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Day 1

Steven wanted all of us to set our alarms for 3:45am. Rough! but important to get out there very early and beat the crowds. We are hunting public land and today is opening day so he warned all of us last night during the briefing that we are going to see other hunters and they could mess us up. We arrived at the hunting area and started a long hike through flat, broken piney terrain that was easier than any elk terrain I've ever experienced.

We heard our first bugle 30 minutes before sunrise. By the time the sun cleared the horizon, I bet I heard 50 bugles from 5 different bulls. One bugle was particularly interesting so we headed quickly to intercept that bull. On the way, we saw another bull and Steven whistled at him. He trotted right in. We looked him over and it was far smaller than I was interested in, still a nice 6x6 but there are far better bulls here. We could have killed him easily! We let him walk by then continued on for the nasty sounding bull. But we weren't the only hunters after him and he got bumped by another group trying to work him. As the sun was completely over the horizon all bugling stopped. It was like someone turned off the switch.

We spent the rest of the morning checking water and listening for bedded bulls. The weather forecast calls for 8 days above 80 degrees but Steven is not that concerned about those temps.

This 6x6 trotted right into our setup

Pretty easy shot but not what I am looking for.

Steven and I checked game cameras at water holes for activity, we will likely sit water tonight.

Not much of an update for this evening. Steven and I hiked way back off the roads into an area that was loaded with water and wallows. It looked incredible, but the elk were pretty much shut down this afternoon. We heard one bugle in the distance and saw one bull over a mile away. It was 90 degrees today and this weather likely affected them. Looking forward to tomorrow morning.