New member from Missouri with story of 2009 hunt

[SGH31]

New member here. This looks like a great forum with lots of good information.

I will be going on my 2nd archery elk hunt this fall in September. We have a party of 6 that drew for Wyoming.

Looking forward to learning a lot from you guys

[WapitiTalk1]

Welcome to "the" elk forum. Nice bull BTW. Hope you share the story if its demise with us .. RJ

[Swede]

Welcome to the forum SGH31. It is good to have you here. Nice Bull.

[6.5City]

Welcome to you. I work in Missouri but live in Kansas. Have a good time, lots of learning here.

[SGH31]

Here is the story from my 2009 elk hunt. I will put up some pics too.

In 2009 my uncle and I were drawn for WY elk tags. We got there the Saturday before Labor Day and met my other uncle at 2 p.m. and followed him to the campsite. We unloaded our gear and even went out that evening to hunt, but mostly just to get a feel for things. There wasn’t much bugling this early but we were hopeful.

Fast forward to Monday 9/7 we hunted all morning and since we hunted close to camp on this day we planned to go back for lunch. On the way we came across some good sign and heavily used wallows and we could actually smell elk. Jeff bugled twice at this spot and we didn’t hear any response. So we were slowly making our way back and less than 100 yards elk exploded out of everywhere. I didn’t see them because I was in the back and it was thick. Jeff was in front and Gary was on the left. As soon as we jumped them Jeff started cow calling and a few minutes later I see a bull to the right about 40 yards away facing us and I whispered to Jeff that I saw it and he started calling. The bull started walking to my right along a creek behind some trees. Looking ahead I could see a small opening and I estimated it to be 30 yards. The bull let out a bugle while walking and Jeff cut him off with another bugle and when the bull’s nose was almost to the opening I drew back and Jeff cow called and the bull stopped with his vitals behind the last tree looking right at me! It felt like he stood there forever while I waited for him to take another step. When he stepped I shot and hit him a little forward and he took off through the mountains.
To make a long story short we started tracking after lunch and couldn’t find much blood. I ended up finding the arrow with the broadhead broken off and 2 inches of blood on the arrow. I was bummed, hit him in the shoulder blade and got zero penetration.

Didn’t hear or see any bulls other than that one until Wednesday 9/9. We hunted all day long and found ourselves on a logging road that led back to the truck about a 20 min walk to the truck with a little more than an hour of daylight left. We decided to go off of the logging road about 80 yards or so and set up in a triangle pattern about 70 yards from each other with Jeff cow calling with some spike bugles thrown in every so often. About 20 min before dark I see Gary get up and go over to Jeff. This is when I start to hear some faint bugles on the opposite side of them. Then Gary heads back to the logging road and to the left and I get up and circle to right. While I am making my way to the logging road this bull is bugling his head off and coming in fast.

I got to the logging road and it is very thick and I can see at most 25 yards other than down the logging road. The bull is coming perpendicular to the logging road so he has to cross it at some point since he is coming to Jeff’s calls. I hear the bull scream at the bottom of the large steep drainage and sounds to be less than 100 yards. So I got on the opposite side of the logging road that he would be coming from and nocked an arrow. I could hear him quickly making his way up the mountainside as there was just enough shooting light at this point. I drew back my bow. He cleared the brush and had his front hooves up on the road and stopped and turned his head looking right at me from 13 yards quartering to me with the rear of his body much lower than the front. I was trying to aim behind the shoulder and double checked where I was aiming by looking around my peep, aimed again and squeezed off the shot. The bull rolled once and got back up and ran down the mountain. I turned around Gary was walking up the logging road to me. He saw me shoot and was about 25 yards from me the whole time. We looked at where the bull rolled and we saw a lot of blood. When Jeff got down there we waited another 45 min while talking about it. We started tracking and made it about 70 yards and then we heard the bull thrashing around, so we backed out. It was hard to sleep that night but we felt confident with the amount of blood that we saw.
We ended up finding mine that morning AFTER Gary shot and found his bull.

Gary and I headed back to MO that Saturday after calling in 3 different bulls for Jeff but they didn't work out.
He ended up getting a bull the next Thursday.

[bnsafe]

sorry, we dont allow anybody from mo, lol. just kiddin. i just moved from kirksville. anyway, welcome.

[SGH31]

Pictures

[Willie makit]

Dang, awesome first trip, welcome to forum. Would you mind buying me a powerball ticket?

[WapitiTalk1]

Great time in the elk woods SGH1.. Thank you for sharing the story..

[BrentLaBere]

SGH31,
Awesome hunt! Thanks for sharing the story and welcome to the forum.

[BMF11]

Good story and great bull. Can I borrow your rabbits foot this September? Congrats and good luck in Wyoming