Thanks Bonnie, it's great to get these in-hunt progress reports.  Not many days left now, maybe a couple of them will close the deal soon!

tap tap tap tap .... waiting in anticipation.

Thanks Tom I was just going huntin for this thread myself    

Now someone throw another LOG on da FIRE PLEASE

Here's a log. Anybody got a cup of coffee?

Danny

I'll add another log to the embers  

Last time James called (Monday) there was nothing new to add, but I think they should be home this coming Monday or Tuesday.  So stories will start then.  I am going to warn you though, as long as he talked on the phone about this hunt, I think you guys are in for an even LONGER story.

Bonnie

I like long stories bout hunts  

Get the coffee brewing... almost story time and, boy, cna wingnut ever spin a yarn... can't wait!!!!

I got back from elkcamp yesterday around 7PM.  I was a great hunt.  Da Boyz left this AM.

this was my third elk hunt so I am by no means any kind of expert but I have got some things to share with ya till the boyz get back.

Number one -

Elk hunt is a lot of work!!!!  Elk often live in very thick stuff.  it is hard to get thru, it is easy to get tripped up and fall tea cup of tea kettle, ya have often have to go up very steep stuff to get to where they are....i mean very steep stuff.

this clip is pretty big....if ya got the band width, it will show ya what da boyz were going thru.   watch how quickly their heads disappear ...near straight down.

 http://trashwoodbow.com/panamovies/elkclip.mpg  

rusty

now the next thing is...the dang things are big.  heck fire I am a texas flat land boy and hunt sub-150# texas whitetail all my life.  'em elk can be 8 or 9 times that size and I got no idea how tall they are but they are up in the air on a lot of leg.   So when I see an elk at 40 yds, he looks like he is at about 15 yds.  ya see it is one of 'em relativity things.  if ya spend 4+ decades shooting at texas white tail in the field and in 3D shoots sumpin in your mind (or in my case the absense of mind) tries to make that shot...dangit

add this to the fact that texas boyz don't have a chance to shoot shots at 30 or 40 degrees up or down hill....

this all adds up to a lot of low shots   .

next things is....

Mike is bugling, I'm cow calling, jason is answer with a calf call, the bull is going crazy, bugling, stomping around and trashing trees.....

now my adrenline spikes, now knees are knocking, i am having to breath thru my mouth....and Idaho only has two molecules of oxygen for the whole state. my glasses of fogged up cause now I am sweating in 32 degree temperature.  In the back of my mind I know I'm gonna have to carry this beast back over what I have just come thru....life is good!!!!

rusty

i took a parabolic mic and digital recorder.  I got some elk bugling and cows talk that I will post as mp3 file pretty soon.  

wiith that note, if ya ain't been elking hunt before and thanking about going ya need to look into calling.  

Bugling is pretty hard to get right but cow calling is pretty easy and ya gonna have to learn to do it.

some of the squeez calls are a surefire way to get a good sound.  i worked severals herds of cows by myself and got good response.

rusty

OK let me tell ya my story while we waiting for the boyz to get home.  this year i wanted to do a lot of videoing so I didn't buy an elk tag but bought a general tag. with that ya can shot a mule deer or bear or cougar.  hmmmmm well I we had been seeing a few bears.  I decided I'd give a bear a try...it didn't matter that I knew absolutley nothing about bears or bearing hunting...but Wingnut did    

Wingnut said i would have a slim chance of getting a shot at a bear withot baiting, dogs or sumpin...

heee heee next night as i turned off the bridge and rounded a curve......there was a  black bear walking down my side of the rode.   I pulled the jeep over and got out.  he crossed the rode and went up a near verticle game trail with out a problem at all.   I backed off and went to the camp.  the next afternoon I took Wingnut back to show me a bear track which oddly enough are pretty hard to see.  We found the bear track withot any problem.  Wingnut showd me how to found bear tracks and how to make a guess at how much the bear weighed by the size of his track.  this one was in the 200 # range.....plumb good enough for me....

rusty

Wingnut tougth me a trick.   Ya take a pine bough and sweep the old tracks away.  that way ya can tell if the bear used that trail during the night.  I went in the next morning a swept the trail clean.  I looked around and found several other trails he was using.  The trails were above a boggy creek.  Wingnut said that this time of year they might be eating grass.  I looked the grass over and indeed found several areas that looked to have been worked over by the bear.  there were several areas where he had been digging and clawing the bank for sumpin.  

I had laid the area out well in my mind.  I was ready if he used any of the trials.  Wingnut said that bears worked a lot at night, so I though I would come back tonight and set over some of the biggest bank diggins.

rusty

I had taken my 44 speical pistol with me.  240 gr semi-wade cutter over all the blue dot the pistol could handle.  over lunch we discussed the idea of taking my 44 with me as backed up, just in case.  Wingnut told me no matter what for me not to follow up the bear in the dark but back out and get the boyz and we would follow it up together.  I decided to leave the pistol in the truck.

rusty

when I went in that PM that it had been no movement on the trails as you would expect.  The wind was right i could set up between the diggings on the creek bank and the trail he had used the night before.   no bear showd but two mule deer doe and a fawn came in down the trail.  for a few minutes i had to decide if i wanted to fill my take with an easy shot on a mule deer doe or hold out for the bear.  I decided to wait a few more days for the bear.

the next morning I went with da boyz to video some elk hunting.


rusty

Enjoying this Rusty!!     Sounds like you all had a great time...keep it up!

I hav a feeling we are in for another great story.

Ditto what Chad said            

Oh boy, oh boy... more western critter chasing.