First Archery Elk Hunt Trip Report

[5MilesBack]

Question(s): Why are the bulls responding and going silent?

I would have to hear your bugle. From a distance a lot of bugles sound similar, but when you get close you had better sound like the real thing, because they CAN tell the difference. If I can tell the difference between a hunter and elk, I know the elk can.

 

[mtnrunner260]

If the thick timber your in doesn't have any feed (grass) in it then elk will bed and seek sanctuary there but will be in the meadows or even more likely broken timber that does offer pockets of grass.

If you haven't seen the elknut app it is well worth it.

Keep the updates coming.

 

[thamesj]

Great write up! Thanks for sharing.

Good article here from Darin on another option for your single pin setup. I have been messing around with it here at the house and have started to like it. It seems to help with my target panic too since I love aim low haha.

The "Trick-Pin" System - Rokslide

 

[Netherman]

Great write up! Thanks for sharing.

Good article here from Darin on another option for your single pin setup. I have been messing around with it here at the house and have started to like it. It seems to help with my target panic too since I love aim low haha.

The "Trick-Pin" System - Rokslide

as an engggineer you guys are lucky I even know what words are... spelling isn't my strong suit.

That aim low system seems to be a variation of the point blank range one. I'm not sure how much I like the always aiming low part. I've been doing some searching and found one idea where you have three pins and float the center one. inside 50 the top and bottom are +or- 10 and beyond they are +or- 5. I might give this a try but I'd have to get a new sight. I really like the 1 pin coming up from the base of the sight. I feel like it helps me keep everything level without looking at the level.

Nick

 

[Netherman]

I would have to hear your bugle. From a distance a lot of bugles sound similar, but when you get close you had better sound like the real thing, because they CAN tell the difference. If I can tell the difference between a hunter and elk, I know the elk can.

Not that I consider myself a calling champion but I think I'm OK. I love calling turkeys which is what led me to choose a bow for my first elk hunt rather than a rifle. So I've spent a fair amount of time practicing. A lot of the times we got a response we would bugle again to try and figure out exactly where the bull was and never get a response. The echoing in the canyons makes it tough to pinpoint them. Would you typically go after a bull in that situation or would you keep moving in search of one who wanted to respond?

 

[UtahJimmy]

as an engggineer you guys are lucky I even know what words are... spelling isn't my strong suit.

That aim low system seems to be a variation of the point blank range one. I'm not sure how much I like the always aiming low part. I've been doing some searching and found one idea where you have three pins and float the center one. inside 50 the top and bottom are +or- 10 and beyond they are +or- 5. I might give this a try but I'd have to get a new sight. I really like the 1 pin coming up from the base of the sight. I feel like it helps me keep everything level without looking at the level.

Nick

I know your pain! (see pic)

I run a 3 pin sider with my middle pin being the one matching the tape. I also have a second tape on the outside that matches the top pin. This gives me an exact reference of my top and bottom pin.

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[5MilesBack]

Would you typically go after a bull in that situation or would you keep moving in search of one who wanted to respond?

As soon as I get a response, I'm off and running. While I'm running, I'm determining or guessing on a lot of stuff. First and foremost......what's the wind doing? Is he coming? Is he stationary? Is he a satellite or does he have cows? What's his mood? What part of the season are we in? And then I adjust from there. I rarely ever use cow calls. However, cow calls work great on silent bulls or satellites. I'm not patient enough for that game.

 

[Osprey]

I'm not an archery expert by any means but I think you guys are overthinking this pin set up. Location says your from Michigan so I'm assuming you have experience bow hunting whitetails why not just use the same set up you have been for those? I've got a 20 yd pin then a pin every 10 yds after that. I know my bow shoots pretty fast for 65# draw and I would really have to fudge a range estimate to miss a Bull elks vitals inside 50 yds. I'm not about to change the way my pin configuration has been since I started bowhunting just because I'm hunting out west too many other variables. I know my 20 yd pin shot at 40 yds arrow drop is maybe 12" I'd have to measure but it aint enough for me to worry about if your +/- 10yds on judging you should without a doubt prob be ok. I know with my bow if I think the elk is 30 and use the 30 pin and hes actually 40 I'm packing meat if I went for a lung shot. I always go for the lungs since experiece bow hunting I almost always miss low if I misjudge distance.

Also when you set up in a calling sequence do a quick range of the area dont need a lot of things just a few spots spread out if you range one tree at 30 then if the elk steps out over there and looks maybe 10 yds beyond you go 40 pin. You don't need a 20 30 40 in the same line. I wouldn't fiddle around with ranging once the elk is close and you can see it though unless your absolutly sure you can get away with it. When they come in they are looking for movement to find the animal making the noise.

 

[Randle]

I would have to hear your bugle. From a distance a lot of bugles sound similar, but when you get close you had better sound like the real thing, because they CAN tell the difference. If I can tell the difference between a hunter and elk, I know the elk can.

Been fooled by a few elk that sounded like a hunter,be careful with that one, haha

 

[njdoxie]

Enjoyed the write up.

 

[Netherman]

I'm not an archery expert by any means but I think you guys are overthinking this pin set up. Location says your from Michigan so I'm assuming you have experience bow hunting whitetails why not just use the same set up you have been for those? I've got a 20 yd pin then a pin every 10 yds after that. I know my bow shoots pretty fast for 65# draw and I would really have to fudge a range estimate to miss a Bull elks vitals inside 50 yds. I'm not about to change the way my pin configuration has been since I started bowhunting just because I'm hunting out west too many other variables. I know my 20 yd pin shot at 40 yds arrow drop is maybe 12" I'd have to measure but it aint enough for me to worry about if your +/- 10yds on judging you should without a doubt prob be ok. I know with my bow if I think the elk is 30 and use the 30 pin and hes actually 40 I'm packing meat if I went for a lung shot. I always go for the lungs since experiece bow hunting I almost always miss low if I misjudge distance.

Also when you set up in a calling sequence do a quick range of the area dont need a lot of things just a few spots spread out if you range one tree at 30 then if the elk steps out over there and looks maybe 10 yds beyond you go 40 pin. You don't need a 20 30 40 in the same line. I wouldn't fiddle around with ranging once the elk is close and you can see it though unless your absolutly sure you can get away with it. When they come in they are looking for movement to find the animal making the noise.

I definitely have the most experience with whitetails but as a late onset hunting addict I don't have much experience at anything. I started hunting in college and am currently on year 4 of my hunting career. So my first sight was a "ready to hunt" truglo 3 pin that seemed fragile which is what led me to researching the 1 pin in the first place. As an engineer the point blank range thing made a lot of sense when it came to rifles, but for bows I'm still not so sure.

I agree on ranging a few things at the initial setup. It all came together so quickly and I was questioning my spot I didn't make a point to range things and missed my chance. I think the concept of PBR (engineers love them some acronyms probably because we suck at spelling) is sound I just needed to trust it. If I put the pin on the center of his lungs it wouldn't matter that I thought he was at 40 yds it would still hit 6" below the center. In reality it would have been about 4" high since he was at 30. Either case would have resulted in a dead elk if I did my part.

Nick

 

[Netherman]

It was a slow day at work so I knocked out another day ahead of schedule.

Day 5:
I wanted to stay in the new area but was outvoted. Maybe I just didn’t want to relive day 3 but we were hearing bulls and seeing fresh sign in the new area and I didn’t want to trade that for the unknown. We started our day glassing from the same point as day 3 and after an hour decided that we needed to get moving. We hiked up the same drainage as before and bugled our way up with no response. By noon we had decided that the elk must have moved on (maybe further up or a few drainages over). We ate a premium lunch (brats) at the truck and headed back to yesterday’s area.

Since me and my friend had been having the most (very limited) success we decided that we would switch hunting partners and see if they could discover what we were doing differently. Now hunting with the cousin we hiked up to the top of a drainage and proceeded to hike down it giving location bugles as we went. We got to a point where another drainage connected to ours and received a response bugle with chuckles. Rather than try and pinpoint with another bugle we decided to get to the other side of the drainage as quickly as possible. Once we got over there I began cow calling hoping that this would give a better result than our previous bugles had. Still no response so we began working our way down the drainage cow calling. Gotta keep moving. At the bottom of the drainage we bugled and heard an answer with light failing we booked it down to the bottom we heard the bugle and once we got down there we called again with no response. Night was rapidly approaching so we decided to head back to camp.

On the way back we were coming up on a pocket of timber when we saw two sets of eyes. I immediately thought they were elk and was trying to get a look at them before they ran. They did not run and began moving toward us. Watching them trying to figure out what they were I dismissed the possibility of them being bears. They were moving with too much fluidity and grace to be bears. Those yellow eyes. Shit. Those are cats or based on my experience with my barn cats giant death machines. I had bear spray but with them at 70 yards it wasn’t going to do much. I tried yelling at them to go away and banged my trekking poles together with no result. I asked the cousin who did have a gun to fire a round in the dirt to scare them away but he didn’t want to. He was worried that my friend would hit the SOS button on his InReach if he heard a shot. I questioned how he would even know that it was us that fired the shot but no dice. So began our trek thru what we now refer to as The Gauntlet. Our camp was just past them thru the timber about a quarter mile. The longest quarter mile of the trip by far. Every 10 steps I would look back and see those eyes following us. They would realize I was looking back and duck behind some sage brush or a tree and then slowly peek back at us. I don’t think they understood that their eye reflection was betraying them. This went on for about 15 minutes that felt like 15 years and then they were gone. We made it back to camp stressed and tired. We told our story to the others and then the snowstorm began. This was the first time I was thankful for the storm as it would hopefully keep the two cats bedded riding it out. Between the storm, shaking off the tents every hour, and the sense of impending doom we didn’t sleep well.

Lesson(s) Learned: Stay on the elk once you’ve found them. One in the bush is worth a thousand bushes, or something like that. I will be bringing a gun next time rather than relying on another’s. I think the right thing to do was move towards the cats and shoot into the ground to scare them. I wanted to let them know that we are predators and not prey.

Question(s): What would you do if being stalked by a lion? Would you do something different if it were a bear? What if it were Grizzly vs Black bear?

 

[thamesj]

Oops meant to put spelling as my reason for edit not the title. LOL I cant spell for beans.

 

[Osprey]

I must admit that I also looked into that pin set up but never moved to it since I have experience on my set up and have payed my dues with hard learned lessons with it already didn't feel like learning any more hard lessons with a new set up. I think any set up will work its just getting used to it you will learn hard lessons with any set up but I would stick to whatever works best for you.

Archery hunting is hard, it is filled with hard learned lessons, its what we do with those lessons that will play into future success. When I first started I used to get really bummed with blown opportunites its really easy to do when you work hard for em. Now I don't I just learn from it figure out what I should have done and move on, you made an opportunity happen and you can do it again! It seems simple but if your head stays in the game and your focused on improvement without getting frusterated you make much fewer mistakes. When your frusterated or bummed out you tend to make more mistakes in the long run as well as start doubting yourseld and you start to become lazy just my take on it. Hunting heavily hunted mature whitetails taught me many lessons that I use in all the hunting that I do.

I will also state don't leave elk once you find em I've been burned by that one before with the grass is greener more than likely it proabably isn't.

 

[Netherman]

Day 6:
Cold. Last night was the coldest of the trip and we were frozen. This was by far the hardest morning to wake up and get out of bed. We planned to be up and moving by 545 and didn’t get going until 6. The night before we had planned to climb a ridge and glass some drainages. The walk was tough with 4 inches of snow of the ground, we got to the glassing point by 630 and glassed for an hour or so. Not hearing or seeing anything we decided to head back to camp and pack up and get the truck and trailer out before the “road” became impassable.

On our way back we spotted a heard of elk in the valley. We quickly hurried along the ridges to get above them and hopefully intercept them as they headed back up the drainages into the timber to bed. Once we got to a good vantage point with a good wind we hurriedly ate breakfast and kept an eye on them. By 945 the elk still were out in the valley eating. One bull with 15 cow elk. It didn’t seem likely that we would be able to sneak down there with little cover and all those eyes. Not knowing what to do my friend and I began discussing options and time limits. If by 11 they were still down there we were going to make a move. None of those plans came to fruition since at 1015 a snow squall rolled in and created near white out conditions. Our cover had arrived and without so much as a word we both began running down into the valley. As we got closer we checked the GPS to help us determine where we were in relation to the heard. Confident that we were one small rise away we got set up. My friend moved forward and slightly downwind and I stayed behind to call. We waited about 10 minutes and the snow began to clear up. I bugled and the response I received was not a bugle but loud foot steps as the bull stomped his way towards us. I called again just to keep him looking my way and then saw him running up towards the mountains. My friend hadn’t set up far enough downwind and had the elk come right at him rather than between us. He also had set up sitting down rather than kneeling and without a cow call. The sitting position made it impossible for him to pivot and draw without being detected and the lack of a call prevented him from stopping the bull. I’ve been teasing him about that bull calling it the $1,000 bull for the cost of the obligatory shoulder mount for a bull that size.

Dejected we headed back to camp to pack up and get the truck out. We planned to stay at a motel in town to try and get warm/dry. We got to the motel around 12 and got our clothes out to dry and headed to the local bar for lunch. I don’t know if it was just relative to the food I had been eating but this was the best pizza I had ever eaten. We finished lunch got back to the room, suited up, and headed back out to hopefully get another crack at Mr. 1,000.

Back in the field we began looking for the bulls cows that had scattered assuming that he wouldn’t want to let them go. Hiking along the bottom we spotted a cow and calf on their own. Hopefully they were part of his heard and he would be back looking for them. We put a half assed stalk on them without our hearts in it. If you guessed that we let them get our wind and blew them two counties over you’d be right. Continuing on we found a huge heard with probably 20+ cow and one bull. Unfortunately it wasn’t Mr. 1,000 or even Mr. 800. It was however in our estimation a good bull and worth going after (we would have gone after anything legal). As we headed over there we realized that they were pinned against private land and had to do a wide arc to stay in cover and on the public. We just had to hope that they were in that meadow for the long haul. Finally we got around the private and were making our move on the elk in the meadow. We were in a bottom on the edge of the meadow and the plan was for my friend to sneak up as far as he could while I stayed on the bottom. I gave him 10 minutes to get into position then bugled. The response was angry and immediate with both of us bugling and cutting each other off. I bugled and thrashed every small pine tree in that bottom. He seemed to get close than move away and then the cycle would repeat. Finally everything went quiet and I heard the turkey call I had been dreading. I headed up to the top and noticed that my friend still had a full quiver of arrows. Man. We had to have been close. He told me what had happened and I was bummed I missed the show.

He said that once he got over the ridge there were 30+ elk in the meadow and once I bugled the heard bull it was Mr. 1000 or similar came flying over and stopped just below a rise that he couldn’t shoot over. Mr. 1000 would bugle and shake his head at me. The problem was that the bull we were initially after was trying to slip in and steal his cows. Apparently Mr. 1000 would run over to the edge and bellow his distaste for my presence only to have to run back and protect his cows from the other bull. This cycle repeated itself with my friend hoping that the bull would take an extra 10 steps each time he came over to the call. Eventually Mr. 1000 got sick of the game and pushed all his cows over the ridge and out of our lives. With darkness upon us we began the walk back to the truck. Now we were faced with a decision we could drop down to the valley and hike back up to the truck or keep our elevation and walk thru the gauntlet to the truck. Tired legs for a week of hiking the mountains won out and we began the hike handgun locked and loaded and bear spray accessible.

Lesson(s) Learned: Stand or kneel never sit and try to keep the brush behind or beside you rather than in front. Always have a call ready as a shooter.

Question(s): How do you deal with a heard/satellite bull situation? Do you try and slip in closer or cow call at the satellite?

 

[Netherman]

Day 7:
Last day and only a half day at that. Some asshat decided to get married September 23 and the bride made my wife the maid of honor so I wasn’t getting out of this one. I’ve got a friend that has a life rule that “if you get married between September 1st and January 1st, not only am I not going but I am also fighting you”. That’s sounding more and more like the truth right about now.

We changed up groups again and I was hunting with the brother this time. We started off hiking to a different glassing point and didn’t see anything so we started working up a drainage that we hadn’t be in yet. About 15 minutes into our hike we got a response to a location bugle and it was close just a bit further around this point in the drainage. As we worked our way closer I cow called and was met with a bugle response each time. As we got closer we decided they were just over this rise. So, the brother moved up as the shooter and I stayed back to call. Once I thought he was in position I let out a bugle and was met with a response which I cut off. I heard two bugles in response then they began to fade into the distance. Not hearing the all clear call I continued raking and bugling for another 5 minutes. I then began cow calling and hadn’t heard a response so I turkey called. Still no response about 10 minutes later I got the rundown of what had happened.

The bull was smaller with two cows. He heard me bugle and bugled back and poked his head into the small clearing at 60 yards but by the time he ranged him he and his cows had moved out of the opening and were moving up the drainage. He tried to follow them but they started walking away with the wind at their backs and they winded him. With the snow we followed their tracks to try and figure out where they were bedded and realized that they were never bedded and were walking up the drainage. We then started following their tracks and based on the tracks it looked like another bull ran off the smaller one and added his cows to his. Pimpin ain’t easy. They were travelling into the wind so we began to follow them cow calling occasionally. We followed them up the drainage, then followed them up the drainage, then we followed them up the drainage some more. We found two trees that the bull had a disagreement with while walking his bulls up the drainage that gave us hope that they might stop and bed down. About ¾ of the way up the drainage we realized we weren’t going to catch them. So we looked at the GPS and found a new drainage that would loop us back to the truck. We bugled our way back and just as we were about to climb the final hill we had a response it was far away and back up the drainage. We hightailed it back there and let out another bugle. No response. We hiked up the other side we thought the bull was on and began cow calling. Still no response. We wandered around for another 20 minutes and then headed back to the truck, packed up, and headed home. This trip was the most miserable fun I had ever had. I can’t wait to go back next year and hopefully get it done. We came so close and learned from our mistakes as the trip progressed.

Lesson(s) Learned: I should have continued cow calling the small bull since he was responding to them rather than going to the bugle that likely pushed him away. Maybe we could have snuck in on him while I kept him talking. Don’t follow tracks unless you have a good wind and time to keep on them until they bed down.

Question(s): What do you guys do when you come across tracks? From my limited experience it seems like a lost cause unless you are using them to get a direction then cutting them off.

 

[sharpshooter269]

As soon as I get a response, I'm off and running. While I'm running, I'm determining or guessing on a lot of stuff. First and foremost......what's the wind doing? Is he coming? Is he stationary? Is he a satellite or does he have cows? What's his mood? What part of the season are we in? And then I adjust from there. I rarely ever use cow calls. However, cow calls work great on silent bulls or satellites. I'm not patient enough for that game.

^^^^ what this guy says!
That late in September a lot of Bulls probably have cows, we had similar experience just had to find the right bull in the right mood at the right time. Took a lot of attempts but we did it.



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[Netherman]

Day 8:
Back home. My friend and I have big game combo tags so the return trip planning begins now. Our original plan was to deer hunt with his dad the first week of November. Unfortunately, he didn’t draw so we have deer and elk tags and some decisions to make. I’m leaning towards a deer focused spot and stalk hunt which would probably force us into a different unit than we elk hunted. I foresee a lot more internet time figuring out where to go. But hey, that’s half the fun. Hopefully we can knock down some deer quickly and head back for elk redemption.

Don’t worry I didn’t forget that this is rokslide and everyone on here’s a gear junkie. That said, here’s my summary of what gear worked and what didn’t.

Noteworthy Gear:
Trekking poles. These were the one item other than my bow that I couldn’t do without. They were huge in navigating the steep terrain. One guy had some cheap aluminum ones and had one bend. After a half day on one pole he had to get it working again. We bent it back straight and duct taped a stick as a splint. It worked pretty well after that. Based on that experience I’d recommend carbon or at least aluminum from a name brand.

Merino base layers. These were awesome. When covered in sweat and worn multiple days it never smelled.

Merino socks: These get their own line they were that awesome. We had a mix of smartwool, darn tough, and firstlite and everyone agreed they were great. Half the time I didn’t know my feet were wet until I took my boots off at the end of the day.

Ibuprofen. After the third day I started taking this three times a day and it really helped with my joints soreness.

Call clip for hat. I used to have a hunters specialty one I had used turkey hunting but stumbled across the one by bendable products that works much better. It was really nice to have a call quickly accessible at all times.

Salami and cheese stick tortilla rollups. Not the lightest, most calorie dense, or longest lasting (3 day limit for me), but delicious. I did the PBH bagels and they were good too but this felt like human food rather than backpacking food.

Disappointing Gear:

Merino beanie. Merino’s anti odor attributes and warm while wet attributes are nice but, once wet plan on being wet for a long time. Our conditions were unique for September but once it got wet it never got dry until we got to the motel.

E-Trex 20. Difficult to see compared to my friend’s Montana 600. Still gets the job done and significantly cheaper. I’ll probably use the onx phone app and use the e-trex as a supplement going forward.

Not really gear but way too much food. I don’t know if it was the elevation but I never really got hungry and was forcing myself to eat in the morning and evenings. Next time I’ll probably cut 1/3 of my food and it will probably still be too much.

New Gear to Buy:

Synthetic softshell jacket with DWR. Looking at the Kuiu teton next time they do the 20-30% off sale.

Synthetic beanie. Looking at the sitka beanie that has been on and off at camofire.

Pants with waterproof seat and knees. Looking at the sitka timberline just need a super/camofire deal to justify.

Waterproof mittens. Something to put over gloves to keep my hands dry. Still TBD maybe try the chopper mitts a la Randy Newberg.

Floorless tent with stove. Probably not next year but I’m planning to do some research. Big question is what size is best for me? Gun to my head I’d gladly take a Redcliff but I want to do some more research before pulling the trigger.

Backpacking handgun. Looking at the S&W329pd and Taurus 444. Leaning towards the 329 but it’s pretty expensive.

 

[UtahJimmy]

New Gear to Buy:

Synthetic beanie. Looking at the sitka beanie that has been on and off at camofire.

Pants with waterproof seat and knees. Looking at the sitka timberline just need a super/camofire deal to justify.

Call Black Ovis/Camofire about these items. They'll honor their camofire price if it's in stock!

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[mossyhorn]

Man, great write up! I feel like you guys 15 years ago when I was figuring it all out. I still am a bit perplexed as to the one response bulls and how to handle that. My only suggestion is that when you hear a bugle, you gotta get close before you respond,which if sounds like you tried. I would try to get in close and respond with a cow call. If the bull responds at that point, challenge him.

Despite one set of advice, you can too chase them down. If they're bugling, you keep chasing them. I killed my first branch bull this year by doing just that. Kept after him and finally got to where he was gonna bed. Got in close and cut him off and challenged him while taking a tree. That was enough, he came and I shot him.

Keep moving too. Don't bugle and call repeatedly from one spot, keep moving and break stuff, be noisy, sound like an elk. Shooter needs to be mobile. I don't like being on my knees, if I need to take a side step or make an adjustment then standing let's me do that. Unless I'm in the open, then I'll kneel.

Good luck on your return trip. Great, honest write up!