2008 Eastside Special Permit Elk Hunt

[mwhite]

Well, I've been lurking around this site for a while now and know some of you guys on here already but I've been waiting to post a really good story.  I think this would qualify!


Last Sunday we headed over to set up camp and hopefully find a bull to go after. We saw one cow all day and very little rut activity. We got camp set up and found a likely canyon to call at in the morning. Opening morning we go to the canyon we had found the day before and begin calling. Immediately 3 bulls answer and one sounds really good. My partner's turn was first so I stayed back and called while we closed in on the bull. We got a glimpse of him in the clearcut and he was a really big 6 point. While I was back calling, a 5x5 came in on me and John and Andy (who was filming the hunt) moved forward. They had the big six point bull at 40 yards but John hadn't seen the bull in the clearcut so he wasn't sure how big it was. It was busy destroying a pine tree and he couldn't make out the whole rack. He ended up letting it walk and we reset up on it and called it back in to 18 yards. At this point he realizes he screwed up when he was at 40 and tries to draw his bow. The bull catches the movement and runs off. We got really good video of him raking the tree and when he walks across an opening at 80 yards. We guessed him in the 330 range. The next several days was more of the same. We had several other opportunities at bulls, some in the 350 range and up but just couldn't seal the deal. I passed on a very nice 6x6 bull after watching a 330 class six point and a 360 class six point bull fight for several minutes. After seeing those kind of bulls I couldn't bring myself to shoot unless it was one of the big bulls we had been seeing.

Last Friday night we had a big six point going and he ended up circling us and getting our wind. On the way out we had several bulls bugling in the canyon below us and John was able to get within 40 yards of a good herd bull but he ran out of light. We snuck out of there with the bulls still bugling as we left. We headed back in this morning. When we arrived it was dead quiet, the only thing calling was other hunters. The bulls were quiet and we decided to just back out and planned on coming back in the evening. After hiking out we were driving down the road when I looked over and saw a cow standing 100 yards off of the road. I dropped off John and Andy several hundred yards down the road and I drove a little further out of earshot of the elk. I gave them a few minutes to get close and then I moved in and started calling. The hillside came alive with elk. There were bulls bugling all over the place. At times John didn't know which bull to go after. I wasn't sure which way John and Andy had gone so I started working a bull that was out in front of me. I had a nice 5x6 come in silently and could never get a good look at the herd bull. Then I heard two good bulls calling pretty aggressively to my left and I backed off from the bull I was on because I figured John and Andy were on the other two bulls. Everytime I called they would scream back. I closed the distance on them and had another bull come in to me, a small 3x3 while John had this satellite bull come in to him...




This bull gross green scored 331 7/8.  

We got him out and headed home for a quick refill of supplies and get the elk taken care of.  We had planned on heading right back but by the time we got the elk taken care of and everyone came and saw it it was too late in the evening to plan on getting up at 2 am and head back over.  We decided to leave at noon and drive over for an evening hunt.  On the drive over I asked John what his gut was telling him as far as where we should go. I already knew what my gut was telling me but I wanted to see what he was thinking. Oddly enough he was thinking exactly the same thing that I was. We had a plan to check out an area that we had called some bulls in on Friday and we thought if we couldn't get anything going we would drop back down the hill to the area where John had killed his bull. We got to the area and parked the truck to walk in so we didn't spook anything. We got situated about 4 PM and waited until about 5:30 before we slowly started calling. We had a little bit of wind and it was hard to hear bulls calling and even harder for them to hear us calling. We got one faint response across the canyon but it didn't stay fired up. John has a real good call but it isn't very loud. I took the call and let out a couple of loud screaming bull bugles. A bull immediately responded and then another and then another. I just don't think that they could hear John. Once we had them going good and we knew their position with regards to the wind we moved closer and John started calling. Once we had moved in closer the elk could hear John and he really got them fired up. I had two bulls fairly close to me. One had a good growl and the other sounded like a younger bull. I focused my attention on getting the wind right on the bigger sounding bull. I dropped down below John and had to make a decision on whether to stay on the road or drop into the draw in the direction of the elk. I could tell the bigger sounding bull was about even with me and I thought he might just be lazy and walk down the road even though he would be coming in with the wind at his back. All of the other bulls we have called in this last week hooked around us to get the wind so they could smell us so we always had the shooter downwind of the caller. I struggled with whether or not to stay put so I let the bull decide for me. He bugled, or should I say SCREAMED back at John and I could tell he was coming in walking down the road. I stayed put and he called again about 50 yards away just out of sight on the road. The wind was perfect for me and I hid next to a small fir tree on the side of the road. The bull was fully focused on John and I had already pre-zapped the area around me with the range finder. I watched the bull come out and could see he had good fronts, width and mass but I couldn't tell if he had the sixth point until he turned his head. He was really trying to smell John and I let him keep coming until he was 37 yards away. I drew back and the bull never knew what hit him. He whirled and ran away down the road and I could see my arrow sticking out the other side about 18". I was totally pumped and started cow calling loudly to get John's attention. Within seconds I heard the bull thud but I didn't hear any branches break. John came down and we slowly moved forward to check the blood trail. I told him I wanted to look around the corner because I thought the bull might of fallen dead in the road. We quietly snuck up and this is what I saw...


The bull only went about 80 yards before expiring. Here are some other pictures of the bull.




My bull gross green scored 319 4/8.  

Later,
Mark

[huntnphool]

  Welcome to the site Mark and awsome first post, thats how its done right there!!! Congrats on an outstanding bull and thanks for the story and pics

[bucklucky]

Welcome and nice bulls!! I thought that first one looked 330 but I was off 10 inches on the second one, I thought he was 310. Hell of a hunt guys!! Congrats!!

[callthewild]

welcome and nice work!  

[Bearhunter]

Great story and beautiful animals, a big congrats and welcome to the site.
Bearhunter

[GoldTip]

Great story and great bulls, congrats.

[Craig]

Great bulls. How did you trick him to die on the road. Can't beat that.

[Todd_ID]

Great bulls. How did you trick him to die on the road. Can't beat that.

I was thinking the same dang thing!  Congrats on a great hunt.  Thanks for the good story and pictures.

[10Key]

Wow, great story

[FANATIC]

Good work and great story! I wish mine died on the road.

[Ridgerunner]

Couple of good looking bulls there that country look familiar. 

[mwhite]

I hate to even show these pictures because I normally go way in, steep and deep.  But, you have to hunt where the big bulls are. 

Here's my bull.  There was only two of us so we had to cut him in half.  Still a damn chore getting him in the truck!


Here's my buddies bull.  Andy, our cameraman, said he thought we could drag it whole to the truck.  I went down and checked it out and he was right.  It was a pain, but we got to load him whole!



It was amazing getting these bulls so close to the truck!  It's been a long time since I took the butcher elk with bone in it! 

[MuleySniper]

Dang nice bulls!! Good work guys!
MS

[X-Force]

Nice work. And getting them out whole is priceless  Its hard to beat this as a first post.

[andrew_12gauge]

dang those are a coupla dandies