Manastash Halloween Bull

[CJ1962]

Myself and two other guys had the Observatory Bull tags this year.  We did not see any Elk during daylight hours the 1st 5 days.  On the 1st Sunday of the general season I spotted a bull several canyons away and my son and I tried to get to him, but we never found him.  I didn’t see him on Monday.  Tuesday hunted somewhere else.  Wednesday saw a bull again on the same hillside.  Thursday I decided to get up early and go in after him.  Instead of going to the ridge I had seen him on,  I decided I would go up the opposite canyon and when he came out I would have a 200 – 300 yd shot.  I got to my spot and hadn’t been sitting there long when two guys walked right up the ridge I was looking at and waiting for the bull to come out on.  I was upset, but this is public land hunting, so what are you going to do?  I decided to sit until at least 9am in hopes that something would still happen.  Sometime after 8am there was a lot of shooting down the canyon and then about 10 minutes later I had a bunch of sticks breaking to my right and 10 – 12 cows came by 20 – 30 yds below me.  The hillside I was one was heavy timber and steep, I only got quick glimpses but didn’t see any bulls.  I’m almost glad there were no bulls in this group because I don’t know if I would have been able to make a shot, they were moving pretty fast and the openings were small.  So I’m sitting there, pretty excited after having a close encounter, when I hear some more sticks breaking to my right.  Here comes so more Elk and this time they are on the same elevation line as me.  The lead cow has a collar and comes to with 5 ft of me before she locks up, I can read her ear tag.  I’m trying to stay still and calm while more elk are coming behind her and then comes a bull and it is so cool watching him pivot and tilt his head as he moves through the timber.   Now I have 4 or 5 Elk within 15 feet of me.  If they were to my left I think I could of spun and gotten a shot at him, but being right handed I didn’t think I could spin to the right and do it.  They didn’t give me much time to think about it anyway, the lead cow spun and they headed downhill.  I jumped up and tried to find an opening for a shot, but couldn’t. I went back and got my pack on and heard them crossing rocks below me to my right.  I knew where the rock slide was so I hurried over there and was able to get a shot at him.  It was a small opening and a quick 100 yd shot.  I didn’t see him after the shot, but could still see and hear Elk moving below me.  Pretty soon they crossed the creek and started coming up the other side.  Perfect! That side was more open and I was sure I would get him when he came into an opening.  At this point I had only seen the one bull.  At first it was only cows filtering up the hillside, but then a small bull came out and I knew that was not him.  Then a rag horn bull came out and the doubt started to set in.  But I let him walk.  It was tough watching him walk up the hill with several opportunities to shoot him.   After a while the elk filtered into the timber and I could see no more Elk.  Having not seen the bull I was sure I shoot at I really started questioning everything that had happened.  Was it a good shot? Was he dead in the creek? Did I miss? Did he go out a different way? Should I have shot the smaller bull?

I needed to get down to the bottom of the rocks and look for blood.  As I was moving down the hill I heard a stick break below me and saw a flash of yellow.  Yes! I thought to myself that has to be him.  I started to move to the right trying to get a look at him and I saw an antler, I continued to move right and saw him well enough to take a second shot.  At the shot he disappeared again and I didn’t hear him crash or take off.  I waited forever, maybe 2 minutes, and started down the hill and crossed the creek and walked right up to where he was laying.  He was facing downhill and his legs were uphill with his rump resting against some small trees.  I didn’t want to gut him facing downhill, but I couldn’t move him.  I had no cell phone coverage and I knew my hunting partners were a long way off checking out a new area.  I have deboned several elk, but always with a couple of other people.  It was now 9am and I decided I would start deboning him and hope that my partners would check on me at some time.   I finished deboning him at 1pm.  It took 6 trips of meat and one more with the head, but I was all done by 5:30pm.  Sorry, now field pics, but here is one after I was back at camp and cleaned up.  Just want to say thanks to Jason for giving me the tip on where to go.

[bobcat]

What an exciting hunt! Thanks for the story. Sounds like you really earned that bull!


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[Mfowl]

Congrats! Nice bull! Way to be patient!   

[blackveltbowhunter]

Great bull! kudos on the persistence and sound decision making!!

[jason stevens]

Was glad to help you wish I could of been there to help pack it all out you did a fabulous job not many would go in there and do all the work congradulations on a great hard earned bull

[Jrod79]

Nice bull!

[deerhunter_98520]

Great story....it won't let me view the pic on my phone can someone post it up?

[SemperFidelis97]

Great bull, and great write-up way to stay with it until you put him down.

[Jimmy33]

Congrats!

[mtmn35rem5]

Nice job, awesome story.

[BENCHLEG]

Nice Halloween bull u did great!!

[bowhunterforever]

Nice write up and bull,congrats

[BOWHUNTER45]

Good job ...good story too....you done the right thing by not shooting when the other elk continued to filter out ...pretty obvious he was hit or down when he left the rest of the herd 

[WAElkhunter89]

Nice bull, my grandpa shot a 5x5 on the same day, but unfortunately for us it was shot later in the day around 3 pm and we didn't get done until midnight. Congrats on the awesome bull!

[gunnarnewt]