Fate of Fickle Wind

The old doe's head snap to attention and gazed uphill to my right. Maybe that big buck was coming down the trail. Her eyes never left whatever she was looking at, but the hair on her neck was raised and she seemed to be ready for a blast off up the hill. I looked through the holes in the camo fabric of my blind hoping to see something. Slowly a shape took form. A huge dark brown neck the size of my body, a black nose checking the wind, two big brown eyes, a pair of ears listening to every sound in the woods , and a crown of horns. A nice five by six bull elk! The doe launch like a rocket up the hill, blowing her digust the whole way. He never moved.

I started cow calling but he seemed reluctant to respond. So I threw more calls away from him , hoping he would think the cows were down the hill out of sight. It worked. Slowly the bull turned and started to check these gals out. His muscles rippled with every step and he held that head high like proud royalty. I tried to calm my shaking body, took a deep breath, and released the air slowly. He crossed the game trail and was going to come in above me. I crawled about ten feet to an old log pile and got on my knees to shoot. Fifty yards, forty yards, thirty yards and I drew the arrow back and slowly eased up so the bow limb would clear a log. As I put the pin on his vitals, I noticed a log out fifteen feet was directly in the way of the arrow's path. The bull saw some movement and bolted. I cow called and he stopped at sixty yards. I use three different makes of cow calls to sound more like a herd. I grabbed the Primos call and really tried to convince the bull that the cows were down the hill. It seemed to work as he turned and slowly headed back. So I tried the other two calls which are different brands and he stopped and turned away. I switched to the Primos and he headed back again. This time the bull stopped just out of range and acted like he was trying to stand on tip toes ( tip hooves) so he could see the cows. The old boy decided they were down the hill so he started for a small depression about thirty yards from me. I came to full draw and started to put the pin on him when I felt the wind blow from behind me. The bull turned ends in a blur and covered and covered eighty yards in a few seconds. I stopped him again with the Promos call but he refused to come back. The king left with a regal swagger that those cows didn't deserve him.

As I watched him disappear over the hill ,I thanked God for the opportunity to be so close to this majestic animal He created. The sunset was beautiful making for a nearly perfect day. I sat in silence reliving the moment and thinking about two things. Always use a Primos game call and never trust the wind.