It’s crunch time now. We have 6 more days of hunting to make it happen for 3 of us. Good friend and Pro Staff member David Burdette will be driving in to camp tonight as well to give us a hand with the calling. On the way to camp, we decided to run up and check the trail camera in our 2nd area and see if the bulls had been back. There was a sick feeling in my stomach as we walked the logging road down to the trail camera. ATV tracks had been up and down the road and as we approached the tree where the camera was hung, the missing tree confirmed my feeling. Someone had taken a saw in and cut the tree down, slid the cable off the trunk, and removed the entire assembly, housing, camera, and all. Without bolt cutters they weren’t able to unlock the housing or the cable, so they cut the tree down and took the entire setup home with them. We had taken a couple pictures of the bull on the trail camera with our cell phone before we re-hung it last week. If anyone sees these original pictures floating around, PLEASE let us know. We are offering a $500 reward for info that helps us track down the thieves. The value of the camera and pictures isn’t the issue…it’s just the fact that we can’t trust fellow hunters out in the hills anymore. E-mail me if you have any info…we were hunting in the Donnelley area of central Idaho and the thieves were riding ATV’s all over the logging roads in this area between September 10th-12th.
Quite upset with the situation and the fact that the ATV had driven up and down every single logging road in the area, we packed up our tent camp and headed back to our original area.
Monday morning, with Burdette and I back calling, and Donnie on point as the shooter with Dave Perry over his shoulder with the video camera, we were back calling to the same bull Donnie had missed last week. He had a score to settle with the bull, and it seemed like this might be the morning to make it happen. It took a little more coaxing to get him in this time, but he finally stepped out and stopped broadside at 50 yards. Donnie was at full draw and ready.
If you think there was razzing the first two times Donnie missed the bull, you can bet it was now elevated on the third miss! Elk fever still gets the best of all of us once in a while! 🙂
Monday night we decided we would be most efficient if we split into 2 groups of 2 and covered some new areas in search of bugles. Burdette and Dave Perry headed to a location about 15 miles from camp and Donnie and I headed to a steep basin where we had heard bugling at the beginning of the season. Our evening hunt was a complete bust, but Dave and Dave got into some elk and had a couple close calls.
Tuesday morning Dave and Dave headed back up to chase the elk they had found the night before, and Donnie and I stayed closer to camp. We got 2 bulls bugling just before daylight and worked our way up the steep hillside through the burn towards them. The smaller sounding bull was coming in the fastest so we dropped back below him and got the wind in our favor. He came out across the draw about 150 yards away and worked his way up along the creek to a game trail. He hit the trail and began climbing the hillside right towards us. I moved above the trail and before I could even get my rangefinders out of my pocket, the bull was standing at 30 yards looking right at me. I was busted. I knew better than to be moving around with the bull inside 100 yards, but I got sloppy and it cost me a shot. The 5X5 bull whirled and ran back into the draw and up the other side, stopping long enough to bark 4-5 times and warn the bigger bull that something was wrong. That night was pretty slow for Donnie and I, but Dave and Dave had a pretty eventful day in the area they were hunting. The elk weren’t very vocal there, but they had 4-5 bulls come in silent to their set-ups and had heard a few bulls bugling as well. At camp that night we decided Donnie and I would hike into the next drainage over from Dave and Dave and hope the elk would start talking a little more. Down to the wire and with just 4 days left, we need to get something on the ground!