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Although we weren’t successful in harvesting an elk for my 12-year old son, Hunter, it was a great time and a great learning/bonding experience. All totaled, we spent twelve nights in the back of the suburban over deer and elk season. Now, each weekend, he asks if we can just drive to the mountains and spend the night!
For those of you that haven’t already done so, now is the time to throw your elk calls into your truck and start practicing during your commute. Last thing you want to do is show up on the mountain having prepared all your other elk hunting skills (shooting your bow, physical conditioning, scouting and mentally preparing yourself) and pick up your reed and not be tuned up to challenge the elk. Practice making those high notes and using your voice to make that growl. Pick up a CD if you can and start making that beautiful bugle.
With Corey’s opening morning success out of the way, we found ourselves in a different location two days later looking for a bull for me to harvest. We hiked 3 miles into a basin where we had located two nice bulls previously, but found nothing that morning. We hiked back to the logging road we had parked the truck on and bugled down the edge of a wide canyon. Corey’s bugle was answered from the opposite rim of the canyon, nearly ¾ of a mile away.
Opening morning of our 2008 Idaho hunt found me flustered and panicked not to forget anything, although I had already double and triple checked to make sure I had everything ready when we started up the trail at 5:30AM. We had walked 1/2 mile up the trail and I just had that feeling like I was forgetting something. Sure enough, after a quick mental inventory of my gear, I realized that I had left my bugle tube on the back of the truck. Some help I’m going to be! I stopped Corey and told him. He was okay with that and said that he’d do the calling (makes me wonder if he didn’t just hide it before we left so I wouldn’t be scaring the elk off!).