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3 months until a duodecennial….

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It wasn't all just herd bulls either. I blew my fair share of chances at satellite bulls too. One evening, we were in our honey hole and had the herd bull fired up. But, there was a nice 5x5 satellite bull that was between him and us. This smaller bull wanted to play. AT was setup 60-70 yards behind me and the satellite bull kept coming to within 35 yards broadside, but he just wouldn't clear a small thing of brush and give me a shot. He was completely silent the whole time, but he sure loved raking the pine trees in the area. He tore every one of them to shreds. Eventually, it got too dark and we had to lay off the calling so we could slip out of there.

The next day was the last day of bow season, so we returned to the same spot hoping to make a play on one of the 2 bulls. While glassing, we looked across the ridge and Mr. Blue Hat was glassing the same basin as us. Only his scent was blowing straight into the honey hole. We never heard a bugle. Just before legal shooting light AT urgently whispers "nock an arrow". I nock an arrow. AT, "look left". Me, "I don't see nothing". He lines his hands up on each side of his head and gives me the ole tunnel vision signal. Just then, the 5x5 steps out from behind a pine tree at 40. He's coming straight at us. We were in a basin surrounded by desert. He had no option but to cut to my right and walk right by us. Elk are elk and for some reason, he cut up over the ridge and started to walk out into a barren desert. I run up to the ridge but he caught my wind and blew out of there.

Just like that, bow season was over............

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Buzzard Breath said:
Herd bulls become herd bulls because they don't screwup very often. For instance, the second morning, we were hunting in one of our little honey hole pockets that had a herd with a nice 6x6 in it. AT was setup behind me to call. I had a nice clearing to my left and it was the perfect runway for the bull to come down. The bull must have read the script. The bull came into the clearing and him and AT bugled back and forth with each other for about 10 minutes. The bull finally had enough and came through the opening like he was being pulled by a string. That is, until he got to 15 yards from me. Then he decided he wanted to cut through the pine thicket I was setup in. This was going to put him to my right and on my downwind side. I had to reposition myself while drawing. He was having none of it and busted out of their. A bugle by AT stopped him at 40. He was slightly quartering away. A shot I could make in my sleep. Except there was a dead pine tree with all it's branches running the length of its body.

Or, the next day. We called another 6x6 in a different area. He had a decent herd of cows with a couple spikes harassing them. He was working his way up the meadow towards us when a satellite 6x3 came in from the side and challenged him. The satellite bull had a typical 6 on his left, but his right had 2 spikes and a big club coming out of his left side. Super cool bull. The herd bull charged him and ran him off, but chased him up into the woods. When he finally showed back up, he herded his cows up and ran them up an adjacent mountain. 2 days later we did glass this herd back up as they were returning their pocket we initially encountered them in.

The morning after we glassed them up, we made another play on them. This morning, they were silent, but we spotted them coming up and area they'd cut some timber out of and were working towards us. Remember those spikes I mentioned? Just as the herd was coming into a shooting lane, the big bull finally had enough of them. He charged them and run them into the next county. Just as he returned, the cows got downwind of me and they all buggered out.

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Yes sir. It's always exciting hunting elk. They are a breed of their own and you just never know what they will do at the last second. Where I live I see a nice herd almost on a daily basis. A very majestic animal. Sounded like a very enjoyable and productive hunt.
 
BPhunter said:
That weather is pretty typical around bow season…
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Not where we were at. We have been breaking high temp records for a few weeks now. We are still 10 degrees above average.
Supposed to break another 80 degree day time high temp tomorrow. No moisture or cold front in sight. 😟
 
AT Hiker said:
Not where we were at. We have been breaking high temp records for a few weeks now. We are still 10 degrees above average.
Supposed to break another 80 degree day time high temp tomorrow. No moisture or cold front in sight. 😟
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In this part of the west like anywhere else sometimes you get warmer temps than usual, sometimes colder than usual.
 
Bow season may have ended, but the fat lady hasn't sung.....

On October 1st, I woke up to the smell of fresh coffee, loaded up the .308, closed the bolt on an empty chamber and headed up the mountain.

I'd decided I wanted to hunt a big meadow that requires a stiff up hill hike to get to. I'd previously had an encounter with a 5x5 bull that I'd forgot to mention, in this spot. This whole area was just elky. It was a north facing slope, a big meadow with lots of smaller meadows around it, deep creek bottoms and plenty of dark timber. There was tons of elk sign, wallows, rubs, and trails. At some time, there were a bunch of elk in this area. Just not that day. It actually looked like the elk vacated the area about a week earlier. Tellico was with us and didn't want to climb a big ridge AT and I did, so he took the low trail back out. AT and I, no elk. Tellico, videoed a bull at 50 yards. I should have taken the easy way.

This makes 2 days in a row we haven't heard a bugle. I wouldn't think much of it, in a normal elk unit, but here, it was odd.

Day 2 of rifle season found us road hunting in the far southern end of our unit. Now, this isn't the typical TN style of road hunting. We would drive to any high point we could and glass miles and miles of desert. Even with spotting scopes, we would see something wayyyy off in the horizon and have to drive closer just to glass it up again and see if it was elk. It never was, it was always moo cows or wild horses. This style of hunting is not my cup of tea, but most people who draw this tag hunt this way. They tell me there are elk out here. Idiots.

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We did find a random a$$ moose wandering around the desert.

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Day 12 of the hunt, Day 3 of rifle season. The night before, Me, AT, and Tellico discussed what my best options for the day would be. AT and Tellico were getting nervous that I was about to eat a tag.

Tellico thought it would be best to go back to the big meadow. He'd seen bulls there, I'd seen a bull there. It really was the most elky looking area I hunted the whole time. I just didn't get the same action there that I got elsewhere. I didn't chose this option.

AT wanted me to hike up Yugo Creek. We'd hunted up Yugo Creek twice since the beginning of my hunt. Both times, we were into bulls. The thing with Yugo Creek is that you have to play the wind and follow the bulls up the mountain until the thermals change. The last time, we were so deep, I had to pull the plug and walk away from bugling elk. We were up in a cliffy area with a bunch of deadfall and I didn't feel comfortable that I'd be able to pack an animal out if we were to shoot one. It was late in the hunt and I didn't want the same thing to happen and lose a morning.

The morning of the hunt, Tellico decided he be of the most use if he stayed at camp and studied the inside of his eyelids and be available if help was needed. AT jumped in his truck and went to glass an area we'd seen elk in the past so we could be prepared for an evening hunt. I decided to wait until dawn, walk behind camp and watch the sun rise.

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The night before we had a cattle stampede run through camp. AT was worried one would get hung up in a tent guide rope. I was just glad it wasn't a grizzly bear and fell right back to sleep. Well, I bumped into these cows about 60 yards behind camp and immediately sent them into another stampede. This time, they all ran right into a small basin that sometimes hold elk. By the time I slipped up to some rocks and peaked over the edge, the basin only held a herd of moo cows.

My next option was to work my way around the top of the basin and through a narrow gap in some small cliffs. As soon as I hit the gap, I could smell elk. I didn't smell elk like they'd been there sometime during the night. I smelled elk like a herd could be bedded behind any number of trees that were around me. As I slowly moved forward, I saw some brown legs through a pine tree. The legs were at the edge of a meadow and were attached to tan body that was attached to antlers; branched antlers at that.

The elk was about 50 yards away, completely unaware of my presence. I was able to find an opening through the pines and make an offhand shot. The elk immediately took off downhill through the meadow, followed by his 6 cows. I'd lost sight of the bull just after the shot, so I ran to the edge of the opening to see if I could get another shot in him.

At the edge of the meadow, 41 yards away from where I initially shot him, was an elk stumbling in the sage. His front legs were wobbling and he kept trying to get back up. He finally did manage to get back on all 4 feet. I was ready and put another shot in him. He dropped straight down.

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bowhunterfanatic said:
You guys need to make sure you've got another trip planned for next year! I've had a blast following this thread!
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The hunt itself was awesome but even more so the banter back and forth. I was reading back up on the thread at work the other day and just started laughing. One of the girls smiled and asked what I was laughing at. Well, on Buzz's first morning out, we glassed a bull and his ladies in a spot I think even the best hunter would overlook. Double back towards camp on a 2 track and Buzz and AT are doing some call sequences. During Buzz's last call sequence, AT looks down at Buzz's and waits for him to stop. AT looks at Buzz and says "I see your bow is non-binary". Well without even cracking a smile he starts talking about his non-binary bow. We continue to walk back to camp and AT admits that his bow identifies as a "Furry". I now find that we have 2 "woke" bows in camp. Now to some, that may not seem funny, but I followed them back to camp laughing to myself the whole way. I can only assume Buzz's .308 identifies as a 6.5 Creedmore. That's just one instance of many that still makes me laugh or brings a smile to my face
 
Who is Rob and what's up with his mom?

Well, Rob is a bow hunter we met. According to him he is working on his manners and anxiety of meeting other hunters. Rob used to have a hard time sharing the mountains but he is working on it (his words, not mine).

Rob is a meat hunter (he told us that many times). Which is odd because cow tags in this unit are much easier to obtain 🤷‍♂️

Rob measures elk by placing his hands off the ground. For example, he passed one up that was about waist high. Which, imo, is pretty dang big for a meat hunter. Also, to complicate matters we don't know if you measure them from the bases, skull cap or tip of nose. He kinda left that open ended, which is cool by us because that allows us to decide how big our elk are.

Robs mom has a cabin in the foot hills. He told us he was going there to take a shower, that's how we found out about his mom. So, the joke evolved. We started telling each other how big the elk we saw by placing our hands up off the ground. Some were knee high, some even chest high. Then the "Robs mom" jokes started. Was she dead and in the freezer? Was she a waitress at the local bar who doubled as a buckle bunny during rodeo days? Where was Robs dad?
Weeks on a mountain during a heat wave causes the best of men to break. Robs mom was our victim.

Dear Rob,
If you read this please know, I, ATHiker, pleaded with the others to stop talking about your mom.
 
AT Hiker said:
Who is Rob and what's up with his mom?

Well, Rob is a bow hunter we met. According to him he is working on his manners and anxiety of meeting other hunters. Rob used to have a hard time sharing the mountains but he is working on it (his words, not mine).

Rob is a meat hunter (he told us that many times). Which is odd because cow tags in this unit are much easier to obtain 🤷‍♂️

Rob measures elk by placing his hands off the ground. For example, he passed one up that was about waist high. Which, imo, is pretty dang big for a meat hunter. Also, to complicate matters we don't know if you measure them from the bases, skull cap or tip of nose. He kinda left that open ended, which is cool by us because that allows us to decide how big our elk are.

Robs mom has a cabin in the foot hills. He told us he was going there to take a shower, that's how we found out about his mom. So, the joke evolved. We started telling each other how big the elk we saw by placing our hands up off the ground. Some were knee high, some even chest high. Then the "Robs mom" jokes started. Was she dead and in the freezer? Was she a waitress at the local bar who doubled as a buckle bunny during rodeo days? Where was Robs dad?
Weeks on a mountain during a heat wave causes the best of men to break. Robs mom was our victim.

Dear Rob,
If you read this please know, I, ATHiker, pleaded with the others to stop talking about your mom.
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You left out the part where Rob is also a conspiracy theorist. He also hated nonresident hunters.
 

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