Teal;
Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it.
On the elk thing, we're restricted to 6 point bulls only and a fairly short season. When they first moved in after the big fire we had in 2003 the bulls I bugled in just didn't add up to that on one side. Then the wolves moved in and the elk went silent for years.
The other thing we struggle with here and I suppose elsewhere too this year is it's too hot to get all the meat out without some spoiling when one is solo. That's fine though as I've killed mulie and whitetail bucks in this exact same spot, so if I have to wave to the odd elk that would be legal, I'm not bothered one bit. I'll note that I've done that once and it likely was a legal 6 - it was huge Teal - but I was sweating with one shirt on and 45 minutes from the nearest road - so it got a wave and a wish for a long life from me.
For sure I didn't contend with Don either, but some folks seem like they're more frustrated by life than others might be and then they feel the need to take it out on the ether space too at times. Each to their own I suppose?
Thanks again for the reply and all the best in all your fall endeavors, but especially the hunts.
PS;
Whether its calling in coyotes, deer, elk or moose, there's few things I love doing up the mountains more than calling.
I can still see the first bull elk I called in - a really big racked 4x5 - whose rack dwarfed a 6x6 I'd seen a year previous when I had no elk tag on me - because "everybody knew there was no elk there"....
Anyways Teal, this thing came in and it was going to kick my butt seven ways from Friday!!!
He swaggered in like John Wayne walking into a saloon. He was the toughest in the hood and he knew it.
When a big ram walks up to a group of it's peers they do the same thing - it's that "Yah, I'm all that and a bag of chips besides" sort of walk.
Oh, lastly the vocalizations that the bulls come up with are just wild. Not always the "usual" bugle and grunt stuff. It's just weird the sounds they can make.
As you can tell, I'm not bothered a whole bunch if there's no cutting up in a shin tangle jungle and then multiple death marches to get it all out. Not that I wouldn't like to eat more elk for sure, because I do love the meat, but like most of us here know, there's a great deal more to our hunts.
Best to you once more.
Dwayne
