Tucannon Rifle Rut Hunt

[MuleDeerCrazy]

I know, I know... it drives me nuts wondering what becomes of various hunts, especially when I try to give someone some ideas on where to go or how to hunt it.  I was trying to post the story a couple weeks ago when the site went down and it just hasn't worked out.  I think I finally got the picture things figured out, so I'm gonna give it a try.

After several scouting trips over there we finally settled on a game plan for the Sept. 21-25 hunt.  We got hooked up with a local who rented his cabin up on Skyline so we had pretty good accommodations for bouncing around to hunt.

We got up there a few days prior to the season to get organized and see if we could locate a bull or two we wanted to go after.  We also set out a trailcam on a wallow to see what we could get on film.

Friday night we ran into one of the archery tag holders that had been chasing a big bull around one area we had scouted pretty hard.  He was headed into the area I wanted to put the camera so I opted not to that first night, didn't want to take a chance on messing him up.

Saturday we slipped in about 11:00 AM and hung the camera on an old wallow, then spent the rest of the day scouting for a shooter bull.  Sunday when I went in to check the pictures, I ran into the archery hunters dad and he indicated that his son had hit the big bull Saturday around 11:00 AM and was chasing him again that morning trying to finish him off.  He also indicated it wasn't looking too good for them, as the bull had been herding his cows all morning and chasing smaller bulls off and didn't seem to be phased by yesterday's arrow poke.

Lo and behold, when I get back to look at the pictures, there's the bull he had shot getting a drink at the wallow about 11:30, and he didn't seem too phased then either.  The shot was high and too far back, going through one backstrap, under the backbone and out the other side through the backstrap (see the "Wounded Bull During Archery Season" in the Trailcam Forum).

Anyway, to make a long story short, we did a morning hunt elsewhere on Monday the opener with a couple close calls, but no luck.  After lunch we went in to check on the camera and had three bulls bugling when we arrived.

We sat on the wallow for a while and another buddy slipped off to glass some more country.  We finally started trying to sneak in on the bugling bulls and here comes my buddy running back down the creek.  He had headed back to the truck and the bull and cows had crossed the old road ahead of him up onto the grassy hillside.

We all then hiked up to the old road and hooked back around to the elk.  The cows are feeding and the bull bugling, but by the time we're finally in a position we can see them they already have us pegged as well.

I can only see a big-framed bull staring down at us... could've been a world-record spike for all I know.  Again, my buddy insists he's a shooter.  I don't have a clue, but tell my dad he's about 90 yards... if you want him you better hurry up cause them cows are about to blow out of there.

BOOM!  All the elk disappear in a cloud of dust.  I was watching him through my 15X56 Leica's and didn't see any reaction at the shot.  Well, let's move up the hill to where they were when you shot.  Part way up the hill I see all the cows start to take off.  I still can't see the bull, but suspect at that point that he's down... no other reason those cows would have stopped.  A few more steps and there he is, laying right at the crest of the ridge. 

The old .300 Win. Mag. had done it's job, that bull had only made it about 30 feet before piling up.  Even more amazing, he had died on an old skid road 100 feet behind an old campsite on the ridgeline and we were able to back the rig right up to him to dress him out.  Not only my dad's first bull, but we didn't even have to pack it out of some nasty hole.

I thought it would've been a little easier and we'd have seen a lot more animals, but he's a good bull, especially for a first bull.  He's a 6X7, pushing 350".

Thanks for all the pointers, feedback and ideas early on in our scouting process.

Enjoy!

[yelp]

Excellent Bull for the Tuccannon..Great Job..What a Trophy!  Congrats..

[Elk_o_holic]

Congratulations

[markts]

Grats to the hunter. Mark

[jstone]

great bull

[mtndew]

Good story, great bull! Thanks for sharing

[bucklucky]

Nice bull, congrats!

[GoldTip]

Very cool, congrats on your Dad's first bull!  Thats a great way to start!

[Red Dawg]

  very nice bull. thanks for sharing

[carpsniperg2]

nice bull

[Falcon]

Sam,

Congrats to you and your Dad.

What a beautiful bull !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[huntnphool]

Fantastic Bull

[HUNT]

Great bull!  Way to get it done!

[PacificNWhunter]

Great bull! Pretty cool you have a live shot of the bull. Way cool.

[coachcw]

thats a dandy was it the bull that was hit earlyier?