Lucky Number 3!

[Coastal_native]

A couple of years ago, prior to my first season of bow hunting,I picked out 5 of my most consistently grouping GT Pro Hunter arrows and labeled them with a sharpie #’s 1-5.  For those of you who remember, I posted the story of a bull that my #1 arrow passed through in the fall of 2012, which unfortunately I was unable to recover.  In the fall of 2013 my confidence in bow hunting was still a little shaken (even after practicing quite a bit), but I gave it a try anyhow and came up empty handed after passing on some rag horns and a few close calls with good bulls.  During the offseason this summer I lost my #2 shooter to a sliced fletching while practicing with my broad heads (125 gr. G3 Montecs).  So, as fate would have it, my #3 shooter was going to be the one that I took my first archery elk with...lucky #3.

After 3 seasons of chasing elk around with a bow in the coastal brush, I was developing a great appreciation for how rare shot opportunities actually are.  In fact, a few times I had to simply walk away from bugling bulls because the cover I was in was never going to allow me a shot opportunity, and I'd probably chase them out of the country if I got too aggressive...something I never had to worry about with a rifle...charge in and shoot 'em.

At any rate, after two days of playing chess with some pesky raghorn satellite bulls, I finally found myself in a position where a mature bull just couldn't resist the urge to come in and challenge me.  I was so busy trying to figure out where the cows were in relation to this little annoying, chuckling raghorn that I had no idea there was a nice bull quietly working his way through the timber right at me.  I didn't hear him till he was within 75 yds.  I had no time to range anything around me so I nocked an arrow and drew back right as he came up over a rise looking straight in my direction at about 30 yds.  He held for a second and then turned and started walking broad side through the timber, so I slowly let my draw down.  He ended up popping out right on the old road I was crouched on at about 35 yds, slightly quartering away, leaving his lungs wide open in this little tunnel of a shooting lane I had (I spend a lot of my time at work using a range finder to measure distances at 50 - 200 ft for laying out stream buffers for timber sales...so my eye for judging distances inside 40 yds is very keen) I estimated him at about 35 yds and I was darn close.  My practice must've paid off too because everything felt so natural as I drew back, anchored, and let 'er rip.  The noise the arrow made upon impact sounded like what I imagine it would sound like if you shot an arrow through a piece of plywood...POP! I was actually a little worried that maybe it was deflected and hit a tree.  The bull turned and darted for about 15 yds, stopped and took a couple slow steps, and then darted away again...crashing through the timber for what seemed like an eternity with the sound seemingly getting further and further out.  I was worried.  After my adrenaline settled, I crept down the road and inspected where he was standing. I did not find blood within the first 15 yds, but in the place where he slowed down for a second, I found a couple dime sized drops of blood...and my arrow, covered in blood, full penetration.  I felt good at that point, until I remembered that this is exactly how my experience in 2012 started.  It was 9:15am, so I calmed myself down and decided to stay put until 10:00am. 

At 10:00 am, I started the track.  I was finding good blood for about 30 yds, nice quarter sized drops with air bubbles, and a few places where it looked like blood had sprayed/misted the ground...and then nothing.  For about 5 minutes I didn't leave a 50 foot radius area from where I last found blood...trying hard to figure out which tracks were his and combing the ground for any tiny bits of blood.  After finding no blood, I decided to follow what I thought was his tracks.  I went about 30 yds more slowly picking my way through the timber and ended up walking up on him...all piled up, dead.  It was shocking to me at first...like I wasn't convinced that an arrow could actually kill an elk, until I proved it to myself… and the fact that he was laying there dead within 100 yds from where I shot him after sounding like he ran all the way down the hill and up the other side.

The feeling of killing an elk with a bow was certainly a little different than with a rifle, but it was pretty short lived for me...because no matter what you kill it with, you're still a solo hunter with an 800 lb dead animal to deal with.  It took me about 2 1/2 hours to process him (while keeping everything clean)...gut, quarter and skin the legs, bone out the rest of the meat, sack it up, and hang it in the trees.  I was pretty exhausted at that point, so I called up a friend of mine and asked him to find some packers...and boy did he deliver.  He showed up with 6 teenage boys with pack boards, all with their chest sticking out, competitive as can be.  It was a blast.  For an 0.8 mile pack through timber and old skidder roads, it was fast.  Those kids were actually racing each other with 75-125 lbs each on their back.

Anyway, here are some low quality cell phone pics.

[pd]

Nothing wrong with that!  Good work.

[gaddy]

very cool ! Id mount old lucky #3

[MLBowhunting]

Very nice bull.  Has alot of character.   

[CNELK]

Nice bull! Congratulations on a successful season for you.

[Big6bull]

Awesome bull!

[lamrith]

Awesome story!  Congrats on a great bull.

[250savage]

congrats. That was some good shooting.

[matlockmike]

great bull, nice story

[deerhunter_98520]

Great story thanks for sharing 

[roy...s]

Thanks for sharing and giving us inspiration to go out ourselves. 

[kevinlisa06]

Nice bull!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SniperDanWA]

Great job.  Love how he piled up.  Made for a lot of work, I'm sure.  Congrats on #3 arrow placement.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Nice ...love the meat locker photo 

[Greenhorn]

Great bull, congratulations!

[Boogieman509]

Very cool and SOLO!  I am starting to think I need to go solo.  Hard to depend on anyone! 

[Coastal_native]

Very cool and SOLO!  I am starting to think I need to go solo.  Hard to depend on anyone!

Solo is the only way to go.  In 15 years, I've only found 2 or 3 people that I actually enjoy hunting with.  Maybe I'll change my mind when my son gets older.

Thanks, all.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Good work Coastal!!!!!

[4fletch]

Nice bull congrats I know the feeling hunting west ,they almost always hang up behind some brush , now I hunt east and  I hate not being able to call bulls like I use too.

[Karl Blanchard]

Great job man!!!!!!  I know someone who would be grinning ear to ear to see your success with your bow.

[baker5150]

Great Bull,  And in the nasty stuff by the looks of it.

[Coastal_native]

Great job man!!!!!!  I know someone who would be grinning ear to ear to see your success with your bow.

Thanks,...with the bow he found for me of course.  The best part is, he would also be making fun of me for using my Primos terminator bugle and hyper lip cow call.  I can't remember exactly how he characterized it when he was recommending game calls to me, but it was something along the lines of "those bozo white tail hunters from the southeast don't know anything about calling elk in the west."    I took all the advice he gave me, but I wouldn't part with my little blue reeds. 

[Hoythunter]

Simply awesome!  Well done and luck you (with the pack help that is!)

[Karl Blanchard]

Great job man!!!!!!  I know someone who would be grinning ear to ear to see your success with your bow.

Thanks,...with the bow he found for me of course.  The best part is, he would also be making fun of me for using my Primos terminator bugle and hyper lip cow call.  I can't remember exactly how he characterized it when he was recommending game calls to me, but it was something along the lines of "those bozo white tail hunters from the southeast don't know anything about calling elk in the west."    I took all the advice he gave me, but I wouldn't part with my little blue reeds. 

Hahaha!  What a dork he was!  One of his favorite calls was the primos imakadabullcrazy (sp) and the Hyperlip single was his favorite open reed call for making lost cow sounds.  He also owned every single "The Truth big bull" DVD's.   He always dogged on them though.

[jason stevens]

Nicely done

[blacktailer]

Great bull and congrats.  Looks like a real tangled mess in there...

[elkoholic1]