Another bull elk down today in our group. No pictures today. Not that many care anyways
I was not part of that hunt. Instead I went looking for my cow today. I actually got three of them out of the bush and up on the field. One was almost as big as a decent bull, one an average cow and another young one, fairly small in size. There was about 20 minutes left to hunt and I decided to let all of them go, since I was alone and it would be my first elk (well, first I shoot myself). That's more like an excuse though. The real reason is that my wife is due in about a week and I just don't think it is a good idea putting an animal down and then receiving the call with no one to take care of the rest of the job; not that I would want to put anything like this on anyone. So yes, to be honest, I have no idea why go in the first place
Overall, man, was it a nice evening. The wind was perfect! Supper quite, you could hear your call travel the distance down the river valley and then coming back to you echoing from another hill or something. Amazing really. I do not recall experiencing this type of conditions before. And it did produce much better than usually. Bulls bugling from both directions (to the left and to the right of me are two river valleys). One bull was going particularly out of his mind and was closing in. Then his screaming stopped, but others were still responding. I hung around watching the cows and a spike (which showed up out of nowhere and joined the cows) well until dark and went home. When I was walking to my vehicle, I scared another elk about 50 yards (probably less) behind and to the left of me. I haven't seen him, but I heard him galloping away. I am wondering if it was the bull whose screaming stopped as he was closing in.
Anyway, it was a great evening and quite an experience in terms of how the sound traveled today. Good times. Hope y'all are having great days as well!