racksntails
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- Oct 31, 2016
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Now that I've figured out how to post pics and got my mount back I've decided to sit down and write the story. I was lucky enough I draw a North Dakota elk tag for 2016. For the first couple months I was excited. Then realization that I had a once in a lifetime elk tag set in and I was not interested in messing up this chance. It was about the middle of June that I realized that I had a lot of learning and preparing to do. So for the next two and a half months all my free time asides from work was consumed by walking coulees to get in shape. Sitting at the reloading bench building up loads. In the field putting rounds down range and on YouTube watching every elk hunting, elk caping, and gutless elk processing video out there. Along with the multiple scouting trips and talking on the phone with some of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of talking with to help point me in the right direction and help me from getting discouraged. All of that brought me up to the opening weekend of season with 90 degree days in the forecast my hopes weren't high but I had put in all this time and sleepless nights and I wasn't just not going to go so I went. I put on some miles that weekend but with the heat and then the rain I wasn't seeing anything and the rain made the decision to go home for a few days easier. So I went back home worked a few day all the while thinking I should be hunting. So after a couple of days of that I was back out at the campsite. From what I had read and heard I knew I wanted to be hunting bulging elk in the peak of the rut. This time I had my brother with me and we were hitting it pretty hard with seeing maybe one or two elk a day. After about four days of seeing cows and spikes it was starting to get in my head that maybe I was being stubborn and those cows were looking like something that I could fill my freezer with and it would be done. That night at the campsite we had deer steak on the grill and we had just drug out the grassland map and were going to start looking for new places to hunt because although the spikes and the cows were looking tempting a good guy I had sent me some pics of North Dakota bulls killed in previous years with a note saying they were motivational pics and I wasn't ready to settle yet. There was still a lot of season yet. While getting out the map I noticed a headlight making its way over to our campsite and a guy I had never met walked up and asked if we were elk hunters and if we had a bull tag I said yes I was and yes I did. He said that while they had been out bow hunting mule deer that they day they had heard some bugles and got some pictures of a couple nice bulls an wanted to know if we would be interested in tagging along in the morning. It took me all of about half a second to think that through and say yes. So we talk a bit and we had decided to meet at their site at 4:30 and head out from there. So there was another sleepless night and we were off in the morning we got to the lookout where the bulls were seen the previous day and before the sun had come up there were cows well within then range I had been practicing all summer with the my rifle. We sat until about 10:30 with no bulls showing themselves just faint bugling which was enough for me to get my energy back up and pumped to be out. Me and my brother went back that evening and hunted there with no luck the next morning the wind was in a bad direction to go to that spot so we explored some new ground just seeing a lone spike bull. The wind was good for the evening so we went back with no sighting of the bulls just a few distant bugles. The day after my hunting partner had to go. I hunted areas that morning but the draw of those bugles brought me back the next day and a half. My brother had text me the day after he was gone and asked how it was going I told him I heard the bugling again the night before and joking told him I'd call him the next morning and he could come down and help me pack meat because I wasn't going to just sit there and listen to the bugles the next morning I was going to go through the next two drainages and use the cow call I had and call him out and shoot him. This was all just wishful thinking. Well the next morning the alarm went off at 3:30and the 9 days of hard hunting were catching up and I didn't want to get up but a message I'd gotten from a good friend the day before came back to me and It was "if those other guys on tv can do it for sure you can" and the conversation with my brother about call him was playing in my head to. So with a good wind and in my face I set out. I got to a high spot and started glassing without seeing anything at first. Then after about a half hour I saw the first big bull I'd seen. He was moving away and making good time like he was on a mission so I bailed off my glassing spot and was in pursuit. I got to the top of the next drainage and sat under a bush and made a few cow calls and got a few loud but distant bugles in return which brought my adrenaline up to a 10 soI bailed down of that ridge and down into another drainage and heard two more louder bugles. I was getting closer so I made my way up to the other side and tucked my way into some brush before I started some more amateur calling. I made some soft calls and this time the bugling was close real close. One more call and the bull showed himself I took one look through the binos and decided I was going to shoot and I didn't need to look him over just calm down and get a good rest and do like I'd practiced hundreds times before. Then he turned around and as quick as he appeared he was gone and my heart sank. He bugled for a few more minutes so I tried the cow call one more time and that must have really got him excited because he came out of the timber screaming with every fifty yards he walked. I know that because I ranged him every time he bugled. He was coming at me and every step he took I had to tell myself to wait because he is only getting closer and the wind was good and he was on a mission. So at250 yard I couldn't take the waiting anymore and I took some deep breaths and calmed my nerves I fired my first shot that dropped him in his tracks. It was a higher shot then ideal so I put one more into him that sealed the deal. I made my first call to my brother and told him I did exactly what I said I was going to do and to get ahold of some friends and get in the truck it was time to get to work. I had him all caped and quartered and one hind quarter to the truck by the time my help made the four hour drive. It took the rest of the day to get him out but I wouldn't trade that day for anything. So with that I'dlike to thank everyone who helped me in any way and I hope one day I can returnthe favor to them.
