This morning we said good-bye to the other hunters and left to find the elk
that Teresa saw yesterday (see pictures from 9/23). From this point forward
I am the only hunter in camp.
Frank and I set up a couple of times, trying to locate that big bull elk. The
morning was uneventful until our 3rd setup. Frank was behind me by 40 yards
and from my spot in the trees I could see an area that had recently been logged.
Frank bugled. We listened for a response. After a few minutes of silence Frank
tried a soft cow call. Movement caught my eye in the deadfall area. At first
I thought it was an elk, but it was too small, it looked like a whitetail but
it was moving very strange for a deer. Then it picked up its head - it was a
mountain lion...stalking frank. The head went down and that was the last I saw
of the cat. I've heard reports of cats stalking callers before but never really
thought I'd experience it.
We found our bull that morning but it was running frantically with his cows.
The entire herd was going full steam out of the country. Several other animals
were running as well. We'll never know what spooked these animals but we're
are pretty sure it wasn't us.
Rather than hunt elk the rest of the day I opted to try something different.
Frank and I set up an antelope decoy. We got one buck and doe to come in to
forty yards (out of range for me). The rest of the setups were not successful
but fun anyway.
We spent the rest of the afternoon hunting mulies. I had two stalks. My first
was on a lone buck in a draw. The setup was perfect until my lone buck was alerted
by 4 doe and fawns which I never knew were there. The second stalk was on a
nice 3x3 but he picked me off as I moved in for the shot. We found 2 bull elk,
neither were shooters and one cow that evening. Tomorrow is my last day - we'll
probably hunt elk in the AM and deer for the rest of the day but we'll see what
develops.
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