Zone 49 Elk Hunt, Kinda.

by By Muskrat Liquor
(Saskatoon, SK)

The Snarling Wolf - picture posted by AAM

Two years ago I was bow hunting for elk in 49, close to the forest fringe. Sitting in my blind calling, elk scent heavily sprayed on my way in to cover up my scent from the truck to my hunting spot. Just about dusk and I see two heads poke out from the hill top, basically on the same line I took to come in. First reaction was,"Alright , here we go", two cows I figured. They proceeded to trot over the hill in my direction. "Ahh s**t, its two coyotes. Two big yotes. Wait, those are wolves." I realized. Well I figured that my hunt was officially over, no elk gonna come out now. Wolves about 300 yrds away and getting closer. So i figured i would throw my blind off and spook them away, they were right in the middle of this very small, pocket alfalfa field, and directly between me and my truck which was about 1/4 - 1/2 a mile away. I throw the blind off and give a couple good "Hey, get outta here!" hollers at them. They stopped dead in their tracks. A Big black one, and a Big white one. Whitey was the boss. By this time there are only 200 yds. Whitey starts trotting to me again, head down, following the scent trail I had so graciously left for them. I started hollering more, waving my bow in the air over my head. they stopped again. Whitey gives a couple quick yelps, and 6 more crested the hill behind them. "For f%$& sakes!!!" is what i screamed at them. These guys were a lot smaller, that years litter i would guess, but still, I am sh#$$#^g bricks, and that is an understatement. He yelps a few more times, and the six new ones, and the black one all split up, and run into the bush, flanking me on both sides and behind. The bush line is no more that 150 yds from me, like i said, small pocket field. They are all yelping at each other, and i was pretty sure they figured i was their elk supper. The white one slowly started walking towards me. I can hear all the other ones in the bush behind, and beside me. By now I have gotten about 30-40 yards from my blind, the wolf is about 70 yards away. I am screaming my head off at him, but he didn't care at all. I needed to get by him to get to my truck, and he isn't backing down, at all. I am, by this point, making my way slowly and loudly up the hill, constantly spinning to make sure nothing was coming out behind me. My knife case unbuttoned, and my bow at full draw, 20 yards between us, I can hear him breathing/growling, I know this sounds lame, but I could almost feel his breath. He is kind of pacing back and forth in front of me in a half moon shape, staring at me the whole time his hackles standing strait up. Now do I let an arrow fly?, or keep doing what i am doing, I mean I am not supper yet, so I figured if it ain't broken, don't fix it. If I were to hit him with an arrow and he lunged for me, and I go down, I was pretty sure I would have the other 7 on me pretty quick, and I certainly would not win that one. I decided I wasn't gonna let him get much closer however or I would have to try it, and hope he would get spooked once the arrow hit him. Hollering and spinning I kept slowly moving forward. He finally started to back up, but still pacing back and forth but I was edging him backwards. Once he started walking backwards, I was able to let my draw down, but my release stayed hooked up the whole time. All the yelping never did stop, very freaky s**t. I get to the top of the hill and he moves off to the side a little. This is where the field opens up, and i didn't have bush all around me anymore, a very good feeling. The other wolves are still back in the bush on the hillsides. Whitey and I are still about 20-30 yards apart this whole time. he slides off to the side, and I was able to cut the hill on an angle to get past him. Now I am walking backwards across the top of the hill, and he is following me, but at about 50-60 yards. Backwards down the hill I go, but I can see my truck. we continued like this until I got about 100 yards from the truck, I turned and booked it full bore. Got to the truck and spun around, bow drawn, I was gonna give him one then, but he was gone. I bellerd at him, "Why don't you come out now?" My voice was pretty much totally gone, just about 2 days to get it back. Drove over to my blind to pack it up, after i sat for a few minutes and had a much needed cigarette. Packed it up in the headlights, and those smaller ones were still yelping. Creepy bastards.
It took me over an hour, to get to my truck, from the time I first seen them.
The next morning about 5 miles away, I saw 5 more, but at least this time i was in the truck. AND about a week later, where I seen the last five, my buddy was rifle hunting, walked in where I had been, but he stopped for a "break" in the bush, and the five went by him as he sat there with his pants down. One stopped and started to come into the bush towards him so he grabbed his gun and shot it. "So that's how you felt, its freaky" he said to me. "NO, you had a rifle and I had a stick and a string", big difference fella. I would have given my left nut to even have a .22 on me. And that's my story, hope you enjoyed it.

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