Mark and I did our annual Elk hunt in ID in Sept. It was a drop camp in the back country of unit 17 (Selway unit). This is the Bitterroot mountains in the Frank Church wilderness. It was about a 15 mile ride on horses and mules to our camp. The weather was unseasonably warm, never freezing at night and about 85f during the day. The warm weather kept the animals from moving, making hunting difficult to say the least.

It wasn't until the last 3 days that we got our first response to a bugle. The bull would answer the bugle but wouldn't come in to our cow calls. We agreed that it was because of the high temps. He just wasn't hot enough in the rut yet.

We both had bear, cougar, elk, deer and wolf tags. We saw a couple does, no bears wolves or cats. Our plan was to concentrate on elk and then try for the rest as opportunity arose.

The only opportunity that we had was this buck that I shot as it pogod (sp?) away at 60yds. We felt fortunate that we got a shot at something, but we really went there for elk.

As always it was a great time but still disapointing.

Todd

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