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My last and final elk hunt of the year was a return trip to Elk Creek Outfitting (www.elkcreekoutfitting.com) in NW Montana. I got to meet up with the best elk caller I know, Bugling Bob. Our hopes were high. Bob and I have had several elk hunts together and we have had more bulls in bow range than all of the rest of my elk hunts combined. However, to this day we have yet to successfully harvested an elk together. I really cannot explain it. All I can say is that it is just part of bowhunting elk.
Bob and I probably walked 50 miles this week and I have lost count of how many bulls we had within 75 yards or less. One thing about this area of Montana is that the timber is very thick and it is hard to get a visual of an elk even though you can hear him raking, bugling, walking, etc.
Unfortunately, our curse continued this week. An example of our bad luck is on the first morning, Bob called in a nice 5x6 to within 30 yards. The bull wasn't seeing what he wanted so he turned and Bob stopped him at the perfect angle. The problem was the bull had just enough brush in front of him that a good shot was not presented. Another example is on the last morning we got to within 50 yards of a 370" herd bull and an entire herd of cows (undetected). Bob new this bull (from a few weeks before) and said we did not need to make a peep with a call until we got inside his comfort zone. Bob said if and when we got there, one aggressive bugle should bring this bull in on a string. About the time Bob was fixing to let loose on his sweet bugling tube...the wind swirled! Talk about frustrating. The week was full of these type of stories, but again...that is why it is called hunting...and that is why when it does all come together we get the rush that we get.
Bob...all we can do is keep our heads up and try again buddy!
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