Was able to get an arrow in a yearling on the final morning of my hunt after not seeing a single elk for 4 days. I had done a bunch of scouting in July and knew they were around but couldn't find them in any of the spots I saw them while scouting. I still saw nothing the last morning and decided to walk some north facing slopes on the way out just to see if I could bump something still in disbelief I hadn't even seen an elk (lots of fresh sign though)
It was the third or fourth slope I checked and I finally bumped the herd. I was able to haul ass around the ridge to get my wind right and get right in tight on em. All I had to do was wait for them to feed down to me but the moment got to be too much and I forced a bad shot and hit an Aspen tree. The herd the dropped into a canyon and I followed.
Started hearing cow chirps which helped me locate them again. I got right back into the herd and at that point a rag horn (which I had no clue was there) starts bulging 100 yards up from the cows and gets out of his bed to start raking. I was so in aw of what I was watching I almost forgot what I was there for. The herd began to move up the ridge towards the bull and I was able to put a 55 yard shot I to a yearling.
There were a bunch of spikes in the herd and I definitely wanted one of them but after breaking down and packing out the yearling solo anything larger would have spelled trouble for me solo 4 miles in. Definitely addicted to changing elk now.
It was the third or fourth slope I checked and I finally bumped the herd. I was able to haul ass around the ridge to get my wind right and get right in tight on em. All I had to do was wait for them to feed down to me but the moment got to be too much and I forced a bad shot and hit an Aspen tree. The herd the dropped into a canyon and I followed.
Started hearing cow chirps which helped me locate them again. I got right back into the herd and at that point a rag horn (which I had no clue was there) starts bulging 100 yards up from the cows and gets out of his bed to start raking. I was so in aw of what I was watching I almost forgot what I was there for. The herd began to move up the ridge towards the bull and I was able to put a 55 yard shot I to a yearling.
There were a bunch of spikes in the herd and I definitely wanted one of them but after breaking down and packing out the yearling solo anything larger would have spelled trouble for me solo 4 miles in. Definitely addicted to changing elk now.