Tbt of elk seasons past

[Ross]

No one wants to work weeks out from September and fall to come soon….post up your top 3 elk success story/pics and what you recall on that day

2009 a screaming lone bull in a tight basin next to an active my long time friend asked me “can you call him” there was no hesitation…and at 12 yds he screamed looking for his adversary….pick your spot

2004 opening day of rifle pouring rain watched rigs in the distance driving at daybreak I had already been up hiking for two hours….the bull screamed pushing his harem and I cut him off on my favorite ridge

1986 young and first year of archery chased a lot of elk learned something…opening of rifle remember seeing in the distance 3 pumpkin hunters walking a ridge as I scurried to my first 6 point bull screaming and pushing a large cow group

 

[robby denning]

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[Firestone]

2010 my first bull with a bow, September 11th. After years of failing I finally connected with a giant 3x3 at 18 yards. I think I was 19 at the time. I was stoked and still one of my favorite times in the woods

2012 September 12th. First mature bull with a bow. A Friday night after work I hurried into the mountains to locate some elk for the weekend, got lucky and ran into this guy at 43 yards

2019 September 7th opening day was wet and nasty, the jungles of Western Montana were not fun. I stuck with it all day and that evening I called this guy into 18 yards

 

[Geewhiz]

2005 first elk ever. 12 years old. Pa and I went rifle hunting opening morning. Found a 6 point in one of several small openings on a rocky cliffy brushy mountain side in @Firestone 's neck of the woods. I blasted him once at 324 yards. The bull turned and went into the brush. Hiked over to look for him and found no sign of a hit. I was bummed to say the least. Dad thought I had hit him so we organized a crew to direct us to where he was with radios. Sure enough there he was. Turned out we looked in the wrong opening.

2012(?) first Elk with a bow. Found a herd of elk with a decent 6 point during the summer and had them patterned to a t. They would feed out into a clear cut every evening before dark but on different trails. I tried to ambush several different times but they would always feed out on a trail I wasn't on. Finally I threw up a self climbing tree stand and sat one afternoon. 13 cows fed past me at 29 yards followed by that 6 point. Double lunged him and he didn't go far.

2020 first elk with a recurve. 2020 was (obviously) a weird year for many reasons, but the elk woods were different last year as well. A bunch of stuff happened that I won't bore you guys with but on day 5 of the season I stuck a nice 6 point at 32 yards. After I watched him go down 72 yards away, I sat down on that hillside by myself and cried. What a flood of emotions.


Get this thread goin! This could be a good one to pass those last few weeks before season!

 

[Ucsdryder]

ok I’ll play on the last 3 years…




2018 - killed my biggest bull, a mature 6x6 after dogging him and his heard for an hour. I called him in 2x but got busted by a spike once then ran out of cover.




2019 - glassed up a couple of cows and bulls. Waited for the thermals to stabilize and headed in. I was calling for my buddy but he didn’t get it done. 25 yards broadside was too much for me to resist and I ended my season on opening night.





2020 was a double.

Once again I couldn’t help myself and ended up shooting a bull I told myself I would pass on. When a bull comes in bugling to 7 steps, he’s seems to die every time. Even if I tell myself to be picky! The girlfriend killed a GREAT bull for her first ever big game animal! She made a great 25 yard shot!

 

[Ross]

It is about the memories and Replay it builds confidence and keeps the fire burning to forget failure and to learn for further success and memories

 

[5MilesBack]

Let's see.....top three......

2009 - I had a detached retina the week before archery elk started. Had to have the full on surgery and the surgeon told me my season was over. Well a month later with four days to go in the season my Dr said I was fully healed and could go hunting if I wanted. I called a couple buddies and we left two days later that last Friday of the season. Set up camp and then drove to one of my spots. I started cow calling as soon as we left the truck. 10 minutes later I shot a 6x6 that was sneaking in silently below us.

2012 - Heavily hunted OTC unit with a sub 8% success rate (same unit as above). I had hunted for 10 days already and had a few encounters with some cows and small bulls but had some new territory I wanted to explore. My buddy came up the night before and I told him we were going deep the next morning. Right at 0915 after hiking in for a few hours I get a very faint bugle response right up near timberline. I asked my buddy if he heard it and he said "no". We were on a ridge separating two basins and were trying to decide which basin to head into. So I bugled again a bit more aggressively, and the bull cut me right off and was about 100 yards away. I asked my buddy if he heard that and he replied "oh ya". Ended up finally getting a shot at that bull at 10am at 11,600 feet. He scored 308".


2017 - My daughter's first elk hunt.....ML season. She ended up getting a tag when someone else turned theirs in and she was next on the list. On day two of her hunt, she shot the first bull I called in for her that evening. And it was an awesome encounter for her and me. With his first reply, I thought he was a raghorn but decided to play with him anyway just for her experience. After a minute or two he came to life, and I said to myself "that's no raghorn". He eventually worked his way towards her and she shot him at 30 yards.

I have more that were pretty darn exciting, but these three are probably my favorites.

 

[windrunner]

Keep em coming this is awesome

 

[cgasner1]

First solo bull first Montana bull he woke me up from a nap I had been for calling set up in place where elk transition shirt was on when I shot him my boots where not

First 6 point with a bow also solo spotted him and 3 cows on my way into where I was going to hunt he bedded down I slipped in on the cows and waited for him to come check on his ladies

My best bull to date hunted 21 days straight on a rifle tag for him I almost shoot a bull about 10 minutes before found him but luckily talked myself out of it. Was a hard hunt I was putting on 10+ miles a day and hunted most of it solo he was little over 2 miles from the truck with a nasty vertical gain


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[robby denning]

Let's see.....top three......

2009 - I had a detached retina the week before archery elk started. Had to have the full on surgery and the surgeon told me my season was over. Well a month later with four days to go in the season my Dr said I was fully healed and could go hunting if I wanted. I called a couple buddies and we left two days later that last Friday of the season. Set up camp and then drove to one of my spots. I started cow calling as soon as we left the truck. 10 minutes later I shot a 6x6 that was sneaking in silently below us.

2012 - Heavily hunted OTC unit with a sub 8% success rate (same unit as above). I had hunted for 10 days already and had a few encounters with some cows and small bulls but had some new territory I wanted to explore. My buddy came up the night before and I told him we were going deep the next morning. Right at 0915 after hiking in for a few hours I get a very faint bugle response right up near timberline. I asked my buddy if he heard it and he said "no". We were on a ridge separating two basins and were trying to decide which basin to head into. So I bugled again a bit more aggressively, and the bull cut me right off and was about 100 yards away. I asked my buddy if he heard that and he replied "oh ya". Ended up finally getting a shot at that bull at 10am at 11,600 feet. He scored 308".
View attachment 316305

2017 - My daughter's first elk hunt.....ML season. She ended up getting a tag when someone else turned theirs in and she was next on the list. On day two of her hunt, she shot the first bull I called in for her that evening. And it was an awesome encounter for her and me. With his first reply, I thought he was a raghorn but decided to play with him anyway just for her experience. After a minute or two he came to life, and I said to myself "that's no raghorn". He eventually worked his way towards her and she shot him at 30 yards.
View attachment 316310
I have more that were pretty darn exciting, but these three are probably my favorites.

love it all 5 miles

 

[Beendare]

I have been fortunate enough to be bow hunting elk since the early 80s. I think that could be termed the heydays as we felt like we were the only guys in the woods, not a lot of bowhunters and elk would regularly come running to a call.

One of the coolest things I’ve seen was a bull I called in for a buddy. The bull was walking broadside and he caught my buddies movement and turned like a cat facing him. He shot the frontal and his 360g arrow disappeared in that bull.

The bull reared up like Trigger in the Lone Ranger pawing at the aur with his front hooves….came down, took 2 steps…then fell over right there.
—-
One of my best hunts was in about 06 in the Utah little creek unit. I stopped counting at about 40 all of the six point bulls I passed up on that hunt until I called in this one.

Biggest bull I’ve ever seen body wise ( and Ive hunted Az 3x) 9 years old. He had no cows and was cruising around, going into herds and kicking the herd bulls butt and taking what he wanted. First time I had seen that. Not my highest scoring bull but very cool.

 

[7Bartman]

I'm always a sucker for these types of threads. I think I've posted all separately before.

2017: My first solo elk hunt. Bad storm hit and I had to change units for fear of getting stuck in my rental 2WD SUV. I hunted hard and on the last day shot the herd bull at 7AM in the morning. I begged some folks I knew from the year before to help me with the packout. Fortunately, the bull died 100 yards from an ATV trail. I look up at him on my wall everyday.

2018: Another bottom of the ninth hunt. I had basically given up and was walking across the mountain to meet my buddy when I started hearing this bull bugling along and following me. I tried to paint a scenario in his mind. He came into 50, but the vitals were blocked. I think he got nervous and spooked up the mountain a bit. I called him back in and he can screaming at me. He spooked off my draw and I got real lucky that he stopped again at 50. I was real fortunate to get good footage of the shot.

2019: After my hunting buddy got a long overdue bull, the monkey was off my back. We were chasing bugles when we bumped this guy from his bed. He came back to a cow call and I snuck an arrow right through his aorta and he went 15 yards and piled up (unbeknownst to me at the time). This one was easier to relax b/c I still had two days to take care of him.

 

[Jon Boy]

2015. A buddy and I got off a fire assignment and had 2 days of r&r. Snuck into a spot and with in 36 hours I had shot a cow, a 6x7 and my pard killed a 6 point.

2020 was rough. But had two of my best elk hunts with out a tag punched.
First was a nice 6 point herd bull. Was surrounded by his cows and he was ruttimg up a storm. Finally got busted by a spike and when they busted I cow called and he locked them up. Guessed for 60 and sent one right over his back. Incredible experience.

Second was on an a late season idaho hunt where I was hunting some giants. Never did get a shot but it was a good hubt with good friends.

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[Beendare]

Delete

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[mtnbiker208]

2007 my first herd bull, i discovered i really like this bikepacking for elk thing.