bluealtered
Silver $$ Contributor
This is this mornings hunt. You pull off on the shoulder of I-84 at the top of spring creek hill east bound at the quarry. Part of it is public land and i have had some good, quick hunts here that have produced some good story's and hunts. The jeep said it was 30 degrees, perfect for hunting.
I got there at 3:45am, not quite light yet but i want to be in place when it's light enough to start calling which is when you can see the cross hairs. This area drops away from the freeway about a half a mile down to a catch basin pond where everybody waters. There are big open fields with stands of pines and brush and places where 1,000yds shots can be made as well as spots with 50yd shots are the limit.
These fields look from the freeway to be smooth as a football field, but cattle and elk and everything else have been running across these fields while the ground is muddy for at least a hundred years and it is full of deep hoof holes and rocky as hell as well. Real ankle breakers, plus the grass now is knee high and you can't see all the tree limbs laying there. In the dark it's slow going but great hunting. It was at this point that i learned my new redhead hiking boots were not water proof after all, since the grass in the field was wet from dew, i was soaked from the knees down. I got most of the way down the hill and it's just light enough now to see a cow elk in front of me on the old jeep trail i'm on maybe seventy yards away, i keep walking slowly toward her and her heads down and not looking my way. Now i'm twenty five yards away and i stop. The cow elk here now have calves with them and the last thing i want to do is get between them, so i stopped and lightly whistled. She looked up and i waved at her and she took off, ran a few hundred yards away and started grazing again. No baby elk.
Now it's light enough that i can see other elk grazing around me but a little farther off and starting to look at me since i'm almost to where i want to be to hunt. They slowly move off together and i can count about twenty head. This is all happening within a thousand yards or so of the freeway. I went a couple of hundred yards closer to the pond and set up my calling gear. I was in a spot that my longest shot might be a hundred yards and others twenty five to fifty yards. It's a little late for me to be using a e-call but i did and started with pup in distress, i ran it a few times and waited a bit and called again and did this a few times and off to my right comes running in a big male, he's about a hundred yards away from the call and he's got to be in third gear and not slowing down at all. He goes racing past the call and slams on the brakes and looks straight at me! The whole time i'm trying to get a bead on him but every time i do he's running behind trees and i never even get a shot. I could swear he was laughing as he went by!
I can't believe i didn't get a shot but i just wasn't fast enough, I thought about it for a moment and then started laughing, what a great way to start the morning! I called some more but that spot was done so i went on down past the pond, everything down in the basin was frosted over good so the temp was still dropping and my feet were cold as hell. But up over the other side of the hill the sun was up and it was warmer, so that's where i went.
I picked a spot that would keep me in the shade and set the call up about 50yds away in the trees with a good opening for me to work from. I waited maybe ten minutes and started to call again with pups in distress and after the first call i looked to my left and there came a cow/calf pair walking out of the trees beyond me. I stopped calling and then there came more cow/calf elk pairs, I lost count at 53 pairs because they were going through the trees.
Unknown to me i had sat up maybe 200yds from where they had been bedding down and spooked them when i started calling. Now i had them milling all around me talking to themselves, it's cool to listen to them but i needed to get my call and leave so they could bed down again. I don't need to stress them out, and worse i'm afraid it was time for me to head back to town and start the day, (it was now 7:00am). What a perfect way to start your day, ... a great morning hunt!
( by the way, Basspro is replacing the boots and sending a label, great c.s.)
I got there at 3:45am, not quite light yet but i want to be in place when it's light enough to start calling which is when you can see the cross hairs. This area drops away from the freeway about a half a mile down to a catch basin pond where everybody waters. There are big open fields with stands of pines and brush and places where 1,000yds shots can be made as well as spots with 50yd shots are the limit.
These fields look from the freeway to be smooth as a football field, but cattle and elk and everything else have been running across these fields while the ground is muddy for at least a hundred years and it is full of deep hoof holes and rocky as hell as well. Real ankle breakers, plus the grass now is knee high and you can't see all the tree limbs laying there. In the dark it's slow going but great hunting. It was at this point that i learned my new redhead hiking boots were not water proof after all, since the grass in the field was wet from dew, i was soaked from the knees down. I got most of the way down the hill and it's just light enough now to see a cow elk in front of me on the old jeep trail i'm on maybe seventy yards away, i keep walking slowly toward her and her heads down and not looking my way. Now i'm twenty five yards away and i stop. The cow elk here now have calves with them and the last thing i want to do is get between them, so i stopped and lightly whistled. She looked up and i waved at her and she took off, ran a few hundred yards away and started grazing again. No baby elk.
Now it's light enough that i can see other elk grazing around me but a little farther off and starting to look at me since i'm almost to where i want to be to hunt. They slowly move off together and i can count about twenty head. This is all happening within a thousand yards or so of the freeway. I went a couple of hundred yards closer to the pond and set up my calling gear. I was in a spot that my longest shot might be a hundred yards and others twenty five to fifty yards. It's a little late for me to be using a e-call but i did and started with pup in distress, i ran it a few times and waited a bit and called again and did this a few times and off to my right comes running in a big male, he's about a hundred yards away from the call and he's got to be in third gear and not slowing down at all. He goes racing past the call and slams on the brakes and looks straight at me! The whole time i'm trying to get a bead on him but every time i do he's running behind trees and i never even get a shot. I could swear he was laughing as he went by!
I can't believe i didn't get a shot but i just wasn't fast enough, I thought about it for a moment and then started laughing, what a great way to start the morning! I called some more but that spot was done so i went on down past the pond, everything down in the basin was frosted over good so the temp was still dropping and my feet were cold as hell. But up over the other side of the hill the sun was up and it was warmer, so that's where i went.
I picked a spot that would keep me in the shade and set the call up about 50yds away in the trees with a good opening for me to work from. I waited maybe ten minutes and started to call again with pups in distress and after the first call i looked to my left and there came a cow/calf pair walking out of the trees beyond me. I stopped calling and then there came more cow/calf elk pairs, I lost count at 53 pairs because they were going through the trees.
Unknown to me i had sat up maybe 200yds from where they had been bedding down and spooked them when i started calling. Now i had them milling all around me talking to themselves, it's cool to listen to them but i needed to get my call and leave so they could bed down again. I don't need to stress them out, and worse i'm afraid it was time for me to head back to town and start the day, (it was now 7:00am). What a perfect way to start your day, ... a great morning hunt!
( by the way, Basspro is replacing the boots and sending a label, great c.s.)
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