One more bull.....

[Little Fish]

After many failed attempts over the last few years (both my partner and myself) my partner arrowed this 5x5 bull at 30 yards up in the Toutle unit on the 11th. The hunt really started last spring when my partner pulled a Toutle bull permit and it continued when he made several trips to scout just prior to the season. Based on his findings we both thought we'd be into multiple animals each day, but when we arrived at the gate early Saturday morning and worked our way into the unit the woods were quiet. By late afternoon we had worked our way five miles back into the hills and finally heard a couple half hearted bugles in the timber below us. Unfortunately we couldn't get a good read on the location of the animal(s) so we started working our way down the mountain, stopping and bugling at various locations along the way.

At our last stop I wanted to bugle into some dark timber, but after not getting any response I looked up the road and saw light at the end of the tunnel as the road came out of the timber. Although we were tired and it was an uphill trek we pushed up the road and 100 yards before the tunnel ended we heard a bull bugling and thrashing trees in a clearcut and carrying on the way a fired up bull does. There wasn't much time to set up, so my buddy pushed up ahead getting into position at the edge of the clearcut while doing his best not to get busted by the cows coming out of the timber with the bull. I tucked in behind a root wad along the edge of the road and when the bull let out another bugle I followed it immediately with a nasally/whining bugle. That was all it took as he turned and B-lined for my position. Although he didn't step out of the clearcut, my partner was setup 30 yards from where he stopped and he made an awesome shot taking out a lung and the heart. We gave the bull 30 minutes to expire, but probably didn't need to as he only went 50 yards from his original position. This was my partner's first archery elk and the first elk I've been able to call in for a harvest so needless the say we are both pretty excited about his success.

My partner took his shot at 7:00 PM, we got the bull cleaned and quartered up by 10:30 and back to the truck by 1:00. By the time we got to camp it was close to 3:00 so we were going on 24 hours when we hit the hay, but it was well worth it.

[PA BEN]

Great hunt w/good friends. Nice bull thanks for the story.

[cld40]

congrats.....

[Pathfinder101]

that's awesome

[Whitenuckles]

Sweet! Great story!

[brianb231]

Always nice not to eat tag soup on a special permit draw. Nice Job!!!

[bowtech721]

  to both of you guys! great bull 

[C-Money]

Nice!

[bowhunterforever]

Congrats, Great story and bull

[Charlie]

Nice work! Congrats!!

[Hornseeker]

Congrats man!!! Great Pic!

[brianmtsinc]

That's awesome!!!   
The bull I have mounted on my wall is no monster either, but it will always be my favorite because of the story behind how my best friend and I worked to make it happen.

Congrats!!!

[pods8]

Sounds like you guys did the load in one trip, did you have a cart of just really load yourselves down?

[bucklucky]

Nice bull, congrats!!

[Little Fish]

Pods....we took the head, tenderloins, heart and trimmed meat out that night and bagged up the shoulders and hind quarters then came back for them in the morning. I'm not sure how pounds of meat we had that night, but with our packs, the head and trim meat we were pretty loaded down for the 4 miles back to the truck. The next morning we called Weyerhaeuser security and they sent one of their guys to meet us at the gate so we could drive in. It was awesome. They were very accommodating.