Bearpaw Season - Fall 2015

[Killmore]

Big Bulls take time to pack out for us old guys.

[ribka]

Another great year.

Always look forward to your reports

 Your yearly reports and feedback from clients speak very highly for the quality of your business.

[bearpaw]

Sorry for not getting this written sooner, it's been a hectic week, my laptop hard drive was going bad, had to have a computer shop recover what they could, and luckily they saved most of it. Then I lost my phone, after searching streets in town and several miles of highway ditches I finally found it in the bed of my truck! 

The last two days I've spent in a torrentual downpour of rain, snow, and hail packing in a camp and hunters. I put about 25 miles on horseback the last two days, first ride of the year, boy can I feel that. Now that camp is in the weather is clear and sunny again!

Bull Meets Scarface
So Nick, Daniel, and I had a little competition going to see who got the first bull elk. It was actually quite unfair since Nick had archery hunters in an over the counter tag area while Daniel and I had rifle hunters in limited-entry draw areas. But it never hurts to have things in your favor when in compoetion with others! 

Nick had a head start but the bulls weren't bugling yet so he wasn't having the best of luck. His first hunter missed a 6x6 and the second hunter hadn't had a shot yet. Daniel and I both scouted 3 days in advance of season looking for good shooter bulls. Daniel and his spotters had three good bulls spotted and me and my spotter only had seen 5 young bulls, not one shooter, I was feeling the pressure, mostly I wanted a good bull for my friend, but it looked like I might be the last one to get an elk and that didn't feel good either.

Finally just before dark on the night before the opening day we found the 7x7 bull. We were all excited for opening day, we all had visions of a dead bull elk the next morning. In the morning we all headed out in good time. I was early and we ended up waiting a while to see but when it got light enough our bull was nowhere to be found. I checked a couple of other canyons in case he moved but couldn't find him! 

We came back again to where we had seen the 7x7 the night before and this time my friend's wife spotted him again way up the canyon with another large bull and one cow, excitement mounted as we discussed how to approach the animals. We hiked up the opposite ridge and I hoped when we got across from where the bulls had been feeding that it would be within range and we would be able to spot them bedded in the timber. It was a tough hike in, I pushed harder than I should have and it was hard on my friend and his wife. When we got to the right spot the yardage ranged from 300 to 400, we saw a big buck on the way in and I found a dead winter killed buck, but we didn't see any elk. We decided to spend the entire day watching and hoped to see them at sundown. That didn't work out either, we enjoyed flies and sun in our face all day and finally just before darkness I said we better head out, that hike out after dark was another tough hike through all the deadfall. We went to bed that night tired, humbled, and with our tails between our legs.

For Day two I elected to give the 7x7 a rest and try another area where I had found a lot of elk sign two days before including some large bull tracks, I hoped to find that bull. We got into the area as daylight emerged, right away my friend spotted two big bulls, I looked quickly with my binos and said they both looked good, let's move on them before they get into cover. I could see a good approach from where we were, so we headed that way. Unfortunately I had forgotten the video camera back at the truck so I couldn't video any of it. 

It was mostly a downward slope so even at over 9000+ feet we were able to cover the 3/4 mile distance pretty fast, the bulls had disappeared as they moved toward cover to bed for the day. We carefully worked over the horizon and suddenly I spotted them, we moved another 20 yards closer and I planted the shooting sticks. The bulls stopped, I looked at them quickly, it was obvious the bull in the rear was probably 10-15 points larger, "the back one is the best one, he's 303 yards put one right in the middle of his shoulder" my friend settled the cross hairs but the bulls started moving again, I reached in my pocket for my cow call "eeeooowwww", the bulls stopped again and turned broadside, "boom" my friend touched off his 300 WSM, "WHACK" the bullet hit the rear bull and the bull hobbled forward, "reload and shoot him again if he stops and turns" in a couple quick seconds the bull went down and stayed down. The other bull ran a circle around his fallen brother as if in wonderment of what had happened. It was high fives, hand shakes, and the likes, then we moved in closer for a good hands on look at the bull. We notched the tag, took some photos, and I texted Nick and Daniel "big bull down"! Nick replied that he was after a 6x6 and Daniel had spotted a bull they were going after, but we had one down first, LOL. 

The bull has dandy 3rds and 4ths, but his 5ths and main beams are a little short, he grosses right at 325, he was big bodied, my friends went home with 464 pounds of cut and wrapped meat. Congrats on a fun and successful hunt! 

First photo is where the bull lay as we approached. Last photo is of a silly guide (now named scarface) who forgot the 3rds were as long as they were when rearranging things for photos! That's all I've got to say about that!

[Mark251]

Great looking bull!  I love reading your posts...Thanks Dale!

[bearpaw]

Nicks Comes In Second
As we were taking photos of our bull Nick had texted me that he was on a big 6x6 with his bow hunter. As it turns out the bull came running in within 10 minutes after we killed our bull, right up in front of the hunter, only 14 yards away. Ron drew and released, "thwack" it was a hit, the 6x6 whirled and was leaving a good blood trail. They waited a bit and then began trailing. In fact they trailed for over 2 miles before the bull quit bleeding and they lost the blood trail altogether. In desperation Nick reviewed the video, then he saw that the bull might have wheeled right as Ron released and the arrow hit just in front of the shoulder low on the neck instead of where Ron was holding. Even though they didn't get the bull I really have to give Nick the 2nd Place credit, he earned it, he definitely had that bull in the sack! Sometimes luck is just unexplainable! 


Daniel Goes For The Big One
Daniel's hunter was hoping for a 350 bull from the start, Daniel explained that it was possible but not likely, the bulls they had been seeing appeared to be in the 330's size range and nobody had seen a 350. First morning they spotted one of the big bulls and started after it. Unfortunately there were other hunters who showed up and an ATV on another trail spooked the bull into heavy cover before they were in range and it never came out the rest of the day. To make things a bit tougher another hunter killed one of the big bulls Daniel had located earlier, so now he only had two big bulls to hunt. On the second morning they spotted one of the bulls but again couldn't get to him in time before he disappeared into cover. To add to the situation the bulls weren't really rutting or bugling yet, plus I was texting them pictures of our dead bull. Daniel showed Ryan the photos and Ryan said a bull like our 325 would be great.

About 4pm Daniel spotted a new bull he hadn't seen before, this was a really good bull and for some unexplainable reason he was in the open feeding early, they moved quickly closing the distance to 620 yards. Ryan is an accomplished long range shooter and had been hoping for a 500-600 yard shot with his custom rifle and Nightforce scope so 620 was good with him, he set up for the shot, Daniel ranged, "BOOOOM", the bull dropped at the crack of the finely tuned 30/06. Yep, "big bull down at 620 yards with one shot from a 30/06". Ryan is about 6'8" so when you view the photos keep that in mind. Ryan's bull was a little better in just about every measurement and had a couple extra antler points to boot. We scored him twice and come up with 346 7/8 both times, so the bull was only 3 1/8 shy of the 350 bull Ryan had hoped for. I love it when a plan comes together! Nice going Daniel and Ryan! 

Daniel and I both had a lot of help from our spotters, Keith, Joe, Charlie, and River, THANKS for all the help, it was truly a joint effort that payed off. 

[ribka]

Wow

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nice looking bulls they got.

You should have said a cougar attacked you, then we could call you cougarpaw. 

[bearpaw]

You should have said a cougar attacked you, then we could call you cougarpaw. 

 

[mburrows]

Awesome animals!

[JJB11B]

looks fun!

[bearpaw]

It's been an interesting week, it's that time of the year when we have a lot going on. Guide Daniel had two turkey hunters who both nailed two birds each on opening morning of the fall season. I'll post photos when I get them. Good going Daniel, Robert, and Lilly! 

I horse packed in two archery elk hunters, two guides, and cook into camp last week and I have one guided elk bow hunter and one unguided elk bow hunter staying in town. The guided hunter staying in town missed a 5x6 bull, a 6x6 bull, a 4x4 mule deer, and 3 does so far in 4 days of hunting. Today he decided he wanted to squeeze in a buffalo hunt so we are doing a bison hunt tomorrow and then maybe more elk hunting after the buffalo hunt is completed, if there is time.

The unguided hunter upgraded his hunt to a guided hunt with guide Nick so hopefully Nick gets him on a bull soon, the bulls have been pretty quiet but they are coming in if you give them time, Nick has called in numerous bulls this week in addition to the two that were missed.

The two hunters and the guides in camp struggled for three days, the elk we planned to hunt moved and it took a few days to find them. Yesterday one of the guides and hunter finally got onto 17 head including a few bulls but couldn't quite close the deal. This morning the other guide called a nice 6x6, the bull came in on a dead run, the bull saw the hunter at 20 yards whirled and run back out, guide Roger hit the call again and the bull stopped at about 35 yards, unknowing Brad held for 40 yards and released the arrow which hit a little high but sliced the top of both lungs, the bull didn't go too far and went down. We just got done with caping and getting all the meat in refrigeration, but haven't had time to score him yet. I love it when a plan comes together. Nice going Roger and Brad! 

Photos of Brad's 6x6 bull!

[Gringo31]

Seems to be an incrediBULL year so far!

[Ripper]

Holy smokes Dale,    your guided hunter needs to hit the range in a bad way! Or maybe he needs new glasses.

[Netminder01]

Excellent Bull!

[bearpaw]

Holy smokes Dale,    your guided hunter needs to hit the range in a bad way! Or maybe he needs new glasses.

 

He just needed a bison to get settled on, I just got a text that they have a buffalo down with one shot. Good going River and Joe! 

There's going to be a lot of good eating there!