Last year first elk with a bow, now this year first Bull, and he's a beast.

[jechicdr]

Well, drew a Goose Prairie bull tag this year and was in the same area last year for my cow.  I got off work Tuesday morning and headed home to wash off the smells of human civilization.  Threw the pack (runs about 90 lbs loaded), bow and some extra supplies into the truck and headed for my hunting grounds.  About 4 hours later after a quick stop to to add a few extra supplies to the pile, I'm at the trailhead ready to go.  Camp is about 2 miles in, and all uphill of course.  It's starting to get late and I was hoping to get a little earlier start.  Nice part of being late is walking up in the cooler temperature of the evening.  It's still hot though.  I heave the pack with bow bungee corded onto the pack onto my back and start trudging up the hill.  I stop about every 250 yards to suck on the hose from my Badlands water bag and catch my breath.  One of these days I need to save some money and have animals pack me in.  I make it about a mile and a half in and it's starting to get dark and I'm pretty much exhausted when I decide to set up camp a little shy of my intended destination with the plan of making the rest of the trip in the middle of the next day after a morning hunt.  I call my wife and let her know I survived most of the climb up the mountain without having a heart attack or breaking some important limb.

Next morning I wake up start my walk, this time feeling light on my feet without 90 lbs on my back.  Several times along my walk I encounter elk, a cow here, a calf there.  Looks like it is starting out to be a good hunt.  Nobody is bugling yet and I didn't hear much the night before over my snoring.  The temperature rises and I head back to camp to make the final half mile trek to my campsite.  I set up my camp and head out in the evening to see if I can see an elk or two coming out into the clearings.  Not much luck.

Every day, I made the trek out a couple mile, sometimes coming back to camp for lunch, other times napping on the top of some ridge or knob until about 3 before making the trek back and ending up back at camp by the close of shooting hours.  On about the 2nd day, I end up coming back to camp and about 200 yards from camp, I spot a new set of prints in the trail.  I switch into creep mode and come around to see a nice bull eating berry bushes down in a little hole.  I hear a friend of his in front of me as well, so I'm careful with my movements as I move into position.  The bull is slowly moving away so I make a few quicker steps to get in position.  About that time, the bull turns and starts walking back toward his friend.  He's sporting a nice enough rack, though no giant for these parts.  Nonetheless, it is only 150 yards from camp and he is a nice 6 x 6.  He passes by windows of opportunity too quickly to draw and shoot, until he opens up on the trail I maneuvered more into the open myself just earlier.  I draw, hitting about 2/3 when he spots my movement and decides not to hang around for the completion of my sequence.  I let down and continue walking toward camp as a yearling sprints across the trail also going in the direction the bull ran off.

The next day, I decide to go looking for a giant I had seen on a previous hunt about 4 years before.  It required about a 2 mile walk along the trail, followed by a trek down into the woods about a half a mile to a large clearing and then up into some deadfall.  It's pretty much an all day hunt and pretty much a "going to kill myself" if I were to actually get him.  That day I catch a glimpse of a cow going up to bed, but no luck seeing any sign of the bull.  I hang out till about an hour and a half before shooting hours and it starts to get dark out much sooner than it should.  I start making the reverse trek back to camp and about a hundred yards before getting back on the trail, the rain starts coming down.  I stop a few times under trees to wait for the rain to slack up a little, which works for a short time, but then there really are no breaks.  The trails are becoming rivers as I make my way back to camp.  Wasn't really prepared for rain.  I make it back to camp about 9 p.m. soaked.  I strip my clothes and wet boots off and put them under the tent cover and crawl into my sleeping bag.  The rain continues through the night and into the next day.  The rain the next day is just more than a sprinkle, but I know the low spots in the trail are still lakes and boots and half my clothes are soaked.  I finally get out of the tent and get a fire started and start drying out my things.  Evening comes and I hit the bed with relatively dry clothes and moist boots.

I drag myself out of bed the next day and put on my clothes and boots and make the circuit.  I come across a little 5 x 5 bull in the area I had shot my cow last year.  He presented me with several opportunities at a quartering away shot, but I decided to pass.  I wondered if I would come to regret that decision.  Later that evening, I heard the first consistent bugle of the season.  It was above a clearing back away from the trail a ways.  I moved quickly to the edge of that clearing and kneeled down next to a tree at the edge of the clearing.  The bull finally walks out and I see the antlers coming forward of the tree I'm parked next to.  He is only 10 yards away.  I am pinned down, but can see every detail of his heavy 7 x 7 frame with 4 and 5 point crowns coming off the tips of his antlers making it officially a 10 x 11.  He moves forward enough that I can see his vitals, but I can also see my reflection in his eyes.  I still cannot move.  He finally spots something in his environment that just doesn't quite fit and he bolts.  I quickly draw and fire with my arrow sailing well over his back.  He never looked back and just kept running.  I never saw or heard from him again.

My next close encounter came a couple of days later.  I was at the far end of my circuit from camp and had just come out of the woods to the sound of a bugle in my vicinity.  I come out and catch the sound of berry bushes being pulled from the ground and the shine of antlers a short distance from the trail.  I crouch next to the trail, waiting for an opening that never appears.  I hear the bugle again, but it is not coming from the bull in the brush.  It is coming towards me and the little bull.  It sounds impressive and I'm looking forward to seeing the owner.  Before that happens, a very large cow and yearling come out into the open and walk up the other side of the trail from where I am crouching.  I can smell the animal as it starts to pass.  Once again it recognizes something out of place and bolts, taking the rest of the elk with it.

This brings us to the actual hunt.  The next morning, I once again make it to the end of my daily trek and I hear a bugle coming from the woods, once again above a clearing that I know about.  This time I move into position, this time setting myself back away from the clearing a ways.  Down comes a huge bull with its typical frame quickly degenerating into what seems to be an upside down Christmas tree on each antler.  It is truly a magnificent animal.  It stops to eat some grass.  From the safety of my position, I range it at 50 yards.  I get ready to draw and it moves in.  I still feel comfortable and range him again, now at about 40 yards.  Nice of this bull to stop in even increments of 10.  As I go to draw, it moves in again.  This time it is now partially obscured by some evergreen limbs that are helping to hide me, but are now becoming a bit of a hindrance.  I draw, with some evidence that the bull is somewhat aware that something is not right.  I lean out from my hiding spot at about the same time the bull is turning and heading back into the forest.  I release my arrow at the quartering away bull, and I kid you not, the bull lurched to the right to dodge my arrow.  To add insult to injury, the bull after hitting the woods, begins to bugle again.  I quickly retrieved my arrow and made my way back to the trail and followed the sound of the bugle.  I quickly moved up the trail, ahead of where the bugle was coming from and started slowly making my way into the thick brush along a fairly well used game trail.  About a hundred yards in, I spotted antlers.  The animal was bedded down, and quite comfortable.  I had no shot, so I waited.  I had the wind in my favor and the element of surprise.  eventually the bull stood up and moved along to his next resting place.  Now I had to slowly creep past the thick brush before it opened up and I could move a little faster.  The bull was bugling, so I honed in on his whereabouts and set up to wait again.  4 more times, I followed him from 1 bed to the next before he quit bugling and I was unable to follow him without risking spooking him.  I now had some knowledge of this particular bulls home territory and he was feeling perfectly comfortable.

I slipped out with the plan of returning the next morning to chase this bull again.  I arrived to hear the familiar bugle and quickly moved into position.  Of course this time I was still "behind" where the bull ultimately disappeared the day before.  Today he had some friends with him.  He bugled and in succession, 2 other bulls bugled with him.  I suspect there must have been a lady friend involved as well, since no one one really moving from where they were.  I had no approach to get closer to the bull.  The cow, I suspect, eventually got up and moved on, as the bugles moved on as well.

I reserved to wake up early the next morning and get "in front" of this bull and be ready for him when he made his escape.  The next morning, I crawl from my tent.  Does 8:30 count as early?  Sigh.  I dejectedly made my way up the trail to the bull's territory.  All was silent.  I saw not a single elk on my way there.  I crept into the area and checked out the bulls final resting place from the day before.  I went up onto a small ridge that was flanked by small clearings and watering holes and several game trails coming in and out.  This was his escape route and this was also the second to the last day of the season.  The sun beat down and the heat quickly sapped my strength.  I took a little cat nap on the ridge and figured as evening fell, he might make his way back into his safety zone.  Well, in the distance, I heard his characteristic bugle.  Well, apparently he slept in as well that day.  His bugle made its way to the last resting spot before his escape the day before.  I was only about 70 yards away.  In response to distant bugles, he would answer, usually just a growl or a chirp.  I ranged just about every path he might take along the relatively open hillside.  I was ready for his escape, or so I thought.

A bugle in the distance started to get closer.  This was more than my bull could tolerate.  He sounded a full bugle, and came out from his hiding spot, emerging about 50 yards downhill from me.  He sounded his bugle again and started up the hill.  He did not take the 20 yard trail, or the 30 yard trail, or even the 40 yard trail.  He made a bee line straight toward me.  There was no trail coming straight toward me.  What was that bull thinking?  He stopped 5 yards in front of me and the tree I was kneeling next to and looked at me.  His antlers pointing my way.  I tried to draw, mainly out of self defense, but I failed to even get the string back 6 inches.  I let down and recruited the rest of my back and arm muscles and drew.  At that point the bull moved down the hillside away from me and stopped.  I guessed 40 yards but he was only 30 and took a shot barely over his back.  He moved another 20 yards and stopped.  I suspect he was never really sure something was there and this was his safety zone.  This time I ranged him at 49 yards.  Drew my second arrow, relaxed my grip, floated my 50 yard pin down onto his chest and released.  I saw the spot form in the middle of his chest and the fur shudder as my arrow went through his chest and I knew I had made the shot.  He went down the hill and dropped 25 yards from where he was hit.

He was a heavy 6 x 6.  Very heavy.  I spent the next few hours skinning, quartering, bagging, and removing the head for the pack out.  By the time I had finished, it was about 2 hours before dark and I had no way to pack the quarters out to the trail.  I set the quarters over two downed logs to allow the air to circulate around the meat that evening and made the hike back to camp.  I sent text messages to my wife and some friends about my success.  I called an outfitter with pack out services to get the elk out.  I still had the task of hauling it to a major trail, which I planned for the morning, hoping to have it to the trail by the time the horses/mules arrived.

I returned the next morning with my pack and hauled each quarter and the head the 1/3 of a mile to the trail.  The horses had not yet arrived.  I headed back to camp and when I had cell coverage, called the outfitter.  The outfitter had continued along the wrong trail and so after correcting the instructions, he made it to my camp.  He was by himself, as his partner was taking someone on a guided goat hunting trip.  He asked that I come along to help load up the mules.  So I made the hike one more time ahead of the horses.  We loaded up the quarters and head and headed back down.  After arriving at my camp, I stopped and packed up my camp as he continued down the mountain.  I hoisted my 90 lb pack (got resupplies half way through the 2 week hunt) and lugged it down the mountain back to the trailhead.  We got the quarters into my coolers and I made my way up to the store to fill in the empty space with ice to complete the cool down.

[jechicdr]

Photos?

[Button Nubbs]

You ain't kiddin... Nice bull permit or otc?

[ICEMAN]

Awesome write up!

[jechicdr]

Bull permit.

[Skillet]

Great story and awesome bull.  What is the inside spread on that masher??

[johnnyaustin44]

Awesome write up. Nice bull. 

[Button Nubbs]

Bull permit.

Suppose I could have read but that masher caught my eye

[Michelle_Nelson]

Verh nice bull!

[washingtonmuley]

Nice Bull!!!

[DRENALINJUNKIE]

Nice bull! Good job

[jechicdr]

I taped him out to 306 inches.  Very symmetric.  All differences from beam length to tine lengths were within 3 inches and circumferences were within 3/4 inches.

[lokidog]

Sounds like you worked hard for that boy.  Congratulations on a job well done, and a good write-up.

[zackmioli]

very nice write up! way to get it done!

[SniperDanWA]

He was smiling for the camera!  Congrats