This story is a little late being posted but what the heck ill tell it anyway.
I was only thirteen years old (2009)when i found out i had drawn for an awesome tag in the mudflow unit near Mt. St. Helen's. I dint quiet know how lucky i as until me and my dad had gone scouting, we saw numerous bulls that i would have taken without a second thought and many others, including a giant 6 point that till this day i still haven't seen a bigger bull, also a pretty cool lookin guy that had a nice five on one side and on the other was a giant spike that went probably four foot up and had a club come off the side of it and wrapped down almost all the way under its neck and had a big paddle at the end of it. definitely one of the coolest bulls I've seen!
So day one of the hunt comes around and we start out by diving in the upper part of the unit near were we saw the big 6 and it was raining like you couldn't imagine, the fog stuck around for a good part of the day. we had stopped and talked to some people that had told us they had hunted the botoms witch was walk in only (this was one of our choices we had to choose from for the days hunt) but they had not seen nothing. The second day we went down into the bottoms. we only had a half day to hunt because my dad had to work so we decided to walk down in the bottoms. After a long walk we finally were where we wanted to be and my dad had some business to take care of (you know what i mean..) and me and my uncle stayed on the road while he did so. while we were sitting there right next to us a bugle from so close you could feel it gets let out. my heart started racing my dad comes back from his duties and verified what he had heard. we moved down the road and after about a hundred yard worth of walking we spot them and there is a nice bull what we think to be an OK 6. i get set up on it but they soon make there way into the trees and i just cant pick out the bull in time to get a shot. after all of this happend my dad had to get to work. Day three we decided to drive around and again my dad had to be to work later that day, anyway, it was looking to be a very slow day when me and my dad got out to just glass way down in the bottom witch was probably a mile away so there was no way i was shooting that far. of course i had left my binos at home so i was using a range finder. from that far away with a range finder i think i see something that is possibly an elk. so i go into the truck and grab the spotting scope, my dad thinking that there is no way he get back in the truck, i set the spotting scope and sure thing there is a bull down there. it was a nice 5 point but i was so excited i just jumped up and started holerin for my dad saying " dad come look at this it a six point no its a seven point" my dad looks threw and said you ding bat that's just a small five. i felt pretty dumb. After that i tried to convince my dad to go down there and try to kill it but we didn't have enough time i was pretty upset if you could imagine. Day four we went back down to the bottoms and again we get down there to the same spot and we spot some elk and then that same bull i couldn't get a shot was standing in the wide open. i snuck up to a bank in between me and him and got to a position i thought he wouldn't be able to see me in and i peak up and he has me pined! He took off running and so did i. i got to an open spot and pulled up and took the shot. we searched for blood and couldn't find nothin. i was bummed after a times worth of looking we gave up and figured i had just missed. we made a quick decision to either stay were we where or go to were i had spotted the bull the day before witch was a ways away and we would have to hi tale it over there do to my dad having work later on. we did tho. we took off for that area and awhile later we got there we decided to make pushes through the scotch broom were that bull was standing. we went through three or four patches of it and nothing came out, we thought. so i started unloading my gun (my dad dint trust me because of the numorse times i had pointed my gun at him on accident) as i was doing so i hear my dad " hunter, hunter, big bull" i ran over to him and he starts heading down a sand embankment, because there was a little tree he wanted me to rest on, but the bull was looking right at us! i told him to stop and he crept back up and threw his pack down and i layed across it my dad said put the cross hairs high on the back but still touching hair i did i took a deep breath and BOOM! HE DROPED RIGHT IN HIS TRACKS! i was jumping for joy and going crazy. i had just taken my first bull. One problem it was across the toutle river! there was no way across either the river was too fast to cross. we had to walk all the way back to the truck that was at least four miles away and go call people to help us pack it out finally after driving way around we parked and walked down a steep mile of hill and across the mud flats. when i got to it, it had been four and a half hours! i was dieing to see it it was a beautiful 5X5. we turned around to range the distance it was 478 yards not bad for a thirteen year old. we took many pictures and dressed it and got it out it was hunting experience i will never forget.
Thanks for reading.
