My First Elk - a Bull

[TheHunt]

Nice job...  What a cake pack!!!  Congrats on your nice bull and a fantastic easy pack.

[steeleywhopper]

Screw the score, that's a cool bull.

[bearhunter99]

Congrats on a great bull.  Amazing whale tails and love the color!

[jgilley]

I know I got super lucky on the pack out. He is a beautiful bull. There is an even larger bull nearby that had gored my bull n the arse. Mine had a large hole in the left ham with a few maggots cleaning up the damage. As far as his score, I try not to get too caught up with it, but dang.... I can hardly wait for next season. I'll post some more pics once I crop them to prevent some of you detectives from figuring out where I got him.  Those of you that already know - shushhhh. 

[jgilley]

Pic of my hunting bud, Jon, posing with my bull. Jon was with me the whole time and did all of the quartering and boning. I would have been lost without him in this part. Thanks Jon!

[bracer40]

Spot and stalk to an eight yard shot?!?  That must have been amazing!

Nice job!

[Rainier10]

Stud elk all day long, love the whale tales.  That is one heck of a first elk, you might have to just hang it up and take up knitting or something else.

Good quick shooting, I am a big fan of "if they are still standing get another arrow in them".

[dawn2dusk]

What a stud bull! Darn good arrow placement too

[WAnoob]

 

Congrats on harvesting an amazing animal! I've always hunted with a rifle but I will be looking to do archery next season for Elk because of all these amazing pictures.

[jgilley]

Rainier10 - you are so right on using every arrow you can if you still have a shot. I lost a bull about 10 years ago near the same area that was much bigger than this one. I still think of that bull every nite. He was a basic 6pt, but he was crowned at the tops. The crowns would have each held a basketball in them. His bases were the diameter of a coffe can. I shot him at 27yds and my arrow struck high in the shoulder. I tried to shoot again, but he turned as the second arrow flew at him from about 40yds and missed. It rained hard that nite and there was no track to follow. Went back and checked the area for 2 weeks afterwards looking for any sign of him - buzzards or Ravens - but nothing. I was sick for years over that hunt.

[jgilley]

.... oh, and Rainier 10, if I ever take up knitting, it will be with broadhead tipped arrows on elk hide...! Lol.

[724wd]

that's awesome!

[Turner89]

Awesome bull

[rosscrazyelk]

Very cool bull

[jgilley]

Here is a little write up on the hunt that I wrote to remember it when I get old...

I have hunted archery elk for over 13 years and this is the only elk (bull or cow) that I have ever harvested. I was hunting with my friend, Jon, and we were glassing and calling from a brushy ridge at the edge of some reprod around 0700hrs on 09-16-15. We had a bull answering from a deep hole on one side. On the other was a cow that just kept on calling obnoxiously from within a treeline that had a creek. I thought it was another hunter. I continued to glass down towards the area of the cow calls and spotted this monster about 600yds away. He was facing away from me and on an old unused forest service road. He appeared to be eating in some ferns there. The first thing I noticed was that he had incredible whale tails along with the rest of his rack that bracketed his body. We made a plan of attack and headed down the ridge, thru a creek bottom and back up towards the road we had last seen him on. We had the wind in our face - as planned. After I got into position near the landmark that I had last seen the bull near, I crept forward - ditching my pack and binos. Jon stayed back and watched from about 10 - 20 yards away. I did not know if the bull had stayed put or not. I could only hope he was still there. I had glimpsed him several times as we had run down through the reprod and he had not moved more than 10 yards from where I had first spotted him - nor had he paid any attention to any of Jon's bugles. It had taken us about 15 minutes to get to this point to start a stalk. Thank God it had been mostly downhill! As I crept forward making no noise (well, except for my heart beating its way out of my chest!), I started slicing the distance very slowly. I finally saw an antler tine above some ferns. He was still there! The bull was slightly above me on a gradual berm covered with ferns and small Avalanche alders that sloped up to my right. I realized then that I was within 10 yards of him. The wind was still in my favor, but the thermals could change at any time as the sun was now up and heating up the slopes around us. Without looking back, I signaled Jon to stay still and stay put. He is an old hand at this game and I knew that I could trust him to be a ghost. He later told me that he had a birds-eye view of everything and was scared that he might get trampled if I shot or spooked the bull - we were just that close. I already had an arrow nocked and held my compound bow horizontal to the ground so the bull would not see my bow's upper limb. I kept watching the top tines of his antlers and tried to keep low enough so that his eyes would not spot me. He then took a few steps forward and at an angle to the right of me. He was now only about 8 yards away. I could now see his whole body from just below his midline and up. I kept frozen in my kneeling position just hoping that he would lower his head to eat something. Finally he lowered his head and I rose up to shoot across the tops of the ferns, but then he suddenly started to raise his head again and I dropped back down quickly. I watched as his antlers moved left and right - I was almost lying on the ground so as to not be seen now. He then lowered his head and stepped forward a couple more steps. I decided that I had to make my move now or he would certainly see, smell, or detect us with that 6th sense that all these large bulls seem to possess. I then raised up, after coming to full draw, (a lesson learned the hard way on a previous year's hunt) and picked a spot behind his shoulder and far enough back to avoid that scapula (another hard learned lesson from before) and get a double-lung hit. I released my arrow and it flew true and hit him right in the right side lung area where I intended. He was so close I don't even think the string had time to rebound before the arrow hit him! The bull then swapped ends and took a few steps away from me back towards the road on which I stood. He was now quartering away with his left side facing me. I reloaded another arrow, and as he looked at me not comprehending what I was, or maybe even what had just happened, I shot him again in the left shoulder area - higher than I had intended, but I didn't want to shoot through the ferns at that range. I was confident that the first arrow was going to kill him, but I believe in overkill with elk and to keep shooting if they are still standing. They are very tough critters! He then jumped down into the road and stood broadside to me and looked right at me partially tucked into the brush against the berm - and he was about 20 yards away now! I reloaded another arrow and shot him again - this time right in the boiler room over the heart. He then started to trot away from me into a nearby clear cut. He went only about 40 yards before he started to list to the left and loose his balance. He then fell on his left side. I watched as his antlers moved a little as he lay about 50 yards away and then finally stop. I turned to Jon and we both let out a loud whoop! I couldn't believe it, we had just downed a monster bull! I walked up to the downed bull with another arrow nocked. I only had 2 arrows now - one on my rest and one in my quiver. I touched his eye with my arrow and confirmed that he was dead. We both just stood in amazement of his size - and I don't mean just his antlers. He was huge, as Roosevelt elk tend to be. I now saw that his antlers were a basic 5x5, but he had barely scorable points inside the 'V' of his whale tails making him a 6X6. His mass was unbelievable! We then took our time to take pictures and tie my tag on his antlers. Then the hard work of quartering and skinning him took place - Jon did most of that as he has several elk under his belt and knew what to do. I just mostly pulled on the hide as he skinned it and tried to stay out of the way of his very sharp custom-made knife he bought last year! ( I keep waiting for him to misplace that knife in the field... Lol!) The pack out turned out to be a breeze - I was able to drive my truck right up to the bull after some guys with a key to the gate above let me drive my truck down. Otherwise it would have been about a mile long hike uphill on very bad ground to pack my bull out. I later measured him using the P&Y score sheet and I think he will gross score around 335". I will get him officially scored at the 2016 Puyallup Sportsman Show. A bull of a lifetime. "Living the Dream!"