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                                                    TIME In Elk Country

We hunted pretty hard this bow season and covered some steep miles.
I put in well over a week of hard hunting. I think Steve put in more days than that and saw a few animals, but I only saw two cows cross the road. Kind of dismal. Steve kept getting discouraged and talked about giving up bow hunting. I told him that his attitude sucked and that it only takes seconds or minutes to change your whole season. Time after time I have found that if you stick to it, eventually something will happen.
The biggest difference between old farmer Nelson down the road with an open sighted 30-06 and a garage covered with elk horns and the guy with the shiny new F-250 with camo seats, an eight inch lift and no meat in the freezer, is simply the amount of time in and around elk country. That old farmer knows his elk. The first herd hangs out on BLM land just above the cliffs behind his place. Quite a few shiny pick ups hang around back there, at least during the first few days of season. Elk get killed up there too... some of them are even caught out in the road. Mr. Nelson has killed a few elk that way too. The difference between the guys up there with out of state plates that find a few days off to hunt and “get away for a while” and the guys that KILL elk, particularly on public land with good animal populations, is the time they put in. Time, in elk country, comes in two varieties: elk season and not elk season, which I call Elk Country Time. Elk Country Time can happy any time of the year while elk season is only elk season.
To KILL elk you have to put in both kinds of time but the two are very different. Elk season time is irreplaceable! I don’t care how much shooting or conditioning or reading or permission asking you do. If you aren’t getting in every minute possible during elk season... you won’t kill many elk. For rifle season, a week just isn’t very long. Bow season often stretches out to a month however. Weekends on public land tend to be more crowded and there will be guys bugling from every wide spot in the road in the areas where it’s easy to find elk. Simply put, the only way to fill the freezer is to hunt as much and as relentlessly as possible during the season. Although it doesn’t work the other way around, elk season time counts towards elk country time.
Elk country time works in a whole different way than Elk Season. Elk country time can never be lost and accumulates throughout your lifetime. Elk country time can even be passed on to friends and family in the form of stories and scouting tips or trips. Thousands of people even buy this time from guides. Guaranteed a decent elk guide has put in lots of both! Time in elk country teaches you about wind currents and swirls. Country time is how elk lovers watch herds undisturbed and learn where they live, play and go when they are pushed. Moreover time in elk country teaches you that persistence pays by the freezer full and the nature of a hunt or a season can change in seconds. The great thing is country time isn’t bound by the constraints of seasons or even years. Some hunters put in a lot of time scouting and planning in one off season. Some hunters have hunted the same three draws for the last twenty years. It all adds up to more success. In the end it all adds up to more opportunities and knowing what to do when the wind switches or a branch breaks. You have to earn your luck out there!
So the last Friday of bow season we tried something different and it was a complete bust. No tracks no animals, no nothing. We decided to return to an area that usually held elk but it's hard to hunt, thick reprod in a back corner of coastal Oregon. You have to call them in or nothing is going to happen in there. The wallow didn't show any recent use, although it had been hit hard earlier in the season. We tried some calling and then moved on. Up the hill we called again softly, with no response. Then we reached an open area in the thick brush. We were just talking quietly when a bull lit off a bugle!! Talk about getting the blood flowing.
The wind was moving towards us from the bull and it took about 10 seconds to figure out exactly what to do. Steve positioned himself just off the open area where the bull should walk through and I ran up the hill away from Steve and the bull, about 50 yards. I chirped on a cow call the bull didn't even hesitate. He was breaking branches and coming in. He lit up another bugle and some grunts! I thought he was going to step on me he was so loud.
Five minutes from when he first bugled he walked into Steve's hiding position. Steve heard him coming and drew his bow. He said that the first thing he saw was huge eye guards. As the bull walked out he turned his head and looked directly at Steve but, totally missed him since he froze in camo in the shadows (even at 8 yards.) Steve aimed just in front of the bull and when he stepped forward, WHACK! I saw the elk dash across the clearing and into the thick brush. After a second of amazement, I started cow calling again and the bull stopped. In a minute we heard him go down and kick a few times. Then it was quiet on the mountain.
I started down the hill and Steve was pumping his arm and making motions indicating “big bull”!!! After finding the arrow and an anxious hour of waiting, we started trailing. We were down on our hands and knees looking for sign. There wasn't as much as you hope for, but there was enough. The bull was stone dead within 100 yards of the shot. Congrats to Steve on his 6x7 bull. Successful hunters spend a lot of time in elk country. It’s how they live and what we love. The early (and late) hours, endurance, and excitement of Elk season, and the leisure and pleasure of time well spent, in elk country.

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