Six Day, 10 Minute Elk Hunt - Manitoba
Russ and his biggest elk to date.
Scope kiss
Hunter: Russ Mehling
Cameraman: Trevor
When I crested a rise in the field, on the other side were elk – lots of ‘em! I counted over 40. Mostly cows and calves, but the area definitely had elk—they just need to be here 6 weeks from now when the season started.
I love elk hunting. In Manitoba, we are fortunate enough to get drawn for archery elk season every year. For rifle elk tags, it could take up to 5 years to draw. I hunted archery elk for over a dozen years before I took a job guiding for moose in the Yukon. This changed my September’s drastically. With my term in the Yukon coming to a close this year, I had a decision to make—apply for the archery elk tag, or use my 5 priority points to hunt with a rifle.
Since the draw area I planned to apply for has a 2-week rifle season beginning at the end of September, I decided to go for it since the bulls should still be calling. I sent my application in and got the expected results in the middle of June – I was going elk hunting!
In mid August, I made a visit to the area to check with the landowner that Shelley has had permission to hunt elk in the past. I gained permission (only after I promised not to shoot an elk bigger than Shell’s from a couple of years ago) and prepared to spend the next day scouting the area. The next morning started off slow, until I saw the elk mentioned at the beginning of this story.
Not being used to rifle hunting for elk, I had to decide on the gun I would be using. I decided on a Thompson Center Encore with a .280 barrel topped with a Nikon 2-7 x 30mm scope. I sighted it in to 200 yards and practiced shooting and reloading the single shot rifle. Now all I had to do was wait!
My schedule got a little complicated since Rod McGrath and I were going pronghorn hunting the week before my elk hunt (that’s not a terrible problem to have). Thankfully, Rod and I returned from our pronghorn hunt a day early and I spent Saturday with Shell and Luke. Sunday morning I was off to the Duck Mountains for my elk hunt. I was jacked!
I got to the hunt area early enough Sunday to get some scouting done that evening. To say I was a little disappointed would be an understatement. We were in the middle of a late season heat wave and it was well after dark when I finally heard my first bugle. Hopefully these elk would be here in the morning.
For the next six days I sat, watched, and waited. Temps stayed in the 80’s with no frost at night. A couple of evenings, I heard elk way off. I knew they were working their way to this property, but they were coming out too late and moving back in too early. I felt it was only a matter of time before they would be on the field during hunting hours, so I didn’t want to be too aggressive and push them out of the area. One morning, the elk were on the field when I got there, but it was over an hour before shooting light. By the time the sun made it legal, the elk were gone.
On Saturday, my last day, I decided to push it a little. I started working into the timber early in the afternoon to try and intercept the elk. I found a few well used trails that made their way to the fields. I set up to start calling when mother nature decided to play games. The winds kicked up to about 30 mph and gusting. Needless to say, I didn’t hear or see any elk. At dark, I slowly walked back to my truck. At this point, I decided this heat wave couldn’t last forever and I would beg Shell and my boss at work for one more day off at the end of the following week to give it another try.
Back home, I watched the weather over the next few days and it got me pumped up. The summer weather was over and a cold front was moving through. Thursday after work I headed back up to the park with my buddy Trevor to run the camera. We got into the hotel room and prepped for the next morning. It was well after midnight by the time we crashed but I had no problem jumping out of bed when the alarm went off.
We met up with the landowner about an hour before light. He explained the elk were moving early and late, but were still on the fields during shooting hours. He also explained he had seen only 2 small branch antlered bulls in the herd. At this point in the season, those bulls would fill the freezer just as well as any monster herd bull.
Trev and I began working our way to the field. I explained to Trev if we got into elk, and could only find small bulls; I may wait until evening and better camera light to take advantage of any opportunity.
Just before we could see the fields, we heard a lazy bugle—the elk were still on the fields! We got into serious hunting mode and gained some elevation to see what was there. It was still well before shooting light, but through my Nikons, I could tell there were several elk on the field, heading into the timber. I picked out an animal that was walking like a bull and appeared to have a small set of antlers. I told Trev we needed to get closer before shooting light.
As we worked with the slight topography to remain unseen, we needed to crawl over a small rise. From this rise, and with the improving light, I could see a second herd of elk further from the timber and what I thought was a bull. I picked up the bino’s and instantly dropped down and told Trev, “We needed to shoot this bull now”! He was a decent 6-point and definitely the biggest bull in the area.
Our problem now was we would have to eventually reveal ourselves to the first group of elk in order to close the distance on this bull. My Nikon rangefinder showed he was nearly 400-yards away. Too far for a guy that was only comfortable to about 250.
We went as far as we could while remaining hidden. We still needed to cover about 40 yards to reach a large round bale I wanted to use as a rest and cover. With the first herd watching, we made our move. They didn’t really spook and just picked up their pace as they left the field. I finally got to the bale and brought the gun up. I found my bull on a slow walk and guessed him at about 250 yards. When I heard Trev give me the OK, I pulled the trigger and watched the bull drop in his tracks!
We let the other elk (40 or 50 of them) leave the field, and kept an eye on my bull. When I looked back at Trev he smirked and asked if it hurt. I didn’t know what he was talking about until I felt the blood pouring off of the end of my nose. Apparently I had snuggled into my TC a little too tight and got kissed by the scope. I was leaving quite a blood trail!
As we walked towards my bull, I checked my watch and it was 7:45 and legal hunting time was 7:32. After spending countless hours over the first 6 days of the hunt waiting and watching, my second hunt had lasted barely 10 minutes. We approached my bull and a huge wave of relief washed over me. There lay my biggest elk to date, a mature 6-point bull. The best part was, I could have him prepped, celebrate the hunt, get a good nights rest, and be able to make it home the day before all the Thanksgiving dinners (Canadian Thanksgiving is in October).
I would like to thank Trev for coming out and trying to capture all this on film (unfortunately, we had a couple of camera issues); all the landowners that allow hunters on their properties during the hunting seasons; and most of all Shell, for giving me just a couple of extra days away from home to get my elk (and no it wasn’t bigger than hers). I imagine I will be giving her lot of time next year when it’s her turn to draw an elk tag!