My hunting partner finally pulled a nice bull down yesterday afternoon. We came down in September for the season opener but only stayed three days, the warm weather had the elk staying in the timber until dark and heading back in before sun up. We stayed in touch with the guide who recommended coming back mid December. We drove down Friday afternoon and were on the prowl before daylight yesterday.
Most of the elk in KY are on active or reclaimed coal mine property. Much of these areas look like a tiered cake. Relatively flat on top with "benches" on the way down. We went to this particular property first thing and spent a couple hours glassing but didn't see anything. We spent the next couple of hours doing the same on other properties and didn't see any elk but it seemed we were constantly encountering deer and rabbit hunters. We decided to head back to this property around mid day and we spotted two decent bulls and a spike shortly after arriving.
The bull pictured was close to a mile away when we spotted him and we couldn't get a good look at his antlers. The other bull was with a spike and looked decent so we tried to put a stalk on them. We climbed up above them but the brush was too thick and we couldn't see them from above. We tried to drop back down in front of them but had the sun in our face and wind at our backs, not a good combo.
We circled around the (small) mountain we were on and saw that this bull was still on the same bench we'd seen him on earlier and he was slowly working his way our direction. We spent the next two hours trying to get close and somehow ended up on a bench above him and we had gone 400 yards past him. He bedded down so we climbed down a 250' rock drainage and slipped below the bench he was on. We spent about an hour crawling through the tall grass below him and my partner climbed up while I stayed planted with the camera in the grass.
As soon as he got on top of the bench the bull spotted him and jumped up. He only ran about 20yds then stopped to look back and caught an arrow for the mistake. He ran about 100yds and stood there hurting. My partner was able to sneak through the grass to within 70 and put the second arrow in him. He almost didn't react to the second on and we watched him for a half hour until he finally went down.
It was an awesome hunt and I feel like I got run over by a train but it was worth it. He's no record book bull but definitely better than heading home empty handed. I'll be putting in for tags every year in hopes that I can get drawn. There are some monster bulls down here and I really enjoyed hunting in this terrain.
Most of the elk in KY are on active or reclaimed coal mine property. Much of these areas look like a tiered cake. Relatively flat on top with "benches" on the way down. We went to this particular property first thing and spent a couple hours glassing but didn't see anything. We spent the next couple of hours doing the same on other properties and didn't see any elk but it seemed we were constantly encountering deer and rabbit hunters. We decided to head back to this property around mid day and we spotted two decent bulls and a spike shortly after arriving.
The bull pictured was close to a mile away when we spotted him and we couldn't get a good look at his antlers. The other bull was with a spike and looked decent so we tried to put a stalk on them. We climbed up above them but the brush was too thick and we couldn't see them from above. We tried to drop back down in front of them but had the sun in our face and wind at our backs, not a good combo.
We circled around the (small) mountain we were on and saw that this bull was still on the same bench we'd seen him on earlier and he was slowly working his way our direction. We spent the next two hours trying to get close and somehow ended up on a bench above him and we had gone 400 yards past him. He bedded down so we climbed down a 250' rock drainage and slipped below the bench he was on. We spent about an hour crawling through the tall grass below him and my partner climbed up while I stayed planted with the camera in the grass.
As soon as he got on top of the bench the bull spotted him and jumped up. He only ran about 20yds then stopped to look back and caught an arrow for the mistake. He ran about 100yds and stood there hurting. My partner was able to sneak through the grass to within 70 and put the second arrow in him. He almost didn't react to the second on and we watched him for a half hour until he finally went down.
It was an awesome hunt and I feel like I got run over by a train but it was worth it. He's no record book bull but definitely better than heading home empty handed. I'll be putting in for tags every year in hopes that I can get drawn. There are some monster bulls down here and I really enjoyed hunting in this terrain.
