Would like to say I had a pic of this guy because it's much better to have proof of an event like this even happening, but I don't. Well, I do but I took the pic from such a long distance you can't see the actual bull I'm about to tell you about.
So this is my first year hunting with a muzzleloader. I was given the gun (Traditions Tracker) because it was pretty caked with rust. Just before early elk season I was able to free the breech plug and nipple to get it as clean as can be as well as replacing every internal part to ensure proper function. Well, early season didn't produce anything except some good memories with some good friends. I decided to give late season a try and did some scouting 2 weekends ago.
This last weekend one of the friends I went with in early season and I took Fri, Sat, and Sun to give it a go. Early Saturday morning we set out to explore a clear cut we haven't been in and split up to circle the area and meet near the middle. As we were closing in on each other on a ridge (we were about 50 yards apart), I decided to glass the area below us before we came together. Now I should say I haven't seen a bull elk during season at all, and this year is my first year seeing an elk period in the wild. It didn't take but a few seconds of glassing to spot a nice rack on top of a bull sitting right out in front of me at about 300 yards or so. Holy Crap! I seriously could not believe what I was seeing! Immediately I motioned to my hunting partner of the bull right out in front of us at the edge of the timber across the clear cut. He was able to spot it as well and we hunkered down in the spots we stood in. After about 20-30 minutes of staring at him, and trying to communicate (unsuccessfully) with my partner about what we should do next, I decided to slowly make my way down the hill I was on to get a closer shot, and I mean slowly. By the time I got to the bottom, he was still bedded down looking straight in my direction. I knew that my gun was pretty accurate, but I was not comfortable shooting at the distance I was at for fear of missing or being too low/too high/you get the picture. At the bottom of the hill, I could not see the bull so I figured that he could not see me either and started towards him. I did pop up on a small stump here and there and yep, he was still in the same spot. Getting closer and closer, I was able to close the gap to under 100 yards and come up behind a tree laying on it's side to use as a prop to shoot off of. The last 30 or so feet I had to crawl on my hands and knees because I was in full view if I didn't. When I got to the tree, I slowly put my gun up on the log and zeroed in on him begging him to stand so I could get a good clean shot. This lasted for about 5 minutes until he moved slightly on the ground to give me a nice broad side shot. I aimed and pulled the trigger. POP!
"Crap!", I yelled inside my brain. In the heat of the moment, I was able to pull another cap out before he decided to start walking away and fired again. POP!
"NOOOOOOOO!", I yelled again inside! It was all over. All I could do was watch him slowly turn around and walk away disappearing into the timber before I could get another cap loaded. I just stood there in disbelief that I was so close to putting a nice bull (5x5) on the ground my second day in late season, also my first chance at any bull as well, and my gun let me down. You couldn't have scripted this situation any better. I was gonna be puttin' meat in the freezer and it would have been a really nice bull to boot! All I could do was stand there and weep inside at the pure excitement and pain I just witnessed in the last hour or so that these events transpired. I didn't know what to do other than start heading back to the truck with my partner to clean our guns and go back at it. ....sigh.... Still leaves me out of breath sometimes just thinking about what went wrong. Oh well. I've learned a valuable lesson in this that one should not leave the gun loaded from the day before and load fresh pellets/powder the day of a hunt. It's a great story to tell around the campfire for future hunts and hopefully I can get back out there and find that bull again before the season wears out.
