Sept 12 west side archery bull. The paper, rock, scissors bull.

[Bronson]

Late writeup......Here is the bull that my buddy and I got on Sept 12th.  It was a fun team effort. 

After hunting in the heat and covering some serious ground on bike and foot on Friday and only finding one herd of cows/calfs early in the day, my buddy suggested that we should hit the heavy timber on Saturday especially since it was so hot.  So we woke up on Saturday morning and headed to a new area with more timber and hunted the morning without finding any elk or even any fresh sign.  At about 11:00 we decided to head back to camp and figure something out for the evening.  We started down a road that ended up being a different one than the one we were hoping to be on, but it paid off.  After crossing a washout in the road and scraping the tail end of my truck, we got out to see what I had hit going across the washout.  As we were getting back in the truck we heard a big bugle come from up on the ridge a couple hundred yards away.  We looked at each other in surprise and excitement (didnt think we would hear a bull at 11:30 am sounding off on a sunny day), grabbed our bows and calls and we hit the brush.  I ripped a bugle off back at him and he answered back within about 30 seconds.  Game on!  I could hear him thrashing brush and stomping around but he wouldnt come in.  After he bugled one or two more times we could tell he was moving away from us.  We decided to head up to the top of the ridge and go after him.  When we got on the ridge I let off another whistle and he responded back a couple hundred yards away so we kept moving on the top of the ridge parallel to him.  He sounded off again and was moving around to the right on us.  As we got to the edge of a creek I looked across and there he was about 100-125yds away looking right at us through the timber.  Crap, busted.  Then I look to the left and his cows are in the creek bottom a bit closer than he is.  WAY busted!  I thought that might be it for us.  My buddy and I dropped down behind some brush and after he looked away I ripped off another bugle.  He immediately answered back and started working over some brush.  After a few cow calls (not a hoochie mama ) and another bugle he decided he wanted to see what the deal was and started down the hill towards us.  He got to the creek and hung at about 55-60 yards.  He was looking right at us and let out a couple of bugles and chuckles.  That was some awesome stuff to watch that close!  We werent comfortable taking that shot so we held off.  He wouldnt come any closer and eventually lost interest and turned and walked up the hill slowly away from us.  He bugled a couple more times on his way up the hill.  We decided to let him get out of sight near the top of the ridge and then pressure him and see if we could get him to come in again.  We needed him to be out of sight before we moved in on him though.  After he got out of sight we made our move.  So down the hill and across the creek we go.  We get part way up the other hill he bugles again and we decide we need to split up to get this guy.  Both of us want to get a shot, so we decided to settle it like men....paper, rock, scissors.... right there in the woods with this hot bull sounding off in the background.  Both of us throw scissors the first time so we go again, he throws rock, I throw scissors.  DAMN!  That will be a game of paper, rock, scissors that I will remember for a long time.  Anyway, I step back a bit and my buddy moves up about 40 yards.  I rip a bugle out and he sounds off right back.  I can hear brush cracking and he sounds like he is getting closer.  I then started in with some cow calls.  I m looking for him on the next ridge but cant see him but he keeps bugling every so often.  I keep cow calling and let out one more bugle.  I can hear him getting close.  I look around the other side of a tree to see if I can get a look at him but cant.  I look back at my buddy and he is at full draw!  Next thing I know he lets one fly and I hear his arrow in the air for what seems like forever....then slap! He connected!  He thought he got a good shot on him so we waited about 30 mins.  We dont find any blood for about 100 feet but when we do find it, its got bubbles in and is bright it so we knew he hit lung.  He didnt bleed much at all and we had a hard time following his tracks in the timber but he left enough of a trail for us to track between the little blood and even found some snot and slobber on the ferns from him in between the blood spots.  It took us about an hour to locate him even though he only went about 150 yards.  My friend made an awesome shot at around 40 yards right in the crease behind the shoulder that went all the way through.  We never did find his arrow.  Anyway we got to work on him and got him gutted, skinned and quartered as quickly as we could.  I was a bit nervous with the heat but at least it was a bit cooler in the timber and we got him cooling off fairly quickly.  We had all the quarters and gear packed out by about 9:30pm.  That was some seriously exciting stuff!  That was the first time I had the chance to call to a rutting bull.  Most of my archery elk hunting in the past has been done on the east side for spikes/cows or during the late season.  Her are a couple of pictures.  The shooter is in the first pic.

[LongTatLaw]

great story and pics bro!

Sorry ya lost the toss up but great bull...I like the color on those horns!

[nw_bowhunter]

sounds like a fair way to resolve who gets to shoot.") nice job on the hunt.

[georgia redneck]

Way cool story.........great job nice bull guys.

[oneshotkill]

Great bull and I love the color of the antlers!

[markts]

Awesome bull and story, congrats to you both. Mark

[Wyoming08]

   Great bull, and awesome story.  Where were you hunting on the west side?

[bucklucky]

Nice job guys!

[bowsandhose]

nice work

[bowtech721]

Good job! that really is the only way to settle something like that  must have been a pretty intense rock paper scissors!

[robb92]

Congrats on the bull!!! next time its your turn to shoot right?

[BLKBEARKLR]

Awesome story, nice bull, and like I always say, in the woods you never know when it is your time. Congrats on sticking with it and turning it into your favor.

[Bearhunter]

Awesome shot rite through the boiler house.  Nice looking Rosie!

[tlbradford]

Loved the write-up.  Look at it this way, you get a bunch of meat and he gets a taxidermy bill.  That one always makes me feel a little better.