Its been a busy week, but I'm finally able to sit down at the computer and type up the story.
When I first drew this tag I was elated, having wanting to draw a margaret bull tag since the first time I heard about it, but I had quit applying for it because the quality of bulls and the hunt itself seemed to have dropped. Well last year they changed it from quality to bull, perfect! It was my only choice in the bull catagory and I was lucky enough to draw with 9 points. Scouting started right away on google earth, topo maps and searching online forums, as well as talking to a few guys who I know have a lot of knowledge of the area.
A buddy of mine drew a rifle cow tag in there last year, so luckily I had some pretty good knowledge already of the weyco side of the unit, and just a general idea of the lay of the land.
One area I didn't know at all was the east end of the unit, I knew I needed to scout it and was planning on using it as a backup plan in case weyco shut down to fire danger, which I knew was a likely possibilty. A good family friend, a few members on this site, and google earth was a huge help on ideas of where to start in the highcountry stuff on the east end of the unit. After several trips, lots of gas burned and a ton of animals spotted, I thought I had a pretty good idea on what to do if in fact I did end up having to hunt up there. There was one bull in particular that we had spotted and watched, he had a dozen cows and was already love drunk the first weekend of september, a good 5 point bull I would gladly take with my bow if given the opportunity.
The first weekend much to my surprise Weyco still had the st hellens tree farm open, so a good friend of mine tagged along with me to hunt an area I had scouted which had some really good looking meadows and 5 good size wallows, several miles behind the gate. Perfect.
Opening morning started out great, getting within 30 yards of a herd which had one screaming bull, he just never would show himself. This valley had as many as half a dozen bulls screaming at one time, by the end of the day we figured we heard at least a dozen different bulls, but never was able to close the distance, actually never even saw one of the bulls. I would bugle and locate a bull, or they would just bugle on their own, and everytime I would try to close the distance (this was really steep on either side of the valley so it was tough going) they would just shut up and sneak out of there. I think they just werent ready yet, all the rubs I was finding were a week or two old, guessing velvet rubs, and the wallows had barely been touched. We werent able to get one bull riled up, they would just bugle like saying hello, and that was it, no calling strategy seemed to work. I am not an expert caller by any means, but I've had bulls get fired up and come in plenty of times, these guys just didn't seem ready.
After a long week back at working, thinking of what to do and how to up my odds and call in one of the many bulls we heard, I got the news weyco had shut down all entry due to extreme fire danger. Great. Onto plan B.
I recruited my good buddy Beavis to tag along with me into the margaret back country. We left town friday, and began the grueling but short climb up the mountain in the afternoon heat, with full packs ready to stay the weekend and give it our best attempt at tagging a high country bull in the rugged country around 5,000ft.
As we near the top, I let out one locate bugle, which was quickly answered, hard to tell from which direction, but it gave us hope. Once we got close to the ridge, I let out a couple cow calls, which were answered instantly by a bull. He sounded lonely and not far away, game on! We found a good vantage point and started glassing, I saw a good bull the direction the bugles had been coming from, he was looking our direction in search of the cows. We watched him for a while, there was a small 4x5 below him that apparently didn't want to mess with the bigger bull because as the 5 point worked down the ridge, screaming and raking trees as he came, that smaller bull got the heck out of there.
At one point the bull was about 180 yards away, just tearing up a small cedar tree and I told Beavis I'm gonna go try to get closer. He was digging through his pack trying to find his calls and I was sure he would be right behind me. I walked down to a lower trail that I figured would take me within 100 yards or so of the bull, as I rounded the corner, slowly and quietly, I knocked an arrow just in case. I worked towards the edge of the small ridge and saw antlers! Well the bull must have heard me, and I guess he was still thinking about those cow calls (it had been 30 mins since I last called) and he headed right towards me. He walked behind a bush, well within range and I drew back and fully stood up, as he walked out from behind the huckleberry bush at 15 yards slightly quartering towards me, I put my 20 right behind his shoulder and shot. It was a solid hit and the bull didn't know was just happened, he ran about 20 yards downhill and just stood there. I was able to range him at 34 yards at a steep angle downhill, put my 30 behind his shoulder and let it fly (this time from the opposite side of the first shot) the arrow blew through him, just a touch back but still well within the lungs and this time he knew he was in trouble, he ran staight down the hill, across the narrow part of the lake and started to get wobbly about half way across, luckily he made it just to the other side before he layed down and I was able to hear him take his last few breaths. What a rush.
I met up with Beavis on the trail, who couldn't figure out where I had went and was being careful to not screw me up incase I had something going on. I told him I killed him "what?" I killed him! We went back up top to where our packs were and I showed him the dead bull just on the other side of the lake, I was completely elated. This was my first bull I have killed with my bow and I was stoked, Beavis on the other hand probably felt a little jipped... we were only about 45 minutes into the hunt and he was already recruited to being a meat packer!
We were able to quarter him up and hang the meat in game bags, take our packs (they were still plum full with food and gear for the weekend) and the head back down to the truck by 3 AM.
All in all it was an awesome hunt, there are a ton of elk in the margaret, and no shortage of bulls thats for sure. Those elk are very vocal, which makes for an awesome hunt successful or not. I'm about 90% positive this is the 5 point bull we had seen 3 weeks prior that had a dozen cows, I'd sure like to see the bull that stole all his cows... I know hes around there somewhere. I know hes not the biggest on the mountain but I couldn't be happier with him. Thanks for all your help Beavis, it didn't turn into much of a hunt, just a meat packing trip! I owe ya a big one. I'd also like to thank my dad, Tyson and Jerome for coming and helping us pack as well, it sure meant a lot and saved Beav and I one trip that would have been a killer.
