Once the previous season is over, we start dreaming of next

Once the previous season is over, we start dreaming of next
                        

Many of you may remember a column I wrote some time ago called “The Night Before Opening Day” as kind of a parallel to “The Night Before Christmas.” Well?

Maybe you’ve been there. After all, some kids, older ones, begin planning next year’s Christmas on Dec. 26.

So it is with hunting. Once the previous season is over, we start dreaming of next year. And so it was with our Wyoming trip. Since we drew our tags, we’ve been counting the months, which turn into days, which turn into hours, until finally it’s Oct. 13, the first day of my elk hunt.

After an early breakfast, our guide Tom drove us out to Battle Mountain, an area where the guides said they had been seeing some nice bulls. Still being predawn when we arrived, we sat and waited for the sunrise, which, if you’ve been in the mountains, are absolutely breathtaking.

As the sun began to reveal the secrets of the mountain, we glassed. Spotting elk or deer on a mountainside, especially a brushy one, requires practice and skill.

God didn’t make them fluorescent green to stand out. He made them brown to blend into their surroundings. Each rock, bush and small tree looks like an elk.

After awhile Tom said he saw a small herd of elk moving across the mountainside about halfway up. He was using a 64-power spotting scope that gave him extreme close-up vision. We had a 24-power spotting scope and 10-power binoculars.

Tom said he could see two bulls in the group, one much bigger than the other. The bull elk stand out, not just because of their antlers, but also because they have a distinct golden coat, much lighter than the cows.

Although it still was just the first morning, Tom asked if we wanted to get a better look, so up the mountain we walked. This really told us we had not trained our bodies as well as we would have liked.

Step by step, stopping to glass and listen for about a mile, we climbed upward at about a 30-degree slope. I also had left my back support in the truck, which was a mistake. Nearing the top, which was well over 8,000 feet, we could hear the cows mewing. Yes, they mew. Google it. We also heard the bulls bugling back and forth from mountaintop to mountaintop.

This in itself is a very hair-raising experience. We are still in the last days of the rut (breeding season), and the bulls are in competition to keep their cows under their control.

We were walking through a woody-type brush about waist high, which they called grease wood. We tried to keep a low profile to stay hidden.

Tom turned to me and asked if I could see the bull that was chasing the cows around at about 75 yards. He said this was the smaller of the two bulls, so we waited for the other one to appear, which never happened.

We can only guess he caught our scent (elk have very keen noses) or simply went to check out the other herd on the far hill.

But the bull there was nothing small either. Tom said probably a 3 or 4 year old, nice 6-by-6 rack, kind of narrow but very long points. We kind of speculate about a 320-inch bull.

Scoring a bull’s antlers, as with other antlered species, is a series of measurements of tine numbers and length, width of the rack, and measuring the thickness of the rack. They can be scored as a typical, meaning both sides are even and normal, or nontypical, meaning the rack has extra spikes or points not found on a typical rack.

Well, you know once I get started with a story I normally lose track of time, so the rest of this one will have to wait.

As for us, we want to wish you the best for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Just as the pilgrims did in the beginning, let us celebrate God’s blessings in our lives and share them with others as well as our families.

God bless.


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