Thanks guys!
So I hope this isn’t too long, it shouldn’t be, the hunt was over 20 minutes into opening morning. My dad has never killed a bull elk, he’s been archery hunting the past 40 years and rifle before that. He has drawn quality tags in the past but only to have myself or close friends fill those tags for him, legal w our companion card, he’s also a disabled hunter. My dad has several medical problems, one in piticular will most likely makes this his last year. So when he drew the disabled tag with the multi season elk tag we had high hopes of him using a crossbow, he shot it great, but we also know how fast things can change and thought this situation needed my .300 win. He made two great shots, and he hasn’t hunted rifle in decades! He said “they taught me how to shoot in the marines”. Back to the hunt! So this year in the Natches was nothing like past years, we now wonder if the fish and game actually made the right call by lowering tag numbers. All Our honey holes showed very little to no sign. We have several places where we always get calls, see tracks on the hill side and rubs all over, not this year! We scouted Wednesday till the sat opener to find our bull, we split up and only one other bull was seen. My dads bull was the only bull I saw, I found him the night before the opener, took me 45 minutes of calling to get him away from his cows to show himself. We were able to get out of there without him seeing or smelling us. We knew that is where we wanted to be in the morning. The area is a clear cut that goes down hill, up on top looking down was our position.
Opening day and we are in place just as it gets light, the 3 bulls in the area are already bugling without our calls. Our bull was still with his cows and we could just barely here their chirps. Brian, a great friend, is a master caller, he can make a bull do a tap dance!! His abilities are amazing and great to watch! So, brian cow called for 15-20 minutes and the bull would not leave his cows, I actually told him to only cow call, boy was I wrong! He changed it up with a bugle and things changed quickly! You could feel the change in the air, with each bugle he started coming in, fast! Within 2 minutes of bugling the bull steps out into the opening at 145 yards. I can’t tell if my dad has a good shot or not, he tells me,”I’m on him”. I say take him and “boom”, the bull takes a few steps forward, I reposition my dad with the shooting sticks to get another shot. We see the bull swaying and stepping backwards, but he was still up so he put another shot in the boiler room! The bull takes a few steps and falls down, never gets up again! That is when the happy tears and celebration begun, what a feeling to see my dad that happy. We waited for all our friends to get up to us, we had them wait down the road to not cause too much commotion.
Walking him down to the bull was slow and priceless, the anticipation was huge. The bull didn’t have any shrinkage, it only got bigger the closer we got. My dad isn’t a religious guy, but he was on his knees praying when he was holding the antlers for the first time. Tears again, still. We took the elk apart, one quarter packed out at a time, meat bags and then finally I got to carry the hide and head out, felt so good packing a bull out that my dad actually killed!! He first wanted a shoulder mount, but after thinking about it he switched to a euro. He said he might not even be around long enough for a shoulder mount to be done, and he doesn’t really have the space for it. I know a guy w Beatles so he should get his euro back fairly quickly. Sorry if this is long, tried to keep it short and it could definitely be longer if I add emotions and all the laughs we had. Thank you all for the very nice comments, I read everyone and appreciate it.
I hope the veteran that we talked to on the hill reads this, him and his wife were there when we pulled the head out of the cut. Super nice guy, has the muzzy tag. Hope you tagged out !!!
