Bull Down!
Bull down!
Third sit of the week, first bull (albeit a spike) to come into the wallow during a sit, and I dropped it within 30 yards of my shot!
First, a little background on what happened.
Wednesday’s sit
As mentioned in the last post, we decided to opt for no hunting Tuesday to ensure the elk feel comfortable as the temperature warmed up. By Wednesday it was pretty warm, but unfortunately the elk didn’t move at all.
After looking at some images on the trail cams we decided to sit a little later, getting in around 4PM. From 4PM until about 8PM I didn’t hear or see any elk. At that point I radioed over to my father-in-law to ask if we should call it before it got too dark.
Side note, why would we call it early?
Since we are hoping to catch the elk coming into water, we are playing the temperature and hoping they feel comfortable coming into that water source. With last light falling around 830PM you run the risk of leaving your stand as the animals are moving down into the meadow and water. Ideally they are starting to move in sometime before 8PM, because of they come in after 8 you run the risk of a bull not coming to the blind before last light and then you’ll blow them out by leaving the stand.
So the question is “there hasn’t been much activity, do we risk pushing them out if they come in late or do we get out now so they won’t be wary coming in tomorrow or the next day?”.
After talking it through we decided to wait it out, but that changed shortly. No more than two minutes after we made that decision a moose came into the water. The elk won’t share the water with the moose (the moose is too aggressive and chases them off) so my chances of getting elk into water went to practically zero. I tried to chase it off for a few minutes but it wouldn’t leave, so I radioed up to my father-in-law and he picked me up around 810PM.
Mindset going into Thursday
After so little action over two sits we decided that we might need to go find the elk. Instead of sitting out Thursday, we made a plan to do a sit Thursday evening and if it was quiet again to go chase them on the mountain first thing Friday morning if we didn’t get something down.
I was feeling a little discouraged. It seemed like everything was setup perfectly but the elk’s pattern was really strange. They would show up in the middle of the night but weren’t very active during that evening timeframe of our sits. I wasn’t going to sit in a blind all day, and even if I did we had so few pictures of bulls on camera during any part of the day it seemed like we might have the wrong strategy for these bulls anyways.
Regardless, I knew I needed to stay positive, so I convinced myself that the chances of some elk coming in were sky-high and I simply needed to be ready.
Are you going to sit on a spike?
My father-in-law and I talked about what I would shoot. We had a couple of different bulls on camera: a 6x6, a couple small 5x5s, a pretty big 5x5, and a spike. He asked me if I would shoot the spike and at first I was hesitant. I have this whole week to hunt, and when you see so many bulls on the property you want to wait. On the other hand, this is my second archery hunt, and so far I had probably 20-30 hours of sitting without a single elk coming into range. Was I really in a spot to be picky? Frankly what I needed was opportunity, not selection.
When I thought about what I would be hunting on Saturday, I realized that I would likely shoot a cow if it came into view and I didn’t know if a bull was out there. The horns would be cool, but my wife and I really wanted the meat, and frankly the meat on the cow would probably be a bit more tender than the bull’s.
After thinking that through I confidently shared that a spike would be awesome. Anything with antlers, that was an elk, that came into water was going to get one of my arrows.
Thursday’s sit
As we pulled into the property Thursday afternoon (once again we arrived late, pulling in around 4PM, ready to sit by 430PM) I had this conviction that today was today. I told my father-in-law “today’s the day. A bull is going to enter the wallow between 6 and 630 tonight”. I had no real reason to believe this, but I did.
I got ready, got in the blind, and started my sit. I had been listening to some podcasts and audiobooks and fired up a couple as I waited. For the first hour and a half I sat there listening to my content without any action over the water.
At 6PM, I turned off my audiobook, took out that earbud, put my bow on my lap, and waited for my prediction to become reality. I ended up dozing off (not quite sleeping, but that in-between where your eyes are closed and you lose track of time) and when I opened my eyes I could see an animal in the reflection of the water, hidden behind a wall of the blind. I slowly moved to the right and confirmed that it was a cow elk at the wallow!
I checked my watch and it was about 620PM. My heart starting jumping, realizing that this would be the first elk of a herd, and a bull was destined to show up at some point.
Elk appear
After 30 seconds or so I heard some faint crashing and a spike bull appeared in my view. When I recognized it was a spike I could feel my whole body start to tremble. It was coming in headfirst, so I had two problems, when was it going to turn broadside and would it see me draw? I sat still for about 20 seconds and then it finally started turning to my right.
As it started to turn I recognized that it might be headed into the meadow, which means I’d need to take a shot if it presented itself to me. I raised my bow, pulled against the D-loop, but my string wouldn’t budge. I had buck fever so bad I wasn’t able to pull my bow back!
I sat the bow back down, took a few deep breaths, focused my energy on pulling back the string, and was finally able to get it back. At this point that spike was almost broadside but not quite. It had its head down and began drinking water, and after about 15 seconds it was apparent that it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
That buck fever hadn’t worn off and I knew I needed to let the string down. I tried to release the tension in my arms and shoulders as best I could but it was far from silent. Luckily, the elk didn’t seem to notice (or care) and continued drinking right in front of me.
The spike ended up drinking in the water for probably five minutes. I sat there as it continued to drink, head directly towards me, and I was paranoid that at any moment he was going to look up, realize I was there, and take off up the hill. The cow that it came down after had run off, so there was also the risk of it chasing after that cow, although it was apparent that the spike was too young to breed (probably only 1.5 years old). It was likely following the cow out of curiousity.
Spike turning
As I sat and watched, I could see it starting to drink back to my right. After a minute, it took another step, and I realized this was my opportunity. Moving from head on, to quartering towards right, to broadside right, I knew that the spike’s front-right shoulder would be the key. That shoulder would protect the spike’s lungs and heart, and I would need that leg to take a step in order for the vital organs to be exposed for my shot.
As it began moving from quartering towards to broadside I drew. Then, the elk was broadside but that right leg hadn’t stepped yet. This whole time I have my pin locked right behind his shoulder, about halfway up his back.
Finally, he stepped. I released. The elk ran.
Post shot
I was honestly surprised when the release clicked and the arrow flew. Much of what I have read about solid archery technique states this is a good method to use, but I don’t know if it was purposeful at all.
Adrenaline and excitement immediately turned to fear and concern as my lack of experience had me wondering whether I had a good shot. I had looked at images of vital organs on elk countless times before this hunt, and I had punched hundreds of arrows in bags at distances way longer than this (the elk was 21 yards from my blind).
I radioed to my father-in-law to let him know I had taken the shot; he had seen the spike come in and run off from his watch so he assumed the same. I had a camera recording this whole time so I was able to rewind back to my shot and identify where I had hit him. Looking back at the tapes I confirmed that I hit him right where I intended, but what still remained was seeing a dead elk on the ground.
Did I hit one lung? Two lungs? The heart? None of them?
How far did he run? Was he still alive? Had he already expired?
My adrenaline and radioing to my father-in-law actually kept me from hearing the crash of the elk falling about eight seconds after the shot. I waited for my father-in-law to get down from his perch, get the ranger, and come over to the blind, about 15 minutes.
We immediately found the blood trail and followed it up the hill about 20 yards. We then could see the spike expired against a log and were able to confirm that it had died.
After field dressing the elk we confirmed that I had shot both lungs AND the animal bled out. Not only was this optimal for meat salvage, but the shot placement couldn’t have been much better. A wave of relief flooded me after I could confirm exactly how I had harvested the animal.
The shot
I DRILLED this spike! While not knowing it at the time, I was extremely lucky in hitting both lungs. Seeing the diagrams and images I felt that was the right spot, but it was awesome to have been able to hit it first try.
The following video shows the shot, from draw to the bull crashing in the woods (muffled behind my talking, regretably).
The bull slightly rotates to the left after having already stepped and you can ever-so-slightly see the arrow penetrate behind his shoulder right above the bend in that shoulder. Based on the position of the blind (about 20-25 feet off the ground) this shot penetrated the top of the right lung and middle of the left lung.
The following three photos show the arrow 1) in flight, 2) penetrating the elk, and 3) after penetration. In the first photo you can clearly see how the shoulder bends towards the base of the neck and opens up the vital organs (lungs and heart).
In the next two photos look at the small black dot that was the entry point for the arrow. This placement yielded a double lung shot that dropped the spike in eight seconds and thirty yards!
I put so much work into making this shot, but I still feel unbelievably lucky it turned out so well.
Looking back
The greatest thing I feel is gratitude. This hunt started in 2016 when I got my bow and began preparations for that first hunt. I hunted elk and deer over six days (from what I can remember), took one irresponsible shot at a small buck, and saw zero elk (primarily what I was hunting). Now, four years later and after an additional thirteen hours of sitting, I have a dead elk in a freezer!
Archery is really hard. My preparation was this yo-yo of feeling rock solid to feeling as if I had never picked up a bow before.
I was dialed into 60 yards one week, and two weeks later I could hardly coordinate the muscles in my shoulders, arms, and hands.
Then a week before the hunt I was hitting from 70 yards and then messed up my sight, losing four arrows before I understood what I was doing wrong.
This hunt was all about preparation, perserverence, and optimism. I knew going in that I was looking for an opportunity, and I am so grateful to have been able to capitalize on that opportunity.
Now we have enough red meat to carry my family until next September :)
Looking forward
What about 2021? I don’t know what our travel looks like, but I would love another opportunity to go out and let another arrow fly. The one thing I would do different? Ditch the blind.
As my father-in-law explained, on our hunting property the first two weeks is all about sitting water and increasing opportunity. It is hot enough that those elk have to come for water before the evening, so your best chance is sitting and waiting for the elk to come to you. There are bigger bulls chasing cows in the hills in mid-to-late September, but the best opportunity to kill an elk occurs those first two weeks of September.
At this point in my hunting career, hunting this first week over water was absolutely the best thing I could have done. Now that I checked that one off my list, I want to get out in the woods amongst the chaos and feel the rush of being in the middle of breeding and fighting bulls. I have heard stories of friends and family that have heard and seen bulls fighting over cows and dominance in a herd, and that is an experience that I want to have.
If the time, money, and everything else works out, that is where I will be in mid-September 2021, right amongst the bulls. Until then, we’ll enjoy a freezer full of elk and psych ourselves out for the next time we can get after them.