My WY Bull

[Stripa Swipa]

So we drove to our canyon the next morning in the dark and decided what end to enter from as to be downwind of as much of it as possible. We started hearing bugles immediately and knew we had a handful of bulls in the right mood. Once we got a decent bearing on most of the activity, we dropped down into the canyon and waited for the sunrise to give us some visibility. As the sun emerged, we had two 6x6's skylined on a ridge about 500 yards up wind of us. There were lots of cows with them and sparse cover between us and them so we stayed put hoping some scenario we could act on would transpire.

[Palmetto Bug]

Damn Stripa! That is truly AWESOME! I am holding my breath waiting on the rest of the story.

[2thDoc]

i cant imagine where this story is going because there aint a tree to hide behind!

[CarolinaBoykin]

What an adventure and accomplishment! Looking forward to the rest of the story! Would love to also hear about equipment recommendations as I would like to do a DIY in the future and am starting from scratch on accumlating what is needed for this.

[Stripa Swipa]

After we watched the bulls bugle and parade from our perch in some rimrock below, after about 20 minutes, the elk started to break apart and move in several directions. The large 6X6 moved off to our right, never giving us an opportunity to move in on him until he dissapeared over a ridge. The smaller, bull bedded on the hillside 50 yards below the ridge line so we decided he was the best opportunity for a stalk. We did a wide around to use the terrain and wind to our advantage so we could get as close as possible to him before getting exposed up close. As we are getting into the 100 yard range, my buddy whispers excitedly that he's on his feet 60 yards ahead. We freeze and notice he's tearing a small pine to pieces and is facing away from us. Wind is perfect, so I knock an arrow and start sneaking deliberately straight at him. I tried to keep a burnt timber trunk between us at all times and would freeze when he'd lift his head to look around. When I got to forty yards, a raghorn showed up from my left and began feeding between me and the bull. I was pinned by this raghorn for a good ten minutes and the 6x6 just thrashed away, never knowing I was in the world. If that raghorn hadn't been there, I could have walked straight to that bull and spanked him on the ass with my bow. The raghorn finally moved into my scent trail and boogered the opportunity. My buddy got to watch the whole stalk up close and personal. We were both jacked with adrenaline. 30 minutes into the first morning.....we didn't know whether it would be like this until we got an elk or if we'd just been handed the best chance we'd get.

This was the little pine....

[JABIII]

i cant imagine where this story is going because there aint a tree to hide behind!

At least we know THIS story won't end up with the Elk getting up and flying off...

Carry on Stripa!

[Glenn]

At least we know THIS story won't end up with the Elk getting up and flying off...

Carry on Stripa!

Blam!

Next chapter please.

[ahsfbman]

The suspense is killing me. This maybe even worst than waiting from week to week for swamp people to some on the history channel.

SHIT...

[everlast]

pure awesomeness! congrats!

[Stripa Swipa]

I don't remember too much about the rest of the morning but about lunch time, we noticed one of the herds had gathered around a wallow that was only about 150 yards from our rimrock perch down in the bottom of the canyon. We felt like we get up in there without getting busted so off we went. We sat for about two hours and watched probably a 100 elk just be elk. We didn't have a choice but to wait and just enjoy the show through 10 power glass. The biggest herd bull was over 350 and just an unbelievable thing to witness as he bugled, licked cows, chased satellite bulls, layed that massive rack down on his side to nap etc. Finally, they started to move around in smaller groups, and so did we.

[Palmetto Bug]

Can anyone tell me how to fast forward through the commercials? I need to take a breath.

[Carla Dee]

awesome storytelling and great hunt. this is what hunting is all about... too many "shootings" in many elk encounters...

waiting on the rest.

[UMTduckhead]

good stuff... glad it worked out..

[Stripa Swipa]

We made our way up slowly into the burnt timber hillside that was the downwind side of the basin. We needed to stay at a safe distance from the elk but also be in a better striking position than the rimrock perch offered if an opportunity arose. About 6:30, we spot a lone bull on a ridge to our left. He's a good 6x6 and moving in our direction. As he covers a few hundred yards, we realize we better start angling in on his line. He was obviously headed somewhere with a purpose. I continued to move down the hill hoping to cut him off as he went buy us and finally ran out of cover as he passed at about 50 yards. He went up to that wallow and proceeded roll around, flipping and flopping on his back like a silly yard dog rolling on a dead fish. It was almost funny had it not been a bull elk that I couldn't get closer to. After about 5 minutes of his sillyness, he started to move away from us. I darted wide to the right and got the rimrock perch between us. Then sprinted into some cover and hoped I'd catch him on the other side. Not fast enough. I was in some relatively thick stuff, so I thought I'd hit him with some cow calls. He stopped and bugled at me but never would come closer to investigate. We finally just let him move away unspooked.
Our thoughts at the end of the first full day...THIS IS INCREDIBLE!
But more importantly, we were learning to get aggressive at the right times and be patient at the right times. Keep them in the area but if we could average two good opportunities a day, our chances were good with 10 days to hunt.

[Stripa Swipa]

I'm not sure if this is the bull from that encounter, but it is a pic my buddy snapped of a bull in that wallow to give you an idea....

[Stripa Swipa]

The next morning when we crawled out of the tent, a front was moving in on us. Much cooler weather, misty rain, clouds etc. The wind direction had also done a 180 so our approach to the canyon and safe glassing perches would have to change. We were relieved to hear bugles filling the canyon when we arrived nothing was very close to where we started. As the sun revealed the landscape, the bad news was that the elk were herded up big time clear across the canyon, in the wide open and dangerously close to the private ground. Nothing to do but keep them in the glass and hope something changed. We sat for a few hours with the cold wind pounding us in the face on our high perch. The elk were bedding on the opposite side of the canyon on a hillside blocking the wind. Damn animals are smart some times. The temps were dropping so we decided to go check out some new ground for a couple of hours. Warm up a bit and start to develop a plan B just in case our honey hole started turning sour.

Somebody asked about gear.....Here's my partner with his borrowed day pack and his "high end" Drake duckin outfit. I have a lot of thoughts on gear but don't get too stressed over not having all the specialty stuff.

[Stripa Swipa]

After we killed a couple of hours exploring more of our area, we came back to find the big herd still hunkered down on the same hillside. A dense fog rolled in and out and though the bugling kept us clued in to their location, we started to lose visibility. After we were frozen to the bone and the fog had settled in solid, we cut out for camp about 5pm. A little time to make calls to the family before they were in bed and get general camp/gear chores knocked out is a necessary time out on hunts like these. Full day two turned out to be a sobering experience. Two opps a day just went to a one a day average. A couple more dry days could make the odds begin to look like a fold'em scenario. Doubt started to creep in...

[2thDoc]

hurry up day three!

[duckduckdog]

please go ahead and tell me you didn't kill this thing on day 10, 3 minutes before you were supposed to leave....at least then I'll know if I should go ahead and try to get some work done and catch up later...

[Stripa Swipa]

My primary contact out there told me that the early part of the week would be best as the end of the week and especially the weekend, WY hunters would roll in and the elk feeling the pressure would head to the sanctuary of private ground. On day three, we see a truck sitting in our normal parking spot when we arrive. When we tried to make polite conversation, the guy was visibly agitated by us so we just drove up a bit and parked. Well, he proceeded to then drive on by us so we just started walking back and decided to enter the canyon lower than any day previously. The wind direction made it a good choice as well but we were really just trying to create some space from the other guy. At daylight, we are hearing this yahoo cut off every bull's bugle with his own and then we see a big herd hightailing out of the canyon and over the mountain top. Oh boy...here we go.

We are still on the opposite side of the canyon from dumbass and luckily for us, we have a bull bugling pretty darn close. We drop down into a draw so we can travel closer without getting skylined and finally work our way as close as we can to the elk. This was the scene when I peaked up over the edge.

While I didn't get him in the picture, there was an awesome herd bull that was on this little hill with these cows.