Decided that I needed to document some of my hunting experiences. And so I'm going to be doing that this year. He was an experience that I had recently while helping a good friend of mine, Brandon Lungren and his brother Jared, get within bow range of some elk near our home. Brandon and Jared, came into town looking to do a bow hunt for elk here in Utah.
On 21 August we set out early in the morning at about 5 AM in hopes of tracking down a herd of elk and getting a shot at bringing home meat for the Lungren families. We set off up Hobble Creek Canyon near my home to a spot where I had actually harvested a cow elk last year. We got there and spent the first hour and a half glassing the area without any sightings of elk. We saw several dear but no elk in the immediate area. However, we started hearing off in the distance some bugling of elk.
Then we realized that the elk were in the next Canyon over and we could see them about half of a mile away on the opposite Canyon Ridge. We saw maybe 20 elk, a few bulls and many cows and calves in a few separate herds on the hillside. We decided that we would go the 45 minutes to the next Canyon over to try and hunt that herd and see if we could get some meat for them to take home to their families.
45 minutes later we were on the trail hiking up the canyon to where they were seen earlier that morning. Right as we got to the bottom of the very canyon we were spotting them in we jumped a cow elk who was all alone and it ran up the canyon without the ability to take a shot. To be within bow range you need to be within about 75 yards a decent shot and preferably under 50 yards for an accurate shot. This cow elk that we jumped was over 100 yards away. And this cow was at the bottom of the draw which would have been perfect for getting it out!
We decided to keep climbing up that same canyon because we knew there were several other herds of elk within that Canyon. We got up to a spot that looked good and decided to stop there and see if we could call something into the area using our elk calls that we had brought with us.
We spent the next hour and a half trying to call them in. After no response from any elk and starting to get a bit hungry, as it was around lunchtime, we decided there was nothing in the immediate area. Brandon and Jared decided to go take a little bit of a walk before lunch and without their packs while I stayed back and waited at that area. They walked up a few hundred yards and found fresh sign of elk and a few beds where at least two big animals had been bedding very recently. They didn't see anything in the immediate area and assumed that if there was something there it had been spooked as result of their walking up there. So they came back down and we began eating lunch.
Since we hadn't heard any response from anything in the area we were talking pretty loudly while eating our lunch. As we talked and were planning our next push I heard in the distance what sounded like a bird chirping. A few minutes later the chirping became a little bit louder but we didn't think anything of it. We kept on eating and talking. Before we realized what was happening we heard a cow elk mew as if it was on top of us basically. It was so close I had to do a double take before I realized what was happening. That chirping was actually a calf elk and the mom must have been right behind it. They must've been curious or something about the noise that we were making as we were talking. Immediately as we heard the cow elk mew we hit the deck. Branded and Jared were scrambling to stay low while grabbing for their bows and I was scrambling to find the elk call. At this time we were all hovering as close to the ground as we could so that we weren't spooking the elk.
Apparently the cow was staring at us from about 20 yards away. The cow must've seen us because the cow and calf headed back up the mountain rather quickly in the aspen forest. I began using my elk call to see if I could somehow get them back down close to us. They must've run up several hundred yards in the forest. Brandon and Jared decided to go up a little bit closer towards them as I called to them. Apparently my calling worked and they started heading back down towards us. Before we knew it the cow elk was calling back, and there was another cow elk down below us in the canyon calling to the the one that we had spooked. Brandon and Jared were all confused because they'd look back at me thinking that I was making the noise of the cow elk down below us when it was really the cow up below us communicating with the cow elk and the calf above us. It was pretty cool!
The cow got within a pretty close range of Jared and must've winded him because the cow and calf began running out of the meadow to head down towards the canyon past where Jared was hiding towards the other cow that had been communicating with it below us. The one below us must've been several hundred yards down because we couldn't see it. Right is the cow started running I did my best to do a loud cow call to see if I could stop it because it was within bow range of Jared. At that moment of me making the cow call it stopped abruptly. It stopped for a perfect broadside shot with the the kill zone right there for Jared within 25 yards. Jared later told me that at that moment he had only about a 6 to 8 inch window between two aspen trees for a shooting lane. He even had to lean over just to get the vitals within the pin sites of his bow.
From back where I was all I heard was a loud snap. I assumed the Jared had put an arrow in the cow but I was not sure. I was excited but the cow was running up the mountain and I was trying with my binoculars to see if I could see any blood or wound in the cow. The cow ran off with the calf into the canyon farther down below us. I did my best to continue calling to make them stop but they obviously knew something was wrong. I was now staring at Brandon and Jared at this point (they were about 50 yards from me up the hill) hoping for some type of an indication that the elk was hurt or hit or something. Brandon came back to me and told me what had happened.
Jared, while leaning, took the shot and the arrow had stuck right into an Aspen tree which was limiting his shooting lane. Both Brandon and Jared had taken another shot with their arrows but at this point the elk was on the run up a hill and was probably about 90-100 yards away. At this point I knew that we had lost our chance. We had just gotten within 25 yards of a cow elk in the calf. We had been given the opportunity of a broadside shot. Unfortunately things didn't go our way with that shot. However, it sure was an amazing experience! I loved that I was able to call in the cow, to communicate with it, and to give them to opportunity for the shot.
The rest of the day we played a little bit of cat and mouse with a few other elk in that same canyon. We would occasionally get responses from cows and even heard a bowl bugle in response to my calling but we never got anything within range for the rest of the day. In all we had hiked about 2000 feet up in elevation and we were starting to feel the fatigue so we decided to head back. We got back to the car about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and headed back. It was a fun day of hunting. It was probably 85° up there in the canyon. We were all decked out in full camo long pants and long shirts. So we had sweat a lot and I was ready for a shower. That was the end of the first elk hunt of the year for me.
Since that day I've been out a few times in that canyon to see if the herd is still there. Last time I checked, they were still in the canyon just a lot higher up at about 9000 feet above sea level. That would be quite the hike to get one up there and then have to drag it down and get it out of there.
Well, I know where they are right now, I just wonder if they will stay in the canyon for the new next month or so until my rifle hunt. If they do, I've got a plan.
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