6mm Remington
Ammo Smith
- Feb 27, 2006
- 5,272
- 695
I was late getting into the archery game and I shoot a recurve. I really enjoy getting out in the early fall, but my later antelope, deer, and elk rifle hunts seem to take most of my archery time away. Long story short, I've not taken an elk with my bow yet!
Last weekend I went over with a couple friends to my spot. Heard a few bugles, but the bulls were pretty quiet. We did spot and stalk several different bunches of elk and put in some miles. Got close the first couple days to a few different elk, in the neighborhood of 20 yards close but never got any shot.
On Sunday we snuck down a ridge where we had spotted some elk from 3 miles away. We got where we figured we were about where they had been, but of course some time has gone by and they were likely laying down in the shade by now. We set up and a buddy and I were about 20 yards apart with him above me in some brush. My other buddy was further up the hill about 60 yards above us and to our side.
We started cow calling and after about 20 minutes of that the furthest guy got bored and walked up the ridge and was checking out the area above us. Pretty soon me and the other guy heard what sounded like several cows and calves talking and seemed to be coming our way from about 300 yards off. It took them about 10 minutes to make it over to us and pretty soon I could see flashes of elk in the trees / brush below me and could hear them walking around. I had one lane pretty much where they were coming and one cow went through it at 20 yards but never stopped to give me a shot. I heard another one walking up the hill towards me on my right side but I was kneeling on my left knee facing left of that location.
I heard and saw an elk behind the brush about 15 yards away and could tell it was likely coming to my right side and I was afraid if I moved now it would bust me, but I should have tried in hindsight. It was either a big calf or a young cow, and it came up on my right side and walked up to check me out at 14 feet!! I was looking at her from the corner of my eye and she would look up at my friend cow calling, but could not see him from where me and the elk were. She would then look at me trying to see the cow she had just heard talking from there. This lasted for I would estimate 2 minutes before she finally turned and left after not finding what she had heard and not liking the looks of things. Man if only I would have tried and gotten turned to the right I would have had an awesome shot. Almost but not quite. Still it was a lot of fun with many elk seen that weekend and several close contacts. \
This was the closest I've ever been to an elk in the wild and it was pretty cool. Just the experience made the whole week. Not out this week but hitting it again next weekend for three days. Maybe I'll have a bit more luck!!
David
Last weekend I went over with a couple friends to my spot. Heard a few bugles, but the bulls were pretty quiet. We did spot and stalk several different bunches of elk and put in some miles. Got close the first couple days to a few different elk, in the neighborhood of 20 yards close but never got any shot.
On Sunday we snuck down a ridge where we had spotted some elk from 3 miles away. We got where we figured we were about where they had been, but of course some time has gone by and they were likely laying down in the shade by now. We set up and a buddy and I were about 20 yards apart with him above me in some brush. My other buddy was further up the hill about 60 yards above us and to our side.
We started cow calling and after about 20 minutes of that the furthest guy got bored and walked up the ridge and was checking out the area above us. Pretty soon me and the other guy heard what sounded like several cows and calves talking and seemed to be coming our way from about 300 yards off. It took them about 10 minutes to make it over to us and pretty soon I could see flashes of elk in the trees / brush below me and could hear them walking around. I had one lane pretty much where they were coming and one cow went through it at 20 yards but never stopped to give me a shot. I heard another one walking up the hill towards me on my right side but I was kneeling on my left knee facing left of that location.
I heard and saw an elk behind the brush about 15 yards away and could tell it was likely coming to my right side and I was afraid if I moved now it would bust me, but I should have tried in hindsight. It was either a big calf or a young cow, and it came up on my right side and walked up to check me out at 14 feet!! I was looking at her from the corner of my eye and she would look up at my friend cow calling, but could not see him from where me and the elk were. She would then look at me trying to see the cow she had just heard talking from there. This lasted for I would estimate 2 minutes before she finally turned and left after not finding what she had heard and not liking the looks of things. Man if only I would have tried and gotten turned to the right I would have had an awesome shot. Almost but not quite. Still it was a lot of fun with many elk seen that weekend and several close contacts. \
This was the closest I've ever been to an elk in the wild and it was pretty cool. Just the experience made the whole week. Not out this week but hitting it again next weekend for three days. Maybe I'll have a bit more luck!!
David
