2015 East Wenaha Bull

[frazierw]

This tag ran me through a gamut of emotion.  First I was excited, I knew it was a great tag.  Then the fire started and I was worried the hunt wouldn't happen.  Finally excitement when they finally opened the wilderness in October.  My dad and I were finally able to scout some of the ares I had been eyeing the weekend before the tag opened (Oct 24th).  I could only take 3 days off of work, so if we did not see anything we would come back on Wednesday and hunt through the weekend; but if we saw a shooter I would take Monday-Wednesday off instead.  We saw 5 bulls the first morning, but three were satellite bulls and the other two we didn't get a great look at.  Finally, around 12:30 in an area behind us, my dad spotted a bull bedded down.  We got the spotting scope on him and could tell he was a great bull and if we didn't see anything bigger we would go after him on Monday.  Sunday we scouted a couple more areas and didn't see anything so we decided to put the hunt on the bull we watched on Saturday.  Monday morning we took off and got to our spot by 7:30.  We glassed the area we saw the bull at on Saturday, but didn't see him yet.  Finally around 9:30 my dad spotted him in the north.  I busted down to a lower cliff to close the distance for a shot.  When I got set up I realized I was too high and needed to get lower and closer.  I busted down one more time and got set up, eyeing the trees he entered the last time I saw him.  Around 11:30 he started to feed out into a clearing 400 yards away.  I zoomed the scope to 12 power and he stood broadside.  I fired a shot and he just stood there.  Didn't move.  I shot a second time and he stuttered backwards and fell to his belly.  He got up and crashed down and he bed down by a tree.  He stood up and I shot again, this time he was done and wrapped his front leg around a tree.  We glassed him for a bit to make sure he was dead, then I started the hike to the bull, down my side of the ridge, and up to him.  When I finally reached him I couldn't have been more excited!  We took the head off and kicked the body down  the hill to finish cleaning him.  When that was all said and done I had the head on my back and my dad was packing out our packs.  4 hours later at around 9pm we were back to the truck.  What a grueling pack.  We had hung the meat, and came back the next day to finish it off.  Half the elk deboned on my back and my dad took the other half.  90 pounds each for 5 hours back to the truck.  That is some NASTY country.  We took him back to camp, and came back home today (Oct/28).  What a great 5 days with my dad.

[HUNTaHOLIC5]

Wow! What a stud and even better that you got it done with your dad! Sounds like a fun pack out 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

 

[Big6bull]

Awesome great bull

[clearwater]

Great bull. Thanks fore sharing him. Congrats


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[SniperDanWA]

Great bull

[GregFowler23]

Hey Joe Congrats Man! Sounds like you all had a great time.

[Natures Way]

great bull!

[adamR]

Great bull!  One hell of a season!

[coachcw]

way to get it done on a dandy bull !

[bugs n bones]

 

[Timberstalker]

Great bull!  Nice work and I'm glad you got to hunt after all the stress of the fires.

[ELKBURGER]

Great bull!

[muleyslayer]

Nice bull. 

[trophyhunt]

Lot's of pressure comes with those quality elk permits, you did great.  That is a very nice bull, and that country is not a fun place to pack meat out of, 90 lbs is a load.  Congrats on a successful hunt and filling a tag with a great bull.  How was the landscape in the unit, was a lot of it burned or did you see it as mostly normal?  I've always bear hunted in the southern part of the unit and I'm wondering if it's all burnt.