Dayton Quality Big Bull report

[dvolmer]

Well I am getting flack for not reporting in a timely matter on my Dayton Bull hunt.  Life has been crazy and I have been getting ready to leave this weekend for our annual Montana deer hunt.  So we will see how far I get on this post.  It might come in segments depending on how lazy I am.

Some of you have commented on how I should know a lot about the hunt due to past success.  Well that is not really so.  Yes, Me and my hunting partners have been successful in the past.  We did shoot 4 big bulls back in 2006 and another big bull back in 2007.  But with that said, I haven't hunted the Dayton area at all since then.  That was 12 years ago.  Some things are the same and a lot of things have changed.  In 2006 when we drew the tags it was the year of the big fire and all of the Forest Service gates were open and unlocked and that made for a real nice hunt with a lot of easy access that is now hard to get.  I really didn't believe I would ever have this tag again in my lifetime.  With a yearly quota of somewhere around 6-12 tags given out and over 1200 applicants annually the math works out that most people that do apply for the tag will actually never draw in their lifetimes.  It is my GUESS, that probably over 600-800 applicants have over 10 points and that is probably a conservative guess with probably over 300-400 with points over or around 15.  This makes this a very lucky and tough tag to get no matter how long you live and no matter how many points you have.  I met three of the other tag holders on my hunt and all three of them were in their 70's and one was probably close to 80.  I don't mean to be judgmental but due to their age, I was worried and wondered if they could give the tag justice.  I shouldn't be a judge of that but it did cross my mind.  One guy hunted the first few days and just got frustrated and went home before the spike season even opened.  This is sad that a guy would put in for the tag for close to 20 years and when he finally does draw he is just to old to make good on it.  Sad he couldn't have hunted it 20 years ago when he had the health to give it justice.  And yes, this is a very demanding and physical hunt.  How demanding you ask?  Well I will take some flack for this, but I wouldn't think of going into that hell-hole for a spike or a cow hunt.  I know a lot of you do and all I can say is "Man I envy your guts and determination!!!"

After being drawn, I did what most of you would do first, I contacted the area game biologist for the area for WDFW.  His news was dismal to say the least.  The Dayton herd was half the size it was just 2 years ago.  He said this year and last year there was close to zero calf survival due to two hard winters that were long and miserable.  They had a lot of elk dieing of starvation and the ones that did survive were nothing but skin and bones going into the spring.  This lead to the cows that did survive aborting their calves and the calves that were born died due to their mothers not being able to nurse and provide for them due to malnutrition.  I believe this to be true because over my entire hunt I saw probably 40 plus cows and not a single calf.  NOT ONE!!!  The cows were super healthy and in good shape and probably because they didn't have to care for calves during the summer helped them put on the weight and get healthy.  Natures way of trying to bounce back maybe?  The Biologist did tell me that they have approximately 30 cougars, 5 to 6 wolves, and some native hunting in the Dayton area that affects the herd but it is nowhere near the reason the herd has been cut in half in two years.  It is a weather factor that has caused the majority of the problem.  Due to no calf survival for two years, the spike hunt was dismal this year.  I was all over the Dayton GMU and to my knowledge only one spike was killed.  It was killed by a hunter that went all the way from Chase mountain over to Newby ridge and killed it in a miserable place to get at.  Lucky for him he had horses to help him get it out.  Other than that, I don't think that another spike was killed.  I could be wrong but I was in contact with a lot of spike hunters all over the entire GMU.  Remember, this years spikes were last years calves.

When we shot all of our bulls in the past it was over off of Skyline road on the eastern boundary of the GMU.  We shot them on Page ridge next to Lewis Creek and on the next ridge over called Ireland Gulch (2006-2007).  This area is by Edmonds Spring.  This is were I decided to hunt first. But due to a massive snow storm I had to hunt the opening day on Monday down low below the snow line on a tip from a deer hunter that saw a bull over on the other west edge of the GMU off of Jasper MT road. I saw sign of the elk over there but never saw an elk. Wednesday I was able to hunt the area I had planned on off of Skyline.  I hunted the area I and saw three groups of cows (5,6,and 10) with one 5x5 bull.  I decided to pass on the bull in hopes of finding a bigger animal.  I continued and hunted Friday and Saturday at the two above mentioned locations with no luck.  A few hunters reported seeing a few bulls but they were few and far between.  Due to the lack of elk, I started to second guess my passing of the 5x5 on Wednesday. (The 5x5 I ended up shooting was larger and much heavier than the 5x5 that I passed up)

Let me back track a little bit here, On the Friday before my Monday opener I did some scouting all over and around the GMU.  Deer season was still going strong and my philosophy was that if I could talk to as many deer hunters as possible, I could get a bunch of information that could lead me to find where a big bull might be hanging out.  I went up on Chase mountain and met Vic setting up his camp for the up and coming elk hunt.  He recognized me from the hunting forum and we talked.  He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and his whole camp was full of great guys!  He informed me that he bow hunted but was up there for the elk hunt to help his friends.  He took my phone number and said he would call me or text me if they had any information for me.  I was much appreciated at his kindness and willingness to help me.

Now go forward to the Sunday after the Saturday general opener for spikes.  I was home (West Richland) for a couple of reasons.  One reason was I don't hunt on Sundays due to personal reasons plus I hunted so hard on Friday and Saturday I needed a break to recover physically and mentally.  I got a text from Vic Sunday afternoon letting me know that a hunter had seen (what he thought was) a wounded 5x5 bull up off of Chase Mountain out on what they call Long Ridge.  He wanted to know if I was interested.  At this point I decided I was due to what I had seen or actually not seen in my previous hunts over the last week.  I agreed to meet him at his camp before daylight the next morning (Monday) and he would take me and show me the ridge to go down and see what I could find.  I did meet him in the morning and he showed me where to go.  I walked over a mile down the ridge with no bull sightings but I did talk to two other guys that had seen the bull the day before.  They told me that he wasn't wounded and that he was in fine shape.  It was at this time that I found out these guys had seen a spike over on Newby ridge and they went on over and down to the bottom and up the other side and shot the spike.  I told them they were crazy because that was a hike that would be extremely hard and would take so long that it would be hard to find the spike on the other side but they had horses to help them and spotters with radios on the other side watching the herd.  It was at this time that I saw my first and only "Big Bull".  He was over on Newby ridge and he was a monster.  Problem was he was approximately over a mile away and moving.  It would take me two to three tough hours to get over there and I knew he would be in the bottom way before I got there so even though I saw him, there was no way to get to him.  Frustrating to say the least.

I hiked back off of Long Ridge and went back over to Page ridge to hunt the late morning and early afternoon.  I got the feeling that I should make the long ride back to Chase MT to hunt the late afternoon and evening.  There was a logging road that I had seen and decided to hike out on for an easy evening hunt.  When I got there I met another hunter who gave me some valuable advice.  He told me that the road I was going to hunt had been over hunted and that in his opinion, he would go back out on Long Ridge and sit out there for the evening because he had seen a herd of 10 or so cows with a bull feeding on the open hillside in the early mornings and late evenings.  I decided to give it a try so "I hiked the miserable mile and a half out on the ridge and went down to a rock outcropping to sit for the night.  The weather turned bad and started to blow and snow.  15 minutes after sunset a small group of deer came out of the upper trees and then a very large mule deer Buck came out.  He was a masher!  they ran off and about 5 minutes later I decided to get up and get ready to head back.  As I stood up I saw what I thought was a cow elk looking up at me from the bottom coming out of the trees.  I sat right down and watched her come out and start to feed on the grass.  then more cows came out.  I probably only had 5 more minutes of legal shooting time when I saw the bull in the trees.  He wouldn't come out and I could see him partially with my binos but couldn't find him in my scope about 225 yards below me.  It was just getting to dark so I had to back out in the snow and climb out on that steep ridge.  I then drove home back to West Richland for a planned day off.

Tuesday morning I talked to my wife and told her that I felt if I went back up that afternoon and sat out on Long Ridge that night, Wednesday morning, and again Wednesday evening that one of those sits I would get a crack at that bull.  So I drove back up and hiked out on the ridge again Tuesday evening.  I sat for over an hour waiting.  The weather was cold but clear and calm.  Again around 15 minutes after sunset and about 15 minutes before end of shooting time the cows started to come out of the bottom.  first just two.  then a couple of minutes later a string of 8 or so more.  I knew a bull was somewhere close with them.  With about 5 minutes left in shooting time he came out of the trees walking straight at me at around 215 yards.  I wont lie, he did look bigger in the dusk.  All I had was a frontal shot and I didn't want to take it.  Just about time that I was thinking of giving it a try he turned and stepped broadside.  I put my crosshair right on him behind his front shoulder and didn't compensate at all for bullet drop being he was so close and the shot was down hill.  Pulled the trigger of my Browning BAR 300 Win Mag and heard the whack of the 185 grain Browning controlled expansion bullet hit meat or so I thought.  After the shot I tried to find him in the scope and he had just vanished.  the cows were running everywhere but the bull was gone and I didn't know where.  I got all my stuff together and made the tough side hill walk in the darkening conditions over to where I thought the bull was when I shot.  I couldn't find any blood or anything and it was just about completely dark by then.  All I had was a head lamp and it offered minimal to no help looking for the bull.  After looking for sign of the bull for 20 minutes in the dark I had to give up and make the miserable hike out and back to the Tahoe.  I texted my good buddy Justin and told him of the experience and he told me he would meet me in Dayton in the morning and come up and help me look for the bull first thing in the morning.

I spent the night in Dayton at an old motel and met Justin just before sunrise.  We drove up to Chase MT and hiked in.  I had to take my rifle and gear because we didn't know what we would find if anything.  By this time I am second guessing everything and wondering if I even hit the bull (it was a long night in the motel).  Justin then informed me that he had a broken bone in his foot as we started hiking in to see if we could find it.  He was limping pretty good and I was amazed he would go in there and help me because it wasn't a pleasant hike in or out as far as that goes.  We went to the small tree I was sitting behind when I shot at the bull and found my spent shell.  Now that it was light I could see where the bull was actually standing when  shot and we hiked over to the spot to look.  Once there we couldn't find or see any sign at all.  I started to get worried and told Justin that I was going to go around the trees and hike down below to look around.  I got about 10 steps away from him when he called out to me to come check out what he saw.  I went over to him and he was looking down a steep side cut and at the bottom in the brush was the bull laying there dead.  When I shot him he had died immediately and rolled down the steep cut about 45 yards and got caught up in some bushes and a log.  It was so steep it was hard to get down to him.  he rolled so hard that later I found out he had broken his jaw in the rolling fall and my taxidermist friend had to do a little bit of repair on the European mount he did for me. He was a nice and heavy 5x5.  Not a monster but a nice bull and I was glad to have him after my long week and a half hunt.  Upon inspection my bullet had double lunged him and probably taken out his heart.  I was worried about the condition of the meat due to it sitting over night but it was in the low 20's when I shot him and it was down in the single digits that night.  We did a gutless butcher job on the elk and the quarters seemed to be ok and smelled just fine.  We hung the 4 quarters in a tree about 40 yards from the carcus and hauled the head and backstraps out on the packboard we brought in with us taking turns with the pack and the other with the gun and gear.  Got out at around 2:30 pm and headed for home.  I couldn't believe Justin carried that 70 plus pound pack over half way out of that hole with a broken foot.  Now that is a true friend!  I couldn't get any help to go back and get the rest of the meat until Friday so the quarters hung in the tree for close to two days but the weather was nice and cold.

Friday morning Me, my two brothers, my brothers son, and my hunting partner Ryan went up and de-boned the quarters and packed out the meat.  The carcass and the meat were un-touched.  I was worried a predator of some sorts would bother the meat after being in there two days but we did hang the quarters in a tree a good distance from the carcass but the carcass wasn't bothered either. It was a good feeling when we got everything out of there and taken care of.

This hunt was probably the hardest physically and mentally for me then any other of my many hunting experiences.  It was a long hunt and being that I was the only one to draw the tag, most of my hunts were by myself.  My brother and my hunting partner each came up for a day to help me hunt and I had great help packing out the bull but the day after day of hunting by myself was hard.  The low numbers of elk and the extremely tough terrain of the Blue Mountains took its toll on this 54 year old hunter.  With all that said, It will be a hunt that I will never forget and when I see that 5x5 rack up on the wall with the other five big monster bulls I will always give him the respect he deserves!  Good hunting to all!!!  And thanks again to all that helped me and a special call out to Vic!

[dvolmer]

Here are some of the bulls back in 2006 and 2007 taken

[Lightning_Rider]

Great write up and congrats on a fine bull!

[LDennis24]

Awesome! Good job and great story!

[fowl smacker]

Good job sticking with it.  I'd be happy with that bull in the condition Dayton is in now. 

[jstone]

Good job.
That’s a great friend you got there.!!
Congratulations

[dvolmer]

already got the European mount back from my buddy!

[dvolmer]

Here are some of the 2006 Dayton shoulder mounts in my basement man cave.  358 inch 6x6 typical (mine), 398 inch 7x8 non-typical (brothers), and 320 inch 6x6 typical (daughters).

[Rainier10]

Great story and well earned bull, thanks for posting.

[dvolmer]

One other quick thought.  When I left Dayton in 2006 after my hunt there was a sad feeling in me as I drove out of the mountains knowing that the hunt was probably the last one I would ever have hunting big bulls in the Blues.  When I left Dayton this year I had a totally different feeling.  I felt relieved it was over.  Glad that I got to do it again but a peaceful satisfied feeling.  A feeling that if I never go back, I will be just fine.  Maybe that's the difference between 41 years old and 54 years old even though I feel I was in just as good of shape.  Not really easy to explain.  Life is good!  Enjoy the ride!

[Timberstalker]

Awesome write up Dvolmer.  Way to stick it out. Congrats.

[Gentrys]

Great story!  Thanks

[blackveltbowhunter]

Great write up and hunt. Congratz!!

[SuperDave]

Great write up and a nice bull!

[JakeLand]

Great job and great looking bull (s) !! The bull is great and it’s in the freezer and on the wall BUT the journey that got him there is burned in you and it’s funny how you remember all the little things during that time

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Way cool! Love to hear the history you and your family and friends have had in that part of gods country.

[dvolmer]

Great job and great looking bull (s) !! The bull is great and it’s in the freezer and on the wall BUT the journey that got him there is burned in you and it’s funny how you remember all the little things during that time

.   Amen!

[Dan-o]

Somehow, I just knew you'd ZONK it.

Well done!!!!

[elkchaser54]

Congrats ! Any bull in those tough of a mountains is a trophy.  Numbers down but you still tagged out.  Congrats.  I was glad to see somebody fill one of those tags

[Mossyoak]

Congrats, thanks for sharing

[DOUBLELUNG]

Thanks for sharing!

[Bob33]

Well done on the hunt and the story. 

[dvolmer]

Thanks guys!

[bowhunterforever]

Nice bull and story

[vdemacon]

I was more than happy to help you out, Dave. I am glad you were able to get your bull. When I was drawn for the Mt. View archery quality tag in 2016, huntnnw, from this forum, was a huge, huge help to me. I had the best hunt of my life, even though I didn't tag out. My son drew the same tag the next year and got a nice 6x6, which was the only quality archery bull harvested in Mt. View that year. Have a great trip to Montana!

[pianoman9701]

Incredible bulls posted. Great job on tagging out.