Archery/Muzz 2014 Part2

So it is Friday night and our first night on the mountain.  We left off in the previous post where we had just spotted some elk and were about to give pursuit.  We had to double back around to play the wind right.  The elk were on a side hill that we generally don't hunt. We were riding along a fence line trying to find a spot to make our way over to the elk.  Will tells Billy and I to stay put while he goes and checks for way to up the hill.  After 10 minutes Billy and I said what the hell was he thinking?  Where is he, what is he doing, does he not want to hunt tonight?  A few minutes later we said the hell with it, lets go hunt.  Now Will left on foot and didn't take his bow.  So the thought was I will take his bow and hope to find him on our way up and give to him.  Well that didn't happen but what did happen was Billy and I found the Elk and setup.  I started calling and all of the elk picked thier heads  up and looked my direction.  We were about 300 hundred yards away from them on a side hill so we could see everything.  The young legal bull seemed to like what I had to say as he bugled back at me.  A couple of min later he heading toward us.  I though oh boy here first night and Billy is going to get some action.  Well he made it the base of the hill and stopped as the sun was working against us that was all the closer we got to them.  A good first night out.  Now all we have to fight our way back out through the scrub oaks and find Will.  We found the fence line, the horses and a Will squelling about how cold he was and how if he had his bow he could have killed a big ol 6x6.  Well I put it plain and simple.  You were the dumbass that took off without your bow and never came back to us.  Well now that we got the stupid out of our system lets go get a nice hot meal and hope for better luck in the am.

The first night is camp is never a good sleep for me.  It kind of like the first night in a hotel when you are traveling for work.  The morning seem to come right after I finally fell asleep after hours of trying.  We all sprang up and were at um getting ready.  It always seems like the first morning no matter how well you plan the night before is a cluster.  Where is this, where is that, how many layers do I put on, where are my boots?  Oh and of course the thought of I hope I can use the privy before I get out on the trail.

The plan was simple.  Since Dave showed up to camp around midnight Will and Dave would take the four wheelers to the fence line where we saw the elk the night before.  Billy, Ted and I would take the naggs and head up the mountain.  As we were crossing the shale edge we saw elk the first ridge over as light was just coming up.  We had a meeting to devise a plan and set out to make a go after the elk.  The wind was blowing down the mountain so we had to make a side approach as we were a little higher than the elk.  I was down low and Billy was above calling and Tedd was above him.  Within a minute of Billy calling a spike came poke his head out of the brush and was looking around.  It was nice to see and elk up close again and fun to watch him.  10 minutes later the bull we showed himself down below me.  He turned out to be a non legal bull.  He winded one of us and headed back down the hill.  That was the elk we were waiting for so now that he wasn't a shooter I gave a shut in down call so we could move on and make another attempt to setup another place.

I climbed up to where Billy was calling.  We could hear a bull to the south of us and decided we would try to close the gap on him.  Where was Ted?  We had no idea as he didn't respond to the come back call.  He mentioned on the drive out that he left his hoochy momma call back in MN.  Now what the hell good does it do him in MN?  Nothing I tell ya!  Now,  here we were wondering where Ted was for about second before we said the hell with him.  Billy and I were there to hunt and that was what we did.  We made our way towards the bull.  We would make a cow call once in a while while we were walking closer to the bull.  When we got closer we actually heard two bull bugling in the same area.  Billy was staying behind about 50 yards as we moved in on the bulls.  I was closing the gap and trying to come in down wind from them ,when I noticed what looked like a black bear.  About 40 yards below me a clearing there was a black hump which looked like a nice black bear.  I paused and watched for a couple of minutes trying to figure out what for sure it was.  It finally moved and realized it was just young black cow.  Back to my sneak for one of the bulls.  I was closing in.  All I had to do was come over this mound of tree'e and I should be able to see the bulls. BOOM went the smoke pole!  Not mine but Tedds.  Fucking Tedd!,  I said to myself .  Comes out once every three years and shoots the shit out of them them the first morning.  Well Billy kept calling but everything was silent.  I walked up the mound only to see that there was still a rack in the brush.  My heart went to pounding, the bull started to move I moved to an opening as to hope to get a shot at the bull.  It stopped in the opening neck and head out from the brush staring straight down on me.  I was shaking so bad I pulled my head from the barrel.  Breath I told myself.  I peered back down the barrel and said I got him boom.  I fired the bull jumped and trotted off into the woods.  Holy shit did we just shoot two bulls on the opening morning?  I am sure hoping so.  I stayed in my spot so when Billy showed up I could place at the same spot as the bull.  We didn't find any blood but we saw Teddy running around like Pac Man trying to avoid the ghosts.  Billy said we better go help Tedd first and then come back.  We made pretty quick work of finding Tedds bull.  Once Billy found the hoof print it was game over.  Within five minutes we found Tedds Bull in the tree's.  Great shooting Tedd!

Tedd was high on life until Billy said go back to camp and the meat bags and bring two horses back.  Yeah but but I don't know where I am.  Oh just head this way then that way momma's boy! and hurry up it's getting hot out.  Billy and I went back down and searched for my bull nothing at all.  No blood no dead bull but did find a dead elk calf from weeks before ) :.  By the time Tedd got back Billy and I had Tedds elk all cleaned up and were on our last few drops of water.  We could hear Tedd coming through the tree's a half mile away.  He sounded like Mad Jack from the Grizzly Adams show.  Come on Smokey you son of bitch!  Gol damit Smoke get your ass moving etc etc etc!  I think Teddy heard Billy and I laughing out loud because he called for Billy to help him.  Ted made it with the horse though so it was easy packing out.  Good shooting Teddy!