Stories...

Archery Elk Hunt Unit 1 9/04

By, Mike Keaty

My hunting experience with DC Outfitters started in the last week of September. I flew to Phoenix and had a very scenic drive, most of which either bordered or ran straight through national forest. Dennis met me in the small town of Alpine and we continued into camp not to far away. I was impressed with the camp right away. The wall tent was very spacious, cots were provided with oversized sleeping bags, and ample chair and table space made accomadations very comfortable.

We actually decided to grab the bow and arrow and get a short hunt in that evening. We sat for a little while overlooking a meadow that was very close to camp. We had a bull answer the cow call, but didn't get him to come in. The next morning we were up bright and early at 5:00 am and headed for our hunting spot. As soon as we got off the road a bull bugled in the closest meadow. We watched him through our optics, as he looked to be a 360+ bull. Again, our calling attempts seemed to be ackowledged by a bugle, but the bulls were holding. As the morning progressed we saw a few more bulls, but heard bulls everywhere. We must have heard over a dozen bulls. I quickly learned that elk are tough to hunt, as a couple of bulls smelled me, while a couple of others saw movement and decided to get away for potential danger. We ended our moring hunt around 9:30 am and headed back to camp for a nice brunch and nap.

Later that day we headed back into our hunting area. I sat a tree stand over an elk wallow, while Dennis sat in a saddle location where we had heard bulls cross early in the morning. I got in my stand at about 3:30pm and ten minutes later heard a bull bugle, the next bugle was even closer, and the next right on top of me. The bull was above me on a ridge to my right. Of all the locations this was the worst as my scent was blowing right at him. The bull was totally focused on the Wallow, you could tell he was headed for the mud. At about eighty yards he tipped his bead back and tested the air, he quickly smelled me and quietly exited the area uhder the safety of the pine forest. I heard bulls constantly between 5:00-7:00 pm as a very large bull entered the meadow below me, but newer came into the Wallow. If you weren't hearing elk you could hear coyotes in the distance. After it got dark we headed back to camp and ate a nice supper and visited for a while before going to bed.

The next morning we were up at 5:00am again, and we headed for the saddle that Dennis had sat the previous night as he had a very large bull walk within 15 feet of him. I waited in the saddle as Dennis made a short hike to find elk along a creek bottom. We met up a short while later, as both of us had heard elk all morning, but nothing came through the saddle. We started off on a short hike to catch up with a few bugling elk. We found two bulls together and after a short stalk, I got within 50 yards of one bull, but he laid down before I could setup for the shot. The second bull finally saw me and the both moved off. We continued to hear a bull hammer away with his bugle and decided to check it out. As we got close, we noticed cows were in the area and the lead bull was chasing them around in an effort to round them up. We got close enough and tried calling. As Dennis called, at least four and maybe six bulls answered. Four bulls started heading in to us. We had bulls on our left, right and straight in front of us. I ranged a bull in front of us, but shot underneath him, as I believed I miss read the range finder. Bulls continued to scream, and I moved out in front of Dennis about sixty yards. I setup behing a ponderosa pine and watched a bull pace back and forth for ten minutes as Dennis continued to call. Finally, Dennis took a large dead tree limb and racked a nearby tree to simulate a bull taking his frustration out ona tree. The bull in front of me broke free and started heading straight for Dennis. The bull got within 25 yards of myself and bugled. What an awesome experience. I fretted over how to draw the bow, as elk seemed to notice movement quite easily, but slowly leaned back to hige my body behind the tree and drew slowly. Dennis must have noticed I was drawing the bow so he called at the same time to keep the bulls attention on him. I leaned out to see the bull and the bull took two steps right into my shooting lane slighlty quartering towards me. I shot him at eighteen yards penetrating both lungs. The bull ran away and Dennis continued to call which soothed the bull into stopping at about 40 yards away. Dennis continued to call to settle the bull. I could tell the bull was not feeling well as he wandered away, and near the end made a small trot into some pines where he expired about 110 yards from where I had orginally shot him.

After admiring the trophy and spending ample time getting pictures, we spent the rest of the day skinning, quartering, and packing the meat, cape, and antlers out. This was true test of how fit you were as it took us two trips to pack everything out. Dennis took the heavier loads and we made it back to camp by 5:00 pm that evening. What a great adventure and privilege to harvest such a amjestic animal. We continued to talk about he hunt, and how we excuted perfectly on the bull as we setup away from each other, called to keep his att4ention, racked the tree to fianlly break him free, and followed up with calling after the shot to make the trailing job easy. Denni, thaks for your hard work, deditcation, skill, commitment, and company during the hunt, I'll remember it forever. Thanks again Mike Keaty