Speaker 1: Welcome to Cutting the Distance Field Reports, breaking news from
Speaker 1: the Elk Woods, and now your host, Jason Felts. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Cutting the Distance Field Report here. I just got
Speaker 1: done hunting Idaho with Garrett Bowen of Top Priority. Unfortunately
Speaker 1: he had to run back home real quick for some
Speaker 1: work and then get ready for another hunt. So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna kind of wrap up what we saw here
Speaker 1: in Idaho myself. So we started to hunt on September one.
Speaker 1: Bulls were biggling, and one thing we did notice right
Speaker 1: out of the gate is that these bulls weren't necessarily
Speaker 1: locating from across canyons, or they weren't locating UM from
Speaker 1: long distances. So as we kind of developed a schudge,
Speaker 1: we would hear them biggle. But they were biggling, I
Speaker 1: would say, kind of lackluster, a little bit on their own, UM,
Speaker 1: weren't necessarily interested in responding UM to location vehicles, to
Speaker 1: cal calls, UM, anything like that. So we realized early
Speaker 1: on we were going to have to definitely, you know,
Speaker 1: no pun intended, cut the distance, get very very close
Speaker 1: UM in order for them to respond to our beetles.
Speaker 1: But what we did find, which was a little surprising,
Speaker 1: is when we did cut the distance to you know,
Speaker 1: under three yards, the bulls were very collable. Um. So
Speaker 1: that's kind of the quick summary of the hunt. So
Speaker 1: one day one, you're right out of the gate. We
Speaker 1: we climbed some distance. Um. One thing about these Idaho bowls,
Speaker 1: they any any stand of dark timber um surrounded by
Speaker 1: quake ees seemed to hold elk, so that that wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily a problem. Maybe not in large numbers, but we
Speaker 1: were always able to be an elk every morning and
Speaker 1: every evening. The frustrating part was then getting them to
Speaker 1: do what we wanted to do. So back to opening morning.
Speaker 1: We climb up. We don't hear a lot opening morning
Speaker 1: when we're on the south side of a ridge, climb up,
Speaker 1: and as soon as we drop over the north side,
Speaker 1: we get there by eight thirty, Um, the canyons lighting up. Um,
Speaker 1: we've got what we assumed to be the herd bowl
Speaker 1: straight across from us. And we're assuming herd bowl only
Speaker 1: because of um, you know, the size of the beagle,
Speaker 1: the rast, the depth, all of those things. We he
Speaker 1: bagles three or four times on his own. We haven't
Speaker 1: even made a call to this point. And why we're
Speaker 1: making our approach based on the wind. We're trying to
Speaker 1: get down and under him. Um, so we can get
Speaker 1: across another bowl beagles at a hundred and fifty yards
Speaker 1: down the ridge. Um. We we've got good enough wind
Speaker 1: on him that he won't win. This set up to
Speaker 1: start caw calling. We set Garrett up, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: fifty six yards ahead of me. Start the cow call,
Speaker 1: just like so many times on this trip, never to
Speaker 1: hear the elk again. And as I had mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: we had multiple bowls going in this area, you know,
Speaker 1: a satellite near the herd bowl, plus this bowl of
Speaker 1: bagle on our side of the ridge. Um. Once we
Speaker 1: caw called, we didn't hear anymore else from that point on.
Speaker 1: We didn't hear the elk with a fifty yards of us.
Speaker 1: We didn't hear the elk across the canyon from us.
Speaker 1: We didn't hear the satellite across the canyon from us.
Speaker 1: So a little bit of a frustrating start to to
Speaker 1: how are we going to approach these elk? So we
Speaker 1: you kind of go back the drawing board and to
Speaker 1: piggyback onto Oregon. You know, I'm really starting to question
Speaker 1: is our system going to work. Are we going to
Speaker 1: locate elk? Are we going to get close? Are we
Speaker 1: going to cal call or bigle them in um? Or
Speaker 1: We're gonna have to continue to just spot and stock
Speaker 1: and moving on these things. And it's it's not the
Speaker 1: the why, it's not the reason why I'm out there
Speaker 1: UM in September. I want to call to bugling bulls
Speaker 1: that are interested in being tricked. So UM, I may
Speaker 1: have or may not have forgotten my elk tag um
Speaker 1: in my office desk. You know. So Garrett hunted that
Speaker 1: first day, we jumped off the mountain, drove back into town,
Speaker 1: got that all taken care of. UM, kind of sacrificed
Speaker 1: a night to just scouting. UM. You know, where are
Speaker 1: they all gonna be? Where? What should we do? And
Speaker 1: so we made the decision, uh, you know, after looking
Speaker 1: on x UM, we're gonna we're gonna go in for
Speaker 1: for two days or three days and two nights. We're
Speaker 1: gonna spike in UM. So next morning, you know, we
Speaker 1: all loaded up, we take off of the trail at five,
Speaker 1: we get up there. Once again, we can hear bagles
Speaker 1: as we're hiking up the trail through some great out country.
Speaker 1: But nothing. You know, you hear a bugle, you stop
Speaker 1: and listen for it. The bugle againning we would wait
Speaker 1: and we wouldn't hear a second or a third vehicle. Um,
Speaker 1: and you kind of start to lose confidence or faith
Speaker 1: in that vegle, and so we would leave it and
Speaker 1: move up. And so by time we finally get to
Speaker 1: where we want to set spike camp, we drop our camp.
Speaker 1: And we've had a bowl vegle across the drainage a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and we decided it's close enough to
Speaker 1: go after. So we we you know, jumping on that one.
Speaker 1: And and this is kind of where it all all
Speaker 1: starts to come together, is as we got close at
Speaker 1: bull is very very collable, very very interactive, and so
Speaker 1: it kind of at that point had set the stage
Speaker 1: for all right, these bulls are at least callable. Um.
Speaker 1: And and you know, so we just learned at that
Speaker 1: point these elk are gonna be workable. Um, we just
Speaker 1: have to get close. So to fast forward, another thing
Speaker 1: kind of an underlying theme of this whole hunt or
Speaker 1: you know, back to back days, is it gets closer
Speaker 1: to the end of September, Um, we expect the rut
Speaker 1: to start to pick up UM, and we would get
Speaker 1: a day, you know, we would get a day that
Speaker 1: was extremely UM good, you know, multiple bowls calling on
Speaker 1: their own, UM, responsive to calls, and for one reason
Speaker 1: or another, UM we could or couldn't, you know, we
Speaker 1: we were able to make it work. But then we
Speaker 1: would show up in the same area, put all those
Speaker 1: eggs in the basket UM on the next day, and
Speaker 1: for one reason or another, the the area was dead,
Speaker 1: even though we could still you know, spot the elk
Speaker 1: with our with our binos or we would get enough
Speaker 1: responses UM. You know throughout the day that we knew
Speaker 1: the elk were still there, they just weren't anything like
Speaker 1: they were the day before. UM. And you know, me
Speaker 1: wanting to break that down and under stand why. I
Speaker 1: believe a lot of it is UM. You know, cows
Speaker 1: in the area, whether they're coming into Ester's versus maybe
Speaker 1: they were taken care of, or you know, maybe that
Speaker 1: that bold pushed her off. UM. I don't know what
Speaker 1: the reason is, but it was definitely UM, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of very cyclical and very quick. You know, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't expect it to be on fire one day and
Speaker 1: dead the next day and then back on fire. UM,
Speaker 1: so it's very frustrating too. You know, maybe go in
Speaker 1: with certain expectations. Um, but but it's hunting, it's elk cutting. Um.
Speaker 1: We've learned to just accept that. You know, the only
Speaker 1: thing that certain is uncertainty when it comes to el cutting,
Speaker 1: and you just had to deal with it. You still
Speaker 1: have to work hard. We still had to, um, you know,
Speaker 1: go find the elk and once you did get close
Speaker 1: that they were definitely playable. One thing, um, you know
Speaker 1: on some call ins that is very very hard for
Speaker 1: somebody that's elk calling. And and I definitely had to
Speaker 1: test my patients a little bit more is in some
Speaker 1: of these timber patches you can see along ways, and
Speaker 1: we would get bulls pretty fired up, you know, answering vehicles, UM,
Speaker 1: answering cal calls or the combination thereof, and getting that
Speaker 1: bull worked up, and you know, stomping on his vehicles,
Speaker 1: mimicking him, making sure that that you know, we're kind
Speaker 1: of setting the tempo. And then these bulls, when they
Speaker 1: got two yards would come in silent um, which makes
Speaker 1: it very very difficult, especially as we're trying to break brush. Um,
Speaker 1: we're trying to you know, fake fake breaking a tree, um,
Speaker 1: you know, do some of those things that that requires
Speaker 1: us to move um, and and then the bull to
Speaker 1: come in silent was a little bit difficult, and so
Speaker 1: we had kind of, you know, we were setting the
Speaker 1: shooter up a little bit further, you know, fifty sixty
Speaker 1: yards in front of whoever was calling and doing the raking,
Speaker 1: just so it would kind of um, you know, we
Speaker 1: would avoid drawing any attention to the shooter. But even
Speaker 1: then there were multiple times where as as the raker
Speaker 1: and color, I could see that bowl play in this
Speaker 1: day and I would have to almost freeze, um, which
Speaker 1: I think could be a little confusing to an elk.
Speaker 1: You know, you've been raking and calling from a certain
Speaker 1: location for for a set amount of time, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden you have to go completely you know, silent,
Speaker 1: and that is due to one Um, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to be seen a number two that bowl
Speaker 1: can now see where he expects that bowl or cow
Speaker 1: to be, and and things just don't add up. So UM,
Speaker 1: I think that could have been a little bit of
Speaker 1: a detriment. UM. You know, I would have loved to
Speaker 1: set up in different locations or or different um. You
Speaker 1: know spots, so that we could have prevented that that
Speaker 1: visual um, you know, visual location, you know, visual identity
Speaker 1: from that bowl to where he expects a coward bowl
Speaker 1: to be. But um, some of these you know, big
Speaker 1: big timbered slopes, the elk are where they are and
Speaker 1: you have to make do with what you can. But
Speaker 1: ideally we would have set up you know, near terrain breaks,
Speaker 1: near vegetation brakes where we would have forced that bowl
Speaker 1: to pull through and then be it in an archery range.
Speaker 1: So um, yeah, silent bowls are are very tough to
Speaker 1: deal with, especially when we're making decisions UM on that.
Speaker 1: And then um, the other thing we struggled with a lot,
Speaker 1: which you know we I've experienced more so in the
Speaker 1: Mexico where it gets very very hot during the middle
Speaker 1: of the day. It was very hot in Idaho, um
Speaker 1: this past week. And so what we're getting is some
Speaker 1: good action from maybe you know, seven to nine in
Speaker 1: the morning and then the elker in bed there. You know,
Speaker 1: you could tell when those bulls were on their feet
Speaker 1: baggling versus when they were now in their bed baggling
Speaker 1: you know, by by nine, which makes it very difficult
Speaker 1: to hunt. You now, um. You know, having to get
Speaker 1: within you know, shooting distance of their bed. You've got
Speaker 1: multiple eyes looking at you, even if it's satellite bowls.
Speaker 1: You know, there's noise, there's brush, very very dry. UM.
Speaker 1: Tough to stalk in without everything looking at you. UM.
Speaker 1: Added some level of difficulty to this hunt. The other
Speaker 1: thing that we experienced on this hunt, which really kind
Speaker 1: of played out towards the end of the hunt, is
Speaker 1: the high country in this unit, it was very very dry. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, what I would consider main creeks and main
Speaker 1: draws coming out of the high country were completely avoid
Speaker 1: of water. UM. Which you know, my normal thinking is
Speaker 1: if an elk can't if I can't live here, and
Speaker 1: elk is gonna have trouble living here. You know, we
Speaker 1: weren't able to find wallows. We went and looked at springs,
Speaker 1: you know, some of these things. We just weren't coming
Speaker 1: up with any way for these things to drink. What
Speaker 1: we noticed is that these elk we're coming, you know,
Speaker 1: three to four miles down the water. UM, they would
Speaker 1: water at night and then in the morning they would
Speaker 1: reverse that and it would be like a chase back
Speaker 1: up to the bedding. UM. So after a couple of
Speaker 1: days of of doing that. Um. You know, at nighttime
Speaker 1: they would get out of bed, they would hang up
Speaker 1: on the mountain, they would do their feeding. But in
Speaker 1: the morning, if you wanted to chase these elk, it
Speaker 1: was more of a cat and mouse game as they
Speaker 1: went three to four miles back to where they wanted
Speaker 1: a bed. UM. So I think if we would have
Speaker 1: figured that out earlier and identified that, we could have
Speaker 1: intercepted them, you know, further up the mountain. But you know,
Speaker 1: these elk are good at climbing mountains. You know they're
Speaker 1: they're they're climbing fifteen hundred to two thousand feet um
Speaker 1: every morning. And it's a definite that chase and it's
Speaker 1: a definite um. You know, we've always got to win
Speaker 1: in our favorite these elk or or working into the wind.
Speaker 1: They're walking into the wind, but we're also chasing them. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's just kind of that cat and mouse game
Speaker 1: that can get very very difficult. Like I said, I
Speaker 1: if we could have identified that earlier, maybe went back
Speaker 1: to spiking out above them and intercepted them, it would
Speaker 1: have been a better play. Now there would always be
Speaker 1: the issue of as they're walking up the hill in
Speaker 1: the morning. How do we keep our wind off to
Speaker 1: the side and make sure we don't you know, get winded.
Speaker 1: But um, that's something we could have definitely dealt with with,
Speaker 1: you know, just staying far enough off to the side
Speaker 1: or or figuring out the right ridge to to kind
Speaker 1: of intercept them. So yeah, I think in my opinion, Um,
Speaker 1: the rut is just starting to kick in. It's it's
Speaker 1: late September right now. Um, things are just starting to
Speaker 1: get cranking there, and I think they're gonna in Idaho
Speaker 1: they're gonna experience, uh a better rut into the first
Speaker 1: part of October. And uh, you know one thing, I'm
Speaker 1: never one to say, oh the ruts super late or
Speaker 1: use as an excuse to to justify you know, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe a hunting season that didn't go as I planned.
Speaker 1: But I'm pretty confident that over the last four or
Speaker 1: five years, um, with with some of the later springs,
Speaker 1: some of the later winners and everything being set back,
Speaker 1: I am starting to to maybe you know, come to
Speaker 1: terms with or or settle on the idea that the
Speaker 1: rut is getting a little bit later. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: at least over the last four or five years. Um,
Speaker 1: you know where we used to experience you know, great
Speaker 1: red action starting September tenth on and and there are
Speaker 1: spots in the country, um, you know where the rut
Speaker 1: is on fire by September ten. So, like I said,
Speaker 1: I just feel like the the overall consensus is that
Speaker 1: it's moving back a little bit um where we're getting
Speaker 1: a real, real strong peak of the rut you know,
Speaker 1: September thirty, October t versus you know, some of the
Speaker 1: areas I've hunted being you know September. So it's it's
Speaker 1: a very very small reset. But from what I've seen
Speaker 1: in Idaho, UM, the rut is just getting going. It's
Speaker 1: it's more consistent, you know, day to day is more
Speaker 1: action and h yeah, I think that's gonna be strong
Speaker 1: into the middle of October this year. But that's kind
Speaker 1: of our field report from Idaho. Um, it was it
Speaker 1: was a good hunt. I had a lot of action, um,
Speaker 1: quite a few bowls in it close range. So yeah,
Speaker 1: overall a good hunt Idaho. And yeah, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: tune into cutting this and so hopefully wherever you're at,
Speaker 1: the olkroat was going good and you found some success