Today is the first day of the season, which opened the 28 Aug., that I haven’t been out. The one house guest my wife allows during hunting season arrives tonight for a week, and there were things to do. And I figured it was time to give the elk a break as I’ve been at ’em hard of late. Passed a cow at 7 yards last night. Couldn’t decide whether to shoot a nice 5×6 at 12 yards the previous night (he’d be my second biggest bull but I know bigger boys are on the way) but he solved that by walking away and showing me only a butt shot. A very good year so far so far as numbers of elk and bugling — which we can hear from our cabin porch most nights — but only that one shot op at a cow so far. Very dense cover here so easy to get close to the elk but not unusual to be under 20 yards from a bugler and never see him. One reason I carry a 54″ Shrew — lost too many shot ops in past years due to longer bows in close cover. That’s my story so far. dave