I had been putting in for many draws in multiple states, and every year, I got the “Unsuccessful” notice. However, that was soon to change. While logging in to my account, I thought to myself, Don’t get your hopes up. As I scrolled down, suddenly “Successful” appeared at the bottom. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I logged out and logged back in to make sure what I was seeing was correct. To my amazement, I had drawn a Tule elk tag on a private ranch. I immediately called my hunting partner and aunt, who was just as surprised as I was. After a few days of research and planning, we got our hunting days locked in. The plan was to drive up on a Wednesday and stay until the following Monday.
Before I knew it, the day had finally arrived for us to depart for the hunt. With little to no sleep from the night before because of too much excitement, my aunt and I began the nine-hour drive from southern California to northern California. On the way, we had to make a pit stop at the KUIU retail store in Dixon, California. If you have never been there, I highly suggest going as the store is awesome. When we finally arrived at the ranch, we met Mack, the ranch owner. He talked to us about the property, and his son-in-law took us around to get a lay of the land. Just after dark, we arrived back at the cabin and came up with a plan on where we were going to hunt in the morning.
The next morning, we drove over to the edge of the ranch and began our hike in. Once we were out of the car, we immediately heard multiple elk bugling. I had never heard an elk bugle before, and it sent chills down my spine. As we started to hike in, we encountered some beef cows. The cows spooked and ran right down toward where the elk were bugling. Thinking that the cows were going to bust the elk, we sat down to see what the elk would do. To our amazement, the herd of about 60 elk was not fazed by the cows. We did not have a great view of the herd, but we were lucky because they started to graze right towards us. The herd moved within 100 yards of us. The rut was 100% on as each bull tried to herd his own cow away from the rest. We looked at about 10 bulls in the herd but did not see any we really liked.
After the herd moved off over the hills, my aunt suggested that we keep hiking to get a lay of the land. As we started to hike further, we had elk bugling all around us. As we came over a ridge, my aunt whispered, “Don’t move.” As I stood still, I had no idea where she was looking or what was looking at us. As she slowly knelt, I did the same. Once we were both down, I looked up, and to our right was an elk staring right at us about 50 yards away. We stayed down for about 20 minutes while she grazed and looked up at us occasionally. As she slowly made her way over the ridge, my aunt and I looked at one another, shocked that the cow did not run. We made a game plan to move up the ridge for a better view. As we stood up to make our way over, we looked up and saw a bull staring right at us. He glanced at us but moved on, doing what elk do best in the rut. We did not get a great look at him, so we decided to crawl 47 yards to a tree where we thought we could get a better look over the ridge.
Once at the tree, we found the bull had bedded down with seven cows around him. The only part of the bull we could see was his tops. We could tell he had great mass but could not make a move to get closer without gambling they would spook. We decided to wait to see if he would get up. An hour and a half later, he and the cows stood up. He was licking his lips, chasing the cows all around. After about 10 minutes of checking him out, we decided if I got a shot I would take him. Personally, I like animals that are non-typical and have character. As he made his way away from the cows and stood broadside, I took a deep breath and gently squeezed the trigger. I immediately said, “I hammered him!”
As he slowly walked about 10 yards, I threw another shell in the chamber in case he ran, but fortunately, he did not. My first elk was down! As I was shaking with excitement, my aunt and I high fived. With the temperature already at 90 degrees, we immediately began to quarter out the bull. We did not want to lose any of the meat, so we went to work as quickly as we could.
Although it was only one day of hunting, I had an amazing time and am so thankful for being able to draw the tag. It’s not every day you get drawn, let alone for a Tule elk.
Login