Been extremly buzy with last minute bowhunters [hope most of you are not one of these ...lol]
Than opening day came along...took two weeks off to bow hunt
Opening morning was a shock to the system, usually we choice our ground blind or tree stand, get set up well before light and wait until daylight for the ghosts to slowly appear out of an eerie morning fog.
The ghosts, meaning the elk that silently appear seemingly out of nowhere thru a foggy mist, well that wasn’t the case this year, being the first day I certainly wasn’t ready for any of it.
In the near pitch blackness of 4:00 in the AM, As I stumbled towards my stand elk started running by me at the speed of “wholly crap”, I ran towards my blind and dove for cover fearing being trampled as they pasted me on all sides.
Now totally unready and first day in the blind the grass and weeds were waist high and I had to pull it out just to find a spot to sit, so here I am frantically pulling weeds as elk crashed by.
The elk kept coming, with dozens before I it was even slightly light enough to see them, and they wouldn’t leave, I swear they were circling the blind on purpose, I kind of felt like Custer at his last stand.
As legal light came it didn’t slow down, I prepared my blind while trying to keep an eye on the elk, the weeds incidentally turned out to be thistle, thorn bush and stinging needle.
Although I had light gloves on the thorns burned my hands, and then of course whipping the sweat off your face, which most likely came from fear more than the walking or work.
Was not a great idea, the stinging needle which I didn’t see in the dark, was impregnated in my gloves so now my face burned and itched beyond words, but I still kept an eye on the elk, I had very shoot-able bulls within mere yards/meters of me.
In that first five minutes of legal light of opening day I had 5-6 bulls extreme close, however since I didn’t get one of the 12 hunting draws I put in for, I could take my time and be a little picky on taking a bull elk.
The biggest bull a smaller 5X4 antlered bull also wouldn’t leave my blind, I was surrounded on all sides, and he presented me the opportunity a half dozen times, but I decided to pass.
We had four bowhunters in camp and we all seen outstanding action, it was one of the most heart pumping opening days I have ever had, then things went quite…too quite!
For the rest of the week if you didn’t know better you would swear there was never an elk around these parts, it took a lot just to see an elk or two it was like they disappeared off the face of the earth.
But that’s elk hunting, feast or famine…”heard” animals…heard of them…never see them, however that’s what adds to the adventures, and we are a relentless group and sooner or later…looks like later was going to be the norm.
To add to our misery of not seeing elk after that fantastic opening day, things were dampened even more, it wasn’t our spirits rather it was us literally, we have never seen it as wet as it was out there.
This is a place where cactus and sage grows not known for moisture, however in the mornings there was thick morning dew and everything was soaked, we would be soaked to the waist just on the walk in the morning darkness.
We tried Gortex socks and Gortex pants to keep our Gortex boots and feet dry, as cold wet feet made unhappy bowhunters, we found first hand that Gortex waterproof breathable material boots hold water great.
However aside from being wet and elk activity being slow
the trip would have been successful even if we didn’t see elk, but we did, of the four of us three of us are tagged out for elk.
Arnie started it off with a 5x4 bull, than Blaine scored also on a nice 5x4 bull, than it came to my turn when one morning it was like the elk work up and it was feast time.
There was a lot of action that morning and bulls were bugling all over, I was caught up in the action and when a bull came running from a Km away to my bugles and walked just meters from me…
I gave thanks over my bull, a good 5x5 bull with long antler tines; even though there were bigger bulls nearby this bull will also be the best tablefare of the bunch.
We had Barbequed back straps, enjoyed and shared the adventures with good friends and did get some much needed R&R in between the action parts, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Now for a monster mule buck...
Neil
Successful Bow Hunting....
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