2009 3x4 Wind River Bull

[Jason]

Season started out great, had about 3" of snow on the ground opening morning, for the first 3 days I followed tracks in the snow and didn't see a single Elk, I had to work Tuesday and Wednesday.
I got back up to camp early Thursday morning to more snow  , I hiked into a clearcut that I killed a bull in back in 05, it was snowing golf ball size snow flakes so I huddled up under a Jack Fir, after about 3 hours and 4" of snow later I caught some movement in the middle of this clearcut, it was a small bull,  I got ready to shoot as soon as he offered a clear shot, I went to range him with the ole' range finder but it was snowing so hard I could not get a reading, so I guesstimated him at 350 yards, bull stepped forward about 3 yards and I had a clear shot of his vitals, I took the shot and he bolted disappearing into the thicker reprod and then I last seen him going into the timber, I hiked down to where he was standing when I shot, he had actually been bedded there thats why I didn't see him until he got up, found no blood anywhere, so I followed his tracks into the timber until I lost them, I hiked back up to where I shot from, finally the snow had slowed so I was able to get a range where he was standing 318yrds, the other thing I forgot to consider was the 38 degree decline to the elk from where I was shooting, damn I shot right over him .
Friday was pretty uneventful, didn't see any elk in the blizzard like conditions.
woke up Saturday morning and decide to go back to the clearcut I missed the bull in on Thursday, well same deal as before parked my butt next to a tree and sat there for a few hours, as I was glassing the timber line on the right side Elk started coming out of the timber from the Left side, 1 bull and 4 cows, quickly I grabbed the range finder, 478 yards to the Bull, this time I remembered to compensate for the down hill angle  , stuck my 400 yard cross hair on him and squeezed the trigger on the 300win mag, Bull rolled over and back to his feet, just about to give him another round until he tipped over after 5 yards  , I didn't realize it until I got down to where this bull was laying that this was the same bull I missed on Thursday.

[SilkWWU]

Congrats Jason!  I did the same thing on my spike, didn't account for downhill angle, shot over his head at 300 yards...of course, he let me get a third shot before he tumbled...first bull jitters

[hunterofelk]

Great bull!  Nice pics, too.  Should be some of the best elk meat around.  I'll use your experience to tell myself I might get a second chance if I blow a shot or spook a bull. 

[Huntbear]

Congrats on a great sounding hunt, and a good bull!!!!!!

[KillerMiller]

Way to go.  Nice Pics too!

[NWTFhunter]

Way to go ! I have been scouring Wind, and Washougal and didnt find any elk that were not on private land.

[carpsniperg2]

congrats

[h2ofowlr]

Fond memories of the Wind River Area.  Lots of good hunting and springer fishing.

[SnakeEyes]

Good job. Congrats. 

[fc2038]

Congrats nice lookin bull

[LongTatLaw]

congrats bro..

love the look of dead bull on snow!

it was like 87 degrees when I shot mine

[markts]

Congrats on a job well done. Mark

[Jason]

thanks for all the good comments guys, this was my 4th bull and first time getting pics of one in the field before we packed them out.

[Jason]

I bought a new hunting pack earlier this year, it's an Eberlestock X2, two of the features that I was sold on was it was waterproof and it has a freighter shelf to pack meat out if needed, well my first trip out i tested it a little , I had one shoulder, one backstrap and the tenderloins, I put the tenderloins and backstrap in the main compartment and the shoulder on the freighter shelf, I'm sure I could have packed a hind quarter if needed with it, but I used my pack board for that, there's no way I could have done this with my old cheapo pack.

[C-Money]

Great bull, Congrats. Love red the snow!