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Chapter 1 (excerpt)
THE PINNACLE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME HUNTING
Ask just about any hunter what he considers to be the pinnacle of big game hunting in North America and most will say without hesitation the majestic wapiti or bull elk. Inhabiting the dark timber forests of the Canadian Rockies, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho southward to the Aspen groves and high country bowls of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, to the arid high desert country of Nevada, New Mexico, and Arizona, and even limited coastal ranges in California, these elusive tawny-colored thick-antlered brutes with heavy odorous dark manes and facial features that may tip the scales at over a thousand pounds are the stuff that a big game hunter’s dreams are made of.
While those of us who live and work in elk country definitely contribute to the overall numbers of elk hunters who don their camouflage gear or hunter-orange vests each fall heading out for those secret high mountain hidey holes, truth be told, the majority of elk hunters do not live in elk country at all. For the most part they are deer hunters and turkey hunters from the Midwest, Northeast, South and all areas in between seeking to bag that trophy of a lifetime. So what is it that draws hundreds of thousands of hunters westward each fall in search of these elusive ghosts of the high country?
Having pursued these magnificent creatures and sat around many a high country campfire for the better part of twenty years, my experience tells me that there are four basic reasons that most hunters answer the call of elk country. First they want to experience the majesty of how vast and truly wild this country can be. Like so many who journey westward each year, I grew up hunting whitetail deer with my dad and brother in hardwood forests and farm country back east. I honestly never took the time to think about the size of the areas we used to hunt, but if my memory serves me, I would guess some of those woodlots may have been twenty or thirty acres and the farms perhaps a couple of hundred acres. These seemed fairly large to a fourteen-year old. A relatively small piece of elk country tucked away in the corner of a county in any elk hunting state on the other hand, is often measured in hundreds of thousands of square acres where a lone hunter can stand on a precipice and see a hundred miles in almost any direction perhaps even into the next state.
The second reason folks come to elk country is the challenge of conquering this big land, surviving the extremes in weather, and besting the beast on his own ground. Elk hunting is hard work. Long days are the rule often requiring the hunter to rise in the wee hours far before dawn and not returning to camp until long after the sun has disappeared behind the ridgeline to the west. Elk country is big country and to effectively hunt it the hunter may be required to hike as many as twelve miles in a single day. This isn’t flat land hiking folks. To be honest, if you find yourself on level ground for more than half an hour during your trek, you are probably giving your hunt less than a 100 percent effort.
The weather in elk country is finicky as well. Regardless of which state you may be hunting in, the weather has been known to go from subfreezing temps and clear skies before dawn to balmy temps in the seventies during midday that can be clear one minute and then become dark and ominous with snow or even lightening at the drop of a hat. As you can see, besting the beast often means successfully dealing with a range of environmental challenges.
Hunters also come to elk country in search of those massive racks that bull elk sport. The crowning glory of a mature bull elk is his antlers, which progressively increase in length and mass from his first year until around his seventh or eighth year after which a bull’s rack will begin to decline as the bull’s ability to acquire the proper nutrition for good antler growth is reduced usually due to age.
Unlike the rack of a whitetail deer that is usually referred to by the total number of point on both sides, i.e. an eight-pointer, a bull elk’s rack is usually referred to by the number of points on one side compared to the number of points on the opposite side, i.e. 5x5 (five points on each side), or six by six (six points on each side). Additionally, the score that the rack may achieve when measured by a certified Boone and Crocket Club, Pope and Young Club, or Safari Club International scorer is another way of defining the size of a bull’s rack. These cumulative scores are the result of a rather complicated formula that integrates measurements of the number of actual points, beam and tine length as well as beam and tine diameter and other criteria. The resulting score is a total number of points, i.e. 280, 310, or if the bull is a real monster perhaps 365 or better.
Finally, hunters come to elk country to experience the spine tingling cacophony that occurs prior to and during the rut, the bugle of a bull elk. In over forty years of big game hunting across America, I have never experienced any sound in nature that will so stir the souls of men like the midnight or predawn serenade of a bull bugling to his cows. There is no other sound quite like it. I recall sitting on a dark timbered hillside some years ago a good hour before official sunrise when the serenade began. As I shifted my position trying to burrow myself into the hillside in the hope that some measure of warmth might be hidden beneath the pine needles on the forest floor, a slow and low-pitched growl issued forth from the valley floor below, gradually building, growing higher and higher until I thought that whatever manner of beast that had made it would surely bust a gut before it was all over. As the bugle hit what I thought would be its high note, another began and then another until it seemed as if the entire valley had become some sort of natural orchestra. I must admit that in all of my years hunting, I have never before and have not since been witness to a more beautiful symphony. The bugling went on, non-stop, for what seemed like half an hour. Much of the time, I simply sat and listened with my eyes closed imaging the elk singing to one another. When at last the orchestra ceased, I opened my eyes and behold the eastern sky had turned away from the dark of night ushering in another day as if the sun was called to rise up by the elk themselves. Wow! Now that is what elk country is all about and that is why folks come to elk country.
For more on elk hunting, see our books at www.elkcamp.com
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