The Passion to Hunt Elk
By Lisa McNamee
Why every year do we feel this desire to go in the field hunting? It does not matter what you like to hunt we all feel the same, this persistent obsession with having to hunt. I try to explain it to my non hunting friends and they just do not understand. I do not even try to explain it to them anymore. It is inside me and I have to do it.
On Thursday, September 16, 2010 I arrived at the Tejon Ranch to begin my elk hunt that I had been waiting for two years to begin. Orion Multimedia Company had asked if they could join me on this hunt and film an episode of Elk Fever. I agreed, but silently I was thinking to myself if I have an opportunity and the camera guy is not ready will I take it? That question was unfortunately answered several days later.
My Dad was able to join us for the first four days of the hunt. That was great having him in camp. He not only has great stories to share but has got great eyes for spotting game. Each day we were out at day light looking for bulls. The rut was going hard with bugling going several hours into the day and starting up again early in the afternoon. Even though it was hot (70-75 degrees) the bulls still let everyone know they were in the neighborhood. My guide was Stephen Ryan. He was born on the Tejon Ranch, his father works there and his grandfather. He knows every road, nook and cranny on the place. Now saying that is really saying a lot when they have 270,000 acres. We saw quality bulls every day. Not just one or two but five or six every day. I have not done a lot of elk hunting and was relying heavily the first few days on Stephen’s input. But, by the third day I was able to really start telling the trophy bulls from the smaller ones. The Tejon Ranch’s goal is to shoot a bull in the 350+class. We saw several the first few days that would fit in this category but Stephen kept telling me be patient there are bigger ones.
Fellow SCI member Tom Greek was able to join me on his day off (Sunday) and it was really fun to hunt with Tom. By Monday I was getting a little worried that I may not get on the bull that everyone was talking about. They kept talking about the "Big 7". We had not contacted him yet and we had been looking for him for 4 days. Finally on Monday night just about 10 minutes before it was too dark to shoot we came down the top of a mountain and there he was standing with two cows right on top. I jumped out of the truck and got ready immediately. I heard some commotion behind me and it was Randy the camera man saying he could not see the Bull. I could not believe it, here we were looking for four days we now have him and the camera guy says it is too dark. WOW!!!! I could not decide what to do. Here was my opportunity and am I going to pass it because this camera guy cannot see the Bull. Believe it or not I passed, to the extreme dismay of my guide. Later back at the cabin I realized that I may have just made the biggest hunting mistake of my life. It was quiet at the dinner table that night.
The next day we had three encounters with him and I could not get a shot. The first encounter one of his cows was standing directly behind him. When she spun to go he did also right next to her. No Shot. The second encounter was a chest shot through brush in a hole that was about 12"by 12". Not a good shot for me or TV. The third encounter was just at dark straight downhill running at about 125 yards with me shooting from a standing position as he ran through bushes. Now Tejon’s wound rule is similar to many other places, you wound it or draw blood that is your Bull. I wanted to make sure that when I shot it was a good shot for me. I passed again.
The next day the seventh day was to be my last hunting day. I had already decided to leave after the evening hunt and then return the following week for a 3 day hunt and then decide from there when I would return again if I was not successful. My hunt season was from September until the end of December. But, the best chance to get a really nice bull was now during the bugling time and hopefully before any tines are broken off. We hunted all day and saw a few bulls but no sound from the "Big 7".
We had one bull come within 8 yards of us and bugle several times. That was incredible. Then Stephen called in a bull within 20 feet as he was smashing through the brush to get to the call. Once he got through the brush and realized it was us he spun and got the heck out of there all in one move. Another nice bull but not the "Big 7". Finally, about 45 minutes before dark we had three bulls bugling in the same canyon. We snuck up on one and realized that he was a small bull. We tried to get to the second one but could not go straight at him because of the poor direction of the wind. At that point Stephen realized that it was the "Big 7".
We practically ran side hill all the way up the canyon to the head of the canyon through the bottom up the other side and then side hilled it back down to where the bull was. By the time we got there I was sopping wet and we only had about 10 minutes of good light to shoot left. We ranged him at 300 yards straight up hill. He was behind a bush and when Stephen gave a little cow call he stepped out broad side. I made the shot right on target and he fell down the steep hill about 200 yards and landed in a patch of poison oak. (That was not too much fun)
What an excellent hunt and a bull of a lifetime. He scored the next day at 390. My hunting passion is even stronger today.
