Our Washington dream tags season (story)

[Go Hawks]

Hi, my name is Steve. I have always loved reading Randy’s live hunts and I have always wanted to do one myself but my hunts are never that exciting. In hindsight, this year was probably my best chance to do a live hunt. I thought I would try writing a nice summary story of our hunt like Randy does sometimes. If you find it boring just scroll down and look at the pictures and tell how much you enjoyed the story. Our season started in June when the results of the draw tags came out. I was thrilled to see that my son and I drew partner quality late buck muzzleload tags Nov. 25th-30th in an area known for late season big buck activity. Only 20 tags given out and we had 2 of them! I’m happy with that, but then I see the next draw, Peaches Ridge muzzle load any bull partner tags Oct. 1st-10th. One of the most coveted draws in Washington, only 20 tags and we drew 2 of them! I seem to have a knack for drawing low odd tags. In 2008 on my very 1st try at applying, we drew partner tags for late buck in unit 40 in Idaho, a highly prized tag. On that hunt we had a close encounter with the biggest buck I have ever seen while hunting, a monster muley buck. We were walking straight to him and I spotted a little dip that I wanted to check out and as we turned to our right I saw movement in my peripheral turned and saw him running away down the hill, he was only about 40 yards from us when he jumped up. I still see him in my mind. My Son who was 15 at the time got his first branch antlered buck on that hunt. Great memories! Then, in 2010, I drew a big horn sheep tag! Most hunters in this state will never draw that tag in their whole life.

 

[Go Hawks]

Good, that worked! I will post the rest in a bit.

 

[LazyV]

Congrats, looking forward to more.

 

[duckhunt]

Awsome pictures. Thats great you have good luck with the draw system. The way it sounds not to many hunters get those oppurtunities.

 

[Go Hawks]

Since our elk hunt was first I gave it full scouting and research priority. I was immediately intimidated by the unit, it is straight up and down and heavily timbered with most of the unit designated as wilderness. I pm’ed a few guys on the hunting forum that had the tag in the past and a few other hunters gave me their advice. Most said I would have to pack into the wilderness to get a monster but all agreed that a nice bull could be found just about anywhere in the unit. Since there would still be some rut action at least for the first few days and since I had never hunted elk in the rut before, I started buying elk calls, spent a fortune. I watched DVD’s on how to call in bulls. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I suck at calling. I did some summertime hiking in the area with my wife. That’s Mt Rainier in the distance.

 

[Go Hawks]

September came and I started watching the hunting board to see how the bow hunters were doing, their season ran from the 1st to the 15th and was also a draw hunt, I believe there were about 100 or so tags. It was dry and hot and the bulls were very quit for the most part. After their season ended I started heading up after work to practice calling bulls. I couldn’t believe how easy it was, everywhere I stopped I would get multiple responses, some at very close range. This is a slam dunk! I wanted to call one all the way in at least once so one evening I heard one chirp to my call and I climbed up the hill and found a little clearing about 40 yards from my truck. I started bugling and cow calling and he came right in. Are you kidding me? This is a SLAM DUNK! I got about 8 shots with my new Nikon but I couldn't check the screen because the bull was watching me. Well the camera was on auto focus and focused on the branches in front of me leaving the bull out of focus. Makes me sick that I missed these shots, I should have had it in manual focus. I had this bull in front of me for about 10 minutes, I would bugle at him as loud as I could, cow talk him with the craziest of sounds and he was as relaxed as could be. But he would not step into the little 10 foot clearing between him and me. Even in dense cover these guys are cautious. Finally he circled around me to catch my scent. I learned a lot playing with this bull. Or so I thought. More tomorrow.

 

[Steelhead]

Welcome. You do have great success on drawing tags!!
I take it that the picture of your son is from unit 40 in Idaho but what about the two Alta muzzy tags that you guys drew? Peaches is a super tag, can't wait to hear more...

 

[dihardhunter]

Looks like a NICE bull - more please!

 

[CabinFever]

Your doing good on the write-up, I can't wait for more.

 

[MTpubliclander]

This suspense Is killing me!

 

[spook12]

You've set the hook Brother, start ''Reeling''!

 

[ida homer]

You've set the hook Brother, start ''Reeling''!

+1

I'm getting stoked!

 

[Go Hawks]

Welcome. You do have great success on drawing tags!!
I take it that the picture of your son is from unit 40 in Idaho but what about the two Alta muzzy tags that you guys drew? Peaches is a super tag, can't wait to hear more...

Yes, that is his unit 40 buck, here is the one I got. Father and son unit 40 bucks on the wall. I just got off work and I have a few errands to run, I will get back to the story in a little bit. Thanks everyone for showing interest.

 

[Go Hawks]

Four days before the opener we went up for our last try at calling one in. The elk weren’t very vocal but as we were driving up the mountain we came around a knoll and right there in front of us a huge bull was sunning not more than 30 yards away. As he stood up his huge rack swayed from side to side. He was beautiful and I scrambled to get a shot of him with my camera. Bull fever hit me and I never did get a shot.
As luck would have it a snow storm dumped about 6 inches of snow the night before opening day. Opening morning we started hitting all the bugling hot spots we had found, nothing. In fact we only cut one set of fresh tracks. It is normal for elk to hold up all day after a storm so I wasn’t concerned. The second day we got into the drainage that had been productive for bugling the week before and I let out a bugle and immediately the bulls started answering. We dropped deeper and set up to call one in. Each time we thought we had one interested he would just fade away. We had a very frustrating morning bouncing from bull to bull only for them to walk away. Now that I have had a chance to analyze the hunt I realize now that these bulls were just moving down because of the snow storm, they weren’t looking for a confrontation. That luck I was talking about, that was bad luck. We decided to go try and call that same bull that I had gotten pictures of. I parked the truck, got out and bugled and sure enough that same chirp. So we hiked up the hill and set up and I started to try and call him in. He had wised up and would not come in. The 3rd day was more of the same, bulls would answer but not come in. We decided to come in to town on the 3rd evening for a shower and I got on the phone with Ric who had shot a great bull in the same unit 2 years before. He says let me call my buddy Gary, he called my bull in for me, he’s amazing at calling in elk. I have never met Gary but I said yeah see if he will give me a call. About a half hour latter I answer the phone and it’s Gary. He is kind of reluctant because he has a cow hunt that starts that starts in 2 days. He says I tell you what, I can go for a couple of hours in the morning then I have to pull out for my hunt, you realize that the rut is about over right? I said that would be awesome of you and we made plans to meet in morning.
The next morning we follow Gary to a basin that we had hunted the 2nd day (Ric’s spot) Gary gets out of his bronco and lets out bugle and we hear a faint bugle in the distance, come on we have to hurry and we take off down the trail. A quarter mile and he bugles again, we are closer, let’s go. We go another half mile and now we are close, there are 3 bulls going off, one sounds like a very mature bull. Trouble is they have already left the feeding area where we are and are making their way up the opposite ridge. They are at least a couple hundred yards away in heavy timber and moving away. Gary starts cow calling, he whines and moans like I have never heard before. The bulls start going off again and a cow starts to call back to us. She’s coming in and matching Gary’s call perfectly. We can hear her moving in she’s is trying to circle and get above us to wind us. Well I am just standing there awestruck, listening and watching this. One of the bulls is really pissed now, his cows are not following his orders and he is going off none stop, then his bugle turns into a scream he’s so mad. Hear that scream Gary says? Get ready he’s going to come in. Andre gets down on one knee with gun up. I hear crunching then see movement. Out steps the bull right in front of us 12 yards away. He sees us and his eyes get huge, He is just about to spin, BOOM!!! He spins and runs off. He goes 30 yards at best, falls and takes his last breath. OMG, I have just witnessed the most incredible hunt of my life! High fives all around!!

 

[Go Hawks]

After a couple of minutes of silence the two bulls start bugling again. Lets see if we can call another one in. Gary starts in again and the cow walks in on us not more than 20 yards away! We leave Andre to attend to the bull and try to get closer. After working them for awhile it becomes obvious that they are not going to come back and Gary advices that we should leave them be and try for them another day. I think I could have stalked in on them while Gary kept them vocal and looking back I wish I would have gone after them because we never heard them again. But we had a bull down and needed to get to work on it. During all this action Andre had been paying very close attention to Gary’s calling technique and so while we were packing out Gary explained to Andre his method of how to cow call. When we got back to the truck Gary pulled out a couple of brand new Carlton elk diaphragms and said here use these. What a guy! Andre spent the rest of the day practicing what Gary had taught him and I’ll be dammed if he didn’t sound pretty good. The next morning we went out and Andre got a Bull going! We set up with the wind and Andre started working him, he was coming in! He got to within about 50 yards and I got in shooting position. But then he got quiet, after about 5 minutes we tried to sneak in closer but we never found him. After that it got real tough the bulls were only vocal very early and very late. On the last day I had to go up by myself, Andre had commitments. I was actually starting to get pretty good at cow calling myself. I was able to call in a bull to about 20 yards but he never presented a shooting opportunity so my season ended.
I have never felt so many highs and lows after a hunt. It was the best 10 day hunt I had ever been on, I was thrilled that my son had gotten an elk. But I had a pain deep inside that wouldn’t go away. I felt like I let my tag down. If I had only known at the beginning of the hunt what I knew at the end it would have been so much different. I couldn’t shake it off, I had the dream tag. I may never have it again. There is nothing like hunting bulls in the rut. I was ready to put my gun away for the year, forget the deer hunt. Good thing it was over a month away. Hi, my name is Steve and I am now an elkaholic. Now you see why I had to write this story, its therapeutic.

 

[confused coyote]

That was a fun read. Thank You!

 

[big28hunter]

Great stories, pics, and trophies! Congrats to you both!

 

[JohnCushman]

Awesome stories! Welcome to the sight

 

[Go Hawks]

Thanks guys,
It was now November and our late buck hunt is coming up. More than a few people have told me that the unit is suffering from a pack of wolves and deer numbers are way down. Take the first decent buck you see. Great. We decide to take the 3 ½ hour drive up there on Veterans Day since we both have the day off. The draw riffle season is in progress and we talk to a hunter who says that the bucks are rutting pretty good and they are seeing some good ones. Nice. We pull into the little town of Twisp to get some gas and a couple of smaller type 4 points are in the back of a truck. We stop to talk to the hunter, he is pretty stoked, uh-oh.
We head up about 3 am Monday morning the 25th of Nov. for a week of trophy buck hunting. The weather is amazing, beautiful crisp sunny days with the bluest of skies and no snow on the ground. No wind, no rain, no frost, perfect conditions unless you are hunting for trophy bucks. This first morning we start down low in the south part of the unit, we had talked to some guys a couple weeks earlier during the rifle draw hunt that were chasing around some nice bucks in this area and had put one down. We see quite a few bucks in this area but all are way too small. Around 1:00 we go farther north to check out some spots. We spot some does and a decent 3 point up on the hill and decide to take a stand for a while. As we are glassing the hill and spotting more does, a buck comes up the little draw on right side heading up the hill. That’s a nice 2 point, no that’s a nice 3 point, wait a minute that’s a very nice 3 point! I’m going after him Andre says and grabs his gun. The buck is about 250 yards away and heading up the hill at a decent pace. I tell Andre his only chance to catch up is if the buck stops with the does at the top of the hill about 700 yards away. Don’t get busted by the does! Andre loops around to our left to head up the hill and takes too wide a sweep in my opinion. He’s never going to get there in time. I keep watching the buck, he’s going to fast, I hope he stops when he gets to them does. I look over at Andre and he’s only half way there, never going to make it. The buck is up just to the right of the does now nosing around with the smaller 3 point, Andre is still about 150 yards away. The buck moves to the left into some tall brush, I can’t see him now, Andre is about 60 yards from the does, they are going to bust him. It appears the does are looking right at Andre but he somehow edges into position behind some brush about 30 yards below the does. One is looking right at him. Where’s the buck? Another doe walks to Andres left and stops to look right at him then continues on. I can see a deer in the brush, has to be the buck. He follows the last doe and walks right out in front of Andre and stops to look down at him. Shoot Andre, common SHOOT! SHOOT! Nothing, oh no Andre can’t see him, the buck turns a quick 90 and starts up the hill, Andre’s not going to get a shot. The buck turns to his right and stops, a bellow of smoke rises up above Andre! The buck runs about 5 yards and falls over, OMG. My binoculars are trembling in my hands.












Here are some pictures!

 

[Go Hawks]

Thanks for following my story. One more tag to fill.