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Author Topic: Buddybulls2018  (Read 3647 times)

Offline hoyt2002

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Buddybulls2018
« on: November 07, 2018, 07:11:12 PM »
Early this year, me and 400out decided to buddy up for the quality bull permit draws this year. We chose our normal units, picked a weapon (archery) and put in. Neither of us really expected anything to happen. He was low on points from being drawn a few years back, killed a great bull on that hunt by the way, and I only had 12 points.

Anyways, when it came to the date of the drawing, I was on my computer like we all are hitting the refresh button repeatedly waiting for things to change. I was in a state of disbelief when I seen the quality bull change from “Draw not run yet” to “Selected”. I couldn’t believe it. I hit the refresh button a few more times just to see if it would switch to my normal “Not Selected”. It stayed the same.

I texted 400out and told him we drew Quality bull tags. As usual he thought I was messing with him and made threats to my personal health and safety if I was. (PG version of what he said). I assured him I was not messing with him. He asked what unit. At this point, I realized I was so excited about being drawn I hadn’t checked which unit we had been drawn for. I checked and told him it was our first choice hunt. (Due to the help we received and the secretive nature of the person that helped, I won’t be stating the unit this hunt occurred in). We both were excited we got drawn and were ready to start getting ready for this adventure.

In the following months, we contacted others that have been hunting this unit for many years, the biologist, began scouting and placing trail cams. We purchased and replaced gear and shot our bows. Vacation was taken at our jobs and we were prepared to stay for the whole season if need be.

Throughout the summer of scouting, running trail cams and the advice of others who also hunt this unit regularly, we decided on the area of the unit we wanted to focus on. Though we both have hunted this unit for years, it was a spot neither of us had hunted before. The trail cam photo’s spoke for themselves, there was more elk and bigger elk in this area than the rest of the unit. Maps, markings, camp locations and game plans materialized after the area of focus was set.

There was several bulls in the area that had unique features so we divided who had dibs on a couple bulls. 400out was after a 350+ 8x7. There was a few more so I won’t list them all.  His goal was a bull bigger than his last bull. For me well, I’ve never killed a big bull and I’m more of a meat hunter. So after much harassment to have higher standard from 400out, I decided on at least a nice 6x6. This kind of quieted my hunting partner. If I got a chance at one of the other bulls I would be happy with any of them. 

The week before the hunt 400out decided he would go up a few days early and get the camp spot. I would follow and be there the day before the season. When I arrived the camp was almost set. He had cut enough firewood for three camps for the duration of our hunt. (I’ll remember to send him as an advance party in the future). We set camp and headed out to locate a bull for the morning hunt. We arrived on a nice vantage point and started to glass the area. Within minutes, I located a big bull in the bottom that has just came from a wallow. He was the 8x7 400out was after. This was the first sighting and time we heard him bugle of many over the course of this hunt. He had a distinctive bugle, Very deep and raspy. Of all the bulls bugling in the drainage we always knew where he was. We watched the bull until dark and decided to come back in the morning to relocate him and put on a stalk. At camp that night hope's were high for the morning.

Day 1
We were up early and at our vantage point before daylight. As the sun rose we located the bull near the same spot. He hadn’t moved far and he had about 20 cows with him. We checked our maps and watched him over the course of 2 hours. He headed for a thicket of reprod in a clear cut and appeared to have bedded down for the day. We decided to come in from the south with the wind in our face about 100 yards apart. This would get us in a position to where we would have a shot if he came to our calls or if he exited the reprod in any direction.

We worked our plan heading in cow calling. The bull would respond, but he would not come to us. We moved in until we were right on the edges of the repord. I could hear something coming up the ridge.  As it got closer, I realized it was 400out. Unsure of what was going on I waited for him to get to me. He explained that his sight had come loose and he couldn’t shoot. We decided to go uphill and return to camp to make repairs. As we began to move up the hill the reprod exploded. We had been right on top of the bull and his cows. The bull ran out in front of us stopping at 80 yards. He stopped and stared as us. This is the point I believe 400out became Captain Nemo and this huge 8x7 had become his white whale.

Day 2

With a repaired bow and a new obsession, we began as the day before locating the 8x7 and making stalks. Each met with similar results from different problems. Busted by cows, other bulls, swirling winds and time. We got close each time but could not finish the task. We learned lessons that day. Being primarily rifle hunter, we missed our rifles. We would have both had big bulls on the ground if that was the case. It was a great day in elk country and we felt blessed and hopeful for the days to come.

Day 3

We located the bull early in the morning one draw up the drainage from the day before. As before we stalked him and got close. This time we got caught moving through an opening and had no place to hide. Elk in this area made targeting one bull very hard. After another failed stalk we return to the vantage point and glassed into the afternoon watching the 8x7 and his habits. We also continued to look for other bulls. 400out located a bull on a grassy landing that had an old logging road above it. He got the spotting scope out and started to look him over. The bull was a 5x5 and 400out had no interest in the bull. I took a look and remember I’m the meat hunter, determined two things. 1. We can get there in time. 2. That’s a living, breathing elk. I convinced 400out I wanted that bull and nonmatter how hard he tried to talk me out of it, it wasn’t going to work.

We made our way to the logging road. When we got close to the last place we seen the elk it opened up into a clearing. We stopped, 400out got out his Montana elk decoy and we decided to walk out onto the landing behind it. As we crested the hill I seen the bull and he seen us. I stopped 400out by grabbing his pack. Apparently I jerked him backward but I don’t remember that part. The bull was nervous and I thought he was going to leave. He was standing broadside at 50 yards. I drew my bow as I stepped from behind the decoy, settled my pin and released the arrow. He lunged forward and down the hill changing direction several times. I excitedly moved down the hill to the spot the bull was standing. No blood. I looked up the hill to 400out and realized the angle was way more extreme than I thought. He hit me with the range finder and confirmed my yardage choice. 50 yards on the nose. If I did hit him it would be very high.  It was almost dark and there was not time to track so we backed out and decided to wait until morning. If he was hit it could take a while to be fatal. 

Day 4
It was a long night. I played the shot over and over in my mind. The pin was steady, the yardage was right, but the angle was extreme. Is he hit? Did I miss? Is he dead or suffering? In the morning, we went to the vantage point and located elk. We also scanned the area below the spot I had shot at the elk. No sign of him or any elk in that area. When the sun was up high enough we went to the spot the bull had stood. Tracked him for 50 to 75 yards with no sign of blood. We backed up and followed the trajectory of the arrow. I located my arrow in a downed tree. No blood, no hair. I had missed. Even though I had missed I felt good with the closure. There was no wounded animal out there. We continued our hunt.

At this point the days started to blend together. We hunted every day from sun up to sundown Putting 10 miles a day on our boots. It was tough hunting but we had encounters with elk every day. We were having the hunt of a lifetime and we knew it. If we tagged out or not it was not going to matter.

Day 15
We located the 8x7 in the morning and at about 10 he didn’t go bed down with the herd of cows, that at this point had grown to 40 cows. For the first time he walked on flat ground out of the drainage and over the top to another drainage. We had pushed him up and down the same drainage for over 2 weeks. It could have been our pressure but we are only 2 hunter and the only ones down in this drainage. There were other hunters in the area some walking the timber on the ridges and others putting 800+ miles on their trucks. I don’t think it was pressure. As we sat there wondering what he was doing we watched several other big bulls do the same thing. No cows with them, just leave the area. The herds of cows stayed in the drainage.                                   

Day 16
The day started out as most had, other than we could no longer find the 8x7. With only a few days left it concerned us greatly. Would we even fill one tag? We decided to look over the maps and head into the area we watched the bulls go. We walked an old logging road into the area. Heard bugles and talked with a few bulls that wouldn’t come in. We located an old trail and started to walk up hill. It followed a draw that was mostly open and had lots of deadfall in it. As I we moved slowly up the draw, I looked down and seen an elk below me at 40 yards. All I had was a 10 inch tree to hide behind. Caught in the open again. I ranged the little bull at 42 yards. He was a 1x2 and I decided I’m putting meat in the freezer. I drew my bow and out of the corner of my eye I could see 400out, mouth open wide eyed in disbelief that I was going to (in his opinion) waste my big bull tag. At the shot I heard a crack like I hit a tree. I couldn’t believe it, had I missed again? Talking it over 400out said “that bull ducked your arrow like a whitetail.” 400out went on to explain that the bull went flat to his belly and twisted to turn around at the shot and ran off with my arrow in his antler. (If you killed a 1x2 with a G5 Montec in its antler, I’d like to see a picture of it.) This was the lowest point of my hunt. I felt defeated. 400out being the good buddy that he is continually reminded me that at this point I had missed two elk.

We hunted the rest of the day finding sign and another bull, this one didn’t want to have anything to do with us gathered his cow and left before we seen any of them. We decided to go back to the vantage point. We sat there for about an hour. The wind was blowing hard and getting cold. We decided to go back to camp to regroup. (Beer) On our way, we spotted antlers in the trees to our left. We moved to get the wind right. 400out had his bow attached to his pack, he decided to keep moving so he could call. As he moved away the bull and his three cow caught our wind and ran towards us. The swirling winds actually worked in our favor this time. Seemingly panicked as they ran towards me they stopped then headed the other way. This was the first glimpse of his antlers unobstructed. He was a good 6x6.  I cow called and the bull stopped in a perfect shooting lane and looked in my direction quartered away at 50 yards. So many things raced through my mind. Is my yardage right? Should I compensate for the angle? What if I miss again? If I missed I knew it would be years of grief from 400out. I settled my pin on him and released the arrow. I heard a sound I was familiar with. It was the sound of meat and bone. With my pervious misses I was still unconvinced. 400out moved up to where I had shot from and I told him that I thought I had hit him. I moved up to where the bull had been standing. No arrow and no blood. 400out ranged me as 52 yards. My guess was good on the yardage, but where was the sign? I looked up to see three elk staring at me. They stood still at 30 yards and then ran like I had shot a starting gun. Down the hill right past 400out. It was almost dark and we were out of water. We decided to go back to camp and have dinner and replenish the water supply.

It took about an hour and a half to make the round trip back to the area the shot was taken. It was well after dark. We searched for blood and the arrow. We had been searching for just a few minutes when 400out called me over to the log pile about 15 yards from where the bull had been standing. There was blood there. We marked the blood and started to follow the trail as we moved the blood increased. There was smears on trees, large red puddles on the left of his trail and aerated spray marks across the trees and under growth on the right side of the trail. It was good blood. It was a little concerning beings it looked like it was a single lung hit and liver. An elk can go a long ways on one lung. As we moved forward, 400out asked me several times if I could hear a noise. I couldn’t hear whatever it was he heard. The last time he asked me, I heard it. It was heavy breathing that gurgled. I picked my flashlight up from the trail and looked to my right. There 10 yards from us was my bull, still alive and looking right at us. We turned off our lights and slowly backed out. We heard him get up and crash through the brush. We had just bumped him. We backed out the 50yards we had tracked him and sat in the clearing to wait.

We gave it about an hour and decided to move back in and pick up the trail. The markers we left made it easy, as we had just set one before we seen the bull. When we got to the last marker there he was. All he had done was get up and fell over a log. More than likely, he was dead before we got back to the clearing. It was an amazing feeling. I had just killed my first bull. I tagged my bull, took a few photos and started in on the work. We got the last load from the elk to camp at 0430.

We had a few more days to try and fill 400out’s tag. The last couple days we decided to hunt a new area. We hadn’t even scouted this place, but had heard it could be good as the road hunters could not access it and the spike hunters mostly wouldn’t go there for a spike. We hiked into the area and immediately heard elk. The draw was steep and thick with deadfall. We slowly made our way down towards the elk. 400out would slip down and I would call and repeat. Soon we were near the bottom. We could see cows and could hear the bulls. There was at least two maybe three. One sounded old and big. You could hear them fighting from where I was at and I later found out the big bull had knocked the smaller bull off of a cow’s back. As the big bull pushed the smaller bull away he came into view. He was the biggest bull I’d ever seen. He had it all. He was wide, had mass, tine length, beam length and huge whale tails. This was a 400+ inch monster.

I continued to call as 400out moved in. He ended up being pinned down by two cows and couldn’t move anymore without blowing the herd out of the area. I watched from above as they moved around him, on nearly all sides for over an hour. As he would tell me later the bull would move up and down the end of the draw checking cows and chasing the smaller bull. He couldn’t move, all he could do was stay put and hope the bull would come within range. During that hour the bull came within 50 yard several times, but would not walk into a clear shooting lane. Eventually, the heard moved off and the bull never presented a shot.

That was our last elk encounter of the season and probably the best of the season. We had a very memorable hunt, one we will never forget.             







« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 07:10:24 AM by hoyt2002 »

Offline HntnFsh

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2018, 07:39:38 PM »
Great bull, Great story! Thanks for sharing!

Offline Bucks2Ducks

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2018, 08:01:41 PM »
Thanks for posting. Sound like an awesome hunt!
When the buffalo are gone we will hunt mice, for we are hunters and we want our freedom-Sitting Bull

Offline JWEBB

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2018, 08:09:57 PM »
Sound like a great hunt!! Beautiful bull. Gonna shoulder mount him?
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Offline emac

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2018, 08:12:53 PM »
Great write up. I know you guys worked your tails off and am glad you got to at least notch one tag

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Offline carpsniperg2

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2018, 08:14:40 PM »
Congrats on your first bull and a dandy at that.

One question how did you get some many photos of 400 without cracking lenses? :chuckle: Just kidding buddy :chuckle:
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Offline hoyt2002

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2018, 08:20:32 PM »
Thanks Emac.  :tup:

Carpsniperg2.  special order lens.

Offline carpsniperg2

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2018, 08:24:07 PM »
I will have to remember that if I can ever draw a whitetail tag :chuckle:
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Offline bearhunter99

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2018, 08:36:01 PM »
Great write up!  Sounds like a great trip.  Congrats on a good looking bull!
RIP Colockumelk   :salute:

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Offline bowhunterforever

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #9 on: November 07, 2018, 08:40:16 PM »
Great bull and write up :tup:
You sure you know how to skin griz pilgram

Offline Dan-o

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #10 on: November 07, 2018, 09:03:56 PM »
Terrific share.

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I wonder how many people will touch their nose to their screen trying to read this...

Offline blackveltbowhunter

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #11 on: November 07, 2018, 09:44:20 PM »
Great hunt and great bull. Congrats!

Offline DOUBLELUNG

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2018, 09:38:07 AM »
Thanks for the great share!
As long as we have the habitat, we can argue forever about who gets to kill what and when.  No habitat = no game.

Offline PlateauNDN

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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2018, 10:35:07 AM »
 :yeah:
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Re: Buddybulls2018
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2018, 11:42:20 AM »
Fantastic bull and great story, thanks for sharing.

 


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