IDAHO OTC 8x6

[elkinrutdrivemenuts]

I was torn on whether or not to post this, but I feel it is a lesson on persistence that might inspire another hunter to keep searching till the end and get your blood pumping. 

My day started with a pot of coffee at 3 am, a couple bananas for breakfast, and then I was on my way up to a spot we call the honey hole.  It’s been a great area for us since I discovered it 5 years ago.  We have taken 5 bulls out of this area, and had encounters with many more.  I arrived at a spot I generally park, rolled my window down, and was greeted with a bugle I recognized!  He had a very distinct bugle and I knew it was the herd bull we had run into a couple years ago.  He and another bull were going back and forth and waiting for daylight seemed to take an eternity.  It was good though, because it gave me a chance to make game plan. 

The situation was similar to one a couple years ago, when we first met this bull.  My buddy pulled into the exact same spot in the morning and was greeted by two bulls bugling back and forth.  He snuck in, cow calling, and harvested a very nice 6 point satellite bull that came to investigate.  He only caught a glimpse of the herd bull, but said he was a dandy.  I came up to help pack out his elk and the big guy started going nuts while we were quartering his bull.  I never laid eyes on him, but I he was on my mind ever since.  The next archery season was cut short due to fires, but I still happened to seal the deal on a very nice 315” 6pt with my rifle.  I was thrilled with that bull and the thought of topping him never crossed my mind, no one is that lucky right?

While waiting for the sun to rise, I pulled out my calls, chose the one I felt I could make the most appealing cow calls on.  It had worked for my buddy two years ago, I felt it was the
appropriate course of action.  I figured the satellite would maybe back off the herd bull if he thought he could pick off a lone cow or two and I could get a shot at him.
 When it was light enough, I dropped into the trees and got a ways from the road, listened, and moved towards the end of the ridge, where one of the bulls was still calling.   I started calling and he responded.  We went back and forth for a while until I was certain he was right off the edge of the ridge I was working my way out.  I could hear him moving back and forth around the end of the ridge.  He kept calling and I kept responding.  If I had to translate, I would say he was telling me to get my sweet butt over there.  He wouldn’t come up to me and leave his cows so I worked in to him.  The thermal was perfect and in my face so I kept advancing, slowly, trying to get eyes on him, throwing out mews.  Finally, I saw him, 35 yds, feeding behind some trees.  We was working his way into the one shooting lane I saw so I pulled back and waited.  He stepped out broadside quartering away and downhill of me, I set the pin, and let fly!  Arrow flight was true, but it was brushy and I couldn’t see the arrow impact. As he zipped off I instantly thought, well you just missed you first elk, problem is I don’t miss elk.  I haven’t missed in 5 years up to that point, so it’s something I like to say to myself to make sure I focus on every shot I take and make it count.  Similar to aim small miss small.

I let out a cow call to try and stop him and I heard him make a very strange noise.  Not a dying cough, but more like a groan. It got very quiet then and I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t want to get too excited until I found the arrow or blood.  I moved in to find the arrow and started seeing his cows.  He had completely abandoned them! I knew this wasn’t a satellite bull but the herd bull I had just taken a shot at!  I started heading in the direction he went to see if he was still around.  No luck, but as I went back to find my arrow, I got a better surprise, BLOOD!  This was about 6:30 am It wasn’t much, but it was enough for me to know what I would be doing the rest of the day, tracking! I tracked out about 100yds of blood, which was extremely difficult since most of the drops were smaller than a dime.  When I couldn’t find any more, I would look for tracks and follow those hoping to pick up his trail again.  It was at this point I decided to slow it down and not go following tracks unless there was blood.  I went back to my last ribbon and started looking for drops.  I should also note I am color blind and red, green, and brow are extremely difficult for me to see.  After I advanced another 100yds or so, I was in the same boat, couldn’t see any more blood.  I decided it was time to back out, not push him anymore if he was close, and call up reinforcements.  I put the call out, grabbed a bite to eat, and went back out at 9:30.  I decided to cut down hill because the blood ended in a blowdown, and no elk would go up once it’s shot right?  I made my way down hill, looking for any sort of sign. 

I stopped to take a break and heard a loud buzzing.  I thought, hmm maybe the flies found him.  No, it was a wasp nest!  I took off running downhill, getting stung, cursing, trying to outrun the little *censored*s.  Finally they let up and I was almost at the bottom of the draw.  I worked my way back to the top and right about then, my buddy showed up to help. 
We went back to the dead end and he found the next drop blood, it was going uphill!!  We continued to follow the blood, little spots, very hard to see unless they fell on a stick.  He thought it might not be a very good shot, but I told him about the last bull we got here, it was a perfect heart shot and there was hardly any blood, regardless if there was a blood spot to find, we were going to stay after it until we confirmed one way or the other. 

Picking our way along, noses on the ground, we kept picking up that next drop that kept my hopes alive.  My buddy was in front of me… there’s some blood, there’s some on the leaf, there’s some more, there…HOLY *censored* THERE HE IS!!!  HE”S A PIG!!!

I was so relieved to find him.  He is a beauty and this bull deserved to be found and not be a feast for crows.   This was my first archery bull over here and I couldn’t be happier. Ive gotten them with my rifle and muzzy, but this was a new first for me. The shot hit him about 5 in up from the bottom, right behind the rib cage and stuck it in his left front shoulder.  The arrow was completely inside him.  His vitals came out in pieces, but this tough old guy wasn’t going to go down without a fight.  He was probably 500 yds. from where I shot him and he did that with arrow in three pieces inside of him. 

So lesson to be taken from this… no matter how small the blood trail, keep going and take everything into consideration after your shot.  Did the animal do anything strange?  You may not see an arrow in them as the run off, but if they do something abnormal, like leave their entire herd of cows behind, do some looking.  I wouldn’t be posting this today if I talked myself into believing the amount of blood didn’t equal a kill shot, they aren’t all gushers! 

The lighting wasn’t the best for pictures and he was in a weird position.  I didn’t want to spend too much time or energy trying moving him to get a good picture, he had been down for a while and I wanted to get him out and hung up ASAP.  After 3 and a half hours were had him at the truck and we were enjoying a few adult beverages.  The smile still hasn’t left my face! Best of luck to the rest of you this season, I’m off to chase mulies!

Jon

[Craig]

STUD bull. Congrats

[Bigshooter]

 

[Jason]

Dandy bull, congrats!!

[pd]

Holy Smokes.  Can you even get a grip around the main beam?  Yuuuuuge!

[Dan-o]

NICE!

He looks like an old warrior of a bull.

[bowhunterforever]

Awesome bull Conrats

[trophyhunt]

Doesn't get much better man, great job sticking with it!  Congrats on a damn nice bull! 

[SemperFidelis97]

Thank you for sharing the backstory with us, what a magnificent bull.

Sent from my E6782 using Tapatalk

[ffbowhunter]

Nice work! Great story and event better bull!!!

[Muleyslyr]

Great write up. That's a dandy bull indeed! Congrats!

[tlbradford]

That is a beauty!  I am slightly color blind as well especially reds, so I can feel your pain on the tracking.  I always tell my superintendents not to use red chalk when snapping lines, lol.

[Ironhead]

Nice Bull!

[andersonjk4]

Very nice bull and a great write up!  Thanks for sharing. 

[beave]