge of the timber. He gave us a look and pushed into cover. I was deflated…..did not think we’d be seeing him again. Despite that feeling, he was still bleeding really good, so I made the call to keep pushing him and see if we could bleed him out. We just set foot into where he entered the timber and Joey said…. “There is he is”. He was about 45 yds and Joey had 3-4” opening between 2 trees that were close to the bull. He couldn’t tell if it was his front or back he was seeing, but I told him to get another arrow in him regardless. He threaded the needle and put another arrow through his hind end. He stepped forward a few steps and immediately bedded down. Joey ranged it again and came up with 43 yds. I told him to shoot again and he ended up hitting low and a little back. Turned out his range finder picked up a log just in front of him and he was more like 47 yds, which with his setup is probably 4” or so. Joey reaches up to pull out his 4th arrow and I realize that’s his judo point. Luckily with the way he headed we were only about ½ mile from camp, so I slinked backwards, dropped my pack and ran back for his backup arrows and broadheads. I made it back in about 20 minutes….no bull and no Joey in sight. No service either, so I started sneaking towards their last position and I finally heard Joey yell down to me. While I was gone he had got up, stumbled a little bit with blooding pouring out of the third low shot and re-bedded. He died not long after lying back down. What a $hit show!….but I can’t describe the sense of relief and joy. Unfortunately not a clean kill how you would like to see it. I’m pretty surprised his 1st shot wasn’t more effective, but elk are tough critters. The arrow might have deflected or he might not have been as straight on as Joey thought, but it ended up working all the way past the nock completely buried inside him and the broadhead was poking against the farside hide mid ribs. I honestly think he was probably near death with the original hit, but was not taking any chances at getting more arrows into him.
Proud of how well Joey kept his cool under pressure. He shoots competitive 3D IBO archery and I think that pressure along with all the turkey and deer hunts he has been on helped prepare him. Kid is now officially ruined to kill an animal like this on his first elk hunt….let alone of the 2nd day. Feeling absolutely blessed and grateful.
What a fun drive home, lots of elk hunters out there everywhere we stopped getting congrats. Lots of good people out there.
After getting enough water filtered out for a few days and settled in, we decided to go up the hill behind camp to check things out. I felt like we ought to wait for thermals to settle out, but was chomping at the bit to get some elevation and getter better view of what we had close by. Literally made it less than 200 yds from camp and we crested over a little spine and there was small 5x5 bull bedded in the shade less than 60 yds below us. We were exposed in our position so we froze in place. I was ahead of Joey so I tried to side step an inch at a time to give him an opportunity if the bull stood up. Was fascinating watching him go between head up and lying flat like a puppy dog sleeping for about 15 minutes. Having watched deer bedded before, was pretty similar…… not very restful for wild critters constantly checking their surroundings. Wind was swirling all over, so I knew it was only going to be a matter of time and he was going to get a whiff of us. Amazing how fast they can go from flat sleeping to gone. Pretty exciting way to get things started.
After that bull ran off, we decided to wait out for thermals to steady up. Wasn’t long though and we could hear bugling way off in the dark timber above us. Since he was a long ways off we decided to close the distance some while waiting for the wind to steady up. There were some storms blowing in and it seemed to override the thermals making the wind blow all over. While closing the distance, we ended up hearing a 2nd bull get going. We were about level with him and much closer and it seemed like the thermals finally steadied up, so we decided to close the distance and setup on him. He got pretty fired up and Joey ended up seeing 2 cows before more swirling wind sold us out and sent them running.
Feel like my impatience screwed up both those opportunities, the thermals finally got consistent for good. The original bull above us was still bugling occasionally. We got as close as we dared with the timber being pretty open and setup on him about 125 yds out. I put Joey out in front and started calling sequence. It didn’t take long and Joey had an elk skirting him about 50 yds in front. Joey couldn’t identify if bull or cow, but I suspect was a satellite bull. The vocal Bull got pretty fired up and closed the distance to less than 100 yds, but was never able to get him to come closer before we ran out of shooting light. What a great 1st evening for action.
The next morning, we had plans to head up behind camp into the timber again to the area we found bulls. We didn’t make it a few hundred yards however and could hear a distant bull 90 degrees to our left. Not wanting to leave bugles to find bugles we decided to make a play on him. It took us about 30 minutes to get even with him across a steep ravine. It was very steep and a little intimidating finding a place to get to the bottom and start climbing up on his side. With bugles for motivation we billy goated on all fours at times up to a bench just below where he was bugling. I started off with some subtle cow calls and raking. I gradually built up the cow calling to be more demanding as he got more excited. I mixed in some groaning and bugling. Pretty soon we could hear him raking above us. Joey was about 30 yds in front of me in a young aspen sapling thicket. I gave a contact buzz and all hell broke loose. Could hear him crashing down the hill then he stopped. Joey let an arrow rip at 5yds! He was full frontal and the arrow buried to the fletching right into the thoracic opening. He ran to my right out into a meadow where I cow called to stop him. He didn’t stop long and started running again. Joey watched him stumble out of sight and we heard some crashing.
After about 25 minutes of waiting, we decided to slowly pick up the blood trial. I set a map pin with OnX so I could see how far we had gone as we tracked. Was hoping he’d be laying just over the edge where Joey saw him go out of sight. We had good blood from the get go, good red with small bubbles. It seemed like every 10 yds or so we would find frisbee sized circles of heavy blood. Every log he crossed was covered in blood.
My optimism started to wane though every 100 yds we went. Pretty soon we were closing in on ½ mile from the shot, across a steep ditch and up the other side. As we popped into an opening, he was standing there at about 60 yds behind some branches on the edge of the timber. He gave us a look and pushed into cover. I was deflated…..did not think we’d be seeing him again. Despite that feeling, he was still bleeding really good, so I made the call to keep pushing him and see if we could bleed him out. We just set foot into where he entered the timber and Joey said…. “There is he is”. He was about 45 yds and Joey had 3-4” opening between 2 trees that were close to the bull. He couldn’t tell if it was his front or back he was seeing, but I told him to get another arrow in him regardless. He threaded the needle and put another arrow through his hind end. He stepped forward a few steps and immediately bedded down. Joey ranged it again and came up with 43 yds. I told him to shoot again and he ended up hitting low and a little back. Turned out his range finder picked up a log just in front of him and he was more like 47 yds, which with his setup is probably 4” or so. Joey reaches up to pull out his 4th arrow and I realize that’s his judo point. Luckily with the way he headed we were only about ½ mile from camp, so I slinked backwards, dropped my pack and ran back for his backup arrows and broadheads. I made it back in about 20 minutes….no bull and no Joey in sight. No service either, so I started sneaking towards their last position and I finally heard Joey yell down to me. While I was gone he had got up, stumbled a little bit with blooding pouring out of the third low shot and re-bedded. He died not long after lying back down. What a $hit show!….but I can’t describe the sense of relief and joy. Unfortunately not a clean kill how you would like to see it. I’m pretty surprised his 1st shot wasn’t more effective, but elk are tough critters. The arrow might have deflected or he might not have been as straight on as Joey thought, but it ended up working all the way past the nock completely buried inside him and the broadhead was poking against the farside hide mid ribs. I honestly think he was probably near death with the original hit, but was not taking any chances at getting more arrows into him.
Proud of how well Joey kept his cool under pressure. He shoots competitive 3D IBO archery and I think that pressure along with all the turkey and deer hunts he has been on helped prepare him. Kid is now officially ruined to kill an animal like this on his first elk hunt….let alone of the 2nd day. Feeling absolutely blessed and grateful.
What a fun drive home, lots of elk hunters out there everywhere we stopped getting congrats. Lots of good people out there.
congrats to you and son. Good work being quick for follow up shots, when the opportunity was presented.
