North Idaho Bull - 5x5

[RobinHoodlum]

Great story and overall message about the emotional side of hunting, perseverance, & remaining humble. Congrats!

[pd]

Congratulations.

We have all been there.  Family at home weighs on your soul.  Worry about your job, your income, your mortgage, they all weigh on your soul.  Too darned hot to hunt, now it's too darned cold to hunt.  Too smokey.  Too dusty.  Loose bowels.  No appetite.  It never stops.

What a blessing when it comes together.  It almost seems like you know what you are doing!

[WildBear]

Congrats and great write up! Thanks for sharing.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

  Grate adventure Stang!!!!!!!  Just can't make stuff like that up!!!!!

[High Climber]

Nice bull Congrats 

[NorseNW]

Beautiful bull and great write up.  Thank you for sharing. I believe you are being a bit humble with saying you don't know what you are doing. I do appreciate the motivation to keep grinding being in my 6th season and never firing a shot.  Keep up the great work.  I hope all works out for your family and work situation.  Stressful times but life can be like that

[WapitiTalk1]

Nice representation of a N Idaho 5 point. Congrats.

[TommyH]

Great story and overall message about the emotional side of hunting, perseverance, & remaining humble. Congrats!

  nice work!

[C-Money]

Congratulations! Great bull, well done!

[high_hunter]

Nice job!  Tell us more about the arrow placement.  Did you get 1 lung or 2?  Liver?


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Great story and bull, nice to have help for the search and packout!  Curious about this too as a learning opportunity for the rest.  And did you get a pass-through?  Didn't see a hole in the photos. 

[GASoline71]

Nice representation of a N Idaho 5 point. Congrats.

It sure is!  I've hunted in that jungle before and that's an excellent bull coming out of there!

Congrats!

Gary

[luvmystang67]

Beautiful bull and great write up.  Thank you for sharing. I believe you are being a bit humble with saying you don't know what you are doing. I do appreciate the motivation to keep grinding being in my 6th season and never firing a shot.  Keep up the great work.  I hope all works out for your family and work situation.  Stressful times but life can be like that

I hunted rifle bull in SW WA for 3 years before I even SAW a bull in year 4 (which we shot).  When I moved to archery, I hunted 2 years in WA and the first I never saw a bull, the second I saw bulls, but it was a Spike/Cow unit.  My 3rd archery year, I saw one bull, through brush, on the 5th day (and my last day that season).  My first elk hunt was ~2001 I think, my first rifle bull was 2004... first archery hunt in 2012 and I didn't really even get close until I killed one in 2017 and I didn't kill another rifle bull until 2016.  There's a lot of dry years in there.\

Since about 2016 things have really perked up though and it seems like I usually get one with either a rifle or a bow in Idaho now.  A couple of dry years, but I've been chasing these things a long time.  6 years without one is absolutely common, and makes the first one that much sweeter.

[luvmystang67]

Nice job!  Tell us more about the arrow placement.  Did you get 1 lung or 2?  Liver?


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Great story and bull, nice to have help for the search and pacmout!  Curious about this too as a learning opportunity for the rest.  And did you get a pass through?  Didn't see a hole in the photos.

Last 2-3 years I've gone to the heavy single bevel broadheads.  I'm running 100 grain brass inserts and 150 grain heads (cutthroat heads).  Claim to fame would be penetration.  I used 100 gr slick tricks prior to that.  I'm still on the fence as to which is better.  I think the penetration I got on this bull bailed me out a little. I cleaned it with the gutless method, but I was a little far back and might have just hit the rear of the lung if he were perfectly broadside, which he was not.  With him quartering to, I must have hit liver only as he lived for many hours afterward.  About 8" of my arrow was hanging out, I did not get a passthrough, but it sunk pretty deep.  I think with my lighter slick tricks, I would not have seen the penetration I saw.  One critical error was ranging a tree that he passed in front of and assuming he was that range.  Running arrows as heavy as I am, 5 yards makes a big enough difference to matter, and I think he was really 25, not 30, which made me hit higher than I wanted, and I already aimed erroneously high because I didn't take time to think like I should have.  I did EXPECT a pass through, and was surprised not to have seen it.  I'm honestly surprised with the shot I did make, that he didn't go further.  It was 180 yards straight downhill, but took hours to die?  Sometimes its hard to say what is going on in there.  Maybe I did clip a lung?

I'll also say on my heavy single bevel game, I lost an elk due to this that I KNOW I would've killed with a slick trick. I'm running my arrows at the edge of the capability of my spine, and I threw an illuminock on there last minute when Idaho allowed them, didn't practice enough, and it appeared through a few test shots that things were fine.  They were not fine and corkscrewed and hit 8" low and right at 45 yards.  Had I plopped those on my slick tricks, I'm sure it would've been just fine.  Penetration is great, but not if you hit them in the wrong spot or your arrows dont fly true.  These are all "my fault"... but running standard lightwight arrows are certainly more forgiving, and you'll hit more often where you're aiming. I also think the single bevel leaves a smaller blood trail...  Still on the fence about continuing to use these, I need a few more samples I think.  I do like being able to sharpen my own and get them RAZOR sharp.

[Machias]

Awesome, congrats!!

[dreamingbig]

Thanks for the breakdown of the shot and glad it worked out for you!


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