[petey]

That evening I saw a wolf on the way back to Bill’s place. The 3rd of which I saw that week. Great stories were told that evening and another great meal provided by Peggy was well received after that long walk. I asked Bill if he had those bulls trained, and he said, that wasn’t the first time an elk has hung up just inside the park and they are well aware of where that boundary is. With only two days left to the 7 day hunt, I was still very optimistic, especially after the encounters I had that day on our property and on the public land. That evening the Florida Fish and Game fellow killed a good mule deer buck.

The next morning hunt I personally watched two bulls get shot from my binoculars on a piece of public land adjacent to our property. The bulls were making a run for it from another section of private land and only had another 1500 yards to clear to make it to our property. I was happy for the lucky hunters but was praying that they would make it to give the other two hunters an opportunity at an elk. With very little time left and very uncooperative weather the elk activity was looking pretty low for my hunting partners that had to stay on the 10000 acres b/c of their outfitter sponsored tags. Spotting 5 other bulls, I just knew it was only a matter of time before they came over to our property, but hoped it would be before we ran out of time.

That afternoon, I could not let my little bugling buddy go, so I packed up in the 70 degree weather again and headed out for my 2 hr hike. By the time I arrived to the spot I had my encounter the day before, it was 4:00. I backed off the park line about 150 yards and waited. At 4:30 I heard my first bugle, so I responded back. It was the same growling bugle from the night before and he was about 300 yards in the park. After 30 minutes of back and forth I had 5 different bulls screaming. It was so awesome. I had about 10 minutes to last shooting light and I made the decision that my bull wasn’t going to make it in time, that he would probably wait until dark again to cross over the boundary. There was another bull about ½ mile down the mountain that sounded darn close to the property line to me, so I took off on a sprint. I got to a spot where the woods opened up a bit and the boundary was on a small bench. I let out a bugle and got an immediate answer not more than 80 yards from me! I backed off as far as I could from the line and still have a clear shot then broke out my cow call. As I mewed, I could hear the cows coming and the bull was screaming and coming. With the way the boundary line was, as soon as I could see him, he would only have about 5 yards to clear to be in legal territory. My plan was to dump him with a neck shot as soon as he was past the line, so I wouldn’t have to lose an animal that made it back into it’s safe zone after the shot. Here he comes and I can see horns, another beautiful 6x6. He made it to less than a yard inside the park and stopped and waited until it was too dark to see or legally shoot. What another awesome night! Man I love this bugling bull stuff with a rifle in my hand, but they sure make it frustrating hanging up right at the boundary line.